To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)

ClawClawBite · Dec 15, 2016

aeqnai said:
[jk][REPORT] What the Praetor and the Chancellor had for breakfast this morning

Quadrotritcale porridge.

Stressful jobs call for calming meals, and it is a tasty and productive grain.

Muer'ci · Dec 15, 2016

[X][RIGEL]Miracht
[X][TMIR]Get a report on Cardassian political in-fighting
[X][CARD] Cardassian Tactics Report (Gain +5% combat vs Cardassian fleets for the next 12 months
[X][ROM] Romulan Fleet Strength Report
[X][REPORT] Orion Syndicate Impact Endurance and Asset HP Estimates.
[X][REPORT] The relationship between the Sydraxians and the Gretarians.
[X][REPORT] Klingon Fleet Strength Report

ThoughtMaster · Dec 15, 2016

Simon_Jester said:
DREAMS, Ch. 2

[Recommended Listening: Fighting Lady]

Sickbay, USS Enterprise
Galaar System, Romulan Neutral Zone
Stardate 21469.0
[Sixteen Hours Before First Kadesh]

Commander Asurva looked up from her desk. "Making the rounds, captain?" She was only thirty-two; she'd never served on one of the old Connies. Older Starfleet doctors liked to grouse about the accomodations, though. On most ships, the Chief Medical Officer didn't have an office of her own- just a nook. But with nine tons of hull for every four of a Constitution's, the Excelsiors were less cramped, and Asurva had some space to herself.

Loudly, brightly, Nash called out "Just checking up, commander. And don't worry, I'm sure you won't be too busy tomorrow. Either we're all fine and healthy..." A green hand flicked a switch on the desk, and the hiss of the shutting door drowned out Nash saying, "or FOOMP!"

"Nash, that was the worst piece of gallows humor I've ever heard."

"Nonsense. You just don't know how to tell a joke right. Keeps the crew going in hard times, it does." The captain's antennae wriggled slightly, and she put on a devilish grin.

Pritya sighed. "Nash, have you been getting enough sleep lately?" She already knew the honest answer. Not that she could blame the captain. Everyone had had nightmares, and Nash was the one who'd had to push the button on General Order 24 over Dunwich. She could hardly bear to imagine what it must be like, under that kind of pressure.

But at least she could do her best to take care of Nash. Even if she was trying to tear herself apart. She's probably going to trot out another tired old saw...

Nash rallied, right on cue. "Plenty of time to sleep when you're dead!"

"We're going to need you sharp tomorrow, ma'am."

"And I'll be fine, Pritya. Trust me."

"You've been up for twenty-three hours."

"I'm usually fine for twenty-two, and it's an emergency!"

"That's on the Old Andorian clock. Which nobody, including you, has used since our grandmothers were toddlers, and you know it. It's been twenty-three Starfleet standard hours. You're starting to lose the plot."

"Stop oppressing my cultural heritage!"

"Nash, you're a wonderful captain." Pritya smiled, and stood, and patted the Andorian on the shoulder.

The maneuver was one she'd learned from a lanky Vulcan who assured her, in a deadpan, that he had it from a Bolian, who had it from the legendary McCoy himself. Privately she thought of it as the CMO Nerve Pinch, and imagined the old Earthling must have invented it at a time exactly like this...

The carefully palmed hypo hissed in Pritya's hand.

Nash jumped. "What was that!?"

"That was the Crazy Captain Special, for wild child Andorian tactical geniuses who won't take their medicine. A little hypnotic cocktail of mine. Now go get some sleep. Doctor's orders." Pritya kept up a sweet smile that even reached the eyes. "Now, Maryam has the bridge and she's got everything under control. You have about ten minutes before you're too woozy to stand up straight. Can you make it back to quarters in time, or should I send a nurse to help you back?"

Captain's Quarters, USS Enterprise
Stardate 21469.1

Nash sat up. She could hear the duranium of the aft bulkhead crinkling as it was invaded, pervaded, corrupted by devouring biomachinery. Blotches of vile, raw-meat crimson, more visible than they had any right to be in the dim light leaking under the door, appearing in the center of the blot.

<Federation selves futile... self hunger... Dunwich self gone... many selves gone... MANY... more selves remain... self eternal... Romulan selves futile... satiate selves... ka'Sharren self futile... satiate Enterprise self...>

The door hissed open, letting the painfully intense blue-white light of the corridor in.

"LIAR! OUT! MINE!" cried a furious soprano Nash had heard only once before in her life, and never like that.

