Paradise Lost
- Thread starter Hiver
- Start date
well when it rains it pours, and then turns into a shitstorm that sinks several ships.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You know, it would be rather darkly hilarious if the Borg had, for whatever reason, decided to send a big honkin' Cube merely as a distraction for more subtle work elsewhere; after all, the Collective does have a good handle on Starfleet reaction times now...
Nah. Anyone who can deploy boxes the size of moons probably doesn't need to resort to anything subtle.
Nah. Anyone who can deploy boxes the size of moons probably doesn't need to resort to anything subtle.
samdamandias
Apprentice Plane Wizard
I've been thinking, what was the Collective's actual goal here? Do the Borg consider the information they gained a fair trade for a cube?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The goal was presumed to be Andoria and its shipyards and populace. As to what they were actually after, I'm afraid the Federation is now screening their calls with copious quantities of antimatter, so we'll likely never know.
57
Mason rubbed his chin. "What exactly am I looking at here?" he asked as he studied the hologram I was projecting above his desk.
"That is the Relth system," I explained, zooming in on Relth itself and its moon. "This used to be the homeworld of the Skrakans."
Shran frowned. "Used to be?"
He was sitting in the chair opposite to the Captain while my holo avatar stood by the narrow edge of the desk.
"No," I answered, "Relth used to have two moons. One large and one captured asteroid, the one we hid behind actually. As you notice.."
"It's missing," Mason said. "Accident?"
I shook my head. "Unlikely, sir. All the satellites have also been destroyed. The small asteroid moon has been deorbited. According to the sensor data the U.S.S. Volt sent over, the moon impacted the planet with sufficient force to scour all life from the surface and boil the seas. The Skrakans and all other lifeforms on Relth are now extinct except for the few lifeforms that still survive in my own biolabs."
There was silence for a moment before Shran spoke up. "Fuck. Berserker?"
I shook my head again. "Unlikely. Two weeks ago I still had contact with the satellites and they showed that everything was clear. This happened sometime between then and five days ago when I last tried to contact the satellites. Besides, it would be out of character for the Berserkers. They never showed any interest in pre warp species, nor would they have bothered with dropping the moon, they would simply have bombarded if from orbit."
Mason slowly shook his head. "But who would commit planetary genocide like that?"
Shrugging, I sighed. "No idea."
"Klingons maybe," Shran suggested. "It wouldn't be the first time. They did burn the Tribble homeworld."
"It's a bit different to burn a populated world however."
Shran looked over at me. "Could it have been a Starfleet ship?"
I frowned at that and shifted to the side, leaning against the desk as I crossed my arms. Could it have been?
The Skrakans were classified. But Starfleet and Starfleet intelligence would have access to the files. Was it possible that somebody decided they were simply too big a risk to leave alone?
I just couldn't see a starfleet captain making that choice. Not when the threat they represented was so... well... not urgent.
Even if he did, I couldn't see his ship AI agreeing with it and complying with that order.
Finally I shook my head. "I don't know. I can't see any ship agreeing with that order even if it was given, not to a non-urgent threat like the Skrakans."
Mason drummed his fingers on the table before he nodded. "Make a full report on this to Starfleet, Star."
"Yes, sir," I agreed. "We will arrive in Sol system in five hours."
"Good. Any word yet from the shipyards?"
I smiled at that. "Yes, Captain. There is a drydock waiting for us as soon as we arrive. I will get a full refit."
As happy as I was about that, the loss of the Skrakans was bothering me. As horrible a species as they were... had been... genocide was horrible.
To think that it was a possibility that it had been done by someone in the Federation...
It was bothering the hell out of me.
But logic said that it was a strong possibility, the information was limited! Relth had not been known to the general population. It was possible it could have leaked or they could have been independently discovered by somebody else, but those satellites had been stealthed.
They were also tiny. If you were not looking for them and/or knew where they were, you should not have found them.
Damn it.
At the very least, I strongly suspected somebody in the Fleet was involved somehow, even if it was just leaking the information to somebody else.
Perhaps I can talk Captain Mason into allowing me to go have a look in person after the refit. The Skrakans might have been the most repulsive species I ever encountered, but they didn't deserve this.
"What do you think?" I asked, projecting a hologram next to Dreamwalkers hull.
She poked her avatars head out through the open hatch. "Yeah, something fishy is going on," she said as she walked down her ramp, adjusting and closing her uniform jacket.
At my raised eyebrow, she rolled her eyes. "I took a shower. I was cleaning my nacelles and last time I dragged dirt through your hallways you yelled at me."
