Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 21:25:02 -0800 In: alt.startrek.creative From: "Jay P Hailey" Title: Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile Author: Jay P Hailey (JayPHailey@hotmail.com) Series: MISC - TNG OCs Codes: None Part: 30/339(?) 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. Webpage HTTP://jayphailey.8m.com The Et-Tu: Episode 30 By Jay P. Hailey And Dennnis Washburn "I don't know who you are who have found this. It is my fondest hope that you are Romulans. If not, then I bring you the greetings of the Romulan Empire. I have left this record behind as a warning. There is a danger that threatens nearly anyone. We in the Romulan Empire have been fighting a terrible war since [2279] with the Kliges'chee. They are a race of rapacious cannibals who eat sentients." Zadask was seated in his office, wearing his space suit. His features were drawn and pale. He looked like he was on the verge of collapse. He was fighting the green dust and it showed. "In [2307] we were hard pressed by the Kliges'chee and felt that soon we would have to place all effort and concentration into the effort to overcome the Kliges'chee in order to win." "As part of that effort we of the Et-Tu have been sent on a mission to circumnavigate the Kliges'chee. It was our goal to find the limits of Kliges'chee expansion. Perhaps we might find another race to ally with." "At least, that is what we thought." He looked tired, beaten. "It has been sixteen years and only now are we beginning to understand the full extent of the Kliges'chee. One year ago, we met a Kliges'chee battle cruiser, and we are a thousand light years from Romulus." Zadask flipped a switch and we saw another ship. It looked like a group of stretched out dynamic walnuts. It was attacking the Et-Tu. After a brief engagement the two ships seemed evenly matched. The Et-Tu out gunned her opponent, but he was an excellent tactician, and used every weakness of the Et-Tu against her. Then the Kliges'chee ship turned and fired a new weapon. it wasn't like anything I had ever seen before. The repeater screens showed the Et-Tu had lost most of her shields, and that her warp core was destabilizing. The firing opportunity for the new Kliges'chee weapon left the other ship vulnerable and the Et-Tu shot him with a full barrage of disruptors and plasma torpedoes. The Kliges'chee ship didn't last long against that. The victory was a phyrric one for the Et-Tu. She had to jettison her warp core and make for the nearest planet under impulse power. Their acceleration had to be desperately slow, since they didn't have that advantages of an their main power unit to accelerate with. They had to balance acceleration against what fuel they could scoop from the space in front of them. The Et-Tu was not a Bussard ramjet as her primary function. She wasn't real great at operating that way. "I should never have let that idiot Nevedek bring that sample of Kliges'chee space dust aboard. He thought we could use it against our enemies, the Federation or the Klingons. He could not grasp that our survival might depend upon them. The ship is saturated and the crew is even now spacing themselves. If the Kliges'chee were here now, they would beam my suffocating crew into their nightmare ships and eat them. At least they won't get that satisfaction." "Following this message is a copy of our tactical data concerning the Kliges'chee. I hope that they have not won and devoured us. I hope that you will have a chance of defeating them." He twitched and sat up straight. "I- I have to go now." His eyes were hollow he knew what was coming and was powerless to prevent it. Zadask hit the switch and his last message was over. Following it was the tactical data, and copies of his logs. We could now trace the voyage of the Et-Tu. -*- As an operational starship, the Et-Tu was a lost cause. We studied her for five days, taking every scrap of data we could find. Flagg eventually informed us that Starfleet knew a lot about these types of ships and that they weren't in general use any more. I had been worried. Six weeks ago, when the Harrier had been thrown out of Federation space, we had damaged some critical engine components. We were now running on back ups. The Et-Tu had some analogs of the parts we needed. They were very close to Federation equipment, enough to make me wonder. Flagg knew that the Romulans had been as successful in the intelligence arena as the Federation, and they had developed warp drives based on Klingon and Federation had-me-downs. That also counted battle loses. We stripped the Et-Tu of everything that we might use or recycle. I didn't like it, but we weren't exactly in the best situation. Those parts and elements might just be the margin we needed to get home. When we were finished, we reburied the Romulan Captain Zadask in space. We left him with a copy of his last message as well as our own logs up until that time. In case anyone ever found him, and was interested. We destroyed the Et-Tu, so that no one else could take advantage of her corpse. I ordered the subspace cannon readied and on the evening of the sixth day I sent the Et-Tu's final report home, to Romulan High Command. I didn't know the proper codes and the intelligence was fifty years out of date, but I didn't want to think that these Romulan space men had died for no reason. Space is so large and points of light, warmth and life are so few and far between, you wind up identifying with anyone who goes out into it. They may have been Romulans and dedicated enemies of the Federation, but in the end, they came out here for the same reason that I did. Their country called, and the unknown needs to be uncovered. Maybe it had been five decades, but Romulans live for a long time, and maybe the loved ones of these crewmen would able to sleep better knowing for once and all what had happened. I also sent a copy of the message back to Starfleet Command. I had broken regulations by opening personal unauthorized contact with the Romulan Empire. I didn't want one of Flagg's people to report it. I also was impressed by the danger of the Kliges'chee and I wanted to make sure that Starfleet knew the extent of the threat. We set course to the galactic south attempt to avoid Kliges'chee territory on our way back home. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.588 / Virus Database: 372 - Release Date: 2/13/2004 -- Stephen Ratliff ASC Stories Only Forwarding In the Pattern Buffer at: http//trekiverse.crosswinds.net/feed/ ASCL is a stories-only list, no discussion. 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