MMM Part 1
USS Sheldon Richman - Akira Class, the Fulcrum Region
T’ari O’Keefe commanding
The Arzalan scout looked zippy. It had the same tube with nacelles slung below it layout the Arzalans liked before they joined the Federation, but this ship was long and thin. It came to a point on the front. It looked like old pictures of aircraft from the space age.
It had a good dilithium drive. Parts of the ship were scan-shielded.
It pulled alongside the USS Sheldon Richman and beamed one person aboard.
-*-
The Arzalan man looked like a cop. T’ari stopped and thought about that. How did she know? What elements of his demeanor said law enforcement?
“Thank you for having me. I’m Jak Midnight from Arzala National Security.”
“What can we help you with, Mister Midnight?”
“Someone of great interest to us … went rogue. They got on a pirate ship at the Fulcrum and may be in trouble. We need to track them and recover the rogue individual.”
T’ari squinted “Okay. You know we’re not exactly subtle. Everyone’s going to see us and know it was us.”
“That’s not as big an issue for us as making sure our rogue element is safe and … returned safely.”
“Alright. Let me talk to my command authority and see what we can do to help you.”
-*-
Jay Six, Forward Base Steele, the Fulcrum Region
“I’m feeling some pressure from behind,” I told T’ari . Something has the Arzalans worked up, but I don’t know what. Please explain to Commissioner Satelsk that he’ll be delayed until this is resolved.”
“Admiral, why did you send us on this diplomacy run? The Richman isn’t really the right fit for it.”
“There are two reasons. We’re short of ships and crews right now, So I have to roll what we have at hand. But mainly, I want you and your crew to get used to doing Starfleet stuff. Science, diplomacy, crisis response, regulation enforcement, You’ll be asked to do it all. I want to get you used to that now. Eventually, we’ll swap you folks into a more sensible ship.”
T’ari nodded “Thank you, Admiral.”
“If you can figure out what the Arzalans are doing here, that would be a plus.”
“They’re a Federation world, Sir.”
“I didn’t say interfere with it. We’ll probably wind up supporting their goals. I’m just bugged by the lack of information here.”
“Aye, Sir.”
“Clear skies, T’ari. We’ll see you soon.”
“Yes, Sir.”
-*-
USS Sheldon Richman, Akira Class, Fulcrum Region
Satelsk raised an eyebrow “Most unusual.”
“I’m sorry, sir. This is a known risk of traveling on a Starfleet ship. We’ll get you to your next stop as soon as we resolve this problem.” T’ari said.
“Of course,” Satelsk said “We will continue our preparations. Please keep me informed.”
“Yes, Sir.”
-*-
In a briefing room, Jak Midnight briefed the Richman’s crew. “This is the Azzic House.”
An Orion ship appeared on the screen. The scan was very good. “They are a small transport, smuggler, and adventure ship,” The lines of the ship were swoopy.
“Our person of interest was sighted with the crew at the Fulcrum ten days ago. They seem to have joined the crew of the Azzic House.”
The screen showed an image of a group of people at Fulcrum Station—orions and humans. One being was highlighted: a gray humanoid of indeterminate gender. “This is MMM.”
“MMM?” T’ari asked, “Isn’t one of your colony worlds named MMM?”
Midnight nodded “Yes, this person is from that world. We don’t know how this person evaded us and ended up on the Azzic House. We want to return them to MMM, the planet.”
T’ari said, “What crime is this MMM individual implicated in?”
Midnight said, “None that we are aware of. They do not appear on the Orion bounty list. Some of the crew does. We want to get MMM back home before things spiral out of control.”
“Playing tourist with pirates is a bad idea, but if MMM hasn’t broken the law, what’s our grounds to take them into custody?” Tarah asked.
“There are national security implications,” Midnight said, “I’d prefer not to disclose more about that at this time.”
T’ari said, “I’ve been ordered to assist you. I’ll help you locate this MMM person, but we won’t force anyone to go anywhere.”
Midnight sighed “If we find MMM, we can discuss it then.”
“May I read the rest of the file?” Esta asked
Midnight hesitated for a fraction of a second and said, “Sure, let me clean some things up in it, and I’ll get it to you.”
T'ari O'Keefe - MMM
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jayphailey
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Re: T'ari O'Keefe - MMM
MMM Part 2
The Fulcrum
Amuza, Green Orion Woman, Current assignment USS Purplevania
Amuza walked into the brightly lit replimat near the main sickbay.
There were her targets. Two traveling doctors, making some extra energy credits pulling shifts in the station’s infirmary.
Doctor Alloa was a tall, Golden Orion man with light-colored hair. Doctor Ran was a short, slim Golden Orion woman with an aquiline nose, black hair, and piercing black eyes.
They were both on the bounty list for crimes against national security on Calas Prime, so Amuza liked them already.
They spotted her approaching but didn’t make a scene.
“Greetings,” Amuza said. “I’m here to bribe you and make all of our lives easier.”
“Somehow, I doubt that,” Dr Alloa said.
“Let me set the predicate,” Amuza said “Starfleet has been put on the trail of the Azzic House.”
Alloa and Ran glanced at each other.
“They want the gray person named MMM.”
Alloa and Ran looked at her “MMM is the only one on the ship without a bounty on their head,” Alloa said.
“The Arzalans are uptight about them,” Amuza said “So Starfleet is willing to shower you with gold-pressed latinum to facilitate turning over MMM safely.”
“It doesn’t work like that, and you know it,” Ran said.
“Yeah, but if it did, it would make everything easier,” Amuza said “How about information?”
“What sort of information?” Alloa asked.
“Where is the Azzic House going?”
Alloa nodded thoughtfully “I have no idea.”
Ran asked, “How do you feel about the Blue Mane Clan?”
“I have no idea. I haven’t booked up on them,” Amuza said
Ran asked: “How do you feel about the Second El-Aurian Empire?”
“Same answer, really.”
“How do you feel about archaeology?”
“Oh, I’ve had some fun in the field. It’s not really my thing, but my friends get excited about it.”
Ran said, “I’ve got to talk to a guy, Meet us in the Atrium in about an hour. Side Alpha, the Orange Fern Bar.”
Amuza nodded “Good doing business with you,” She held up a small device “Give me your comm codes so we can pretend we’re hooking up.”
Alloa looked at Amuza “She is my partner. I’m not interested in an outside fling.”
Amuza smiled brilliantly “I’m propositioning both of you, silly. Anyone can see how bonded you are across the room.”
Ran looked at Alloa with a mischievous smile.
Alloa almost broke cover, but recovered and smiled happily at Ran “Not on your life,” he said.
Amuza grinned “Right, I’ll see you at the appointed place.”
-*-
An hour later, Amuza and Eva were in the Orange Fern bar, drinking the silliest drinks they could find on the menu. Eva was a human woman, the Security chief of the USS Purplevania.
Four people walked into the room, three Orions and a Human. Drs Ran and Alloa were among them. Amuza waved them over.
“Hello,” Amuza said “This is my pimp, Eva.”
Eva gave Amuza an “Oh, come on” look.
Alloa pointed at the third Orion “This is Lan Margo,” Margo was an older man, in a nice suit that Amuza thought looked a little old-fashioned. He could be selling real estate or announcing news on a screen.
“And this is Toxi Imsok,” A human woman with curly black hair. She was dressed in a shapeless coverall with pockets with tools.
Imsok looked at Eva “Drinking on duty, Starfleet?”
Eva nodded slightly “It’s called staying in character, please sit.”
Lan Margo said, “My associates tell me you have a proposition for us.”
Amuza grinned merrily “Perhaps after business.”
Lan blinked and let that roll past. “We’re disturbed by the idea that Starfleet has focused on MMM. MMM is a nice person. Not really part of The Life. MMM is a tourist in our realm.”
“My understanding is that the goal is to assure that MMM returns safely.”
“What about the rest of the crew?”
“We want to have a good interaction and not leave them feeling used or abused.”
“What do you know of the Blue Mane Clan?”
“I read some while we were waiting. A local off-shoot of the Lion Clan. Pirates.”
Margo nodded, “Okay, and the rest?”
“The Second El-Aurian Empire covered this region of space until they changed into the 3rd Empire and began pulling back.”
“Let’s talk price,” Margo said. He named a heart-stopping amount of GPL.
Eva smiled “Orion humor. I’ll never get it because I’m not paying those prices.”
“What’s your counter-offer?”
