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And the Sky Full of Stars. (Heiki's Story, Masterverse Fiction)

knightraider6knightraider6 Member Posts: 396 Arc User
edited August 2017 in Ten Forward
(or, how an engineer from the mean streets of Kezan ended up in the Final Frontier, to boldy explode what no goblin has exploded before! :D )

Several years ago, Starfleet Corps of Engineers testbed ship USS Dauntless

“All Stop.”

“All stop aye.”

Despite it’s common perception, space often wasn’t totally empty. There were stray particles, ionized gas clouds, stray dark matter-at least there usually was. Lt Commander ( busted again) Ponta Der Tryhs muttered to herself as she looked at where they were-or more precisely, weren't. “There’s nothing here for a hundred light years in any direction Cap’n.” The red haired Tellarite grumped from her seat at the helm of the Defiant class ship.

“We’re right where we need to be.” the tawny colored Caitian in the center seat replied. M’chelle Schrodinger was technically only on her second command-an engineer who’d help develop the Quantum Slipstream drive-as well as half a dozen other technologies that the Dauntless was testing. Or was supposed to be.

“Actually-we’re supposed to be at Starbase 22 in two days-that’s the other direction, and four days away from here” Ponta replied. “Admiral Fitsimmons isn’t going to just look like she swallowed a cow, she’s going to have one.”

“Probably.” Schrodi stretched and yawned “I’ve been up for thirty nine hours.” technically she should have been off shift and sleeping-but three hours ago she’d run onto the bridge and sent them slipstreaming out this way. “I’m gonna take a nap, wake me when it’s time.”

“Time for what?”

“You’ll know.” Schrodi said as she stepped through the hatch. Ponta at least waited until it had closed before she started cursing.

“What in the TRIBBLE is she talking about? Is she insane?”

The klingon science officer, Lt Daron, just shrugged from where she was trying to find anything worth studying out here, something to at least make this detour worth it “I’m not sure yet, but I’m leaning towards yes.”


Ponta looked back at the viewscreen. “When it’s time for what, what are we waiting for?”




Elsewhen, Elsewhere

storm, earth, and fire
heed my call!
i am the son of the wind and rain
thunder beckons and i heed the call
and if die upon this day
in battle i will fall
hear me brothers, gather up the wolves
to battle we will ride
war drums echo the beating heart
pounding from inside

storm!
black clouds fill the sky
earth!
hear my battle cry
fire!
thunder will bring forth…
death!
from the power of the horde!

far seer to the warsong clan
to no man will i yield
feel the power and the energy
for the black god, honor, and steel
i feel the fire burning in my veins
lightning strikes at my command
with storm and earth, axe and fire
we’ve come to claim this land

storm!
black clouds fill the sky
earth!
hear my battle cry
fire!
thunder will bring forth…
death!
from the power of the horde!

surrounded by the enemy
the wolf among the hounds
thunder turns to silence, it took…
a hundred to bring me down
war-brothers falling at my side
with honor i will die
upon the altar of the storms
i will be reborn

storm!
black clouds fill the sky
earth!
hear my battle cry
fire!
thunder will bring forth…
death!
for i have been reborn!
storm!
earth!
fire!
death!
the power of the horde!
Elite Tauren Chieftan, Power of the Horde

Smoke from the forge fires rose over the city walls, Iron and spikey, with a few moldy heads on some of the spikes now. Heiki didn’t want to go there, no one other than the fanatics wanted to go there nowadays. But of her group...she was the only one who could get in without risking getting killed on sight. Oh Duskie could do it as well probably, but let's be honest. The cow didn’t have the business sense that Heiki did, Plus Duskie’s people weren't as welcome in Orgrimmar as she was nowadays. The new boss had really stirred things up, in exactly the wrong ways. Now there were people streaming south on both sides, trying to conquer a new land that was found-despite the fact it was already settled by Pandaren. Feh. Waste of time, and money.

The place was busy-but not in a good way. The merchants were mainly gone, at least those that sold things that weren't needed for combat, either conscripted for the ‘war effort’, or hiding. Most everyone that was around had greenish skin like hers-though thankfully she didn’t have tusks or smell like a boar with a glandular problem.


Avoiding the guards wasn’t too difficult- her people were small, almost as small as Gnomes-though not as smelly. Her normally bright yellow hair was dust stained from hard travel, she looked like any of a dozen Goblins wandering about-though one thing she did notice was that no one loitered. She ducked behind a table as a pair of Kor’kron wandered by, fortunately for her not looking around, intent on their mission. Her own goal was near, the auction house. It too was nowhere near as crowded as it used to be, most everyone either having fled the city-or battling the Warchief’s enemies.

“I got what you need!” the auctioneer leered at her, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Drezbit hit on anything with cleavage, even some of the ones that didn’t have to breathe anymore.

“Shift it. I need some stuff.”

“I’m sure you do” he replied with a grin, Heiki resisted the urge to strangle him with his own intestines. Seeing her mood darken and his chance for profit fade, he sighed. “So whaddya need?”

“Ghost Iron, at least twenty bars of refined ore.”

“Eh, that’s kinda hard to come by nowadays, it’s all being diverted for weapons-”

She flashed a very heavy pouch of gold at him.

“Fortunately for you, I happen to have a shipment just about the size you needed that’s surplus!”

Heiki felt a twinge as she handed it over-it was robbery, but she needed it more than she needed the gold. Not much else could handle the pressures needed in the intermix chamber for the new drive on the rocket. “Pleasure doing business wityas.” The auctioneer said with a final leer.

“Yeah yeah…” she muttered as she headed out to pick up her load. At least it wasn’t too heavy, the bars filling both saddlebags on her mount. Kaoli whined, the wolf didn’t like the atmosphere around here as much as her rider didn’t care for it. Course Orgrimarr always was a hole-but at least before the new guy took over, and Deathwing tried to destroy the world, it was at least an interesting hole.

She fumbled a bit with one of the straps, she’d have to get the leather replaced when she heard the sounds of someone behind her-and an unwelcomely familiar scent.

so much for quietly in and out she thought, wondering if she could take them. Four orcs, and in a very public place. She probably could...but then getting out of the city alive would be infinitely harder. Time for a different approach. “Mok! How ya been?”

Sergeant Mok Ragecleaver stared down at the goblin girl, the Kor’Kron crossing his muscled arms “Geargrinder. We’ve been awaiting word from you on your research.”

Oh TRIBBLE. She thought fast “well you know, science isn’t always steady, sometimes ya gotta try stuff and when it doesn’t work out you use what you learn from that to try a different approach-”

“You were paid a sum far greater than the worth of your pitiful life to advance the cause of the destruction of the Alliance!”

“Oh! I thought they wanted me to advance the cause of Science! My bad-erk!” She was cut off as the orc's mailed fist grabbed her by the throat, her fingers grasping ineffectualy at the powerful grip as she was lifted into the air.

“Do NOT play games with me. You said that you could have a weapon that would eclipse that which destroyed the cancerous sore in our lands called Theramore.”

It was hard to get words out, and air in for that matter. “N..no, what I said was I had a theory that I could have a power source higher than that-”

She could feel his breath, not smell it though as that would require breathing in. “Enough.” a female voice said, and with a sneer, Mok dropped her from chest high. His chest height unfortunately. She hit the ground roughly, coughing, as stars spun in front of her eyes.

The female Kor’Kron officer kneeled down. “Now, you see our dilemma? We are at WAR. You were paid to create a weapon. We do not have that weapon. That makes Sergeant Ragecleaver upset. When he gets upset, he tends to pull people's arms off.”

