This was something I wrote late 2001 during the height of my Culture fandom. It is a cross-over between the Culture and Star Trek and was a work-in-progress until I saw no way to go on and got bored (I have a knack for not finishing works).
Still, I found it on SB.com just now and wondered what people here would think with your fine tastes in literature (heh), so for your enjoyment, the whole unfinished, unabridged copy of Equilibriums.
NB: To Countess Marina if she reads, I know that a certain last stand battle name used here is spelt wrong, it was meant to be different, you'll know when you see it (funnily enough, Zulu is on this week too).
An Nick S. Edwards Novel
Equilibriums
To all those who have dreamt of touching the stars
(Set 2378AD for the Star Trek universe and 2177AD or 802 years after the Culture-Idiran war for the Culture universe).
Prologue
The sun shone on. Birds chirping happily to its radiant aura as if their life was energized solely by the incandescent sphere as it lit up their downy bodies in the soft green surroundings of trees in the garden. All of nature was convinced that this was as good as it got; that this peaceful existence could never be shattered or taken away from the animals and plants that thrived in its fertile influence.
Starfleet Academy was home to these elegant grounds, which only a few hundred years before would have looked unnaturally out of place in the urban backdrop of old San Francisco.
The President of Earth looked out over the lush deposits of colour with silent admiration. In all the years he had seen these same gardens he always remembered one name, Boothby. The old groundskeeper reserved a fondness for Starfleet after they allowed him to look after these gardens so that future generations may witness what nature originally laid out for the earliest man to discover.
Unique in its own little way, thought the President. Although the third world war on Earth had turned what left from the industrialised world into ashes, the planet had recovered and nature flourished once again and was no longer held back by the concrete and steel barriers that were the ever-growing habitats of early 21st century life.
How things had changed, he thought.
The shuttle swept in on an elegant glide that most 20th century glider pilots would have been proud of if not for the advanced anti-gravity engines and computer guidance systems. Six thousand metres above the Academy and headquarters of the most influential government in the Alpha quadrant; the Federation was mankind's greatest achievement. And it was for peace too which gave it an almost ironic twist compared to the history of this races grand discoveries; the sword, the bow, gunpowder and nuclear weapons were what most people noted down in the history books as being the greatest of mankind's evolutionary struggle for supremacy over others. Even warp drive paled in comparison to the invention of the "Photon torpedo" or "Phasers". If anything these hindered the civilisations progress and not speed it up (though they certainly helped in the wars).
The President watched from the landing pad as the Type 12 shuttle curved round for its final descent, to finally rest just a metre away from the President's feet.
The main doorway opened up revealing officers in dress uniform standing to attention, awaiting the leader of the human race to step onboard the shuttle and start off for the ceremony awaiting him high in the planets orbit.
The man hesitated. Thinking whether this was really worth his time, it made no difference, as he had to do it anyway sooner or later. Ships no matter how advanced rarely launched and named themselves. The thought of a completely sentient ship entered his mind and amused him somewhat. Up till the M5 project many races tried to produce fully automated ships that required no crews and the bare minimum of maintenance. The lessons had been learned from such projects; and at a cost.
The door closed behind him and the shuttles crew welcomed him aboard, before powering up its engines and rising towards the stars and the dry dock that he would soon enter and launch the newly built Prometheus class vessel, the USS Rawkes Drift NCC-8247.
Admiration For The Young
'God damned replicators!' wailed Ensign Jackman.
The young and fairly scrawny looking man in his mid twenties lay down another punch onto the replicators control panel, its interface displaying undecipherable babble.
'Selected product does not exist. Please choose¡Kselected product¡Kuct¡Kspecified sub-routine failure in sector¡K'
'Oh shut the heck up will ya, all I ask for in life is a comfortable job and a good meal and not some cocky feedback from a damn food dispenser.' The ensign by this time was evidently stressed that (on the fifth time of requesting) his traditional American breakfast was still a distant dream because of the replicators¡¦ inability to recognise what it could and could not create. The last time a problem occurred like this one unfortunate lieutenant got a photon grenade when he asked for an herbal tea. Ensign Jackman was determined not to have an armoury for breakfast and so eventually calmed down and returned to his seat in the mess hall. Engineering was going to have another visit this month it seemed.
To be fair the ship he was currently serving on was getting on a bit being an old Ambassador class and all. Although he had hoped to serve aboard the famous Enterprise it was obvious even to him that this may never be so at least in the foreseeable future. The new Sovereigns were the finest ships in Starfleet and although there were only 15 at the present time that was easily more than enough to deter anymore conflicts in the immediate vicinity of Sol or any other system the ships were ordered to patrol.
The USS Valdemar was only one to two weeks' travel at cruising speed from Earth yet already Jackman began to feel like he was in a far off galaxy when he was really still in the backyard of the United Federation of Planets.
Still, no point in complaining at least you missed the war with the Dominion and company and you didn't get transferred to the Badlands either (this was another of Jackman's original goals, to serve on the USS Voyager which had the misfortune to get catapulted to the other side of the galaxy by an unknown being. Then he would have been exploring from home).
Whilst Jackman pondered whether or not to pay a little visit to the resident engineers of the ship a girl walked by and Jackman was already forgetting the whole replicators fiasco.
Lieutenant Lauren Whittle was the main reason Jackman spent his lunchtimes in the mess hall (though often "lunch" was a meaningless word in these circumstances due to the food dispenser system having a grudge against him). She alone was probably the only driving force behind his careers dismal momentum and even then she seemed too far away from his reality to even notice that he was on this ship for her and not that final collar pip to make him have his own ship. She also had a boyfriend.
This was the usual type of situation he read about in classic novels, not that he was much into that sort of thing. Yet the whole idea of boy meets girl, boy leaves girl and girl forgets previous boy and sleeps with a new found love was always in his mind when Lauren passed on her daily trip to her table next to her window on the front of the ship; watching as the stars flashed by in the brief time they appeared in warp.
Ah forget about her he thought. She wasn't worth it, she was in her mid thirties, had shoulder length hazel hair and two blue eyes like emeralds encrusted in her¡K
He stopped to listen to his thoughts. What was he thinking, like she would even think about going out with him after the last incident. It was almost as futile as expecting that promotion to captain anytime in the next thousand years. He toyed with the thought of becoming captain and raiding less advanced civilisations for women and objects of amazing wealth and beauty. He made a quiet satisfactory sound to himself before leaving the mess and finding Chief Engineer Roberts.
Telk Orbital was home to many people who had already explored most of the known galaxy as best they could and wanted to retire to the quiet surroundings of a down to earth and peaceful environment. The Orbital was typically a huge rotating 'O' in space situated in a standard orbit around a medium sized star of yellow/orange colour. The diameter of such complexes was around 14 million kilometres and the rings thickness was usually around one thousand kilometres thick, give or take a few klicks. The inside of the loop composed of land and sea and air to simulate a class M planet environment which was a couple of thousand kilometres in width (many people feared venturing to the edge of these giant hoops and expected to topple over the edge into the vacuum of space but a translucent wall rising some kilometres up and outwards prevented such catastrophes. Of course crashing into this barrier was prejudicial for ones health). Orbitals rotated to produce gravity via centrifugal force which was in total one and a half gee at most, the angle and rotation combined with the orbit of the big 'O' gave the impression of seasons and day and night which added to the great popularity of such habitats.
