Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 07:34:40 -0800 In: alt.startrek.creative From: "Jay P Hailey" JayPHailey@TIC1.NET Title: Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile Author: Jay P Hailey (JayPHailey@yahoo.com) Series: MISC - TNG OCs COdes: None Part: 6/335 Rating:[PG] Archive: Fine with me, just tell me where. Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Star Trek. I claim Original Characters and Situations for me. The Holly Hop Incident By Jay P. Hailey And Dennnis Washburn We were back in the briefing room, again. "There is no way ships that primitive could have made it this far into the Federation, with that kind of attitude." I stated the obvious. "Any opinions?" "If they could not have overcome Federation defenses, and they were in the heart of the Federation, then logic suggests that the defenses of the inner Federation were incapable of responding." Spaat pointed out. "What might have kept the Federation from responding?" Varupuchu asked. It was plain he didn't approve of this line of reasoning. "There are several possibilities." Spaat said. He was working on expanding them when I interrupted. "It's obvious to me that we don't have enough information. Let's define what we know." "They have met humans before." Flagg said. We all just looked at him. "`Thus can our war be ended quickly,'" Flagg quoted. "Their war with whom?" "That's quite a leap." I said "Their war might be with anyone." "Hmmmm." Flagg responded doubtfully. The rest of the briefing went downhill. We just didn't know enough. -*- We continued on a course for Earth. I noticed two contradictory things at about this time. First, things around the Harrier were running more smoothly. The crew was settling in, and learning their tasks. The second was that morale was at the same time failing. We were lost under unknown circumstances, traveling around at random, because I couldn't think of anything better to do. The cure for bad morale is easily said, but not easily accomplished. Knowing the source of the problem didn't help in this instance, because there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it. The next step in the manual was to keep the crew busy. A crew that's hard at work doesn't have time to think depressing thoughts, and emotionally feels that are accomplishing something, even if it doesn't help with the actual problem. With this in mind I started classes on the Harrier. I found people with useful or odd skills, and asked them to teach a class of their crew mates. To my delight, most of them accepted. Starfleet is about learning things. It's always been an adventure about exploring the unknown. I had a crew of people who wanted to run around in a starship and see new things. Maybe the classes weren't magnificent new discoveries, but they were unknown to the people who took them, and learning was something we had all had trained into us at Starfleet Academy. The morale problem stopped getting worse, and maybe even got a little better. We were still lost, and the crew wasn't stupid, but many of us now had a project to while away the time with until we learned something new about our predicament. Then we spotted another ship. "Report." I ordered. Varupuchu replied "Scans show a fairly primitive warp signature, but it's not an alliance ship." "Close in and continue scans." I said. As we closed with the unknown ship, we detected their energy output and warp efficiency. We detected subspace sensors, of a particularly primitive nature, as well as an identification beacon. The beacon read USS Hood NCC 1703. In the briefing room, the command staff and I were trying it again. We were shadowing the primitive Hood outside their sensor range, while we discussed what we would do. "It is almost certainly not the USS Hood with which we were familiar." Spaat stated. He read off a list of statistics and showed a series of scan analysis that showed that this USS Hood was much more primitive than ours. "I think we're clear on that. The question becomes weather or not we wish to contact them." I said, trying to narrow the subject down. "I recommend against that." Li'ira said "It would be a clear violation of the Prime Directive. "Although it would be nice to know more, I agree" said Flagg. "We are, after all, on a sensitive mission." The consensus seemed to be that contacting the primitive USS Hood would be a bad idea, because of the Prime Directive. My problem was that if the Hood was too primitive to contact, The Earth was probably going to be, too. If we couldn't go to Earth, where could we go? I couldn't handle just drifting around waiting for something break our way. "I have an idea...." I began -*- Later as I left the briefing room, Snoopy came up