“Science doesn’t just happen ya know” she muttered, her voice raspy. “Ya gotta experiment, it doesn’t work, you find out why it didn’t , change somethin an try again.”

“Would you like to explain that to the Warchief?”

S**tohGodshellno- “I might have something in another few days, the last test looked pretty promising,” she stammered.

“I want a working weapon by the end of the month.” Captain Stormaxe said. “If we don’t have one...well then you will find other ways to serve the Horde. We can always use sappers, or comfort girls.”

Seeing Rageclaw’s leer, Heiki definitely preferred the idea of being strapped to a bomb.


"It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein

"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."



Post edited by knightraider6 on

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  • knightraider6knightraider6 Member Posts: 396 Arc User
    Southern Barrens, near the Bal Modan ruins

    It had taken her three days, three days she didn’t have. But the last thing Heiki wanted was to be followed to the lab, especially with the others there. She was close, but didn’t go in yet, she was waiting for the sun to set-

    “We were wondering what was taking you so long.”

    Only practice and the fact the voice was familiar kept her from squealing. From out of the brush a large cat, dark as night with gleaming black horns slipped from the underbrush. “Duskie! You scared the TRIBBLE out of me!”

    The druid snorted, her tail swishing. “Ran into problems?”

    “Kor’kron everywhere, I hear they’re occupying the Echo isles now” the goblin muttered as she followed the feline on the path through the now overgrown rubble. “Spent a couple days in Ratchet, they were watching me in the tavern. They didn’t object to me buying rounds for everyone in there, themselves included.”

    “So how long will they sleep for?”

    “Long enough I hope.” The entrance was heavily camouflaged, inside was someone who definitely would have NOT been welcome where she had been.

    “Were you able to get the metal?” The paladin asked, looking down at Heiki-of course at close to seven feet, the Draenei tended to look down at a lot of people-though by no means did he look down on them.

    “Was only able to get twenty bars” she replied, dropping her pack off with a heavy clunk.

    “It should be sufficient, Buran is nearly done with the crystals, and I will take this and begin work on the intermix chamber.”

    She smiled up at him-she liked the former blacksmith turned engineer, his wife as well. No one could pronounce his name-apparently some humans dubbed him Jebidiah, and it amused him enough that he used that in mixed company. She followed him tiredly deeper into the ruins. There in the huge chamber that used to be the great hall, hidden by a tarp covering the missing ceiling of the central chamber of the old Dwarven outpost, covered by a busily working motley mixed race bunch of engineers was her baby-that would hopefully save the world.

    “I see you’ve got the nacelles mounted.” Heiki said as she looked over the rocket.

    “It wasn’t no big ting” another engineer, this one also taller than Heiki, but a bit more, savage than the Draenei. The Darkspear woman was covered in grease and soot, her normally blue skin almost black. “Soon as de draenei gets de crystals fitted, we can start testin.” Raechka dropped the last few feet down to the ground. “So how bad was it dere?”

    “Pretty bad. Hellscream is completely insane.”

    The troll nodded “ya know..much as ah hate the idea due to the city bein full of civlians...we could drop dis on him. De warp bubble would do a number on his citadel.”

    Heiki shook her head “No-the idea is to get a way out of here, incase things go bad-er, worse...ok it’s already worse” she admitted. “Besides, even if we did-this close in the gravity well, the warp bubble would only be ten meters across.” She rubbed her eyes. “I really want to get to work..but I haven’t slept in almost three days.”

    “Get some rest. We know what we be doing, when you wake up we’ll be ready for testin.”

    She nodded and wobbled off to the small room she used as an office. She needed a shower, several hours worth to get the Kor’kron stink off of her clothes, but she could do that when she woke. She was so tired that she would be asleep before her head hit the pillow she thought-that was if she could get to her bed. “What do you want Frix?”

    Her cousin was waiting for her, a dashing example of goblinkind-at least in his mind. “I heard ya just got back from Orgrimarr, did ya think about my suggestion while ya was there?”

    She sighed. “I told you already-it's useless as a weapon. And even if it wasn't, ain't no way I'd let that muscled-brained buffoon use it. He's doin enough damage as it is.”

    “Damage to the Alliance, who cares about them? The winning side is where the profit is cousin!”

    She was too tired to deal with this. “NO! How many times to I have to tell you? It’s not a bomb, you aren’t going to get to blow it up, and especially not for that maniac Hellscream!”

    “Easy easy! Look you’re tired, get some sleep, we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

    She wanted to argue, but she’d been running on adrenaline and stale ale for close to a week now “there's nuffin to talk about” she muttered, asleep before her head hit the pillow.


    USS Dauntless.

    If there ever was an Admiral that Ponta Der Tryhs wanted to punch, Sandra Fitsimmons was definitely on the top of the list. Fortunately, for Ponta’s continued Starfleet career, they were separated by dozens of light years. But as satisfying as punching Fitsimmons would be, even better was watching the corpulent human turn amusing shades at the news Ponta had in response to her order.

    ”What do you mean the captain is indisposed? Captain Schrodinger knew the schedule, the Dauntless was due here seven hours ago!”

    “I mean indisposed as in close enough to a coma for government work. Doc Bates said he’d seen her do this before, she ain’t dead-but she tends to go on for days when she's on a project, then collapse. She won’t be waking for another ten, fifteen hours.”

    ”In that case, Lt Commander, you are in command. You are to proceed here immediately.

    Ponta glanced at the ‘chief’ engineer for the Dauntless-the old human was good-but the ship had been rewired so many times for different experiments that no one person really had a clue at times just how things worked-except maybe the Cap’n. “That may be a problem Admiral. Warp is currently not responding, and when we try to activate the slipstream drive there’s an error message that the Brambleweeny 57 Sub-mason Brain needs to be connected to an atomic vector plotter, and suspended in a strong Brownian Motion producer.”

    ”A what?

    “A Strong cup of Tea, Admiral.”

    Starbase 22

    So..this is what insanity feels like. Admiral Fitsimmons rubbed her head and glowered. “Fine. Whatever. When Schrodinger wakes from her nap, tell her to put the..thing in the tea or whatever ,and get her fuzzy TRIBBLE here yesterday!”

    ”Are you sure you want me to tell her those exact words Admiral? The last time you told her that, you spent six days being interviewed by Temporal Investigations.” the Tellarite said with a smirk.

    Maybe it wasn't just a migraine, maybe, better yet it was a stroke, and she wouldn’t have to deal with that damn cat anymore. “JUST GET HERE ASAP- WITHOUT TIME TRAVEL!” She slammed her fist down on the desk hard enough to crack the transmit button, as the channel was cut. Goddamned non humans...Admiral Sandra Fitzsimmons rubbed her hand. One day…
    "It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein

    "he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."



  • where2r1where2r1 Member Posts: 6,054 Arc User
    :::grabbing link:::: :)
    "Spend your life doing strange things with weird people." -- UNK

    “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
  • knightraider6knightraider6 Member Posts: 396 Arc User
    Bal Modan ruins


    It’s never good to wake to the sounds of fighting. Heiki’s office was deeper in the ruins, but the sounds of yelling and steel on steel could be heard echoing down the halls. Fortunately even as tired as she was old habits died hard, she had kept her weapons where she could find them even asleep.

