MMM Part 17
“Please go meet the USS Sita Lakshmi at Manriet III, to rescue survivors, and gain intel about the dangerous life forms encountered,” The orders said.
The note on the end said: “We’ve built a number of non-subspace shuttles and tools to use. Grab who you can, grab what data you can, and get the hell out of there.” - Jay
T’ari nodded to herself “Good.”
-*-
T’ari found Satelsk at the Administration Center. Talks were still underway. Although the general principles were agreed to, the details were mind-numbing and each one had to be worked out.
“Comissioner, we have been ordered to return to Manriet III to pick up survivors there. Once we’re done with that process, I believe we’ll be available to resume your mission.”
“Excellent, I will stay here and continue negotiations. Once you return for me, I believe a dedicated team from the Federation’s Diplomacy Office will be here.”
“Alright,” T’ari said “We will see you when we return.”
“Your service does us honor,” Satelsk said, a formal Vulcan acknowledgment.
“Live long and prosper,” T’ari held up her hand in the Vulcan salute.
-*-
Creskulaban said **The Sheldon Richman has been ordered to return to Manriet III to pick up survivors. I must go now.**
Noram Zaid hugged him aggressively “Thank you, Creskulaban.”
The rest of the former Azzic House crew toasted him with replicated Oom juice.
-*-
USS Sheldon Richman, Akira Class
Manriet system
The USS Sita Lakshmi was a Jupiter class starship. She looked like a fat, oversized Federation style secondary hull, with four Nacelles and no saucer. She was about 1400 meters long.
The replacement for the USS Thessaloniki, the Sita Lakshmi was flying mobile shipyard and tender. She had huge shuttle bays, tractor beams, cargo holds and the ventral part of her nose could unfold to reveal huge robotic arms and tools.
She was purpose built to do what the old Thessaloniki was altered to do.
The two ships met at the edge of the Manriet System
-*-
In the largest of 5 starboard shuttlebays, Len Rensch, the Captain of the Sita Lakshmi showed T’ari and her command crew the dozen low-tech shuttles they’d built.
They looked very similar to the one they’d built on the Sheldon Richman, but a little bigger.
“We used your notes, but we had more people and resources to put into the design,” Rensch said.
Across the bay what looked like a rack of old-fashioned missiles. “Those are probes, designed to use radio and lasers for communications and to use passive sensors to search the planet for survivors. We were able to borrow from Earth and Tellarite spy satellite designs. We should be able to spot survivors, especially if we take our time.” Rensch said “We even found old filters and algorithms for interpreting the data from visible light and infrared telescopes on the probes.”
“Do you mind if I look at the designs for these?” T’ari asked
“Not at all. After all, they’re designed around the specifications you and your crew provided. Oh, that reminds me. We have something for you.”
“What’s that?”
“Add on sensor platforms. Purpose-designed radar, lidar, and communications systems. We’re better equipped to sneak around if you’re correct and they’re drawn to subspace emissions.”
T’ari looked to the far side of the shuttle bay. It looked big enough to play a game of football. “She’s a monster,” T’ari said.
Rennsch chuckled “Yeah. She’s not easy to maneuver in tight spaces, but she can carry some of everything we need. And with the Disodium drives, we can get where we need to be very quickly.”
“Is there one like her for us?” Tarah asked.
Rensch said “It’s bad luck to speculate about your next ship while you’re still flying your current one. The custom is we wait for the Admiral to show us.”
Tarah and T’Ari looked at Rensch. He said, “I can tell you the shipyards are healthy and working hard.”
“So what’s our part in this?”
“The shuttles will launch from the Sita Lakshmi, and return with any survivors. We could use pilots, security and medical people. Otherwise, you’ll be our escort. If the tentacles attack, you feed them phaser beams and torpedoes until we get away.”
“Aye, Sir.”
-*-
The worst part of the mission was how slow it was. Working with subspace-based system shut down the Sita Lakshmi and the Sheldon Richman had to crawl slowly into position.
They fired the probe missiles which accelerated on old fashioned fusion drives.
The two ships could hear faint whispers of the subspace static and roiling that accompanied the tentacles.
