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Greetings,
For years I've been planning my own Pre-TOS Prequel that's designed to replace Enterprise, on a Daedalus class ship with Nuclear Missiles, stasis and Warp 4 drive, with a 69-year-old Japanese captain, an Andorian, and a 22-year old genius Chief Engineer who helped design the Daedalus's Warp Drive..

I have been considering posting the completed fic here, if it ever GETS finished.

Any of you want to find out more?

So pre-Federation is it? Or post-Romulan War and Federation foundation but pre-Kirk? What's the political situation? What is this purpose - are they out pretending to be goodwill ambassadors like TNG or are they an armed exploration expedition, like TOS?

It's set a year after the Federation gets formed, and almost two years since the Earth-Romulan War Ended.

It will be an armed expedition like TOS.

The Federation is somewhat shaky, but it will hold.

Many race's navies are devastated by the Romulans, causing the Earth Navy to become the new starfleet, with at first only a handful of non-humans signing up, hopefully explaining the human dominence,

YES !

We even accept incomplete works


Since Masao Okazaki's Starfleet Museum is inactive I'm lacking interesting material

And you shall get it. Soon.

I also accept the bulk of his material for my continuity, by the way, considering it nice and primitive, although I also shoehorn some FASA stuff in there.

Catman wrote:I also accept the bulk of his material for my continuity, by the way, considering it nice and primitive, although I also shoehorn some FASA stuff in there.

Does that mean we'll see Federation dreadnoughts and fighters? (Yes, please, yes, please, yes, please.)

Probably. I'm not sure when I can shoehorn them in.

You will get to see the Daedalus, it's shuttles, and an Andorian Frigate and Shuttle. You'll also eventually get to see more Daedalus class ships (shades of the 60s...)

Catman wrote:Probably. I'm not sure when I can shoehorn them in.

You will get to see the Daedalus, it's shuttles, and an Andorian Frigate and Shuttle. You'll also eventually get to see more Daedalus class ships (shades of the 60s...)

Just add the UES/USS Victory and I'll be happy

Heh heh, funny...

I like that thing too, but my favorites are the Daedalus and Lancaster, with the Pyotyr Velikiy and Avenger/Predator coming in close.

And now, part 1...

01/17/2162

The Andorian frigate wandered the edge of the Andorian region of the
new United Federation of Planets, followng an old course along the
Andorian/Romulan border.

Captain Thorindar felt both relieved and bored about the end of the
Earth-Romulan War. On the one hand, the Romulans were devastating to
the Skorr and Tellarites, almost wiping them out utterly, and exhausting
the Vulcan and Centauran mililtaries quite a bit, making them weak
and unable to put up much of a fight. the Humans were adequate
warriors with very advanced ships, easily fighting back the Romulans
despite their vile tactics of surprising and tricking the enemy into
a vulnerable position, such as in the outer edge of a gas giant
or a very tightly packed asteroid belt.

The Romulans almost brought the Andorian Hegemony down itself...

"Captain!" The new young science officer called, a sprightly young
woman named Tania.

Prodded into awareness, and surprised by this constantly dull patrol,
Thorindar climbed out of his command chair and walked over to her
station.

"Analysis?" The aging captain asked, secretly worried about any new
threats, considering the exhausted, now marginal Andorian military.

"Unknown. It is massive, at about 1.5 Kelaxbase in diameter." the
calm, serene young officer reported.

What? Such an object COULDN'T have drifted in at sublight!

There wasn't anything around for a few Palans!

"How could a Warp vessel be that huge? And it would HAVE to be a vessel,
this is one of the emptiest areas we've mapped!"

"Suggestions, sir?"

The captain strode quickly to the helm.

"Intercept the object, full impulse. L. 124, M. 92."

"Ayach."

The helmsman then began to operate his board, looking into a rubber-fit
brown viewer to determine the course.

The small, almond shaped gray vessel began moving when it's small, dual,
impulse engines began to light up.

As it arrived near the huge object, it appeared to be a huge asteroid,
at least three kms in diameter, and certainly not appearing to have
warp capacity.

"What? An asteroid? it couldn't have gotten here that fast!"

"Understood, sir. But it is here."

"Sir! I'm reading a power buildup in the asteroid!"

Thorindar was surprised, and slightly disturbed at this.

"What?"

Tania swallowed and said: "I'm reading Matter and Antimatter signatures"

"Then it might be a kind of ship. Torak, contact laser control teams.
This thing might attack."

"Aye, sir." The Communications officer began relaying the required
message to the laser control room crews.

After a few, slow Aanths, Torak said "They are ready to fire, Captain."

"Excellant."

"Captain, some kind of energy buildup is occurring!"

"What?"

The captain looked at the screen, shocked.

Catman wrote:
"How could a Warp vessel be that huge? And it would HAVE to be a vessel,
this is one of the emptiest areas we've mapped!"

"Suggestions, sir?"

The captain strode quickly to the helm.

The Captain is asked for suggestions by a junior officer ?

Someone on the board mentioned once that any captain would ****** any junior officer whose report consisted only of "Captain !" and nothing more for some time.

Nice start, but please don't tell me you've got a Death Star analog there

PS: my top five are the Kestel, Lancaster, Conqueror, Quetzalcoatl and Yorktown, in no particular order.

4/10/2162

Makoto Takashi walked through the busy interior of Starfleet HQ,
wondering where Admiral Baker was, finally getting bored.

He was a patient man, but he despised having to wait over and
over for someone...

"Takashi!"

He turned, relieved to see the black with silver trim jumpsuited
Admiral striding towards him through a large, thick crowd of Humans.

"It's about time. Why did it take you so long to get here?"

"Oh, I had to do a lot of supervising. It's tying up quite a lot
of my available time, this new Federation."

"You could have simply talked to me from the wallscreen."

"I wanted to actually see you again. We haven't seen each other
for a few decades, since we were on the Olympic!"

"You say that as if it were true. We met when the Galileo was getting
refitted..."

"But it was a BRIEFING, and we barely even saw each other, let alone
get together and talk thououghly in private!"