Many cities dotted the various landscapes of the Orbital and one such city, known as Seton, was home to a middle aged woman by the name of Jern Talow Ovan De Selk Majon Pries, otherwise known normally as Jern Talow.
Jern sat in her apartment on the fifth floor of a fairly luxurious hotel in the downtown areas of Seton (she felt out of place being in such fine accommodations set in such low-down a neighbourhood but she got used to it after three months) sipping local liquor known simply as Terc. An acquired taste for such a¡Kwell brown liquid even if it did have such a foul smelling aroma; she thought it best not to imagine were it came from and just enjoyed the moment.
Fireworks lit up the night sky (along with a broad band of light stretching across the sky; the other side of the Orbital in daylight now) and as the second day of the festivals began to liven up she pulled her straw hat over her deep brown eyes. Today was a day that should not be forgotten too quickly, perhaps because she was used to just reading all day and not taking part in a carnival about some mythological being she couldn't even pronounce let alone imagine sleeping with. Its times like this she found the Culture to be a sturdy footing in the foundations of the galaxy and its many civilisations. A place where such myths were never heard of and even if they were it was from some history or ethics class. Strange how these silly beliefs get started and before you know it you're worshipping an omnipotent prostitute being.
As she began dozing off despite the pyrotechnic display her pen terminal began beeping and flashing.
She ignored it for the whole 30 seconds it beeped then began to drift to sleep again¡KBEEP, BEEP¡K
'All right you win. I will stay awake for the fireworks then!'
She pushed the hat to one side of her face and picked up the flashing and beeping pen.
'If this is not an insanely handsome man I'm hanging up!'
'Oh don't be so puerile Jern we have matters to discuss. Or have you already forgotten in that lazy and frivolous environment of yours, hmm?'
She could tell that the mans deep voice over the terminal was her friends, Lale Dex. He was also a fellow agent with Contact's Special Circumstances organisation. SC dealt primarily in the Culture's (a large and freedom loving culture spanning the whole galaxy controlled mainly by powerful computers or artificial intelligences known as Minds) dirty underhand schemes. They were the agents who helped 'persuade' a race to do what the Culture found in its best interests and that usually meant by espionage, sabotage or any other word that could fit snugly with the term "sneaky".
Jern Talow had been in Contact (a force that helps other races and civilisations join the Culture, their government police, navy, army and so on rolled into one package) for 57 years and had no intention of dropping out just yet. She was selected to become an agent in SC because of her expertise in the Affronter 'war' during the Excession incident, even though the war never fully took off she was doing everything by the book and was ready if the situation required.
Now aged three hundred and forty five, Lale was some twenty years older than Jern yet he looked just about the same as any middle aged person would without the genofixing that every human (or alien) was granted as being part of the Culture.
Jern sat up from the recliner and leant forward as if Lale was in front of her and she didn't quite get the message.
'Okay Dex you've got my attention, sorry if I forgot but I was having such a good time actually trying to get to sleep for the first time in 36 standard hours,' she replied in an almost yawning state only to be wide eyed as a small arsenal of fireworks erupted a hundred metres from her balcony.
'Sounds like a war zone there, you sure there¡¦s no Idirans with you?' Dex replied almost with a hint of sarcasm and humour.
'Pretty much, don't worry if any spectator gets too rowdy I'm sure my knife missile will help calm the mood,' Jern waited for a reply or even another sarcastic mumble but heard nothing. 'I hear the GSV Intolerable Outlook is passing by within the next three days. Do I dare expect you to be on it or am I going to have to come to you again?'
Lale sighed perhaps a little too heavily to get the desired effect. 'Its been a real bastard of a week so far. The governor of Leynas has been playing cat and mouse with me for the past couple of days and refuses to comment on the upcoming tests that SC is rumoured to be carrying soon in that particular system. My contacts state that SC will need me and possibly you to tag along for the ride but I'm not too optimistic that the governor will allow such events so close to his home world,' Tale murmured in his usual sort of dejected way. Things were obviously getting him down. And him being stuck with an arrogant alien and Jern being forced to have a vacation only made matters worse.
'Don't let him¡K'
'It's a "her" actually,' Lale injected.
'Yeah whatever! Just don't let her get the better of you. So far we've done well to even get a shuttle or module within 10 light years of that system so lets just hope we can "convince" the governor to let SC carry out its tests and everything will be right as rain. Hopefully,' Jern tagged on with a not too enthusiastic frame of mind.
Another firework salvo exploded in a conflagration of radiance and numerous "oohs" and "ahhhs" ensued.
'Tell you what Lale,' Jern said in an uplifting tone. 'I'll come over to Leynas' home world and see if I can sort out this little state of affairs then we can see if SC will want us to take further part in their new tests. With luck we will convince the governor so well that SC will give us both a long holiday aboard the new cruise liner Magnificent and we can waste our nights on expensive booze and peculiar games.'
'Sounds like your kind of holiday all right. Well I'll expect you here in say¡Ktwo days okay? Until then make the most of those dreamy days because this place ain't no picnic. Lale out.'
Jern put the terminal down on the small table beside her with the brown beverage next to it. The Leynas system was a day's travel on her private ship and even then she would have to persuade the damn governor of the main planet to let her land.
Tomorrow was going to be anything but enjoyable. She pulled the straw hat over her eyes again as another rocket exploded and made her jump, knocking the brown drink to the floor.
The Rawkes Drift
The nebula quickly came into view as the ship, a Prometheus class vessel, accelerated to 1/3 the speed of light as it swiftly and gracefully turned 90¢X towards the ever-growing gaseous expanse.
'Report.' Captain McNeil said as he stood up and walked to check what he was seeing in the view screen.
An unsure ensign looked at the readings on his tactical analysis console. Obviously new to the layout of such a system and trying to get to grips with it. The captain was not having any of this.
'Ensign Donnoway. I shouldn't have to remind you of the importance of being able to cope with these situations. Had this nebula actually contained a hiding Romulan fleet then we most certainly would be dead and the entire crew would have you to thank this for. I'm I understood?'
The ensign now looked embarrassed and a little pale at the thought that he single-handedly killed the crew and destroyed the ship that would otherwise have easily been able to fend off the imaginary attack that was 4-cloaked D'deridex class warships. The gruff looking captain McNeil sat back down and ordered the cancellation of the red alert. He was carefully considering about reassigning the young ensign to another ship, possibly one that wouldn't risk the lives of its crew; cargo haulers were common as muck now because of the Ferengi getting stronger and stronger.
'Sir, I think you should come and look at this. It seems there's a warp field of¡Kabout¡Koh I'm sure its nothing.'
'No ensign go ahead what is it? We could do with some action after the last 48 hours,' the captain said expecting something that would hopefully allow the phaser banks to be tested.
'Well sir that nebula¡Kthe one on the screen. It appears to have a cloaked ship in it¡K' the ensign said hesitantly.
'What? Preposterous, there's no Romulan or Klingon ships within 50 light years and even if there were they would be breaking a serious treaty to cross over into Federation territory.'
'The field is growing in intensity and strength. Two hundred kilo Cochrans.'
