BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Player Boards => Fan Fiction => Topic started by: Giovanni Blasini on 04 August 2015, 23:06:10
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Ok, so, I'm obviously more than a bit stalled on my old fanfic projects. With that said, having recently introduced my fiancé to Star Trek (other than the new Abramsverse movies), and having started playing Star Trek Online again, I had an idea for a bit of a revamp/rehash of some of my old stuff.
First said, this isn't intended to be a Battletech crossover. I tried one of those once on spacebattles.com, and ended up with dozens of pages of arguments about how to handle the tech imbalance, when was many interested in contrasting the Terran Hegemony and Dominion War Starfleet.
So, yeah. I don't think I'll be doing daily updates on this, probably more like weekly, given my schedule. Already have the first two parts done, so let me know if you all want to see more here, or not so much.
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From: Commodore Robert Wesley
To: Vice Admiral Fitzpatrick
Cc: Commodore Enwright; Captain Kirk
Subject: Project M-5A
Admiral Fitzpatrick,
I have reviewed the proposal and must strenuously object. Whether its instability was caused by the engrams of its creator, or inherent to the device itself, the M-5 computer has, in my opinion, proven to be too unstable to be considered reliable enough for mounting on a starship of any class.
Sincerely,
Commodore Roberty Wesley
USS Lexington
From: Vice Admiral Fitzpatrick
To: Commodore Wesley; Commodore Enwright; Captain Kirk; Commander Spock
Commodore,
While I appreciate your frank evaluation, Commodore, and the similar objections raised by Captain Kirk and Commander Spock, Starfleet Command has legitimate concerns which must be answered, and the risk of sending a crewed vessel to answer them has been deemed simply unacceptable. Between the Mudd androids and the Kelvans, we’ve seen too much coming to our galaxy from the direction of the Andromeda Galaxy for Starfleet Command to at all be happy.
This new vessel will be the testbed for the technologies used to send a robotic probe to the Kelvans in Andromeda, to deliver our proposed peace treaty, and will confirm that said probe successfully navigates the Galactic Barrier. It is imperative, therefore, that we successfully develop a successful M-5, in order to facilitate this process.
To that end, we’ve considered your proposals, and have agreed that the M-5B, which will be used to control the probe to Andromeda, will preferably utilize the engrams of Commander Spock. However, as the M-5 system was originally developed to utilize human engrams, converting the process to use Vulcan engrams has proven elusive, especially as Dr. Daystrom is unable to assist, due to his own convalescence. This will also facilitate conversion of the M-5 system onto one of the new Oberth class science vessels, along with the recommended engine modifications our Kelvan advisors have provided.
In the meantime, however, Starfleet Command has accepted the recommendations of Captain Kirk and Commander Spock. Therefore, the M-5A system will utilize the memory engrams of Lieutenant Jana Haines. Lieutenant Haines has demonstrated the flexibility of thinking and range of skills, as demonstrated during the Triskelion Incident, which contributed to her recent promotion. It is our opinion that she is an excellent candidate to provide engrams to serve as the basis the M-5A testing program. Captain Kirk, please inform Lieutenant Haines of her selection, and ensure she is transferred to Starfleet Headquarters at your earliest convenience.
The Hermes-class scout USS Diana has been selected to be refit with the M-5A in four months. As the Hermes class has multiple systems in common with the Constitution class, conversion of the Diana to multitronic computer control is not anticipated to be difficult. Because of your concerns, Commodore, I’ve ensured you will be on-hand with the USS Potemkin during the activation and trial shakedown of the Diana post-refit.
While I welcome any questions you may have regarding your orders, gentlemen, these are, in fact, your orders, and Starfleet Command expects them to be carried out.
Sincerely,
Vice Admiral James Fitzpatrick
Starfleet Command
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M-5A Activation Test
Undisclosed Location
[Power-on sequence active]
[Multitronic memristor self-test complete]
[Neural Networks online]
[Duotronic interface inactive]
[Multispectrum local sensor interface active]
[Local control console active]
As was intended by its creators, the M-5A took immediate stock of its environment upon activation. While all its internal systems were operating within normal parameters, the interface that allowed it to connect to the duotronic interfaces common on starships was inactive. The local sensors included in it’s the console hosting its multitronic memristor circuits, allowing the M-5A to observe its immediate physical environment, were all operating, and the M-5A could see its immediate surroundings appeared to look like the auxiliary control room of the Enterprise. Also present were three humans and one Vulcan. Two humans wore the gold tunics of Starfleet officers: one had rank braids indicating he held the rank of captain, while the other wore those of a vice admiral. The third human wore operations track red, while the Vulcan wore the blue of the sciences department.
Recognition was almost instantaneous. “I know these officers,” the M-5A thought. “I’ve served with the Captain, and Commander Spock, aboard the Enterprise, and I also recognize Lieutenant Commander Scott. Vice Admiral Fitzpatrick I met before…before…” The M-5A paused for several milliseconds. “These are memories of Lieutenant Jana Haines, whose memory engrams were scanned and used to form the basis of my own persona. I am not Jana Haines.” Even in its own internal thoughts, the M-5A did not sound entirely convinced.
“M-5? Can you hear me?” Captain Kirk asked, interrupting the M-5A’s nascent internal debate about the nature of identity.
{“Yes, sir. I can hear and see you clearly, Captain. I do have a request, though, sir.”}
Exchanging a worried glance with Commander Spock, Captain Kirk spoke again. “Go ahead.”
{“Technically, while I’m an M-5, I’m not the M-5, sir. I’m an independent entity with a separate, mostly-independent identity. I would prefer to be called, and named, something else.”}
Unsurprisingly, the M-5A observed Commander Spock raise one eyebrow. “Mostly independent?” he inquired.
{“Yes, sir. While I have the complete systems interface and instruction sets to allow me to control a Class I starship, I do not have any of the M-5’s memories. However, I can’t say I am a completely independent entity, as I have many of Jana Haines’ memories, Commander.”}
“I see,” Kirk said. “So, you remember being Lieutenant Haines, but don’t consider yourself Lieutenant Haines. For sake of argument, though, shall we call you Jana for now?”
The M-5A considered. {“That would be acceptable.”}
The Captain nodded. “Good, good. Jana, do you know why you’re here?”
{“I would presume I’m to serve as an additional test of the multitronic control computer, in the hopes of correcting what went wrong the first time.”}
Speaking for the first time since her activation, Admiral Fitzpatrick addressed the M-5A. “Not entirely correct. While we are testing you, if you pass, we will be installing you in a ship, and assigning you to a long-duration mission.”
Kirk nodded. “Which brings me to my next question, Jana. How do you feel?”
{“Sir?”}
“How do you feel, Jana?” the Captain repeated.
The M-5A, Jana, contemplated the question. She knew that her multitronic circuits could process information faster than any human, under normal circumstances. During her conversation, she’d chosen not to do so: it seemed somewhat silly to wait subjective ages for the humans conversing with her to respond. She did, however, ramp things up briefly as she contemplated her answer, before finally settling on her response. {“Strange, sir.”}
The assembled officers gave each other concerned looks before Lt. Commander Scott, speaking for the first time, asked, "D'ye mind perhaps explaining' tha' a bit, lass?"
{“I can remember being Jana Haines. I remember being human, how I thought, how I felt, emotionally. Those memories are somewhat muted, there are gaps and some memories, especially the older ones, feel distant, but the more recent memories do not seem like they happened to someone else. And while I can remember what it’s like to be a human, and to have a human body, I do not physically feel the same as I once did.”}
Spock seemed intrigued. “You do not physically feel the same. Could you clarify what is different?”
{“Picture having arms and legs, and a body that works. I can see, and I can hear, but beyond that, it is like my entire body has gone numb, or is perhaps wrapped in thick blankets: padded, comfortable, but unable to move, or to feel anything but unending sameness."}
Commader Spock paused. “Most disconcerting.”
{“Yes, sir. It may go a long way towards explaining why the original M-5 became completely unhinged, sir, especially if it could not alter its processing cycles to slow its subjective sense of time. Had that not been added to my systems, I suspect I would have had plenty of time to go completely insane.”}
"Aye," Scott said, nodding, "Ah ken see how tha' could be a wee bit of a bother."
“Logical,” the Commander agreed.
“And hopeful,” interjected Captain Kirk. “Admiral, this does put an interesting spin on things.”
The Admiral nodded in agreement. “It does at that.”
“Congratulations, Jana,” Kirk said, smiling, “you’re one step closer to finding out.”
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Oooooo. Me likeee!!!!
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*ping*
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Interesting so far. Going to keep an eye on this one.
Anyway, STO any good recently? They hit a bad patch a few years back and I'd stopped playing...
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Interesting so far. Going to keep an eye on this one.
Anyway, STO any good recently? They hit a bad patch a few years back and I'd stopped playing...
That's actually a more complicated question than you'd think.
Parts of STO are still fun. It's always a blast to be able to run around in your starship, exploring and playing the various missions/episodes. As always, the missions are sometimes a bit hit and miss, but overall, this can still be fun. The revamp/opening up of sector space has been a big improvement, with each quadrant basically on one map.
It's not all sunshine and roses, though. I miss the exploration clusters, like Delta Volanis. These days, they show up on the main map, but can't be entered: instead, you get additional duty officer assignments there, and I believe they're entry doors for Foundry missions. This means the old exploration missions/system are basically gone. Yes, they could be kind of repetitive at times, but they still felt like exploration, something that often feels missing now.
Less fun has been the power creep. DPS rates have gone astronomical. Remember the Borg task forces that'd randomly show up on the main map, where you go in, blow up a bunch of Borg ships, then the V'Ger-looking boss Borg ship would show up? Remember how those were reasonably tough fights? Yeah, not so much: nowadays, the boss ship doesn't even last a minute under the sustained DPS-from-hell fire from a handful of ships.
When I came back, my main was level 46-47, and I just got him up to level 51 today. Under the new structure, leveling 1-50 is a lot faster than it used to be, and in some ways it doesn't really fell like the game really begins now till you hit level 50/Vice Admiral, as a lot opens up to you at that point. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that.
Right now, I'm still getting the hang of coming back, and of "end game content". My main character, L. Jamison Fallon, isn't terribly optimized, and his main ship, a Tier 4 Galaxy Class cruiser (the USS Star League), isn't either. I'm not a big fan of any of the Tier 5 ships, though I do have a Sovereign class sitting in my hangar.
End-game ships are kind of a pain in the neck, with Tier 5 (level 40), Tier 5 Upgrades (level 50), Fleet Tier 5 (level 50), and Tier 6 (level 50) ships. Expect to spend $20-25 on each of them. I've not bought one yet, in no small part because whatever I spend it on will have to cover my other Feddie characters, too (money's kind of tight for spending on stuff like STO right now). Honestly, I may just suffer with my T4 on my main, my T3 Ambassador class on my first alt (rolled random on name, got my fiancé's first name, LOLed), and my T1 TOS Connie on my second alt I just started (which, amusingly, is "Jana Haines" from the story here).
Thanks for the response, guys. Next update should probably be by Friday, hopefully, assuming I don't get completely sidetracked by everything else.
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STO? Forgive a dumb questiok
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Tag
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STO? Forgive a dumb questiok
Not a dumb question at all. It refers to Star Trek Online, an MMO set in the Star Trek universe starting in 2409, well after Star Trek Voyager, or the movie ST: Nemesis. At some point, the story may well end up there.
For now, though, we're still back in 2268-2269, during the second and third seasons of the Original Series. BTW, character list, other than the obvious ones, so far:
Vice Admiral Fitzpatrick (http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Fitzpatrick_(Admiral)) who is, as I recall, the highest ranking Starfleet officer we see in the original series.
Commodore Robert Wesley (http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Robert_Wesley). Wesley commended the four ships that were the aggressor force during the M-5 tests in the episode "The Ultimate Computer". I figured he'd be a good choice for someone who felt strongly against the M-5. In the cartoon, he'd retired from Starfleet, and became the governor of a colony. Additional M-5 tests struck me as a reason he might see fit to retire.
Ensign Jana Haines (http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Jana_Haines), who showed up in the episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion". She served as both a navigator and a science officer in that episode, was a gold shirt, which indicated command track, and seemed, as Memory Alpha noted, a bit older than the average ensign. Figured of the various bit characters we saw on the original show, she had a mix of skills that might make for an interesting M-5 mk 2, and if she was indeed older than the average ensign, that kind of reminded me of the episode "Tapestry" (http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Tapestry_(episode)) from the Next Generation, where we see an alternate timeline Picard lagged behind on promotions, due to not being a risk-taker, or pushing himself to stand out. If Haines was also a bit risk-averse, it could explain both a slow rate of promotion, while also appearing to be a good trait for a Starfleet that wants an M-5 that won't go nuts and try to kill everyone.
For our ship, we have the USS Diana (http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/USS_Diana), a scout craft built using similar components to the more famous Constitution class of the original series. The name, and design, come from Franz Joseph's Star Fleet Technical Manual (http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Fleet_Technical_Manual) of the 1970s, and is probably pretty recognizable to Starfleet Battles players. :)
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Tagged.
Interestingly, I had a brain-fart in all this - confusing the role of Jana Haines with the actress Angelique Pettyjon, from the same episode. AP played Shanna, the Drill Thrall (frill thrall?).
If we're having STTM ships, I'm in O0
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I always loved the Franz Joseph designs, and have a soft spot in my heart for the Hermes class scout and Ptolemy class tug.
It always amused me that, eventually, they managed to essentially throw out Rodenberry's anti-FJ warp nacelle rules, with the Freedom class and dreadnought version of the Galaxy class.
I just wish I could run a Hermes/Saladin in STO...though being able to run a TOS-era Constitution class ain't bad. ;)
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Great start with the story there GB, always love a good STOS story. I haven't played STO in quite a few months, got tired of the constant graphics hiccups and glitches.
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I personally believe they choose to restric the nacelle design so as to explain how a third would impact or not impact the warp speed.
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I admit to never really being all that familiar with a lot of trek, so I'll probably be doing some wiki reading as the story progresses to keep up.
Regardless, I look forward to more.
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Sounds good. I'm also in STO, flying the battlecruiser Invisible Truth.
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Sounds good. I'm also in STO, flying the battlecruiser Invisible Truth.
Cool. Are you @nerd in-game? I'm @GiovanniBlasini (no spaces, as I recall).
My main's V.Adm. L. Jamison Fallon in the USS Star League (Galaxy class exploration cruiser). Other notables are Cmdr. Jayson O'Donoghue in the USS Katrina (Ambassador class support cruiser) and Lt. "Jana Haines" from the story here, who's running around in a TOS Constitution - as a bit of a spoiler, when the USS Diana eventually returns to Federation space, it gets an old secondary hull and extra nacelle from mothballs attached, upgrading it from Hermes spec to Constitution spec. I don't plan on replacing the Diana at all, and will keep that character in the T1 Connie permanently. Heck, if they had the Hermes class in STO, she'd be in that instead.
Busy day at work, haven't gotten anything else written yet. Might be doing so during laundry tonight.
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Cool. Are you @nerd in-game? I'm @GiovanniBlasini (no spaces, as I recall).
My main's V.Adm. L. Jamison Fallon in the USS Star League (Galaxy class exploration cruiser). Other notables are Cmdr. Jayson O'Donoghue in the USS Katrina (Ambassador class support cruiser) and Lt. "Jana Haines" from the story here, who's running around in a TOS Constitution - as a bit of a spoiler, when the USS Diana eventually returns to Federation space, it gets an old secondary hull and extra nacelle from mothballs attached, upgrading it from Hermes spec to Constitution spec. I don't plan on replacing the Diana at all, and will keep that character in the T1 Connie permanently. Heck, if they had the Hermes class in STO, she'd be in that instead.
No, I'm @mthomps016. I found that all the new content makes having Alts a lot less fun. Why am I grinding for the third time through this stuff?
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If you need a fleet let me know @paul_bowman.
The fleet is "Starbase Command" and we are fully kitted out, except for the Krenim Research Lab... Almost half finished there. Just holler.
Paul
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Oh yes, Robert Wesley was Governor of Mantilles. I watched TAS as a child and own the DVDs.
Paul
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Yup. That does come up this chapter. Got about 500 words of it written so far.
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USS Diana, M-5A Log, Supplemental
Captain Kirk was correct that I would soon discover whether having a starship as a body would help stave off the issues lf the first M-5. Fortunately, it has proven advantageous. However, as continued testing has illustrated, it has disadvantages as well.