"This isn't private."

"Oh, goddammit... Let's just chat and go to the Cinnabon!"

"You're desperate, aren't you?"

"Yes Tak, because I swear I could have lost you there..."

"Admiral, if I had known you missed me that much, I would have tried
to keep in touch..."

"Well, considering what we went through before, I would have hated for
it to simply just... end like that. Without me seeing you again."

When they arrived and ordered, Takashi looked out through the window,
seeing all of a sudden, two Tellarites amidst all the Humans... or
all the Human looking beings... He loved Aliens, but was only used
to seeing them on decade-spanning voyages, not on Earth, when ten years
before, the only aliens tended to be ambassadors and their staffs,
hardly accessible in San Francisco.

After Baker arrived with their food, he looked at Takashi and said
"Hey, the food's here! ...Whaddya lookin' at?

Takashi turned his head and said "When did you see a Tellarite on Earth?"

"Oh, well it's going to be a common sight, someday. After all, we are now
one nation, not a bunch of gradually mellowing neighbors."

"I can't imagine. The Vulcans have been pretty closed off to us."

"Nah, they just do a little bit periodically, in conjunction with us,
but it's hard to say what the hell the Vulcans are like, except that
emotionless deal... I don't think it's anything other than a show..."

"Settle down. They haven't appeared to be anything sinister."

"Well, it bugs me that they KEEP hiding so much about them, letting
only a few humans periodically travel to Vulcanis and not letting
them go very many places... Jesus! I can't help but question that!"

"Well, they'll probably get more involved with us someday. It's probably
a matter of time."

"When hell freezes over."

"Come now, Admiral. We worked well on our combined probe project with
the Centuarans. They probably just want to hide some silly scandals."

"Heh heh, well that's a laugh!"

"They will probably get more involved, and even join Starfleet!"

"What? They declined our invitations for an exchange program twice
before! It... Jesus, Tak, you act like this will all CHANGE!"

"Things have already changed, more and more."

"I'm not convinced... And the Humans now are almost the only ones
with a working fleet!"

"Give it time... And the fleet isn't fully active yet anyway..."

"So, it's fun to see Andorians and Tellarites on Earth?"

"Yes. I'm used to seeing them on various OTHER places... I never dreamed
I'd see them just walking around casually."

"Yep."

"Look at you... They STILL haven't created a new UNITED uniform?"

"You'll see yours soon. But it hasn't been officially introduced yet."

"When will THAT be? I don't like the idea of a Human dominent
Federation!"

"Settle DOWN! And we're still using a lot of Earth ships! They'll be
around for a long time! Let's eat first!"

They ate in silence, Takashi not feeling bothered, but uneasy just the
same...

When they were done, Admiral Baker asked "All done?"

Takashi nodded and Baker said "come with me."

When they left, the Admiral took a small rectangular light gray device
from his pocket and holding it vertically, pressed the pulsating red
rectangular button near the top of the device.

Soon, a small aircar arrived, and Baker said "Okay, let's go."

A little confused, Takashi followed him into the Aircar, which soon
took off.

Later in his office, Takashi, sipping Darjeeling tea and sitting in
a comfortable chair asked "What is this about, Admiral? The Daedalus?"

Looking through the blinds, the Admiral turned around.

"Yes. It IS going online soon."

"When? It's been over a year! It couldn't be going through MUCH of
a refit, now is it?"

"No, it's just been a BEAR moving things along, and we have been
checking the new science facilities on the Daedalus, to prepare
the ship for it's upcoming mission."

"Oh, so it's not a WARSHIP, anymore?"

"Stop that, Captain! We were AT WAR. And we needed every ship,
including your old surveyor, the Socrates. And the Daedalus
only conducted a little bit of scouting before the war was over.
It's fine to abhorr bloodshed, but fighting is sometimes unavoidable."

"Although too MUCH war isn't necessarily a good thing, either."

"How often were we at war after the Kzin raids?"

"What about the Andorian Conflicts?"

"*chuckle* Right, where both sides were spent travelling most of the
entire war? Well, despite your worries of a militaristic Starfleet,
we haven't even BEEN in much, the Romulan War being about the only
exception. I wouldn't worry. It's like you say, give it time."

"...Indeed."

"The Daedalus will be launched in an official ceremony tomorrow."

"What?"

"I'm sorry captain, but-"

"I can't believe that you would take so long to TELL ME!"

"I've been BUSY!"

"With what? Many of our UESN ships are MILITARY vessels, maybe the
Daedalus can be an exploration ship along with it's sister ships,
but what about the USS Dauntless?"

"SETTLE DOWN! We will take TIME, to get settled in our new United
Starfleet, and I know how concerned you are, but it's like you won't
even get rid of some of your old prejudices! The Military isn't just
full of Warmongers, just like some SCIENTISTS aren't all PEACEMONGERS,
and as I said, if this becomes a military dictatorship in five years,
then fair enough, but you're carrying the same old adversarial crap
TOO FAR."

Silence.

Then, finally Takashi said "Fine, Admiral. I am sorry. But look at the
UESPA when it was absorbed into the UESN. It was like it was just
a tool."

"Be patient, Takashi. We don't need to assume yet. It's only the
beginning of a new era!"

Takashi groaned and paused before saying "Will my old crew be on board?"

"Some of them will. Macintyre will stay on, and so has every other
senior officer except chief engineer Venizelos."

"What? He's leaving? Who will be replacing him?"

"Some young fellow, almost a 'boy genius' type."

"What's his name?"

"Ronald something, I'll E-mail it to you later. What's your address?"

"Reachforthestars@Maxas.com"

"Okay."

4/11/2162

When he arrived at Starfleet Headquarters, Makoto Takashi found a lot
of people there.

"Excuse me, are you Captain Makoto Takashi?"

The voice came from a young man, hair almost gone, his voice crackly.

He was holding a narrow box.

"Yes."

"Here. Admiral Baker sent me here with instructions to give you this."

Takashi raised an eyebrow.

"And what is it?"