'Onscreen,' and as the captain turned in his seat to look at the view screen he saw¡K
'Nothing. All there is is a blue and green nebula of ionised xenon and¡K' The captain stopped abruptly in mid sentence. All of a sudden the centre of the huge gaseous anomaly began to glow and twist ever so slightly at first but then began to rapidly grow in size until the bright warping light lighted up the whole of the view screen.
'Tactical, is the anomaly a threat?' Asked the captain anxious to know what the nebula planned on performing as its next trick.
'At its current rate of growth it will reach our shields in 2 minutes. The field strength has grown to 1.6 mega Cochrans.'
'Good lord what is producing this? Nature can't produce warp fields as localized and intense as this.'
The ensign who just minutes before had failed miserably at the war game was looking with interest then astonishment at the readings from the ever-growing bright sphere.
'Sir the anomaly will reach us in less than 1 minute and the field strength is¡K' The ensign put on an expression of disbelief. 'Sir the field has just increased to 2 million tera Cochrans¡K8 million¡K19 million¡K3.7 peta Cochrans¡K'
The readings just kept exponentially growing almost until the point that the anomaly was a spontaneous black hole forming before their very eyes.
The ensign spoke up again tearing himself from the console.
'Captain I suggest we leave now. The field strength of the anomaly is getting to the point that a singularity may be produced.'
'Noted. About turn and head at full impulse.'
The sleek Prometheus class vessel spun on its axis 180„a so as to face away from the growing brilliant sphere. Then its impulse engines screamed as the stress of accelerating from a stand still to one quarter the speed of light tested the newly constructed hull, leaving behind the light that was once a nebula.
'We have reached 4 million kms from the anomaly sir,' the ensign mentioned still staring at the console and tapping its touch screen nervously.
'Good. We can observe it from...' The captain was cut off as the whole bridge or the whole ship shuddered for a second.
'Looks like we will have some action today; red alert.'
Perhaps the strangest thing about captain McNeil was his inability to look at anything, no matter how innocent, without considering hostile actions. Once before this "condition" had affected his judgment. Four years ago in 2374 a civilian passenger liner belonging to the Cardassians had sent a distress signal requesting immediate help when it came under attack from remnants of the Marquis. McNeil gave the order to ignore the plea for help despite the Cardassian liner being civilian and having no connections with the military at all, yet still he ignored the plight as the liners warp core went critical. The liner was destroyed; 100 men, women and children from multiple worlds perished as the thunderous fireball of the antimatter explosion engulfed their dream ship. The inquiry into the incident over a year later determined that the cause of the explosion was a faulty plasma conduit leaking and thus power started to fail but went unnoticed due to the liners age. The USS Ticonderoga could have easily towed the ship away from the core but didn't because of McNeil's own scepticism about the liners crew et al. Thrusters were inoperable and so the liner couldn't outrun the resulting explosion.
One hundred people lost their lives and he could have prevented it. This was not the thought of a military mind though. They were at war and these losses were "acceptable", nothing more nothing less.
'Sir,' the ensign was still stuck to the console frantically trying to find the cause and solution to this unusual phenomenon. 'The anomaly is matching speed with us. No wait. Its speeding up to 80% light speed'
'Are we at maximum velocity?'
'Yes captain,' the helmsman said, the view screen in front of him beginning to brighten round the edges as the anomaly caught up to them.
The ship was darting away from the origin of the nebula cum fireball at tremendous speed, which was not usual practice for a ship only on a routine patrol. If anyone was watching they would know something was wrong by now.
Twenty seconds till impact; the ship didn't seem to be gaining much more speed as its engines were stressed to critical levels. Ten seconds till impact; the captain gave the order to prepare for warp. Five, four, three¡K
'Helm jump to warp no¡K' But before the captain could complete the sentence the wave front of the anomaly hit the rear of the ship sending it careening at just over a quarter of the speed of light.
Consoles exploded and lit up the bridge like a magnesium flare for a second. Alarms blared out and crewmen all around the ship were flung like rag dolls as the wave of field energy hit like a brick wall square against the shielded hull of the Federation vessel.
Computers reported structural integrity fields were weakening as the ship was practically somersaulting in front of the wave of light. Then the upper starboard nacelle broke free and spewed plasma into the path of the now sun like disruption behind the ship.
Shields had failed and multiple hull breaches were discovered until eventually after some 20 or so seconds of tumbling on a space tsunami the ship began to stop shuddering. The view screen, though filled with static, showed no nebula, no wave of light and strangest of all no nacelle that moments before had been torn off the stern of the ship.
The captain, now five metres to the left of his chair lifted himself up and asked for damage status. They were 2 days travel from the nearest Federation outpost and had no communications or warp drive, at least for the time being. The event they had just experienced would give them something to think about before a tug was deployed to help in repairs. Starfleet HQ is not going to enjoy hearing about this. Especially as it was a brand new ship!
Equilibriums
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Admiral Valdemar
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Jern had woken early that morning after being awakened by the hooting of a nearby madman who was still drinking the foul smelling liquor and dressed up in party outfit still. Her head was spinning and everything around her span to some degree too. She got out of bed. She fell over. She hoisted herself onto a nearby chair on the balcony and lay there still half a sleep but mostly drunk. This was not a good thing especially when you had to go across several star systems in the next few days to meet up with a work colleague.
After finally getting her clothes on that still fit her (she had lost plenty of weight naturally whilst partying every night) she set off to the nearby transport tube that lead straight towards the bottom of the vast Orbital. The streets were virtually empty when the mad alcoholic party animal woke her up abruptly but now the full rush hour traffic had turned up and was now in full swing. Hover cars and vans and businessmen (from another sector outside the Culture, the Culture had so many resources that monetary value was pointless and frankly so were the trips businessmen made to any Orbital) were bustling around in the hot morning weather. The sky clear blue bar the occasional ship taking off or holiday cruise blimp flying over temporarily blotting out the sun.
They party hard so they must work hard too! She thought as yet another strange creature bumped into her for the fourth time running. She was still essentially drunk & tired after drinking a high-energy drink so she started glanding up some Active to wake herself up and revitalise her mind. The tube access station was just down the road now. She had hoped that she wouldn’t have to go on a mission for another 2 weeks at least, this was all brought on by her sudden interest in the local male audience. Still, she thought, I’m sure there’s plenty or fit men on the ship I’ll be on. Then of course there’s the entire population of the Leynas system to think of if I do indeed get desperate. Whilst thinking about the many delights that could appear on her journey she passed a man who seemed…misplaced somehow.
Jern noticed a figure dressed entirely in a dark green and navy blue jumpsuit with a cloak and circular wire like sunglasses. He seemed to stick out quite a bit considering the rest of the public were clothed casually and in some quite bright colours too. The man just stood against the wall leading to the entrance of the tube transport. Jern looked at him briefly then quickly turned away to look towards the nearby tube gangway. She started to sweat a little, whether this was due to the heat of the morning sun or because the man was now entering the transport with her she didn’t know. She wasn’t thinking of shouting, “Help! Stalker!” or arresting him simply because he looked suspicious. That’s the trouble with this Culture; everyone can do anything and get away with it. Even the most heinous crimes such as murder could go unnoticed because everyone else appeared happy that made it all right did it? She sat down next to a window on the long narrow tube shaped train. The station had several of these cylindrical craft that went through the Orbitals thickness and came out of the outside of the ring horizontally so that it could move much faster to the various space ports and other facilities on the giant rings outer surface. The doors closed. The transport lowered slowly then sped up to over 500km/h instantly through the vacuum tube. Inertial dampeners made sure people didn’t get crushed by the immense accelerative forces as the large cylinder like tube train travelled down horizontally. The 300 passengers chatting and going about their business as the Hub Mind for the Orbital drove them to their destination. Every Orbital had a round “Hub” like structure in the centre of the rotating “O” which held the Orbitals Mind. This Hub wasn’t attached to the Orbital itself but it did allow the Mind to control everything on the O from star ships docking to environmental controls in hotels and so on. Minds simply were the ultimate AIs.