The rest watched while Lan Margo and Eva Bahoora negotiated their way towards the middle.
They arrived at an amount of gold-pressed latinum that Amuza found excessive. But Starfleet liked to lavishly overpay for information. It encouraged informants to bring information next time.
“We got word of a Second El-Aurian Empire planet, Manriet III. The accounts are unreliable, but it seems the world was abandoned shortly before the Second Empire ended. The Blue Mane Clan are blockading it, looting it for themselves, and charging treasure hunters for access to the place.”
“The damage to the actual Archaeology is terrible,” Ran said bitterly.
Alloa and Imsok nodded sadly.
“The Azzic House is heading there to slip through the blockade and try to rescue some artifacts for ourselves,” Largo said.
Amuza nodded “Okay,”
Lan Margo just secured a pay day for the Azzic House no matter what they found on Manriet III. Not too shabby. And it explained their willingness to negotiate. Money in hand now versus what they might get from possible artifacts.
“Why did you stay behind?” Eva said
“To limit the exposure, and to facilitate a rescue mission if necessary.”
“How did you figure to arrange a rescue mission if something went wrong?” Eva asked.
“We’d probably have to call Starfleet or something,” Margo said.
Eva grinned “Okay.”
The Gold Pressed Latinum held at a nearby bank had its ownership transferred to the company of the Azzic House.
-*-
USS Sheldon Richman, Akira Class, BuCubbin Nebula
The Sheldon Richman was just outside the BuCubbin nebula. Orion ships used it as cover to shake Federation sensors. Dive in, become invisible, change your drive signature, and exit at a random time at a random location. They were scanning for the Azzic House’s plasma trail.
Esta reported, “ Our friends on the Purplevania have come through. They had to bribe lavishly, but they know where Azzic House is.”
“Okay, where?”
“A planet called Manriet III,” Esta said, reading her message on her control panel “The world is being blockaded by a group called the Blue Mane Clan.”
“Helm, set course and engage for Manriet III,”
“Aye, Sir,” Esta said
-*-
The Fulcrum
Amuza, Green Orion Woman, Current assignment USS Purplevania
Amuza walked into the brightly lit replimat near the main sickbay.
There were her targets. Two traveling doctors, making some extra energy credits pulling shifts in the station’s infirmary.
Doctor Alloa was a tall, Golden Orion man with light-colored hair. Doctor Ran was a short, slim Golden Orion woman with an aquiline nose, black hair, and piercing black eyes.
They were both on the bounty list for crimes against national security on Calas Prime, so Amuza liked them already.
They spotted her approaching but didn’t make a scene.
“Greetings,” Amuza said. “I’m here to bribe you and make all of our lives easier.”
“Somehow, I doubt that,” Dr Alloa said.
“Let me set the predicate,” Amuza said “Starfleet has been put on the trail of the Azzic House.”
Alloa and Ran glanced at each other.
“They want the gray person named MMM.”
Alloa and Ran looked at her “MMM is the only one on the ship without a bounty on their head,” Alloa said.
“The Arzalans are uptight about them,” Amuza said “So Starfleet is willing to shower you with gold-pressed latinum to facilitate turning over MMM safely.”
“It doesn’t work like that, and you know it,” Ran said.
“Yeah, but if it did, it would make everything easier,” Amuza said “How about information?”
“What sort of information?” Alloa asked.
“Where is the Azzic House going?”
Alloa nodded thoughtfully “I have no idea.”
Ran asked, “How do you feel about the Blue Mane Clan?”
“I have no idea. I haven’t booked up on them,” Amuza said
Ran asked: “How do you feel about the Second El-Aurian Empire?”
“Same answer, really.”
“How do you feel about archaeology?”
“Oh, I’ve had some fun in the field. It’s not really my thing, but my friends get excited about it.”
Ran said, “I’ve got to talk to a guy, Meet us in the Atrium in about an hour. Side Alpha, the Orange Fern Bar.”
Amuza nodded “Good doing business with you,” She held up a small device “Give me your comm codes so we can pretend we’re hooking up.”
Alloa looked at Amuza “She is my partner. I’m not interested in an outside fling.”
Amuza smiled brilliantly “I’m propositioning both of you, silly. Anyone can see how bonded you are across the room.”
Ran looked at Alloa with a mischievous smile.
Alloa almost broke cover, but recovered and smiled happily at Ran “Not on your life,” he said.
Amuza grinned “Right, I’ll see you at the appointed place.”
-*-
An hour later, Amuza and Eva were in the Orange Fern bar, drinking the silliest drinks they could find on the menu. Eva was a human woman, the Security chief of the USS Purplevania.
Four people walked into the room, three Orions and a Human. Drs Ran and Alloa were among them. Amuza waved them over.
“Hello,” Amuza said “This is my pimp, Eva.”
Eva gave Amuza an “Oh, come on” look.
Alloa pointed at the third Orion “This is Lan Margo,” Margo was an older man, in a nice suit that Amuza thought looked a little old-fashioned. He could be selling real estate or announcing news on a screen.
“And this is Toxi Imsok,” A human woman with curly black hair. She was dressed in a shapeless coverall with pockets with tools.
Imsok looked at Eva “Drinking on duty, Starfleet?”
Eva nodded slightly “It’s called staying in character, please sit.”
Lan Margo said, “My associates tell me you have a proposition for us.”
Amuza grinned merrily “Perhaps after business.”
Lan blinked and let that roll past. “We’re disturbed by the idea that Starfleet has focused on MMM. MMM is a nice person. Not really part of The Life. MMM is a tourist in our realm.”
“My understanding is that the goal is to assure that MMM returns safely.”
“What about the rest of the crew?”
“We want to have a good interaction and not leave them feeling used or abused.”
“What do you know of the Blue Mane Clan?”
“I read some while we were waiting. A local off-shoot of the Lion Clan. Pirates.”
Margo nodded, “Okay, and the rest?”
“The Second El-Aurian Empire covered this region of space until they changed into the 3rd Empire and began pulling back.”
“Let’s talk price,” Margo said. He named a heart-stopping amount of GPL.
Eva smiled “Orion humor. I’ll never get it because I’m not paying those prices.”
“What’s your counter-offer?”
The rest watched while Lan Margo and Eva Bahoora negotiated their way towards the middle.
They arrived at an amount of gold-pressed latinum that Amuza found excessive. But Starfleet liked to lavishly overpay for information. It encouraged informants to bring information next time.
“We got word of a Second El-Aurian Empire planet, Manriet III. The accounts are unreliable, but it seems the world was abandoned shortly before the Second Empire ended. The Blue Mane Clan are blockading it, looting it for themselves, and charging treasure hunters for access to the place.”
“The damage to the actual Archaeology is terrible,” Ran said bitterly.
Alloa and Imsok nodded sadly.
“The Azzic House is heading there to slip through the blockade and try to rescue some artifacts for ourselves,” Largo said.
Amuza nodded “Okay,”
Lan Margo just secured a pay day for the Azzic House no matter what they found on Manriet III. Not too shabby. And it explained their willingness to negotiate. Money in hand now versus what they might get from possible artifacts.
“Why did you stay behind?” Eva said
“To limit the exposure, and to facilitate a rescue mission if necessary.”
“How did you figure to arrange a rescue mission if something went wrong?” Eva asked.
“We’d probably have to call Starfleet or something,” Margo said.
Eva grinned “Okay.”
The Gold Pressed Latinum held at a nearby bank had its ownership transferred to the company of the Azzic House.
-*-
USS Sheldon Richman, Akira Class, BuCubbin Nebula
The Sheldon Richman was just outside the BuCubbin nebula. Orion ships used it as cover to shake Federation sensors. Dive in, become invisible, change your drive signature, and exit at a random time at a random location. They were scanning for the Azzic House’s plasma trail.
Esta reported, “ Our friends on the Purplevania have come through. They had to bribe lavishly, but they know where Azzic House is.”
“Okay, where?”
“A planet called Manriet III,” Esta said, reading her message on her control panel “The world is being blockaded by a group called the Blue Mane Clan.”
“Helm, set course and engage for Manriet III,”
“Aye, Sir,” Esta said
-*-
Re: T'ari O'Keefe - MMM
noun: predicate; plural noun: predicatesjayphailey wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2025 5:08 amMMM Part 2
“Let me set the predicate,” Amuza said “Starfleet has been put on the trail of the Azzic House.”
