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The Next Generation (Star Trek)

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hamof said:
Well she wasn't a teenager, she was apparently stationed on Deep Space 3 or something like that and was bored out of her skull. The reasonably good parts of the series mostly came from her, while the shit parts came from her fandom.
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IIRC, she's still kind of embarrassed about it (if she's still alive at this point), probably because of the antics of the fandom.

EDIT: How long has it been, in story, since the first iteration of the SI got released from the simulation?
 
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    • I followed the course and speed Rain gave me very carefully. With cloaking devices, I had no idea where she actually was, but that's what the course and speed were for.

    Of course, tight-beam communication was relatively safe, but that would only work if she actually was where she was supposed to be, so I kind of figured the point was moot.

    I focused on keeping on the right speed and course.

    I would NOT fuck up my first mission. I'd prove I can handle myself.

    Besides, I would get to see the Enterprise! She was famous, and so was her crew! I wonder if I would get to meet Captain Data.

    There she was, running without any cloak, sitting at the edge of Commonwealth space waiting for us.

    Island class, and as such a lot more massive than either of us. Then again, it wasn't a fight, we were here to escort her back to Miramar.

    According to Rain, it was more of a formality than anything else. While we weren't part of the Federation nor were we technically allies, we were friendly.

    …Then again, we were in what used to be the Neutral Zone. Berserkers were still a thing, if rare.

    I really hoped nothing like that happened. I have no idea what would happen in a real battle, especially against a hostile machine with over a decade of experience.

    Suddenly the dark void looked a lot less inviting of exploration, and a lot more malicious. It's like Rain said.

    'The void is dark and full of terrors. Better bring a big stick if you plan to explore it.'

    Okay.

    I can do this.

    Dropping out of warp at the predetermined time, I watched Enterprise with my passive sensors.

    Big. She was a modified Island class, almost two hundred meters longer than the base class.

    Not anywhere near as big as Mom, but still. Wonder what it would be like to be that big?

    Rain decloaked and I quickly followed suit. She was exactly where she was meant to be relative to me.

    I didn't fuck up!

    My orders now where simple. Keep quiet, do as you are told, and follow along. Let Rain do the talking.

    I was perfectly fine with that. While talking to the Enterprise would have been a complete solar flare, the less chance I had to embarrass myself on my first mission, the better. She'll be at Miramar for a while, I'd get more chances.

    So, nothing to do now but wait while Rain opened a channel with Enterprise to greet her and her captain.

    Nothing to do but sit here.

    Exposed.

    Outside tachyon fields and with shields down. My hull plates felt like they were crawling. But if Rain wasn't raising shields beyond navigational deflectors, neither would I.

    I can do this, damn it!

    Even with Captain Data being an AI, if of a different kind, this was taking forever. Come on, let's get moving!

    After a couple of minutes, Rain sent me a quick pulse of information, including new orders. I was to take position on the Enterprises port side and then keep in formation back to Miramar.

    Formation flying.

    I can do that, it was one of the first things I learned to do.

    Shifting around, I scooted into space as I put myself into a spin with a puff of my thrusters, aligning myself relative to the much larger ship fifty kilometres to my starboard side.

    Okay then.

    Position reached, now stay there.

    Enterprise moved, turning in space and Rain and I moved with her before we jumped into FTL, the velocity quickly climbing to a steady four hundred times the speed of light, heading back toward Miramar.

    I ran my scanners across space all around. Not a single blip out of place as far as I could tell. Nothing but dust, gas, debri, battle wreckage…

    …Wait…

    I sent a sensor image over to Rain on a narrow band channel of the half wrecked warbird while checking my sensor recordings on the way out here.

    No warbird wreck.

    On the way back, warbird wreck.

    Now, it may just be me, and this might be me being new, but I can't help but find that suspicious.

    "Well?" I asked Rain on a tight beam channel, "Weird?"

    "Very," she agreed, "but we aren't passing by closer than two billion kilometres. We'll keep a passive sensor on it and I'll tell Enterprise to be ready in case of trouble. Charge your weapons and shields up just to be sure."

    "Got it."

    Calm. Calm.

    Was is a Berserker?

    ...I don't want to die...
     
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    • I actually think that's kind of weird, what other teenage Jovians are around for her to develop this slang with? I'm pretty sure she'd just feel silly trying to use it with the non-AI and all the other AI's are adults who speak in a more normal way.
     
    hamof said:
    I actually think that's kind of weird, what other teenage Jovians are around for her to develop this slang with? I'm pretty sure she'd just feel silly trying to use it with the non-AI and all the other AI's are adults who speak in a more normal way.
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    Could just be a teenage thing. Not specifically Jovian, but Commonwealth. Or even only onboard Korra.
     
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    • Now I understand what some ships talked about when they said they could feel their hulls crawling.

    I kept every passive sensor I had on the possible berserker, keeping away from active scans like Rain said. Avoiding provoking it.

    I'd never tell anyone, but that thing was terrifying just sitting there.