"It's your new starfleet issue uniform. Here."

He handed the box to Takashi, who eyed it and then moved towards the
bathroom, opening the box.

He gradually put on the uniform: a Cage-era dull gold sweater with a button-clasp gold collar and silver bands around the wrists, and a patch
resembling a flying man on the left breast, followed by a pair of black
pants and a pair of soft, easily flattened black boots made out of
something leathery he couldn't identify.

He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror.

"Damn. I always wondered what the new uniform would be like."

Soon after he left, he saw Admiral Baker coming toward him in a gold
tunic with a sparkly silver collar and tall, vertical connecting
strap going down to the waist from the center of the collar.

There were a pair of strange medals on his left breast: a hollow
centered triangle, and a hollow-centered square, both of which were
dangling.

"Takashi! Damn, you look handsome in that! The new uniforms came in
just in time! Whaddya think of them?"

Takashi looked neutrally at his tunic and said "...Interesting. Where
will the shuttle be?"

Admiral Baker said "Easy, guy. We will hold the commissioning ceremony
at Starburst field, and when we're done, we'll have the shuttle parked
nearby."

Takashi shrugged and said "Okay. When?"

Admiral Baker said "At about 1400, so you're early."

Takashi said "Understood" calmly, and the two walked off together,
chatting.

At Starburst Field on 2 PM, crowds arrived. Humans, Centaurans, Skorr,
Vulcans, Andorians Tellarites, Rigellians and Cygnians.

All of them sat down in a huge collection of folding chairs, divided
in half by a red carpet, many appearing to be excited and the Vulcans
naturally looking calm.

After several minutes of waiting and the humming of small conversations
went on in the audience, Admiral Baker finally arrived at the podium,
clearing his throat and speaking into the microphone, looking into his
prompter:

"Greetings, new citizens of the UNITED... FEDERATION... OF PLANETS!"

The crowd suddenly went silent. Admiral Baker paused and then said:

"We are now at peace after the tiresome struggle with the Romulans.
We have grown tired of being picked apart and facing annihilation, and
now that we have declared a cease fire, we can now move on to other,
more meaningful pursuits!"

Makoto Takashi snorted as Admiral Baker said this. He, along with his
old XO, Daniel Macintyre, new chief engineer, Ronald Fielding, and
Medical Officer, a latino woman named Sandra Dayton.

"Such as... Exploration!!!" A large holographic display lit up behind
Baker. "And now, we have a new fleet of exploration vessels, getting
ready to fly off... from Earth's orbit... into the final frontier!!!"

The holographic display showed a primitive, simplistic, CGI rendered
Daedalus flying through space.

"And the first of these will be remembered forever, as the NCC-150,
USS... DAEDALUS!!!"

The crowd roared with applause as the vessel on the display suddenly
zipped away, not stretching or distorting, but apparently going to
warp.

"And now, this first crew will be on their way... To seek out and
contact strange, alien life forms, and to quote the inventor of Warp
Drive, Zephram Cochrane, To boldly go... Where no man has gone before."

The holographic display slowly shut off.

"And now, it's time for the senior officers of this new star cruiser
to arrive at their vessel shortly!"

Takashi and the rest of the officers slowly got up from their chairs,
and walked off the stage to a nearby Class B Shuttlecraft

After they got in and sat down, The pilot turned his head
around and said "Okay guys, get buckled in".

The passengers of the shuttle connected their seat belts and chest
harnesses.

The passengers were jostled and pulled against their harnesses as
the shuttle took off and travelled upward, eventually escaping the
sphere and going to space, travelling towards an orbital dock.

Soon after the passengers took off their harnesses, Takashi asked
the young Ronald "So, Lieutenant Commander?"

He chuckled at that.

Ronald asked, a little uneasy "Yes, sir?"

Takashi said "I assume it's Lieutenant Commander, those stripes
are unclear to me. Is it?"

Ronald said "Yes, sir. Although I am rather young to have that rank."

Takashi nodded. "I understand, LCDR. How did you earn that rank?"

Ronald said "Well, I enjoyed studying warp flight in high school
and college, eventually I joined the stellar engineering corps,
and my little doodles were hammered out, with help, into what
gradually became the Warp 4 drive."

Takashi's eyes widened. "I see, interesting! I just thought that
a team of white haired old scientists developed it!"

Ronald said "I didn't create it ENTIRELY, I had help from a few others
to flesh it out truly."

Daniel laughed and then said "Damn. And here I thought you were a boy
genius."

Ronald continued. "And last year, when Starfleet was formed, I joined
up. They were a little low on chief engineers."

Takashi raised an eyebrow. "And they needed one of the best
developers of the Warp 4 project to be the Daedalus's new chief
engineer?"

Ronald shrugged and said "I guess, although no one said it to me
directly."

Takashi asked "Have you even been ABOARD a vessel before, let alone
a starship?"

Ronald said "Nope, but i've been looking forward to it."

Takashi smiled "You're in for a treat."

The shuttle slowly arrives at the bay, where the back of the USS
Daedalus is facing it.

A voice calls from the ceiling speaker.

"Shuttlecraft, you are almost ready to land."

"Acknowledged. Open bay doors."

The doors of the Daedalus began to part, revealing a small, gray
bay, forcefields keeping in the atmosphere, and another, almost
identical Class B shuttle was parked facing the doors.

The shuttle flew to the opening, passing through the forcefield,
and landing on the hangar deck on the number one pad.

The pilot said "Okay, everyone, get out!"

The officers got out of the shuttle, looking around and stretching
out.

The officers soon walked to the ladder and climbed up to the shuttle
control tower, and proceeded from it to the turbolift, passing
the crew members operating the hangar doors.

As they entered, Takashi said "Deck 8, Cargo Bays".

For a little while, the turbolift car continued to move onward,
Ronald staring at him, confused.

Then, Takashi smiled and said "You'll see."

Soon, the car stopped at Deck 8, and the officers stepped out.