    There was an Orc where there shouldn't be one, hefting a large rifle pointing down the hall away from her. From the smell in the air, he’d been firing it heavily at something. She ducked into the shadows of the dark corridor, holding her daggers low, then while he was aiming at something gleaming (the Paladin, she noted out of the corner of her eye) she struck, driving both poisoned blades deep into the Orc's lower back through a gap in his armor. He managed a yell before the poison took effect, paralyzing him. Giving the blades a twist she pulled them out of his fallen body and sprinted further down the hall. It was bad-but also mostly over. She ran up on the Draenei, he was wounded, but his stoic nature kept him from complaining much.

    “Thank you, “ he said simply, leaning wearily against the wall, holes in his armor from the Kor’kron sniper leaking blood. “You woke just in time.”

    “What the hell happened?” she said-while she wasn’t good with healing, she did snag a potion or two off of the fallen orc, passing them over to the Paladin.

    “We had just gotten everything mounted, and were preparing for fueling when they hit,” Jebediah's wife Buran said. She hadn’t fared as badly as her husband-but then his job in a fight was to get between her and attackers, and keep their attention while she tore them apart with arcane energies.

    Heiki swore “Damnit, I thought I had managed to lose anyone tailing me, I’m sorry. Did any escape?”

    “Unfortunately, yes. They had an orc magi with them. He managed to open a portal for a few of them to escape before I could deal with him…”

    She felt defeated, and close to crying. “Well that’s it then. They’ll be back here in force in under an hour. How...how many did we lose?”

    “They got Raechka,” Duskie said as she limped up, the feral Tauren druid, missing half a horn and not able to put weight on her back left leg. “The gnome chemist sisters, Flamebeard may make it, I don’t know…”

    Damnit…”day just gets better and better...Buran, you have enough oomph for opening a portal to get people out of here?”

    “I think so...I can get to the Exodar, I don’t know about further without some rest.”

    “Good enough.” Heikie looked up at Jeb “would Duskie and the other Horde citizens be safe if they went there?”

    “If I went first to let them know they were coming, obviously wounded people would be helped of course.” He looked at her quizzically “What are you planning small one?”

    “I won’t let Hellscream have this tech...but this could help your people, in the fight against the Legion.”

    Both draenei nodded “This is true...however I thought you wanted to stay neutral.”

    “I do..but your Prophet sees the big picture. I would hesitate to hand this over to Stormwind, Wrynn isn’t quite as big of a jerk as Garrosh, but..”

    “But we already have have advanced technology.” the Paladin finished for her. “Which we havn’t used in our squabbles with the Horde.”

    She nodded, going over to the worktables, still covered in blueprints which the Kor’kron invaders missed. But then orc warriors never were picked for their literacy. She rolled them up and handed them to the Paladin, as Buran concentrated, arcane energies swirling around her, ripping a portal through space/time. “Ya’ll get out of here while the gettin is good.”

    “What about you?” Duskie asked.

    Heiki looked up at the rocket. “This thing needs to go boom, preferably right when Helscreams goons get back. Don’t worry” she said with more reassurance than she felt. “I’ll be out of here right before it blows, and once i get over the hills into the swamp, they won’t be able to track me. I’ll make my way to Mudsprocket, then maybe we can find someplace further out of the way and try again.”

    Duskie nodded, the druid shifting back to her tauren form, less threatening even if she was just as blood covered, and limping badly, followed the paladin through the portal. Buran was the last to leave “Are you sure you want to risk using explosives to blow it up? I may have enough energy to-”

    Heikie shook her head “You’re wobbling on your hooves as it is. And i need to make one quick sweep to make sure there aren’t any other blueprints or documents they could use. I’ve got more than enough boom on hand to level most of this place.”

    The draenei just chuckled “Make sure you use a long enough fuse to get yourself clear this time.”

    “You’re never going to let me live that down are you?”


    “You did set my tail on fire. Just make sure you don’t set your own rear alight as well.”

    With that the mage stepped through the portal, closing it behind her. Heikie relaxed-for all of five seconds. Then she started running. She figured that the attackers had reinforcements inbound, she had been overestimating the time it would take them to get here-more in an attempt to get the others to flee, rather than stay and try to defend. She hated doing it, but it would take her under a minute to blow the rocket-things that were made for spaceflight, tended to be light as possible. “Set it by the fuel valves, start the pumps and light the fuse” she muttered as she entered the storeroom-wait there was someone in-”BAAAAAAAA!”

    She had been so focused on how to destroy the ship that she hadn’t been paying attention to her surroundings. The polymorph spell was practicaly instantaneous, her shout coming out as a confused bleat, the arcane energies transforming her into a sheep.

    “I’m glad to see you alive cousin” Frix said with a wide grin. “Getting paid twice is always a good day.”

    “Baaa baaaah! Baaaa!”

    “Don’t look at me like that. The winning side is the side that gets paid, and the Horde is gonna win.”

    She tried to move only to find her hooves encased in ice from another spell from her cousin.
    “BAaaaaaah!” worst of all, bleating was all that she was able to say like this, even thinking was getting hard. Her cousin simply grinned unpleasantly. “I’m gonna be a Trade Prince when all this is done, thanks to you. Destroying the seat of the Alliance with one shot!”

    “BAAAH, baah baaa, Baaaah!” It did no good to curse. All she could do was try to bite him when his hand came down and squeezed her now wooly rump.

    “Hey don’t take it so hard. Ya win some, ya lose some. And I just wanted to win more than you did. Catch ya around cousin, maybe I’ll drop in on ya with the rest of the comfort girls in the brothel. And hey, look at the bright side-I’m getting a helluva good price for your ***.”


    That just made her bleat even more angrily, and he quickly moved before he did lose a finger, sealing the door behind him. There, she’d be stuck that way until he removed the spell-of course, with some of the clientele at the Pleasure Palace...he might be able to get more for her if he left her polymorphed. Whistling a jaunty tune he went off to summon the Kor’kron, singing as he went. “I’m gettin paid TWICE, isn’t that nice!”







    Twenty minutes later

    “So, this is what she was working on?” Captain Stormaxe looked up at the rocket. She’d seen goblin built devices before, but there was something about this that didn’t look like pure goblin technology. “Are those draenei markings?”


    “Yeah. Seems she was working with a bunch of alliance as well as the traitors your folks already took care of” Frix replied. “Though she wasn’t trying to build a weapon according to what she kept telling me.”

    “Yet here it is, and only a few hours ride from Orgrimarr! That traitor deserves nothing but a painful execution!”

    “Uh, well yeah” the goblin said “but ya see, I’ve already taken a partial payment for her in one of the comfort girl brothels. Wouldn’t that be worse for her than just killin her?” (not to mention I won’t get a cut on anything she makes if she’s dead) he thought, though wisely didn’t say that out loud.

    The Captain looked thoughtful “Perhaps, I’ll consider it. So..how big of an explosion will this make?”

    “Uh, well...it won’t make so much as an explosion if it was fired off on the ground-but make everything in a ten yard wide area vanish.” Seeing their reactions he kept talking fast. “But ya see, it’s not a bomb. It’s a bullet!”

    “Explain. And quickly, my patience grows thin.”

    He picked up a dropped round from the floor, from one of the earlier attackers. “Ya see, this by itself, if I throw it at you, it won’t do anything-”

    Captain Stormaxe growled. “Anything but make me angrier than I am getting already.”

    “Well yeah. But if I fire it at you through a gun, and hit-it could do a lot of damage, even kill ya. Now this, warp-thingy they built, doesn’t make a big warp. But it does go faster than anything ever made when it’s operating, faster than lightning Heiki was telling me! Now imagine, I fire a multi ton bullet...traveling faster than light, into the human’s city…”

    The captain’s anger was fading. “How hard would it hit?”