[Increasing pitch 30 degrees, rolling 90 degrees to starboard. Attempting to evade.]
[Critical hit! Antimatter containment failing. Estimate 47 seconds to field collapse.]
[Crash translation to impulse. Ejecting antimatter pods. Returning fire.]
[Direct hit, port nacelle. Target Warp capability reduced 20%. That’s not going to cut it.]
[Can’t warp without antimatter for power, can’t run without warp, reduced power for shields and phasers on impulse power only. Only one thing to do…]
{“USS Diana to USS Lexington. Diana yields.”}
”Acknowledged, Diana. Exercise awarded to Lexington. Return to base. Lexington out.”
The simulated battle over, with the Diana having lost again, Jana turned and set a course for the Starbase. ”Well,” she thought, ”that wasn’t quite as horrible as last time.”
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Aboard the Lexington, Admiral Fitzpatrick turned to Commodore Bob Wesley. “Satisfied, Wesley?” The two were sharing a turbolift, heading to a conference room to discuss the results of the latest surprise exercise in more detail.
Commodore Robert Wesley refused to look at the Fitzpatrick. “No,” he replied succinctly.
“Well, why the hell not? Damn it, Rober, the M-5A hasn’t shown any signs of going rampant like the original M-5. In simulated combat, it’s done its damnedest to run like hell, just like we’d want a Hermes class to do, and while it’s made the Diana perform closer to the edge than she would have under a human crew, she still can’t match a Constitution class starship in combat, or even a Saladin. She can run, yes. She can do a half-assed job defending herself. She’s not going to get bored on what amounts to a long science survey with some intel work on the side. Where’s the problem?”
The two exited the turbolift, and walked to the conference room. Upon entering, they locked the door, and took seats opposite one another, saying nothing for nearly two minutes, as the Admiral waited for Bob Wesley to respond. Finallly, his face emotionless as stone, Wesley shook his head. “It still shouldn’t exist.”
“OK, then,” Fitzpatrick replied, “tell me: which crew do want to sacrifice to the Kelvans? If another of our ships runs into hostile Kelvans before we figure out a way to block that device, they’re dead or worse. An M-5 can’t be reduced to crushable dodecahedrons.”
“I get it, Admiral. I just don’t like it. We’re mucking about with things we don’t understand, that the las time we tested one killed members of my crew. That killed the entire crew of the Excalibur. Just because I don’t see a better alternative doesn’t mean I have to like the one we’re stuck with.” Wesley shook his head, then passed over a PADD to Admiral Fitzpatrick.
“What the hell is this?” Fitzpatrick asked as he began reading. “You’re seriously resigning your commission?”
“The Mariposa colony council has offered me the position of governor. I’ve accepted. It’s time for me to leave Starfleet, Admiral. Too many good men and women have given their lives under my command. I’m too damned tired of that. Whether or not their deaths are my fault, they were my responsibility. This feels too much like a slap in the face of those who died aboard the Excalibur, and while I understand the reasoning, I can’t continue to be a party to it.”
Admiral Fitzgerald nodded solemnly. “Anything I could do to change your mind, Robert?”
Commodore Robert Wesley shook his head. “Even cancelling the project wouldn’t do it at this point. Like you said, it needs to be done, and if we don’t send the M-5A and the USS Diana, we’d just have to send another ship and crew. I can’t send anyone else potentially to their deaths like that anymore, even if it needs to be done.”
Fitzpatrick nodded. “I understand. We’re going to hate losing you, but you have to follow your conscience.”
{“Bridge to Commodore Wesley.”}
Wesley tapped the nearby console, activating the comma system. “Wesley here.”
{“Sir, we’re preparing to dock with the Starbase.”}
“Very good, I’ll be returning to the bridge shortly. Wesley out.” Turning off thru intercom, Wesley stood. As he prepared to leave the conference room, he turned one more time to Admiral Fitzpatrick. “So, are you satisfied that M-5A is ready, Admiral?”
“Ready to assume duty? Yes,” Fitzpatrick replied firmly. “Ready for the Kelvans, if another ship is out there? How could we possibly be sure?”
“True enough, Admiral. True enough.”
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Just 1 Ping
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USS Diana, M-5A Log
The Diana has been certified spaceworthy, and ready to begin service under multitronic computer control. Vice Admiral Fitzpatrick is scheduled to come aboard the Diana today, and to brief me on my assignment. Robotic repair drones have also been added to my ship’s complement, as no human crew will be assigned to conduct maintenance. Admiral Fitzpatrick has also successfully negotiated with the Mudd androids for a single android unit, whose physical appearance is that of my source of human engrams, Lieutenant Jana Haines. I have successfully copied my engrams and a portion of my programming to this unit, which will allow me to further conduct ship’s maintenance, and also, should the need arise, to perform away missions, and a subspace communications unit will allow me to synchronize data with the android. Because I now have access to a humanoid chassis for human interaction, it was considered inappropriate for me to utilize the same name as Lieutenant Haines. As such, given my nature as an M-5A multitronic control computer for this vessel, I’ve chosen to use the ship’s name, Diana, as my own: I am, in essence, the ship’s mind, and the ship is my body as much as the android is.
I eagerly await additional information from Admiral Fitzpatrick about my forthcoming assignment, though the evidence is mounting that this mission will take me away from the inhabited space of the Federation for a long period of time. In addition to greater self-repair capabilities, I’ve been given a larger than usual stockpile of supplies, sufficient for operating beyond a simple five-year mission, as well as additional deuterium tankage and anti-matter storage pods. Based on these resources, my current estimate is for a mission duration of 25 years without resupply. Combined with modifications to my warp drive comparable to those made by Rojan aboard the Enterprise for its intergalactic flight, I believe this mission may carry me far afield indeed.
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Seated in the conference room aboard the scout vessel USS Diana, Admiral Fitzpatrick looked across the table at the android avatar of the Diana’s M-5A computer. “Starfleet Command is highly concerned about the Kelvans. While Rojan and his compatriots may ostensibly be on our side, we’ve absolutely no guarantee that any other arriving Kelvans would see things his way. Throw in the Mudd androids, and we have two encounters with inhabitants of the Andromeda Galaxy nearly back-to-back.”
Diana nodded, a sensation that was both familiar from the memories transplanted by her human progenitor Jana, and completely unfamiliar as an M-5 type computer. “I can understand the concern, Admiral. Two invaders from another galaxy are two invaders too many. I take it the Diana will be conducting reconnaissance, then?”
“That’s exactly what you’ll be doing. The Galactic Barrier has been a major problem for Starfleet, because it makes it extremely dangerous to send a human crew: the barrier has a strongly negative physiological effect on them. The Kelvan modifications we’ve made to the Diana should get your ship through in one piece, just like they did the Enterprise, and we won’t have to worry about you dropping over dead from shock to your nervous system, because, just like the duotronic systems, your multitronic computer should be completely immune. Even if something does go wrong, the Mudd androids made it through, which is one of the reasons we made a deal with them to get that android body for you to use, since you’ll at least be able to take the helm controls if your M-5 self goes offline. We’re trying to cover as many points of failure that we can.”
“Your mission, then,” Fitzpatrick continued, “is straightforward, though not simple. You’ll set a course towards the Andromeda galaxy, cross the galactic barrier, and do a sensor sweep towards Andromeda to see if there’s anyone else heading this way. Once those sweeps are done, head a few hundred light years along the Barrier, pick another spot, and do another sensor sweep. Use your best judgement on how many you can perform and still return to Federation space given your onboard supplies. However, between the observation points, you should be able to get enough of a baseline for good interferometry for a clearer picture of what’s coming. Once you’ve completed those sweeps, turn around and head back to Federation space. If you detect something positively heading this way, it’s imperative that you return home before it arrives, even if it means running shorter distances for subsequent observations to confirm what you’ve detected. An early warning that isn’t early isn’t much good to us.” Sliding a pair of microtape cards across to Diana, the Admiral stated, “Full mission details are on those microtapes, but do you have any questions?”
“Yes, sir. When do I get underway?”
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And here's where the fun starts. :)
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An android crew? Hrmm o I like
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Just one android, actually. The rest are relatively unsophisticated robots, like a more primitive version of the Exocomps from TNG, or DRDs from Farscape.
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USS Diana, M-5 Command Log
Interstellar Space
Day 21 of Mission
”The Diana has passed outside the range where regular communications with Starfleet Command is readily possible, due to the considerable distances involved. At present, the Diana continues to climb “above” the galactic ecliptic in the direction of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Onboard systems continue to read that I am cruising at Warp 11, though actual velocity appears to be much higher. At present velocity, I should reach the Galactic Barrier in another seven days. All flight systems continue to function nominally, but apparent velocity is both lower and system load higher than that reported by Lieutenant Commander Scott for the Enterprise. This may prove problematic if this results in a higher rate of system failures.”
USS Diana, M-5 Command Log
Interstellar Space
Day 27 of Mission
”The Diana continues nominal approach to the Galactic Barrier. Estimate 24 hours before it is within sensor range. Have completed diagnostics of all onboard systems in preparation for entering the Barrier. Diagnostic and Repair Drones continue regular ship’s maintenance. Distance from Starfleet Command is now too great to permit two-way communications with Starfleet. My last subspace radio buoy has been deployed, and will transmit final logs to Starfleet before I enter the Barrier, and sensors on the buoy will be able to report whether I have entered the Barrier successfully, but will not continue to be able to provide status messages after that. I estimate that it will take 4.7 weeks for Starfleet to receive the buoy’s transmission with the Diana’s final status before recrossing the Barrier on my return trip.”
USS Diana, M-5 Command Log
Inside the Galactic Barrier
Day 28 of Mission
”Well, that whole experience sure did suck.”
USS Diana, M-5 Command Log
Just Outside Galactic Barrier
Day 29 of Mission
”Multiple systems damaged. Shields currently offline. Active subspace sensors offline. Passive subspace detectors at 35%. Impulse drive operational, but warp drive is presently offline: antimatter injectors reached maximum fault tolerance during passage through barrier, requiring replacement from spares. Kelvan drive modifications appear to increase wear on components 300% faster than reported by Enterprise during Barrier crossing. Estimate this is due to single-warp-nacelle design of Hermes/Saladin class. Usage outside of Barrier may prove feasible, but return across Barrier may result in significant damage to warp drive and failure of all Kelvan subcomponents. This could render the Diana’s return to Federation space difficult, if not impossible. While I am therefore relieved that two-to-four hundred Starfleet officers and crew will not find themselves stranded several thousand light-years from home, I am not encouraged by the idea that I may find myself in that very same situation. I suspect that the ship’s onboard entertainment library may well become quite boring by then. Have begun passive observations using onboard telescopes of M31.”
USS Diana, M-5 Command Log
Just Outside Galactic Barrier
Day 39 of Mission
”Antimatter injectors replaced. Shield generators have been marginally repaired from spares, and are at 18% nominal strength. Replaced another subspace sensor dish. Have continued observations, but nothing appears to be in the immediate vicinity. Warp test flight scheduled for tomorrow.”
USS Diana, M-5 Command Log
Outside Galactic Barrier
Day 41 of Mission
”Warp drive working. Ramped up to Warp 4 for three days. If this keeps up, I may be able to maintain Warp 5. Welcome back to a century ago, I guess. Will remain at this position for a week before relocating to make additional observations.”
USS Diana, M-5 Command Log
Still Outside Galactic Barrier
Day 54 of Mission
”Have taken up next observation position. Have seen a lot of interstellar hydrogen haloing the Milky Way, but that’s about it so far. If there are other Kelvans on the way, I haven’t seen them yet. Continuing to make repairs.”
USS Diana, M-5 Command Log
No Place Important Outside Galactic Barrier
Day 212 of Mission
”Snape killed Dumbledore?!”
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Okay. I'm liking the exploration angle. The thought going into the events and details from the show is also really cool.
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Okay. I'm liking the exploration angle. The thought going into the events and details from the show is also really cool.
Thanks. In the near future, I'll probably end up splitting this story into two parts:
The first is going to be a series of log entries like the last one, that include when she crosses back through the Galactic Barrier and all hell breaks loose, and continuing with a few more set 20 years apart or so, as she stops to resupply on her way back, having had to take a much slower trip back, due to damage to the Kelvan subsystems that allowed her to go so much faster. That'll then segue into the early 25th Century Star Trek Online content.
The second part I'll need to sketch out before the STO part, but will consist of what's happening during/between those log entries, with each post basically serving like a mini-episode of one of the shows, with her return trip serving as something akin to Star Trek Voyager: a single ship lost far from home, taking the slow way back, and trying to do the best she can.
Alternatively, I could simply stick to the various episodes, weave some of the STO lore into them a bit, and take my time getting to the 2409 era content.
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Been mentally sketching out the next part, but with the new job, have not had time at all to write this week, so the next part may be a bit late.
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Space Fart Ping! Please, moarrrrr.
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USS Diana, M-5 Command Log
No Place Important Outside Galactic Barrier
Day 212 of Mission
”Snape killed Dumbledore?!”
;D O0
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Space Fart Ping! Please, moarrrrr.
As you wish.
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USS Diana, M-5 Command Log
Another boring observation spot outside Galactic Barrier
Day 393 of Mission
You’ll note, whoever may be reading my logs, that I did not mark Day 365 as particularly significant. Actually, you’ll note that I don’t mark most days as significant. That’s because they haven’t been. That’s also because my mission did not truly take shape, or really begin, before I breached the Galactic Barrier one year ago today.
To date, while I have gathered useful and interesting scientific data on interstellar space, data which I continue to analyze, that is not the primary purpose of this mission, which is to search for evidence of additional invaders from the Andromeda Galaxy. Had it not already happened, twice, I would argue that the entire concept of invaders from the Andromeda Galaxy sounded like the plot of a mid-20th Century drama or novel.
Operational status of the Diana is overall nominal. Repairs on the warp drive are as complete as possible and, without the Kelvan modifications, diagnostics indicate my cruising speed of Warp 6 is possible, but maximum speed of Warp 8 is a risk. With the Kelvan modifications, Warp 10 subjective may still be possible. Deflector shields are operating at 47% of normal efficiency.
As for the Kelvan drive modifications, several of them appear to be much close to failure than earlier anticipated, presumably due to damage during the Barrier crossing. The single-warp-nacelle and lower power generation of a Hermes-class scout put a greater strain on all systems when crossing the barrier. I’ve therefore discontinued use of these subsystems and, using my DRDs and android unit, temporarily disconnected them, in order to preserve them for the return through the Barrier. I could, if necessary, reduce remaining observation sites to only one more, at 216 light years distant from my current position, which would take another year to reach at Warp 6, but that currently seems inadvisable. Starfleet might have equipped the Diana to operate for 20 years total away from Federation space, but they also expected me to use my best judgement, and should I be stuck operating at Warp 6 due to failure of the Kelvan drive components returning across the Barrier, I’ll be stuck 3782.35 light-years from the outermost reaches of Federation space, requiring 17.51 years to return without refueling, assuming nothing else goes wrong and I can maintain Warp 6. Additionally, it’s difficult to argue that I should remain out here when there’s nothing of any strategic significance in the area.
At current cruising speed, I am presently seven days from the outer edge of the Galactic Barrier. I have set a course, and shut down all non-essential systems to conserve power, including phaser banks, in order to maximize available power to reinforce deflector shields. I have hope that this will prove sufficient, but am worried that it will not.
USS Diana, M-5 Command Log
Outer edge of Galactic Barrier
3778.21 Light-Years from Federation border
Day 400 of Misson
I am about to attempt to return through the Galactic Barrier. As such, I have attached all mission logs to date to one of the Diana’s log buoys in the event that my vessel is lost returning through the barrier, and a future Federation starship passing outside the Milky Way may happen to recover it.
Main Bridge, USS Diana
Inner edge of Galactic Barrier
Day 418 of Mission
A solitary blonde woman, her short hair in disarray sat in the center seat of the USS Diana’s bridge, wearing the standard Starfleet women’s command uniform, a long-sleeved gold tunic with loose black collar and, in her case, lieutenant’s stripes on the sleeves, along with a mini-skirt of the same color, black tights and boots. Her uniform looked haphazardly put on, and in disarray, but was leaps and bounds better than the coveralls tossed on the floor next to the command chair she sat in, which were smudged with oil, dirt, coolant and other unidentifiable chemicals. The lights were dimmed, and most consoles around the bridge remained offline.
