Equilibriums
Posted: 2003-04-19 12:36pm
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!
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!