    Frix grinned “Let’s just say, that there wouldn’t be a human alive from Redridge to Westfall, and nothing but a giant hole where Stormwind used to be.”

    “I like the way you think. What do you need to fire this?”

    “I’ll need to use some of your grunts, it’s gotta be fueled before we can launch it.”

    “Sargent! Detach a squad to Mister Frix here, and help him get this ready for launch.”

    "It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein

    "he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."



  • knightraider6knightraider6 Member Posts: 396 Arc User
    edited August 2017
    Mess Hall, USS Dauntless

    Ponta stepped out of the hatchway into the mess hall on deck 2. It was the third day that the Dauntless had sat dead in space in the middle of nowhere. At least Admiral Fitzsimmons had quit contacting them, through the betting pool was currently trending that the Captain would be an ensign fifteen seconds after they finally made it to the Starbase, if not fired out a torpedo tube.

    She on the other hand...wasn’t sure. She’d only been with Schrodinger a few months, but there was something odd about the Caitan, ever since some incident 18 months or so ago on the Nighthawk. Scuttlebutt was the only thing faster than subspace radio, Ponta had friends on the ‘hawk, and there were some strange stories about just what happened not just there,but her next ship, the USS Scylla. It was after that that SFCE snagged her and gave her the Dauntless, as well as letting her pick most of her crew. Even with an organization like the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, that was fairly unheard of. Stranger still, on what was technically still a warship, the ratio of civilians to Starfleet personnel was absurdly high.

    Now this. Ponta had been in Starfleet long enough to read people-and while Fitsimmons and others may have the opinion that Schrodinger wasn’t firing on all thrusters-Ponta knew there was more to the feline that met the eye. Either she had a powerful patron, or she herself had something. So, since the cap’n was still in the midst of her nap attack… “Evening, mind if I join you?”

    The humanoid wearing a hawaiian shirt looked up from his salad “Suit yourself” ‘Lt’ Thag Rockstone said, though the rank was just for organizational purposes-he like a good two thirds of the crew was a civilian. “So what’s on your mind Lt Commander Der Tryhs?”

    She dropped semi gracefully into the chair. “Just Ponta, you’re a civic, cap’n doesn’t make you use rank neither will I.”

    “Fair enuf” Thag replied. “So what’s your reason for being here?”

    “Huh?” Ponta replied, half about to take a bite of her own meal. “I was assigned here by Starfleet.”

    Thag just grinned “you might think so. But no one is on this ship who wasn’t hand picked. Everyone here didn’t fit in somewhere else, was considered a ‘troublemaker’, yet here they are working like a well oiled machine, as if it was meant to be.”

    The Tellarite frowned “I may have a bit of a temper, and to be honest Admiral Taylor-Smythe deserved a punch in the face. Command must have agreed to me as I was only reduced again instead of booted out. Sometimes I wonder just what i’d have to do to get them to go all the way.” She shook her head “so why are you here?”

    “I ask myself the same question some days. Especially as I really don’t care for the Federation.”

    “Buwha?” She peered closer at the colorfully shirted civilian. She thought he was human, but, ”oh wait.. You’re-”

    “The Neanderthal. Yeah. couple decades back, some scientist decided to try to experiment, with cell samples that accidently got brought back when there was a temporal anomaly. After I was ‘born’...the Federation decreed that the experiments were unethical..and destroyed all the other embryos.”

    “Oh..”

    “Yep. Only one of my kind, thanks to the Federation's ‘ethics’.”


    “So why are you here then?”

    He looked thoughtful. “Doc S showed up out of the blue one day, when I was...well I won’t get into just where i was or what i was doing. It may or may not have been illegal on some worlds. But she made me an offer to work for her.” The neanderthal chuckled “I was working on getting enough latinum to fill an olympic size swimming pool. Not that I’d recommend doing that, you can’t really float in it, but you get the idea.”

    “And now you’re an ECM tech on a twenty year old Defiant class.”

    He shook his head “Now I’m doing something worthwhile. You’ll see, if you hang around long enough.”

    She nibbled at the breadstick in her hand “so what do you think will happen when we finally do get back to Starbase 22?”

    “I dunno..But I bet you the Cap’n does. And unlike so many in the Federation...she is preparing.”

    He finished his food then stood, “Catch ya around Ponta.” As he left the tellarite was even more confused than she was before...preparing for what?


    Boom storeroom, Bal Modan ruins.


    The ice melted, but that didn’t help her immediate situation. Hard to do much when one doesn’t have opposable thumbs, or even hands-she knew from experience that a polymorph could be broken if the person shapeshifted was injured..otherwise it would fade in time. But she didn’t have time to wait. She knew that her idiot cousin didn’t bother to do the math, that the real reason she was so adamant that the drive didn’t have any military use, was that she had.

    46.8 tons. That was the weight of the craft. That weight in fuel alone would do a serious boom if it hit someplace...hitting somewhere with the drive engaged? Moving faster than light? With the world still recovering from the Cataclysm...an impact like that could finish it off. She had to stop it. Which was difficult being she was wooly and quadrupedal.

    Still, even though she didn’t have hands-she did have teeth. Which she’d been using to carefully pile explosives next to the sealed door. Not too much mind you, she didn’t want to blow herself up, but had to get out of there. Of course, there was the little matter of how to light it off.

    In theory, it wasn’t hard. It was pretty easy to go boom-if you had fingers. With the hooves..all she could do is pick up a blasting powder bag with her teeth, and after ripping a hole in it, try to carefully make a trail from to the explosives at the door.

    Only thing she could do now was kick the fuse and see what happens. At least if she misjudged, it would be over quick. She kicked-then everything went white.
    Post edited by knightraider6 on
    "It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein

    "he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."



  • aten66aten66 Member Posts: 654 Arc User
    Is this where we make a joke about Wesley and his static warp bubbles? Seriously though! I always enjoy your work @knightraider6 , and now I wanna know the Neanderthal's story!
  • knightraider6knightraider6 Member Posts: 396 Arc User
    aten66 wrote: »
    Is this where we make a joke about Wesley and his static warp bubbles? Seriously though! I always enjoy your work @knightraider6 , and now I wanna know the Neanderthal's story!

    It's something I've been pondering, but have other stuff in the que first.

    "It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein

    "he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."



  • knightraider6knightraider6 Member Posts: 396 Arc User
    edited August 2017
    Bael Modan

    Pain...agony. Her hatred burned..no wait..that was hair. Heiki opened her eyes, or attempted to at any rate-one wasn’t working quite right, blood causing the eyelid to stick closed, her vision blurry. Shaking her head to clear it was a mistake..though catching a glimpse of her hand as she raised it up to try to clear her eyes, at least she wasn’t a sheep anymore.

    She wasn’t in good shape either. Every time she breathed it was like a knife poking inside her somewhere, broken ribs probably. Burns too-fortunately her folks were naturally hardy to that-otherwise the Goblin race would have died out ages ago. Heiki managed to sit up..the door was gone-as was part of an orc on the other side-probably a Kor’kron guard that her damned cousin had sent to get her. It wasn’t till she tried to stand that she realized just how bad off she was.

    “T...that ain’t supposed to be there” she muttered, seeing the bones sticking out of her leg. Damnit. So much for her promise to Buran about setting a long enough fuse. As her the ringing in her ears subsided, she could hear a sound that chilled her even as she still smoldered. Pumps-big ones, fueling the ship.