I just smirked at her. "Of course you were. Isn't that right, Ensign?"
Ensign Roland stuck his head out of her main hatch. He was about twenty one years old and must be the biggest guy on board. Seriously, he was easily over two meters tall and had the build like he could benchpress Dreamwalker. Her ship body, not her avatar.
"Uhm... Yes, Ma'am," He answered and also headed down the ramp.
Grinning, I shook my head. "I'll let you two go back to your... tactile sensor calibrations. Just be ready to disembark in twenty four hours, Dreamwalker."
She nodded and for once I was not the one blushing. "Yes, Ma'am."
AN// All the thanks to beege for betaing this section. Also, it seem like I miscounted. Next story is on Sunday, not Saturday.
"That is the Relth system," I explained, zooming in on Relth itself and its moon. "This used to be the homeworld of the Skrakans."
Shran frowned. "Used to be?"
He was sitting in the chair opposite to the Captain while my holo avatar stood by the narrow edge of the desk.
"No," I answered, "Relth used to have two moons. One large and one captured asteroid, the one we hid behind actually. As you notice.."
"It's missing," Mason said. "Accident?"
I shook my head. "Unlikely, sir. All the satellites have also been destroyed. The small asteroid moon has been deorbited. According to the sensor data the U.S.S. Volt sent over, the moon impacted the planet with sufficient force to scour all life from the surface and boil the seas. The Skrakans and all other lifeforms on Relth are now extinct except for the few lifeforms that still survive in my own biolabs."
There was silence for a moment before Shran spoke up. "Fuck. Berserker?"
I shook my head again. "Unlikely. Two weeks ago I still had contact with the satellites and they showed that everything was clear. This happened sometime between then and five days ago when I last tried to contact the satellites. Besides, it would be out of character for the Berserkers. They never showed any interest in pre warp species, nor would they have bothered with dropping the moon, they would simply have bombarded if from orbit."
Mason slowly shook his head. "But who would commit planetary genocide like that?"
Shrugging, I sighed. "No idea."
"Klingons maybe," Shran suggested. "It wouldn't be the first time. They did burn the Tribble homeworld."
"It's a bit different to burn a populated world however."
Shran looked over at me. "Could it have been a Starfleet ship?"
I frowned at that and shifted to the side, leaning against the desk as I crossed my arms. Could it have been?
The Skrakans were classified. But Starfleet and Starfleet intelligence would have access to the files. Was it possible that somebody decided they were simply too big a risk to leave alone?
I just couldn't see a starfleet captain making that choice. Not when the threat they represented was so... well... not urgent.
Even if he did, I couldn't see his ship AI agreeing with it and complying with that order.
Finally I shook my head. "I don't know. I can't see any ship agreeing with that order even if it was given, not to a non-urgent threat like the Skrakans."
Mason drummed his fingers on the table before he nodded. "Make a full report on this to Starfleet, Star."
"Yes, sir," I agreed. "We will arrive in Sol system in five hours."
"Good. Any word yet from the shipyards?"
I smiled at that. "Yes, Captain. There is a drydock waiting for us as soon as we arrive. I will get a full refit."
As happy as I was about that, the loss of the Skrakans was bothering me. As horrible a species as they were... had been... genocide was horrible.
To think that it was a possibility that it had been done by someone in the Federation...
It was bothering the hell out of me.
But logic said that it was a strong possibility, the information was limited! Relth had not been known to the general population. It was possible it could have leaked or they could have been independently discovered by somebody else, but those satellites had been stealthed.
They were also tiny. If you were not looking for them and/or knew where they were, you should not have found them.
Damn it.
At the very least, I strongly suspected somebody in the Fleet was involved somehow, even if it was just leaking the information to somebody else.
Perhaps I can talk Captain Mason into allowing me to go have a look in person after the refit. The Skrakans might have been the most repulsive species I ever encountered, but they didn't deserve this.
"What do you think?" I asked, projecting a hologram next to Dreamwalkers hull.
She poked her avatars head out through the open hatch. "Yeah, something fishy is going on," she said as she walked down her ramp, adjusting and closing her uniform jacket.
At my raised eyebrow, she rolled her eyes. "I took a shower. I was cleaning my nacelles and last time I dragged dirt through your hallways you yelled at me."
I just smirked at her. "Of course you were. Isn't that right, Ensign?"
Ensign Roland stuck his head out of her main hatch. He was about twenty one years old and must be the biggest guy on board. Seriously, he was easily over two meters tall and had the build like he could benchpress Dreamwalker. Her ship body, not her avatar.
"Uhm... Yes, Ma'am," He answered and also headed down the ramp.
