Omoikane 13 - Trouble at Jigufor
All the tests looked good. The new impulse engines were indistinguishable from Starfleet issued machines.
We’d tested our power system every way Galaglan could think of, and it functioned as intended.
We were about to cut loose from the Starship Tree and go test the new impulse drives in space.
“Priority one call from the Damyip, Sir,” Varupuchu said.
“On screen.”
Lotara, the Damyip Social unit appeared, “I am enroute to you with two heavy shuttlecraft. There is an urgent situation that I request your assistance with. Permission to Dock?”
“Granted.”
-*-
The screen showed subspace tracks on a heading. Normally I’d say a formation of three ships.
But they were coming from Dragon territory.
“They are heading for Jigufor,” Lotara said.
The screen showed the Ijo-Bali system. It was a binary system. Two type G stars orbited each other at 60 AU. Jigu, the main planet orbited Ijo. They had three other terrestrial planets around Ijo, and an asteroid belt. The other star, Bali, had two class M planets, although one was smaller, colder and looked a little rough.
They had several space cities and outposts on various moons around the system.
“This is the bulk of the Jigufor fleet. It dates from their civil war five years ago.”
The screen showed huge ships. Impressively large. There was technical data next to them. Primitive impulse drives. Magnetic shields and polarized hulls. Armed with heavy laser cannon and variety of missiles including fusion warhead missiles with respectable output.
They were also crowded with subships that looked like… robot starfighters. There were space superiority ships, ground attack ships, assault ships and troop carriers. They had a bewildering variety of one man robot suits for ground combat.
All of it was well-engineered for early 22nd century fighting. It was bait for the Dragons.
Besides the order of battle of primitive impulse drive warships, there were a handful of light escorts.
A Mishmash of Orion and Bendarri technology. It was clear the Jigufor were trying to become competitive. But they weren’t close yet.
The Jigufor were humans. They had a companion race. Large blue people with odd hands. They were called Leumalas. Part of their recent civil war was about civil rights for the “Neo-People”.
Three dragons were driving towards them.
Lotara said “We have been working on diplomacy with the Jigufor. We have no forces close enough to intervene. We request your aid.”
I sat back and rubbed my face. This was bad. I had no idea how our weapons would work on the Dragons. But if we didn’t put ourselves in the way, a whole system full of people were defenseless.
“What’s in the shuttles?” I asked,
“Myself, 25 Guardians and 40 Workers. We’ll assist you however we can.”
I turned to Li’ira “Get someone on updating our recorder markers. We’ll leave one here. Once that’s done, we’ll get going.”
Li’ira jumped up and left the Conference room.
I called the Bridge “Request urgent permission to undock. We have recieved a distress call, and we’re the only ship in range. As soon as ready, cast off and get us out into flat space and ready to move.”
I called Engineering “Galaglan, get ready for a high-speed dash. We have a distress call to answer.”
We got ready to go.
As we were getting things set up, General Fourty-Five called “You’re clearin’ out in a hurry.”
“A distress call. It’s… ah… it’s a matter relating to your file X oh five.”
“We haven’t heard any distress calls.”
I called up our charts, highlighted the Jigufor, and shared the chart.
“That’s a long haul.”
“Hopefully we can get there before things get totally out of hand.”
“Well, alright. Ya need a hand? I could send ya some Rangers.”
“Thank you, General. Under other circumstances, they’d be welcome. Even an observer. But to tell the truth, I can’t guarantee anyone’s safety. “
“I’d go m’self, but I’d get court-martialled,” Fourty-Five said. He turned half off screen “You! Lieutenant! You’re an observer! Get ‘t that Federation ship lickety split! If they leave without cha I’ll be disappointed.”
“Sir!” and two-legged clopping away as the Lieutenant rushed to get to us.
“Alright,” I said.
-*-
It took a few more minutes than I liked. The Boa-Olavax Lieutenant got to us with 4 minutes to spare.
We unhooked and maneuvered for the edge of the tree carefully. We couldn’t rescue anyone if we were banged up, ourselves.
The Starship Tree cleared a lane for us.
Tarla steered the ship out of the space station efficiently and carefully.
As we exited I saw we had an honor guard. Two Boa-Olavax destroyers and two frigates marked our lane of departure.
Our new Impulse drives lit up and the Omoikane moved towards our departure point. I knew she was perfectly in spec. But it felt faster from the new engines and slow from the awareness of the trouble ahead.
“Course set and laid in, Sir.”
Over the comms I could hear the Boa-Olavax ships commenting.
“Go Git ‘em.”
“What are they after?”
“Dunno, classified. But t’ General says they’re gonna go protect some civilians from some varmints.”
“Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.”
“Give ‘em a shot fer us, Big Fish.”
“Yee haw.”
“Giddyup,” I said,
Tarla looked at me, befuddled
“That’s cowboy for engage,” I explained.
We jumped to high warp speed.
Omoikane - Jigufor
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1579
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Omoikane 14 - Space Dragons II: The Revenge
Omoikane 14 - Space Dragons II: The Revenge
Stephanie said “We could enter the Jigufor system a few hours ahead of the Dragons and then shed heat and get into shape for a fight. Or we could intercept the Dragons just outside the system. We’d be hot, but the engagement would start outside the system.”
“I’m hoping we can find some way to talk our way out of this,”
“Yes, Sir. But thinking tactically is my job.”
“Yeah. Tippalan, do you think you could contact them telepathically?”
**If we can get close enough, yes. I cannot guarantee good results.**
“Let’s go talk to the Jigufor, first. They’ll be picking up the pieces, if things go south. I’d like to let them know what’s coming.”
We set course for the Jigufor system.
-*-
“What’s coming?” Admiral Xytmeli stared at me intently. Their uniforms were green and yellow. She had short red hair shot through with gray.
“They’re called Dragons by the people we learned from. They’re living warships, built for an ancient war. They’re likely to be hostile.”
“We see the traces of the incoming signals. We also have a lot of questions about your warp drives. They’re faster and hotter than anything we’ve seen.”
“We have access to technology your folks have not developed yet. There will be time to discuss that later. The Dragons eat metals, especially the kinds of stuff we build starships out of. Do you have any ships you’re scraping or ready to scrap? If I can bribe them to take the easy meal and not fight that would be better for all of us.”
Xytmeli nodded “Maybe. But that will take time. Our government may not believe these dragons pose the danger you assert.”
I sighed, “Okay. Please do your best. And watch what happens. You’ll be able to see what the Dragons and we are capable of and make plans accordingly.”
She nodded. “Will do, Omoikane.”
The call ended. I heaved a deep sigh. It made sense that things were happening too fast for them. But it was disappointing.
“What’s the Dragons ETA?” I asked
“They’ll be in the system in 90 minutes, Captain,” Varupuchu said.
“Alright, We’ll head to that Ice giant there, and dump heat into it until we’re as cold as we can get her. Then we’ll intercept the Dragons.”
-*-
As we left the atmosphere of the Ice Giant and set course for the dragons, I could see my breath.
I am not a big fan of the cold. The smart fabric of my uniform was closed up tight and the uniform was quite warm. I was wearing a pair of gloves.
Every degree we could shed meant energy the Dragons would have to put into heating us up to override our defenses.
Tillean said “I think I have it. Patching the Universal Translator in now.”
There was static. She altered some settings, and the signal turned into babble that almost sounded like a voice.
A few more settings.
“- said the Federation meat things like talking and socially engaging. Pretend to humor him, children. We will surround him. When I give the signal, attack aggressively. I hunger for his drives. We will eat his drives and learn his speed.”
“Yes, Mother,”
“Agreed, Mother. And we know nothing of his weapons?”
“Panatapzas said the Federation used a phased energy beam to defend against his plasma torpedo,” The Big Dragon said, then she described his impression of our shields. It was disturbingly accurate.
“Mother, I dislike the notion of a running battle. To overcome his shields and disable him for feasting will take too much energy if we don’t succeed quickly.”
“His sublight drives are slow and awkward. He pushes too much mass. We have the advantage when at sublight speeds. We must prevent him from activating his warp drives, once we engage. The faster we prevail, the better for all of us. Once we feast upon his drives, we can retire to close proximity of their star, drink up the energy, and let the star itself protect us from reprisals.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“What if he flees, instead of engaging?”
“We are gambling that he will try to defend the meat things of the system ahead. If he does not, we get to destroy many meat things and their ships. I see nothing ahead that will challenge us overly much. Their screams and distress calls may coerce him into action. So if he tries to defend we win. And if he does not, we also win.”
“If we raid them, may I call them and terrorize them, Mother?”
“Yes. I will enjoy that. It may act as a further spur to action,”
I didn’t like her, but not much wrong with her thinking tactically.
“He is ahead. He has cooled his ship in anticipation of battle. Heat is their enemy. Their devices, crude approximations of our organs, produce waste heat that they cannot store and consume as we do. So they must rid themselves of it. Do not hold back your attacks, children. The stars of this system are close and easily available to us. We can replenish our energy easily here.”
I turned to Varupuchu “Harksain when we hail them, use the ancient Orion codes and formatting. I don’t want them to know we can hear them talking among themselves.