    One good sized bomb thrown at it could do it- if she had the time to put it together. And two working hands-her left was badly mangled. That. Left one option. Good that the storeroom was on the same level as the upper gantry. Leaning against the wall and leaving a trail of blood, she staggered towards the rocket.





    Starbase 22

    Despite her rank, despite her privilege....Admiral Sandra Fitsimmons did not have enough power to do what she wanted. In theory it would be easy-if someone disobeyed a direct order, she could have them in the brig so fast they would still leave a light image of themseves as if they’d done a Picard Maneuver.

    But not Schrodinger. For some damned reason, SFCE wasn’t under the normal Starfleet chain of command. Probably the still not livid, semi rational part of her brain mused, because so many of them were Civilians. If Schrodinger had been actually attached to her command, that would be one thing. As it was though...she had to get creative.

    Sandra! It’s been years, how are you?” Admiral Caral said cheerfully, the Bolian looking surprised to hear from her. Which it had, she hadn’t talked to the alien since the academy.

    “I’m fine, though I’ve a bit of a problem with one of your people, Commander Schrodinger on the Dauntless.”

    Schrodinger! Ah yes, I know her, did you know she’s had three new patents this quarter already? Not to mention her improvements on the EPS systems which should be rolling out to the rest of the fleet if command approves them-

    Fitsimmons felt her blood pressure beginning to climb again. This wasn’t going how she’d planned...but then she was dealing with another alien. “Yes Admiral, she’s talented, but there’s a bit of a discipline problem. She was due here days ago for an exercise, dozens of ships are waiting for her to arrive. I’ve tried contacting them multiple times, but keep getting excuses.”

    That IS unlike her..she must be doing something important. I’ll tell you what, I’m not too far from 22, I can come by and see what I can do to get the situation expedited. Plus we can reminisce about the Academy days.”

    Oh No….”uh, that’s ok I don’t want to be a bother..I just need her-””

    It’s no bother at all! I’ll see you soon Sandra!” As she stared at the closed channel on her screen she put her head in her hands. “Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop drinking..”she muttered.
    Post edited by knightraider6 on
    "It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein

    "he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."



  • knightraider6knightraider6 Member Posts: 396 Arc User
    edited August 2017
    Bael Modan, X3 Nether Rocket cockpit

    She made the hatch as secure as she could with one hand. Buran had thought the drive could take them someplace she called ‘space’ that didn’t have an atmosphere (what kind of a name was that?) instead of the Twisting Nether but Heiki had her doubts. Still, at least she wouldn’t be disturbed while she made her preparations. Setting down painfully in the control couch she pondered her options. She could destroy it, and herself by firing off the directional thrusters in the nose. That would cause the X3 to tip over, and given the volatility of the fuel, the kaboom would follow swiftly.

    But...a lot of people, her included had put a ton of effort into this, some, paid with their lives. To just blow it up without at least seeing if it worked...well that would be an insult to their memory. Not to mention she herself was so curious she couldn’t stand it.

    “Right then” she muttered, taking a swig of another potion she got off a dead orc. It made the pain less anyway, fixing the broken bones and internal bits was another matter. She strapped herself down, and started bringing systems online.

    “Nether batteries to power” she said, flipping a switch “turbine pumps to speed…”

    100 feet below

    Frix didn’t find it hard to contain his glee about his upcoming windfall. The presence of the Kor’kron officer and her Sergeant damped his mood. For him ending the war with the Alliance in one stroke, you’d think they’d be more happy.

    “We must wait, the Warchief himself want’s to be the one to launch this.”

    “Wha, wait? Uh once we start fueling we’re kinda committed,” the goblin mage replied. The fuels were his specialty, he knew they were volatile, especially the oxidizer, and would boil off if not kept in their storage tanks.

    “Then you must slow it-there is no other...what is that noise?” Captain Stormaxe asked in annoyance, a high pitched whine starting to fill the chamber.

    “That? Oh it’s just the turbopumps-WAAAAAUGH! THE TURBOPUMPS! WE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE WE GOTTA GET-”

    He could feel the mist now, as the engines were flooding with coal oil and liquid oxygen, even as he began to cast the teleport spell he knew he’d be too slow.

    Cockpit

    Tanks weren't full-but they were full enough. Heiki was getting dizzy again, probably bleeding internally from the ribs being broke. Fortunately there was just one button left to push…”Samophlange, engaged.”

    Down below there were extremely short screams as the fuel lit off. The X3 swayed on the pad as the thrust built, the shaking making Heiki’s injuries hurt even more. Then the explosive bolts holding it down blew, and the shaking lessened-as the tarp covering the opening in the central chamber was ripped away, the clear sky filling the porthole.


    Across the Barrens people stopped. At Desolation Hold, the sound was almost physical, the few windows there shattering, inhabitants of the fort looking to the south in fear and confusion as something rose on a pillar of flame and smoke. Onboard, Heiki gritted her teeth as the force built up, normally she’d handled far higher accelerations than this-but she’d ordinarily not been injured either. She passed out, only regaining consciousness when the main engines cut out, and the X3 entered free fall.

    “Ugh…”she shook her head..with the nausea from her injuries, this wasn’t helping. Neither was her trajectory. The X3 wasn’t fully fueled, and thus she didn’t have enough to make orbit-but did have enough to make a good ballistic arc. She wouldn’t quite hit Stormwind, but if she didn’t get the drive engaged before the nose dropped below the horizon, she would hit somewhere.

    She went to unstrap to reach the intermix controls by her crippled left hand, when she noticed the blood floating in the air when she sat up. The acceleration must have worsened her injuries. She was dying, no doubt about that. At least she could make it mean something...she noticed the blinking crystal on the panel that indicated that Buran’s telemetry spell was working, the Draenei would get good data at least of the test.

    Closing her eyes she twisted the valve for the intermix...two seconds later she wasn’t an expanding cloud of vapor as the Fel and Arcane energies mixed- that’s a good thing. That part worked...she felt a growing hum in the ship, as the gravity field displacement manifold sent the power to the nacelles. Nothing left to do but pull the shiny red lever and see what happens.

    She grabbed it with her good hand and yanked..ahead of her the stars seemed to stretch into lines, then everything went black.



    USS Dauntless, Bridge

    Ponta glanced down at her cards. “Two Jacks, that’s a half Fizbin right?”

    Sitting nearby Thag nodded “Now you need either a king or a deuce, except at night, when you need a queen or a four.”

    She made a face .”we’re in space, it’s always technically night.”

    “Ships time.”

    The tellarite nodded. They had run out of things to do a day ago. Not much for a helmsman to do when the ship was at a dead stop, half the fleet was angry at them and there was no word of anything from the Captain-

    The doors slid open and Schrodinger stepped onto the bridge, cards scattering as the crew jumped in surprise.. “Helm, standby, we may need to maneuver.” she said, as she settled into the center seat. “Engineering, I’ll need tractors ready. Transporter room stand by to beam in casualties, Medical, you may be busy in a few minutes.”

    “Busy from what? What the hell is going on-”

    At the Science station, Lt Daron’s eyes widened “Captain, spatial anomaly forming off the port bow, distance three hundred meters!”

    Schrodinger didn’t even seem surprised “Back us off to about 2 Kilometers Mr Der Trys,” she said, Ponta nodding as she used the thrusters to back them off.

    The spatial anomaly reminded Ponta like a cross between the Bajoran wormhole and a snowflake of all things..”I’m picking up an object..what the hell?”