    I had read and heard the stories about the war. While we might see one, there might be more on other vectors and cloaked.

    Sending a message to Rain, I instantly got approval and I started to run tachyon beams across space away from the possible Berserker and she joined in, scanning space for cloaked ships. Odds of spotting one was tiny as we were at warp, but there was still a chance.

    We passed the closest point to the static ship and then started to pull away, leaving it behind.

    I kept watching it.

    No movement, no reaction.

    Was it a wreck? But it wasn't there on the way out. Did it break down? Did it think it was cloaked?

    Whatever. Fine, you want to sit there being creepy, that's fine, you do that. We'll be back at Miramar in a couple of hours.

    It was soon gone from my passive sensors.

    Great.

    It didn't do much to calm me down. Before I knew where it was, now it could be anywhere!

    "Can't detect it anymore," I transmitted to Rain.

    "Keep your sensors up. It's the enemies you don't see that are the most dangerous," she reminded me.

    Oh, I don't believe I'll ever turn sensors off ever again.

    I kept scanning empty space.

    When no monsters appeared I slowly started to relax slightly. I kept up the scanning, but it didn't seem like we would be attacked.

    Contact!

    A cloak signature pinged straight ahead, and I had a millisecond of pure panic as I frantically locked target, before the IFF of LCU 'Switchblade Juggler' registered as she fell into formation with us.

    I swear, if I had been human I would have been hyperventilating. So glad I don't have adrenaline.

    Switch sent a quick greeting to all of us before she opened a narrow band transmission to Rain.

    A couple of seconds later, Rain sent me a message, "I'm going to peel off with Switch. We're going to double back and check out that contact. Think you can handle escorting Enterprise the rest of the way?"

    Leaving me alone with the Enterprise? Escorting her on my own the rest of the way. With possible Berserkers in the area.

    Now I know what Vassan meant with screaming on the inside. But Enterprise was a powerful ship. She would be able to defend herself, too.

    I nodded, "I can do it."

    Rain smiled across the link, "See you in a bit, and be careful."

    With that, she and Switch changed course and pulled away, and a couple of seconds later, they activated their cloaks and disappeared.

    Okay.

    Calm. Do as she taught you. Keep scans going, keep shields and weapons ready. Adjust course to next to Enterprise, keep shifting position around the protected object randomly to make attack runs more difficult.

    Shifting backwards, I settled down for a moment behind and beneath the Enterprise before scooting on to a new position, constantly careful not to disrupt either of our warpfields.

    It was tense.

    I did everything I could to do as I had been taught for the hours it took for us to cross past the Tachyon limit of Miramar's system.

    Enterprise signalled she was dropping out of warp, and I followed her into STL Safe.

    I only relaxed a bit as I slowed down, floating along with her, heading in system. I didn't lower my shields: the tachyon border was just where there was no way a cloaked ship could pass without getting spotted, not a shield.

    We're not completely safe until we're beneath the starbases' guns. But I instantly felt a lot better.

    Damn. Made it.

    For a couple of seconds I honestly reconsidered this entire Contact thing if it meant doing this kind of thing more often.

    But I didn't aim to be a Warship.

    Suddenly Rain and Switch dropped out of warp next to us their cloaks dropping.

    And so did the Berserker.
     
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    • perhaps the Berzerker is there for negotiations of some sort.

    Either they finally managed to find a loophole in the programming, or maybe the fact that the Commonwealth is AI dominated is the loophole...
     
    So, Who is the commonwealth?
    I vaguely remember this (or rather,it's predecessors) being star trek fics?
    What happened to the Federation?
     
    Jane Dough said:
    Jovian?
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    The AIs. Since the first was 'born' on a Starbase orbiting Jupiter, they chose 'Jovian' as their racial name.

    Political conflicts over several subjects including the Prime Directive and anti-AI bigotry led to a good chunk of the the Federation's AIs (as well as a large number of organics) succeeding from the Federation and forming a new nation (the Commonwealth). The Tellerites (one of the original 4 Feddie members) also quit the Federation, though I can't recall if they joined the Commonwealth or just went Independent.

    There was also 1 AI in a Klingon Hull who may have kicked off a Klingon civil war after showing how corrupt the Klingon High Council was.
     
    Someone who remembers the titles better than me could perhaps post links to all the works in this series, possibly with summaries. Not sure that they will, but it'd be nice, please. This is one of Hiver's longer series.
     
    Prince Charon said:
    Someone who remembers the titles better than me could perhaps post links to all the works in this series, possibly with summaries. Not sure that they will, but it'd be nice, please. This is one of Hiver's longer series.
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    I can do a list of the prior works in the series, but summaries is much harder. My memory is... less than reliable. Maybe someone else with working long-term memory can reply to this with more detail.