The dark suited man sat adjacent to Jern’s seat as she read a holographic screen with the day’s news on. She tried not to look around at him directly but he seemed both lethal and incredibly ‘Cute’ she said under her breath so no one could hear her. The man was tall, about 1metre 95 and had short light brown hair. His complexion was smooth but he would’ve looked better with some bristles to make him seem tougher…not that he wasn’t already scaring Jern!
The transport started to slow down from its hypersonic speed. It was now nearing the outside of the Orbital; the landscape would now look different. Instead of seeing towns and hills and mountains with snow and at night the other side of the Orbital as it was illuminated by the sunlight you would now see a metal surface with conduits, hangars, ships, more tube transports scurrying along the surface like metal bugs and also long docking tubes to bigger ships not that many ships couldn’t fit in the immense hangars of the Orbital already. A civilian liner had just pulled out of a nearby hangar and jumped to warp, the stretching effect as the ship accelerated away was easily visible along with the curvature of the Orbital that was dark and curved the opposite to the inside surface naturally. Many small lights dotted around gave the impression of another world on the flip side of the one she knew where deep space was always seen and not blue/purple skies.
‘Tube 512 to General bay 7a has reached its destination. Have a pleasant day!’
The intercom ended with a polite and cheerful tone. Everyone then started to get up and shuffle about ready to get off the tube and find whatever or whoever they were looking for. Jern stayed seated until most of the people in her section had departed. All except the man that is. She began to panic slightly; she hadn’t had a panic attack since her high school days and now was not the time to be nostalgic. After a couple more seconds of just staring out of the view port the man got up and left. No struggle, no screams and no blood. Three things Jern was expecting right now but maybe she was just being too paranoid. She got up and left the tube in search of the Intolerable Outlook. Funny, she thought. There isn’t a ship of that name docked according to my terminal.
McNeil was in his quarters overlooking engineering reports when the rescue ship finished towing them to Deep Space Nine. He had something to be cheerful about finally. He would get to see Ben again after 2 years. Supposedly missing in action after the Dominion war ended and a mad Gul Dukat planned on destroying the Federation. Captain Benjamin Sisko was returned by the Prophets or Wormhole aliens to be with his family once again before he returned to the job he always loved: looking after Bajor from Deep Space Nine. The reports into the damage of the Rawkes Drift showed a leaking EPS system, burnt out bridge consoles, one turbo lift inoperable, anti-matter loading equipment for torpedoes damaged and the phaser strips on the 3rd detachable section of the ship all bust. Not to mention the mystery behind the upper starboard warp nacelle being ripped off and then disappearing without a trace. Still at least no one was killed or critically hurt, the EMH made sure of that.
Deep Space Nine loomed into view of the captain’s view ports. The station was huge compared to the old Ambassador class vessel currently docked with it. There always seemed to be that type of ship docked with it! McNeil thought, then he turned and put the PADD he was using down on his desk and went into the bridge. The actual bridge now had a burnt plastic and leather smell and most of the consoles and seats were either black or going black due to the EPS conduits exploding when the anomaly finally caught up with them. Was it moving towards us or expanding uniformly? The captain was still pondering over what exactly it was that damaged his ship. Was it an energy being? A ship? A natural anomaly not previously recorded before? Damn sensors! He thought. The newest of a long line of warships and it didn’t have anywhere near the sensor ability of a Sovereign or heaven forbid an Oberth!
McNeil wasn’t the only one having a bad day and was in the vicinity of Deep Space Nine. Jackman and the USS Valdemar had been stationed at DS9 for the past couple of days already and he was beginning to loathe its atmosphere. A little known bar tender called Quark had tried to sell him all sorts of illegal contraband in the space of an hour. Eventually this Quark character left him alone but only after he bought the most expensive drink at the bar. It was going to be one of those days he guessed as he sat at the bar trying as best he could not to accidentally glance at the rather big alien sat next to him. He could seriously make my day worse than it already is if he stares at me anymore. Jackman finished the drink and set off to the holodecks. Quark also showed him some of the more “exotic” programs on offer and he stupidly bought one. If all went well the program should be as enjoyable as a week on Risa with Lauren, he didn’t even want to think of what could happen if it went badly! As soon as Jackman entered the holodecks captain Sisko walked past on route to the main airlocks, he was going to see an old friend. The large wheel shaped doors of Cardassian design (had to love those original concepts even if they didn’t seem as friendly as standard Starfleet airlock doors) swung aside to reveal two engineers, a 1st lieutenant and captain McNeil.
‘Welcome aboard Deep Space Nine captain. Long time no see!’
‘Quite. I hear the war ended, I’m I too late?’
‘Not at all,’ Sisko gave off a little laugh, ‘We could have used your help during the war instead of you being in Sol.’
‘Well from what I know you had your work cut out for you. An entire fleet of one hundred Cardassian and Dominion ships attacking just this station? Must’ve been tough but evidently you pulled through which is more than I can say for me.’
‘Oh yes, I remember you lost the Carolina to the Breen didn’t you? Well the Defiant didn’t fare any better it would seem. Anyway enough of the war, that’s in the past now. How’s Geena?’
‘I thought you heard?’
‘Heard what exactly?’ A puzzled expression formed on the previously cheerful face.
‘Geena…’ He looked at his feet for a second to try and think the words through so as not to sound too shocking. It made no difference. ‘Geena…passed away during the war. She was…assaulted by a rogue Cardassian whilst on a passenger liner about the same time DS9 was retaken. I…’
‘It’s okay, I’m sorry to hear that. She was a clever woman. If she did make it to fleet captain then I’m sure the war would’ve been over sooner. Here come into my office, we have a lot of catching up to do.’ Sisko motioned to his office on the deck above the main hall.
‘Of course. We must catch up mustn’t we? So how’s the wormhole nowadays?’
The two men left the other officers to their deeds and went into Sisko’s room to reflect on times gone by.
‘Can I help you Ms. Talow?’
‘Sorry, wha…what did you say?’ She was still checking the console on one of the walls in the general bay for the ship she should now be on.
‘I said could I offer any assistance?’ The small fist sized Drone hovered beside her as she scanned the screen for her ghost ship.
‘Do you know of any ships called…the Intolerable Outlook?’
‘I think you’ll find that that particular ship was here only a few weeks ago. It stayed for approximately 7 days 12 hours an…’
‘What?’ She turned to face the Drone but she was still scanning the hangar with her eyes for any big ships. The hangar had plenty of these unfortunately. ‘You mean to say it’s already been and gone?’
‘Yes that is exactly my point.’
‘Fuck!’ She punched the wall and banged her head on it, then sank to the floor.