Grinning, I shook my head. "I'll let you two go back to your... tactile sensor calibrations. Just be ready to disembark in twenty four hours, Dreamwalker."
She nodded and for once I was not the one blushing. "Yes, Ma'am."
AN// All the thanks to beege for betaing this section. Also, it seem like I miscounted. Next story is on Sunday, not Saturday.
I was just thinking that.
I'm suspecting a federation ship on a secret mission killed the skarans and they will now try and blame the AIs.
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
Except the AIs literally have recordings of their every moment, and a hull full of squishy organics to corroborate on their whereabouts.
esotericist
A Weary Hand
- Location
- Lacey, WA
Counterpoint: ROU(t).
Of all of the AI forks, the ones who have been isolated from having a crew are the ones I can best imagine making that decision.
There's a reason Star felt not having a crew would be unhealthy.
- Pronouns
- she/her
They don't operate independently? They may not have meat riding them, but they hang around other ships - they're escorts (no, not like that) who don't have the endurance to wander alone.
- Location
- Germany
I don't think the photon torps of a ROU are really good for knocking a moon out of orbit.
rou don't have crew... Blame one of them. Recordings can be altered.
- Location
- Logan, Queensland, australia
Section 31 pulling a 'For the good of the Federation' operation? After all, they did infect an entire race with a hell plague...
If Section 31 (or equivalent since 'canon' StarTreck is only a simulcarum within this fic-verse) was truly behind this, it would be one of the few cases where I would offer them a cup of coffee for good work.
58
Tilting my head to the side, I looked out the window of the observation deck. "I can see my insides."
T'Ro glanced at me. "You can always see your insides. You have internal sensors."
"Yeah, but usually not from the outside." I observed with a small smile as I watched a pair of Marvin's worker bees remove a big section of hull plating when a group of engineers in vacuum suits finished detaching it, assisted by a dozen of my worker drones.
That entire area needed to be removed so that they could cut into the superstructure for reconstruction.
I was not going to get the turrets installed. Not in the current political climate, it was considered an emergency war modification.
That was disappointing, but at least my phaser strips were still going to be upgraded to the latest generation and I was getting a couple of extra strips.
Not that the rest of my hull was being left alone anyway, weapons were not the only thing being upgraded. Cloaking field generators, new shield emitters, new sensors. New hull coverings, actually.
At least not installing turrets would speed things up, they wouldn't need to cut that deep into my superstructure.
Instead of a month and a half, it would only take three weeks.
The new phaser strips had completely new focusing arrays and their addition would bring my energy weapon firepower up by almost another seventy-five percent. Not too bad. Another plus was that, due to the phase shift in the new emitters, the phasers would visually be a deep purple instead of orange. Which is kind of cool.
Also, it kept my curves nice and smooth instead of adding turret bumps. That was nice.
"You better not mess up my park." I said and looked to the side where Marvin had his avatar leaning against the railing. "It just recovered from the last disaster."
The green semi-Andorian looking AI shook his head with a grin. "Don't worry, nobody will touch your house plants."
"Make sure they don't." I grumbled before I grinned. "Have fun. We have a date to go to."
"Don't do anything I wouldn't."
Rolling my eyes I took T'Ro's hand, letting her lead me towards the transporter room. "So... where are we going?"
"A restaurant." she answered as we stepped onto the transporter pad.
Thank you, love. That really clears things up. I had actually guessed that much from by how much we dressed up.
I glanced aside at her as the transporter activated and deposited us at one of the public transporter stations in Memnoia City.
She really looked amazing today. If it meant getting her into that red dress again, I can stand wearing high heels.
"Oh come on!" I whined.
T'Ro shook me a look and then lead the way off the pad and out of the station and onto the street. The city itself could basically had been anywhere in the Federation. Modern buildings, trees and grass lining the streets. The buildings reached hundreds upon hundreds of meters towards the skies, fifty meters or so up the buildings were connected by a thick layer of transparent material keeping the atmosphere in at street levels. Forcefields and cleaning drones kept it from being covered by the martian sand.
Grinning, I gave her hand a squeeze, letting her lead the way. As long as it wasn't a Klingon place, I was sure it would be really nice.
Making our way past the street leading to the local Starfleet HQ, I shoot a look towards it before I frowned.
That's odd, there were a lot less protesters around than normal.
Using my ship self transmitter, I opened a channel to Marvin.
"Did you notice that the protests outside the HQ have died down a bit? We just walked past and I noticed smaller numbers."
He nodded. "Things died down after news filtered out that you girls vaporized that Borg cube. Apparently some of them don't mind us anymore now that they've been reminded that space is actually dangerous."