-*-
/ˈpredəkət/
the part of a sentence or clause containing a verb and stating something about the subject (e.g., went home in John went home ).
predicament
Are you looking for predicament?
-- The Innkeeper
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jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: T'ari O'Keefe - MMM
Perhaps the word "Premise" would work better there
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jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: T'ari O'Keefe - MMM
Second one, second definition - "Found or base something on"
Amuza approaches Ran and Alloa to begin negotiating for information but must establish that there is something for Ran and Alloa to gain, I.E. Managing The Federation's Involvement. It's the predicate for the negotiation.
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
pred·i·cate
nounGrammar
/ˈpredəkət/
the part of a sentence or clause containing a verb and stating something about the subject (e.g., went home in John went home ).
"predicate adjective"
verb
/ˈpredəˌkāt/
1.
Grammar•Logic
state, affirm, or assert (something) about the subject of a sentence or an argument of a proposition.
"a word that predicates something about its subject"
2.
found or base something on.
"the theory of structure on which later chemistry was predicated"
Amuza approaches Ran and Alloa to begin negotiating for information but must establish that there is something for Ran and Alloa to gain, I.E. Managing The Federation's Involvement. It's the predicate for the negotiation.
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
pred·i·cate
nounGrammar
/ˈpredəkət/
the part of a sentence or clause containing a verb and stating something about the subject (e.g., went home in John went home ).
"predicate adjective"
verb
/ˈpredəˌkāt/
1.
Grammar•Logic
state, affirm, or assert (something) about the subject of a sentence or an argument of a proposition.
"a word that predicates something about its subject"
2.
found or base something on.
"the theory of structure on which later chemistry was predicated"
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jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: T'ari O'Keefe - MMM
MMM Part 3
USS Sheldon Richman, Manriet III System
The USS Sheldon Richman dropped out of warp near an unremarkable yellow star and approached on impulse dives.
“That’s odd,” Taisha said.
“What’s going on?” Tarah asked.
“Subspace disturbances near the planet. I’ve never seen anything like this.” Taisha said.
“On screen,” T’ari said
Taisha overlaid a graphic representation of the arcane sensor readings over the visual image of the planet they were approaching. Subspace roiled, almost looking like it was boiling.
T’ari tilted her head at the screen “What could cause that?”
Taisha shook her head “No idea. Nothing is matching in the database.”
“The energy for that is coming from somewhere,” T’ari said.
“Agreed, but right now, I have no idea where.”
Esta, the Tellarite helmswoman, said, “I have visual contact with an Orion salvager-type cruiser. There are signals that might be cloaked ships, but it's hard to tell with the subspace interference.”
“Yellow alert, hail the Orion ship,” T’ari said.
The screen showed a golden Orion man with a full beard and rumpled clothing “Aaawww great, a Green,” he sneered “This planet’s ours, Starfleet. Fuck off. We claim it.”
“We can discuss that later. We’re after a ship called the Azzic House.”
“Never heard of her,”
T’ari called up the image of the raider they had “Looks like this.”
“Even if we saw that ship, the people in it are worth money to us. We don’t feel like sharing.”
“We’re after the one person in crew who doesn’t have a bounty on their head. A gray person called MMM.”
“Don’t care. You can fuck off.”
“Whatever this weird subspace thing you’re doing isn’t going to help. Go ahead and drop the interference field so I can retrieve my folks and go.”
The Orion Captain squinted at her “This is your subspace weirdness, Starfleet. It only appeared when you got close. One of your weird super weapons.”
Esta typed a message on her panel that appeared on T’ari’s control panel.
“We’re not mounting anything like that today. We can see the other four ships you have cloaked. Rest assured, you don’t have the firepower to get through our shields.” T’ari said.
The Orion captain glared. On a side screen, T’ari could see the Salvage class cruiser. It had the odd flat Orion boat body but the warp drives were at the end of each wing on each side. The rear of the ship was more open for cargo and other functions. Some such ships had tow pads for making off with cargo containers. Others had mobile repair and resupply equipment to support raiding ships on a longer run. This particular ship had an interesting blue flame paint job extending back from the nose with eyes on the front.
“I’m still asserting my claim here, Starfleet.”
“I’m going to enter orbit and look for my people. If you behave rationally, this will end with minimal expense to you. If you’re irrational, then the repair bills will be yours.”
The Orion Captain looked at his control panel “You have quite the bounty on your head. Someone wants you guys badly.”
“You’re going to need bigger ships to take a run at us.”
The Orion sighed “Okay. Today’s not my day, Starfleet. But you haven’t heard the last of the Blue Mane. I’m Jephus Conzral. We’ll talk again.”
“I’m T’ari O’Keefe. I prefer talking to fighting,”
The Orion got a little flustered “No, I mean…”
T’ari held up her hand “It was a threat, I read you. Seriously, I’d prefer talking to fighting. Give it some thought.”
“Ghhaaaaa,” The Orion cut the channel.
“Continue into polar orbit. Begin scans for the Azzic House.”
“The interference will limit our sensors.”
“Do the best you can.”
-*-
As the Starfleet ship entered orbit and began scanning, the Orion ships decloaked. The Salvager, a cruiser and three light raiders. They took up a higher orbit and watched the Starfleet ship work.
-*-
“The planet shows ruins. From the decay and erosion, it looks about the right age for what the records show of the Second El-Aurian Empire,” Taisha said.
“Any sign of the Azzic House, yet?”
“Not yet. But I am seeing shuttles and small ships on the ground. Five of them so far. They’re cold, with enough warmth to suggest auxiliary power. We’re not seeing people.”
“That’s disconcerting,”
“It is.”
USS Sheldon Richman, Manriet III System
The USS Sheldon Richman dropped out of warp near an unremarkable yellow star and approached on impulse dives.
“That’s odd,” Taisha said.
“What’s going on?” Tarah asked.
“Subspace disturbances near the planet. I’ve never seen anything like this.” Taisha said.
“On screen,” T’ari said
Taisha overlaid a graphic representation of the arcane sensor readings over the visual image of the planet they were approaching. Subspace roiled, almost looking like it was boiling.
T’ari tilted her head at the screen “What could cause that?”
Taisha shook her head “No idea. Nothing is matching in the database.”
“The energy for that is coming from somewhere,” T’ari said.
“Agreed, but right now, I have no idea where.”
Esta, the Tellarite helmswoman, said, “I have visual contact with an Orion salvager-type cruiser. There are signals that might be cloaked ships, but it's hard to tell with the subspace interference.”
“Yellow alert, hail the Orion ship,” T’ari said.
The screen showed a golden Orion man with a full beard and rumpled clothing “Aaawww great, a Green,” he sneered “This planet’s ours, Starfleet. Fuck off. We claim it.”
“We can discuss that later. We’re after a ship called the Azzic House.”
“Never heard of her,”
T’ari called up the image of the raider they had “Looks like this.”
“Even if we saw that ship, the people in it are worth money to us. We don’t feel like sharing.”
“We’re after the one person in crew who doesn’t have a bounty on their head. A gray person called MMM.”
“Don’t care. You can fuck off.”
“Whatever this weird subspace thing you’re doing isn’t going to help. Go ahead and drop the interference field so I can retrieve my folks and go.”
The Orion Captain squinted at her “This is your subspace weirdness, Starfleet. It only appeared when you got close. One of your weird super weapons.”
Esta typed a message on her panel that appeared on T’ari’s control panel.
“We’re not mounting anything like that today. We can see the other four ships you have cloaked. Rest assured, you don’t have the firepower to get through our shields.” T’ari said.
The Orion captain glared. On a side screen, T’ari could see the Salvage class cruiser. It had the odd flat Orion boat body but the warp drives were at the end of each wing on each side. The rear of the ship was more open for cargo and other functions. Some such ships had tow pads for making off with cargo containers. Others had mobile repair and resupply equipment to support raiding ships on a longer run. This particular ship had an interesting blue flame paint job extending back from the nose with eyes on the front.
“I’m still asserting my claim here, Starfleet.”
“I’m going to enter orbit and look for my people. If you behave rationally, this will end with minimal expense to you. If you’re irrational, then the repair bills will be yours.”
The Orion Captain looked at his control panel “You have quite the bounty on your head. Someone wants you guys badly.”
“You’re going to need bigger ships to take a run at us.”
The Orion sighed “Okay. Today’s not my day, Starfleet. But you haven’t heard the last of the Blue Mane. I’m Jephus Conzral. We’ll talk again.”