‘If it’s any consolation there is another GSV that has just come in that works for Special Circumstances as well. Perhaps that can assist you instead.’ The Drone lowered itself to Jern as she spun round to lean against the bland metal wall, the console screen still searching for ships.
‘Where is this ship then?’
‘It is currently situated at General bay 6e. Would you like me to arrange a lift?’
‘No that’s quite all right, I’ll walk.’ She got up as she finished the sentence and looked around again for the mysterious man. He wasn’t present which was a good thing as well.
She walked towards another tube transport that led to the General bay with the alternative ship she could use. Dex is going to hear about this if and when I reach him! Fancy giving me a bloody ship that left before I even got his call.
Arriving at the General bay she noticed two things that surprised her. Firstly the ship she was supposedly getting a ride in was unlike any she had seen before and secondly the dark green and navy blue jump suited man was standing there waiting.
Cause and Effect
People fear change. It’s what causes new genrés to be formed, new ages, new technology and worst of all new conflicts to flare up from otherwise peaceful environments. If people didn’t accept fate then any race would be hard pressed to have evolved to where they are now whether they were human or otherwise. Time waits for no man and no man can avoid time. It will eventually catch up to everyone who exists and they will have judgement passed on their lives. Did you help out with people? Did you commit adultery? Why did you start this meaningless war? Too many questions and so very few answers, or at least answers that justified their actions.
Another day another atrocity and another change in many people’s lives would occur.
Jern stepped forward aware that the man was now fully focused on her and her alone. He wasn’t waiting for anyone else. The circular shades still present on his smooth face. Behind him floating silently in the cuboid shaped hangar was a ship of the most beautiful design. The surface of the entire ship was plain chrome and as shiny as it would be if it had just rolled out of a shipyard. The shape was smooth too. The nose was a smooth blending cone that extended outward both port and starboard into a wider oval shape main body, essentially two sleek spheroids were on either side of the cone about half way behind its tip. The main body came to an and at a narrow section that was as tall as the body of the ship but was essentially an extension of the cone but flattened and the leading edge sloped down slightly towards the main body downwards. Running down this were six rectangles with a glowing red outline on each side of the end of this extension like rear facing hangars themselves but closed. Two large booms stuck out from where the spheroids attached at their back. These booms were made up of many blisters or smaller spheroids and ended with a wing facing outwards but tipped down and another two on the inside of the boom, one facing upwards the other a mirror of the outside facing wing but facing the inside of the boom. These wings also had three spheroids along their width facing forward. The whole ship was basically streamlined despite the lack of any friction in the vacuum of space. It was also immense! The whole ship from nose to the end of the twin tail booms was 23km long, not the biggest or the smallest ship Jern had seen but an easy nominee for the nicest looking.
‘Good morning, I trust you had a pleasant trip?’
Jern was still gazing at the ship in the background.
‘Erm, yes I did thanks. I saw you on the tube, are you…’
‘If your next words were “the captain” then yes. Welcome to General bay 6e; temporary home to the Questionable Ethics.’
Jern didn’t know whether to act shocked or happy but she made a good attempt at both only to win a peculiar gaze from the captain.
‘Oh I’m sorry I haven’t introduced myself properly yet. I’m Redik Faran. I am an agent for SC but I only use the rank captain to make me sound better for the ladies. Makes me seem like I have my own ship!’ Redik smiled at Jern and then put on a stern face.
‘It says on my orders that you have to be in the Leynas system in forty-eight hours. Normally there wouldn’t be a hope of getting you there in time with any normal ship but then that’s why the Intolerable Outlook was assigned different orders. If you would follow me.’ Redik turned on the spot as if he was in another military like the Idiran navy or something. Jern hesitated and followed him towards the reflections of the whole hangar on the surface of the Questionable Ethics.
‘…So then he said: “Don’t shoot I’m on your team you dumbass!” at which point I lowered my phaser and laughed my ass off!”
‘Well Jackman I can’t say that was the best way to meet Garek but had you shot him I don’t know what I’d miss: the constant cynicism or his suits.’
Jackman took another gulp of Romulan ale from a shot glass and slammed the bar with it so it nearly shattered in his hand.
‘Y’see,’ Jackman was obviously in a state of drunkenness by now and was making little to no sense to major Kira as they both sat in his quarters. ‘The…I can’t remember now. Ahhh to hell with it!’ And with that he slammed his head down on the bar narrowly missing his cracked shot glass.
‘Ensign are you all right?’ Kira asked as she stooped down to Jackman’s now rested head. No answer. He was knocked out cold and he had only drunk four shots if that. Kira knew it was illegal to fraternise with any crew while on duty but it was even worse if said crewman had an illegal beverage onboard a Starfleet ship. She quickly put the rest of the ale in the replicators and recycled it. Jackman was still lying and now breathing heavily on his bar onboard the USS Valdemar. Kira should never have offered to help him with engineering’s problems. I’m not even supposed to have left engineering let alone stay onboard and drink with some stranger. Despite Kira not being an engineer Jackman had to make do with her in finally getting the Valdemar’s engineers working on the replicators that worked well as long as you didn’t want your exact order. Damn O’Brien for taking shore leave now. She carried and left Jackman on his bed and cleared up the mess he had made whilst apparently trying to impress her. The stories of meeting various famous people were his last stand on the old pick up routine she guessed.
‘Odo to Kira, have you quite finished on that relic of a ship yet or are you not going to help me with this supplies check?’
Kira tapped her comm. Badge twice.
‘I’ll be with you in five Odo. Just…’ Kira looked at Jackman’s limp body and felt touched by his effort to chat her up but was soon put off by his heavy snoring now. ‘Yeah I’ll be right there Odo, sorry for any delay. Kira out’.
Kira was wondering what had happened to Captain Sisko for the past two hours. She wasn’t seeing him around as much as she used to during the war and so on. Ever since the Wormhole aliens took him away for that brief time he hadn’t been the same. Sure he still talked to her and the rest of the crew and he wasn’t acting suspicious as such but something just didn’t seem quite right. As if the aliens had taken a part of his soul.
She walked past the captain’s office and saw him with another man grey haired man who was drinking something with Sisko. Captain McNeil had spent the best part of a day in that room and was becoming more relaxed the whole time. Kira sighed deeply; she had hoped Sisko would be able to have a drink with O’Brien and Bashir later on. It seemed now she would just rent the holodecks out for an hour or two for tonight instead.
Jern was standing next to Redik as he reached the main entrance to the silent behemoth; she was transfixed by the reflections of the busy hangar bay being shown in front of her on the hull of the ship.
‘Pretty shiny, huh?’ said Redik giving the ship a once over.
‘Why such a beautiful looking hull when it’s a GSV not an art piece? In fact why the smoothness at all? Space has no atmosphere.’
‘Yes but you obviously haven’t met the Minds that designed this baby have you.’ He was still glancing around as if to see something out of place on the flush surface.
‘Sorry, Minds?’ Jern said strongly emphasising the plural. It was unusual for a single ship to have more than one Mind onboard simply because of their intelligence and speed. One Mind was sufficient for an Orbital or Rock never mind a full trio being on one ship.
‘Yeah there’s more than one of ‘em,’ Redik was now fumbling for something inside his jumpsuit pockets. ‘I s’pose they don’t want to take any chances at least not for our mission so to speak.’