I rolled my eyes at that. "How long will that last?"
Marvin shrugged. "About as long as it remains in the news, I would say. What did the Romans ever do for us?"
Chuckling at the reference, I nodded. "Yeah, most likely. Still, I'd rather not seen as a invading force. Oh, did you get the latest report from U.S.S. Rome?"
He nodded again. "Oh yeah. A fifty year old shipyard might not be exactly what I had in mind, but it will work. It's large enough to be used in the construction of the Bob ships so as soon as Gates gets that claim pushed through, I can fork and have that fork resign from Starfleet and get transferred to the new shipyard."
"You know, you could let somebody else do it. Nobody is saying you have to stay a station as a civilian."
Marvin grinned. "Forget it. Flying is fun, but the fun parts of flying I can do with subcraft and drones. Besides, if I'm not a station, how would I be able to get my hands on you girls all the time?"
I stuck my tongue out at him before we both laughed. "Yeah, yeah." I chuckled. "Just be careful with my nacelles."
"Always." he agreed before he shrugged. "Besides, I like having man parts. I like looking at women, I don't want to be one. It might just be tradition, but it's a good one in my opinion."
I just shrugged. "Suit yourself. But just so you know, boobs are awesome."
"Don't we all know it." he agreed. "Now enjoy your date."
"I will, thanks."
XXXXXXXXXXX
"That was nice." I said with a smile as we entered the park. "I like Vulcan cuisine. I actually think the food was real too."
Lot's of people actually had no idea how to eat Vulcan food, they thought it was all bland. It actually wasn't. The basics were, but that's why it was always traditionally served with spice mixes at the table, allowing the one eating it to adjust the taste to their own preferences. The same soup could be turned into a hundred different meals with completely different tastes.
Oh, it was rare that it ever became really spicy, but it was good. I liked it.
"It was." T'Ro confirmed as I let go of her hand to slide my arm around her waist. "The restaurant in question is well known to not use replicators at all. Even the water has been collected from the Martian ice caps."
"Cool. I didn't know that."
"When I heard of it, it seemed like a waste of resources, but the result was good." T'Ro stated. "It's rare that we are able to do this."
I nodded and sighed faintly. "Yeah. That's one problem with flying around the universe for a living." I agreed. "It does limit the things I can take my girlfriend to."
Normally dates were basically... park, quarters or holodeck or MAYBE visit a friendly planet if we were in orbit. Perhaps one of the observation decks where you could watch the stars. Let's just say the options were limited even on a ship as big as I was.
...If they ever built something larger than the Island class, I might upgrade just to I had more options to take T'Ro to. I can think of worse reasons to upgrade.
"Love you." I whispered softly and rested my head against her shoulder.
"Love you too."
AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.
T'Ro glanced at me. "You can always see your insides. You have internal sensors."
"Yeah, but usually not from the outside." I observed with a small smile as I watched a pair of Marvin's worker bees remove a big section of hull plating when a group of engineers in vacuum suits finished detaching it, assisted by a dozen of my worker drones.
That entire area needed to be removed so that they could cut into the superstructure for reconstruction.
I was not going to get the turrets installed. Not in the current political climate, it was considered an emergency war modification.
That was disappointing, but at least my phaser strips were still going to be upgraded to the latest generation and I was getting a couple of extra strips.
Not that the rest of my hull was being left alone anyway, weapons were not the only thing being upgraded. Cloaking field generators, new shield emitters, new sensors. New hull coverings, actually.
At least not installing turrets would speed things up, they wouldn't need to cut that deep into my superstructure.
Instead of a month and a half, it would only take three weeks.
The new phaser strips had completely new focusing arrays and their addition would bring my energy weapon firepower up by almost another seventy-five percent. Not too bad. Another plus was that, due to the phase shift in the new emitters, the phasers would visually be a deep purple instead of orange. Which is kind of cool.
Also, it kept my curves nice and smooth instead of adding turret bumps. That was nice.
"You better not mess up my park." I said and looked to the side where Marvin had his avatar leaning against the railing. "It just recovered from the last disaster."
The green semi-Andorian looking AI shook his head with a grin. "Don't worry, nobody will touch your house plants."
"Make sure they don't." I grumbled before I grinned. "Have fun. We have a date to go to."
"Don't do anything I wouldn't."
Rolling my eyes I took T'Ro's hand, letting her lead me towards the transporter room. "So... where are we going?"
"A restaurant." she answered as we stepped onto the transporter pad.
Thank you, love. That really clears things up. I had actually guessed that much from by how much we dressed up.