Ronald saw a bunch of bunk-like structures, each one holding two
stasis booths. There appeared to be about 36 stasis booths in all.
Ronald's eyes widened: "STASIS CHAMBERS?!? I knew the old sleeper
ships had them, but I didn't think-"

Takashi chuckled. "Well, these aren't cryogenic chambers."

Ronald looked at him, puzzled. "They aren't? What else could they be?"

Takashi cleared his throat, and then said "Over a decade ago, these
new stasis chambers were designed to be a more effective, safer way
of preserving the crew, although the Daedalus didn't originally carry
them, they were fitted in as a way of preserving much of the crew,
in anticipation of this cruiser's new mission. We will travel
for a little while at Warp 3, and give the engines a chance to
'warm' up, and then go to Warp 4, where much of the crew will go into
stasis, and then, six months later, they will be let out, and we will
begin regular life aboard."

Ronald, still puzzled, asked "How are these not cryogenics?"

Takashi groaned and said "They actually don't freeze the body
cryogenically, they place a time flow shield around the person, and
following Springfield's law of stasis, it manages to freeze time
within the chamber, so much like x-rays cannot penetrate lead,
time cannot penetrate the stasis field. They are more likely, as
the old 2149 tests show, to preserve the living being without
causing any physical dmage, or even death, as cryogenic booths
tend to do. For you, time will cease to exist, and it will seem
that only a second will pass by before you are freed from stasis,
and you would have had a quantum probability of zero."

Ronald blinked, amazed.

Takashi said "I guess you're more well versed around warp drive."

Ronald said "I guess, but there wasn't any stasis use in the last
decade, so I was amazed that stasis was still part of the plan."

Takashi said "Well, this could easily take decades, and I think that
unlike this and future voyages, the 2150s ships never really had to
journey more than 20 light years away from old Earth."

Daniel asked "Captain, who will stay awake during the trip?"

Takashi turned and responded to his old first officer "Well, Dan,
it will at least be the CMO-"

"Me." said Sandra, pointing to herself.

"Yes, Sandra. She will monitor the occupants periodically, and
you, Ronald, will also stay out, to constantly monitor and adjust
the engines. The marines will also go into stasis, but not on this
deck. There are some other booths on deck 5."

"What about you, sir?" Ronald asked.

Takashi said "I will also go into stasis, and so will Daniel."

Daniel smiled and said "Yes, we will, and it will be an...
interesting experience, although instanteous."

Takashi said "Well, in a few minutes, we're probably going to be
on our way, let's go to our positions, people."

The officers headed back into the turbolift.

The audience from the speech were now in rooms of Starfleet HQ
which had chairs, refreshments for various species, and a wallscreen
showing the Daedalus in the orbital dock from aways away, thanks to a
camera mounted on a CommDrone.

An announcer's voice soon came on the wallscreen speaker:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, now we are witnessing a historic event!"

Makoto Takashi, Daniel Macintyre, Arinda Asephas,
Paul Larson, and Chang Lee are at their stations, Takashi at his
captain's chair, Daniel at his science station, Arinda at her
communications station, and Paul and Chang at navigations and the
helm, respectively.

Takashi nodded and spoke: "Mr. Lee, begin taking us out."

"Aye, sir." The Chinese helmsman began operating his console.

The Daedalus began moving forward.

The announcer yelled out "AND THE DAEDALUS IS BEGINNING TO LEAVE
THE ORBITAL DOCK, THE FIRST STEP... TO A HISTORICAL NEW VOYAGE
IN THE MAKING!!!"

Takashi said to his helmsman, "Go on."

The Daedalus moved gradually faster out of the dock, it's sphere
going past the edge of the orbital facility, than the neck,
and then the stardrive and nacelles...

"The Daedalus is soon going to go to warp!!!"

Takashi look at the back of his navigator's head and said "Paul,
Plot a course, at the edge of known space, past the Rigel system."

"Aye, sir."

The Daedalus now exited the dock entirely.

"And Mr. Chang, go to Warp 3... Engage."

"Aye aye, sir!"

The Daedalus's nacelles soon began to light up, and the vessel went
to warp.

"AND NOW, THE DAEDALUS IS ON IT'S WAY, OFF INTO THE FINAL FRONTIER..."

Interesting fic but I swear I read this one before somewhere.

Where?

Don't know but all of those chapters I've read before but no other chapters. Have you posted this before here or somewhere else?

...I think I may have, only the first part, however.

Makoto Takashi eventually got up.

"Daniel, is there anything to report?"

"No, sir. Just fairly empty space."

"Good. I'll be in the Rec Room soon. We may as well enjoy ourselves
for a little while before going into stasis."

"Aye, sir."


In the Rec Room, over four dozen crew members and marines were
gathered around the big wallscreen in the center of the room,
watching an "Ensign Dumpy" ERW cartoon.

"DUMPY, ADJUST THE M/AM FLOW BY TWO... NO, YOU'RE TURNING IT UP TOO
HIGH... NO, DUMPY!"

A cartoony "Looney Tunes-ish" explosion appeared.

And the personnel were all laughing, some of them holding their sides.

The lights went on, and many of the personnel got up, some leaving,
some going to the nutrient paste slots, many of the remaining personnel
chatting with each other.

Ronald Fielding punched in a few keys on the the nutrient paste slot.

Some green goop fell from the dispensing tube into his mug, and he
squinted at it, holding the mug to his face, and then walked over
to a table and sat down.

"Hey, there, guy. Want some company?"

Ronald looked up and saw a big red haired and red bearded marine
look down at him, a big smile on his face.

"Sure."

The big marine, with captain's bars apparently, sat down next to him.

"So, who're you? The new engineer?"

"Yes."

"I'm glad to greet you. I'm Randy Tyne."

"Oh... Okay. Are you the head of the Marines?"

"Yes."

"...Okay. ...Damn. I don't know what to chat about."

"It's okay. You don't have to."

"This paste... I knew about it for a while, But the taste..."

"Meh, more of a lack of taste than any particular taste..."

"I know, but it seems so far from being food!"

"That's a tendency of standard rations."