‘We’re simply going to Leynas and overseeing negotiations for a fleet to set up there right?’ Jern was more aware that she didn’t really know what was going to happen when she finally got to her destination. All she knew was that a friend of hers recommended her to oversee operations to get the Culture access to this star system.
Which also had a very arrogant race controlling it and even worse one that didn’t, at least for the time being, join the Culture.
Redik didn’t answer, he was far too busy checking his pockets for something, Jern had to wonder it was a good thing he wasn’t the real captain otherwise she may never get to see Dex!
‘Ah got the bastard!’
Jern looked at him as if she could force him to get a move on. ‘Can we go now?’
‘Yep, we can go now.’ Then Redik pointed his pen terminal at the ship as if it was a large hovercar and a small bleep could be heard. The hull straight in front of Jern then grew an outline in the shape of a small access door. The outline finished joining up and the section cut out reversed back into the ship and lifted up out of view. The whole ship was covered in nanotech devices and so the skin could react by sealing up a doorway completely so no outline could be seen. This greatly improved the ships durability at the molecular level but Redik just thought it looked “Pretty neat”.
The pair walked along the ramp through the doorway into the dark unknown.
‘So what now?’ Jern asked not looking impressed with the dull inside compared to the nice outside.
‘Ship start-up, take us out of space dock and make way to the Leynas syst…’ before Redik could finish the sentence all the inside lit up brightly. Screens and wall lights would light up systematically to reveal the plush inside. Plants of all kinds were dotted along the corridor and the grey/beige interior looked and even smelled brand new. Jern whistled now thoroughly impressed at the ship. She had never been on a brand new ship before. All she had been on was a hundred year old Plate class and several GCUs that were the equivalent to pensioners in the other Minds eyes.
‘So how many Minds control this thing anyway?’
‘Three. Two of which shouldn’t even be here but SC specifically said they were an important asset to this whole operation.’
Jern looked around as if to see another man talking to her.
‘I take it that was one of the three then.’ she said still turning on the spot.
‘Jern Talow, I have heard good things about you. Prey tell us what you need and we will be happy to provide it.’ A second voice replied. Jern was moving slowly up the corridor leaving Redik to examine one of rare plants. Luxury was everywhere in the Culture to the point that there was no low or high quality ship. No rich or poor as the Culture had no need for legal tender due to the Culture’s vast resources. People were able to do or be whatever they wanted.
‘Okay just so I don’t get my brain scrambled completely what are your names?’ Jern was questioning a faceless entity so she felt stupid just standing there and kept turning and walking.
‘Our names are irrelevant if you want to ask us anything simply say “Ship” and one of us will answer.’
‘Okay.’ Said Jern slightly annoyed.
After finally getting her clothes on that still fit her (she had lost plenty of weight naturally whilst partying every night) she set off to the nearby transport tube that lead straight towards the bottom of the vast Orbital. The streets were virtually empty when the mad alcoholic party animal woke her up abruptly but now the full rush hour traffic had turned up and was now in full swing. Hover cars and vans and businessmen (from another sector outside the Culture, the Culture had so many resources that monetary value was pointless and frankly so were the trips businessmen made to any Orbital) were bustling around in the hot morning weather. The sky clear blue bar the occasional ship taking off or holiday cruise blimp flying over temporarily blotting out the sun.
They party hard so they must work hard too! She thought as yet another strange creature bumped into her for the fourth time running. She was still essentially drunk & tired after drinking a high-energy drink so she started glanding up some Active to wake herself up and revitalise her mind. The tube access station was just down the road now. She had hoped that she wouldn’t have to go on a mission for another 2 weeks at least, this was all brought on by her sudden interest in the local male audience. Still, she thought, I’m sure there’s plenty or fit men on the ship I’ll be on. Then of course there’s the entire population of the Leynas system to think of if I do indeed get desperate. Whilst thinking about the many delights that could appear on her journey she passed a man who seemed…misplaced somehow.
Jern noticed a figure dressed entirely in a dark green and navy blue jumpsuit with a cloak and circular wire like sunglasses. He seemed to stick out quite a bit considering the rest of the public were clothed casually and in some quite bright colours too. The man just stood against the wall leading to the entrance of the tube transport. Jern looked at him briefly then quickly turned away to look towards the nearby tube gangway. She started to sweat a little, whether this was due to the heat of the morning sun or because the man was now entering the transport with her she didn’t know. She wasn’t thinking of shouting, “Help! Stalker!” or arresting him simply because he looked suspicious. That’s the trouble with this Culture; everyone can do anything and get away with it. Even the most heinous crimes such as murder could go unnoticed because everyone else appeared happy that made it all right did it? She sat down next to a window on the long narrow tube shaped train. The station had several of these cylindrical craft that went through the Orbitals thickness and came out of the outside of the ring horizontally so that it could move much faster to the various space ports and other facilities on the giant rings outer surface. The doors closed. The transport lowered slowly then sped up to over 500km/h instantly through the vacuum tube. Inertial dampeners made sure people didn’t get crushed by the immense accelerative forces as the large cylinder like tube train travelled down horizontally. The 300 passengers chatting and going about their business as the Hub Mind for the Orbital drove them to their destination. Every Orbital had a round “Hub” like structure in the centre of the rotating “O” which held the Orbitals Mind. This Hub wasn’t attached to the Orbital itself but it did allow the Mind to control everything on the O from star ships docking to environmental controls in hotels and so on. Minds simply were the ultimate AIs.
The dark suited man sat adjacent to Jern’s seat as she read a holographic screen with the day’s news on. She tried not to look around at him directly but he seemed both lethal and incredibly ‘Cute’ she said under her breath so no one could hear her. The man was tall, about 1metre 95 and had short light brown hair. His complexion was smooth but he would’ve looked better with some bristles to make him seem tougher…not that he wasn’t already scaring Jern!
The transport started to slow down from its hypersonic speed. It was now nearing the outside of the Orbital; the landscape would now look different. Instead of seeing towns and hills and mountains with snow and at night the other side of the Orbital as it was illuminated by the sunlight you would now see a metal surface with conduits, hangars, ships, more tube transports scurrying along the surface like metal bugs and also long docking tubes to bigger ships not that many ships couldn’t fit in the immense hangars of the Orbital already. A civilian liner had just pulled out of a nearby hangar and jumped to warp, the stretching effect as the ship accelerated away was easily visible along with the curvature of the Orbital that was dark and curved the opposite to the inside surface naturally. Many small lights dotted around gave the impression of another world on the flip side of the one she knew where deep space was always seen and not blue/purple skies.
‘Tube 512 to General bay 7a has reached its destination. Have a pleasant day!’
The intercom ended with a polite and cheerful tone. Everyone then started to get up and shuffle about ready to get off the tube and find whatever or whoever they were looking for. Jern stayed seated until most of the people in her section had departed. All except the man that is. She began to panic slightly; she hadn’t had a panic attack since her high school days and now was not the time to be nostalgic. After a couple more seconds of just staring out of the view port the man got up and left. No struggle, no screams and no blood. Three things Jern was expecting right now but maybe she was just being too paranoid. She got up and left the tube in search of the Intolerable Outlook. Funny, she thought. There isn’t a ship of that name docked according to my terminal.