He nodded and set up the communications system.
“We’re approaching.”
“Go sublight and dead ahead at one-quarter impulse, yellow alert.”
The Omoikane returned to normal space as we got ready for trouble.
Li’ira asked, “Are we going to let them set the encirclement?”
I nodded “It’s that or just start shooting. I really want to give talks a chance here.
“Hail the Dragons.”
“Hailing. Mother is replying, voice only.”
“Meat things, I will now entertain your attempts to bargain for your lives.”
I replied “This is Captain Hailey of the USS Omoikane. Funny you should mention it. I have spoken with the people in the system ahead. They may be willing to offer you some of their old hulks in exchange for a cease-fire.”
“Old dead ships when I can have your fresh, warm one?”
“My ship has teeth and you may be injured or even killed attacking us. While the hulks may not be as tasty as our ship, it's a free meal with no shooting and much less outlay of energy.”
“You speak sensibly from a certain point of view. Excuse me. Captain is the title of a senior meat thing, yes? USS Omoikane is your ship, itself. Hailey would be your personal designation?”
“Yes, Ma’am,”
“Then feel honored Hailey. Knowing the specific name of one meat thing is rare for my kind. Few meat things have attained this honor.”
I typed some instructions into my panel for Tarla, at the Helm.
“Thank you, so may I ask, what would you like to do here?”
Tippalan was on the Bridge. She turned and looked at me with her solid blue eyes **I’m sorry, she’s determined. She wants the disodium drives.**
I ordered red alert. The lights turned red and alarms whooped, our shields went up, and power flowed to our weapons systems.
On their personal channel, Momma Dragon said: “Attack, now.”
“Full Impulse, go!” I yelled, “Stephanie, give Momma three quantum torpedoes, and let’s see what happens,”
The Omoikane began a looping corkscrew path. I was trying to keep any single shield from facing them all the time.
Our A-turret spat three quantum torpedoes.
Plasma beams hit us from three different sides.
The torpedoes hit. They were designed to penetrate Borg shielding. The Dragons' shielding was organic and subtle, but perhaps not quite as strong as a Borg cube’s. There was that weird shockwave flash from the torpedoes. A cloud of carbon and silicon, and maybe a little metal expanded from the point of impact. Damnit, the scales acting as armor warded off the majority of the impact.
“Plasma torpedoes incoming, Captain, permission to use the close-in defense system?”
I’d forgotten we had that. Preparing to fight the Trantorians, the Ane put a system on board for defending against missiles, “Sure!”
Stephanie hit the button.
Turrets popped out of our hull. They were tiny in comparison to our ship. Our sensors tracked the incoming torpedoes and the turrets spat a hail of micro-torpedoes. The same ones used on shuttles and fighters.
The incoming plasma torpedoes were peppered with small photon torpedoes about the size of your hand.
The results were disappointing and the Omoikane boomed as the plasma torpedoes hit us. Our shields were weakened.
“Sorry!” Stephanie yelled
“I hoped that would work, too. Phasers, target the plasma torpedoes and fire at will. Quantum torpedoes and ion cannon focus on Momma Dragon.”
“How many torpedoes?” Stephanie asked.
I didn’t want to open the floodgates yet. “Fifteen, let's see how that works.”
The Omoikane turned into a phaser beam porcupine shooting at incoming plasma torpedoes. Three of our torpedo turrets fired five quantum torpedoes at Momma Dragon.
Our Ion cannon spat shots at Momma Dragon.
The Torpedoes had more effect that time, with more of them. Also, our ion cannon, meant to disable technology interacted with her force fields oddly. They writhed and changed.
Momma dragon screamed “Ow! The torpedoes are bad, but the strange blue cannon hurts! Press the attack!”
I saw her trailing more carbon and silicon, and she showed actual points of a dull orange glow as her molten metal blood was exposed.
On the tactical screen, one of the smaller dragons was closing aggressively. I could see his claws out, covered in plasma to penetrate our hull.
“Target him, 15 torpedoes, Ion cannons!”
He was at point-blank range when the torpedoes hit him. He screamed, and I could see a lot more carbon, silicon, and molten metal leaking. The ion cannon shots hit home and he screamed more. His shields wavered and became much less complicated, He rolled away from us. His change of direction and change of heading was sluggish compared to previously. As he passed us, the close-in weapons system peppered him with dozens of micro-torpedoes.
It was funny, but they were not accomplishing anything that useful. “Go ahead and shut that thing off,” I told Stephanie
More plasma beams and plasma torpedoes. Our phasers weakened the torpedoes, but not enough. “Top facing shields at fifteen percent. Light damage along decks one, two, and three. No casualties yet.”
“Tarla, keep that facing away from them,” I said
“I’ll do my best, Captain,” Tarla said
The Dragons were just swooping around us. They had the advantage there.
Momma dragon executed something that looked almost like an Immelmann and came right at our top.
“Twenty-five torpedoes, Stephanie!”
“Aye, Sire.”
Our turrets spat torpedoes. They could empty our magazines in seconds if we really opened up.
Momma screamed and I could see that she was bleeding molten metal now. Her plasma beams and her huge plasma torpedo crashed into us. The deck tilted and it felt for a moment like we were hanging sideways.
“Damage to the dorsal sections,” Varupuch called. “C-turret is offline, Ion cannon Charlie is offline and phasers on the starboard aft are now at fifty percent.”
The Dragons swooped off to reset and come back around
“Mother, this is not working. We will take this ship and then freeze in the darkness.”
Momma dragon said “We cannot flee. Omoikane can easily catch us. There is no safe place to retreat to. We must succeed or die.”
“Open the channel,” I said. Varupuchu nodded.
“Dragons, the offer to negotiate is still open. I am very serious about this, We do not enjoy fighting you. We’d rather be peaceful!”
“Fall back a bit,” Momma Dragon said on their private line. She answered me encoded in the ancient Orion codes “Hailey, You know we are dangerous to your kind. How can you negotiate in good faith with creatures such as we?”
I said “All these weapons and tools we have are the result of many of us working together. We have found that when we work together, the results are much much better. Peace and diplomacy work out better for everyone.”
She said on the private channel “Children, can you fall back to the red star two light years from here?”
“Yes, Mother, I believe so.”
“I will try.”
“Help your sibling fall back to safety. I will cover your retreat.”
“Mother!”
“It’s time for another gamble. Watch as you go and remember what you see.”
“I do not wish to go on without you!”
“I demand that you move! I brought you into this, I must get you out of it!”
I said on the Orion channel “A free passage is on the negotiation table along with a cease-fire. We’re more interested in peace than violence.”
They all stopped talking.
After a moment, the undamaged smaller dragon said “Can they hear us?”
Momma said, “It's possible.”
There was a blast of static.
Tillean said “They’ve changed their protocol. It seems encrypted now.”
“Damnit,” I hissed.
“Worth it if they agree to a cease-fire,” Li’ira said.
“State your terms,” Momma Dragon said on the ancient Orion channel.
“Just go. Leave. No more fighting. We won’t follow you.”
It was a very long thirty seconds.
“Agreed, We will leave.”
“Remember, we’re always available to talk. We think solving problems that way is much better.”
“You Federations can be very annoying, are you aware?”
“I’ve been told.”
Momma Dragon cut the channel. They backed off and left for the red star at warp 5.
We locked down from red alert and began to recover ourselves.
Stephanie said “We could enter the Jigufor system a few hours ahead of the Dragons and then shed heat and get into shape for a fight. Or we could intercept the Dragons just outside the system. We’d be hot, but the engagement would start outside the system.”
“I’m hoping we can find some way to talk our way out of this,”
“Yes, Sir. But thinking tactically is my job.”
“Yeah. Tippalan, do you think you could contact them telepathically?”
**If we can get close enough, yes. I cannot guarantee good results.**
“Let’s go talk to the Jigufor, first. They’ll be picking up the pieces, if things go south. I’d like to let them know what’s coming.”
We set course for the Jigufor system.
-*-
“What’s coming?” Admiral Xytmeli stared at me intently. Their uniforms were green and yellow. She had short red hair shot through with gray.
“They’re called Dragons by the people we learned from. They’re living warships, built for an ancient war. They’re likely to be hostile.”
“We see the traces of the incoming signals. We also have a lot of questions about your warp drives. They’re faster and hotter than anything we’ve seen.”
“We have access to technology your folks have not developed yet. There will be time to discuss that later. The Dragons eat metals, especially the kinds of stuff we build starships out of. Do you have any ships you’re scraping or ready to scrap? If I can bribe them to take the easy meal and not fight that would be better for all of us.”
Xytmeli nodded “Maybe. But that will take time. Our government may not believe these dragons pose the danger you assert.”
I sighed, “Okay. Please do your best. And watch what happens. You’ll be able to see what the Dragons and we are capable of and make plans accordingly.”
She nodded. “Will do, Omoikane.”
The call ended. I heaved a deep sigh. It made sense that things were happening too fast for them. But it was disappointing.
“What’s the Dragons ETA?” I asked
“They’ll be in the system in 90 minutes, Captain,” Varupuchu said.