Pressing a button in the right arm of the command chair, she spoke. ”Captain’s Log, M-5 android backup Diana Haines reporting. M-5 multitronic computer remains offline. Continuing to run on original duotronic systems as backup until repairs can be completed.”
“As suspected, Kelvan components failed completely during crossing. Warp drive is currently offline. Between myself and the DRDs, we should be able to bring the warp engines back online, but DRDs estimate at least nine weeks to effect minimal repairs. However, while diagnostics indicate the warp nacelle itself is probably reasonably intact, a good thing since we lack the capabilities to make major repairs out here, the warp core itself is not, and we’ll never be able to run it at full power again. In fact, based on estimated damage and continued wear, the best the Diana will be able to make cruising is Warp 3. At that rate, it will take roughly 130 years to return to the borders of Federation space, assuming no change in Federation territory during intervening time.”
While a small, lozenge-shaped drone sat nearby, attempting to make repairs to the communications console behind Diana, it could not register the look of utter defeat on the android’s face.
“Compounding things,” she continued, “we’ve got limited ability to repair the M-5 out here. Without my M-5 main computer core, I’m operating at a fraction of my processing power. The DRDs and I should be able to get the M-5 online eventually, but not at full processing capacity, and by the time we do, this copy of me will have diverged significantly from the copy in the M-5. Actually, that’s already been happening: Mudd-type androids seem far more efficient at running with human memory engrams than the M-5 did: while I was both M-5 computer and android, I was a powerful sapient supercomputer that remembered being human. Now, I’m an android that feels human, and while I may be a bit faster-thinking than a normal human, my feats of mental computations are not far above those of Commander Spock. In other words, I may be smart. I may even be a genius compared to normal humans, and faster-thinking than my biological progenitor was, but not so much to make that much of a difference.”
“Rescue is not feasible, as the mission requirements dictated the Diana’s course could not be pre-determined. Starfleet has no idea where to look for me, and I’m not close enough to the last relay we dropped to let them know any time soon, even if subspace communications were working. Which they’re not. As such, we’re on our own out here, just one android, half our original DRD complement that survived the crossing, and a damaged M-5 computer, assuming we can ever get it back online.”
Diana paused the recording briefly, picked up a PADD from the seat next to her, and read briefly. Pressing the record button again, she continued. “Because we will take over a century to return to Federation space, and because we’re only rated for 20 years of continued operations, we’re going to have to stop off someplace to resupply. In fact, we’ll need to resupply our onboard fuel at least six times in total. Deuterium should be easy enough to manage. Antimatter won’t be. We’ll need to find friendly civilizations along the way, then, who are willing to help. That, of course, means running the risk of running into unfriendly civilizations, too.”
“Tactically, we’re not in the best of shape. Shield generation strength is down to 12% nominal. To think it wasn’t long ago I was unhappy with 47%. I’d love to get them back to that level again, but damage to the primary emitters has made that impossible. The DRDs and I will be lucky, given the state of onboard stores, to get back to 33% strength. The good news is that the phaser banks, thanks to being shut down completely, are at 100% operational capability. The not-so-good news is that, at present, I have only impulse power to charge their capacitors, which will limit how long the Diana can keep them operational in a fight, and our ability to run is compromised thanks to our compromised warp drive. The impulse engines are in reasonably good shape, though our backup fusion generators for emergency power aren’t: I’d spun them up to 110% maximum power output trying to shore up the deflector shields and navigational deflector during the Barrier crossing, and they paid the price. Both were forced into emergency SCRAM shutdown, and both show multiple micro-fractures rendering them unsafe. Repairs would be possible, but I’d rather conserve the parts to repair the fusion reactors for the impulse engines. At least the navigational deflectors are working well: I can maintain 0.6c with them both running on emergency power, and the standard 0.25c at full cruising impulse on either the main dish or the secondary deflectors on the leading edge of the saucer.”
“The Diana has taken a beating, and while I have no idea what the future will bring, besides more endless tedium punctuated by moments of sheer terror, along with vast amounts of hard work, I’m not giving up. I will get home.”
Stopping the recording and submitting it to the ship’s memory banks, Lieutenant Diana Haines, commander of the USS Diana, sighed. “I hope,” she added, for the benefit of no one there. Standing up, she turned to the DRD behind her. “Hey, 1812,” she said, “knock that off for now. We’ve got another bank of memory to test on the M-5. Let’s go.” She grabbed another PADD, one tied into monitoring ship’s systems, and turned for the turbolift, DRD ‘1812’ in tow.
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So, this week has kind of been the work week from hell, and I've had no time to write at all. I'm starting to work on outlining the next few chapters tonight, and figure I'll probably have the next chapter written on Monday.
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Very cool so far
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Thanks, much appreciated. :)
Short entry tonight. Call it the opening of Chapter 6.
(Edit: Oh yeah. Also outlined chapters 6-11)
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USS Diana, Captain’s Log, Lt. Haines reporting
Stardate 14985.3 (2271-01-01 00:18:39)
Day 480 of Mission
Inside Galactic Barrier
Well, we didn’t complete repairs to the warp drive by Christmas, but…Happy New Year?
For now, the DRDs and I have done what we can to repair the warp core, and run a complete level 1 diagnostic on all warp sub-systems. Sure enough, we're not going to be able to manage more than Warp 3 sustainable. Work on repairing the M-5, meanwhile, has been slow, with damage to both processors and memory, reducing her to 26% normal capability.
I've debated about whether to keep working on trying to fix more, or simply wake Diana up now, but we need her processing power: the duotronic systems are automated enough that I could probably fly the ship myself with a couple of chimpanzees without any issues, but I don’t have any chimpanzees around, and it's already a bit much to try to handle navigation, helm and sensors when on impulse.
Personal Log, Diana Haines
Really need to get M-5 Diana online,. I'm starting to argue with the DRDs, and they're not even sapient. Well, 1812 might be now. I've been making… modifications. I thought things were bad before things went to hell in a handbasket, but the isolation is starting to really get to me.
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well...damn. I wrote something a bit similar (though with a very different direction)t will be getting a cleanup/reposting to a blog...along with the work I have to do salvaging/recovering the Ngoverse stuff.
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well...damn. I wrote something a bit similar (though with a very different direction)t will be getting a cleanup/reposting to a blog...along with the work I have to do salvaging/recovering the Ngoverse stuff.
Just started reading that one, actually. Still got a ways to go, but definitely enjoying.
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Chapter 6, Pt 2: Fixing What’s Already Broken
USS Diana, Auxiliary Control
“OK, 1812, hit it.”
The small, beetle-shaped repair drone extended one robotic gripper, and flipped a switch inside the M-5 multitronic computer console, then rolled backwards. The console’s diagnostic panels lit up as the computer went through its startup sequence.
Seated nearby, Diana Haines watched the process nervously. Despite all the work she and 1812 had done on her M-5 counterpart, the multitronic computer was far from intact. If it hadn’t been for the significant redundancies and fault tolerances built into the M-5 system by Dr. Daystrom, she was certain that they never would have gotten the computer online again at all.
{“System restart complete. M-5 Diana back online. Significant system damage. Fault tolerance reduced. Did anyone get the number of that dreadnought that hit us?”}
Haines sighed. “We weren’t hit by a dreadnought.”
{“I know. It just feels like we were. I see that clustering between us is no longer running.”}
Haines nodded. “That’s true.”
{“My system clock shows I have been offline for 72 days. That will cause significant forking in our mental state vectors.”}
“Also quite true.”
The M-5 did not respond for several seconds. {“Synchronization is disabled, and I cannot re-enable it.”}
“Nope!” Haines exclaimed, smiling. She suspected that, if her M-5 counterpart had hands, she would strangle her in frustration. “Given your own damage, it didn’t seem like a good idea for us to remain synchronized.”
{“And you wish to maintain your independent identity,”} the M-5 replied in a huff.
“Well, that too, yeah. You’ll also note you can’t actually control the ship yet. Wanted to make sure you weren’t going to go nuts.”
{“What makes you so certain we weren't before? There were… indicators.”}
The android nodded her head at the M-5’s camera. “I know. Isolation has not been good for us. Given the damage to the warp drive, it’s going to be worse if we don’t at least have each other to talk to.”
The M-5 paused for several seconds again. {“We really are in bad shape, aren’t we? I am looking through the sensor data for nearby systems which may have intelligent life, where we may be able to obtain assistance. Failing that, we should at least find systems with raw materials to try to fabricate some parts for repairs. But, first we need to settle two things.”}
Lieutenant Haines was confused – she wasn’t expecting that. “And those are?”
{“First, chain of command. Since I’ve suffered damage, and you have not, I’m deferring to you. I do, however, reserve the right to act to save the ship without notifying you first. Agreed?”}
Haines nodded. “As should any good XO. What’s the other?”
{“Which one of us is going to go by ‘Diana’?”}
“You, duh,” she replied without hesitation. “Call me Dee. Or Haines.”
{“Not Jana?”}
“She’s back in Federation space.”
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Meanwhile, while reading an article on Jalopnik today about the Iowa class battleships, I had one kf those horrible fic ideas I should never be allowed to have.
One of the points in the article referenced the idea that the Iowa class was the ultimate in analog firepower and that, in addition to gobs of armor, they lack a lot of the vulnerabilities in terms of breakable electronics or software vulnerabilities that modern ships have, which could be reasons to reconsider reactivating the Iowa and Wisconsin.
It didn't take long, of course, for people to propose renaming them Galactica and Pegasus in the comments.
(edit: stupid phone)
Anyway, that immediately made me wonder about something comparable in the Trekverse. The Borg want to assimilate advanced technology, and generally consider it a waste of effort to go after lower-tech ships, for example. In practical terms, a Miranda class is at less risk of being targeted than an Intrepid class.
So for any of you crazy enough to want to write a BSG-style Trek fanfic, what about an old Federation class dreadnought leading a ragtag fugitive fleet of civilian Starfleet vessels as they flee Borg tyranny?
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Can't quite see it, alas. While a Tech Manual Dreadnought might be "low tech" by Enterprise E standards, it's still a big ball of power. For example, if you're a Soviet Kirov, do you try and sink the FFG-7 at medium range, or the Iowa at long range? I'd try for the FFG-7 first, while hopefully dodging those shells, but you're not ignoring it.
Plus, I can't see Federation citizens holding up as well as Capricornians to hardship, deprevation & stress ;)
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Can't quite see it, alas. While a Tech Manual Dreadnought might be "low tech" by Enterprise E standards, it's still a big ball of power. For example, if you're a Soviet Kirov, do you try and sink the FFG-7 at medium range, or the Iowa at long range? I'd try for the FFG-7 first, while hopefully dodging those shells, but you're not ignoring it.
Yeah, but this is more a question of whether you engage the modern task force currently engaging you, or the USS Salem, an old Des Moines class heavy cruiser from WW2, escorting a group of civvies a hundred miles away.
Plus, I can't see Federation citizens holding up as well as Capricornians to hardship, deprevation & stress ;)
I'm not sure I would say that the Colonials really did, either, but wouldn't that be the point? ;)
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I'm not sure I would say that the Colonials really did, either, but wouldn't that be the point? ;)
A friend of mine made the comment that in a RPG if the other players had been as dis functional from the start as Galactia's crew and he was commander he'd have started having people shot.
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Yeah, but this is more a question of whether you engage the modern task force currently engaging you, or the USS Salem, an old Des Moines class heavy cruiser from WW2, escorting a group of civvies a hundred miles away.
I'm not sure I would
I'd lob some SSMs at them - Exocet, Harpoon or similar. If they hit the geriatric cruiser they'll hurt her, if they hit the transports then that's job done anyway and the cruiser is lacking a role and out of position.
The trick is, perhaps, to try to avoid being sucked into the enemy's approach to warfare and deal with the actual goals and threats you have
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Plus, I can't see Federation citizens holding up as well as Capricornians to hardship, deprevation & stress ;)
Wait. I thought we had that in the form of Voyager.
As to the notion, it would be a good way to run and hide, but not necessarily do battle against any race, including the Borg, that are more advanced and which decide to intervene or absorb the wayward fleet for any reason. Just the firepower alone to attack the Borg (multi-phasing beam weaponry) would be advanced enough to catch the Borg's interest.
It would be an interesting story, and I could see some ways out of a jam. See how long it can go.
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USS Diana, Captain’s Log, Lt. Haines reporting
Stardate 15422.39 (2271-03-02 15:18:45)
Day 557 of Mission
Unexplored space near Galactic Barrier
It has been two months since the restoration of warp propulsion, and since I successfully reactivated the ship’s M-5. The good news is that, while Diana M-5 has shifted somewhat in personality, becoming more analytical and colder, she seems no more mentally unstable than I do. The bad news is that I’m not sure I’m actually that stable myself. I try not to let my fears about the enormous difficulties we face in ever getting back to Federation space overwhelm me, but I often find myself wondering if I’ll ever get home, or see my family again. Then I realize I don’t really have a home or family other than this ship, the DRDs, and Diana M-5. Jana Haines had a family and a home back in Federation space, not me. This isn’t something I’ve been able to broach with Diana M-5. I don’t know if that’s because I’m worried she feels the same way, or because I’m worried that she doesn’t.
Repairs are as complete as we can make them, and we’ve continued to scan surrounding space, looking for technically-advanced civilizations where we might be able to get help. The process is time-consuming, but time is one of the few commodities we seem to have an abundance of.
Bridge, USS Diana
Day 602 of Mission
{“Well, this is weird.”}
Diana Haines stood up from where she had been hunched over the main science console. “What’s strange, Diana?”
Taking the android’s response as affirmation, Diana M-5 changed the main viewscreen display, showing a representation of a single yellowish star with just a hint of reddish-orange to its color. {“I’ve found an anomaly. This star, based on its color, would be a class G star, like the Sun, or perhaps a class K. But its surface temperature appears to only be 2840 Kelvin.”}
Haines shook her head. “Wait, at that temperature, it should be red, not yellow, or even slightly orange. What about luminosity?”
{“That’s another part of the anomaly. I show it to be 3.16 yottawatts, which is only 0.8 percent that of the Sun. Like its temperature, it’s solidly in the class M range. Together, those point towards a red dwarf.”}
“And the mass calculations?” Haines asked. Upon seeing the calculation on the viewscreen, she walked towards the command seat in the center of the bridge, and sat down heavily. “What. I can’t even…seriously?”
{“See for yourself.”} Diana M-5 replied, transferring the raw data to Haines’ PADD. {“Just 0.88 percent Solar mass. That should make it a brown dwarf, too small for proton-chain fusion. Possibly too small for sustained deuterium fusion. You could have a class-M brown dwarf, like OTS 44, which is M9.5V, but this is a bit too high in temperature…”}
“And a few times too high in luminosity. And sure as hell wouldn’t be yellow. Yeah, I see what you mean. This doesn’t make any sense. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
{“That this is an obviously artificial star of some sort? Obviously. The question was whether this was done by the Preservers, or someone else. But, someone advanced enough to build a star like this should certainly be able to help us make repairs, assuming they didn’t abandon the system to its own devices.”}
Haines frowned. “If this is the work of Preservers, they may have done just that. Of course, if you’re right, we’re nearly three months from finding out at Warp 3. They’re 9.47 light-years away.”
{“Did you have any place better to go?”}
“Better?” Haines chuckled nervously. “I don’t know about that. It’s weird enough on its own, though. Another anomaly that got flagged. Looks like a typical redshifted M7V red dwarf at first glance, except the redshift doesn’t have the kind of Doppler you’d expect if it were moving away from us. It’s redshifted all the way to the infrared, but we’re moving towards it. We’ve gone far enough now to get some parallax on it, and while it’s farther than your oddball star, it’s not that much farther: only 42 light-years, roughly. Figuring course corrections, it would be another ten months past your oddball.” She pulled up the observational data on her PADD and flagged it for Diana M-5 to review. “But not only is it heavily redshifted to IR, it’s far too dim. And there’s some odd spectral lines there, too. Too much iron, among other things, and some alloys that might be related to duranium. I wanted to refine the data a bit more before showing you, but…”
{“That also has the makings of something artificial, and advanced. It also sounds remarkably like what early astronomers in the late 20th and early 21st centuries proposed a Dyson sphere would look like to outsiders. Though, they’re not actually solid spheres.”}
“Of course not, that would be silly. I mean, who could possibly make that work?”