“I’m T’ari O’Keefe. I prefer talking to fighting,”
The Orion got a little flustered “No, I mean…”
T’ari held up her hand “It was a threat, I read you. Seriously, I’d prefer talking to fighting. Give it some thought.”
“Ghhaaaaa,” The Orion cut the channel.
“Continue into polar orbit. Begin scans for the Azzic House.”
“The interference will limit our sensors.”
“Do the best you can.”
-*-
As the Starfleet ship entered orbit and began scanning, the Orion ships decloaked. The Salvager, a cruiser and three light raiders. They took up a higher orbit and watched the Starfleet ship work.
-*-
“The planet shows ruins. From the decay and erosion, it looks about the right age for what the records show of the Second El-Aurian Empire,” Taisha said.
“Any sign of the Azzic House, yet?”
“Not yet. But I am seeing shuttles and small ships on the ground. Five of them so far. They’re cold, with enough warmth to suggest auxiliary power. We’re not seeing people.”
“That’s disconcerting,”
“It is.”
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: T'ari O'Keefe - MMM
MMM Part 4
USS Sheldon Richman, In orbit, Manriet III
“We have a ship that looks like the Azzic House. It’s shut down. “
“Any life signs?”
“There’s too much interference for our usual sensors. Visual scanning shows none, but we’re seeing artifacts from the Azzic House and the other landed ships. Looks like normal equipment dropped haphazardly around each one.”
T’ari gently scratched her jawline, “I suppose transporters are blocked, too?”
“They are.”
“Okay, Tarah, Esta, I want you to grab a quad of Security, take two shuttles down, and investigate. Alter your equipment to account for the subspace interference. Find our folks, or find out what happened, and then get the hell out of there.”
Tarah nodded “Aye, Sir.”
“Take two of those type-14’s we got. They’re the most up to date.”
Esta smiled “I’ve been wanting to take one of those out.”
-*-
As the Security people kittted up, Jak Midnight approached Tarah “Have you found MMM?”
“We can’t say yet.”
“I’d like to go with you,” Midnight said.
“This might get dangerous, and we don’t know you,” Tarah said.
“I’ll carry my weight. Getting MMM back safe is my job.”
Esta checked the charge and setting on her portable phaser cannon “It’s always someone’s first time, Commander.”
Tarah said, “If you put any of my people in danger, I’ll stun you, and you can ride home in an equipment locker.”
“Agreed.”
The security quads finished putting on their armor and checking their weapons.
“Like old times,” Tarah thought. It wasn’t comforting.
-*-
The subspace interference made the ride down rougher than it had to be. Many of the shuttles’ systems depended on subspace fields to work. The interference altered and shifted the subspace fields made by the equipment. This made the shuttles feel like they were swaying and going up and down hills. It was a rough ride.
The shuttles depended on anti-gravity for lift and directional control so the subspace interference made that much more approximate than they were used to.
When they landed and opened the rear hatches, Esta emerged grinning. She liked a piloting challenge. She liked most challenges.
The sun was lowering in the west. The air smelled of hot metal from the shuttles and the desert.
Fanning out, they could see ruins. After almost two thousand years, the ruins were mounds and occasional concrete pieces with straight edges or ninety-degree angles.
There were two ships down on what used to be a street, one was the Azzic House. The other was an Orion shuttlecraft.
Both were open. Tarah went and looked at the Orion shuttle. It had a tail gate, like the type 6 and type 8 shuttles. There were tracks in the dirt. Stuff was thrown around. People moved quickly but chaotically.
There was some green blood and drag marks that ended in nothing.
Esta, some distance away picked up a throwing knife and held it up “They didn’t go without a fight.”
“It doesn’t seem to have done them much good,” Tarah said.
The shuttle showed some damage. But was odd. Score marks on the hull. Damage to control panels. Like someone hacked them with an axe or something.
The security folks formed a loose ring facing outward and watching for trouble.
Tarah took out her tricorder and scanned. There were tunnels beneath them. The subspace interference limited the range of her scans, but it seemed like there might be life signs inside the tunnel.
“That way,” Tarah pointed towards the ancient entrance. Some forgotten subway, maybe.
“Oh, good,” one of the Security people said “Caves. Love ‘em.”
“Let’s get our people,” Tarah said.
-*-
Esta and Ohjoss led the way into the entrance. Ancient stairs were hinted at beneath a layer of dirt.
As they got to the bottom of the sloping entrance into the tunnels, a voice said, “You’re going to want to drop your weapons and gear.”
Esta and Ohjoss whipped around and pinned an Orion woman in their flashlights. “Don’t shoot, morons, you’ll just set it off sooner.”
She was thin and acetic looking. Her eyes were half wild and half excited in a way that Tarah found disconcerting.
“Dr. Won? Doctor Losma Won?” Midnight asked
“Correct. Drop your gear. They’re attracted by subspace fields. They’ll home in on your gear. They come from every direction. Too many to fight effectively.”
Tarah and Esta looked at each other.
“The Orions in the shuttle didn’t believe me. You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Dr Won’s eyes got a little more manic. “It’ll just be more statistical confirmation for my hypothesis.”
Somewhere, there was an unearthly howling.
Tarah made a quick decision “Drop it. Drop everything.”
“On the say so of a pirate?” Midnight asked.
“Look at her. But don’t take too long.”
Tarah began turning off her gear and dropping it on the floor.
Everyone began following suit.
Midnight realized what Tarah meant. Dr Won had her clothes, and a knife. Nothing else on her.
He turned off his phaser and put it on the floor.
“Tarah to Richman, we’ve made contact, but there’s something down here hunting subspace signals. We’ll have to adjust our approach.”
The howling noise was outside the entrance of the tunnel.
“Will contact later!” Tarah through her commbadge on the floor next to her rifle.
“Stand back,” Dr. Won said.
They backed up to the walls
Two holes ripped open in space. The edges of the holes looked like white lightning. They were on opposite sides of the pile of gear. The breaches howled a sort of uluating tone that went up and down, but never stopped. Something on the other side was adding other noises, inhuman screams, and howls.
Tentacles darted out. They were hard to see clearly, segmented and sort of shiny. Claws on the end. Each one was slightly different. They grabbed the gear on the floor greedily and whipped back, taking phasers, communicators and tricorders back through the holes.
More tentacles came out and started casting around, as if looking or smelling.
“If you have anything technological, give it to them!” Dr Won called “They’ll take you with it. I haven’t seen anyone return.”
Ohjoss started yelling, “Oh fuck! Oh fuck!” And fumbled for something. Several of the other security folks did the same.
Hold out weapons, back up communicators. Hidden tricks and gadgets. Everyone had something. Tarah didn’t, but that was because she was working on simplifying herself in landing parties. Her people threw more gear into the center of the room. Tentacles grabbed each piece and whipped back into the breach to be replaced by more tentacles. Tarah couldn’t tell if it was different tentacles each time or the same set of things coming back and forth.
One of the tentacles reached out and grabbed Doros Othrom, an Andorian woman around her ankle. “I have a tracker under my armor!” She screamed.
The tentacle yanked, and she went down. The rest of her quad grabbed her.
Atringa, a half Klingon woman of the other quad drew a Mek’leth and chopped at the tentacle. The short sword made a metallic “tink!” noise against the tentacle “It’s armored!” Atringa snarled.
“AAAAHH! Doros screamed. The tentacle was pulling her into the strange breach. Three large people were pulling back.
Tarah grabbed the tentacle just below where it had Doros and pulled with all her might, accomplishing very little.
More tentacles came out of the breach and flailed. One hit Atringa solidly, knocking her away from where she was hacking at the tentacle.
Esta yelled and lept on the tentacle, trying to bite it.
Tarah turned back towards Doros. She took her own knife out of its sheath and began methodically cutting away at Doros armor. If she could free up the device, maybe that would mollify the tentacle.
Everyone was yelling, shouting and screaming. Tarah knew she should be ordering a more organized resistance, but she was in shock. It was so quick and so scary. All of their normal reactions were gone with their weapons.
Tentacles began slapping away the security people holding Doros. They began to lose ground.
“NO!” Doros screamed “NO NO NO NO!”
Something like metal covered in moist leather hit Tarah in the face hard and she went down.
Tarah rolled over and tried to recover enough to get back into the fight. Doros and Ohjoss were dragged across the floor towards the breach. At the last moment, Ohjoss let go. Atringa, the Klingon lept on Doros, and they were pulled into the breach, screaming and fighting.