"Have you had to put up with it for a very long time?"

"Yes. The whole war. Plus around five years before the war."

"I see. Have you ever dealt with boredom of staying aboard for months
of travel before you actually get anywhere?"

"It's okay if you have an active imagination."

"I guess, Geez, at least you're GOING IN STASIS this voyage.
I'm stuck monitoring the engines!"

"And you'd rather risk a Quantum Flux Deal?"

"...Being bored is better?"

"YES, even though we aren't using Cryochambers, there's probably
still a risk of dying, and even getting caught in a space time
vortex!"

"Oh my god."

"At least you're safe. But even with the new stasis booths,
there's still danger, so guys like me could be at MORE RISK."

They ate in silence.

"Geez, I'd rather not choose between being bored and dying."

"Don't be either, then."

"You make it sound easy, Captain. "

"I need to be called Major, after all it's not good to have two
Captains on board, don't you think?"

"That's from Robert Heinlein, right?"

"And the Honorverse. It is also an Earth, and now Starfleet, protocol."

"Okay."

"Oh, I didn't catch your name. What is it?"

"Ronald, Ronald Maxwell Fielding. But I like to be called Ron."

"Okay, Ron!"

The big Captain got up, chuckled, and patted Ron on the back.


On the Bridge, Daniel was monitoring his scope one last time
before stasis, when he picked up a fairly large blip on the upper
left hand corner of the scope.

"What the Hell?"

In his quarters, Takashi was lovingly examining a particular entry
on his large, folding Star Chart when his quarters intercom beeped.

Going to the wall, he pressed the large white button on it and said
"Takashi here."

"Captain, you need to see this. Some odd sensor reading I picked up."

"On my way."

Takashi got up and left his quarters. On his chart, in the section
which he was studying, are the words "Unknown Territory" in plain,
straight white letters.

Catman wrote:...I think I may have, only the first part, however.

No I am pretty sure I read all except the last one you just posted.

"Talk to me, Daniel. What did you pick up?"

Daniel Macintyre pointed to the viewer. "Some large object, around
three kilometres in diameter, have a look."

Takashi looked into the rigid, shiny white metal reader and saw it.

Looking away, he turned and said: "That appears to be following us
at warp! But no one has ever built a warp vessel that large!"

"That we know of."

"Than why didn't we run into them before?"

"They could have found out about the founding of the Federation..."

"With what? They might have advanced technology, but WHAT, other than
warp-capable behemoths!"

"We don't know!"

Takashi thought long and hard, and then said "Helm, ready to drop
out of warp speed."

He punched a button on his chair armrest.

"Engineering, something has ocurred contradictory to the flight plan,
and you have to power down the engines."

"Uh, sir?"

That voice sounded nervous. It was from Engineering.

"Yes?"

"Sir, this is Lieutenant Stronghold, Commander Fielding is in the
mess hall, still."

"Well, drop out of warp immediately!"

"Aye, sir."

Eventually, after a few minutes, the Daedalus dropped out of warp.

Takashi looked at Daniel.

"Is the object still following us, Daniel?"

Daniel looked into his reader again, "Still at Warp 3... No, now
at sublight, and coasting slowly towards us."

"Helm, turn us around to face the object."

"Aye."

The Daedalus, in the next six to ten seconds, had managed to turn
to face the thing, the asteroid.

Takashi looked at the thing in front of the ship.

"An asteroid?"

"Captain!"

Takashi turned to look at his first/science officer.

"What is it, Dan?"

"I'm getting faint readings somewhere on the surface of the asteroid.
It appears to be from a separate, smaller object."

"Anything about the asteroid?"

"Some faint M/AM signature, which certainly isn't what an asteroid would
have, but otherwise, I'm not picking up anything. We may have to move
closer."

"I wouldn't recommend that. That's no asteroid, and we may have to
be on guard."

"How about the smaller signature? What is it?"

"I don't have an answer there."

"What about a shuttlecraft, and keep the ship at it's current distance?"

"...Well, at least we wouldn't be jeopardizing the whole ship... And
we may as well collect information about the thing, since it may
continue to follow us at warp speed... Okay. Who should go?"

"Wait, what about 4.2? The Daedalus's maximum speed?"

"No! If that gigantic asteroid can travel at warp and match our cruising
speed, then it may be advanced enough to travel MUCH faster than
the Daedalus! If we're going to do ANYTHING to get away from this
thing, we must find out more about it!"

"Okay, and who's going on the shuttlecraft?"

"Myself, you, Crewman Taggert, and Arinda."

"And the Marines?"

"I don't know how many we'll need, and the shuttle can't hold much
more than six people."

"We can't be bad off with just one or two"

"Well, I'll talk to Major Tyne. He should have a good suggestion."

When Takashi managed to contact and meet with Captain Tyne, he
thought for a moment, and then said "How about Leslie? She can
easily handle the new SFHL-R1 rifle!"

"She'll do."

"I'd like to ask if I can join you too?"

"No. Only one marine should probably come along, and I don't want
to risk the head of them to get killed."

"Okay, understand, sir! I'll go inform Leslie. When will the landing
party meet?"

"At 1650 hours"

"Check, sir!"


The Landing, or perhaps Boarding Party gathered together in the
Hangar Deck, Lieutenant Leslie in full black Starfleet Marine
armor with a pair of Hand lasers in waist holsters, and holding
an SFHL-R1 rifle.

"All right, we may be able to enter this thing, although it will
probably require the shuttle's EVA suits. We will first travel
across the surface, looking for the source of the other readings.
Then, we will look for an entrance into the thing. Any questions?"

No one answered.

"All right then, let's board the shuttle."

The party got into the shuttlecraft, one at a time.

The shuttle was able to reach the asteroid with no trouble, with
the enormous rock barely moving from it's initial position after
coming out of warp.

Finally, after slow, somewhat ominous moments from the viewpoints
of the landing party, the shuttle managed to turn upward just
in time to avoid the surface of the rock, moving along very close
to it.

"Ookay, the readings are definitely of life support and minor RCS
activity. It looks like it belongs to a shuttlecraft."