“Alright, We’ll head to that Ice giant there, and dump heat into it until we’re as cold as we can get her. Then we’ll intercept the Dragons.”
-*-
As we left the atmosphere of the Ice Giant and set course for the dragons, I could see my breath.
I am not a big fan of the cold. The smart fabric of my uniform was closed up tight and the uniform was quite warm. I was wearing a pair of gloves.
Every degree we could shed meant energy the Dragons would have to put into heating us up to override our defenses.
Tillean said “I think I have it. Patching the Universal Translator in now.”
There was static. She altered some settings, and the signal turned into babble that almost sounded like a voice.
A few more settings.
“- said the Federation meat things like talking and socially engaging. Pretend to humor him, children. We will surround him. When I give the signal, attack aggressively. I hunger for his drives. We will eat his drives and learn his speed.”
“Yes, Mother,”
“Agreed, Mother. And we know nothing of his weapons?”
“Panatapzas said the Federation used a phased energy beam to defend against his plasma torpedo,” The Big Dragon said, then she described his impression of our shields. It was disturbingly accurate.
“Mother, I dislike the notion of a running battle. To overcome his shields and disable him for feasting will take too much energy if we don’t succeed quickly.”
“His sublight drives are slow and awkward. He pushes too much mass. We have the advantage when at sublight speeds. We must prevent him from activating his warp drives, once we engage. The faster we prevail, the better for all of us. Once we feast upon his drives, we can retire to close proximity of their star, drink up the energy, and let the star itself protect us from reprisals.”
“Yes, Mother.”
“What if he flees, instead of engaging?”
“We are gambling that he will try to defend the meat things of the system ahead. If he does not, we get to destroy many meat things and their ships. I see nothing ahead that will challenge us overly much. Their screams and distress calls may coerce him into action. So if he tries to defend we win. And if he does not, we also win.”
“If we raid them, may I call them and terrorize them, Mother?”
“Yes. I will enjoy that. It may act as a further spur to action,”
I didn’t like her, but not much wrong with her thinking tactically.
“He is ahead. He has cooled his ship in anticipation of battle. Heat is their enemy. Their devices, crude approximations of our organs, produce waste heat that they cannot store and consume as we do. So they must rid themselves of it. Do not hold back your attacks, children. The stars of this system are close and easily available to us. We can replenish our energy easily here.”
I turned to Varupuchu “Harksain when we hail them, use the ancient Orion codes and formatting. I don’t want them to know we can hear them talking among themselves.
He nodded and set up the communications system.
“We’re approaching.”
“Go sublight and dead ahead at one-quarter impulse, yellow alert.”
The Omoikane returned to normal space as we got ready for trouble.
Li’ira asked, “Are we going to let them set the encirclement?”
I nodded “It’s that or just start shooting. I really want to give talks a chance here.
“Hail the Dragons.”
“Hailing. Mother is replying, voice only.”
“Meat things, I will now entertain your attempts to bargain for your lives.”
I replied “This is Captain Hailey of the USS Omoikane. Funny you should mention it. I have spoken with the people in the system ahead. They may be willing to offer you some of their old hulks in exchange for a cease-fire.”
“Old dead ships when I can have your fresh, warm one?”
“My ship has teeth and you may be injured or even killed attacking us. While the hulks may not be as tasty as our ship, it's a free meal with no shooting and much less outlay of energy.”
“You speak sensibly from a certain point of view. Excuse me. Captain is the title of a senior meat thing, yes? USS Omoikane is your ship, itself. Hailey would be your personal designation?”
“Yes, Ma’am,”
“Then feel honored Hailey. Knowing the specific name of one meat thing is rare for my kind. Few meat things have attained this honor.”
I typed some instructions into my panel for Tarla, at the Helm.
“Thank you, so may I ask, what would you like to do here?”
Tippalan was on the Bridge. She turned and looked at me with her solid blue eyes **I’m sorry, she’s determined. She wants the disodium drives.**
I ordered red alert. The lights turned red and alarms whooped, our shields went up, and power flowed to our weapons systems.
On their personal channel, Momma Dragon said: “Attack, now.”
“Full Impulse, go!” I yelled, “Stephanie, give Momma three quantum torpedoes, and let’s see what happens,”
The Omoikane began a looping corkscrew path. I was trying to keep any single shield from facing them all the time.
Our A-turret spat three quantum torpedoes.
Plasma beams hit us from three different sides.
The torpedoes hit. They were designed to penetrate Borg shielding. The Dragons' shielding was organic and subtle, but perhaps not quite as strong as a Borg cube’s. There was that weird shockwave flash from the torpedoes. A cloud of carbon and silicon, and maybe a little metal expanded from the point of impact. Damnit, the scales acting as armor warded off the majority of the impact.
“Plasma torpedoes incoming, Captain, permission to use the close-in defense system?”
I’d forgotten we had that. Preparing to fight the Trantorians, the Ane put a system on board for defending against missiles, “Sure!”
Stephanie hit the button.
Turrets popped out of our hull. They were tiny in comparison to our ship. Our sensors tracked the incoming torpedoes and the turrets spat a hail of micro-torpedoes. The same ones used on shuttles and fighters.
The incoming plasma torpedoes were peppered with small photon torpedoes about the size of your hand.
The results were disappointing and the Omoikane boomed as the plasma torpedoes hit us. Our shields were weakened.
“Sorry!” Stephanie yelled
“I hoped that would work, too. Phasers, target the plasma torpedoes and fire at will. Quantum torpedoes and ion cannon focus on Momma Dragon.”
“How many torpedoes?” Stephanie asked.
I didn’t want to open the floodgates yet. “Fifteen, let's see how that works.”
The Omoikane turned into a phaser beam porcupine shooting at incoming plasma torpedoes. Three of our torpedo turrets fired five quantum torpedoes at Momma Dragon.
Our Ion cannon spat shots at Momma Dragon.
The Torpedoes had more effect that time, with more of them. Also, our ion cannon, meant to disable technology interacted with her force fields oddly. They writhed and changed.
Momma dragon screamed “Ow! The torpedoes are bad, but the strange blue cannon hurts! Press the attack!”
I saw her trailing more carbon and silicon, and she showed actual points of a dull orange glow as her molten metal blood was exposed.
On the tactical screen, one of the smaller dragons was closing aggressively. I could see his claws out, covered in plasma to penetrate our hull.
“Target him, 15 torpedoes, Ion cannons!”
He was at point-blank range when the torpedoes hit him. He screamed, and I could see a lot more carbon, silicon, and molten metal leaking. The ion cannon shots hit home and he screamed more. His shields wavered and became much less complicated, He rolled away from us. His change of direction and change of heading was sluggish compared to previously. As he passed us, the close-in weapons system peppered him with dozens of micro-torpedoes.
It was funny, but they were not accomplishing anything that useful. “Go ahead and shut that thing off,” I told Stephanie
More plasma beams and plasma torpedoes. Our phasers weakened the torpedoes, but not enough. “Top facing shields at fifteen percent. Light damage along decks one, two, and three. No casualties yet.”
“Tarla, keep that facing away from them,” I said
“I’ll do my best, Captain,” Tarla said
The Dragons were just swooping around us. They had the advantage there.
Momma dragon executed something that looked almost like an Immelmann and came right at our top.
“Twenty-five torpedoes, Stephanie!”
“Aye, Sire.”
Our turrets spat torpedoes. They could empty our magazines in seconds if we really opened up.
Momma screamed and I could see that she was bleeding molten metal now. Her plasma beams and her huge plasma torpedo crashed into us. The deck tilted and it felt for a moment like we were hanging sideways.
“Damage to the dorsal sections,” Varupuch called. “C-turret is offline, Ion cannon Charlie is offline and phasers on the starboard aft are now at fifty percent.”
The Dragons swooped off to reset and come back around
“Mother, this is not working. We will take this ship and then freeze in the darkness.”
Momma dragon said “We cannot flee. Omoikane can easily catch us. There is no safe place to retreat to. We must succeed or die.”
“Open the channel,” I said. Varupuchu nodded.
“Dragons, the offer to negotiate is still open. I am very serious about this, We do not enjoy fighting you. We’d rather be peaceful!”
“Fall back a bit,” Momma Dragon said on their private line. She answered me encoded in the ancient Orion codes “Hailey, You know we are dangerous to your kind. How can you negotiate in good faith with creatures such as we?”
I said “All these weapons and tools we have are the result of many of us working together. We have found that when we work together, the results are much much better. Peace and diplomacy work out better for everyone.”
She said on the private channel “Children, can you fall back to the red star two light years from here?”
“Yes, Mother, I believe so.”
“I will try.”
“Help your sibling fall back to safety. I will cover your retreat.”
“Mother!”
“It’s time for another gamble. Watch as you go and remember what you see.”
“I do not wish to go on without you!”
“I demand that you move! I brought you into this, I must get you out of it!”
I said on the Orion channel “A free passage is on the negotiation table along with a cease-fire. We’re more interested in peace than violence.”
They all stopped talking.
After a moment, the undamaged smaller dragon said “Can they hear us?”
Momma said, “It's possible.”
There was a blast of static.
Tillean said “They’ve changed their protocol. It seems encrypted now.”