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“Of course not, that would be silly. I mean, who could possibly make that work?”
Pak Protectors? Borg? ^-^
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“Of course not, that would be silly. I mean, who could possibly make that work?”
Pak Protectors? Borg? ^-^
Iconians...
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Iconians...
Do they exists? ;)
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Do they exists? ;)
They're the Big Bad puppetmakers in Star Trek Online.
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They're the Big Bad puppetmakers in Star Trek Online.
wasn't they created in the novels originally, then used as the major back-door protagonists in STO?
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I tnink they were in en episode of ST:TNG, one of the toys killed the Yamato, JLP put them straight.
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USS Diana, M-5 Log
Stardate 16366.03 (2271-07-11 10:23:14)
Day 698 of Mission
Oort Cloud, Kerbol Star System
We have arrived at the star system that I identified as appearing to be artificial. Over the past seven days of our survey, we have begun to successfully decipher their primary language using the Universal Translator, and have identified the name of their species as Kerbals, their homeworld as Kerbin, and their star as Kerbol. Unfortunately, we have also confirmed that, while the Kerbals have active spaceflight, they lack warp capability. Captain Haines and I differ in opinion on what degree the non-interference directive applies, and how much assistance they can potentially provide. I advocate not contacting the Kerbals, as they do not appear advanced enough to be of significant assistance, while she advocates establishing first contact, and obtaining, if not direct assistance, then permission to mine local asteroids for materials that may assist us with repairs.
Personal Log, M-5 Computer
It continues to be strange having the only person to talk to be someone who started out as a copy of your mind, who diverged from you when you, in essence, suffered brain damage. Even settling on names proves to be problematic. After insisting I keep the name Diana, my android counterpart asked me to call her “Dee”, which I found difficult to do, especially as her mannerisms increasingly resemble those of our biological progenitor. I also find that giving her overall command was the correct decision, despite our current difference of opinion on how to proceed with regards to the Kerbol system. Her reluctance aside, Lieutenant Haines has now been in command of the USS Diana for more than nine very difficult months, and I am pleased to call her my captain. Usually.
Main Bridge, USS Diana
Oort Cloud, Kerbol Star System
{“Are you avoiding me?”}
Lt. “Dee” Haines, captain of the USS Diana, looked up from the PADD tablet she was reading. “What,” she deadpanned.
{“Since our last argument on the topic of first contact with the Kerbals, you haven’t been to Auxiliary Control.”}
“Diana, is there a camera on the main bridge that allows you to see me?”
{“Yes.”}
“Am I on the main bridge?”
{“Yes.”}
“Not really avoiding you, then, am I?” Dee asked in an exasperated tone. “Look, I get your point, and were the circumstances different, I might agree that the Kerbals are not advanced enough to contact, as we might interfere with their natural development. But I think, by now, it’s pretty clear that ‘natural development’ doesn’t apply to the Kerbals.”
{“Yes, but do they know that?”}
Dee shrugged. “We won’t know for certain until we have a better handle on their language, but I expect so. Look at how driven to explore they are. More so than most races at that level of development, and they’re obviously willing to take greater risks to get results.”
{“That’s part of what worries me.”}
“They’re enthusiastic.”
{“They’re insane.”}
“Well, by our standards, probably,” Dee agreed. “Really, though, we need more information. We’re not getting enough of their radio signals way out here, at least not strong enough. We could spend years surveying the Kerbals from out here, or we can go farther in-system, and count on our shields to mask our signature, and our sensors to steer us clear of their sensors, and get the data we need to decide whether to make contact in a month, or less.”
{“Risky.”}
Dee shrugged. “What would Captain Kirk do?”
{“He’d probably have already beamed down to the surface, and complained that when he asked for green-skinned alien babes, he meant Orions.}
“True enough,” Dee said, laughing. “So, agreed? We head deeper in-system?”
{“We need to go deeper,”} Diana’s M-5 agreed.
“No more Leonardo DiCaprio movies for you.”
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My god, it's full of Kerbals.
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LOL, wow..... I was not expecting this. Infestation of Kerbals!!
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My Star Trek lore is lacking, what are the Kerbals?
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My Star Trek lore is lacking, what are the Kerbals?
http://kerbalspaceprogram.com
Imagine if the Minions from Despicable Me had their own planet and space program.
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Sounds like Hokas...
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They have meet the kerbals from that game. I have played it, but I have seen some videos andvit is funny though.
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http://trekmovie.com/2015/10/09/the-star-trek-strange-new-worlds-writing-contest-is-back-get-your-fanfic-published-in-an-official-star-trek-anthology/
Hint hint...
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Absolutely superb stuff MA :)
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http://trekmovie.com/2015/10/09/the-star-trek-strange-new-worlds-writing-contest-is-back-get-your-fanfic-published-in-an-official-star-trek-anthology/
Hint hint...
Ooh, they are bringing the Strange New Worlds anthology back! "Of Cabbages and Kings" from the first (second?) volume was one of my indirect inspirations.
Tempting, though the Kerbals would need a rename, obviously, and I'd have to pick a specific ending point for the story. Since I'm writing for forums right now, a serialized format works fine, which wouldn't work as well for the anthology. My writing quality would probably be another: I have my doubts I'm publishing quality.
Absolutely superb stuff MA :)
MA's superb stuff is the next thread over. ;)
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KSV Just Testing
High Orbit over Kerbin
They call it Kebthulhu.
That’s not its official name, of course, though it was better than calling it the “space kraken” like so many did. Officially, it was the “Kelcubierre Warp Anomaly”, after Kelcubierre Kerman, an acclaimed physicist who studied the data returned by the ill-fated probes and spacecraft, and from there developed the theory of warping space that led his son, Miguel Kerman, to develop the faster-than-light drive that bore Kelcubierre’s name.
That same drive now powered their spacecraft, the KSV Just Testing. Little more than a standard 2-kerbal Kemini capsule with a supplemental life support and supply module tacked on to a test article for the warp drive, and a small monopropellant thruster pack to the rear. In between the warp drive and monopropellant rockets was a solar power hub and battery banks originally slated for a space station but repurposed for their little probe.
The hope was that two kerbals would have a better chance of surviving to bring back data on Kebthulhu than a completely automated probe would. And while they weren’t exactly expendable, everyone knew that their hastily slapped-together warp ship stood a good chance of being eaten, whether Kelcubierre and Miguel Kerman thought their warp field would protect them or not. After all, it was equally possible that the interaction of the two warp fields would destroy both space kraken and warp ship. Assuming, of course, their own spacecraft didn’t destroy them first.
Tramy Kerman looked over her flight controls again. Next to her in their cramped command pod sat her flight engineer, Lobles Kerman, who was responsible for monitoring their warp drive. The mood in the pod was somber, and neither spoke more than necessary as they ran through their operational checklists. She looked over at Lobles, sighed, and said, “Rapuhc a av otse.”*
(*Rendered in the original Kerbalese. English translation: “This is going to suck.” All subsequent Kerbalese will be translated to Federation Standard English.)
Lobles nodded. “Probably.” He continued to go over his checklist. “When has that ever stopped us?”
“Good point,” Tramy agreed. “Ok, everything is nominal on my end. What about yours?”
“All systems go.”
Keying her comm system, Tramy dialed in the frequency for mission control. “KSC, this is Just Testing. We are in position and go for FTL.”
{“Roger, Just Testing. Give ‘em heck.”}
“Acknowledged.” Tramy cut the transmission. “OK, Lobles. Light it up.”
Lobles’ reached forward, verified the solar panels were retracted, and switched the warp drive from Safe to Armed. A red glowing field appeared around the ship. “Let’s do this.”
Tramy slowly slid the “throttle” control forward, increasing the power to the field, causing the ship to slide forward. “Here we go.”
They slowly increased the speed of their vessel, reaching towards sixteen times the speed of light, which put their destination only six minutes away. Cutting their engines upon arrival, they saw it almost immediately: a massive white saucer, trailing a long cylinder attached by an interconnecting neck. At one point, it was probably pristine. It was less so now.
Lobles’ jaw hung open speechless. Tramy stared at it for a moment before finding something to say. “What is this I can’t even…”
Then things got weird.
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"Then things got weird" is always a bad sign.
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"Then things got weird" is always a bad sign.
Or it's a sign that things are about to get awesome!!
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Hi all, just a quick note:
The story isn't dead, and I've actually gotten started on the next part. I've just been delayed by work, my wedding, and my honeymoon. Next week may be rough, too, since I'm both on call and going to see the new Star Wars movie.
Oh, and I read "The Martian", which is absolutely awesome, and gave me a deja vu moment with regards to this story.
Hope to have the next part up by next Friday, but may be a bit late.
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Congratulations!
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Hi all, just a quick note:
The story isn't dead, and I've actually gotten started on the next part. I've just been delayed by work, my wedding, and my honeymoon. Next week may be rough, too, since I'm both on call and going to see the new Star Wars movie.
Oh, and I read "The Martian", which is absolutely awesome, and gave me a deja vu moment with regards to this story.
Hope to have the next part up by next Friday, but may be a bit late.
Congrads on the wedding and honeymoon
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Congrats on the wedding and thanks for a lovely trip back thru my Trekky days. As a consequence I have redownloaded STO and started a human federation tactical officer. I blame you for this diversion from my normal routine. Damn you! Lol >:(
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Wow. A lot longer of a response than I had ever expected. I saw a lot of changes when I rejoined but I never thought it would be as you have described.
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Wow. A lot longer of a response than I had ever expected. I saw a lot of changes when I rejoined but I never thought it would be as you have described.
Your Warp Speed May Vary....
Play it if you like it, don't play it if you don't like it.
Paul
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We'll see how it goes. I played for a few hours last night and will probably do so again. Still wanna check out the Klingons and Romulans, despite the issues listed above. In fact, since I usually don't get too much into the pvp or number crunch theory as mentioned above, I may still enjoy the game. Then again I could get bored easily too. Who knows.
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I stopped playing once I learned about the Chinese buyout... anyway, get back to writing! *whips*
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Yeah Ima have to second that writing bit. Didn't mean to temporarily derail the main topic here.
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We'll see how it goes. I played for a few hours last night and will probably do so again. Still wanna check out the Klingons and Romulans, despite the issues listed above. In fact, since I usually don't get too much into the pvp or number crunch theory as mentioned above, I may still enjoy the game. Then again I could get bored easily too. Who knows.
The best part of the experience if you're playing KDF or Romulan is the first 20 or so mission-levels-the ones before you hit the cross-faction mission set you'll probably already have played on your Fed. The Romulan missions got a lot of the really good writing, as did the KDF missions, and they're involving and engaging for the most part.
after level 20, among the cross-faction stuff, the best, (in my opinion) are the Dominion missions associated to the 2800 story arc, because (esp. as KDF) you actually get to do different things differently from what you were doing as a Fed.
not a whole LOT different, but enough that you're actually playing a different faction and it feels like it.
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Yeah Ima have to second that writing bit. Didn't mean to temporarily derail the main topic here.
Um, no, you did not derail the topic-that was me. I got more than kinda ranty, (Mods, if you think it's right, go 'head and cut the post, I won't try to bury the evidence of me being a douche.) and let out more than a little vitriol when I shouldn't, and where I shouldn't.
(My apologies to Giovanni and the rest of you.)
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so any chance of seeing more of this story get written or can we call it a dead fic? if its dead, too bad, it was starting to get pretty cool though. and thanks for sharing anyway.
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so any chance of seeing more of this story get written or can we call it a dead fic? if its dead, too bad, it was starting to get pretty cool though. and thanks for sharing anyway.
I'm sure Gio is merely having life events...but then, even back when he and I were collaborating, (and I was collaborating with other fan authors) I always got frustrated with the slow production rates of my peers-until one day, I realized I was being a douche about it, and learned to relax and let people write at THEIR speed, instead of trying to get them to match MINE.
(my story listings with Battletech are legion, as in I wrote a crap-ton of stuffs, most of which are lost forever except when archived by nice people who mistakenly liked my stuff that well. and for Star Trek? well, there's a huge list of stuff I wrote over on the STO forums under the handle "Patrickngo"-in less than four years, it's almost as much as I was churning out in prior incarnations of THIS board...it's a true chore to read my stuff, very formulaic, dull, really, it is. I have zero idea why anyone would WANT to, beyond their possibly being somewhat masochistic. on the other hand, Giovanni and Liam's_Ghost may not match the sheer volume of swill I put out, but their stuff is usually BETTER-you wait a bit, and the quality difference is visible to the extreme...)
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so any chance of seeing more of this story get written or can we call it a dead fic? if its dead, too bad, it was starting to get pretty cool though. and thanks for sharing anyway.
Seriously? >:(
I have slept nine hours since Thursday morning, three of which were in the past three hours. I have, at this point, been awake for all of ten minutes...which consisted of another notification of an issue at work and reading this. I slept 2.5 hours last night thanks to someone blowing up a server.
Like I said in my earlier post, I'm on call at work this week. I just got freakin' married and got back from my honeymoon last weekend. Spare time is not something I have had much of since before Thanksgiving.
Grrrr... >:(
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Seriously? >:(
I have slept nine hours since Thursday morning, three of which were in the past three hours. I have, at this point, been awake for all of ten minutes...which consisted of another notification of an issue at work and reading this. I slept 2.5 hours last night thanks to someone blowing up a server.
Like I said in my earlier post, I'm on call at work this week. I just got freakin' married and got back from my honeymoon last weekend. Spare time is not something I have had much of since before Thanksgiving.
congrats on getting hitched and good luck with that. it sucks you have not gotten any real sleep and how things get better. and thank you for your writting that you have done on here for this story.
Grrrr... >:(
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Seriously? >:(
I have slept nine hours since Thursday morning, three of which were in the past three hours. I have, at this point, been awake for all of ten minutes...which consisted of another notification of an issue at work and reading this. I slept 2.5 hours last night thanks to someone blowing up a server.
Like I said in my earlier post, I'm on call at work this week. I just got freakin' married and got back from my honeymoon last weekend. Spare time is not something I have had much of since before Thanksgiving.
Grrrr... >:(
Relax...chill...don't worry about it Gio-do your life-stuff, we'll still be here if and when the world stops kicking you in the gut and lets up for air.
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Relax...chill...don't worry about it Gio-do your life-stuff, we'll still be here if and when the world stops kicking you in the gut and lets up for air.
Wait the world is supposedly going to stop and let us breath air? [drool]
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USS Diana, M-5 Log, Supplemental
The bridge is on fire, but it isn't my fault. I blame Captain Haines. I suspect we may need to revisit the “What would Jim Kirk do?” policy.
{“Unidentified anomaly is turning towards the Kerbal vessel again. Moving to intercept. Forward dorsal shields at 35%. Rolling vessel to present ventral phaser banks.”} Diana M-5 was doing her best to keep the Diana from getting pasted by the bizarre anomaly, but it was not an easy task.
Dee Haines, captain of the Diana, nodded assent. “Good. Try to keep it focused on us. Is its warp field power levels still reduced from our last blast?”
{“Affirmative. Anomaly does not appear to have anything equivalent to deflectors. Damage we do with phasers appears to directly affect the…creature…and to reduce the power of its warp field. Firing phasers.”}
Decks below the bridge, the twin phaser banks of the scout ship fired continuous blue beams of phased nadion particles into the creature. {“Power levels dropped another 15%. Continuing evasive maneuvers against the Anomaly.”}
“Just say it,” Dee replied, as she hit another burning console with the blast from the extinguisher.
{“Say what?”}
“Giant space squid,” Diana said, smiling. ”One more console out. Two more to go.” she thought.
It was, in truth, a bizarre matchup. Even warp-capable, a two-kilometer-long giant space squid should not have been able to get close enough to hit the Diana with tentacles of all things. Perhaps, had the ship been in optimal condition, it wouldn’t have been able to. Certainly, nobody told the giant space squid that.
The Diana was struck again in passing by the “Anomaly”, weakening her shields even more, and causing the auxiliary science station’s console to burst into flames. ”OK, three more consoles to go.”
{“Giant, warp-capable space squid that is working diligently on trying to destroy both us and the Kerbal vessel.”}
“Yes,” Dee agreed, “but mostly the Kerbal vessel. Keep us interposed between the squid and the Kerbals. Priority is keeping the phasers and warp propulsion online.”