Quick as thought, the textured thermoplast of an emergency hull patch unfurled across the scarlet blot. Then a 'FOOMP!' of expanding plasma sounded, sterilizing the infliction with fire that burned so hot electrons couldn't bear to cling to atoms in the face of it.

The ultra-refractory patch bellied inward, blackening- and that was that.

Nash ka'Sharren sat up, gasping and shuddering. She'd had a lot of experiences to her name in thirty-four years of life. She'd mastered more than her share of the most difficult arts known to a hundred species. Lucid dreaming wasn't one of them. She had no frame of reference for the altered state she now occupied.

She was pretty sure that she'd just woken up out of one dream, into another one.

Nash still wasn't sure the 'spirit of Enterprise' she'd dreamt of two and a half years ago was anything but her imagination. The little Vulcan she sometimes fancifully imagined on her right shoulder whispering into her ear said "no." But there she was, and then again, the little Amarki on her left shoulder had always whispered "yes," very, very loud. And she'd always liked blue better than green, anyway.

"...Thanks."

The woman in the archaic command skirt stood exactly as she had before, in the open door of Nash's quarters. She was panting, blonde hair unbound and settling across her back, uncanny Cherenkov-blue eyes flaming. Her fists were clenched and face contorted in fury. "I hate boarding parties. Especially like this." She turned, facing Nash, stepping closer to the bed, the door sliding soundlessly shut behind her. "I hate boarding parties, I hate firing into our friends' ships, I hate burning worlds, and I hate the Biophage and AAAAIIIEEE!"

Wailing, the Starfleet dream curled up in a ball on the foot of the bed.

Nash had already shifted half out from under the covers. She finished the job, shuffled around on the bed, wrapping her arms around the woman who said she was Enterprise. The spirit was some centimeters taller than her, a few centimeters broader. To the touch, she thrummed with vitality, lithe and powerful and nearly invulnerable, and obviously barely holding together.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm scared... the same reason everyone is."

Nash paused, assuming for the sake of argument that this wasn't a relatively harmless stress-dream. Then she thought, for a moment, what the spirit of a ship taken over by the Biophage might experience... and suddenly the dream wasn't so harmless.

She patted possibly-Enterprise, with the closest she could manage to a soothing, wordless sound. "I won't let it have you, any more than you'd have let it have me just now."

"I... when they installed that damn button in your chair... I was grateful!" The spirit sobbed. "Do you know how wrong that feels, to have a suicide device in your brains and be glad!?"

"It'll be over soon. We'll beat the Biophage, and it'll all be normal again. We can undo the changes, and we can explore together. You watch." Nash nodded firmly. "Whatever it's done to a bunch of colonists and refugees, we're ready and we're loaded for bear. This thing can't handle us."

"I... I know. You're good. Very good. Bazeck takes as good care of me as I could ever ask for, and Stol... well." Some humor came back into the spirit's face. "I've been dropped on planets before. Dropped all the way onto planets, even. But never have I ever had a planet dropped on me until you came into my life."

The vision stuck out her tongue at Nash, who scowled.

"Hey, that was an accident! It's not like it's going to happen again!"

"Yeah. Sure. Anyway, we were both lucky to get out of that one, and we have Stol to thank for it. You know..." she mused. "I actually think he might be the best helmsman I've ever had." The woman in yellow giggled. Honest-to-ice giggled. "Don't tell anyone I said that, tomorrow. Not anyone, you hear me?"

Like she was going to tell anyone, on the day they rode to doom or salvation over Kadesh. Like anyone she met tomorrow would believe the soul of the Enterprise spoke to her in visions. Or anything, except that the captain of the Federation flagship had cracked up under the stress.

Maybe she had.

But Nash humored the dream of her love. If she was going to be crazy, she might as well be happy-crazy. And after all, hallucination or not, this might be the last friendly conversation, free of the chains of command, that she would ever have.

"Sure. Why?"

"I'm... I'm not sure. But I... in spite of everything, I think we're going to win, and I know it's important you don't tell anyone what I just said. That's all I know."

The Federation was, by and large, an atheist government. It tolerated a nearly infinite diversity of religious and spiritual traditions. But it didn't believe in encouraging them, except insofar as it would encourage a harmless, purely secular cultural organization.

Federation officers, as a rule, did not believe in spirits, or prayers, or supplications to same, or anything that even smelled of them. Nash was not, normally, an exception. She'd seen a lot of strange worlds and beings, but not enough to make her believe in just anything.

And yet. And yet. Right now, Starfleet, the Federation, the galaxy, not to mention one Captain Nash ka'Sharren personally, needed all the help the universe could offer. With everything on the line... She wasn't too proud to ask, even if maybe she was imagining the source of the help entirely.

