OFFLINE

"Soft, black velvet, cold to the touch,
Careless astronaut, there is nonesuch.
Unforgiving to the lazy living, lethal to those that weaken,
But she bats her million eyes shining as beacons,
those turning churning burning stars, marking our destinations far"

Noko Leonite - Caitian scholar, 2093-2154




Space: The final battlefield.

These are the voyages of the Starship Republic.

It's five-year tour to provide vital support in the war against the Romulans, to strengthen Earth's security, to boldly stand against the foe.


"Take us out ensign." Captain Dr. Bruno Chait settles in his chair. His first command. He is confident enough. This is a simple taxi-run. Couple of high brow Vulcans . . . well, they're Vulcans . . . they're all high-brow, anyway all that is required is that they be taken to Tau Ceti IV. What could possibly go wrong?

OFFLINE

As the ship got underway, Dr Telor busied himself with setting up Sickbay, to function as smoothly as possible. He had his staff conduct inventory of supplies on hand, and log said inventories, so those can be updated as time went on. He then entered his office to go over crew files. He sent notices to ever crewmember to report for their initial physicals, to fully clear them for duty.

Once that was done, Alon then took to reading any medical news, that filtered in from Command HQ, to keep himself current, on any new developments, including extensive files on Vulcan physiology, as well as that of each of the species that made up the crew, as a whole.

OFFLINE

The medical files passed onto Doctor Telor came with a footnote from the Captain "Sorry you have to read these second hand, however I've highlighted a few items that you might find interesting. Sadly the Vulcans seem to want to keep themselves to themselves and have refused our medical aid. As they're not part of the crew and not subject to Starfleet authority we regrettably have to respect their wishes. Even so I'd like you to keep an eye on their life support. Monitor the atmosphere in the quarters they've elected to spend the journey in. If they complain point out the health of the rest of the crew is paramount and well within our remit. If they bring a pathogen on board, we will want to know about it."

OFFLINE

"Aye sir." Naranja backs her out, wondering on why these are always piloted bow first necessitating him to take her out by her stern and perform the about turn. Even when the docks are open ended like this one. This is only one concern. The other would be the destination. He tried his best to quell the rumours below decks but it was still there. Tau Ceti 4. Homeport of the
Kobayashi Maru. Stuff an nonesense he knew, but still . . .

"Setting course, one six eight, mark point oh one seven. Tau Ceti system sir."

OFFLINE

"Warp factor three Mister Apfelsine. May as well enjoy the ride." Chait watches the screen and admires the ensign's handling of the ship. Understanding the Deadalus was a very forgiving ship was one thing, seeing someone take to her controls so quickly was another.

OFFLINE

"Aye, warp factor three, aye sir."

OFFLINE

looks at the screen wondering whats going to be out there "This should be an interesting mission, eh?"

OFFLINE

"Not too interesting I hope Commander." Chait grins. "There is an old Caitian curse 'May you live in interesting times' Sounds pretty tame, until you see things like the Caitian civil war . . . and why we only had one." Chait laughs. "No, I'm hoping for uneventful. Who knows, perhaps this whole Romulan things will blow over. The greatest victory is that which requires no battle."

At Warp 3 the Republic sails through the endless black towards Tau Ceti IV, unaware of what waits at it's final destination.

OFFLINE

One day out from Tau Ceti IV and the Republic starts to receive a garbled SOS. Very little is clear other than it's a Starfleet code and that they're under attack. The rest of the signal is too corrupted to make head or tail of it. Triangulating the weak signal shows that it's only 31620.53 AU's from the destination.

The Captain calls down to engineering. "Lieutenant Shaw, this is Captain Chait, what top warp do you think you can squeeze out of the Republic in say five minutes?"

OFFLINE

Stroles over to the com, presses the button and respond: "Engineering here, this is Lieutenant Shaw, the warp engines will gladly do 4½ for you on that distance, Captain! They are purring nicely"

OFFLINE

"Full warp please Lieutenant Shaw, Mister Apfelsine, plot an intercept. Doctor Telor, please prep med bay to accept possible incoming casualties." Chait turns to Brougham. "Looks like we just got 'interesting'. Yes?"

OFFLINE

"Plot laid in sir, proceeding to warp four point five sir."

OFFLINE

Before long they arrive at the source of the transmission. "All hands stand down." Drifting in front of them is the dead hulk of the NX-05 USS Atlantis. A refitted NX that had been lost in action last year. "The signal hasn't been turned off yet. I guess it must have been running low on power which is why it wasn't clear enough for us to decipher it."

In the darkness of space, stars twinkle and dance . . . where they they should shine bright and solid, there there should be no atmosphere to sully their pure brilliance. They dance in the shape of a vessel.

OFFLINE

"Indeed it has Captain, we seemed to have just found a ship that was reported missing." "I have a bad feeling about this..."

OFFLINE

Proximity alerts suddenly go off as what appears to be a Klingon ship decloaks off aft starboard and strafes the Republic along the engineering hull before flickering out of sight once more.