The two ships entered a very high, slow orbit, separated from each other. At that distance it could take a month or more to complete one orbit.
“I have something, “ Taisha said.
“What do you have?” T’ari asked
“It’ll take some time to firm up our readings, but I think I’m seeing two tentacles that got cut off in the last battle.”
“Keep observing them.”
-*-
Tarah and Esta said “We volunteer,” as soon as they came through the door.
“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask you,” T’ari said
“You want someone to take our non-subspace shuttle and retrieve those tentacle sections.”
T’ari said, “I hope gossip doesn’t activate the tentacles.”
-*-
The trip in the special shuttle took three days. The subspace whispers grew no louder as the shuttle got closer to the planet.
Esta and Tarah learned about old-fashioned space travel the hard way, floating in zero g, eating ration packs, and relieving themselves in a zero g toilet.
The grappler they used to grab the dead tentacle sections was borrowed from the original NX class starships, sized appropriately for their vehicle.
The only problem was that the tentacle sections flopped around then the shuttle turned. Esta had to do an EVA to secure the tentacle sections to the shuttle for the boost back to the Sheldon Richman.
MMM
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1579
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: MMM
Builder station. They'll go visit Glade just to say they have.Innkeeper wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2024 2:09 pmEl Nanth will be a treat. Greens broil too. Are you figuring Builder Station at the starbase or ground side on Glade?
And Ane everywhere in their truly natural habitat. In desperate control of the Federation, grazing, farting, chewing, staring into space, mating, running their fool head off, etc.. All the Evil Empire® approved activities.
They'll join a class of civilian space crewfolk training to run the supply and support mechanisms we don't usually talk about.
We might catch up with them later. If I have something to say. Theres a story hook buried in Ammydt Ran
Dunno what I might do with it.
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1579
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: MMM
MMM Part 18
Edala Morzgo studied the book. It had come with the relief supplies sent by Starfleet.
She still didn’t get what part of it was about scouting for boys, and suspected that the title was some weird joke. The information inside, despite the joke cover was really useful.
They were fortunate they came down in a temperate area. The damned tentacles attacked as they were trying to empty the life pod. A lot of gear and supplies went with it as the tentacle ate it. Many of the rest were damaged or ruined as the tentacles searched for goodies to eat.
But then, over a few nights, they went away.
And that left Edala, Jobor, and Krenna camping. Possibly forever.
They experimented with what to eat. They’d gotten sick, but not fatally so. They experimented with making useful things. It wasn’t like they had much else to do. That part was much harder than the vids made it look.
Krenna was down by the creek. He was trying to dam it and make a pool. The creek kept defeating him.
A second sun lit up in the air over them. Edala grabbed her pointed stick and went for cover. If it was another scavenger ship, Edala resolved to give them one chance to load everyone they could up and run, or she’d kill them and steal their ship and flee before hell broke loose again.
The ship was a wedge shaped thing, designed areodynamically but weird, It landed on thruster power. Was it someone technologically behind? Edala didn’t care.
Krenna and Jobor appeared, running for the strange ship. Edala shrugged and ran after them.
A hatch opened on the side. “We’re your ride! Get in!”
Edala had a bad moment. It was a human in what looked like tshirt and shorts, branded with that damned Starfleet Arrowhead.
So her choice was staying and continuing to camp for the rest of her life, or going to a prison colony. The prison colony had replicators and showers and that decided Edala. She climbed into the weird shuttle.
“Get in the couch!” the Starfleet person said “Is there anyone else?”
Edala flopped back into the first piece of actual furniture she’d encountered in weeks “Nope! Just the three of us here,”
“Strap in!” the Starfleet officer said “This is going to get bumpy!”
Once everyone was checked the Starfleet people also strapped into couches at the front. Then they counted down. With a roar the shuttle took off on thruster power. The noise and the shaking were intense.
“What’s wrong with your shuttle?” Edala yelled.
“It’s specially built to not call the damned tentacles!” The Starfleet person answered
“Is that working?”
“So far! Hang on, we’re go for orbit!”
The roaring increased to deafening levels and Edala felt pushed back into her couch.