And the cruel cosmos, the universe that could have something as horrible as the Biophage in it, would seem just that little bit less cruel and uncaring, if she weren't imagining this. Didn't she deserve a few happy hopes? So she looked squarely at the near-human in the command-gold skirt.

All the masks, the disarming jokes, the casual flirtation, the persona most people thought of as Captain Nash- for a moment, all of that stepped aside.

"Can you help us?"

Maybe-Enterprise closed her eyes for a moment. "...I'm not sure. I'm really not. I always try, but I can't tell if I'm doing anything you don't do for yourselves. How would I know?" Her lip quivered a little, then her face set in a determination that almost blazed. Her eyes flickered. "But if there's anything I can give you, anything at all, you'll have it tomorrow. I promise."

Nash took a moment, trying to take that in. She'd take whatever she could get. "Is there anything we can do to make it easier?"

"One thing."

"What's that?"

"Miracht. I've heard her screaming. More than once. Many times, now. Many." There were tears in the woman's eyes. "I- I can't hear the others. Romulans are quiet. But I can hear her. P- promise me we'll stop her, captain."

Mirroring the tall figure's words, Nash smiled, a few of the masks slipping back into place. "Anything we can give you, you'll have it tomorrow. I'll have a spacer write her name on a spread worth of torpedoes."

The vision's eyes shone with more than Cherenkov backlighting now. She smiled back. "Thank you, captain."

"Least I can do."

"Mm. Captain?"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe there's one more thing I can give you... You really need a maintenance cycle, you know that?"

"Can't sleep. Can't rest. The damn biophage dreams get into my brains."

Her love stretched out arms that logic said couldn't exist, cracking her knuckles regardless. "Not tonight, captain. Tonight, I'm singing to you."

Nash smiled wearily, sinking back to the pillow, daring to believe for one more night that her vision might actually exist. Her vision leaned in the dining nook, her voice filling the room, chasing away all the shadows the devouring plague could cast in Nash's soul.

And her song was peace.

I wonder if a ship's spirit transfers along with the name of a vessel? If so, and this work does seem to imply that it is true in the case of the Enterprise, it makes me wonder the forms some of our other vessels take. Particularly, I'm curious about what scars remain upon Miracht's spirit from when she was enslaved by the Biophague.

AlphaDelta · Dec 15, 2016

ThoughtMaster said:
I wonder if a ship's spirit transfers along with the name of a vessel? If so, and this work does seem to imply that it is true in the case of the Enterprise, it makes me wonder the forms some of our other vessels take. Particularly, I'm curious about what scars remain upon Miracht's spirit from when she was enslaved by the Biophague.

My interpretation is that a ship's spirit transfers with tradition.

OneirosTheWriter · Dec 15, 2016

Okay, vote closed.

Just to make people aware, there has been a catastrophic development in my immediate family, so I may be very irregular in posting for a while. This has been an important outlet for me, so I won't be dropping it, but I don't know if my posting will drop, stay the same, or even accelerate.

tryrar · Dec 15, 2016

OneirosTheWriter said:
Okay, vote closed.

Just to make people aware, there has been a catastrophic development in my immediate family, so I may be very irregular in posting for a while. This has been an important outlet for me, so I won't be dropping it, but I don't know if my posting will drop, stay the same, or even accelerate.

Sorry to hear that

AKuz · Dec 15, 2016

OneirosTheWriter said:
Okay, vote closed.

Just to make people aware, there has been a catastrophic development in my immediate family, so I may be very irregular in posting for a while. This has been an important outlet for me, so I won't be dropping it, but I don't know if my posting will drop, stay the same, or even accelerate.

*Hugs*

Goat · Dec 15, 2016

Best wishes Oneiros

Theunderbolt · Dec 15, 2016

OneirosTheWriter said:
Okay, vote closed.

Just to make people aware, there has been a catastrophic development in my immediate family, so I may be very irregular in posting for a while. This has been an important outlet for me, so I won't be dropping it, but I don't know if my posting will drop, stay the same, or even accelerate.

Be strong shark friend.

We can wait....probably.

Tylonius · Dec 15, 2016

Theunderbolt said:
Be strong shark friend.

We can wait....probably.

No, we can definitely wait.

RL comes first. Always.

Derek58 · Dec 15, 2016

Damn, I hope things turn out well Oneiros

lbmaian · Dec 15, 2016

OneirosTheWriter said:
Okay, vote closed.

I merged some votes together in the following tally, although it wouldn't have affected the winning votes anyway.

