Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 04:54:49 GMT 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: 32/339(?) 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 Rishan Pleasure Base #5: Episode 32 by Jay P. Hailey And Dennnis Washburn I had a few days to adjust to the concept. I wandered the Harrier trying to keep the crew together. I wasn't easy. Most of the crew had seen themselves live through long and successful careers and then retire. We all had the delusions that we were retired admirals, statesmen and captains of industry. A shipload of chiefs and no Indians. Most of the crew I spoke to understood and were willing to do their best on a good sportsmanship level, but there were a thousand subconscious differences between a crewman and an admiral good naturedly playing crewman. Morale and crew efficiency began to plummet. The Harrier was sick ship. I began to doubt that we would be able to make it home. Making it home was essential to me. Then some young snot who hadn't been through his virtual lifetime yet reminded me of the standing orders I had made forty years ago, back when I hadn't understood what the first few "Customers" of Rishan Pleasure Base Number Five were saying. The experience must be recorded. It must be described in detail for later analysis and examination. -*- I couldn't do it all at once. I began with my life following the Harrier's return to the Federation. It sounded like a pleasant daydream until I got to Sandra. The more I remembered our times together, the more I realized what a gaping hole I was. Without my true love I was not a whole person. It felt as though she had died, or was suddenly taken away. I caught myself writing to her as I had thirty years ago during my previous deep space command. She wasn't there. She never had been. Now I was alone, and I felt it like I never had before. -*- Talking about Katherine and Barbara was worse. Their whole lives were gone. Soon I was in tears and unable to continue. -*- In a few days of this, the Harrier was beyond being a wreck. Most of the crew was in a state of deep shock or mourning. We couldn't have made the Harrier cross five light years in that state. In the engineering compartment, things were even worse. Most of the Engineers had experienced forty or more years of technological advance. They were frustrated to be working on such a relic as the Harrier. She was more than a century out of date in many ways. We were essentially doomed, and I didn't know what to do about it. -*- "Are we ready?" A chorus of "Aye, Captains." from the bridge crew answered me. The Harrier was as ready for space as we were going to get. "Set course for-" I was interrupted by the salesman, again filling the main view screen. "Why, you're not planning on leaving, yet, are you?" He said, surprised. "Yes, we are." I said. I wanted to blast Carubo for what he had done to me. But there was no point. Even our sensors could tell that he was just an artificial life form. An automated maitre'- d. "But the experience isn't finished yet!" He said "There's more to come!" I was stunned. Had I been about to head us off with a critical part of the process unfinished? Might another trip to Rishan Pleasure Base Five set us to rights? Might I be able to see Sandra one more time? "All Stop!" I said "I'll go, Carubo, but no one else!" Li'ira's disapproval was thinly veiled. "Captain," She emphasized the title "Is it worth the risk?" I turned to her "You know we won't make it like this." I wasn't addressing my crew. This was a panel of retired captains and admirals. "We need a break here. This is the closest thing I can see." Varupuchu shook his head "You're still the Captain of the Harrier. We can't afford to loose you. Anyone else is more expendable." "I disagree." I said "Together on this bridge we have more than five hundred years worth of command experience. Our lowly-est Ensign is now an old space dog. Command is not what we're hurting for. But that's why we're hurting." I spoke carefully "My decision is made. Go to yellow alert and raise the shields. Open a single beaming hole for the Pleasure Base to beam me over. When the Base signals it's readiness to send me back then a single beaming hole will be re-established and you will recover me. Then you will begin to move away from the Base. If it works out that I am better then we will return." Everyone grudgingly gave me their agreement. -*- The bridge of the Challenger shuddered around me. Red Alert flashed through smoke and fire. We were taking a beating, but it was worth it. The Kliges'chee had finally swamped the Romulan Empire and were now making in roads into the Federation. The Federation and the Klingons had proved too much together for the Kliges'chee to eat. Although battles raged all across the front, I had seen the projections. I knew of no data to contradict the big computers at Starfleet Command. We were going to win in the end. Two Kliges'chee ships moved to catch us in a crossfire. "Hard to port!" I