After several minutes of acceleration, shaking, rattling, and rolling, the noise died down and then quit. The shuttle began to plummet.
“Oh! Oh!” Krenna “We’re gonna crash!”
“It’s zero g! We’re fine. We’re calculating the burn back to our ship now. It’ll be civilized once we get there. Real food, showers, new clothes.”
“I don’t like this,” Krenna said “I might vomit.”
“Bags on the side of the chair! Please use them! It’ll go everywhere if you don’t.”
Edala felt for the sick bags on the side of the couch and she had some too. “What the fuck Starfleet?” She yelled. She’d never traveled like this before.
“It’s old school! The tentacles like high tech so we had to build low tech. This is how our ancestors traveled.”
Krenna groaned.
“Wait until we show you the zero g toilet. That’s the real treat,” the Starfleet officer grinned.
Edala sighed “Is it too late to go back down?”
“Oh, yeah. We’re not going back there.”
-*-
Some of the shuttles had to make multiple stops to get all the survivors they found.
-*-
Everything was secured. All the people were back where they needed to be. They’d recovered 23 survivors from Manriet III.
The subspace noise from around the planet was increasing slowly. It was time to go.
-*-
T’ari found Tarah in the lab, staring down a dead tentacle segment. The Sita Lakshmi took one, the Sheldon Richman took the other.
“You okay?” T’ari asked
“Yes and no,” Tarah said.
T’ari sat down next to Tarah “Talk to me.”
“Someone made this. It’s biotechnology. It was living metal,” Tarah said.
T’ari nodded.
“I don’t just want to shoot these things, I want to find whoever made them and feed them to their own creation,” Tarah said, “I’m really angry and it’s not going away.”
“We’re done with them. We never have to go back there.”
Tarah nodded “Yup. We’ll go get Satelsk and take him to whatever diplomatic thing he has on his agenda next. We’ll switch tasks and go on, like this never happened.”
“Because we pulled MMM out of there, things changed. An entire world has had its future altered for the better. We have a very large new friend.”
“I don’t want to forget Doros and Atringa. I want to feel like they mattered. I want to feel like their sacrifice wasn’t in vain. I want to feel like I wasn’t stupid for getting us into that position.”
“You’re not the one responsible. I am. I sent you.”
Tarah leaned into her friend “I suppose in time, I’ll find some way not to feel horrible and angry when I think of it. I’ll find some way to function without wanting to scream about this.”
“Let’s just take it slow and get through the next couple of days,” T’ari said.
“We learned how to fight them,” Tarah said, “now that the barn door is closed.”
“Humans put way too many farm animal metaphors into their language,” T’ari grumped.
“Well, that’s a horse of a different color,” Tarah said, just enjoying being close to her friend.
Edala Morzgo studied the book. It had come with the relief supplies sent by Starfleet.
She still didn’t get what part of it was about scouting for boys, and suspected that the title was some weird joke. The information inside, despite the joke cover was really useful.
They were fortunate they came down in a temperate area. The damned tentacles attacked as they were trying to empty the life pod. A lot of gear and supplies went with it as the tentacle ate it. Many of the rest were damaged or ruined as the tentacles searched for goodies to eat.
But then, over a few nights, they went away.
And that left Edala, Jobor, and Krenna camping. Possibly forever.
They experimented with what to eat. They’d gotten sick, but not fatally so. They experimented with making useful things. It wasn’t like they had much else to do. That part was much harder than the vids made it look.
Krenna was down by the creek. He was trying to dam it and make a pool. The creek kept defeating him.
A second sun lit up in the air over them. Edala grabbed her pointed stick and went for cover. If it was another scavenger ship, Edala resolved to give them one chance to load everyone they could up and run, or she’d kill them and steal their ship and flee before hell broke loose again.
The ship was a wedge shaped thing, designed areodynamically but weird, It landed on thruster power. Was it someone technologically behind? Edala didn’t care.
Krenna and Jobor appeared, running for the strange ship. Edala shrugged and ran after them.
A hatch opened on the side. “We’re your ride! Get in!”
Edala had a bad moment. It was a human in what looked like tshirt and shorts, branded with that damned Starfleet Arrowhead.