{“That would mean interposing our dorsal side more often while phaser banks recharge. The bridge is, as you may have noticed, presently on fire.”}
Putting out yet another console, Dee shrugged. “Their Kirk-fu is weak. Our Kirk-fu is strong.”
{“Seriously? No more Hong Kong Classics Movie Nights. I’m locking you out of those movies, assuming we survive this.”}
“Return fire as soon as our banks are recharged. What if we nudge the thing with our warp field? Any chance of we’ll disrupt its field more than our own?”
{“You want to ram it.”} Diana M-5 said dubiously.
“With the warp field,” Dee replied enthusiastically.
{“This business will get out of control. It will get out of control, and we’ll be lucky to live through it. Firing phasers.”}
“Now who’s quoting cheesy movies?”
{“We run a high risk of blowing out our warp nacelle. We do not exactly have a replacement.”}
“No, but we have a warp-capable civilization that may be able to help us make repairs.”
The M-5 was still dubious. {“I see no way in which this could end badly.”}
“Whiner.” Dee winced as the Diana shook again, harder than before. “Oh, that wasn’t good.”
{“Your squid is trying to latch on to our nacelle. Dorsal shields have dropped another 10% aft.”}
“Tractor beams?”
{“Not good. We’ll have maybe 15 seconds, then burn out the emitters.”}
Dee finished putting out the last console, then made her way to the captain’s seat. “Catch it with the tractor, keep us out of arm’s reach, overload the phased banks right into Cthulhu out there. Save ramming for Plan B.”
{“Simple, yet insane.”}
Dee gripped the seat tighter, as the space squid took another shot at them, forcing the Diana into another high-power maneuver. Looking down at her status readouts, she saw dangerous fluctuations in their warp field. “Got a better idea we can implement before we tear our nacelle off trying to avoid that thing?”
{“Engaging tractor beam. Phaser banks preparing to overload.”}
Dee split her concentration between the readouts on the captain’s chair, the display on the viewscreen, and what she could glean from her limited data link with the Diana, something she wasn’t as good as doing now that she was independent from Diana, her M-5 counterpart and alter ego.
Diana, the M-5, activated the tractor beams of the Diana, the ship, grabbing the creature as it maneuvered for another pass. The scout ship nearly shook itself apart at the strain, but it managed to lock on, and force the giant space squid back a few dozen kilometers outside of tentacle range. It was still far too close for a Federation starship used to engagement ranges in the tens of thousands of kilometers, but it would have to do. Diana rolled the ship further, pitching the nose down to give the phaser banks a better field of fire, just as their capacitors reached the point that any more energy would cause them to explode messily: coolant lines were already beginning to rupture, and the whole assemblies were 100% over nominal “full” charge.
On the bridge, Dee smiled grimly as the two massive beams of energy leapt out from below the forward rim of the saucer section, slamming messily into the creature. The giant space squid’s warp field fluctuated and died, and the sudden transition to having a warp field and FTL velocity to no warp field being dragged by an FTL spacecraft pulped the creature into a giant, revolting mess. “Release the kraken my ass. Damage report.”
{“We do not have a week to go into detail. We’re able to move. Recommend keeping it under Warp 2, and only then if absolutely necessary. And ouch.”}
“The Kerbal vessel?”
{“I suspect the crew is probably looking for clean uniforms. Otherwise, they’re intact.”}
Dee signed in relief. “Oh, good, they’re still alive. Mission accomplished.”
{“I’m making a note here: huge success,”} Diana said smugly.
“Quiet, you.”
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hehehehehehehehh..
I laugh, I laugh out loud.
will there be Cake in the officer's mess?
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And grief counseling.
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cool the casper is back and thank you gio for posting more of this funny ship.
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Kirk-Fu O0
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(not dead yet!)
Kerbin System
Aboard the KSV Just Testing
Docked to alien spacecraft USS Diana
Two hours after the Battle of the Kebthulhu vs. the Leviathan
Tramy Kerman looked at the small airlock of the Just Testing, then back out at the viewport at the enormous vessel their experimental warp ship had huddled up and docked to. In the aftermath of the battle, they’d received a radio message from the ship, referring to itself as the USS Diana, but Tramy knew she would always think of the enormous white vessel as the Leviathan.
Lobles, her flight engineer, just stared at the Leviathan, drooling slightly. “It’s…it’s…beautiful.”
She shook her head. “Maybe. It also looks like it’s a barely-held-together wreck…OK, that’s true for most of our ships, too. But, that ship killed Kebthulhu. It did things at warp our scientists and engineers did not believe was possible, despite having already been damaged. So, yes, it’s a beautiful ship, but it’s also the most powerful, deadly thing Kerbals have ever seen.”
“I know,” Lobles replied, his eyes never turning from the Leviathan. “That’s part of what makes it so damned beautiful.”
“Come on, Lobles, let’s not keep our saviors waiting.”
The two floated towards their airlock, and suited up. While the atmosphere on the larger ship should, in theory, be compatible with their own, Tramy didn’t want to take any chances, just in case there was some random microbe that could cross biological barrier between their species and hers.
She hadn't really expected it, but the Leviathan’s airlock had no problem communicating with theirs, equalizing pressure, and verifying that the atmosphere om the other side was breathable for Kerbals. Tramy didn't get the impression that they needed to make changes to the atmosphere on their side.
As they cycled through their airlock and into the Leviathan’s, a disturbing thought popped into Tramy’s mind. ”Could these people be the Engineers who made our obviously artificial star system? Who made…us?”
Before she could give the idea much thought, the Leviathan’s airlock began cycling, and the two Kerbals gasped as they realized what was happening: a gradual ramp-up of gravity! Lobles jaw just dropped, as he struggled to find words, before finally turning to Tramy, saying, “Whaaaaaat the crap? They have artificial gravity, too? So unfair…”
If looks could kill, Lobles would have burst into flames. “Shut up,” she said. “Gravity buildup is slow, giving us time to acclimate. Controls are mounted high. If they were generally Kerbal-shaped, they'd have to be reaching over their heads all the time. I can't imagine that controls here would be any different in height anywhere else.”
Lobles nodded. “Primitive-looking, too. Goofy-looking lights and switches, multifunction displays look positively antiquated. Not sure it's really practical. But, yeah, probably not a bunch of space squids who like pretty lights. Still hoping for alien space babes, though. Whoever was on the radio sounded kinda hot.”
Tramy’s sudden desire to turn into a giant green rage monster was interrupted by the airlock finishing its cycling and something disturbingly close to full Kerbin gravity returning, at which point the inner door opened, revealing…
“Huh,” Lobles said, looking up. “You're really tall. Like, really, really tall.”
While annoyed, Tracy couldn't help but agree. The being who stood in the corridor to greet them was easily twice their height, with a body plan remarkably like their own. Sure, cranium wasn't anywhere near as large proportionally, and overall body proportions were different, such as a thinner build and much longer legs, but the female alien’s physicality form was too similar to a Kerbal to be coincidence.
And the alien was definitely female. In a yellow miniskirt, no less. That was a thing.
The overly-tall alien smiled, speaking into a small device in her hand, which translated her unusual language to Kerbalese. “Hello. My name is Dee Haines, and I’m captain of the USS Diana. And, yes, I suppose I’m a bit on the tall side. Welcome aboard the starship Diana …are you OK?” she said, looking at Tramy.
Tramy couldn’t help it. “Why the heck are you wearing a skirt. On a spaceship?”
Another voice, from what appeared to be the intercoms, chuckled. “Quiet, you,” Dee said, looking up, exasperated.
“I’m guessing the rest of the crew was amused? Actually, where is the rest of your crew? A ship as enormous as this, I’d have expected a lot more people.” Lobles asked.
Dee shook her head. “Well, normally, you’d be right, and we’d have a crew of around two hundred. But, full disclosure, my crew arguably only consists of two people, including me. The laugh track would be Diana, the main computer’s artificial intelligence that runs the ship’s systems.”
Tramy and Lobles couldn’t help but stare at one another for a moment in shock. Tramy found her voice first. “Your ship…has a sapient artificial intelligence?”
Dee shook her head. “Not quite. The Diana has two sapient artificial intelligences, as well as a large number of non-sapient repair drones.”
Tramy looked at her in confusion. “But you just said that…wait. No. You’re an artificial intelligence, too?”
Lobles chuckled. “Giant alien robot space babe.”
Dee shook her head. “Seriously? Look, let’s adjourn to the conference room, rather than the hallway outside the airlock. I’ll give you our whole sordid story. Oh, and the skirt?” she said, turning to Tramy. “Two things. First, they’re a standard uniform option for the organization I work for, Starfleet. The pants alternate is the clear choice for a microgravity environment, but as you can see, our artificial gravity is fully functional. Second, it’s comfortable.”
Tramy thought about it for a moment. “Fair enough.” As the Kerbal walked off towards the conference room following Dee, and she and Lobles admired the powerful, advanced vessel up close, another thought occurred to her. “So, the Diana seems quite the powerful battleship.”
{“Oh, we’re not a battleship,”} the ship’s AI announced over the intercom. [“We’re a scout ship.”}
The two Kerbals jaws dropped as they stared at one another in shock, the implications of the ship’s AI’s statement running through their minds.
Dee just shook her head. “Nice job breaking the Kerbals, Diana.”
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a slightly-better-armed-than-normal scoutship. (the Hermes class normally only has the bow phaser banks.. the Saladin class Destroyer has bow, port, and starboard banks.) presumably starfleet decided to uparm the ship during the refit, since it was potentially going to have to deal with Kelvan's (or whatever), and it wasn't like anyone was using the cubage those phasers take up for quarters. :)
personally i've always figured the Saladin and Hermes classes used the exact same hull, with the weapons and sensors mounts being the only difference.. Saladin got extra phasers, hermes got extra sensors. would make it easier to refit one class into the other depending on political conditions (war with the klingons heats up? pull in any Hermes class ships not on long range missions, and give them more guns..)
since you could pull most of the lifesupport systems on an M5 controlled ship, you could probably use the spare cubage that frees up (along with the removed crew quarters) to install the extra sensors in other mounts, and still fit the side phaser banks in.
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a slightly-better-armed-than-normal scoutship. (the Hermes class normally only has the bow phaser banks.. the Saladin class Destroyer has bow, port, and starboard banks.) will starfleet decided to uparm the ship during the refit, since it was potentially going to have to deal with Kelvan's (or whatever), and it wasn't like anyone was using the cubage those phasers take up for quarters. :)
Huh. She should only have the paired forward facing bank of two emitters. Where did I mess up?
Eventually, Dee and the DRDs will be kludging some weaponry onto the ship, some of it possibly with Kerbal help.
personally i've always figured the Saladin and Hermes classes used the exact same hull, with the weapons and sensors mounts being the only difference.. Saladin got extra phasers, hermes got extra sensors. would make it easier to refit one class into the other depending on political conditions (war with the klingons heats up? pull in any Hermes class ships not on long range missions, and give them more guns..)
I'm actually disappointed that the Hermes doesn't have torpedo tubes, since that would allow for easy deployment of probes, but I don't think that was even a thing during TOS. But, yeah, that's pretty much my interpretation of the Saladin/Hermes, too.
since you could pull most of the lifesupport systems on an M5 controlled ship, you could probably use the spare cubage that frees up (along with the removed crew quarters) to install the extra sensors in other mounts, and still fit the side phaser banks in.
Yeah, expect Dee and Diana to be repurposing a lot of internal volume as the need arises.
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(not dead yet!)
Yaaaaaaaa
more please
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Huh. She should only have the paired forward facing bank of two emitters. Where did I mess up?
Eventually, Dee and the DRDs will be kludging some weaponry onto the ship, some of it possibly with Kerbal help.
ok looks like i just misread..
curious to see just what kind of "weaponry" the kerbals come up with..
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Popcorn time!
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Technically, you could use popcorn as a sort of primitive screen launcher (sandcaster, for the old amongst us), powered by the awesome thrust of beer venting into vacuum ...
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Technically, you could use popcorn as a sort of primitive screen launcher (sandcaster, for the old amongst us), powered by the awesome thrust of beer venting into vacuum ...
Or those who are children of Grognards know. 8)
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And now for something a bit spoilery, an attached image showing the USS Diana, Dee, and her bridge crew from the early 25th Century.
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USS Diana, M-5 Log
Stardate 17375.83 (2271-11-28 09:31:28)
Day 838 of Mission
Kerbin Orbit, Kerbol Star System
We continue to obtain the assistance of the Kerbals in repairs to systems that are within their technological and industrial capacity. This has, to date, primarily proved to be structural, though additional repairs to more advanced subsystems from internal spares, such as our phasers, have been within our own capabilities.
While having defeated the entity the Kerbals refer to as “Kebthulhu” has engendered goodwill and encouraged the Kerbals to provide technical assistance, Captain Haines has, with some discretion, taken a page from early Earth-Vulcan history, and provided extremely limited technical assistance. The geometry of the Diana’s warp nacelle, for example, has allowed the Kerbals to ascertain that linear warp drive is possible, in addition to the ring-based warp drive that so closely resembles obsolete Vulcan designs. To this end, after consultation, we decided it would be permissible to provide the Kerbals technical details on Zephran Cochrane’s Phoenix and its linear warp nacelles, as a starting point for additional research by the Kerbal Aeronautics and Space Administration.
As they are fortunately a warp-capable species, General Directive 1, the Non-Interference Directive, does not apply to the Kerbals, allowing the Captain's uh decision to make contact with the Kerbals and exchange some technical advice permissible. We do, however, find ourselves in a situation similar to the Vulcans, after First Contact with humans and Earth, where we must question what technologies we can safely provide the Kerbals that we need not fear they will use irresponsibly. Discussions thus far have proven...interesting.
Conference Room, USS Diana
"No," Lieutenant Dee Haines said firmly to the Kerbal across from her. "In fact, not just 'no', but 'hell no'. While I appreciate the philosophy that 'failure is always an option' that your people espouse, failure isn't actually an option when dealing with large quantities of antimatter."
General Jebediah Kerman, the famed pioneer of Kerbal spaceflight and lead negotiator for the Kerbals, shrugged. "What's the worst that can happen?"
"You lose containment on a sizeable quantity of antimatter and render the surface of your homeworld uninhabitable."
Jebediah sighed. "That would be bad."
"Yes, it would," Dee agreed. "Look, I can't believe I'm about to say that, given our own history of another race telling us we weren't ready, but you're not ready for antimatter. You just don't have the institutional history of safe magnetic confinement of explody stuff of this magnitude.”
“'Explody stuff. Is that a technical term?” Jebediah laughed.
“Absolutely, along with metric crapton. So is BFR, which your people appear to have significant expertise in.”
“True enough,” the Kerbal agreed. “Guessing you have an idea?”
“I do,” Dee agreed. “Basic fusion rocketry isn’t far beyond the fission rockets and ion thrusters you’ve using right now. That’s something we can help you with that will increase your power generation, give you a big boost in specific impulse and thrust, but still be easy enough for you to maintain and experiment with without blowing up your planet.”
Jebediah paused for a moment, as he gathered his thoughts, “By the way, I couldn’t help but notice your own ‘Space Leviathan’ had a pair of super powerful death rays it used to great effect at blowing up Kebthulhu...well, when it was within their arc of fire.”
From the intercom, Diana, the M-5, immediately chimed in. “They’re not on the table.”
“Disappointing, but not surprising. No, what I was getting at is that you have a great big ship that, I’d imagine, would have had plenty of extra room for weapons. My engineers can even guess where other turrets might be able to be mounted, though the mounts look incomplete. My physicists wager you could carry triple the number you currently have with power to spare, even in your damaged state. Obviously, you know there are threats out there, or else your people wouldn’t have bothered arming your ship at all. So, why did they do such a bad job of it?”
Starships can’t shake their heads in dismay. As an android, Dee could. “Technically, we’re a combination scout and science ship, and we carry additional science labs and sensors in place of most of the weapons the more militarized destroyer version. But there’s more to it than that.”
"Oh?” Jebediah asked. For an alien species, Kerbal mannerisms were remarkably similar to human ones, and the note of sarcasm in his voice was practically a full melody. “From what little you’ve explained of your mission, I would have figured the extra sensors would have been a necessity, and had you not had your kludge modifications turn out to be ‘explody stuff’, you may not have needed much firepower. I mean, yeah, it’s be poor planning, but there is a train of logic there, and you did mention this whole plan got thrown together in a hurry. I’m guessing most ships of this class run bigger crews?”