“Damnit,” I hissed.
“Worth it if they agree to a cease-fire,” Li’ira said.
“State your terms,” Momma Dragon said on the ancient Orion channel.
“Just go. Leave. No more fighting. We won’t follow you.”
It was a very long thirty seconds.
“Agreed, We will leave.”
“Remember, we’re always available to talk. We think solving problems that way is much better.”
“You Federations can be very annoying, are you aware?”
“I’ve been told.”
Momma Dragon cut the channel. They backed off and left for the red star at warp 5.
We locked down from red alert and began to recover ourselves.
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1579
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Omoikane - Jigufor
Crippled or dead, if you start out with murder on your mind.
Good for Klingons. Starfleet works differently
Good for Klingons. Starfleet works differently
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jayphailey
- Posts: 1579
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Omoikane - Jigufor
Omoikane 15 - Goop for the Goop God
Admiral Xytmeli said “What’s your status, Omoikane? Do you need assistance?”
“We sustained light damage. We have a few casualties. Everything is under control and all necessary systems are functional. We request permission to approach Jigu, once we’re back in cruise mode.”
“Granted. Thank you Omoikane. We look forward to meeting you.”
“Thank you, Admiral.”
-*-
Once things were stabilized, I went down to sickbay. We had thirty injured. Six critically.
Doctor Hobolisk was in the surgery bay with a group of nurses and techs working on someone. I couldn’t see who.
Next to me was someone severely burned. An emergency medical hologram was working methodically. All over their upper body. It looked and smelled hideous. Their face was more intact. There was a pattern. Oh. Hands. They covered their face with their hands.
“What’s the prognosis, Doctor?”
“Extra crispy.” The patient answered.
I had an out-of-body moment. “Okay,”
“Ensign Flannigan will, in time, make a full recovery. But it will be a long process. First I must stabilize her. Once we can arrange resources, we will begin the reconstructive surgeries. The process is complex. She has to be rebuilt carefully, in multiple steps.” As he spoke, the EMH picked things off her. Burned, blackened things. Parts of her uniform and devices she had on her person.
“I’m sorry,” I told her.
“I signed up. It needed to be done.” She said grimly. “Besides. The neural suppressor is kinda neat.”
The little device on her head with little lights telling us how it was working. Good for suppressing pain. Apparently, in cases of severe injury, it made patients a little high and a little loose-lipped.
A tech arrived with tubs of blue material.
“Ooo, goop,” Flannigan said.
“We will apply the regeneration gel to the patient,” The EMH said, “Captain, would you like to assist?”
I absolutely did not. “Sure,” I said.
We took handfuls of blue gel and smeared them on her burned body. The blue gel would pretend to be her body, and encourage her body to grow new tissue to heal the injuries. A moderate layer was needed to cover for her severely damaged epidermis. I will never forget the smell and feel of a burned person, as we smeared the goop on her. I took a moment to thank whatever god I wasn’t sure I believed in for modern medicine and our ability to fix stuff like this.
“Did we get ‘em, Sir?” Flannigan asked.
“Yeah,” I said. My voice rasped a little “They don’t like quantum torpedoes any more than anyone else does. The ion cannons seemed to inflict pain.”
She chuckled “If quantum torpedoes don’t solve the problem, you’re not using enough of them.”
I nodded, “Yeah.”
We got Ensign Flannigan gooped up and stabilized.
“Focus on getting well, please,” I told her.
“Hard to focus on much right now. Maybe a nap,” She said blearily.
“Good, Do that. I’ll check in again later.”
“Thank you, Captain.”
I tried to wipe the goop off my hands as I made the rounds and checked up on my people in sick bay. It was hard not to blame myself. Should I have come in hot? Started shooting right away? If I’d been more aggressive, more liberal with the torpedoes, I think I could have put the dragons on their back feet and taken the tactical initiative.
Tippalan was in the doorway to Sickbay watching me. I nodded to her “Hey, I think you’ll have some new customers.”
Tippalan thought at me **You did as well as anyone could reasonably expect to do. I suspect a cease-fire and withdrawal in good order is better than the Shard folks usually manage.**
I grinned wanly “Thanks.”
**Now go change your uniform. You’ve got blood on that one.**
I was about to say something about blood on my hands.
**No. Gensilan would be cross with me if I let anyone abuse you without good cause. And that includes you beating up on yourself.**
“Well, Admirals Orders.” I said
I could almost hear Gensilan speaking through Tippalan **Correct.**
Admiral Xytmeli said “What’s your status, Omoikane? Do you need assistance?”
“We sustained light damage. We have a few casualties. Everything is under control and all necessary systems are functional. We request permission to approach Jigu, once we’re back in cruise mode.”
“Granted. Thank you Omoikane. We look forward to meeting you.”
“Thank you, Admiral.”
-*-
Once things were stabilized, I went down to sickbay. We had thirty injured. Six critically.
Doctor Hobolisk was in the surgery bay with a group of nurses and techs working on someone. I couldn’t see who.
Next to me was someone severely burned. An emergency medical hologram was working methodically. All over their upper body. It looked and smelled hideous. Their face was more intact. There was a pattern. Oh. Hands. They covered their face with their hands.
“What’s the prognosis, Doctor?”
“Extra crispy.” The patient answered.
I had an out-of-body moment. “Okay,”
“Ensign Flannigan will, in time, make a full recovery. But it will be a long process. First I must stabilize her. Once we can arrange resources, we will begin the reconstructive surgeries. The process is complex. She has to be rebuilt carefully, in multiple steps.” As he spoke, the EMH picked things off her. Burned, blackened things. Parts of her uniform and devices she had on her person.
“I’m sorry,” I told her.
“I signed up. It needed to be done.” She said grimly. “Besides. The neural suppressor is kinda neat.”
The little device on her head with little lights telling us how it was working. Good for suppressing pain. Apparently, in cases of severe injury, it made patients a little high and a little loose-lipped.
A tech arrived with tubs of blue material.
“Ooo, goop,” Flannigan said.
“We will apply the regeneration gel to the patient,” The EMH said, “Captain, would you like to assist?”
I absolutely did not. “Sure,” I said.
We took handfuls of blue gel and smeared them on her burned body. The blue gel would pretend to be her body, and encourage her body to grow new tissue to heal the injuries. A moderate layer was needed to cover for her severely damaged epidermis. I will never forget the smell and feel of a burned person, as we smeared the goop on her. I took a moment to thank whatever god I wasn’t sure I believed in for modern medicine and our ability to fix stuff like this.
“Did we get ‘em, Sir?” Flannigan asked.
“Yeah,” I said. My voice rasped a little “They don’t like quantum torpedoes any more than anyone else does. The ion cannons seemed to inflict pain.”
She chuckled “If quantum torpedoes don’t solve the problem, you’re not using enough of them.”
I nodded, “Yeah.”
We got Ensign Flannigan gooped up and stabilized.
“Focus on getting well, please,” I told her.
“Hard to focus on much right now. Maybe a nap,” She said blearily.
“Good, Do that. I’ll check in again later.”
“Thank you, Captain.”
I tried to wipe the goop off my hands as I made the rounds and checked up on my people in sick bay. It was hard not to blame myself. Should I have come in hot? Started shooting right away? If I’d been more aggressive, more liberal with the torpedoes, I think I could have put the dragons on their back feet and taken the tactical initiative.
Tippalan was in the doorway to Sickbay watching me. I nodded to her “Hey, I think you’ll have some new customers.”
Tippalan thought at me **You did as well as anyone could reasonably expect to do. I suspect a cease-fire and withdrawal in good order is better than the Shard folks usually manage.**
I grinned wanly “Thanks.”
**Now go change your uniform. You’ve got blood on that one.**
I was about to say something about blood on my hands.
**No. Gensilan would be cross with me if I let anyone abuse you without good cause. And that includes you beating up on yourself.**
“Well, Admirals Orders.” I said
I could almost hear Gensilan speaking through Tippalan **Correct.**
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1579
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Omoikane - Jigufor
Omoikane 16 Damyip 17.3 Frontier Damyip
The next morning, ships time, we were preparing to make our approach to Jigu, the home planet of the Jigufor people.
Something caught my eye looking at the scans.
“Lotora, would you come talk to me, please?” I led her into my ready room. I called up scans of the Jigufor system.
On an asteroid about 1500 meters across there were Federation-style cargo pods. Federation-style scanner beams and comm signals were coming from it. It showed Impulse power systems and all the stuff I’d expect from a temporary base station. Scans also showed it was being run by the Damyip.
“What’s this?”
“That is Damyip 17.3. A temporary base that will be expanded into a permanent base. Originally they were to be a logistics base for supporting the Galra and the Bendarri against the Thasites.”
“This is how you knew the Dragons were coming here?”
“Yes, Captain.”
“The Damyip are expanding pretty aggressively here.”
“Should we leave the Jigufor to the Dragons? Or the Thasites?”
“No, but…” I struggled to put my feelings into words. “I don’t like feeling volunteered into troubles I am only just learning about.”
“The Dragons are an unpleasant surprise for us as well. But it would show a lack of empathy to turn away from the Jigufor in the face of this.”