Vote Tally : Sci-Fi - To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest) | Page 799 | Sufficient Velocity
##### NetTally 1.7.6

Task: CARD

[x][CARD] Cardassian Shipbuilding Report
No. of Votes: 20

[X][CARD] Cardassian Tactics Report (Gain +5% combat vs Cardassian fleets for the next 12 months)
No. of Votes: 14

pheonix89
aeqnai
anon_user
drake_azathoth
Gingganz
Happerry
lbmaian
Muer'ci
Night_stalker
Questara
Simon_Jester
Steven Kodaly
tryrar
Vehrec

[X][CARD] Cardassian Infrastructure Report
No. of Votes: 4

AlphaDelta
Aeondrac
ClawClawBite
sebsmith

[x][CARD] Cardassian Fleet Distribution
No. of Votes: 1

Leila Hann

——————————————————————————————————————————————
Task: REPORT

[x][REPORT] Syndicate strength and how much Impact do we need?
No. of Votes: 38

[X][REPORT] Klingon Fleet Strength Report
No. of Votes: 30

[x][REPORT] The relationship between the Sydraxians and the Gretarians.
No. of Votes: 27

[x][REPORT] Romulan Fleet Strength Report
No. of Votes: 9

UbeOne
Aeondrac
aledeth
AlphaDelta
ClawClawBite
Muramasa
sebsmith
SynchronizedWritersBlock
Theunderbolt

[X][REPORT] One report of Linderly's choice
No. of Votes: 3

Winged One
Shard
Steven Kodaly

[x][REPORT] Sydraxian Fleet Strength Report
No. of Votes: 2

pheonix89
Happerry

[X][REPORT] Yrillian Diplomatic Posture Report
No. of Votes: 2

Briefvoice
Derek58

[X][REPORT] Sotaw Diplomatic Posture Report
No. of Votes: 2

Erandil
Jrin

[X][REPORT] Lecarrens Diplomatic Posture Report
No. of Votes: 2

Erandil
Jrin

[X][REPORT] Gretarian Diplomatic Posture Report
No. of Votes: 1

Erandil

——————————————————————————————————————————————
Task: RIGEL

[x][RIGEL] Courageous
No. of Votes: 26

[x][RIGEL] Miracht
No. of Votes: 3

AlphaDelta
ClawClawBite
Muer'ci

[x][RIGEL] Sarek
No. of Votes: 1

HearthBorn

——————————————————————————————————————————————
Task: ROM

[x][ROM] Romulan Shipyard Report
No. of Votes: 17

AKuz
Aeondrac
aledeth
AlphaDelta
Briefvoice
ClawClawBite
Derek58
Gingganz
HearthBorn
Muramasa
Night_stalker
sebsmith
SynchronizedWritersBlock
Theunderbolt
UbeOne
Vehrec
Void Stalker

[X][ROM] Romulan Fleet Strength Report
No. of Votes: 10

Simon_Jester
aeqnai
anon_user
drake_azathoth
Forgothrax
Leila Hann
Mr Tebbs
Muer'ci
Questara
tryrar

[x][ROM] Romulan Daljerra Cruiser Report
No. of Votes: 9

pheonix89
Happerry
JesseJ
lbmaian
Night
nocarename
Shard
Steven Kodaly
Winged One

[X][ROM] Romulan Shipbuilding Report
No. of Votes: 3

Ato
Erandil
Jrin

——————————————————————————————————————————————
Task: TMIR

[x][TMIR] Get a report on Cardassian political in-fighting
No. of Votes: 25

[X][TMIR] Get a report on Cardassian Fleet Distribution
No. of Votes: 6

Briefvoice
Derek58
Muramasa
Night_stalker
SynchronizedWritersBlock
Vehrec

[X][TMIR] Get a report on Cardassian public sentiment and broadcasting
No. of Votes: 3

ClawClawBite
Erandil
Jrin

[x][TMIR] Get a report on Cardassian Infrastructure
No. of Votes: 2

UbeOne
Theunderbolt

[X][TMIR] Cardassian Fleet Distribution
No. of Votes: 1

AlphaDelta

[x][TMIR] Get a report on non-Federation Cardassian rival states
No. of Votes: 1

nocarename

[X][TMIR] Shift to support Anti-Syndicate Task Force
No. of Votes: 1

Ato

Total No. of Voters: 39

I combined all the Syndicate Impact-related votes together in the above tally into the most popular vote "Syndicate strength and how much Impact do we need?". That vote by itself would've won before merging, and the other merged votes each would be lower than the top 3 REPORT votes.