McNeil was in his quarters overlooking engineering reports when the rescue ship finished towing them to Deep Space Nine. He had something to be cheerful about finally. He would get to see Ben again after 2 years. Supposedly missing in action after the Dominion war ended and a mad Gul Dukat planned on destroying the Federation. Captain Benjamin Sisko was returned by the Prophets or Wormhole aliens to be with his family once again before he returned to the job he always loved: looking after Bajor from Deep Space Nine. The reports into the damage of the Rawkes Drift showed a leaking EPS system, burnt out bridge consoles, one turbo lift inoperable, anti-matter loading equipment for torpedoes damaged and the phaser strips on the 3rd detachable section of the ship all bust. Not to mention the mystery behind the upper starboard warp nacelle being ripped off and then disappearing without a trace. Still at least no one was killed or critically hurt, the EMH made sure of that.
Deep Space Nine loomed into view of the captain’s view ports. The station was huge compared to the old Ambassador class vessel currently docked with it. There always seemed to be that type of ship docked with it! McNeil thought, then he turned and put the PADD he was using down on his desk and went into the bridge. The actual bridge now had a burnt plastic and leather smell and most of the consoles and seats were either black or going black due to the EPS conduits exploding when the anomaly finally caught up with them. Was it moving towards us or expanding uniformly? The captain was still pondering over what exactly it was that damaged his ship. Was it an energy being? A ship? A natural anomaly not previously recorded before? Damn sensors! He thought. The newest of a long line of warships and it didn’t have anywhere near the sensor ability of a Sovereign or heaven forbid an Oberth!
McNeil wasn’t the only one having a bad day and was in the vicinity of Deep Space Nine. Jackman and the USS Valdemar had been stationed at DS9 for the past couple of days already and he was beginning to loathe its atmosphere. A little known bar tender called Quark had tried to sell him all sorts of illegal contraband in the space of an hour. Eventually this Quark character left him alone but only after he bought the most expensive drink at the bar. It was going to be one of those days he guessed as he sat at the bar trying as best he could not to accidentally glance at the rather big alien sat next to him. He could seriously make my day worse than it already is if he stares at me anymore. Jackman finished the drink and set off to the holodecks. Quark also showed him some of the more “exotic” programs on offer and he stupidly bought one. If all went well the program should be as enjoyable as a week on Risa with Lauren, he didn’t even want to think of what could happen if it went badly! As soon as Jackman entered the holodecks captain Sisko walked past on route to the main airlocks, he was going to see an old friend. The large wheel shaped doors of Cardassian design (had to love those original concepts even if they didn’t seem as friendly as standard Starfleet airlock doors) swung aside to reveal two engineers, a 1st lieutenant and captain McNeil.
‘Welcome aboard Deep Space Nine captain. Long time no see!’
‘Quite. I hear the war ended, I’m I too late?’
‘Not at all,’ Sisko gave off a little laugh, ‘We could have used your help during the war instead of you being in Sol.’
‘Well from what I know you had your work cut out for you. An entire fleet of one hundred Cardassian and Dominion ships attacking just this station? Must’ve been tough but evidently you pulled through which is more than I can say for me.’
‘Oh yes, I remember you lost the Carolina to the Breen didn’t you? Well the Defiant didn’t fare any better it would seem. Anyway enough of the war, that’s in the past now. How’s Geena?’
‘I thought you heard?’
‘Heard what exactly?’ A puzzled expression formed on the previously cheerful face.
‘Geena…’ He looked at his feet for a second to try and think the words through so as not to sound too shocking. It made no difference. ‘Geena…passed away during the war. She was…assaulted by a rogue Cardassian whilst on a passenger liner about the same time DS9 was retaken. I…’
‘It’s okay, I’m sorry to hear that. She was a clever woman. If she did make it to fleet captain then I’m sure the war would’ve been over sooner. Here come into my office, we have a lot of catching up to do.’ Sisko motioned to his office on the deck above the main hall.
‘Of course. We must catch up mustn’t we? So how’s the wormhole nowadays?’
The two men left the other officers to their deeds and went into Sisko’s room to reflect on times gone by.
‘Can I help you Ms. Talow?’
‘Sorry, wha…what did you say?’ She was still checking the console on one of the walls in the general bay for the ship she should now be on.
‘I said could I offer any assistance?’ The small fist sized Drone hovered beside her as she scanned the screen for her ghost ship.
‘Do you know of any ships called…the Intolerable Outlook?’
‘I think you’ll find that that particular ship was here only a few weeks ago. It stayed for approximately 7 days 12 hours an…’
‘What?’ She turned to face the Drone but she was still scanning the hangar with her eyes for any big ships. The hangar had plenty of these unfortunately. ‘You mean to say it’s already been and gone?’
‘Yes that is exactly my point.’
‘Fuck!’ She punched the wall and banged her head on it, then sank to the floor.
‘If it’s any consolation there is another GSV that has just come in that works for Special Circumstances as well. Perhaps that can assist you instead.’ The Drone lowered itself to Jern as she spun round to lean against the bland metal wall, the console screen still searching for ships.
‘Where is this ship then?’
‘It is currently situated at General bay 6e. Would you like me to arrange a lift?’
‘No that’s quite all right, I’ll walk.’ She got up as she finished the sentence and looked around again for the mysterious man. He wasn’t present which was a good thing as well.
She walked towards another tube transport that led to the General bay with the alternative ship she could use. Dex is going to hear about this if and when I reach him! Fancy giving me a bloody ship that left before I even got his call.
Arriving at the General bay she noticed two things that surprised her. Firstly the ship she was supposedly getting a ride in was unlike any she had seen before and secondly the dark green and navy blue jump suited man was standing there waiting.
Cause and Effect
People fear change. It’s what causes new genrés to be formed, new ages, new technology and worst of all new conflicts to flare up from otherwise peaceful environments. If people didn’t accept fate then any race would be hard pressed to have evolved to where they are now whether they were human or otherwise. Time waits for no man and no man can avoid time. It will eventually catch up to everyone who exists and they will have judgement passed on their lives. Did you help out with people? Did you commit adultery? Why did you start this meaningless war? Too many questions and so very few answers, or at least answers that justified their actions.
Another day another atrocity and another change in many people’s lives would occur.
Jern stepped forward aware that the man was now fully focused on her and her alone. He wasn’t waiting for anyone else. The circular shades still present on his smooth face. Behind him floating silently in the cuboid shaped hangar was a ship of the most beautiful design. The surface of the entire ship was plain chrome and as shiny as it would be if it had just rolled out of a shipyard. The shape was smooth too. The nose was a smooth blending cone that extended outward both port and starboard into a wider oval shape main body, essentially two sleek spheroids were on either side of the cone about half way behind its tip. The main body came to an and at a narrow section that was as tall as the body of the ship but was essentially an extension of the cone but flattened and the leading edge sloped down slightly towards the main body downwards. Running down this were six rectangles with a glowing red outline on each side of the end of this extension like rear facing hangars themselves but closed. Two large booms stuck out from where the spheroids attached at their back. These booms were made up of many blisters or smaller spheroids and ended with a wing facing outwards but tipped down and another two on the inside of the boom, one facing upwards the other a mirror of the outside facing wing but facing the inside of the boom. These wings also had three spheroids along their width facing forward. The whole ship was basically streamlined despite the lack of any friction in the vacuum of space. It was also immense! The whole ship from nose to the end of the twin tail booms was 23km long, not the biggest or the smallest ship Jern had seen but an easy nominee for the nicest looking.