"It seemed likely."

After the Spacer and Takashi finished talking, the shuttle again
became uneasily silent, wondering of the asteroid posed an unknown
danger.

Finally, Taggert said "Okay, it's close at under 100 meters now,
slowing..."

The shuttle slowed near a large, winged, almost plane-like gray
shuttlecraft, a few lights on and hanging in space very near the
asteroid.

"Hey, Captain..."

"I am here, Taggert. That... looks like an Andorian shuttle!"

"It's got one life-form aboard... Andorian..."

"Leslie, let's get suited up and get to the shuttlecraft..."

"Aye, sir."

The two walked over, opened the cabinet near the back of the shuttle,
and got out two spacesuits, slowly putting them on.

Around three or four minutes later, the two were suited up,
and proceeded to the airlock, quickly getting out before the atmosphere
completely escaped the vessel.

They managed to operate their suit jets and jetted over to the large,
gray shape.

Takashi rapped on the door, looking into the small window, but only
looking at a blank wall.

After a pause, an Andorian face, male, with almost no hair, appeared
in the window, startling Takashi, although he tried not to show it,
despite his polarised helmet visor

Takashi tried to gesture for the Andorian to get into a spacesuit
and get out, with the Andorian staring blankly at him, and finally
he disappeared out of sight.

After a dull, irritating moment, a somewhat angular dark gray helmet
with an also polarised visor came into view, and Takashi moved away

Soon, the door came open, and the spacesuited, around six foot tall
Andorian came out.

Takashi and Leslie gradually turned and headed towards the shuttle,
once checking to see if the Andorian was following. He was.

After they slowly got in and gradually got their suits off, with
the Andorian simply taking his helmet off, Daniel looked interested
at him and asked: "Who are you? And why were you near this asteroid?"

"Daniel." Said the firm Takashi, "He might not know English. How
about we have Arinda talk to him?"

"Arinda?"

"On it." She stepped towards the Andorian. "Orak, Oralis Areen-da?"

The Andorian looked around at the party and said "No, no need. I speak
the Earth tungue."

"Alright, then what is your name?" asked Takashi.

"I am called Thrallan" said the tall, blue skinned man,
antennae twitching.

"Odd name for an Andorian, I haven't heard that name before" said Daniel.

"How many of us have you heard of?" asked the alien

"I was assigned on a ship that was responsible for defending Andor,
and I met with several of your race as a member of a landing party."

"Daniel... Thrallen, how did you get here?" asked Takashi.

"I am in the Andorian Defense Forces. My ship was a frigate,
the Tradak, and one day, we were attacked by this strange... asteroid!"

Thrallen energetically jabbed a finger downward at the shuttlecraft,
with meaning obvious to the landing party.

"Go on, what did the asteroid do to attack your vessel?" asked Takashi,
trying to get more answers.

"It began firing two large, yellow beams, one of which hit and took
out much of Decks 6 to 9, killing over... FRAZAK" The Andorian showing
one of the limits of his english.

"...OF OUR CREW, AND ANOTHER BLAST TOOK OUT MANY MORE AREAS OF THE
SHIP... I... I managed to get to a shuttlecraft in time... And I
landed for a time, but there was a rumbling underneath me... and
I decided to take off, thinking that I was finally spotted, at
long last by whoever was in there."

"Yeah, we can't pierce the surface of the rock, something has been
blocking our sensors, preventing any thurough scans, aside from a faint
matter and antimatter signature which could be the reactor."
said Crewman Taggert.

"Have you seen any apparent openings in this rock?" Asked Takashi.
"One, but soon a few large rocks fell and blocked it off after I found
it."

"Okay. Leslie, let's go blast off the rock. Taggert, you stay here."

"Aye, Captain."

Takashi and Leslie soon left, and gradually blasted off the rock barrier.

When they reentered, Takashi said "Taggert, move us in to the opening."

"Aye, sir."

The Shuttle hummed to life, and moved forward, Thrallen and Leslie looking tense and everyone looking out the forward viewport.

Finally, the shuttle gradually spun upward, and flew, seemingly away from the asteroid, and then began to dive, flying towards an unusually smooth, circular section of the surface, the landing party watching and holding their breaths as the section soon opened up, revealing a lined, silver and black cylindrical
chamber.

Arinda gawked as the shuttle flew through more opening pairs of doors,
eventually leading to a huge, metallic cavern.

"Anywhere we can land, Crewman?"

"There's a ledge over thirty meters from here. I'll take us down."

Soon, the shuttle turned downward, with the ledge coming quickly into view, and
sharply turned upward, gradually and gently landing.

The party gradually exited, looking around.

Proceeding, they walked down a 4 meter tall dark hallway. "Wow, what IS this?"

"What's that up ahead?" asked Arinda.

They arrived at a large, black screen, shiny and devoid of detail.

"Some kind of interface?" asked Daniel.

The landing party began to examine it.

"Don't TOUCH it!" growled Thrallen, as Arinda put her hand close to the screen.

"What for?" Asked Arinda, puzzled.

"It might destroy your Earth vessel." Said the Andorian, glaring at Arinda.

"Then how do we keep it from following and destroying us then?" Asked Takashi.

The Andorian watched, tense as Arinda put her hand on the screen.

Soon, a deep humming could be heard.

And then, several yellow rectangular lights flicked on around the black screen,
and the dark hallway lit up with a pattern of white rectangular lights, revealing
smooth, white tiled walls and ceiling.

A series of yellow boxes, and Arabic looking font appeared on the screen.

"WHAT?!? TORAZ!" Roared Thrallen, clenching his fist.

"Settle down..." Said Takashi, slowly and uneasily.

"Arinda, could you make any of this out?" Asked Daniel.

"I'll try... It looks like Arabic, from Old Earth... I wonder how it's similar..."
said Asephas, running a long, rolling glance at the screen.

"Press something, maybe?" Asked Taggert.

"NO, Then there's no telling WHAT IT WILL DO..." Said Thrallen, a look of berserk
fury in his eyes.