So her choice was staying and continuing to camp for the rest of her life, or going to a prison colony. The prison colony had replicators and showers and that decided Edala. She climbed into the weird shuttle.
“Get in the couch!” the Starfleet person said “Is there anyone else?”
Edala flopped back into the first piece of actual furniture she’d encountered in weeks “Nope! Just the three of us here,”
“Strap in!” the Starfleet officer said “This is going to get bumpy!”
Once everyone was checked the Starfleet people also strapped into couches at the front. Then they counted down. With a roar the shuttle took off on thruster power. The noise and the shaking were intense.
“What’s wrong with your shuttle?” Edala yelled.
“It’s specially built to not call the damned tentacles!” The Starfleet person answered
“Is that working?”
“So far! Hang on, we’re go for orbit!”
The roaring increased to deafening levels and Edala felt pushed back into her couch.
After several minutes of acceleration, shaking, rattling, and rolling, the noise died down and then quit. The shuttle began to plummet.
“Oh! Oh!” Krenna “We’re gonna crash!”
“It’s zero g! We’re fine. We’re calculating the burn back to our ship now. It’ll be civilized once we get there. Real food, showers, new clothes.”
“I don’t like this,” Krenna said “I might vomit.”
“Bags on the side of the chair! Please use them! It’ll go everywhere if you don’t.”
Edala felt for the sick bags on the side of the couch and she had some too. “What the fuck Starfleet?” She yelled. She’d never traveled like this before.
“It’s old school! The tentacles like high tech so we had to build low tech. This is how our ancestors traveled.”
Krenna groaned.
“Wait until we show you the zero g toilet. That’s the real treat,” the Starfleet officer grinned.
Edala sighed “Is it too late to go back down?”
“Oh, yeah. We’re not going back there.”
-*-
Some of the shuttles had to make multiple stops to get all the survivors they found.
-*-
Everything was secured. All the people were back where they needed to be. They’d recovered 23 survivors from Manriet III.
The subspace noise from around the planet was increasing slowly. It was time to go.
-*-
T’ari found Tarah in the lab, staring down a dead tentacle segment. The Sita Lakshmi took one, the Sheldon Richman took the other.
“You okay?” T’ari asked
“Yes and no,” Tarah said.
T’ari sat down next to Tarah “Talk to me.”
“Someone made this. It’s biotechnology. It was living metal,” Tarah said.
T’ari nodded.
“I don’t just want to shoot these things, I want to find whoever made them and feed them to their own creation,” Tarah said, “I’m really angry and it’s not going away.”
“We’re done with them. We never have to go back there.”
Tarah nodded “Yup. We’ll go get Satelsk and take him to whatever diplomatic thing he has on his agenda next. We’ll switch tasks and go on, like this never happened.”
“Because we pulled MMM out of there, things changed. An entire world has had its future altered for the better. We have a very large new friend.”
“I don’t want to forget Doros and Atringa. I want to feel like they mattered. I want to feel like their sacrifice wasn’t in vain. I want to feel like I wasn’t stupid for getting us into that position.”
“You’re not the one responsible. I am. I sent you.”
Tarah leaned into her friend “I suppose in time, I’ll find some way not to feel horrible and angry when I think of it. I’ll find some way to function without wanting to scream about this.”
“Let’s just take it slow and get through the next couple of days,” T’ari said.
“We learned how to fight them,” Tarah said, “now that the barn door is closed.”
“Humans put way too many farm animal metaphors into their language,” T’ari grumped.
“Well, that’s a horse of a different color,” Tarah said, just enjoying being close to her friend.
Re: MMM
Glade would be color, not really plot advancing, unless you come up with something, like a stupid bounty hunter? It could show Ane in their natural habitat.jayphailey wrote: ↑Fri Dec 06, 2024 9:24 pm
Builder station. They'll go visit Glade just to say they have.
They'll join a class of civilian space crewfolk training to run the supply and support mechanisms we don't usually talk about.
We might catch up with them later. If I have something to say. Theres a story hook buried in Ammydt Ran
Dunno what I might do with it.
You do need a ship walk around.
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