    “It’s about thirty meters...and...is that made of wood?, the Klingon science officer asked incredulously, looking at the readout from the scanners. “It’s definitely got cellulose, as well as unknown alloy-though some of it looks like it’s cast iron..” She shook her head and checked the bio sensors “one life form on board.”

    “Transporter, lock on and beam her to sickbay.”


    X3

    Well, whaddya know? Heiki didn't expect to wake up, but She was right..it worked. And Buran was right too..there was no air wherever she was. The last thing she saw before she felt a strange tingling sensation all over her body was something outside the window...grey with glowing blue and red, then everything went black again.

    USS Dauntless

    Sickbay here, We’ve got her. Not sure what she is, as green as an Orion but only half the size. She’s pretty badly mangled, I’ll be busy down here for a while,” the Dauntless andorian medic Dr Therv reported.

    “Do what you can, bridge out.” Schrodinger replied. “Is the anomaly closed?”

    Lt Daron nodded “it was open long enough for that ship to appear, then collapsed. And now I can’t even locate an echo of it.”

    “No matter. As soon as we can get it rigged for towing, set course for Starbase 22.”

    “Beggin your pardon cap’n,” Ponta said “But the mains are still offline. Admiral Fitzsimmons ordered us to return to the Starbase while you were out, but we couldn’t get them active.”

    Schrodinger shook her head “Again?” she stood up, walked over to the port aft bulkhead on the bridge. She measured out six inches from the ECS conduit and gave the wall a good swift kick.

    “The Mains are back online Cap’n.” Thag reported.

    “Thank you. I’m gonna go check on the guest, Ponta, soon as we’ve got good tractor lock set course for Starbase 22, best possible speed.”

    “Aye Capt’n” the Tellarite replied..even more confused than she was before. How in the TRIBBLE did Schrodinger know to be here? And who was that they rescued? Sighing, she plotted the course, one thing at a time.

    "It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein

    "he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."



  • knightraider6knightraider6 Member Posts: 396 Arc User

    USS Dauntless, 10 hours later

    Warp 4.5 was the best they could manage, and still keep the tractor lock on the unknown ship. The fact it was partially made of wood didn’t help matters any, half of the engineering division were convinced it was impossible, the other half was frothing at the bit for a chance to go over the craft in person.

    As for it’s pilot, she was stable the scuttlebutt was saying. What she was..now that was another story. Ponta wasn’t so concerned about that, as just how Schrodinger knew to be here then. Now that they were in better communications range, she was going through records in the empty mess hall, looking for information and getting more and more disturbed.

    Many on this ship probably shouldn’t be here, herself included if she was completely honest with herself. Punching admirals was usually a career ending move-yet she was reduced to Lt Commander...and assigned to the Dauntless. Thag, there was no information on him in the data nets at all past the court case when he was an infant...Which was extremely strange. The Federation tracked everything, there should be school records, residency reports, the like. Nothing until his hiring by the SFCE.

    Then today. Two minutes after the captain walked onto the bridge, the unknown ship appeared-as if she was expecting it. Hell she was. Ponta thought back to the order to the transporter…’beam her on board.’ And while they might not know what species the mystery ship pilot was, they did know it was female.

    She felt troubled as she stared into her mug of tea “something’s fishy.” she muttered to herself.

    “I don’t know about fishy, there is always a rational explanation for things.” The Captain said from across the table.

    Ponta nearly shrieked in surprise, and threw her mug by reflex. The Captain already had her hand out and caught it easily with feline agility, somehow managing not to spill it.

    “How the hell did you sneak up on me like that?”

    Schrodinger just smiled. “Clean living.”
    “Look Captain, I’m not in the mood. Things aren’t adding up-”

    “Why have you been trying to get yourself kicked out of Starfleet?” Schrodi asked.

    “Buwha?” Ponta was at a loss for words momentarily at the changing of subjects. “What do you mean?

    “Four counts of assaulting a flag ranked officer. one of those should have been enough to get you to New Zealand, four, well that usually gets you a nice cozy room to yourself in a penal colony. You seemed to go out of your way to try to get kicked out, why?”

    Something caused her to pause...what the hell “Cold Butte. My husband was a mining engineer...he’d go from world to world helping to improve mine safety. His last job was on a colony in the Hiromi cluster. Few years back, Starfleet pulled back it’s patrols, even pulled defenses off of the worlds in the area. So when raiders or slavers showed up…”

    “There was no help.”

    “Not from us, no…” Ponta said quietly. “I was on the USS Virginia, we were just over the border. I was on the bridge when the calls came in. I could hear him calling as the orion raiders hit...we could have been there in minutes..and we were told to stand down.”

    There was an audible crack as the ceramic mug fractured in her fist. “They overlooked it under the circumstances when I punched Admiral Ward in the face when we got back. I could have resigned…”

    “But you didn’t.”

    “I promised my husband, before he died that I’d see it through in Starfleet. He knew that this is what i wanted. After he died..or was enslaved, they never found out, i didn’t want it as much.” She shook her head “now your turn, how the hell did you know to come out here?”

    “I remembered it-well most of it. Not exactly to the minute, but I had a general idea on when it would happen.”

    Ponta shook her head “What are you psychic or something?”

    Schrodinger shook her head “no,I just was a Q for about 96 hours.”

    The Tellarite blinked “Lt Daron was right. You are insane.”

    “I really wish she was right. It would make things so much easier, and far fewer would die.” Schrodinger replied sadly. “But she’s not. Believe me or don’t, short version is you’re here for the same reason everyone else is, why we picked up that ship from Azeroth. Because there is a storm coming, and if we, as in life in this galaxy, are going to survive it-i’ll need to have the right people in the right places.”

    Ponta wanted to dismiss Schrodinger as crazy. But..the incident with the ship today wasn’t the first time that the Captain had gone off on a sudden tangent that ended up positive. “So you know what will happen?”

    “I wish. When I was a Q, sure. But now, that I gave up that power, well, best way to describe it, It’s like...a favorite book you read when you’re a child. You remember the basics, what, where..but little things like when and how,, are fuzzy.”

    “So why are you telling me this?”

    “Because you were poking at records, and you deserve to know the truth.”

    “Does Fleet know?”

    Schrodi thought for a moment, there were a few that did...Franklin Drake, Melissa Travis. But she also knew that Starfleet was infiltrated. Despite the Federation's instance to the contrary, the Klingons were right. Undine’s three fingered handprints were all over questionable decisions of the last few years. <you could tell her all of it>

    The Caitain shook her head “one step at a time” she said, as Ponta blinked. Did the captain's eyes just glow for a moment? Schrodi’s eyes refocused and she nodded at Ponta “those that need to know, know.”

    “What if I go straight to Admiral Quinn’s office as soon as I can?”

    “I can’t stop you,” <yes you could>” nor would I. That’s the whole point, I could have simply taken control had I kept the power..but i believe in the Federation. I’m not going to burn down the village to save it. Look, I’m not asking you to believe everything. Just trust me.”

    “I’ll admit..that at least in the records. I haven’t found a reason not to.Nor have I in the few month’s I’ve been onboard.” she broke into a grin “Besides, you got Fattsimmons to turn amusing shades of mauve on the com, that alone was worth it.”