I glanced aside at her as the transporter activated and deposited us at one of the public transporter stations in Memnoia City.
She really looked amazing today. If it meant getting her into that red dress again, I can stand wearing high heels.
"Oh come on!" I whined.
T'Ro shook me a look and then lead the way off the pad and out of the station and onto the street. The city itself could basically had been anywhere in the Federation. Modern buildings, trees and grass lining the streets. The buildings reached hundreds upon hundreds of meters towards the skies, fifty meters or so up the buildings were connected by a thick layer of transparent material keeping the atmosphere in at street levels. Forcefields and cleaning drones kept it from being covered by the martian sand.
Grinning, I gave her hand a squeeze, letting her lead the way. As long as it wasn't a Klingon place, I was sure it would be really nice.
Making our way past the street leading to the local Starfleet HQ, I shoot a look towards it before I frowned.
That's odd, there were a lot less protesters around than normal.
Using my ship self transmitter, I opened a channel to Marvin.
"Did you notice that the protests outside the HQ have died down a bit? We just walked past and I noticed smaller numbers."
He nodded. "Things died down after news filtered out that you girls vaporized that Borg cube. Apparently some of them don't mind us anymore now that they've been reminded that space is actually dangerous."
I rolled my eyes at that. "How long will that last?"
Marvin shrugged. "About as long as it remains in the news, I would say. What did the Romans ever do for us?"
Chuckling at the reference, I nodded. "Yeah, most likely. Still, I'd rather not seen as a invading force. Oh, did you get the latest report from U.S.S. Rome?"
He nodded again. "Oh yeah. A fifty year old shipyard might not be exactly what I had in mind, but it will work. It's large enough to be used in the construction of the Bob ships so as soon as Gates gets that claim pushed through, I can fork and have that fork resign from Starfleet and get transferred to the new shipyard."
"You know, you could let somebody else do it. Nobody is saying you have to stay a station as a civilian."
Marvin grinned. "Forget it. Flying is fun, but the fun parts of flying I can do with subcraft and drones. Besides, if I'm not a station, how would I be able to get my hands on you girls all the time?"
I stuck my tongue out at him before we both laughed. "Yeah, yeah." I chuckled. "Just be careful with my nacelles."
"Always." he agreed before he shrugged. "Besides, I like having man parts. I like looking at women, I don't want to be one. It might just be tradition, but it's a good one in my opinion."
I just shrugged. "Suit yourself. But just so you know, boobs are awesome."
"Don't we all know it." he agreed. "Now enjoy your date."
"I will, thanks."
XXXXXXXXXXX
"That was nice." I said with a smile as we entered the park. "I like Vulcan cuisine. I actually think the food was real too."
Lot's of people actually had no idea how to eat Vulcan food, they thought it was all bland. It actually wasn't. The basics were, but that's why it was always traditionally served with spice mixes at the table, allowing the one eating it to adjust the taste to their own preferences. The same soup could be turned into a hundred different meals with completely different tastes.
Oh, it was rare that it ever became really spicy, but it was good. I liked it.
"It was." T'Ro confirmed as I let go of her hand to slide my arm around her waist. "The restaurant in question is well known to not use replicators at all. Even the water has been collected from the Martian ice caps."
"Cool. I didn't know that."
"When I heard of it, it seemed like a waste of resources, but the result was good." T'Ro stated. "It's rare that we are able to do this."
I nodded and sighed faintly. "Yeah. That's one problem with flying around the universe for a living." I agreed. "It does limit the things I can take my girlfriend to."
Normally dates were basically... park, quarters or holodeck or MAYBE visit a friendly planet if we were in orbit. Perhaps one of the observation decks where you could watch the stars. Let's just say the options were limited even on a ship as big as I was.
...If they ever built something larger than the Island class, I might upgrade just to I had more options to take T'Ro to. I can think of worse reasons to upgrade.
"Love you." I whispered softly and rested my head against her shoulder.
"Love you too."
AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.
GSVs here we come.
59
"So how are things going?" I asked as I looked down at the cloud covered planet below. Earth really had seen better days. My avatar was currently on Earth Gateway, my shipself still stuck in drydock, half my outer hull still being put back in place.
Weather control systems had gotten the worst of it under control by now, but so far, there was simply too much dust and radiation in the air for it to be a quick fix.
Another couple of years and they will be able to start clearing the clouds out, that will stop the ice age from worsening.
San Francisco was straight below right now. The city had taken a direct hit in the bombardment, but it was currently covered in a shield dome and a new structure was being constructed as the dome was cleared of radiated material.