The breaches all closed, leaving darkness and people groaning or yelling. The lack of the strange howling was almost physical.
Tarah stood and called, “Rally! Rally here!” Her crew, spurned to coherent action got up and moved towards her. Tarah could see blood on many of her crew, Esta had taken a serious blow to the face, and was bleeding. Some were moving poorly, injured in the fight.
Tarah turned towards Dr Won “Where are your people holed up?”
Dr. Won said, “Make sure you carry nothing technological. There’s no safe haven that we have found. The only defense is to be organic. They don’t seem interested in flesh and blood.”
They moved further into the tunnels.
USS Sheldon Richman, In orbit, Manriet III
“We have a ship that looks like the Azzic House. It’s shut down. “
“Any life signs?”
“There’s too much interference for our usual sensors. Visual scanning shows none, but we’re seeing artifacts from the Azzic House and the other landed ships. Looks like normal equipment dropped haphazardly around each one.”
T’ari gently scratched her jawline, “I suppose transporters are blocked, too?”
“They are.”
“Okay, Tarah, Esta, I want you to grab a quad of Security, take two shuttles down, and investigate. Alter your equipment to account for the subspace interference. Find our folks, or find out what happened, and then get the hell out of there.”
Tarah nodded “Aye, Sir.”
“Take two of those type-14’s we got. They’re the most up to date.”
Esta smiled “I’ve been wanting to take one of those out.”
-*-
As the Security people kittted up, Jak Midnight approached Tarah “Have you found MMM?”
“We can’t say yet.”
“I’d like to go with you,” Midnight said.
“This might get dangerous, and we don’t know you,” Tarah said.
“I’ll carry my weight. Getting MMM back safe is my job.”
Esta checked the charge and setting on her portable phaser cannon “It’s always someone’s first time, Commander.”
Tarah said, “If you put any of my people in danger, I’ll stun you, and you can ride home in an equipment locker.”
“Agreed.”
The security quads finished putting on their armor and checking their weapons.
“Like old times,” Tarah thought. It wasn’t comforting.
-*-
The subspace interference made the ride down rougher than it had to be. Many of the shuttles’ systems depended on subspace fields to work. The interference altered and shifted the subspace fields made by the equipment. This made the shuttles feel like they were swaying and going up and down hills. It was a rough ride.
The shuttles depended on anti-gravity for lift and directional control so the subspace interference made that much more approximate than they were used to.
When they landed and opened the rear hatches, Esta emerged grinning. She liked a piloting challenge. She liked most challenges.
The sun was lowering in the west. The air smelled of hot metal from the shuttles and the desert.
Fanning out, they could see ruins. After almost two thousand years, the ruins were mounds and occasional concrete pieces with straight edges or ninety-degree angles.
There were two ships down on what used to be a street, one was the Azzic House. The other was an Orion shuttlecraft.
Both were open. Tarah went and looked at the Orion shuttle. It had a tail gate, like the type 6 and type 8 shuttles. There were tracks in the dirt. Stuff was thrown around. People moved quickly but chaotically.
There was some green blood and drag marks that ended in nothing.
Esta, some distance away picked up a throwing knife and held it up “They didn’t go without a fight.”
“It doesn’t seem to have done them much good,” Tarah said.
The shuttle showed some damage. But was odd. Score marks on the hull. Damage to control panels. Like someone hacked them with an axe or something.
The security folks formed a loose ring facing outward and watching for trouble.
Tarah took out her tricorder and scanned. There were tunnels beneath them. The subspace interference limited the range of her scans, but it seemed like there might be life signs inside the tunnel.
“That way,” Tarah pointed towards the ancient entrance. Some forgotten subway, maybe.
“Oh, good,” one of the Security people said “Caves. Love ‘em.”
“Let’s get our people,” Tarah said.
-*-
Esta and Ohjoss led the way into the entrance. Ancient stairs were hinted at beneath a layer of dirt.
As they got to the bottom of the sloping entrance into the tunnels, a voice said, “You’re going to want to drop your weapons and gear.”
Esta and Ohjoss whipped around and pinned an Orion woman in their flashlights. “Don’t shoot, morons, you’ll just set it off sooner.”
She was thin and acetic looking. Her eyes were half wild and half excited in a way that Tarah found disconcerting.
“Dr. Won? Doctor Losma Won?” Midnight asked
“Correct. Drop your gear. They’re attracted by subspace fields. They’ll home in on your gear. They come from every direction. Too many to fight effectively.”
Tarah and Esta looked at each other.
“The Orions in the shuttle didn’t believe me. You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Dr Won’s eyes got a little more manic. “It’ll just be more statistical confirmation for my hypothesis.”
Somewhere, there was an unearthly howling.
Tarah made a quick decision “Drop it. Drop everything.”
“On the say so of a pirate?” Midnight asked.
“Look at her. But don’t take too long.”
Tarah began turning off her gear and dropping it on the floor.
Everyone began following suit.
Midnight realized what Tarah meant. Dr Won had her clothes, and a knife. Nothing else on her.
He turned off his phaser and put it on the floor.
“Tarah to Richman, we’ve made contact, but there’s something down here hunting subspace signals. We’ll have to adjust our approach.”
The howling noise was outside the entrance of the tunnel.
“Will contact later!” Tarah through her commbadge on the floor next to her rifle.
“Stand back,” Dr. Won said.
They backed up to the walls
Two holes ripped open in space. The edges of the holes looked like white lightning. They were on opposite sides of the pile of gear. The breaches howled a sort of uluating tone that went up and down, but never stopped. Something on the other side was adding other noises, inhuman screams, and howls.
Tentacles darted out. They were hard to see clearly, segmented and sort of shiny. Claws on the end. Each one was slightly different. They grabbed the gear on the floor greedily and whipped back, taking phasers, communicators and tricorders back through the holes.
More tentacles came out and started casting around, as if looking or smelling.
“If you have anything technological, give it to them!” Dr Won called “They’ll take you with it. I haven’t seen anyone return.”
Ohjoss started yelling, “Oh fuck! Oh fuck!” And fumbled for something. Several of the other security folks did the same.
Hold out weapons, back up communicators. Hidden tricks and gadgets. Everyone had something. Tarah didn’t, but that was because she was working on simplifying herself in landing parties. Her people threw more gear into the center of the room. Tentacles grabbed each piece and whipped back into the breach to be replaced by more tentacles. Tarah couldn’t tell if it was different tentacles each time or the same set of things coming back and forth.
One of the tentacles reached out and grabbed Doros Othrom, an Andorian woman around her ankle. “I have a tracker under my armor!” She screamed.
The tentacle yanked, and she went down. The rest of her quad grabbed her.
Atringa, a half Klingon woman of the other quad drew a Mek’leth and chopped at the tentacle. The short sword made a metallic “tink!” noise against the tentacle “It’s armored!” Atringa snarled.
“AAAAHH! Doros screamed. The tentacle was pulling her into the strange breach. Three large people were pulling back.
Tarah grabbed the tentacle just below where it had Doros and pulled with all her might, accomplishing very little.
More tentacles came out of the breach and flailed. One hit Atringa solidly, knocking her away from where she was hacking at the tentacle.
Esta yelled and lept on the tentacle, trying to bite it.
Tarah turned back towards Doros. She took her own knife out of its sheath and began methodically cutting away at Doros armor. If she could free up the device, maybe that would mollify the tentacle.
Everyone was yelling, shouting and screaming. Tarah knew she should be ordering a more organized resistance, but she was in shock. It was so quick and so scary. All of their normal reactions were gone with their weapons.
Tentacles began slapping away the security people holding Doros. They began to lose ground.
“NO!” Doros screamed “NO NO NO NO!”
Something like metal covered in moist leather hit Tarah in the face hard and she went down.
Tarah rolled over and tried to recover enough to get back into the fight. Doros and Ohjoss were dragged across the floor towards the breach. At the last moment, Ohjoss let go. Atringa, the Klingon lept on Doros, and they were pulled into the breach, screaming and fighting.
The breaches all closed, leaving darkness and people groaning or yelling. The lack of the strange howling was almost physical.
Tarah stood and called, “Rally! Rally here!” Her crew, spurned to coherent action got up and moved towards her. Tarah could see blood on many of her crew, Esta had taken a serious blow to the face, and was bleeding. Some were moving poorly, injured in the fight.
Tarah turned towards Dr Won “Where are your people holed up?”