    Sickbay, USS Dauntless

    Waking up again, definitely not something that she expected to do. Everything sounded weird, and smelled weirder. Heiki gingerly opened an eye-nope, definitely nothing she recognized. The walls were grey , with devices attached somehow. Not seeing anyone nearby she slowly sat up, taking stock-woah. She stared down at her left hand, no longer mangled from the shrapnel from the explosion back in Bael Modan. Somehow it had been fixed, without even any scars showing. She heard someone coming and quickly laid back down, peeking a bit through her lashes while feigning sleep. A human-that she didn’t expect to see either, and wearing some sort of mostly blue uniform. That meant one thing.

    She’d been captured by the Alliance. While she had nothing against them as people, the government on the other hand...she had to get out of here.
    "It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein

    "he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."



  • knightraider6knightraider6 Member Posts: 396 Arc User
    Sickbay, USS Dauntless


    The downside of a ship this small was that many departments were just one of two people, especially the smaller ones. Medical for example was just one doctor, who doubled as the ship’s second science officer, and two corpsmen. Of course being there were only two beds for patients, it's not like they really had room for more staff. Corpsman Keenan was on shift, working on the report for the only patient in the bay, the alien they’d picked up on the unknown ship.

    There wasn’t much to go on. The burns, the trauma injuries were easily dealt with. The heavy metal exposure was something over long term-not much that could be done over that until more was known about her history. Her personal effects didn't have much to go on either-mainly leather clothing, disturbingly enough using real animal hides. Couldn’t cross match the leather with any known animal either.

    No weapons-well projectile ones anyway he noted. Just a couple of well used knives that wouldn’t look out of place on a Klingon’s belt, both of them with some type of paralysis toxin on them. That had been sampled for later analysis before the blades were cleaned of it. No Identification, though there were some marks here and there, on various bits, belt buckles and the like, some kind of sigil. He was trying to get a good image of them for his report when he was suddenly hit from behind, sending him sprawling unconscious across the desk.

    Heiki checked the healer she’d just hit. He did help put her back together, and killing one’s healers was usually considered rather rude in most cultures. Plus she didn’t have anything against him-he was just between her and the door. Luckily she knew several different ways to incapacitate humans without permanent injury. Lowering him to the floor as quietly as possible, she rifled through his pockets-or attempted to.

    “What the hell?” she muttered quietly “who doesn’t have pockets, or money on them?” shrugging she stuffed him under the desk out of sight, he’d be out long enough for her to get out of here she hoped. Gathering her things she quickly got dressed, covering the corpsman with the flimsy medical gown she woke up in. It was hard though, not to stare at what he was working on on the desk, or the lights that came from smooth panels on the ceiling, or so many other nifty things that she wanted to find out how they worked! Heiki took a deep breath and shook her head. No time for that-though she did pick up a tricorder off the desk and stuff it in one of her belt pouches. She’d play with that later. First order of business-getting out of here.

    She’d been feigning sleep earlier, and seen the blue skinned medic leave. Taking a hesitant step forward, she wasn’t expecting it to just open for her-but it did, louder than she’d have liked. She winced at the noise, then gingerly peeked out the door. The corridor was even more strange, with unknown symbols on the walls and several on the doors. Taking two steps into the hall, she nearly jumped as the door shut behind her automatically.

    “Get a grip Geargrinder, you should have expected that..” She didn’t hear anyone coming, but did hear machinery noises, and a low, throbbing noise coming from her right. Unfortunately, the corridor was well lit, little to no spaces to hide should anyone come along. Looking around she brightened, seeing a smallish hatch down near floor level.


    “Here we go, maintenance shaft probably” she said. Hopefully it wasn’t locked. Luck was with her, from the looks of the wear patterns on the metal, the hatch had been opened and shut so often that the lock wasn’t engaged. Hopefully that wouldn’t mean she’d run into someone in there-but it was darker, and she could tell by the smell that not as many people had gone through there. Good enough. She didn’t even have to duck too far as she entered the Jeffries tube, pulling the hatch closed behind her.
    "It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein

    "he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."



  • knightraider6knightraider6 Member Posts: 396 Arc User
    edited August 2017


    Captains Cabin, USS Dauntless

    “Well that went better than I hoped.” Schrodinger muttered seemingly to herself as the cabin door closed behind her.

    <You should have brought her in earlier, before your hand was forced.>

    “Yeah I know. I’m winging it here remember?” The caitian said as she cleared a space in front of the replicator in order to get to it. Controlled chaos was how her quarters were ‘decorated’, with plans, models of prototypes, stacked high padds and paper journals on every flat surface, including her bed-she’d had to rig a hammock in order to have somewhere to actually sleep.

    <Слишком большой риск, связанный с таким количеством людей.>

    “It’s necessary risk. We know that we need Ponta on board, same with the goblin. I just wish we remembered more.” She shook her head as she kicked her boots off. While being quantumly linked with her counterparts originally from alternate timelines had it’s advantages, sometimes they could get on each others nerves. And if there was one thing that someone from a universe where the Soviets won both the cold and hot wars had, is paranoia.

    <И она родом из опасного мира. Ее следует наблюдать.>

    “She is being watched, got a corpsman in there till she wakes up.”

    <We do what we must, because we can,> her counterpart formerly from the Terran Empire timeline replied. <it’s not perfect, but it beats the alternative>

    “True.” Schrodi picked up a towel and turned towards the shower-

    Security to Captain Schrodinger” came over the com.

    She sighed “Schrodinger here.”

    Sir, the unknown we picked up has gone missing from sickbay. Corpsman Keenan was attacked, we found him under the desk. He’s ok, just knocked unconscious for a bit, the Doctor is giving him a once over now.

    Even separated by extreme distance, Schrodi could feel the smirk from her ex-Soviet sister <Сказал Вам так.>

    “Not now Miska.”

    Sir?

    “Nothing...I think I have an idea where to find her. Don’t go to yellow alert-don’t want to spook her, but put people on the locks and any external accessways. Two person teams. I’ll check out my hunch.”

    Aye Sir


    She cut the com and thought fast. “She’d be in the Jeffries tubes, now where would she go?”

    Michelle, her human looking sister from yet another timeline was thinking <she’s an engineer, we know that. If she gets into something critical and fracks it up trying to figure it out like I accidently did…>

    Schrodi’s blood went cold. “Boom.”

    <да>


    "It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein

    "he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."



  • knightraider6knightraider6 Member Posts: 396 Arc User
    USS Dauntless

    If it wasn’t for the fact she had to get out of here, she could spend weeks down here! There was so much she could tinker with-she’d hit the jackpot when she snagged the tricorder. It had taken some experimentation, but she’d managed to get a layout of sorts, she thought. If she kept going this way, there should be an exit off the ship

    There. There was something on the other side of this hatch-which was locked. Damnit. She’d already found that the locks weren't mechanical, thus her normal methods of picking them were useless. There was a viewport in the hatch-probably just as well it was locked, there were two guards standing outside. At least she thought they were guards, but they were standing around like guards everywhere, looking both bored and alertful at the same time.

    That left...the way down to where the noises were coming from. The noises that her large ears twitched with each bass thrum. It almost sounded like...she shook her head. Couldn’t be. The noise got louder, and the hatch was under a console of some kind-and more importantly, unlocked.

    She slipped the hatch open carefully-there didn't seem to be anyone in the immediate area. She wriggled out silently, looking around. It was one of the larger rooms she’d been on in the ship, two stories, there were sounds of people working on the lower level below her..and ahead…”no way…”


    She didn’t even bother with trying to be sneaky as she walked to the railing around the pit-the blue, pulsing cylinder in the center of the opening, a far bigger version of what she and so many others had worked for years on.