“These folks and these Galra people as well, right?”
“And the Bendarri.”
“You people barely have a Starfleet of your own.”
“We are building that. In 18 months we should have greater force projection in the area. You can do what you do best. Explore and meet new people, and we can handle our part. Defending our friends.”
“What are the limits of this policy? How much more of this can we get dragged into?”
“We are focused on political entities on our borders, and the threats to our immediate neighbors.”
“The Galra are not your immediate neighbors.”
“No. The Bendarri are. We are helping them. The Galra stand on their flanks. We discussed it with the Bendarri and we agreed, if the Galra fall to the Thasites, that’s bad for the Bendarri. Also, the Bendarri were concerned. Just before the Thasite offensive, it seemed like the Galra would attack Jigufor. By making a deal with the Jigufor, we got a logistics supply base and we prevented aggression from the Galra.”
“May I suggest that your people not expand their range of assistance any further? It's making things very complex.”
“I personally, agree. I’d hate to see the Damyip overwhelmed or swamped by problems of this type.”
“I’d like to tour your base.”
“I’ll arrange it, Captain.”
“Thanks. Oh and please thank your workers for me. They’ve helped us repair the damage to the Omoikane quickly.”
“You’re welcome. Thank you for having us.”
The next morning, ships time, we were preparing to make our approach to Jigu, the home planet of the Jigufor people.
Something caught my eye looking at the scans.
“Lotora, would you come talk to me, please?” I led her into my ready room. I called up scans of the Jigufor system.
On an asteroid about 1500 meters across there were Federation-style cargo pods. Federation-style scanner beams and comm signals were coming from it. It showed Impulse power systems and all the stuff I’d expect from a temporary base station. Scans also showed it was being run by the Damyip.
“What’s this?”
“That is Damyip 17.3. A temporary base that will be expanded into a permanent base. Originally they were to be a logistics base for supporting the Galra and the Bendarri against the Thasites.”
“This is how you knew the Dragons were coming here?”
“Yes, Captain.”
“The Damyip are expanding pretty aggressively here.”
“Should we leave the Jigufor to the Dragons? Or the Thasites?”
“No, but…” I struggled to put my feelings into words. “I don’t like feeling volunteered into troubles I am only just learning about.”
“The Dragons are an unpleasant surprise for us as well. But it would show a lack of empathy to turn away from the Jigufor in the face of this.”
“These folks and these Galra people as well, right?”
“And the Bendarri.”
“You people barely have a Starfleet of your own.”
“We are building that. In 18 months we should have greater force projection in the area. You can do what you do best. Explore and meet new people, and we can handle our part. Defending our friends.”
“What are the limits of this policy? How much more of this can we get dragged into?”
“We are focused on political entities on our borders, and the threats to our immediate neighbors.”
“The Galra are not your immediate neighbors.”
“No. The Bendarri are. We are helping them. The Galra stand on their flanks. We discussed it with the Bendarri and we agreed, if the Galra fall to the Thasites, that’s bad for the Bendarri. Also, the Bendarri were concerned. Just before the Thasite offensive, it seemed like the Galra would attack Jigufor. By making a deal with the Jigufor, we got a logistics supply base and we prevented aggression from the Galra.”
“May I suggest that your people not expand their range of assistance any further? It's making things very complex.”
“I personally, agree. I’d hate to see the Damyip overwhelmed or swamped by problems of this type.”
“I’d like to tour your base.”
“I’ll arrange it, Captain.”
“Thanks. Oh and please thank your workers for me. They’ve helped us repair the damage to the Omoikane quickly.”
“You’re welcome. Thank you for having us.”
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1579
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Omoikane - Jigufor
Omoikane 17 - Politics of Jigufor
“Captain, the Planetary Senate would like you to come and address them on the subject of the dragons,” Admiral Xytmeli said.
I blinked “Ummm, it would probably be better if we did a more focused and smaller briefing?”
She smiled “I understand. But they’re nervous and want to show the people we’re working on the problem. Also, you and your ship are famous. They want to try and grab some of your glory, secondhand.”
“Glory?” I hadn’t fought any Klingons, lately.
“Yes. In the confusion, our scans of your battle were shown publicly. We all saw it.”
I winced “Usually we try to manage our public presentation a little better.”
“I understand. We do, too. But sometimes things work out… differently.”
“When?”
“In three days time.”
“Okay. I’d like it if you could walk me through some of it and what to expect.”
“We can do that. We picked up transmissions, some were a code we couldn’t unravel and some sounded like static. Would you be willing to enlighten us about that?”
“Sure.”
-*-
Codonell City was huge. Sparkling, high-tech buildings sprawled out as far as the eye could see.
I could see vehicles and people moving, living their lives.
It reminded me of San Francisco or New York
Space is both weirdly big and weirdly small. Our ships cover insane distances. The human imagination fails to cope with the real scale of it. Our interfaces present things as if they were much closer and much smaller so we can try to understand what’s happening.
We travel in these small communities. We see the same hallways, rooms, and interiors of our ships, sometimes for years on end.
When we encounter a new planet, we don’t always get to see a lot of it. Usually what we see is limited in scope and duration.
Codonell City on Jigu just sat itself in my mental lap and said “I am very large and I contain millions.”
I hoped I could play tourist a little before we left.
We were near the top of one of the biggest towers in Codonell City, the Headquarters for the Jigufor Confederation Space Force.
Li’ira, Lotara, and I went into the briefing room. It was a pretty big one. It was filled with brass. Jigufor humans and their big blue cousins.
“Thank you for agreeing to meet with us and brief us Captain,” Admiral Xytmeli said. She introduced us to the rest of the Admirals and Generals. It looked like their whole command was there.
We went through the battle in detail. They asked in excruciating detail what I was thinking at each step and what I meant to accomplish.
They asked about each weapon. I had to be vague about some of it. The problem was, with a good idea of the shield strength of the Dragons, and the power of their weapons, they could analyze what the Omoikane was capable of pretty well.
“You felt you needed torpedoes with extra penetration?”
That led to a discussion of the Borg and the danger of rogue free-borg in known space and beyond.
“What is the difference between the Orange Beams and the Blue bolts?”
That led to a discussion of ion cannon and why we felt like they were a good idea.
The effect on the Dragons was interesting. I’d really prefer to know more about the interactions there before I went all out against Dragons with the ion cannon in the future.
Li’ira described how Tillean was able to crack the Dragons' internal communications by looking at it through a biology lens.
We described what we knew of the Ancient Oron/Orion Empire. This included the basics of the Shard and their stories of the War of the Gods. Our impression was that the Dragons were living battleships in that war, and survived it to carve out their own hunting grounds. Unfortunately close to the Jigufor, Galra, and the Sexatar sector.
The Ops crew of the USS Omoikane was up most of the previous night arranging the data to support our account but to scrub out all the details classified by Starfleet command.
The Admirals and Generals of the Jigufor Space Force asked us detailed and pointed questions. They knew right where our limits of classification were and pressed the issue some. I didn’t blame them. They were behind the eight-ball and it was concerning for them.
I also couldn’t promise a Federation Starship would always be there to come to the rescue.
Lotara spoke up and gave an ETA for Damyip Escorts to arrive and take up a defensive station. About 19 months.
That’s a long time to be without meaningful defense.
Late that, night, the briefing concluded.
“We tracked the Dragons to a star two light years away. We lost them when they got too close to the star. My impression is that they are repairing and refueling there. I have no idea how long that will take. I have no idea what they’ll decide to do when done. The Shard says sometimes they stay near a star for years at a time.
I wouldn’t blame you for putting sensor buoys in the system to warn you when they move. I’d try to avoid antagonizing them until you have the force at hand to dissuade them.”
“Agreed.”
As the meeting broke up, Admiral Xytmeli approached and asked “Have you gotten to try our Vijeymepa cuisine yet? My treat.”
I was very tired. Li’ira looked worn around the edges. Lotara was as fresh as daisies. But the look on Li’iras face was eloquent.
“We’d love to,” I said.
We went to the ground floor and Xytmeli arranged for a staff car to drive us to the restaurant.
The city looked retro to me. Everything was clean, stylish, and colorful. The tech was like something from a century or more ago on Earth. So a little chunkier and less versatile than you’d see on Earth. But it was all new.
Something bothered me until I could put my finger on it. Only humans. I was used to the Cities on Earth where there were more different kinds of folks visible.
Welp, those days were coming for Codonell City.
The restaurant itself was few kilometers away, and a few turns this way and that. The signs looked interesting. I couldn’t understand the written language, of course. Next time I’d wear sunglasses with a heads-up display to show me translations of written materials.
Inside it was dark, and maze-like. We were seated at a booth in the back.
The food was interesting. I tried little bits of it here and there. Some of it was spicy, some had interesting mixes of flavors.
I wanted to make sure if something disagreed with me, it be small and outnumbered.
As we ate Xytmeli was social and engaging. We traded some small talk, stories, and genial conversation.
The evening developed and Xytmeli’s target became clear. She was trying to pick up Li’ira.
A perfectly understandable impulse. She was good at it, too.