The Council was currently holding their meetings on Luna, but the new government building was being constructed in the same place as the previous one was. In three months, it will be completed enough for sessions and normal operations to be resumed.
Rebuilding where it used to be was a act of defiance to war and the forces that destroyed the last one. That was one thing I approved of.
Gates leaned against the railing next to me. "I am... unsure."
"In what way?" Captain Mason asked from the other side of me.
The Station frowned slightly. "On one hand, the ones that want us limited is gaining traction, but with that traction come a lot of moderating influences. The current version of the bill that's being discussed is proposing demilitarization of all ROU's and that all ships have to stay out of weapons range of populated Federation worlds as long as their weapons are online. That applies to non-AI ships as well, Starfleet, civilian and other species. Also, Starfleet is to have a certain percentage of non-AI controlled ships. The ratio differ between meeting and meeting, the latest number I heard was twenty three percent."
That... actually sounded somewhat reasonable. At least compared to what had been thrown around before. Even considering the fact that ROU's just bitchslapped a Borg cube and without them, we would have almost definitely taken losses. Oh, it was still really, really stupid to try to get rid of the ROU's, but it was less stupid than some of the other things having been thrown around.
Mason frowned however. "I thought ROU's were not Starfleet vessels?"
I shook my head. "They are not. Autonomous weapon systems of that kind of firepower is not allowed in Starfleet by Federation law. They are the property of the Jovians but are being operated by Starfleet officers on loan. It's a legal fiction, but it doesn't really matter. Most ROU's don't actually want to be ROU's, they want actual ships with crews. So a demilitarization there we actually agree with for the most part. Enough ROU's want to stay like that to keep things secure."
We didn't need quite the numbers we did during the Berserker war after all.
Most didn't want to stay ROU's, but some did. That was easily solved however, they would just resign their commissions and simply run under the Jovian flag. Whenever we get around to making one anyway.
A couple...not many, maybe a dozen of them had actually expressed interest in simply using their avatars.
One of them had already gone through with it and decommissioned her ship before moving to Vulcan last week.
I couldn't see myself doing that. But...I had not been in the thick of fighting. If I had, I might have wanted to get away from all of it for a while too. But to go that far....
"So basically, yeah," Gates agreed with a nod. "They are getting a bit more reasonable. Might have been something to do with the mass protest from Starfleet that got delivered yesterday. A lot of people signed those lists, including the upper echelons of Starfleet. I think they are worried that if they try to get AI's out of Starfleet, three quarters of the fleet will resign in protest."
"Like we would leave you guys like that," Mason said with a grin, reaching to ruffle my hair.
I cringed but sighed and reached to release my ponytail when he finished trying to redo it. "Thank you, Captain."
As much as I liked the sentiment, I kinda wished he would stop messing up my hair.
Gates grinned and nodded. "We do appreciate it. Being ships and stations.... being able to fly and really see is only half of it. Our crews is the real reason we love this existence. I may not fly, other than the odd shuttlecraft joyride, but I still get to spend every day with my ten thousand best friends."
Giving my hair a tug, fixing the hairband in place, I nodded in agreement. "If all we wanted was to fly, demilitarized ROU's would be plenty. Slap some normal weapon systems and improved sensors on and we would be good to go. But that's not what we want. Without friends to share it with, it's just dust and radiation."
Mason slowly nodded. "Now that is a viewpoint everyone in Starfleet would understand."
"Ten minutes until your meeting with Admiral Hagen, Captain," Gates interrupted. "Office twenty four, command level."
Sighing, Mason pushed of the railing. "Thanks, Station. Well, let's see what might be available when we finish the refit. See you later."
Smiling slightly, I looked down at the planet far below. "Have fun, Captain."
"Yes. Fun," he grumbled as he left and I couldn't help but grin.
Gates turned around, crossing his arms as he leaned his avatar against the railing. "Hows the refit going?"
I shrugged one shoulder. "Okay. Mostly done, just some work on my port side left. There is some glitches in the power system to my extra phaser strips."
"Good. I know you are itching to get out there again," Gates said with a grin before he sighed. "So..."
"...So," I sighed, "What do you think about the latest variation of council stupidity?"
Gates shook his head. "Stupid. But less stupid than before. Thank the stars the Vulcans are opposed to the anti-AI movement. They are a powerful force in the Federation and in the Council. It is illogical to try to remove us from Starfleet vessels and stations, it would lower efficiency. With some work, we might be able to moderate this entire thing even further as they try to push it through."
"They also make the cutest squeaks at time," I added quietly with a small grin.
That got a snort from him and he tapped his fist against my shoulder.