to me. I had secured a promotion to Lieutenant, Junior Grade for Arthur. Flagg didn't like him and tried to keep him away from Engineering. So it was a surprise when he said to me "Lt. Green wants to see you in Engineering, Captain." I followed the security officer to the Engineering room. Green and Holly were there, next to the master systems monitor, and the Holly Hop. "You wanted to see me, Lieutenant?" I spoke to Green. Green was nervous, and looked to Holly. Holly's eyes were large and he was quiet. "Report, please." I said to them. "Well, ah, it's quite extraordinary." Holly began. "We discovered the source of the misjump, Sir." Green jumped in. Holly continued "Working on a line of reasoning suggested by young Lieutenant Hendrickson, we have discovered the source of the malfunction." He looked worried. "Yes, go on." I prompted. "There was no malfunction, Captain. The device was tampered with." "Are you certain!?" This was grim news indeed. "Yes, in fact the interference was ingenious. It uses factors within the device that I had not fully explored." Holly said. He was excited. Mad science was in the offing. My head swam. "Was this deliberate?" Green and Holly Looked downcast. "We think so." "What did the saboteur expect to gain from this ?" I asked. Hendrickson answered. "We can't tell, yet, Captain." "Can you put us back where we belong?" I asked. "I need more time to examine what was done." Holly said. "Then get on it!" I ordered, oblivious to Holly's civilian status. -*- For the next day, we engaged in a furious bout of preparations. All the while, I was waiting for results from Green and Holly. It was not a comfortable situation. Soon we were ready to begin. "Captain's Log: Stardate 44630.3 "The Harrier is about to make contact with the USS Hood. This Hood is not the starship we know. It is oddly different and primitive. I have decided to conceal the Harriers' origin as a Federation starship, so that we don't interfere in history. Lt. Green and Dr. Holly feel that they are close to identifying the malfunction of Holly's' device, and possibly returning us home. Until then, we are continuing our efforts to find out just where or when we are, and what's really happening here." "Are we ready?" I asked. Yes, Captain." Li'ira answered. "Then let's do it. Helm, plot an intercept course and engage." The Harrier approached the other starship. Soon we were within their sensor range. "They have scanned us." Varupuchu reported. "Helm, take us to one half impulse speed." I responded. "Aye, Captain." Spaat said. He took the Harrier smoothly to sublight velocity. Varupuchu watched his scanners. "The Hood has come about and is now approaching us. They have stepped up scanning. Our sensors show an increased readiness in their weapons and shields." I stood up, and tried to collect my thoughts. They were slippery. "Yellow alert. Hail them." I said. Flagg said "Hailing, Captain." He watched his board "They are responding. I have an open channel." I figured there was no point in waiting to double think myself. I took one last look around the bridge. All Starfleet and Federation insignia had been covered over. Our badges had been replaced as well as our rank insignia. The control panels of the Harriers' bridge were emulating a dozen different languages and software. Lt. Bruce had thought that it would give the gag away if all the control panels read in English. The only problem was there wasn't another single language that everyone knew. There wasn't another single computer protocol that everyone could operate with. In the end I had ordered everyone to use what they could, and hoped that the different appearances could be glossed over. As a result, Varupuchu was flipping through "pages" on his panel, each another function of his station, while Spaat seemed to be having a musical interlude, his control panel operating in an obscure Vulcan dialect that used musical tones. In an attempt to cover this, I had ordered a tight focus on myself as we hailed the other USS Hood. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.561 / Virus Database: 353 - Release Date: 1/13/2004 -- Stephen Ratliff ASC Stories Only Forwarding In the Pattern Buffer at: http//trekiverse.crosswinds.net/feed/ Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASCL/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:ASCL-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. From ???@??? Sun Jan 18 23:45:22 2004 Status: U Return-Path: Received: from n3.grp.scd.yahoo.com ([66.218.66.86]) by swallow (EarthLink SMTP Server) with SMTP id 1aIrkz5Bn3NZFkN1 for ; Sun, 18 Jan 2004 20:48:07 -0800 (PST) X-eGroups-Return: sentto-1977044-12928-1074487685-stephenbratliff=earthlink.net@returns.groups.yahoo.