Li’ira showed me an expression I couldn’t read. I didn’t know what do with this situation. If Li’ira wanted to go try out the Admiral, that was understandable. But if Li’ira wanted me to assert our relationship and take her off the hook, that was understandable, too. I put on my best poker face and tried to be genial.
Presently the Admiral stood up and went to use the restroom. Lotara went with her.
Li’ira hissed “What should I do?”
I murmured, “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know!”
I said “I’m good either way. I want you to be comfortable.”
“If I turn her down, will hurt our diplomacy?”
“If you having a boundary negatively affects our diplomacy, then that’s information it would be good to have. Also, the Federation has no business having an opinion here. This is your personal person. Do what you’d do if the rest of us weren’t here. I love you. I’ll support your decision.”
Li’ira ate a bite of something horribley spicy and thought about it as the Admiral returned.
We made more social ground with the Admiral. It was a nice dinner.
Li’ira waited until I was drinking something until she imitated Admiral Picard again “We come out here seeking new life,”
The Jigiforan beverage hurt coming out of my nose.
“Captain, the Planetary Senate would like you to come and address them on the subject of the dragons,” Admiral Xytmeli said.
I blinked “Ummm, it would probably be better if we did a more focused and smaller briefing?”
She smiled “I understand. But they’re nervous and want to show the people we’re working on the problem. Also, you and your ship are famous. They want to try and grab some of your glory, secondhand.”
“Glory?” I hadn’t fought any Klingons, lately.
“Yes. In the confusion, our scans of your battle were shown publicly. We all saw it.”
I winced “Usually we try to manage our public presentation a little better.”
“I understand. We do, too. But sometimes things work out… differently.”
“When?”
“In three days time.”
“Okay. I’d like it if you could walk me through some of it and what to expect.”
“We can do that. We picked up transmissions, some were a code we couldn’t unravel and some sounded like static. Would you be willing to enlighten us about that?”
“Sure.”
-*-
Codonell City was huge. Sparkling, high-tech buildings sprawled out as far as the eye could see.
I could see vehicles and people moving, living their lives.
It reminded me of San Francisco or New York
Space is both weirdly big and weirdly small. Our ships cover insane distances. The human imagination fails to cope with the real scale of it. Our interfaces present things as if they were much closer and much smaller so we can try to understand what’s happening.
We travel in these small communities. We see the same hallways, rooms, and interiors of our ships, sometimes for years on end.
When we encounter a new planet, we don’t always get to see a lot of it. Usually what we see is limited in scope and duration.
Codonell City on Jigu just sat itself in my mental lap and said “I am very large and I contain millions.”
I hoped I could play tourist a little before we left.
We were near the top of one of the biggest towers in Codonell City, the Headquarters for the Jigufor Confederation Space Force.
Li’ira, Lotara, and I went into the briefing room. It was a pretty big one. It was filled with brass. Jigufor humans and their big blue cousins.
“Thank you for agreeing to meet with us and brief us Captain,” Admiral Xytmeli said. She introduced us to the rest of the Admirals and Generals. It looked like their whole command was there.
We went through the battle in detail. They asked in excruciating detail what I was thinking at each step and what I meant to accomplish.
They asked about each weapon. I had to be vague about some of it. The problem was, with a good idea of the shield strength of the Dragons, and the power of their weapons, they could analyze what the Omoikane was capable of pretty well.
“You felt you needed torpedoes with extra penetration?”
That led to a discussion of the Borg and the danger of rogue free-borg in known space and beyond.
“What is the difference between the Orange Beams and the Blue bolts?”
That led to a discussion of ion cannon and why we felt like they were a good idea.
The effect on the Dragons was interesting. I’d really prefer to know more about the interactions there before I went all out against Dragons with the ion cannon in the future.
Li’ira described how Tillean was able to crack the Dragons' internal communications by looking at it through a biology lens.
We described what we knew of the Ancient Oron/Orion Empire. This included the basics of the Shard and their stories of the War of the Gods. Our impression was that the Dragons were living battleships in that war, and survived it to carve out their own hunting grounds. Unfortunately close to the Jigufor, Galra, and the Sexatar sector.
The Ops crew of the USS Omoikane was up most of the previous night arranging the data to support our account but to scrub out all the details classified by Starfleet command.
The Admirals and Generals of the Jigufor Space Force asked us detailed and pointed questions. They knew right where our limits of classification were and pressed the issue some. I didn’t blame them. They were behind the eight-ball and it was concerning for them.
I also couldn’t promise a Federation Starship would always be there to come to the rescue.
Lotara spoke up and gave an ETA for Damyip Escorts to arrive and take up a defensive station. About 19 months.
That’s a long time to be without meaningful defense.
Late that, night, the briefing concluded.
“We tracked the Dragons to a star two light years away. We lost them when they got too close to the star. My impression is that they are repairing and refueling there. I have no idea how long that will take. I have no idea what they’ll decide to do when done. The Shard says sometimes they stay near a star for years at a time.
I wouldn’t blame you for putting sensor buoys in the system to warn you when they move. I’d try to avoid antagonizing them until you have the force at hand to dissuade them.”
“Agreed.”
As the meeting broke up, Admiral Xytmeli approached and asked “Have you gotten to try our Vijeymepa cuisine yet? My treat.”
I was very tired. Li’ira looked worn around the edges. Lotara was as fresh as daisies. But the look on Li’iras face was eloquent.
“We’d love to,” I said.
We went to the ground floor and Xytmeli arranged for a staff car to drive us to the restaurant.
The city looked retro to me. Everything was clean, stylish, and colorful. The tech was like something from a century or more ago on Earth. So a little chunkier and less versatile than you’d see on Earth. But it was all new.
Something bothered me until I could put my finger on it. Only humans. I was used to the Cities on Earth where there were more different kinds of folks visible.
Welp, those days were coming for Codonell City.
The restaurant itself was few kilometers away, and a few turns this way and that. The signs looked interesting. I couldn’t understand the written language, of course. Next time I’d wear sunglasses with a heads-up display to show me translations of written materials.
Inside it was dark, and maze-like. We were seated at a booth in the back.
The food was interesting. I tried little bits of it here and there. Some of it was spicy, some had interesting mixes of flavors.
I wanted to make sure if something disagreed with me, it be small and outnumbered.
As we ate Xytmeli was social and engaging. We traded some small talk, stories, and genial conversation.
The evening developed and Xytmeli’s target became clear. She was trying to pick up Li’ira.
A perfectly understandable impulse. She was good at it, too.
Li’ira showed me an expression I couldn’t read. I didn’t know what do with this situation. If Li’ira wanted to go try out the Admiral, that was understandable. But if Li’ira wanted me to assert our relationship and take her off the hook, that was understandable, too. I put on my best poker face and tried to be genial.
Presently the Admiral stood up and went to use the restroom. Lotara went with her.
Li’ira hissed “What should I do?”
I murmured, “What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know!”
I said “I’m good either way. I want you to be comfortable.”
“If I turn her down, will hurt our diplomacy?”
“If you having a boundary negatively affects our diplomacy, then that’s information it would be good to have. Also, the Federation has no business having an opinion here. This is your personal person. Do what you’d do if the rest of us weren’t here. I love you. I’ll support your decision.”
Li’ira ate a bite of something horribley spicy and thought about it as the Admiral returned.
We made more social ground with the Admiral. It was a nice dinner.
Li’ira waited until I was drinking something until she imitated Admiral Picard again “We come out here seeking new life,”
The Jigiforan beverage hurt coming out of my nose.
Re: Omoikane - Jigufor
Li'ira is interesting because she is Green Orion Biology overlaid with a not terribly good set of Human presumptions.
-- The Innkeeper
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1579
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Omoikane - Jigufor
Omoikane 18 - Jigufor Parade
I thought I knew what to expect for the next briefing. I was wrong.
We were asked to appear in dress uniform.
Our party was me, Li’ira, Tillean, Galaglan, Lotara, and Kat-oh-lo.
Everyone else stayed aboard to act as a rescue party if things went south.
I thought it was pretty unlikely, but I also didn’t want to start a report with “They caught all senior officers on the ground”
I had a moment with the decorations. I served in the Cardassian War. Or rather, I remembered serving in the Cardassian War. The Jay who’d DONE that was back at Starbase 600 being a fleet admiral. I was a duplicate. Did it count, or were they duplicated memories and experiences?
Gensilan had standing orders. All decorations applicable for experienced service were to be worn. She didn’t care if I or my memories were duplicated. The medals and decorations had two purposes - to communicate to other Starfleet Officers where I’d been and what I’d done and to communicate to other people what Starfleet Officers did.
If it made a good show, it was valid because it was advertising how varied and competent Starfleet was.
I learned these standing orders weren’t just for Jays, but other folks. We had people at Starbase 600 who had no kidding earned medals from the 20th and 21st centuries including a couple of no-shit WWII service medals.
I made myself a note to look those folks up when we got back to Starbase 600.
So, I loaded up my dress uniform with the right medals. Li’ira helped me get mine straight.
I helped her with hers. There were three different covert mission awards. These were awards given when the mission was classified. No details in the records, just the statement “This officer was awarded the covert mission award.”