"Thrallen, we are trying to figure this out, and if we don't try SOMETHING,
the thing WILL keep pursuing and eventually will destroy us... Settle DOWN.
Arinda, press... That one." Takashi said, pointing to a lower center rectangle.

"Okay." Said Arinda, as she pressed it, causing it to flash, and after three seconds,
a flood of green light entered the room.

"TORAZ!" Shrieked the Andorian, as the light brightened, and then vanished, leaving
everyone dazed.

Soon, the display changed, revealing more text, some of it flashing red.

"Arinda? Can you explain what this foreboding stuff is?" Asked Daniel.

"Hmm, this looks familiar, it looks like the Arabic S... And the Warning Lights..."

"ARINDA!" bellowed Crewman Taggert, leaping and knocking her out of the way, as
an array of red Particle beams lashed out, two of them hitting Taggert in the right foot
and side, soon killing him.

"EVERYONE, RUN!" Yelled Takashi, as the landing party ran in multiple directions, across
different catwalks, Takashi and Daniel one way, and Arinda, Leslie and Thrallen the other.

Takashi ducked as a particle beam nearly hit his head, and in the other direction, Leslie
fired her laser rifle at a small point on the distant wall, causing a small explosion,
and reducing the number of Particle beams lancing out..

The two halves of the landing party soon became lost, deep in the bowels of the asteroid.

Panting, Takashi looked at Daniel and groaned "I can't believe that this is how my mission
of exploration would begin!"

Daniel cracked a smile and folded his arms. "We haven't even DONE any exploring."

"I know. I hate feeling like the Romulan War has finally ended only for us to die in
an unknown automated... thing..."

"We still have a chance... Right?"

"Perhaps, or we could have sealed our fate!"

"We don't know that."

"I felt bad when the Daedalus was used as a recon vessel, but this is hopeless..."

Leslie looked around, left and right, over and over again, finally giving an "All Clear" gesture
to Arinda and Thrallen, and the three entered a tall, computer circuitry filled room.

"No Security devices here?"

"...No, not that I could see."

"Really, couldn't there be many of them lurking near us?" Asked Thrallen, annoyed.

"No. Then again, it might be a tip-off that we're still alive since we entered the room."

"It might be due to THAT."

Arinda pointed to an opening panel, exposed wires and circuitry looking rather damaged and flayed.

"Can we examine more of these panels?"

"Possibly."

The trio began examining panels and trying to remove them. Finally, with a grunt. Thrallen ripped one
off of the wall.

"Here."

The trio began to examine the circuitry and cables.

"I wonder what we can learn from this?"


Takashi and Daniel ran, dodging particle beams.

Soon, they ran into a room.

"TAK-" Daniel said before Takashi shot the three particle beams on the wall.

"Oh..."

"At least we're still issued handguns, even if they're older than the new hand lasers."

The consoles were whirring in the room, numerous red, blue and green lights blinking
periodically.

"Tak, help me get one of the panels off." Daniel said after they examined the consoles
with mostly blank screens.

The two together tried with one of the panels, then another, getting it off on the second try.

"How are we going to determine the purpose of this?"

"Who knows. Maybe we should fiddle with these."

"Really? And what if we make it open fire on the Daedalus?"

"Hmm... Damn."

"There might be a central room of some kind. Can we find it?"

"And run the gauntlet again?"

"We've done it so far."

"We can't do it forever. And you're no Spring Chicken, sir."

A faint, echoing noise.

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

A pause, then what vaguely sounded like "CAPTAIN!"

"The rest of the landing party must still be alive. Can we afford to reach them?"

"Possibly."

"Good, then. Let's go."

As they broke into a run out of the room, they were almost hit by particle beams,
although after a while of running, they were curiously shot at less.

"...Captain?"

"I KNOW, Daniel *pant, pant*, let's just get OVER THERE!"

Eventually, the landing party were reunited, Leslie looking up from a strange gun
with a scope she apparently took out from one of her holsters.

"Lieutenant? What's with the gun?"

Leslie smiled and stood up. "The TVRL-6", pointing to the small, purple and silver pistol
with a black tracking scope and adjuster in her gloved hand "They were only following you,and
I found my window."

"Sir? I think I've figured out what some of the writing may mean."

"Oh?"

"I'd like you to come see, it might help us."

The reunited LP went into the non-functional room. "These six big ones appear to be
connected to the Defense Grid" she pointed, "These two are for sending messages,
and this one appears to be connected to a kind of... Recognition software."

"Really? Can we... remove some of these and deactivate the ASteroid?"

"Possibly, but that could just set it off."

"...How about that console you operated earlier? Can we reset the system?"

"...Perhaps."

"Fine. Let's check out more of the rooms. Leslie, can you take out the security systems?"

"I can try."

"Good, let's move out."

The landing party moved cautiously, stopping a few times for Leslie to take out a few
of the security systems with her gun, occasional short-lived particle streaks hitting
the wall or railing.

Finally, they saw a huge, round chamber, containing several extremely tall computers.

"We're almost there"said Arinda"

"Hold it." said Leslie in an alert tone, quickly looking through the scope and firing
at a pair of especially large, triple barrel particle beams, damaging one, although
not destroying it. The damaged cannon began firing sporadically, while the second one
fired straight, burning off part of Leslie's shoulder armor.

"DAMN, GET DOWN!"

The landing party dove to the hard, meshed metal floor, particle blasts hammering
the wall were they once were, Leslie trying to lock on to the functioning beam, and
eventually firing, taking out one of the barrels, then with a few more shots, the cannon

short-circuited.

Then, she fired twice, the second shot destroying the malfunctioning beam.

Tense silence followed. The landing party waited until Leslie looked carefully through
her scope, and then finally said "It's alright."

The party got up and walked slowly across the twisting and turning catwalk to the round
chamber.

As they entered, Takashi and Daniel turned their heads constantly, looking at the
computer banks, some of which had large screens, and all were at least 5 or 6 meters tall.

"Let's look for something important." Daniel said as the party began throughly exploring.