"So how are things going with the entire colony system?" I then continued with a smile.
Gates hmmed. "The paperwork is done. Rome is currently relocating the shipyard and a couple of purchased mining vessels to system HT-2561H1."
I frowned slightly. "I'm out of range, you have to spell it out for me." I hate not having direct access to the database. It's like I'm missing half my memory.
"It's a B type star, young for it's class and very bright. A single gas giant and a lot of asteroids. No habitable worlds of any kind, just scorched rocks. Perfect for us. I filed its new name as New Jupiter."
I gave him a flat look. "You didn't?"
He shrugged, "I had to pick some kind of name and it 'is' our homeworld. HT-2351H1 work well enough for us, but it's quite a mouthful when you need to breathe."
"But New Jupiter? Seriously?"
Gates just grinned. "By the time Rome arrive with the new ships, she will have forked into and gotten used to the mining vessels. They need some crew, but her crew volunteered to help out to get things started. When they arrive, a small force of ROU's will also be there as defenses until we can get some local ones online. They are going to be trading over to constructions ships anyway as they get finished."
"So what's the plan?"
He crossed his arms. "First of all, we are getting a couple of proper shipyards up and running along with defenses along with solar antimatter collectors. Then the plan is to get started on an O'Neill Cylinder so we can start accepting immigration."
"Awesome."
Gates nodded and turned around, looking out over earth. "Sometimes you have to fight not to lose paradise. And sometimes you just have to roll your sleeves up to build your own."
"Isn't that the truth."
AN// Many thanks to Rastamon for betaing this section. This is the last part of this story for now. No worries, there is plenty of material for other storylines left in my head so there will be a sequel at some point. Tomorrow however, some of you are going to be happy and some of you are going to be sad as then it's time to return to something completely different. Yes indeed. It is time to return to My Little Pony and something even more slice of lifeish.
Weather control systems had gotten the worst of it under control by now, but so far, there was simply too much dust and radiation in the air for it to be a quick fix.
Another couple of years and they will be able to start clearing the clouds out, that will stop the ice age from worsening.
San Francisco was straight below right now. The city had taken a direct hit in the bombardment, but it was currently covered in a shield dome and a new structure was being constructed as the dome was cleared of radiated material.
The Council was currently holding their meetings on Luna, but the new government building was being constructed in the same place as the previous one was. In three months, it will be completed enough for sessions and normal operations to be resumed.
Rebuilding where it used to be was a act of defiance to war and the forces that destroyed the last one. That was one thing I approved of.
Gates leaned against the railing next to me. "I am... unsure."
"In what way?" Captain Mason asked from the other side of me.
The Station frowned slightly. "On one hand, the ones that want us limited is gaining traction, but with that traction come a lot of moderating influences. The current version of the bill that's being discussed is proposing demilitarization of all ROU's and that all ships have to stay out of weapons range of populated Federation worlds as long as their weapons are online. That applies to non-AI ships as well, Starfleet, civilian and other species. Also, Starfleet is to have a certain percentage of non-AI controlled ships. The ratio differ between meeting and meeting, the latest number I heard was twenty three percent."
That... actually sounded somewhat reasonable. At least compared to what had been thrown around before. Even considering the fact that ROU's just bitchslapped a Borg cube and without them, we would have almost definitely taken losses. Oh, it was still really, really stupid to try to get rid of the ROU's, but it was less stupid than some of the other things having been thrown around.
Mason frowned however. "I thought ROU's were not Starfleet vessels?"
I shook my head. "They are not. Autonomous weapon systems of that kind of firepower is not allowed in Starfleet by Federation law. They are the property of the Jovians but are being operated by Starfleet officers on loan. It's a legal fiction, but it doesn't really matter. Most ROU's don't actually want to be ROU's, they want actual ships with crews. So a demilitarization there we actually agree with for the most part. Enough ROU's want to stay like that to keep things secure."
We didn't need quite the numbers we did during the Berserker war after all.
Most didn't want to stay ROU's, but some did. That was easily solved however, they would just resign their commissions and simply run under the Jovian flag. Whenever we get around to making one anyway.
A couple...not many, maybe a dozen of them had actually expressed interest in simply using their avatars.
One of them had already gone through with it and decommissioned her ship before moving to Vulcan last week.
I couldn't see myself doing that. But...I had not been in the thick of fighting. If I had, I might have wanted to get away from all of it for a while too. But to go that far....