    Engineering, lower deck

    Schrodi didn’t quite skid into the room, but it was close. Fortunately being gamma shift, there were only a few on duty who didn’t see her near panic. She composed herself...there. She was right. The small green woman was on the upper level, staring transfixed by the warp core. She leaned over to the young Ensign who had Engineering officer of the watch. ”lock down any upper level controls, and contact security via text. Keep quiet, i’m gonna see if I can talk to her.” she whispered.

    Ensign Tzi simply nodded and started typing quietly on one of the consoles as Schrodinger made her way to the lift, making a quick stop by the replicator-with the ambient noise in engineering, the sound wouldn't be noticed.


    Heiki was still staring. “That would be the fel? No it’s not green...but it feeds into the intermix chamber…”she paused, as she smelled something a meter to her right. Something familiar.

    Schrodi held out the cup of Coffee, the smaller green skin warily reached up and accepted the cup. <“We don’t use fel, that doesn’t exist in this universe. Instead we use Deuterium,”> schrodi said, as an image came up on the tricorder in Heiki’s other hand.

    “She recognized the symbol-an atom, with one electron and two neutrons <which is an isotope of hydrogen...yeah so it’s controlled by the crystals,>” Heiki replied “<we used something the Draenei had from the Exodar, I never could pronounce what they called it.”>

    “<Dilithium is what we call it.>” Schrodi replied.

    Heiki took a sip of the coffee cautiously, then decided it was both tasty and not poisoned. And if it was, fat lot she could do about it. “Die litheum?” she said, repeating the english word.

    Schrodinger nodded. “<from there the plasma sent down the conduits and is is injected into the warp coils->”

    “<Which produce the field which lets you go fast.”> Heiki sat down on the edge of the upper level, her feet dangling over the edge. <”how fast can you go? And how do you speak orcish? And what ARE you? You look like a Ramkahen without enough legs.’>

    The caitian laughed “<Warp 9.75, That's...complicated-though the more we talk the more the translator here>” she said holding up a combadge “will be able to translate for you, and I’m from a planet called Cait, in the United Federation of Planets.>”

    “<Cat?”>

    “<no, Cait.>”

    The goblin looked confused for a second then shrugged, putting down her coffee and holding out a hand. “<Heiki Geargrinder, nice to meet you.>”

    Schrodi shook it “<Captain M’chelle Schrodinger, nice to meet you too”.>

    “<So any chance of sending me back?>”

    “<I’m afraid not, there are so many different universes out there and the portal closed so fast..>”

    She thought about that for a moment. “<So I’m stuck here.>”

    “<pretty much I’m afraid.>” the captain nodded.

    Heiki just laughed “<well being I was expecting on being dead, being on this side of the dirt is an improvement. Not that you have dirt here but you get the drift. So, you hiring?”>

    Schrodi just smiled “<Oh I think we can definitely find a place for you Miss Geargrinder.>”
    "It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein

    "he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."



  • knightraider6knightraider6 Member Posts: 396 Arc User
    Starbase 22, 3 days later

    They were still a few minutes out and there was already a crowd forming. Due to the semi fragile nature of the craft the Dauntless was towing, they were bringing it inside the starbase. Admiral Caral was almost giddy in anticipation-which did nothing to improve Admiral Fitsimmons mood.

    There. From a distance, the Dauntless looked like a normal Defiant, up close however, patch panels, access points, rigs for test equipment and the like marred its surface. Which made it look almost worse than the 30 meter long...thing that it was towing.

    “Ohmy, is that Wood? How did they do that?” Caral said as he looked at the padd in his hand that was tied in with the station scanners. “Sandra, I’d like to transfer the ship into docking bay 12-it’s big enough, and we can pressurize it for a more detailed inspection.”

    “Fine..sure. Whatever.” She hadn’t even brought security with her to throw Schrodinger into the brig. News that the delay of the ship was due to both a rescue and a First Contact situation....meant that things had spiraled far out of her control.

    There was an almost inaudible thunk as the airlock to the Dauntless pressurized, then the door opened and there Schrodinger was..at least in a clean uniform this time. Beside her was the alien...looking as green as an orion, except for only a meter tall.

    Schrodi stepped onto the starbase and reported “Sorry we’re late, but we ran into something, well someone technically.”

    Fitsimmons was livid-but concealed it well. Fairly well. Sorta. She simply gritted her teeth as Admiral Caral almost bounced over “It’s no problem Commander, or should I say Captain? I daresay you should be getting that fourth pip any time now. First contact with unknown species is one of Starfleet’s first mandates, wouldn’t you agree Sandra?”

    Admiral Fitsimmons could only manage a non committal grunt, closer to a squeak as she glared at the..aliens.

    Schrodinger sighed softly seeing Admiral Fitzsimmons expression, turning to her boss, Admiral Caral “Admiral, this is Heiki Geargrinder. She is the pilot of the X3 we towed in, and also the lead designer.”

    “How ya doin?” Heiki said as she stepped forward, holding out a green hand.

    “I am doing fine” Admiral Caral replied with a grin “is that cast iron on those nacelle struts there?”

    “Nah, it’s fel iron. Cheap, and sturdy, even if it does glow a bit in the right light.”

    “Really?! And how did you manage to pressurize a crew capsule made of wood?”

    “Eh..well we didn’t really. Wasn’t expectin zero pressure..”

    She’d heard enough. Sandra Fitsimmons gave one last glare at Schrodinger “Admiral Caral, I need to get back to running my station.” and having a drink, or maybe three

    The Bolian looked up, startled out of his questioning “eh? Oh of course Sandra. But don’t worry, I’ll be by later this evening, and we can spent more time reminiscing about our academy days.””

    “Wouldn’t miss it…” Fitsimmons replied through clenched teeth, as she left the docking area, and headed back to her office. She waited until she was inside, and had the privacy filters activated before screaming in frustration. So. Close. To getting rid of that...cat. Starfleet had NO discipline anymore. She thought back to a conversation she had a few weeks ago, with the Foreign Minister. He was right… She eyed the wet bar then bypassed it, setting down at her desk, the chair creaking a bit. Typing in the encryption code from memory, she placed a call.


    There was a moment of static, as the encryption on the other end linked up, and another human looked back at her.“Admiral Fitsimmons. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you.” The Federation foreign minister said with a polite smile.

    “I’ve thought about our conversation on Risa.”

    ”I see, I did not think you would have called me at 2315 paris time just to say hello.”

    She nodded “Apologies for the hour, but, I’m in. All the way, whatever it takes.”

    Paris, Federation Foreign Minister's residence

    He didn’t smile-even though he wanted to. “I see. Well that is news worth waking me up for.” he leaned over tapping some keys on his desk terminal . “I’ll see what I can do to start getting you in a place where you can be more effective for the Federation than at a backwater starbase.”

    ”I appreciate that Minister Cave. And I appreciate being given the opportunity to serve humankind, to get ourselves back standing on our own feet, without aliens.”

    Martin Cave did smile now “Of course, the greatest duty is service. Our homeworld is overrun with alien filth...Terra should be our Prime concern, after all.”

    After the call ended he went to the bar next to his desk, and poured himself a glass of wine. “Well now…” he said with a grin. He sat down as he sipped it, then started to make a call of his own. Admiral Leeta would be glad to hear that they were ahead of schedule in this universe, as would Emperor O’Brien. Looking up at a holo of his late sister, he smiled and raised his glass “I love it when a plan comes together.”

    <fin>
    "It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein

    "he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."



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