Thrallen soon found a flat, rectangular panel which he began furiously pulling at, finally
wrenching it free. "Try this one."

Arinda began curiously examining it, Leslie scanning the room and Takashi and Daniel watch
curiously.

Finally, she points to a fat yellow cable surrounded by a bunch of small blue and red ones.

"Can we remove them?"

"Yes, let me do it in careful order. I'll end by putting out, and putting back in, the fat
yellow one."

"Fine. Cross your fingers, J.G"

"I will, sir."

The rest of the group watched as Arinda slowly, carefully pulling out cables, remembering
to leave some alone, and finally trying the trick with the fat yellow cable.

All of a sudden, the screen was flashing.

"ARINDA!"

"I'm being careful, Commander Macintyre. Okay, any other panels?"

Thrallen scanned the room. "That one." Which soon led to him pulling off the panel.

Inside, there were a bunch of almost clear capsules.

"What are those?"

"I've seen these. They look like memory capsules on our Centauran ships!" said Arinda.

"Try removing one."

Arinda followed Takashi's suggestion and pulled one out, causing an unusual whirring,
but nothing else. She let out her breath and pulled another cell.

Another pause. "Well, that didn't seem to get us killed.",

"Now try that central screen" Takashi said calmly to Arinda.

She walked over to the screen and looked at the still functional, although flashing
screen. "Okay, I think it's demanding instructions. So far, so good."

She entered buttons on the flashing screen, then text appeared, then more buttons were
pressed, the screen appearing slightly more urgent, until finally she pressed a final
button, causing there to be a rapidly changing set of quadrupled characters
on a flashing screen.

"Arinda, what did you do?"

"It's amazing how similar to Arabic this language is... I set the self destruct."

"You what?!?"

"LET'S GO."

A stunned silence. Then, "Everybody, let's go back to the Shuttlecraft!"

The Landing Party began to move.

Finally, after several minutes, they could see the shuttle.

"COME ON, PEOPLE, LET'S MOVE!" Takashi roared as they ran still fastere.

Soon, they got back to the shuttle, Takashi firing up the engines.

They flew upwards, soon coming to the closed doors.

"Oh, shit. We're trapped."s

"Stop it, quickly."

Takashi slowed the shuttle down. "May I ask why?"

"I'll blast a hole, maximum charge."

Daniel turned his head around. "Arinda, how long did you set the destruct?"

"Around 15 minutes."

"Shit."

"Okay, Leslie. Hurry."

"Aye, Captain." She got up and opened the shuttle door, cranking her laser rifle
and firing it at the bay door, soon causing a melted molten dot to appear, expanding
to eventually become a moving line as she adjusted her laser.

There finally was a fairly large, 5m hole that the shuttle could squeeze though.

She darted back in and closed the door. "Okay, I think I depleted my rifle charge,
but we're good to go."

"Okay everybody, brace yourselves."

Takashi sped the shuttle forward, as it zipped through the hole, a few stray blobs
of molten metal falling on the shuttle.

The occupants held tight as the shuttle sped at full impulse through space torwards
it's mothership.

Takashi gruntedf "Arinda..."

Arinda began operating the communications on the console.

"Daedalus here", said the chirpy red-headed Ensign Alexis.

"Alexis, signal the Hangar Deck Operators, we're coming in!"

"Aye, ma'am."

Soon, the Daedalus turned around and the hangar deck doors opened, the guiding tethers
reaching for the shuttle.

Eventually, the shuttle, guided by the tethers, came in for a landing, the occupants running
out.

Takashi touched one of the rectangular, colored buttons on the black Intercom pad.

"Engine Room, Get ready for Warp 4."

He touched another button and waited for the approving deep.

"Bridge, turn us torward our scheduled flight path, ASAP."

"Aye, sir."

The Daedalus slowly turned and zipped away at high warp as the asteroid exploded.

Takashi sat on his bed in his quarters, relaxing and reading a book when the door chimes
it's "De-Dah" high-pitched sound.

Takashi looked up "Come."

The doors open and Daniel stepped in. "The Crew are getting ready to go into stasis,
Captain, They'll be in at around 2300 hours."

"Good."

"Did it hurt you to let that thing blow up without collecting much data?"

Takashi thought a moment, then chuckled. "So, I don't think that it would be worth it if
we didn't report back to show UE-Starfleet our findings."

"Will we find the ones who created that thing?"

"Hopefully not before we can advance ourselves significantly. Otherwise, we're dead."

"And what about the Andorian? Will we bring him back to Andor?"

"...No, I think we'll take him with us. At least until we're on the way home. Then we
can drop him off. I'm quite anxious to begin exploring again..."

And then, thinking of the asteroid, he smiled and said "NOt just other planets...
The... Final... Frontier..."

As the crew go into stasis, Ron meets up with Thrallen. "Wow, a real Andorian!"

Thrallen looked cursiously and asked "You're excited about my kind, Earther?"

Ron grinned and said "I'd love to meet more aliens, and I've gotten bored with wallscreen
slideshows. How's Andor?"

Thrallen blinked and said "If you ever visit, let me know."

"Huh?"

"I'm not from Andor. I am from Shral's Colony, in a nearby system."

"And it's different there?"

"Andor is Temporate, Shral's world is a desert."

"Oh, sorry for the Ching-Chong Wing-Wong."

The Andorian tilted his head. "What?"

"Oh, sorry. Old Chinese-based expression."

Thrallen blinks. "Strange."

Sandra Dayton walked over to Thrallen and Ron "okay, Ron. You know where you need
to be for the next six months. And Thrallen, I checked your race's physiology, just
in case."

"These aren't Cryochambers. "

"No, but I did want to check up on you, especially since I'm not used to treating
Andorians."

"Fine doctor. I appreciate your concern."

"See you in six months."

And as the crew entered stasis, the Daedalus warps onward, to it's first destination.

The Beginning.

Comments, people?

Come on, people...

I got a fairly large amount of responses early on, does anyone care anymore about the project, or should I no longer post stuff about it online?