barked "Begin evasive pattern Delta!" The big Galaxy class ship rolled over and threw her bulk into a complicated evasive routine. The Kliges'chee fell prey to our escorts. "Report!" "Shields at 63%. Damage to decks 34, 35 and 36. Main Engineering compromised, but the Warp Core is still good and back up controls are on line. Casualties are heavy in engineering." My heart ached. My crew was dying. We were going to spend our best blood beating the Kliges'chee in a fight that was a foregone conclusion. "How about the transports?" We were covering the evacuation of the colony of "Four Corners". Its four armed inhabitants had their whole planetary defense out guarding our backs. Soon the last of the non-combatants would be free of the war zone. The Kliges'chee would not eat them. The fighting was intense. The Kliges'chee didn't like refugees escaping and pulled out all the stops to get them before they were out of reach. "No transports have been engaged by the enemy. They are five minutes away from the transwarp conduit." "Arm quantum phase torpedoes, prepare for a fleet level bombardment." I grinned a feral grin. The Kliges'chee weren't going to like these... "Breakthrough! Breakthrough!" The Tactical Officer shouted "Four, no five Kliges'chee ships have broken through the screen! They're headed for the transports!" On another screen I could see the commander of the Four Corners Defense Forces begin to shout orders. I leaned into the screen and spoke firmly. If the Four Corners forces didn't follow the game plan then we'd be pulling defeat from the jaws of victory "Commander Macabee! Hold the screen! Don't let any more of the bastards through!" "But the other ships.." He began "Don't worry, Commander, the Challenger will give them other things to think about." The thought of my flagship tearing into the Kliges'chee obviously pleased Macabee. "Go get 'em Admiral!" "Hard about! Plot a course to intercept the Kliges'chee ships and engage at full impulse! Engineering bring the impulse reactors to 105 percent!" The Challenger leapt towards the Kliges'chee breakthroughs. "Admiral," Lieutenant Vorkosigan said quietly, but urgently "We're still set for a fleet bombardment of quantum phase torpedoes." There was no time to empty the tubes and rearm normal photon torpedoes. "Do the best you can." Was all I said. I knew the short Lieutenant would correct for my mistake. "Permission to fire?" He said. I knew he meant that we needed to fire while the Kliges'chee were still far enough from the refugee transports for the transports not to be hit by the torpedoes "Your discretion, Tactical." I gave him permission to fight the Challenger as well as he could. The Challenger spat small warp speed projectiles at the Kliges'chee ships. As they got into range of the Kliges'chee ships they blossomed into huge explosions. Machinery inside the torpedoes took a fraction of energy of those explosions and used it to power massive subspace pulses. Vorkosigan had given the transports plenty of room. Nevertheless, this was enough for the Kliges'chee to escape the worst of the effects of our new torpedoes. The edges of the effects were bad enough. The Kliges'chee were tossed and damaged while their warp fields and force fields flickered and died. One of them lost anti-matter containment and detonated like a small star. The Challenger swept in behind the wall of destruction like an avenging angel, but the Kliges'chee were prepared and turned towards us. There followed a bitter knife fight as the Challenger and four Kliges'chee cruisers passed with in a hundred meters of each other, phasers cutting deep into hulls and plasma rams blazing like stars. One Kliges'chee turned away to make a run for the transports, but his own singleness of purpose killed him, as Vorkosigan shot him with a full barrage of photon torpedoes. I clung to my seat and tried to keep track of all that was happening to me and my ship. One of my screens showed the exterior situation, where the Kliges'chee ships were and what they were doing. The other showed a schematic of the Challenger and how we were doing. Neither screen looked good. I routed helm control to my panel as the Conn exploded killing my helmswoman. There was nothing I could do, except to keep telling the computer to instigate the battle patterns prepared by Vorkosigan. Soon helm was taken over by the auxiliary control and I was able to view the Challenger's status. I was shocked. Most of shields were gone and there was heavy damage all over the ship. More than half of us were dead already. "The Transports are entering the transwarp conduit!" Vorkosigan shouted. "They're away!" I triggered the address intership and said "All hands! All hands! The transports are away!" Somewhere I heard cheers as the last Kliges'chee ship rammed us. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.598 / Virus Database: 380 - Release Date: 2/28/2004 -- 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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