[x][REPORT] Syndicate strength and how much Impact do we need?
No. of Votes: 30

[x][REPORT] Orion Syndicate Impact Endurance and Asset HP Estimates.
No. of Votes: 6

HearthBorn
aeqnai
anon_user
Muer'ci
Night_stalker
Vehrec

[X][REPORT] Syndicate Resilience and necessary Impact to win the conflict.
No. of Votes: 2

Briefvoice
Derek58

[x][REPORT] Syndicate Operations
No. of Votes: 1

Night

Just to make people aware, there has been a catastrophic development in my immediate family, so I may be very irregular in posting for a while. This has been an important outlet for me, so I won't be dropping it, but I don't know if my posting will drop, stay the same, or even accelerate.

Oh, this has to do with that ambulance you mentioned more than a week ago, huh. My condolences. :sad:

Steven Kodaly · Dec 15, 2016

OneirosTheWriter said:
This has been an important outlet for me, so I won't be dropping it, but I don't know if my posting will drop, stay the same, or even accelerate.

Ludicrous speed, go!

Night_stalker · Dec 15, 2016

Best wishes, good luck, all that jazz.

Simon_Jester · Dec 15, 2016

AlphaDelta said:
My interpretation is that a ship's spirit transfers with tradition.

On the whole, yes.

ThoughtMaster said:
I wonder if a ship's spirit transfers along with the name of a vessel? If so, and this work does seem to imply that it is true in the case of the Enterprise, it makes me wonder the forms some of our other vessels take. Particularly, I'm curious about what scars remain upon Miracht's spirit from when she was enslaved by the Biophague.

1) You would be curious about that. I'm not inclined to indulge you on that matter, though.

2) I will note that for those of us who'd rather listen to our shoulder-Vulcan than our shoulder-Amarki, it is an entirely self-consistent interpretation that Nash is imagining all this. Nothing that happens in Dreams is a thing that couldn't be a coincidence, or that requires a supernatural explanation.

OneirosTheWriter said:
Okay, vote closed.

Just to make people aware, there has been a catastrophic development in my immediate family, so I may be very irregular in posting for a while. This has been an important outlet for me, so I won't be dropping it, but I don't know if my posting will drop, stay the same, or even accelerate.

If there's anything I can do to help make it easier for you to run this quest, I would be happy to do so. I am going to have... considerable free time for the foreseeable future, though that may end I know not when.

aeqnai · Dec 15, 2016

OneirosTheWriter said:
Okay, vote closed.

Just to make people aware, there has been a catastrophic development in my immediate family, so I may be very irregular in posting for a while. This has been an important outlet for me, so I won't be dropping it, but I don't know if my posting will drop, stay the same, or even accelerate.

Condolences, @OneirosTheWriter , and hope you'll be alright. If you need anything, we're here for you.

Nervos Belli · Dec 16, 2016

Love from the interwebs.

OneirosTheWriter · Dec 16, 2016

Derek58 said:
Damn, I hope things turn out well Oneiros

Unfortunately it's well past that stage.

Derek58 · Dec 16, 2016

Ah damn

Muramasa · Dec 16, 2016

Jenny · Dec 16, 2016

UbeOne · Dec 16, 2016

OneirosTheWriter · Dec 16, 2016

Don't want to totally ruin the thread mood, so I'll put the details under spoiler.

Basically, we thought my mother's cancer was gone, and we discovered that there was a separate type that was missed. Moreover, the type that was missed was now very advanced and there's a 2-6 week prognosis. I'm off work for the next couple weeks, but don't know how much visitation mum can handle, so dunno what time I'll have on my hands and what I'll be up for doing.

So yeah. Currently coming to terms with all this, and I feel a lot like a rug has been yanked out from under me.

Leila Hann · Dec 16, 2016

lbmaian said:
Out of all the ship designs we know and in each ship classification, Apiata have the highest defense stats. D4 escorts, D7 cruisers, D7 explorer.

...

What the fuck do they use as an annihilation reactant? Crystal meth?

OneirosTheWriter · Dec 16, 2016

Leila Hann said:
...

Do their warp cores annihilate the antimatter with fucking crystal meth?

They feel the need, the need for sp..... wait.

To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)

Mad Engineering!

Cabal Core Commander

Been Better

"Prepare for trouble..."

Rocket Punch is Best Punch

a thirsty squirrel

Slava Ukraini!

Nerdy Homu

Don't think this means you've won!

Cabal Core Commander

Rocket Punch is Best Punch

Best Girl

anonymous user

Daydreaming CPU

Cabal Core Commander

Cabal Core Commander