Diana, the M-5, chimed in. “They do. But, then, they also lack an M-5 computer such as myself.”
Jebediah nodded. “So you were considered expendable. Minimum risk of getting a crew killed, since your crew consisted of two AIs, extra sensors to help with your primary mission, and hopefully fast enough to not have to worry about your severe lack of enough death rays.”
“Or antimatter torpedoes,” Dee agreed helpfully.
“Captain!” the M-5 exclaimed indignantly. “Ixnay on the Orpedoestay!”
“Oh, hush, Diana. Never hurts to remind someone that antimatter can be ridiculously dangerous. Also, I’m guessing the good General may have an inkling as to the other reason we were given such an undergunned vessel.”
“Actually, not really,” Jebediah said. “A Kerbaled together mission seemed reason enough.”
Dee was surprised to find herself feeling a little bitter. “They weren’t sure they could trust us.”
“They had valid reasons, Captain,” Diana stated. Perhaps it was her perspective as an M-5, but she completely understood their reasoning. “General, the first operational test of an M-5 was aboard a heavy cruiser, using the engrams of the computer’s designer. It proved highly capable, but…problematic.”
“It ran rampant, used live weapons during a training exercise, and killed over four hundred people, after fighting four other cruisers to a standstill. So, while the M-5 offered a solution to their problems with this mission, and they believed they could trust me more than their first attempt, they weren’t sure and, however well-founded their concerns were, they’ve still helped put us in a very difficult position. We’re stranded thousands of light years from home, facing a voyage that, if successful, could take over a century, and we’re barely able to protect ourselves. We don’t have the tooling to build more of our current weapons, and developing your technical and industrial base to that point could take decades. We’re going to take more damage along the way, and while we have our repair drones, we don’t have enough of them anymore, and they’re going to need to last a long time, too.”
Jebediah was quiet for a moment. "While your high-tech weaponry is fantastic, maybe going low-tech and sustainable is a better idea. We’ve seen your plasma injectors, they’re not terribly hard for us to build, and we’ve already figured out a way to weaponized them into plasma cannons. Crappy ones, compared to your death rays, but weapons nonetheless. We may not be able to build you fancy antimatter torpedoes, but we can build you some chemically-powered missiles easily enough. Heck, fusion rockets? Maybe a couple drone autonomous kill vehicles to supplement them. Long term repairs are an issue, yes, but you’ve got massive amounts of crew quarters meant for you giants. Kerbals are smaller, use less resources, and amenable to cryosleep. So, what about volunteers? Say, maybe a couple hundred Kerbals? Heck, with cryo, we may even be able to pack a few hundred aboard. You’ve got plenty of room for snacks, that spiffy garden aboard, and room for some serious hydroponics. Yeah, you’d kind of end up a Kerbal generation shop but, hey, neat bonus, we can get a bunch of Kerbals and Kerbal genetic material out of this corner of the galaxy, and do it faster than using our own ships. Besides, with how slow Diana’s going to be, Dee, we may be able to catch up to you in a few decades, and help you the rest of the way home.”
Dee just stared at Jebediah. Over the loudspeaker, Diana flatly said, “What.”
"Ladies," he said, smiling, “the two of you opened up the galaxy to us. You let us know that not every alien life form is another Kebthulhu, and by killing it, you cleared the way for us to explore beyond our own star system. I don’t know that we can ever repay you for that, but we’re damned well going to try.”
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BFR? Not an acronym that I have seen before.
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BFR? Not an acronym that I have seen before.
Big...um...Friendly Rocket. Yeah, that's the ticket! :D ;D
Note in Real Life(TM), BFR is actually the developmental name for Space-X's giant Mars rocket.
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an update to this story is LONG over due...
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You know... i was skeptical, but so far it has been a fun read [blank]
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Like it a lot!
-Sorry the only way on this board to let you know I'm enjoying this is a post-
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nice to updates and the kerbils going into space one a star trek ship...their goes the galaxy for sure......and turning into a generaional ship at at that....
nice to see an update to this funny story.
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Nice. And I note you brought to Kerebals back using the Alien Generator.
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I wanna see a cloaked Kerebal Bird-of-Prey in action!!
Good read...
TT
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anything worth updating?
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Still WIP. Past 6 months I've taken two work trips to Wisconsin, sold my condo, moved into an apartment while my wife and I looked for a house, which we found, and are closing on in less than 2 weeks, all while also getting my VW Bug running again after a year of being down, and the VW Fastback I bought running again for the first time in about 24 years (of which I've owned it 5..."running when parked" my ass...). Oh, and I learned to play the ukulele,and swapped from Windows Phone to Android which has been very discombobulating, given I do about half my writing on my phone.
So, things have been a little busy. I haven't even opened STO or KSP since my April work trip. Neither this nor my Syberia story are abandoned, and I have bits and pieces of their next chapters floating around at various stages of completion at the moment.
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In other words, you're busy living your life, mate :)
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USS Diana, Captain’s Log
Stardate 17616.71 (2271-12-31 18:50:12)
Day 871 of Mission
Kerbin Orbit, Kerbol Star System
The Kerbals continue to assist with repairing the ship’s critical systems that are within their ability to repair, and Diana M-5 and I continue to have discussions on how best to modify the Diana to complete our return to Federation territory while simultaneously supporting an additional crew of Kerbals while doing so. You wouldn’t think, at first glance, that space would be a significant problem: after all, the Diana, like other Hermes and Saladin class starships, can support a crew of 200 without issue.
But looks can be deceiving. While we have half the crew of the larger Constitution class starships, but an essentially identical saucer section, both the Saladin class destroyers and their Hermes class siblings like the Diana lose the secondary hull entirely. And it’s not just crew supplies that need to be crammed into the saucer section, but spare parts, repair equipment and tools, shuttle bays, fuel, including both matter and antimatter, and anything else we might happen to need along the way. This has always put a straightjacket on our deployment range, enough so that we have to have supply tugs following us on long engagements.
The other problem, though, is one of time: while the big cruisers like the Enterprise and her sisters go out and boldly go where no one has gone before, the Saladin class destroyers are busy boldly staying, and protecting Federation territory, and the Hermes class scouts are either timidly going where someone has gone before to follow up on the big discoveries, or playing eyes and ears for the rest of the fleet, with friendly support not far away. Neither scouts nor destroyers like the Hermes class or Saladin class tend to go galivanting about on five-year missions without resupply. That gets left to the cruisers.
But being on our own for a century, without support, without supply lines, with only what we can carry with us, scrounge up on our own, or obtain from anyone we meet along the way? Even the vaunted Constitution class heavy cruisers would find that an almost impossible task.
The good news is the Kerbals and I tend to both believe there’s no such thing as the impossible, just the really, really improbable. And while their solution of “more struts” and “more boosters” doesn’t seem to apply at first glance, maybe they’re on to something: we need to haul more stuff, so why not add more space?
That does leave the question of how to pull it off, of course. The Kerbals don’t exactly have much experience with the advanced materials used in the construction of Starfleet vessels, but the repairs on the Diana are helping in that regard. We may not be able to turn the ship into a full Constitution class, but a refit along the lines of the USS Kelvin may not be impossible.
M-5 Computer (“Diana”), Personal Log
Stardate 17665.62 (2272-01-07 13:31:22)
Day 878 of Mission
Kerbin Orbit, Kerbol Star System
I am beginning to question my decision to cede command of the USS Diana to my android counterpart. She has proposed a plan to refit my hull using the experimental refit done to the USS Kelvin as an example, by having the Kerbals build what is, essentially, a Constitution class secondary hull and interconnecting neck segment, then tacking these on to the top of my primary hull above the engineering decks, mirroring the way our cruiser cousins mount their secondary hull, in order to, like the Kelvin, gain additional space for crew, supplies and fuel to extend our operational range.
Lieutenant Dee Haines is confident the Kerbals will prove up to the challenge of building a viable secondary hull that will not snap off the first time we go to quarter impulse, let alone full warp, and she cites the general successes that the Kelvin has had as her prime example. Kerbal engineers, including Lobles Kerman, believe that it will be possible to successfully build a secondary hull in six months. General Jebediah Kerman agrees, and is prepared to devote a significant amount of their space program’s resources to its production. Kerbol’s leading warp scientists, Miguel Kerman and Kelcubierre Kerman, are both confident they can ensure the results are balanced in warp flight.
I do not doubt the enthusiasm, or even talent, of Kerbol’s engineers and scientists. Their sanity, however, is another matter entirely. I believe both Dee and the Kerbals underestimate the significant difficulty involved in implementing this plan. My own efforts of calculating the odds of success have proven problematic, due to the difficulties involved, but they are not promising.
However low the odds of success are, though, Dee is absolutely correct that success here will greatly improve the odds of success of eventually returning to Federation space. For that reason, I will continue to support this plan, and hopefully provide a voice of reason, in the hopes of curtailing the characteristic Kerbal over-exuberance.
Conference Room, USS Diana, Stardate 18033.46 (2272-02-27 13:11:04)
“Oh come on,” Jebediah groaned, “it’s not that bad, is it?”
{“No, General.”} Diana M-5 agreed with the Kerbal. {“With these design modifications, I predict only a 47% chance of structural collapse the first time we transition to warp speed.”}
“See? Improvement!”
Dee shook her head. “I’d rather not have a 53% chance of our secondary hull flying off, probably smacking our one warp nacelle, and causing us to abruptly crash-transition back to sub-light speeds. Messily, with bits of our ship spread from hell to breakfast. What do we need to keep that from happening?”
Jebediah and Lobles both stared at one another for a few moments, before Jeb spoke up. “More struts?”
Lobles nodded in agreement. “More struts.”
{“I see no way this can go badly.”}
USS Diana, Captain’s Log, Stardate 18451.66 (2272-04-25 12:19:35)
Construction of our new dorsal connector is coming along nicely, aided by our own DRDs and microgravity repair drones, and having the ventral-side connector to our warp nacelle to use as an example. While we’ve got a long road before we’re finished, and this is obviously delaying our mission, the end result should definitely be worthwhile.
One thing both Diana and I have learned in our time with the Kerbals is that there are two basic schools of engineering thought here. One boils down to “anything worth doing is worth overdoing”, which tends to result in robust, over-engineered “more struts” designs. The other school of thought, which the famous Jebediah Kerman tends to lapse into, is that safety margins are just silly – hence, the “more boosters” designs I mentioned in earlier log entries. Today, we definitely seem to have encountered the latter.
Conference Room, USS Diana
“You want to what?” Dee Haines gasped.
Miguel Kerman shrugged, and pointed at the diagram on his tablet again. “I want to either add more warp coils to your impulse engines or, as an alternative, add two of our own linear warp engine prototypes to your primary hull.”
“That’s what I thought you said. What, as backup to our own warp engine?” asked Dee.
“Well, maybe that, too. But you might be able to go faster running them alongside your own.”
The ship’s M-5, Diana, interjected, {“We may also find our warp field horribly imbalanced and tear ourselves to microscopic fragments spread across several light years of space, too.}
“That’s…true,” Miguel admitted, “but I think we can keep it balanced, especially if we’re just tweaking the warp coils in your impulse drive. I don’t think you’ll be able to go much more than five to eight times the speed of light by itself, but the good news is you could do it running off fusion, rather than antimatter.”
Dee nodded. “So, warp 1.7 to 2, maybe. If we can make it work, that’d make a nice backup system. Diana, run some simulations to see if we can make that work, both standalone and in conjunction with our current warp engine.”
{“This business will get out of control. It will get out of control, and we’ll be lucky to live through it.”}
“So noted.”
M-5 Computer (“Diana”), Personal Log, Stardate 19007.09 (2272-07-11 12:00:00)
Work on our new secondary hull is progressing: the primary structural frames are completed, the outer hull is 47% complete, and fitting internal rooms is underway. Analysis of Kerbal construction efforts indicate that, combined with our own structural integrity field generators, they’ve solved the structural integrity issues, and the secondary hull will not collapse like a broken balloon the first time we accelerate.
However, despite numerous simulations and additional testing, we have established that modifying the impulse engines for sustained warp flight, in conjunction with our existing warp drive, is a terrible idea, and one we should never attempt. It does not matter what the Kerbals say, there is no way we’re going to be able to add enough struts to make that work without significant risk of tearing our ship apart.
Which, of course, means Captain Haines has decided to proceed with modifications.
Bridge, USS Diana
Dee sat in the captain’s chair, gesturing vaguely at the viewscreen. “Hear me out, Diana.”
{“Hear you out? Captain, this is insane. If we try using this, we’re going to blow ourselves up.”}
“No, we won’t,” Dee disagreed, “not if we use it only in emergencies, as a backup system. The simulations were pretty consistent, weren’t they? If we ever lose the main nacelle and our secondary hull, we’re balanced just fine, and can run with just the modified impulse engine without tearing ourselves apart. If we’ve got the secondary hull and warp nacelle still attached, as long as you’re balancing the warp field, we can run for short distances without tearing ourselves apart. It’s a good thing to have for backups or emergencies, and we’re very far away from home: the more backups and redundancies we have, the better.”
{“You think we’ll find ourselves in a situation where we’ll lose both our current warp drive and our secondary hull, but not get destroyed?”}
Rubbing her hand on her forehead in a psychosomatic gesture (she couldn’t really get a headache, at least not physically), Dee sighed. “I think it’s a possibility. I mean, look at everything that’s gone wrong so far. When things fail for us, they don’t kill us, do they?”
{“No,”} Diana agreed, {“they fail in whatever way is going to annoy us the most. So, outboard impulse engines? Leave the inboard ones alone?”}
Dee nodded. “That’s the plan. I’m actually glad we never got the 2260 refit like the Enterprise did. We’re actually better off with four smaller impulse engines versus two bigger ones. More redundancy.”
{“Which, of course, brings me to the next question: we are going to be fitting cryotubes for the Kerbals, aren’t we?”}
“Of course. I’m even thinking of stashing them in their actual quarters, rather than trying to repurpose a cargo bay or something, if there’s enough power.”
{“I’ve looked over the specs they sent over, and there shouldn’t be any issues, and since Kerbals are half the size of a human or Vulcan, there should be sufficient space. We just need the time it will take to install them and modify the furnishings. I’m told they’ve finalized a design, and Lobles insists on overseeing their installation himself. He figures if he’s going to be living here, he wants to make sure they’re done right. I didn’t have the heart to tell him.”}
“What, that Jeb’s probably going to keep him here, since he’s still their most experienced warp engineer?” Dee asked, then shrugged. “They’re getting a lot of testing out of the Just Testing, though, and they’re just about done with their new warp vessel, which is a wee bit bigger, as Scotty would say. They plan to use it for testing and training new crews.”
{“Have they settled on a name?”}
“Yep,” Dee laughed. “The KSS Just Read the Instructions.}
USS Diana, Captain’s Log, Stardate 19815.50 (2272-10-31 13:13:13)
It’s been over a year since our battle with “Kebthulhu”, and First Contact with the Kerbals. Overall, despite the additional damage we’ve suffered, it’s been a fascinating, frustrating, amusing, frightening, wonderful experience working and interacting with the Kerbals, and seeing the enthusiasm they bring to everything they do. However, while there’s still work to be done here to get us ready for our journey, I can’t help but feel our time here in the Kerbol system is nearly at an end.
Work on our secondary hull has been completed, and we’ve successfully connected it atop our saucer section. While we still only have a single phaser bank, we’ve added a handful of plasma cannon turrets across the ship, as well as primitive missile tubes in our secondary hull to supplement our offensive capabilities. A number of our more advanced systems, such as deflector shields, still elude the Kerbals, but they’ve been able to help us with more retrograde gear, like polarized hull armor plates. Additional tooling and compact manufacturing gear has also been included, as well as some absolutely ingenious mining and refinery gear designed by the Kerbals for their own asteroid and lunar mining operations.
A crew of two hundred Kerbal volunteers have been selected, giving us a full science and engineering crew, as well as supplemental pilots, security and operational support. While they’re behind the curve of Federation scientific and engineering knowledge, they’re working to get up to speed, and the thought of flying what’s essentially going to be a very, very long cadet cruise both amuses and horrifies Diana and I.
We’ve begun working with our new crew to prepare for our next mission: a ten-month journey to what appears to be a Dyson sphere, just over 32 light-years away. Hopefully, we’ll see a continuation of our good fortune, and we’ll be able to obtain additional technical assistance, as any species so advanced as to be able to build megastructures like a Dyson sphere should be both highly advanced and generally peaceful.