Dr. Won said, “Make sure you carry nothing technological. There’s no safe haven that we have found. The only defense is to be organic. They don’t seem interested in flesh and blood.”
They moved further into the tunnels.
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: T'ari O'Keefe - MMM
MMM Part 5
USS Sheldon Richman, In orbit, Manriet III
“What are we looking at?” T’ari asked
“Tentacles seem to be attacking the shuttles,” Ceriar said.
The comment was unnecessary since this was clearly visible on the view screen.
“Where are they coming from?”
“If I had to guess from these readings, tears in subspace. They seem to be something existing in a different level of subspace, that can force an entrance into normal space.” Ceriar said “But this is difficult to verify. Where those breaches appear, they are screaming subspace static. Modern sensors are completely jammed. We’re doing our best with visuals and passive sensors.”
The tentacles struck at the shuttles, digging and scratching away. They were trying to get to the warp coils and other subspace gear inside the shuttles. The hull metal was too tough for them. They scratched and scored up the surface, but to no real effect. The shuttles rocked and shuddered under the hammering of the tenctacles.
The Orion shuttle and the Azzic House suffered similar assaults, but fewer tentacles. They seemed to understand that they’d already dug all the good stuff they could reach out of the older ships.
By radio waves, they watched visuals from inside the two Starfleet shuttles. The tentacles battered, dug and scratched, seeking to access the subspace coils of the shuttles equipment. They damaged the inside of the shuttle somewhat more than the outside.
A tentacle smashed a control panel and then greedily dug the guts of out of it and whipped back through its breach.
T’ari watched grimly. To get her people off the surface, they’d have to build an old-tech shuttle craft, using brute force to account for the lack of any subspace systems. She began a parts list of what they had. They’d have to cannibalize several vehicles and probes, but it was doable.
Then they’d have to create an areodynamic hull. T’ari felt she could do that quickly enough with the computer’s help. It didn’t have to be pretty. It had to be quick and it had to work.
T’ari carefully kept her brain in engineering mode to avoid thinking about her friends stranded on the planet below. It was a race against time.
-*-
The darkness wasn’t total. Breaks in the roof and elsewhere allowed some light in.
People were there
“Did you happen to bring any water or food?” A Big Golden Orion man asked.
“They were smart. They listened the first time. But they lost two, so they’ll be emotionally injured,” Dr. Won said.
“We’re sorry for your loss,” A Green woman said “We’ve lost one of our own, so far.”
“I’m Commander Tarah, from the USS Sheldon Richman. They’ll be attempting a rescue,”
“MMM, is that you?” Jak Midnight asked.
A darker figure, the gray humanoid said “I am MMM. Who are you?”
“Jak Midnight, Arzalan Security.”
“Oh,”
“You came all this way to recapture MMM?” Losma Won asked.
“We didn’t,” Tarah said “We were asked to transport Midnight. MMM isn’t wanted for any crimes. We’re not interested in the bounties you have from the Orions. If you haven’t committed any crimes against the Federation, we’re not going to arrest you.”
“I think we’re clean on the Federation side,” The man said
“What’s your name?” Tarah asked
“I’m Tahn Mos,” The man said
“Oh, Sorry,” Midnight said “Shoma, the Captain. Tahn Mos the First Officer, Noran Zaid, the Engineering officer. Where are the rest?”
Shoma said “Most of the rest of my crew is back at the Fulcrum. We lost Yba Mar.”
“Esta, Ohjoss…” Tarah went around the circle and introduced her people. The hole where Atringa and Doros should have been was raw and bleeding.
“So,” Tahn Mos said to Midnight “Was catching up to MMM worth it?”
Midnight struggled. His job was to recover MMM no matter what, but he didn’t want to say that.
“Time for that, later,” Tarah said, firmly “We’re in survival mode now. That’s the goal. Survive until the Richman rescues us. Then we can… review.”
“I suspect the tentacled intruders are more likely at night, less likely during the day,” Dr. Won said “We’ll have to observe more when the sun comes up.”
In the distance, more howls of the rifts.
Ohjoss cracked a chemical light stick and shook it, bringing some light to the chamber they found themselves in.
“Prepare to leave,” Dr Won said “I don’t know if that will attract them.”
They waited in tension to see.
-*-
T’ari was in main engineering with Finn Blill, her Bolian chief engineer. They were hashing out the specifications for a low-tech, brute-force shuttle craft that could get to the surface, pick up people, and get back into orbit without using any subspace-based technology.
The main trick was not killing the people inside. The forces in play were murderous without intertial dampeners.
Engineering people not directly involved in running the ship were gathering tools and materials in the port shuttle bay.
Creskulaban, an Aneilog exchange officer came in **Excuse me, Captain.**
“Yes, Lieutenant…. Creskulaban, was it?”
**We can get the people off the surface.**
“We who? How?”
**The Ane. We can teleport if we can see where we’re going.**
T’ari blinked “And the surface of the planet is in range for you?”
**With some help and good visuals, yes.**
“What do we need to do?”
**Don’t go to warp, Get me good cameras looking at the landing site.**
T’ari nodded “Sure, please do.”
Creskulaban said **We’ll be coming in to the starboard Shuttlebay.**
“Okay.”
Creskulaban left
“Gallagher,” T’ari called “I need you get a camera to the landing site.”
-*-
Creskulaban entered The All.
**Admiral Gensilan! I’ve got a problem here I need help with!**
The RI Ane who seemed to be the size of a planet approached Creskulaban. Creskulaban saw Admiral Hailey and the other RIs in a constellation of entities, surrounded by the stars of individual Ane, all in conversation with each other.
**Explain, please.** Gensilan said.
Creskulaban laid out the problem.
Millions of Ane observed Creskulaban’s report and agreed. Something must be done.
-*-
USS Sheldon Richman, In orbit, Manriet III
“What are we looking at?” T’ari asked
“Tentacles seem to be attacking the shuttles,” Ceriar said.
The comment was unnecessary since this was clearly visible on the view screen.
“Where are they coming from?”
“If I had to guess from these readings, tears in subspace. They seem to be something existing in a different level of subspace, that can force an entrance into normal space.” Ceriar said “But this is difficult to verify. Where those breaches appear, they are screaming subspace static. Modern sensors are completely jammed. We’re doing our best with visuals and passive sensors.”
The tentacles struck at the shuttles, digging and scratching away. They were trying to get to the warp coils and other subspace gear inside the shuttles. The hull metal was too tough for them. They scratched and scored up the surface, but to no real effect. The shuttles rocked and shuddered under the hammering of the tenctacles.
The Orion shuttle and the Azzic House suffered similar assaults, but fewer tentacles. They seemed to understand that they’d already dug all the good stuff they could reach out of the older ships.
By radio waves, they watched visuals from inside the two Starfleet shuttles. The tentacles battered, dug and scratched, seeking to access the subspace coils of the shuttles equipment. They damaged the inside of the shuttle somewhat more than the outside.
A tentacle smashed a control panel and then greedily dug the guts of out of it and whipped back through its breach.
T’ari watched grimly. To get her people off the surface, they’d have to build an old-tech shuttle craft, using brute force to account for the lack of any subspace systems. She began a parts list of what they had. They’d have to cannibalize several vehicles and probes, but it was doable.
Then they’d have to create an areodynamic hull. T’ari felt she could do that quickly enough with the computer’s help. It didn’t have to be pretty. It had to be quick and it had to work.
T’ari carefully kept her brain in engineering mode to avoid thinking about her friends stranded on the planet below. It was a race against time.
-*-
The darkness wasn’t total. Breaks in the roof and elsewhere allowed some light in.
People were there
“Did you happen to bring any water or food?” A Big Golden Orion man asked.
“They were smart. They listened the first time. But they lost two, so they’ll be emotionally injured,” Dr. Won said.
“We’re sorry for your loss,” A Green woman said “We’ve lost one of our own, so far.”
“I’m Commander Tarah, from the USS Sheldon Richman. They’ll be attempting a rescue,”
“MMM, is that you?” Jak Midnight asked.
A darker figure, the gray humanoid said “I am MMM. Who are you?”
“Jak Midnight, Arzalan Security.”
“Oh,”
“You came all this way to recapture MMM?” Losma Won asked.
“We didn’t,” Tarah said “We were asked to transport Midnight. MMM isn’t wanted for any crimes. We’re not interested in the bounties you have from the Orions. If you haven’t committed any crimes against the Federation, we’re not going to arrest you.”