“If you tell me about these do you have to kill me?” I asked grinning
“No. But I want to phaser you for that joke,” She said. “War stories later, uniforms now.”
This was how Li’ira always looked so tight and put together. She worked at it. Each morning was a quick, thorough build of “Job Face”
She’d compressed two hours of work down into twenty minutes with skill, practice, and clever shortcuts.
We went to the transporter room.
The Lefyt Warrior's dress uniform was a sight. Midnight blue with silver trim. And a cape. Galaglans dress uniform was a slightly stiffer scant. She grinned merrily at me. Lotara was in a nice Lefyt-style business suit. I peered at her face. Did she use makeup or chromatophores in her skin?
We beamed down.
It looked like what I imagined backstage at a play looked like. People were going every which way, the air was alive with people talking, yelling, and working to get everything done properly.
“I’m Lieutenant Nardira, your protocol officer,” a harried you man said. “At the signal, you will proceed north along the carpet. Mount the stage. Turn to your right. Salute the president. Then turn and face the assembly while he speaks. Then the Captain will step forward to the mark on the carpet and make an address, for five minutes or less. Then I will show you the president's box. Your seats have been marked. Do you have that?”
“What?” I asked, horrified.
“Thirty Seconds!” Someone bellowed.
“We’re live in thirty seconds. Twenty-nine now.”
No time “North, Stage, right, salute. Speech, speech box,” I said
Lotara asked, “Are the seats marked in Jigu language?”
“Yes,” Horrified realization dawned “You can’t read our language?”
“Not without technological help,” I said. What sort of speech was I supposed to give?
“Twenty!”
“Who am I speaking to?” I asked.
As he turned I thought better of it “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”
He caught himself and nodded, “Yes, Sir.”
Li’ira said, “I can do it if you want.”
Sure. She’d be better at it. She’s sure as hell be more fun to look at. But we were here now.
I took a deep breath “When I get court-martialled for this, you have to take command of the Omoikane. I’ll be your pampered cabin boy.”
“Most Greens charge extra for that,” she said
“Ten!”
It was a very long ten seconds.
We went through the curtain.
The crowd was huge. The building was a mix of legislature and theater.
I took up the step and we marched. The rest of the party formed on me and we marched across the hall.
I saw on a big repeater screen, images of the Omoikane engaged with the Dragons. It looked like hell. Plasma beams, plasma torpedoes, phasers, quantum torpedoes, and ion cannon bolts flew in every which direction. Our shields were flaring. Flames, smoke, and debris poured out of the top of the ship where we were hit.
It looked right out of the movies. I was horrified.
Then it got worse. The screen changed to show us marching. “Keep the step, keep the step, keep the step” I hammered to myself.
The crowd paused, and then cheers started. The cheering grew and took over the hall. It was deafening. I felt distant, separated from my body.
We marched across the hall. Up the steps, to the mark. We turned right, and I saluted the President of the Jigufor Confederation.
He was a man with a rounded troll-like face. Almost Ferengi-like. He was grinning from ear to ear. I was reminded of the old saw that politics was show business for ugly people.
He extended his hand and I ended our salute to shake his hand. Mid-shake he turned and waved at the Legislature and the cameras, grinning like mad.
I spotted Admiral Zytmeli along with many of the Admirals and Generals I’d briefed. Zytmeli made a very professional bow in our general direction. Specifically at Li’ira, but generally at the rest of us.
Another officer came up and held a box for the president.
The President awarded us “Hero of the Jigufor Confederation” medals. The Omoikane was awarded a “Hero of the Jigufor” Unit Citation.
Then he turned to the Legislators and the cameras and made a speech. It was a political speech, long on bromides, clever turns of phase and stirring images, short on specifics.
Then it got worse. He gestured to me. I stepped up to the mark, took a deep breath, and said “I bring your greetings from the United Federation of Planets.”
The crowd was deafening. I waited. Good. As long as they were yelling, I didn’t have to say anything. The less I was running my mouth, the less chance of really screwing up.
I filled my time with generic statements about what the United Federation of Planets was, how we worked it, and how happy I was to meet the people of Jigufor.
They ate it with a spoon. They cheered. A lot.
When I finished, we went to the President's box and sat down. The protocol officer showed us our seats, marked in the Jigufor language.
Then every other politician in the place got a turn making a speech. Trying to take credit for our appearance and our victory against the Dragons, trying to take credit for the Federation being there or even existing at all, and warning about the terrible danger the Federation posed to the sovereignty of the Jigufor Confederacy.
By the end of the event, I was wishing the Dragons had killed me.
Then it got worse.
-*-
We got escorted to a reception. We stood for endless hours while important people got drunk, asked questions, and tried to be seen with us.
It was networking. It was social. Lotara took as much of the load as she could. She was good at being social and tireless. Li’ira was almost as good. I smiled and nodded a lot, and tried various treats and hors d'oeuvres as they came by.
Galaglan was also popular and enjoyed meeting all sorts of people.
Kat-oh-lo and I stood back and let them, exchanging pleasantries and answering questions as well as I could.
One thing was clear. They all thought the Federation as I presented it was a great idea and how could they buy some of it?
Or something like that. I repeated “Remember who your friends are” a lot, and explained that the Federation felt that we could make friends by being friends and so on.
It was like trying to do diplomacy in a half-remembered dream.
-*-
One of the Lemalas people came over to me. There were two Lemalas ministers. One seemed to be the elected leader of the planet Neoshwa, and the other seemed to be the elected leader of the Lemalas in general. It was weird, so I assumed there was stuff I missed.
They were tall people. Pretty big. Their hands were interesting like human hands folded over. They had two thumbs, one on each side.
This one had the yellow and green space force uniform on, with somewhat fewer decorations. He was followed by three human Space Force people.
“I am Doctor Zelonos,” he introduced himself “May I ask you a question about your warp drive?”
“There are things I can’t answer about it. It's considered secret,” I said “But if I can answer, I will.”
“You’re using disodium are you not?”
I blinked at him in shock. These people just got their first warp drives five years ago. “Ummmm. Yes. That’s correct, How did you know that?”
“The power curve is quite distinctive. There was only one way I could imagine it looking like that.”
“Wow. Not many people could divine that from our power curve.”
The rest of his people were looking almost as shocked as I was.
“Will you be sharing this technology with us?”
“Ummm, two problems there. We’re very early in the relationship. So usually high-level classified materials are only shared with the closest allies or other Federation member worlds. Secondly, disodium is exceedingly rare. We have the only source I know of in known space. So even if we shared the engineering, it wouldn’t be helpful to you, with no disodium. We got along well with Dilithium drives for quite some time. I think if you get those right, then when you find disodium, the transition will be easier.”
“Do you think your warp drive engineers would be willing to answer questions from me, remotely?”
“Probably, yes. But civilians and Starfleet engineers won't be able to answer if you ask about engineering that’s classified military secret.”
“I see. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. You really figured it out from watching our warp drives?”
“Yes. Several of my colleagues are also examining the evidence of your weapons and shields. Although replicating them will be just as big a technological problem, I feel confident they’ll be able to describe the principles in play within the next two or three years.”
One of his companions broke in “I’m sorry. Dr, Grendap from the advanced research bureau. The Lemalas people’s minds are wonderful, but sometimes a little more direct than humans.”
“You know this is rude, Dr. Grendap,” Zenolos said, sadly.
“I appreciate straightforwardness,” I said
“Thank you,” Zenolos said “I asked if you were going to share the technology because I wanted to know if I should use my time to reverse engineer what I could or wait for manuals.”
“You know, if you’re starting from scratch, there's a decent chance that by doing the work yourself, you’ll find something we’ve missed. I’d like to encourage you to share your work with us. I look forward to seeing what fresh eyes come up with.”
He smiled beautifically “Thank you, Captain. I believe I shall.” He turned and walked away without a further word.
His friends said “Thank you. Nice to meet you!” And scurried after him.
I turned to see Xytmeli watching the exchange “Well. He’s kind of scary.”
She smiled “You don’t know the half of it.”
-*-
My brain was floaty. My body felt like lead.
“Interesting,” Li’ira said
“What?”
“That looked harder on you than the battle.”
I thought about Ensign Flannigan. “No, not really. But it wasn’t my favorite thing.”
She kissed my cheek “I thought you handled it well.”
That was wonderful. “Hmmmm,” I said
“Bedtime.”
That sounded even better. I vaguely recall kind of falling into bed.
I thought I knew what to expect for the next briefing. I was wrong.
We were asked to appear in dress uniform.
Our party was me, Li’ira, Tillean, Galaglan, Lotara, and Kat-oh-lo.
Everyone else stayed aboard to act as a rescue party if things went south.
I thought it was pretty unlikely, but I also didn’t want to start a report with “They caught all senior officers on the ground”
I had a moment with the decorations. I served in the Cardassian War. Or rather, I remembered serving in the Cardassian War. The Jay who’d DONE that was back at Starbase 600 being a fleet admiral. I was a duplicate. Did it count, or were they duplicated memories and experiences?