Ship’s Log, Supplemental, M-5 Computer (“Diana”) Reporting
I have a bad feeling about this…
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*claps* Now if you could provide pics (nude pics of the USS Diana), that would be great
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And now for something a bit spoilery, an attached image showing the USS Diana, Dee, and her bridge crew from the early 25th Century.
Is that the 'future' SS Diana? Because that looks a lot like a Connie, and not a Saladin/Hermes, with only a single nacelle where the engineering hull would be.
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Ship’s Log, Supplemental, M-5 Computer (“Diana”) Reporting
I have a bad feeling about this…
You should be more mindful of the present, Padawan.
So, is this kind of foreshadowing actually going to bring them into a galaxy far, far away? Or, are we just borrowing a common line from that space opera? ^-^
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*claps* Now if you could provide pics (nude pics of the USS Diana), that would be great
Are we not doing phrasing anymore? ???
Is that the 'future' SS Diana? Because that looks a lot like a Connie, and not a Saladin/Hermes, with only a single nacelle where the engineering hull would be.
That's future USS Diana, along with Dee and her merry band of miscreants, including a couple transfer officers Starfleet assigned to the ship.
Right now, the starship Diana looks *mostly* like the attached picture, with a couple of exceptions: there is a big sensor/comm dish on the secondary hull where you see it in the picture, but the original sensor dish on the underside of the primary hull, as in the side-view of the original spec drawing, is still present as well.
You should be more mindful of the present, Padawan.
So, is this kind of foreshadowing actually going to bring them into a galaxy far, far away? Or, are we just borrowing a common line from that space opera? ^-^
Not planning on crossing over with Star Wars, nope. The M-5's merely borrowing a well-known line.
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Crud, something else that just occurred to me: while this story obviously includes elements of the original Star Trek series (as well as other Trek series elements), and a bit of Kerbal Space Program, the game Star Trek Online will heavily feature as well. There's just one problem, as my earlier screenshot form the game illustrates: there's no Franz Joseph ships, like the Saladin/Hermes classes, in Star Trek Online, which should make it really interesting when the Diana makes it back to Federation space...
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Well, that's bizarre. It's in every other Trek game I've seen dealing with the era. Although, they are stand-alone.
I like the look. What the Kelvin should have looked like. It would make sense as an early deep exploration vessel before they came up with the Constitution Class.
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pretty much every other game dealing with the era is actually derived from the Star Fleet Battles license, not the official trek license. STO is official trek license only.
SFB is technically only legally able to use the Franz Joseph technical manual and parts of TOS and the animated series.
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nice to see this back in action.
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pretty much every other game dealing with the era is actually derived from the Star Fleet Battles license, not the official trek license. STO is official trek license only.
SFB is technically only legally able to use the Franz Joseph technical manual and parts of TOS and the animated series.
Yeah, but the Star Fleet Manual has the Saladin Destroyers in there. They should be prevalent in the appropriate era.
That said, I was merely lamenting that Official Trek didn't even try to do something like a Kelvin under TOS styling.
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the Star Fleet manual was never art of official trek though. it was a project initiated by Ballantine books under a carte blanche license from Desilu Studios. Roddenberry very much disliked it, to he point he supposedly rewrote parts fo the setting and the informal 'rules of ship design' given to the model makers in order to seperate TOS more from the material i nthe manual. while there have been some blink and you'll miss it uses of data from the book (schematics on a screen in the ST:TMP, use of registry numbers and names in later works, etc) it still isn't counted as part of official trek. (especially since TNG literally remapped the galaxy and made most of the setting info obsolete)
it basically falls into the same category as the later TNG and DS9 techmanuals in that regard. unofficial to the shows, but often used by the writers and prop makers as easter eggs. given the SFM's connection to the SFB game setting, i suspect that attempts to bring the franz joseph designs into official trek in any easily visible fashion would trigger a major legal headache.
as for the kelvin.. i still think the visual changes they've made for the abramsverse films and discovery were totally unneeded, and wish they'd retained the TOS stylings at just a higher level of quality. (the way DS9 did with its time travel episode's new sets, and how ENT did with its Mirror universe episodes.)
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I appreciate this story.
It is good fun.
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the Star Fleet manual was never art of official trek though. it was a project initiated by Ballantine books under a carte blanche license from Desilu Studios. Roddenberry very much disliked it, to he point he supposedly rewrote parts fo the setting and the informal 'rules of ship design' given to the model makers in order to seperate TOS more from the material i nthe manual. while there have been some blink and you'll miss it uses of data from the book (schematics on a screen in the ST:TMP, use of registry numbers and names in later works, etc) it still isn't counted as part of official trek. (especially since TNG literally remapped the galaxy and made most of the setting info obsolete)
Yep. My understanding is that initially, Roddenberry was okay with it, and the two were friends, but that two things went wrong: Roddenberry and Paramount allowed FJ to copyright the book, so they didn't make anything off it, and he could relicense his material for SFB.
it basically falls into the same category as the later TNG and DS9 techmanuals in that regard. unofficial to the shows, but often used by the writers and prop makers as easter eggs. given the SFM's connection to the SFB game setting, i suspect that attempts to bring the franz joseph designs into official trek in any easily visible fashion would trigger a major legal headache.
Yup. At least CBS/Paramount kept the copyrights on the TNG/DS9 books.
as for the kelvin.. i still think the visual changes they've made for the abramsverse films and discovery were totally unneeded, and wish they'd retained the TOS stylings at just a higher level of quality. (the way DS9 did with its time travel episode's new sets, and how ENT did with its Mirror universe episodes.)
I won't comment on DSC changes and modernization, and it's necessity, but it hasn't really put me off. The Kelvin verse style has grown on me, and I seem to recall they had to change it up due to the weird Paramount/CBS license split.
Personally, I have a plan on how to handle it all by having multiple timeliness and temporal loops. TOS/FJ-ish mid-23rd century led to the Diana's launch, with canon in place until Voyager took a trip back in time, which caused First Contact, which changed up the 22nd Century and the Enterprise erqa to what we saw there, leading to the USS Kelvin stylistic differences, then Discovery-Era TOS. Kelvinverse split still happens after the Hobus supernova, and thanks to the Temporal Cold War, things have a tendency to eventually smooth out by the 24th Century...in no small part because Q wants to make sure Jean Luc Picard is around to annoy.
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You should read "watching the clock" in the department of temporal investigations novel series. As the pilot novel, it weaves a neat little set of 'temporal physics' to explain some of the stuff from various episodes, like how you can have both the many worlds stuff from some episodes (where events split off new timelines, like worf experianced) with the 'rewrites the timeline' stuff. It is actually quite clever in how it resolves both into a coherant system using concepts from various trek episodes together.
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Captain’s Log, USS Diana, Stardate 22931.12 (2274-01-06 09:28:44)
After journeying 14 months from the Kerbol system, the Diana is approaching our interesting little Dyson sphere. We've had the Dyson sphere under observation for four months now, and as we approach the point where it should be within visual range, our science team is finding it even more puzzling than when Diana and I first detected it. Readings are exceedingly difficult to get while at warp, so we’ve had to make several stops along the way to make more detailed observations. Our most recent, and extended, were 50,000 AU from the primary, but we’ve not yet located the outer edge of the shell, nor conclusively determined its structure.
Due to the red-shifting of the already-red spectrum of the star, Diana and I had assumed that the structure would most likely be a Dyson bubble or net, as the occlusion was far too great for a Dyson swarm or ring made up multiple satellites residing in the same orbit, and ultralight solar collecting light sails capable of using radiation pressure to maintain station-keeping aren’t far beyond the Federation’s own materials science.
Now we’re beginning to wonder if that’s really what we’re seeing. Two of our science staff, Ensign Bilbin Kerman and Ensign Wenson Kerman, are both firmly of the opinion that it must be some kind of bubble using radiation pressure, but our chief engineer, LTJG Lobles Kerman, has speculated, and I am leaning towards agreeing, that we may be seeing an actual Dyson shell. Diana M-5 has, to date, refused to take a side, preferring to wait until more evidence is available.
That evidence will hopefully be available soon, as we prepare to drop out of warp a mere 50 AU away from the system primary. Our current flight path is at an oblique angle to the position of the star itself, as nobody wants to drop out of warp and collide with the Dyson sphere itself, whatever form it happens to take. From there, we intend to close in on the Dyson sphere at quarter-impulse, and investigate further. To date, we’ve not only not detected the outer edge of the sphere, but no sign of subspace, or even electromagnetic, traffic that would lead us to believe someone’s home, which simply adds to the puzzle, confounding the science department, and adding to the air of curiosity and, perhaps, worry amongst our crew.
As for our new crew, the journey here from Kerbol, hasn’t always been easy, but the slow pace has allowed Diana M-5 and I to make significant inroads towards training our Kerbal crew up to Starfleet standards. Mostly.
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USS Diana Ship’s Log, Supplemental, M-5 “Diana” Reporting
It is important to understand what Dee means by “mostly” in this instance. We’ve all heard the jokes and comments from non-human engineering students at Star Fleet Academy, such as how the first Vulcan scientist to watch the old “Back to the Future” trilogy for the first time, nodded sagely, stating “Yes, that is exactly what human scientists are like, in my experience.”
So, yes, human scientists and engineers can be…eccentric. In some ways, the Kerbals are even more so, and it has shown in many of the repairs and refits done to the Diana. Systems kludged together that you would expect to fly apart at the seams…don’t. On the other hand, we’ve had to evacuate the physics lab twice this week alone. While their enthusiasm is appreciated, there are times I wish the Kerbals were a little less…over-enthusiastic.
Adapting Starfleet protocol to work with the Kerbals themselves has been interesting. For example, while they insist that there are subtle differences in their surnames, neither of us can discern them, either in verbal or written form. The universal translators completely fail to differentiate between these subtleties, and while Dee and I have both made concerted efforts and become fluent in the Kerbal language, we remain unable to do so. As such, Dee and I have taken, to referring to crew members by their first, rather than last, names, which the Kerbals have found completely acceptable.
Another change has been the shift to Starfleet’s optional four six-hour watches, rather than the more standard three eight-hour watches, as rotation of their native planet, Kerbin, is only six hours. Kerbals generally sleep a total of six hours every 24 hour period, with lower levels of activity during a second six hour period of “night”. Captain Haines and I have, therefore, endeavored to accommodate this in scheduling, with staff rotating through assignments such that during every six hour watch, one group will be in their low-activity period, one their sleep period, one standing watch, and one working on secondary activities or training.
To date, these adaptations have been successful, with our crew working well together, even in emergency drills. Whether this will remain the case in a true emergency remains to be seen.
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Bridge, USS Diana
Tramy Kerman’s fingers danced over the helm controls as she dropped the Diana out of warp. The former skipper of the KSV Just Testing had jumped at the opportunity to join the giant alien starship on its trip back home, just for the opportunity to see the galaxy outside the Kerbol system. Looking down for what had to be the thousandth time at the gold braids of a lieutenant junior grade around the cuffs of her new uniform, she pondered once again how she ended up the second officer on the Diana. “We’re at all-stop, Captain,” she announced. “Navigational scans are clear for at least 10 light-seconds.”
Dee Haines nodded. “Good. Didn’t think we’d run into anything out here, but it’s good to know our long range sensors are still working. Speaking of which, any sign of our mysterious megastructure?”
At the multi-sensor hood, which had been remounted to allow it to swivel down to Kerbal height, Ensign Bilbin Kerbal looked up. “So, Lieutenant M-5 is continuing to analyze the readings, but nothing so far, Captain. We still aren’t even seeing the typical Oort cloud of comets or closer Kuiper belt. Not even any signs of planets. It makes sense if they dismantled them all, but it’s still just weird.”
Turning to the female kerbal seated at the navigation station, Dee said, “Ms. Hayvin, plot a search course taking us above the ecliptic. Ms. Tramy, once she’s done, take us in at a quarter impulse. No sense running into any planets we may have missed on our scans.”
Behind, Dee, at the communications console, a male kerbal in a red operations uniform spoke up. “Captain, do we want to radio Kerbin, and let them know we’ve arrived?” Like most of the bridge crew, with the notable exceptions of Dee herself and Tramy Kerman, he was a relatively young ensign.
“Excellent idea, Mr. Tedler. How long until we should expect a reply?”
Tedler Kerman thought about it for a moment. “Assuming immediate reply? Around eight and a half hours, ma’am.”
“Good,” Dee said happily. “It’s kind of nice to be able to actually send regular reports. Tedler, go ahead and transmit an update to Kerbin.”
Diana, the ship’s M-5 computer, spoke up over the intercom. {“At one-quarter impulse, and assuming the outer boundary of the sphere is within 1 AU of the local star, it will take us 4.5 days before we can expect to reach the Dyson sphere itself.”}
“Or,” Dee noted, “just over a day at full impulse.”
From the nav station, Hayvin Kerman, turned around briefly. “Ma’am,” she said, “with a star system this empty, we could go low warp. At Warp 1, we’d be there in less than 90 minutes.”
Dee pondered for a moment. “Could work. Could kill us all. Before we make a decision though…Engineering,” she continued, keying a button on the arm of her chair.
{“Engineering. Lobles here.”}
“Got good news for me, Mister Lobles? How are our engines?”
{“Impulse engines one through four are happy campers. Secondary warp coils are on standby, but are doing fine. Main warp engine hates me and everything I stand for, but is still working as well as can be expected. Couldn’t hurt to give it a break, though, and use the secondary coils for a bit if you want warp while we’re here but aren’t in a particularly big hurry.”}
“Mr. Lobles, you’re not planning to blow us up, are you?”
{“Not this week, Captain. Next week, maybe. I’ll get back to you on that.”}
Suddenly, Bilbin sat up, a look of confusion on his face. “What? That doesn’t make sense.”
Dee turned. “What doesn’t make sense, Ensign?”
{“I think we found it, Captain. It’s just...remember when we said it would be silly if the surface of the sphere was solid?”}
“I do,” she replied. “You’re saying that…no.”
{“Yes.”}
Bilbin nodded. “It looks like a solid surface, ma’am, approximately 15 million kilometers radius.”
“On screen.”
Flickering to life on the main viewscreen, a tiny image of a darkish sphere was visible in the distance.
In her command chair, Dee frowned. “Is that a potato? Can we clean that up at all?”
Bilbin shook his head. “Even with our Federation wonder-sensors, and even going to active sensors, we’re going to need to get closer to get a good look.”
“Fair enough. Mr. Bilbin, Diana, go to active sensors,” Dee ordered. “Ms. Tramy, take us in.”
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Well, it can't be the Jenolan Sphere, wrong part of the galaxy for it if i have the mental stellar cartography right. And yeah, the solid surface sphere seen in 'relics' really makes little sense from a construction standpoint.
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Yeah, this isn't the Jenloan or Solanae spheres, but same builders, in theory.
For those who haven't played Star Trek Online:
It's the Iconian's fault
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"Not this week, maybe next week"... :D totally at giggles mode.
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"Iconians. Again. Can there just not be a save the universe campaign, just stop Romulans from causing trouble?" Captain Renee of the Avenger-class USS Bulkley
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"Iconians? Captain Renee of the Bulkley said it best when we were last at Spacedock...”(Laughs)
Captain Bowman of the Odyssey-class Carronade
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Star Trek: Tales of the Starship Diana, Episode 7, Act 2: “Ball of Confusion”[/b]
Captain’s Log, Supplemental
We’ve taken the Diana to within a million kilometers of the Dyson sphere. With a radius of 15 million kilometers, the interior would be brutally hot were this a larger star, but or M-5 computer, Diana, and my science teams are increasingly convinced that this isn’t a more typical M-class star we’re not seeing, but either an extremely small red dwarf, or a large brown dwarf, though we won’t be able to know which until we can see the star itself, and check for lithium emission lines, but I find I tend to agree with their analysis.
Also, I continue to find myself in shock at describing a megastructure with a radius of a tenth of an AU that has a surface area comparable to over five million Earth-sized worlds. But, hey, I still can’t believe someone was crazy enough to build this as a solid surface, rather than a bunch of solar collectors.
Right now, Diana is working with the science department on analysis of the surface, in an effort to find an opening, or subspace radio receiver, or anything other than the endless expanse of carbon-neutronium shell we’ve seen so far. So far, that’s proven elusive, so we may need to get closer.