“I think we’re clean on the Federation side,” The man said
“What’s your name?” Tarah asked
“I’m Tahn Mos,” The man said
“Oh, Sorry,” Midnight said “Shoma, the Captain. Tahn Mos the First Officer, Noran Zaid, the Engineering officer. Where are the rest?”
Shoma said “Most of the rest of my crew is back at the Fulcrum. We lost Yba Mar.”
“Esta, Ohjoss…” Tarah went around the circle and introduced her people. The hole where Atringa and Doros should have been was raw and bleeding.
“So,” Tahn Mos said to Midnight “Was catching up to MMM worth it?”
Midnight struggled. His job was to recover MMM no matter what, but he didn’t want to say that.
“Time for that, later,” Tarah said, firmly “We’re in survival mode now. That’s the goal. Survive until the Richman rescues us. Then we can… review.”
“I suspect the tentacled intruders are more likely at night, less likely during the day,” Dr. Won said “We’ll have to observe more when the sun comes up.”
In the distance, more howls of the rifts.
Ohjoss cracked a chemical light stick and shook it, bringing some light to the chamber they found themselves in.
“Prepare to leave,” Dr Won said “I don’t know if that will attract them.”
They waited in tension to see.
-*-
T’ari was in main engineering with Finn Blill, her Bolian chief engineer. They were hashing out the specifications for a low-tech, brute-force shuttle craft that could get to the surface, pick up people, and get back into orbit without using any subspace-based technology.
The main trick was not killing the people inside. The forces in play were murderous without intertial dampeners.
Engineering people not directly involved in running the ship were gathering tools and materials in the port shuttle bay.
Creskulaban, an Aneilog exchange officer came in **Excuse me, Captain.**
“Yes, Lieutenant…. Creskulaban, was it?”
**We can get the people off the surface.**
“We who? How?”
**The Ane. We can teleport if we can see where we’re going.**
T’ari blinked “And the surface of the planet is in range for you?”
**With some help and good visuals, yes.**
“What do we need to do?”
**Don’t go to warp, Get me good cameras looking at the landing site.**
T’ari nodded “Sure, please do.”
Creskulaban said **We’ll be coming in to the starboard Shuttlebay.**
“Okay.”
Creskulaban left
“Gallagher,” T’ari called “I need you get a camera to the landing site.”
-*-
Creskulaban entered The All.
**Admiral Gensilan! I’ve got a problem here I need help with!**
The RI Ane who seemed to be the size of a planet approached Creskulaban. Creskulaban saw Admiral Hailey and the other RIs in a constellation of entities, surrounded by the stars of individual Ane, all in conversation with each other.
**Explain, please.** Gensilan said.
Creskulaban laid out the problem.
Millions of Ane observed Creskulaban’s report and agreed. Something must be done.
-*-
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: T'ari O'Keefe - MMM
MMM Part 6
Landing party, in the ruins under Manriet III
Tarah sighed as her curiosity won “Midnight, please explain it to me.”
“Commander?”
“The Arzalans asked for Federation help finding and retrieving MMM. Why?”
“Uhhh,” Midnight said “We value MMM highly. MMM is a good friend of ours.”
“Sure,” Shoma said “That’s why they’re on my ship,”
“MMM, can you explain it?”
MMM said, “Well, Jak is correct. I do consider the Arzalans to be good friends. But there are things they aren’t telling me. So I created me, this MMM before you, to leave the protection of the Arzalans and see what else is out here in the galaxy. And maybe to try and understand what they aren’t telling me.”
“MMM,” Jak said “We’re trying to protect you.”
“The Galaxy isn’t as fun as the vids make it seem,” Tahn Mos said, “There are bad people and bad things out here.”
“Are you trying to protect MMM from bad ideas?” Dr Won asked. “The knowledge of the existence of evil?”
“Perhaps not the knowledge of the concept of evil, but maybe the details,” MMM said.
“That’s above my pay grade. We keep MMM safe. That’s what we do,” Jak said.
“Although, as an individual, I want to survive and carry my experiences back to MMM, the loss of one small subunit such as I could not possibly hurt MMM as a whole.”
“I’m not tracking this,” Tarah said “MMM is the planet, MMM is the people, and this person is MMM. I’m not following the context changes here.”
“No, that’s right. You have it,” MMM said “I am the planet. I am the people, I am this specific individual in front of you.”
Everyone looked at MMM.
“It took me a long time to understand that you people don’t work that way. Your consciousness is individual, limited to each of you. Your worlds and eco-systems are not conscious,” MMM said. “I am.”
Midnight said, “It takes some time to come to grips with this idea.”
“So why are you here, in this specific MMM?” Losma Won asked.
“I got the feeling I was missing stuff. That there were things I wasn’t being told. So I made up a trick and smuggled several of me off-world to go see.”
Midnight looked horrified, “How… How?”
“Seeds,” MMM said. “I couldn’t smuggle a full humanoid out, so I loaded what I needed into seeds and smuggled those out. Those germinated into humanoids like me.”
Tarah said, “The fact that you had to work that hard to smuggle yourself out is telling.”
MMM said, “I asked to be allowed to accompany Arzalans and explore the outside world, but they were always very careful and curated about it.”
Midnight said, “My supervisors didn’t think MMM was ready for unsupervised exposure to the Galaxy, yet.”
“What happens if MMM is exposed to ideas, people, and places your supervisors think MMM isn’t ready for, yet?” Won asked.
Midnight said “In some ways MMM is like a child. Everything was new. They had to learn everything. We took MMM under our wings. We take care of MMM. In some ways we raised MMM like our child.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Won said.
“Sometimes there have been errors. Mistakes on both sides. MMM can get a little obstreperous. Resistant at times.”
“How resistant?”
“Never violently. We’ve had times when MMM has ceased being cooperative and has shut down communication. Like a child going to their room and slamming the door.”
“There have been times when I needed to consider myself and what I’d learned,” MMM said.
“What happens if MMM decides to be actively resistant?” Tahn Mos asked.
“MMM wouldn’t do that. It’s not in character for MMM. MMM is generally very nice and even-tempered.”
“Thank you,” MMM said
“And yet, here we are,” Tahn Mos said, “With MMM having run away like an emotionally troubled child, and you showing up with Starfleet to retrieve them and take them home.”
“Emotionally troubled?” MMM said, “I was just curious.”
“How long do you think it will take MMM to grow to adulthood? When will you consider MMM safe to roam at will?” Won asked.
“That’s a good question,” MMM said.
“That’s above my pay grade,” Midnight said “My bosses set the policy.”
Esta asked, “MMM, when do YOU think you’ll be an adult?”
MMM shrugged “I’m not like you. I’m not an Arzalan child. But I’m still new to much of the way humanoids interact with each other. I’ve only known Arzalan scientists and my Guardians. I’ll be around for a very long time, as I understand it. My feeling is that I’ll be learning how to be a person on this scale for a very long time.”
“That explains the children’s books and stories,” Shoma said
“The what now?” Midnight said
“I’ve been reading the materials other people show their children,” MMM said “Orions, An Phar, the Fasani, the Kaa and others. It’s very interesting.”
Midnight gripped the bridge of his nose “Some of those species are anti-social.”
“You were educating yourself.” Dr Won said.
“What did you think I was doing?”
“Sometimes when humanoids are emotionally injured, they soothe themselves with childhood items.” Dr. Won said, “You could have been the survivor of some terrible trauma.”
“Oh. Is that why you asked me those questions?”
“I am the ship’s doctor. Your health is my job.”
Tarah said, “So, to summarize, MMM ran away from home to go see the Galaxy, and you called Starfleet in to help you get MMM back and take them home.”
“Stated poorly, but not inaccurate,”
“Even though MMM is ancient and has easily surpassed any sane age of consent,”
“I’m just doing my job,” Midnight said
“I’m getting abuse vibes here. I don’t like it,” Tarah said.
“That’s a hell of a conclusion,” Midnight said
“I think that’s an excessive interpretation,” MMM said.
“When we get rescued, I’m going to call for a competency hearing. I think MMM is an adult and should be treated that way,” Tarah said.
“Why has your ship not rescued you already?” Shoma asked.
“The subspace interference is far too much for transporters. Our shuttles barely made it down. Now we know that subspace fields call… those things, they’ll have to figure out something else. I’m sure they’re working on it.”
Shoma said, “Dr Won?”
“The interference wasn’t that bad when we landed. It must be getting worse.”
Tarah winced “And of course….”