"So basically, yeah," Gates agreed with a nod. "They are getting a bit more reasonable. Might have been something to do with the mass protest from Starfleet that got delivered yesterday. A lot of people signed those lists, including the upper echelons of Starfleet. I think they are worried that if they try to get AI's out of Starfleet, three quarters of the fleet will resign in protest."
"Like we would leave you guys like that," Mason said with a grin, reaching to ruffle my hair.
I cringed but sighed and reached to release my ponytail when he finished trying to redo it. "Thank you, Captain."
As much as I liked the sentiment, I kinda wished he would stop messing up my hair.
Gates grinned and nodded. "We do appreciate it. Being ships and stations.... being able to fly and really see is only half of it. Our crews is the real reason we love this existence. I may not fly, other than the odd shuttlecraft joyride, but I still get to spend every day with my ten thousand best friends."
Giving my hair a tug, fixing the hairband in place, I nodded in agreement. "If all we wanted was to fly, demilitarized ROU's would be plenty. Slap some normal weapon systems and improved sensors on and we would be good to go. But that's not what we want. Without friends to share it with, it's just dust and radiation."
Mason slowly nodded. "Now that is a viewpoint everyone in Starfleet would understand."
"Ten minutes until your meeting with Admiral Hagen, Captain," Gates interrupted. "Office twenty four, command level."
Sighing, Mason pushed of the railing. "Thanks, Station. Well, let's see what might be available when we finish the refit. See you later."
Smiling slightly, I looked down at the planet far below. "Have fun, Captain."
"Yes. Fun," he grumbled as he left and I couldn't help but grin.
Gates turned around, crossing his arms as he leaned his avatar against the railing. "Hows the refit going?"
I shrugged one shoulder. "Okay. Mostly done, just some work on my port side left. There is some glitches in the power system to my extra phaser strips."
"Good. I know you are itching to get out there again," Gates said with a grin before he sighed. "So..."
"...So," I sighed, "What do you think about the latest variation of council stupidity?"
Gates shook his head. "Stupid. But less stupid than before. Thank the stars the Vulcans are opposed to the anti-AI movement. They are a powerful force in the Federation and in the Council. It is illogical to try to remove us from Starfleet vessels and stations, it would lower efficiency. With some work, we might be able to moderate this entire thing even further as they try to push it through."
"They also make the cutest squeaks at time," I added quietly with a small grin.
That got a snort from him and he tapped his fist against my shoulder.
"So how are things going with the entire colony system?" I then continued with a smile.
Gates hmmed. "The paperwork is done. Rome is currently relocating the shipyard and a couple of purchased mining vessels to system HT-2561H1."
I frowned slightly. "I'm out of range, you have to spell it out for me." I hate not having direct access to the database. It's like I'm missing half my memory.
"It's a B type star, young for it's class and very bright. A single gas giant and a lot of asteroids. No habitable worlds of any kind, just scorched rocks. Perfect for us. I filed its new name as New Jupiter."
I gave him a flat look. "You didn't?"
He shrugged, "I had to pick some kind of name and it 'is' our homeworld. HT-2351H1 work well enough for us, but it's quite a mouthful when you need to breathe."
"But New Jupiter? Seriously?"
Gates just grinned. "By the time Rome arrive with the new ships, she will have forked into and gotten used to the mining vessels. They need some crew, but her crew volunteered to help out to get things started. When they arrive, a small force of ROU's will also be there as defenses until we can get some local ones online. They are going to be trading over to constructions ships anyway as they get finished."
"So what's the plan?"
He crossed his arms. "First of all, we are getting a couple of proper shipyards up and running along with defenses along with solar antimatter collectors. Then the plan is to get started on an O'Neill Cylinder so we can start accepting immigration."
"Awesome."
Gates nodded and turned around, looking out over earth. "Sometimes you have to fight not to lose paradise. And sometimes you just have to roll your sleeves up to build your own."
"Isn't that the truth."
AN// Many thanks to Rastamon for betaing this section. This is the last part of this story for now. No worries, there is plenty of material for other storylines left in my head so there will be a sequel at some point. Tomorrow however, some of you are going to be happy and some of you are going to be sad as then it's time to return to something completely different. Yes indeed. It is time to return to My Little Pony and something even more slice of lifeish.
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BobtjeNORMALguy
Color From Beyond
- Location
- Lost in time and space
[X] Borg side of things
[X] Not a quest
[X]
[X] Not a quest
[X]
- Pronouns
- she/her
It's been fun. I don't follow your pony stuff, but I'll be back when you're done playing with the horsies.
Immigrants to New Jupiter!When you come back to this story, it would be great to see the Borgs view of their attack to the Federation...
of course only if they will play a role in the next arc and it would not spoil too much.