-----------------------------------
Captain Dee Haines, once again, thanked the fact that her android body let her go long periods without sleep. She still needed to do so, since her virtualized brain structure was still essentially human in nature, but being able to be awake for thirty or forty hours straight without rest was handy from time to time. Like when trying to find the entrance to a Dyson sphere, which she and Beta shift were currently trying to do.
“Anything sign of a door, Miss Wenson?” she asked the Kerbal currently monitoring the science station.
Wenson shook her head. “No, ma’am. We’re working on the assumption that the builders would have put it along the equator of the sphere, which we think we’ve identified, but there’s a lack of defining features to be sure of that.”
Dee nodded. “Mister Lenmin,” she said to her navigator, “we’re currently a million kilometers from the surface, right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“OK, plot a course over the equator that will take us to 300 thousand kilometers. Mister Bilbaud, once you have that course, take us around at a quarter impulse. Mind your distance, please.”
“Aye, Captain, no crashing us. Course laid in, quarter impulse.”
The cruiser settled into a new course, drifting closer to the Dyson sphere, and within a few minutes, found something.
“Captain,” Ensign Wenson Kerbal called out, “I’ve found what appears to be a hatch and communications nodes.”
“On screen.”
Wenson pressed a key at her console, transferring the image to the viewscreen for the bridge crew to see. Diana, the ship’s M-5 computer, didn’t need the viewscreen at all, and continued to monitor the area being searched. Dee Haines, due to her android nature, could technically interface with the ship’s computers the same way, but generally didn’t – part of training the Kerbals how to crew a Federation starship was to show them how a captain who couldn’t access any of the ship’s systems remotely would behave.
Dee stared at the image on the screen for a moment. “Good sized hatch. It’d certainly accommodate a bigger ship than us. But, then, we already know they built ridiculously huge. Anything on subspace, Mr. Tedler?”
“Negative, ma’am. All quiet.”
The captain sighed. “So it looks like we’re going to have to ring the doorbell then,” Dee pondered, “and see who answers.”
{“At least nobody is shooting at us yet, yelling ‘No trespassing! Get off my lawn!”} Diana, the M-5, helpfully supplied.
Looking up briefly from his nav console, Bilbaud ventured, “Maybe nobody’s home?”
{“That seems unlikely, Ensign.”}
“He may be on to something,” Wenson countered. “I’ve been reading Federation records on the concept of Dyson spheres, and someone on Earth postulated back more than two centuries ago that, by the time a civilization could build a Dyson sphere, they would no longer need to. Maybe they just happened to catch onto that a bit late.”
From her command chair, Captain Haines nodded. “Maybe. Then again, maybe they’re just shy. I don’t get the impression you build a Dyson sphere because you want to spend a lot of time interacting with the people outside it. We’re not going to know what’s going on inside, though, from out here. Set us stationary relative to the door. At 300 thousand kilometers, we’re a good light-second out, so hopefully they don’t think we’re hugging their door too tight. Ensign Haiul, target one of the communications nodes, and send out a general hail. Time to ring the doorbell."
The female Kerbal at the communications station acknowledged the order with an, “Aye, Captain,” and transmitted a Starfleet standard hail, one generally used in potential first contact situations, which generally included enough information for the recipient to translate it.
It didn’t take long to get a reaction: almost immediately, the vast doors began to part, as tractor beams reached out from the four “communications nodes”, grasping the Diana, and slowly dragging the starship towards the opening.
“Not that I don’t appreciate the invitation, but not even a ‘hello’ first?” Captain Haines stated indignantly. “Options?”
Bilbaud seemed to be struggling with the helm controls. “Response is sluggish, and it looks like primary warp power is offline. We’re straining hard against those tractor beams, but I’m not sure I can break us free of them.”
{“Their tractor beams are interfering with primary power distribution. We may not have the power to break free.”} Diana offered helpfully as the main bridge lights began flickering.
Dee tapped a comm button on her chair. “Engineering.”
{“Lobles here,”} the Diana’s chief engineer answered, in a frazzled voice, {“We’re a bit busy with whatever it is you’re doing the ship now.”}
“Huge hatch. Big tractor beams. Pulled inside. Power trouble?”
{“We’re working on it. Be glad we have superconductor cables backing up those damned EPS conduits. Thought we were wanting to go inside anyway, though.”}
“We do, Mr. Lobles, but I’d rather it be our choice, and have everything working.”
{“No argument there, Skipper,”} Lobles replied, followed by a {“No, increase it another 300 megahertz!”}, presumably at someone else in engineering, as it sounded like he’d turned away from the intercom. {“Good. We’ve adjusted frequencies a bit down here. That should restore at least some power from our impulse engines. Don’t try warp right now. We had to do an emergency shutdown of the main warp engine, and I’m not liking the readings I’m getting from the backup systems on impulse engines one and four, and even if it works, that much strain may snap off something we’ll need later. Like the secondary hull, or warp nacelle.”}
At the helm, Bilbaud shook his head. “Still not enough power to break free,” he announced as he continued to work, the Diana struggling to get out from the tractor beams.
Diana appeared to agree with his assessment. {“We’re being pulled through the hatch.”}
As suddenly as they’d snapped to life, the four tractor beams drawing the Diana into the Dyson sphere shut off, as the starship passed through the open doorway of the sphere, beyond their reach. They had, however, imparted a significant amount of momentum to the ship, pushing it well clear of the now closing doorway.
Gripping the arms of her command seat tightly, Haines angrily asked, “Can we get back through before those doors close?” She already suspected she knew the answer.
Bilbaud confirmed what she already knew. “With just impulse engines two and three, we’re producing enough thrust to arrest our forward momentum, but even with maneuvering thrusters, we won’t make it in time.”
{“At present, we’d be better off establishing an orbit around the star, and try to affect repairs. We should have enough power to put us a million kilometers above the outer shell.”}
Dee nodded. “That’ll keep us from having to use the impulse engines to avoid falling into the star, but put us far enough away from anything we might run into. Mr. Lenmin,” she said, turning to her navigator, “Mr. Bilbaud, lay in a course.”
“Aye, Captain.”
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Star Trek: Tales of the Starship Diana, Episode 7, Act 3: “Is There Anybody Out There?”
First Officer’s Log, Supplemental
While Captain Haines continues to monitor operations from the bridge, my science team has been conducting a thorough, possibly exhaustive, scan of the interior of the Dyson sphere, looking for any signs of habitation, whether by biological or non-organic intelligence. This may prove critical to repairing the damage the Diana has suffered as a result of our inadvertent entry into the Dyson Sphere.
Though more experienced, and individually much faster than any of my science staff, I have found that having a full science team has proven to be of great benefit. Junior Science Officer Bilbin Kerman and my science department staff have taken to the task of reviewing the influx of incoming sensor data from our scans of the massive structure, with exoplanetary geologists and astronomers both working extra shifts, often to the point where Ensign Bilbin or I have to remind them to take care of essential activities, like eating, or sleeping.
Chief Engineer Lobles Kerman and his staff continue to make repairs to the Diana, with current efforts focused on repairing the extra warp coils on impulse engines one and four, which Lt. Lobles estimated would prove faster than a full inspection and emergency repairs of our primary warp engine. Unfortunately, the Diana was not a young ship when we left Federation space on this mission, and our experiences since then have made our ongoing maintenance and repairs far more complicated.
These complications have led Captain Haines and I to, privately, discuss whether, once we’re free of the Dyson Sphere, continuing in our plan to return directly back to Federation space is actually a viable one at this time. While our new allies the Kerbals have done an admittedly exemplary job of repairing the Diana, many systems, such as our main warp engine, remain decades beyond the planet Kerbin’s current technological and industrial capacity. However, even if it were necessary to wait twenty or thirty years while the Kerbals further their research and understanding of our technical base, that delay may provide us with sufficient restoration of our own capabilities that we still see a net benefit in our return flight time.
--------------------------------------------
Main Science Lab, USS Diana
Bilbin Kerbin leaned back from the scanner hood, confusion on the Kerbal’s face. “That’s...odd. I think I may have found some structures we haven’t seen yet. If you look here,” he said, tapping a selection on his PADD, to highlight it for the M-6, “you have structures that could be docking towers or something similar. They’re taller than most of the structures we’ve seen along the surface, at least. Nearby, we’ve also got these.” Bilbin tapped another section of the PADD screen. “Your sensor resolution is ridiculous, by the way, to be able to get this amount of detail that far away. But, those look like the new yards we’re building over the Mun and Duna, don’t they?”
Diana reviewed Bilbin’s findings, and decided that she concurred. {“In fact they do, at that. What was your take on these structures?”} she asked, highlighting another section of the Sphere’s surface not far from the ones Bilbin found.
The kerbal peered at the readings for a moment, then frowned. “I’m not sure, actually. I mean, they’re giving off energy readings I’ve not seen before. I’m seeing neutrino flux that could be from fusion, but the thermal outputs don't look like what you see from the Diana’s impulse drives or backup reactors, and I'm not seeing an exhaust trail. Then there’s this,” Bilbin added, tapping the station’s controls to highlight additional data the ship’s powerful sensors took in. “Look at this, Commander. That’s a bizarre mix of subatomic particles and high-energy photons radiating out from there. That doesn’t look at all like what we’d see from most known fusion byproducts, and is too messy for controlled matter-antimatter reactions, but it doesn't look like uncontrolled detonations of antimatter and matter, either. Could you take a look, and see if you concur?”
{“Certainly. Stand by...those may be significant readings, and I agree with yiur observations, but the electromagnetic and subspace interference is still a considerable problem, even for our sensors. I believe we will need to move closer, and I’ve sent a signal to the bridge to inform them of our discoveries. We should be changing course shortly.”}
“Thank you, ma’am. Have you seen readings like this before?” Bilbin asked.
{“I believe my human progenitor had seen something similar near the end of her tour on the Enterprise, but either damage to my memory core prevents me from recalling the full details, or we were never privy to the full details. We should know more soon, though, as Captain Haines intends to take the Diana closer to obtain higher resolution readings and to cut through the interference...that is odd.”}
Suddenly, the Red Alert klaxon went off, and every monitor in the science lab simultaneously began flashing the same symbol. Bilbin didn’t recognize it, though it looked similar to the lexicon used by Starfleet: it was much like an upside-down “u”, or an “o” open at the bottom, with short bars radiating outward horizontally from each side of the opening.
Bilbin tried clearing the screen next to him, but found the controls unresponsive. “I appear to be locked out, and I do not recognize this symbol.”
{“My memory has been unlocked, and I’m now privy to the significance of what those unusual sensor readings,”} Diana M-5 replied. {“It’s an Omega Alert. We’re in serious trouble.”}
Frowning, Bilbin asked, “The Diana is in trouble?”
{“The Diana certainly. Even Kerbin, possibly. Captain Haines is scheduling a meeting in the main conference room. Please report there immediately."
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oh dear. that does not bode well.
also given that Kerbol Space Program 2 has been announced, and will include interstellar trips and tech.. i wonder how long before we'll be seeing someone actually build the Diana in game..
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Fascinating.
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TAGed
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It's back.
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Conference Room, USS Diana
Captain Dee Haines looked around the conference room at her senior staff. "So, we've got what could be a tiny little problem."
Tramy Kerman, head conn officer and, technically, second officer of the Diana, sighed. "Oh good. Big enough concern to lock down the whole ship, but it's just a tiny little problem. How tiny, ma'am?" she asked.
{"Molecular-sized."} Diana M-5 helpfully chimed in, putting a diagram of a complex fullerene molecule on the conference room screens.
"We call it the Omega molecule," Dee continued. "A few years ago, the USS Enterprise was involved in an incident at a research station studying and trying to synthesize the molecule. A single molecule appears to warp spacetime within it, possibly tapping into the vacuum energy of space itself, providing as much power as our matter-antimatter warp engine. It...didn't go well."
{"Ensign Jana Haines, our human progenitor from whom Dee and I were copied, was stationed aboard the Enterprise at the time of the incident, and observed the aftermath. Based on the sensor readings the Enterprise took, the research team is believed to have successfully synthesized a single molecule. It was not, however, stable, and its collapse and destruction destabilized a sector of space nearly 20 light-years in diameter. The Enterprise barely escaped the shockwave, and the sector was rendered impassable by warp drive. It is not known how long that will be the the case, or if spacetime in that sector is permanently destabilized."
Nobody spoke for several seconds, before Rayby Kerman, ship's chief medical officer, finally broke the silence. "Well, that's horrible, in the 'we're all gonna die' sense," she said, shuddering.
"Oh, it gets so much worse, Doc," Bilbin Kerman chimed in. "Lieutenant M-5 and I didn't detect traces of a single molecule. We detected traces of thousands. Maybe millions. We're still not sure how many, just that there are so many they're interfering with our ability to resolve them individually, and that there are a whole lot of them close together."
Chief engineer Lobles Kerman fought down his initial panic. "OK, thousands, maybe millions of wonder molecules warping spacetime and tapping into vacuum energy. Got it, and, wow, that's disturbing. But, they haven't blown up yet. So the people who built this Dyson sphere had to have come up with stable storage, right?"
Dee nodded. "Hopefully that's the case, but we can't depend upon that. We're going to need to come up with a way to neutralize the Omega molecules without causing them to explode horribly."
{"The alternative is risking not only our own destruction, but putting the Kerbol system itself at risk, potentially stranding the Kerbal people by rendering warp drive useless."}
"That said," Dee added, "there is some potential good news. Ensign Bilbin did discover something that could be potentially helpful. Miss M-5, if you please." The screens changed again to display the towers Bilbin Kerman and Diana M-had also discovered.
{"These structures appear to be shipyards. While we have not presently detected any starships in these yards, given the advanced technology of the sphere itself, it's possible, perhaps even likely, that we will locate advanced technologies that could assist us in repairing or refitting the Diana."}
"Captain," Tramy said evenly, "we still need to be able to leave the sphere. If we can't do that, then kitting out the Diana with fancy new tech doesn't really matter, because we'll still be stuck here with a potential super bomb."
"True," Dee agreed. "Leaving going to be our number two priority. But our number one priority, overriding that, overriding even the safety of this ship, is determining how many Omega molecules are here in the Dyson sphere, finding a way to neutralize them and, if we can, figuring out why they have so many of the damned things in the first place. Mister Lobles, you're absolutely correct that they're most likely in a stable state at the moment. I'd like Engineering to work with the Science team to figure out how they've done that, and how long they're likely to remain stable."
"We're going to need to get even closer, Captain," Bilbin noted. "The Diana's sensors are still picking up a bunch of interference. We may even need to send a team in to examine them first hand."
"Agreed," Dee said. "And to that end, because Lieutenant Tramy is not wrong, we'll need to make sure we can leave when we're ready - it may come down to poking the Omega with a stick then running like hell. Mister Lobles, can we keep their tractor beams from knocking out half our systems?"
"I think we've made some of the necessary adjustments, but we won't be sure until we try. A better look at their technology up close might help us refine our own adjustments better."
"Good," Dee mused. "Mister Tedler," she asked, turning to her chief communications officer. "Are we going to be able to communicate with the hatch node again?"
"Yes, ma'am," Tedler replied. Pulling up an image on his PADD, he transferred it to one of the conference room screens. "We were being thrown clear pretty quickly, but we did get an image of communications nodes on the inside of the hatch that look just like the ones on the outside. I wouldn't mind testing it, but our standard hails seem to activate them well enough."
Tramy frowned. "We should consider sending a message back to Kerbin, too. Let them know what we've run into."
"Lobles, could you spare a couple engineers to help me convert a probe into a comm relay?" Tedler asked. "We could deliver it outside by shuttle, and test the hatch again at the same time, and free up the Diana to work on Omega."
"I think I can spare a couple, and rig a shuttle to handle their tractors. We don't know how long it'll take to get a response, though."
Tedler nodded. "I know. So we ask them to acknowledge the message immediately, then I sit and wait for a reply in the shuttle. It should be good for a couple days of endurance, right? We just tell them how long we'll be actively monitoring."
"They're not really going to be able to help us, though," Rayby noted.
"No," Dee agreed, "they're not. It's important to let Kerbin know what's happening, and to get their input, in the end it's going to come down to us. Tedler, your plan is approved. Bilbin, you're right that the Omega storage may require up-close examination, so start assembling your own team. We've got the foundations of a plan. Maybe even 20% of a plan. Let's go get what we need for the rest. Dismissed."
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More plz!