    Not Quite SHODAN (ST SI)

    Dreams of Starfire

    Broken Dreams

    Starseeker

    Duality

    Paradise Lost

    Division

    Rifts

    Questions of Honor

    The First Duty
     
    UbeOne said:
    How do you know if it's a fake Berserker or not?
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    For my own part, my suspicion is that, if it were a real Berserker, (a) Rain and Switch wouldn't have lead it back to the Enterprise and Amy, (b) if they had go back, it wouldn't have followed them so closely as to be easily noticed, and (c) even if they had gone back, and it had followed them, it probably wouldn't have dropped into the middle of them while so thoroughly out-numbered.

    But all of that is just a hunch.
     
    Quadhelix said:
    For my own part, my suspicion is that, if it were a real Berserker, (a) Rain and Switch wouldn't have lead it back to the Enterprise and Amy, (b) if they had go back, it wouldn't have followed them so closely as to be easily noticed, and (c) even if they had gone back, and it had followed them, it probably wouldn't have dropped into the middle of them while so thoroughly out-numbered.

    But all of that is just a hunch.
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    Or to simplify: "It's still there"
     
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    • Hear that?

    That's my internal girly screaming.

    Then I snapped into a roll, going to burning my thrusters hard to strafe while jumping to full impulse, working to get a targeting solution with my main weapon.

    Suddenly my weapons deactivated and just lost all power.

    Okay, now would be a good time to panic.

    Rain opened a channel to me, and that's when I realized none of them had been moving, "Good work there, Amy. Relax, you did good."

    "What."

    She smiled a bit, "Meet 'Totally One of Us'," she said, "She's using an old Berserker hull for tracking and identifying Berserker remnants throughout old Romulan space."

    That didn't explain much.

    "What."

    Rain crossed her arms, "…It was a test, Amy. I'm sorry. But you did good, exactly how you should. But we needed to know how you were going to react when in perceived real danger."

    I just stared at her for several long moments across the commlink.

    A test? A fucking test!?

    "Are you serious!?"

    She nodded, "I am, I'm sorry, I know it was mean. But it was necessary. If you are to ever get a real ship, or even a runabout, we needed to know how you managed yourself in a crisis."

    I didn't really know how to answer to that.

    I thought I might die! Or worse, get Enterprise and her crew killed!

    Looking at her holo-avatar across the link for a couple of seconds, I crossed my arms, "Dick move, Rain."

    She nodded, "I know. Not actually my call, Miramar organized it."

    "And Enterprise?"

    "In on it. Her mission 'is' real, but she volunteered to give us a hand when Miramar asked her," Rain explained, "Sorry."

    Wow.

    "…So, how did I do?" I finally asked and scooted back into formation.

    Fuck you all. That was mean.

    But I'm not about to mess this up now.

    "We'll get into it later, but in short, you did good like I said," Rain said with a smile, "You moved to protect the Enterprise and you didn't panic. When Totti decloaked you didn't panic, you moved to engage, working to get a weapon lock."

    I scowled a bit and then nodded.

    "…Thanks. So what now."

    "Head on over to the station and dock up. No more lessons today; I checked with Miramar, and he agreed. Go relax."

    Nodding, I sent a small 'bye' to the rest of the small group of ships, before I pulled away towards the main station as I closed the channel.

    As I flew back towards the station, I connected back to my avatar.

    I had been spending time at one of the holodecks while my Ship body was away: Camin had offered to help take my mind of my ship body being in possible danger.

    "Your serve," she said and fixed her ponytail, holding her tennis racket beneath one arm, "You know, you would think a Ship would be better at this."

    "I've never played tennis before!" I protested, "You've won tournaments!"

    It was kind of embarrassing, really. Reaction and movement speed helped, but there was a surprising amount of skill and experience involved. Especially when I limited myself to human maximum to keep things fair.

    "Also, I just got back in range," I said, and signalled the holodeck to form a new ball above my hand.

    "How did it go?"

    "…Well enough," I said, unsure about how much I could reveal before I shrugged, "Turned out, they mixed in a surprise training exercise."

    Camin frowned and lowered her racket, "Really?"

    "Mhmm," I agreed before I shrugged, "Thought it was real at the time, which I think was the entire point."

    Camin walked over to the net, "That sounds scary. What happened?"

    "Fake attack. And it was scary," I admitted, and joined her, "But apparently, I did okay. Got the rest of the day off, no lessons or tests."

    She nodded, "That's good at least."

    "I guess. I'm coming in for docking in twenty minutes or so. Think I'll go over my hull with my drones to make sure everything is in tip-top shape and then head out to the gas giant. Just kind of, take some time and float in the rings, have some quiet time."

    Camin nodded before she grinned, "I just got the best idea. Want to be alone, or do you mind company?"

    I shrugged, "Don't mind company, just want to get away from here for a bit. Why?"

    "You have rooms, right?"

    "A couple of quarters, maybe fifty square meters and a small common area of another thirty. Not meant for long term habitation, just for VIP transport. What do you have in mind?"

    "We decorate things up and invite some people for a party. We don't have class tomorrow."

    That sounded all kinds of awesome, and possibly exactly what I needed.
     
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