‘Good morning, I trust you had a pleasant trip?’
Jern was still gazing at the ship in the background.
‘Erm, yes I did thanks. I saw you on the tube, are you…’
‘If your next words were “the captain” then yes. Welcome to General bay 6e; temporary home to the Questionable Ethics.’
Jern didn’t know whether to act shocked or happy but she made a good attempt at both only to win a peculiar gaze from the captain.
‘Oh I’m sorry I haven’t introduced myself properly yet. I’m Redik Faran. I am an agent for SC but I only use the rank captain to make me sound better for the ladies. Makes me seem like I have my own ship!’ Redik smiled at Jern and then put on a stern face.
‘It says on my orders that you have to be in the Leynas system in forty-eight hours. Normally there wouldn’t be a hope of getting you there in time with any normal ship but then that’s why the Intolerable Outlook was assigned different orders. If you would follow me.’ Redik turned on the spot as if he was in another military like the Idiran navy or something. Jern hesitated and followed him towards the reflections of the whole hangar on the surface of the Questionable Ethics.
‘…So then he said: “Don’t shoot I’m on your team you dumbass!” at which point I lowered my phaser and laughed my ass off!”
‘Well Jackman I can’t say that was the best way to meet Garek but had you shot him I don’t know what I’d miss: the constant cynicism or his suits.’
Jackman took another gulp of Romulan ale from a shot glass and slammed the bar with it so it nearly shattered in his hand.
‘Y’see,’ Jackman was obviously in a state of drunkenness by now and was making little to no sense to major Kira as they both sat in his quarters. ‘The…I can’t remember now. Ahhh to hell with it!’ And with that he slammed his head down on the bar narrowly missing his cracked shot glass.
‘Ensign are you all right?’ Kira asked as she stooped down to Jackman’s now rested head. No answer. He was knocked out cold and he had only drunk four shots if that. Kira knew it was illegal to fraternise with any crew while on duty but it was even worse if said crewman had an illegal beverage onboard a Starfleet ship. She quickly put the rest of the ale in the replicators and recycled it. Jackman was still lying and now breathing heavily on his bar onboard the USS Valdemar. Kira should never have offered to help him with engineering’s problems. I’m not even supposed to have left engineering let alone stay onboard and drink with some stranger. Despite Kira not being an engineer Jackman had to make do with her in finally getting the Valdemar’s engineers working on the replicators that worked well as long as you didn’t want your exact order. Damn O’Brien for taking shore leave now. She carried and left Jackman on his bed and cleared up the mess he had made whilst apparently trying to impress her. The stories of meeting various famous people were his last stand on the old pick up routine she guessed.
‘Odo to Kira, have you quite finished on that relic of a ship yet or are you not going to help me with this supplies check?’
Kira tapped her comm. Badge twice.
‘I’ll be with you in five Odo. Just…’ Kira looked at Jackman’s limp body and felt touched by his effort to chat her up but was soon put off by his heavy snoring now. ‘Yeah I’ll be right there Odo, sorry for any delay. Kira out’.
Kira was wondering what had happened to Captain Sisko for the past two hours. She wasn’t seeing him around as much as she used to during the war and so on. Ever since the Wormhole aliens took him away for that brief time he hadn’t been the same. Sure he still talked to her and the rest of the crew and he wasn’t acting suspicious as such but something just didn’t seem quite right. As if the aliens had taken a part of his soul.
She walked past the captain’s office and saw him with another man grey haired man who was drinking something with Sisko. Captain McNeil had spent the best part of a day in that room and was becoming more relaxed the whole time. Kira sighed deeply; she had hoped Sisko would be able to have a drink with O’Brien and Bashir later on. It seemed now she would just rent the holodecks out for an hour or two for tonight instead.
Jern was standing next to Redik as he reached the main entrance to the silent behemoth; she was transfixed by the reflections of the busy hangar bay being shown in front of her on the hull of the ship.
‘Pretty shiny, huh?’ said Redik giving the ship a once over.
‘Why such a beautiful looking hull when it’s a GSV not an art piece? In fact why the smoothness at all? Space has no atmosphere.’
‘Yes but you obviously haven’t met the Minds that designed this baby have you.’ He was still glancing around as if to see something out of place on the flush surface.
‘Sorry, Minds?’ Jern said strongly emphasising the plural. It was unusual for a single ship to have more than one Mind onboard simply because of their intelligence and speed. One Mind was sufficient for an Orbital or Rock never mind a full trio being on one ship.
‘Yeah there’s more than one of ‘em,’ Redik was now fumbling for something inside his jumpsuit pockets. ‘I s’pose they don’t want to take any chances at least not for our mission so to speak.’
‘We’re simply going to Leynas and overseeing negotiations for a fleet to set up there right?’ Jern was more aware that she didn’t really know what was going to happen when she finally got to her destination. All she knew was that a friend of hers recommended her to oversee operations to get the Culture access to this star system.
Which also had a very arrogant race controlling it and even worse one that didn’t, at least for the time being, join the Culture.
Redik didn’t answer, he was far too busy checking his pockets for something, Jern had to wonder it was a good thing he wasn’t the real captain otherwise she may never get to see Dex!
‘Ah got the bastard!’
Jern looked at him as if she could force him to get a move on. ‘Can we go now?’
‘Yep, we can go now.’ Then Redik pointed his pen terminal at the ship as if it was a large hovercar and a small bleep could be heard. The hull straight in front of Jern then grew an outline in the shape of a small access door. The outline finished joining up and the section cut out reversed back into the ship and lifted up out of view. The whole ship was covered in nanotech devices and so the skin could react by sealing up a doorway completely so no outline could be seen. This greatly improved the ships durability at the molecular level but Redik just thought it looked “Pretty neat”.
The pair walked along the ramp through the doorway into the dark unknown.
‘So what now?’ Jern asked not looking impressed with the dull inside compared to the nice outside.
‘Ship start-up, take us out of space dock and make way to the Leynas syst…’ before Redik could finish the sentence all the inside lit up brightly. Screens and wall lights would light up systematically to reveal the plush inside. Plants of all kinds were dotted along the corridor and the grey/beige interior looked and even smelled brand new. Jern whistled now thoroughly impressed at the ship. She had never been on a brand new ship before. All she had been on was a hundred year old Plate class and several GCUs that were the equivalent to pensioners in the other Minds eyes.
‘So how many Minds control this thing anyway?’
‘Three. Two of which shouldn’t even be here but SC specifically said they were an important asset to this whole operation.’
Jern looked around as if to see another man talking to her.
‘I take it that was one of the three then.’ she said still turning on the spot.
‘Jern Talow, I have heard good things about you. Prey tell us what you need and we will be happy to provide it.’ A second voice replied. Jern was moving slowly up the corridor leaving Redik to examine one of rare plants. Luxury was everywhere in the Culture to the point that there was no low or high quality ship. No rich or poor as the Culture had no need for legal tender due to the Culture’s vast resources. People were able to do or be whatever they wanted.
‘Okay just so I don’t get my brain scrambled completely what are your names?’ Jern was questioning a faceless entity so she felt stupid just standing there and kept turning and walking.
‘Our names are irrelevant if you want to ask us anything simply say “Ship” and one of us will answer.’
‘Okay.’ Said Jern slightly annoyed.