Gensilan had standing orders. All decorations applicable for experienced service were to be worn. She didn’t care if I or my memories were duplicated. The medals and decorations had two purposes - to communicate to other Starfleet Officers where I’d been and what I’d done and to communicate to other people what Starfleet Officers did.
If it made a good show, it was valid because it was advertising how varied and competent Starfleet was.
I learned these standing orders weren’t just for Jays, but other folks. We had people at Starbase 600 who had no kidding earned medals from the 20th and 21st centuries including a couple of no-shit WWII service medals.
I made myself a note to look those folks up when we got back to Starbase 600.
So, I loaded up my dress uniform with the right medals. Li’ira helped me get mine straight.
I helped her with hers. There were three different covert mission awards. These were awards given when the mission was classified. No details in the records, just the statement “This officer was awarded the covert mission award.”
“If you tell me about these do you have to kill me?” I asked grinning
“No. But I want to phaser you for that joke,” She said. “War stories later, uniforms now.”
This was how Li’ira always looked so tight and put together. She worked at it. Each morning was a quick, thorough build of “Job Face”
She’d compressed two hours of work down into twenty minutes with skill, practice, and clever shortcuts.
We went to the transporter room.
The Lefyt Warrior's dress uniform was a sight. Midnight blue with silver trim. And a cape. Galaglans dress uniform was a slightly stiffer scant. She grinned merrily at me. Lotara was in a nice Lefyt-style business suit. I peered at her face. Did she use makeup or chromatophores in her skin?
We beamed down.
It looked like what I imagined backstage at a play looked like. People were going every which way, the air was alive with people talking, yelling, and working to get everything done properly.
“I’m Lieutenant Nardira, your protocol officer,” a harried you man said. “At the signal, you will proceed north along the carpet. Mount the stage. Turn to your right. Salute the president. Then turn and face the assembly while he speaks. Then the Captain will step forward to the mark on the carpet and make an address, for five minutes or less. Then I will show you the president's box. Your seats have been marked. Do you have that?”
“What?” I asked, horrified.
“Thirty Seconds!” Someone bellowed.
“We’re live in thirty seconds. Twenty-nine now.”
No time “North, Stage, right, salute. Speech, speech box,” I said
Lotara asked, “Are the seats marked in Jigu language?”
“Yes,” Horrified realization dawned “You can’t read our language?”
“Not without technological help,” I said. What sort of speech was I supposed to give?
“Twenty!”
“Who am I speaking to?” I asked.
As he turned I thought better of it “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”
He caught himself and nodded, “Yes, Sir.”
Li’ira said, “I can do it if you want.”
Sure. She’d be better at it. She’s sure as hell be more fun to look at. But we were here now.
I took a deep breath “When I get court-martialled for this, you have to take command of the Omoikane. I’ll be your pampered cabin boy.”
“Most Greens charge extra for that,” she said
“Ten!”
It was a very long ten seconds.
We went through the curtain.
The crowd was huge. The building was a mix of legislature and theater.
I took up the step and we marched. The rest of the party formed on me and we marched across the hall.
I saw on a big repeater screen, images of the Omoikane engaged with the Dragons. It looked like hell. Plasma beams, plasma torpedoes, phasers, quantum torpedoes, and ion cannon bolts flew in every which direction. Our shields were flaring. Flames, smoke, and debris poured out of the top of the ship where we were hit.
It looked right out of the movies. I was horrified.
Then it got worse. The screen changed to show us marching. “Keep the step, keep the step, keep the step” I hammered to myself.
The crowd paused, and then cheers started. The cheering grew and took over the hall. It was deafening. I felt distant, separated from my body.
We marched across the hall. Up the steps, to the mark. We turned right, and I saluted the President of the Jigufor Confederation.
He was a man with a rounded troll-like face. Almost Ferengi-like. He was grinning from ear to ear. I was reminded of the old saw that politics was show business for ugly people.
He extended his hand and I ended our salute to shake his hand. Mid-shake he turned and waved at the Legislature and the cameras, grinning like mad.
I spotted Admiral Zytmeli along with many of the Admirals and Generals I’d briefed. Zytmeli made a very professional bow in our general direction. Specifically at Li’ira, but generally at the rest of us.
Another officer came up and held a box for the president.
The President awarded us “Hero of the Jigufor Confederation” medals. The Omoikane was awarded a “Hero of the Jigufor” Unit Citation.
Then he turned to the Legislators and the cameras and made a speech. It was a political speech, long on bromides, clever turns of phase and stirring images, short on specifics.
Then it got worse. He gestured to me. I stepped up to the mark, took a deep breath, and said “I bring your greetings from the United Federation of Planets.”
The crowd was deafening. I waited. Good. As long as they were yelling, I didn’t have to say anything. The less I was running my mouth, the less chance of really screwing up.
I filled my time with generic statements about what the United Federation of Planets was, how we worked it, and how happy I was to meet the people of Jigufor.
They ate it with a spoon. They cheered. A lot.
When I finished, we went to the President's box and sat down. The protocol officer showed us our seats, marked in the Jigufor language.
Then every other politician in the place got a turn making a speech. Trying to take credit for our appearance and our victory against the Dragons, trying to take credit for the Federation being there or even existing at all, and warning about the terrible danger the Federation posed to the sovereignty of the Jigufor Confederacy.
By the end of the event, I was wishing the Dragons had killed me.
Then it got worse.
-*-
We got escorted to a reception. We stood for endless hours while important people got drunk, asked questions, and tried to be seen with us.
It was networking. It was social. Lotara took as much of the load as she could. She was good at being social and tireless. Li’ira was almost as good. I smiled and nodded a lot, and tried various treats and hors d'oeuvres as they came by.
Galaglan was also popular and enjoyed meeting all sorts of people.
Kat-oh-lo and I stood back and let them, exchanging pleasantries and answering questions as well as I could.
One thing was clear. They all thought the Federation as I presented it was a great idea and how could they buy some of it?
Or something like that. I repeated “Remember who your friends are” a lot, and explained that the Federation felt that we could make friends by being friends and so on.
It was like trying to do diplomacy in a half-remembered dream.
-*-
One of the Lemalas people came over to me. There were two Lemalas ministers. One seemed to be the elected leader of the planet Neoshwa, and the other seemed to be the elected leader of the Lemalas in general. It was weird, so I assumed there was stuff I missed.
They were tall people. Pretty big. Their hands were interesting like human hands folded over. They had two thumbs, one on each side.
This one had the yellow and green space force uniform on, with somewhat fewer decorations. He was followed by three human Space Force people.
“I am Doctor Zelonos,” he introduced himself “May I ask you a question about your warp drive?”
“There are things I can’t answer about it. It's considered secret,” I said “But if I can answer, I will.”
“You’re using disodium are you not?”
I blinked at him in shock. These people just got their first warp drives five years ago. “Ummmm. Yes. That’s correct, How did you know that?”
“The power curve is quite distinctive. There was only one way I could imagine it looking like that.”
“Wow. Not many people could divine that from our power curve.”
The rest of his people were looking almost as shocked as I was.
“Will you be sharing this technology with us?”
“Ummm, two problems there. We’re very early in the relationship. So usually high-level classified materials are only shared with the closest allies or other Federation member worlds. Secondly, disodium is exceedingly rare. We have the only source I know of in known space. So even if we shared the engineering, it wouldn’t be helpful to you, with no disodium. We got along well with Dilithium drives for quite some time. I think if you get those right, then when you find disodium, the transition will be easier.”
“Do you think your warp drive engineers would be willing to answer questions from me, remotely?”
“Probably, yes. But civilians and Starfleet engineers won't be able to answer if you ask about engineering that’s classified military secret.”
“I see. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. You really figured it out from watching our warp drives?”
“Yes. Several of my colleagues are also examining the evidence of your weapons and shields. Although replicating them will be just as big a technological problem, I feel confident they’ll be able to describe the principles in play within the next two or three years.”
One of his companions broke in “I’m sorry. Dr, Grendap from the advanced research bureau. The Lemalas people’s minds are wonderful, but sometimes a little more direct than humans.”
“You know this is rude, Dr. Grendap,” Zenolos said, sadly.
“I appreciate straightforwardness,” I said
“Thank you,” Zenolos said “I asked if you were going to share the technology because I wanted to know if I should use my time to reverse engineer what I could or wait for manuals.”
“You know, if you’re starting from scratch, there's a decent chance that by doing the work yourself, you’ll find something we’ve missed. I’d like to encourage you to share your work with us. I look forward to seeing what fresh eyes come up with.”
He smiled beautifically “Thank you, Captain. I believe I shall.” He turned and walked away without a further word.
His friends said “Thank you. Nice to meet you!” And scurried after him.
I turned to see Xytmeli watching the exchange “Well. He’s kind of scary.”
She smiled “You don’t know the half of it.”
-*-
My brain was floaty. My body felt like lead.
“Interesting,” Li’ira said
“What?”
“That looked harder on you than the battle.”
I thought about Ensign Flannigan. “No, not really. But it wasn’t my favorite thing.”
She kissed my cheek “I thought you handled it well.”
That was wonderful. “Hmmmm,” I said
“Bedtime.”
That sounded even better. I vaguely recall kind of falling into bed.