“We have no idea how much worse it can get.”
-*-
Landing party, in the ruins under Manriet III
Tarah sighed as her curiosity won “Midnight, please explain it to me.”
“Commander?”
“The Arzalans asked for Federation help finding and retrieving MMM. Why?”
“Uhhh,” Midnight said “We value MMM highly. MMM is a good friend of ours.”
“Sure,” Shoma said “That’s why they’re on my ship,”
“MMM, can you explain it?”
MMM said, “Well, Jak is correct. I do consider the Arzalans to be good friends. But there are things they aren’t telling me. So I created me, this MMM before you, to leave the protection of the Arzalans and see what else is out here in the galaxy. And maybe to try and understand what they aren’t telling me.”
“MMM,” Jak said “We’re trying to protect you.”
“The Galaxy isn’t as fun as the vids make it seem,” Tahn Mos said, “There are bad people and bad things out here.”
“Are you trying to protect MMM from bad ideas?” Dr Won asked. “The knowledge of the existence of evil?”
“Perhaps not the knowledge of the concept of evil, but maybe the details,” MMM said.
“That’s above my pay grade. We keep MMM safe. That’s what we do,” Jak said.
“Although, as an individual, I want to survive and carry my experiences back to MMM, the loss of one small subunit such as I could not possibly hurt MMM as a whole.”
“I’m not tracking this,” Tarah said “MMM is the planet, MMM is the people, and this person is MMM. I’m not following the context changes here.”
“No, that’s right. You have it,” MMM said “I am the planet. I am the people, I am this specific individual in front of you.”
Everyone looked at MMM.
“It took me a long time to understand that you people don’t work that way. Your consciousness is individual, limited to each of you. Your worlds and eco-systems are not conscious,” MMM said. “I am.”
Midnight said, “It takes some time to come to grips with this idea.”
“So why are you here, in this specific MMM?” Losma Won asked.
“I got the feeling I was missing stuff. That there were things I wasn’t being told. So I made up a trick and smuggled several of me off-world to go see.”
Midnight looked horrified, “How… How?”
“Seeds,” MMM said. “I couldn’t smuggle a full humanoid out, so I loaded what I needed into seeds and smuggled those out. Those germinated into humanoids like me.”
Tarah said, “The fact that you had to work that hard to smuggle yourself out is telling.”
MMM said, “I asked to be allowed to accompany Arzalans and explore the outside world, but they were always very careful and curated about it.”
Midnight said, “My supervisors didn’t think MMM was ready for unsupervised exposure to the Galaxy, yet.”
“What happens if MMM is exposed to ideas, people, and places your supervisors think MMM isn’t ready for, yet?” Won asked.
Midnight said “In some ways MMM is like a child. Everything was new. They had to learn everything. We took MMM under our wings. We take care of MMM. In some ways we raised MMM like our child.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Won said.
“Sometimes there have been errors. Mistakes on both sides. MMM can get a little obstreperous. Resistant at times.”
“How resistant?”
“Never violently. We’ve had times when MMM has ceased being cooperative and has shut down communication. Like a child going to their room and slamming the door.”
“There have been times when I needed to consider myself and what I’d learned,” MMM said.
“What happens if MMM decides to be actively resistant?” Tahn Mos asked.
“MMM wouldn’t do that. It’s not in character for MMM. MMM is generally very nice and even-tempered.”
“Thank you,” MMM said
“And yet, here we are,” Tahn Mos said, “With MMM having run away like an emotionally troubled child, and you showing up with Starfleet to retrieve them and take them home.”
“Emotionally troubled?” MMM said, “I was just curious.”
“How long do you think it will take MMM to grow to adulthood? When will you consider MMM safe to roam at will?” Won asked.
“That’s a good question,” MMM said.
“That’s above my pay grade,” Midnight said “My bosses set the policy.”
Esta asked, “MMM, when do YOU think you’ll be an adult?”
MMM shrugged “I’m not like you. I’m not an Arzalan child. But I’m still new to much of the way humanoids interact with each other. I’ve only known Arzalan scientists and my Guardians. I’ll be around for a very long time, as I understand it. My feeling is that I’ll be learning how to be a person on this scale for a very long time.”
“That explains the children’s books and stories,” Shoma said
“The what now?” Midnight said
“I’ve been reading the materials other people show their children,” MMM said “Orions, An Phar, the Fasani, the Kaa and others. It’s very interesting.”
Midnight gripped the bridge of his nose “Some of those species are anti-social.”
“You were educating yourself.” Dr Won said.
“What did you think I was doing?”
“Sometimes when humanoids are emotionally injured, they soothe themselves with childhood items.” Dr. Won said, “You could have been the survivor of some terrible trauma.”
“Oh. Is that why you asked me those questions?”
“I am the ship’s doctor. Your health is my job.”
Tarah said, “So, to summarize, MMM ran away from home to go see the Galaxy, and you called Starfleet in to help you get MMM back and take them home.”
“Stated poorly, but not inaccurate,”
“Even though MMM is ancient and has easily surpassed any sane age of consent,”
“I’m just doing my job,” Midnight said
“I’m getting abuse vibes here. I don’t like it,” Tarah said.
“That’s a hell of a conclusion,” Midnight said
“I think that’s an excessive interpretation,” MMM said.
“When we get rescued, I’m going to call for a competency hearing. I think MMM is an adult and should be treated that way,” Tarah said.
“Why has your ship not rescued you already?” Shoma asked.
“The subspace interference is far too much for transporters. Our shuttles barely made it down. Now we know that subspace fields call… those things, they’ll have to figure out something else. I’m sure they’re working on it.”
Shoma said, “Dr Won?”
“The interference wasn’t that bad when we landed. It must be getting worse.”
Tarah winced “And of course….”
“We have no idea how much worse it can get.”
-*-
-
jayphailey
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: T'ari O'Keefe - MMM
MMM Part 7
A metal spear fell from the sky and stabbed into the ground next to the ruined shuttles and the Azzic house. The covers popped off the back end, revealing high-definition cameras.
On the bridge of the USS Sheldon Richman Taisha, the science officer said, “I have good signals. Good video. Recording.”
-*-
In the Starboard shuttle bay, there was a whoosh as air got out of the way. Ane from distant locations teleported to the Starship. Many were wearing Starfleet Uniform, which for Ane was a collar with rank pips and the Starfleet badge. Others wore the ADF uniform. A similar collar in different colors.
The Sheldon Richman turned. The open shuttle bay doors filled with the planet Manriet III. A holographic circle showed the landing spot, visible directly from hundreds of Kilometers away
Virtual screens showed the video of the landing site in real-time.
The Ane studied the visuals. The first teleport would be risky, but once they’d been to both the shuttlebay and the landing site, the next teleport would be much easier. After the first Teleport, with the Ane telepathically watching it happen, the rest would be easier.
**What the hell is that?** one of the Ane said
The Sheldon Richman shuddered. An uluating howl filled the air.
A rift opened near the ship. Much bigger than the ones on the ground. Then another, and another.
As the red alert klaxon sounded, very large tentacles lept out of the rifts at the ship.
-*-
“Phasers, fire at will,” T’ari said “Load a full torpedo spread, helm, keep us oriented.”
“Aye, Sir,”
The big phaser banks of the USS Sheldon Richman hummed and then screamed as energy flowed. The Starship turned into a Fourth-of-July display with multicolored beams flying every which way.
“Tactical, report,” T’ari said
“The tentacles seem resistant to phasers. We’re not having as much effect as I’d like.” Glithaw Anavar, the Bolian Chief of Security said.
“Where is that noise coming from?” T’ari asked The howling of the rifts almost drowned out their voices.
“Subspace carrier wave, it’s blasting the subspace noise at such high energy it’s making our hull vibrate,” Taisha said.
“Our shields are holding,“ Anavar said
“The Orions are not having as much fun,” Taisha said.
“On screen,” T’ari said
The screen showed one of the Orion light raiders with a tentacle wrapped around its port nacelle. It was throwing every disruptor beam and torpedo available at the tentacles. The beams made cuts, the torpedoes dug holes in the tentacles, but not quite enough to dissuade them.
“Target that rift and give them a full spread of transphasic torpedoes.”
“We can’t scan the other side of those rifts. We don’t know what we’re shooting at.”
T’ari said, “I don’t care. They attacked us. They get torpedoes. Full send.”
“Aye, Captain.”
The Sheldon Richman spit a double handful of technologically advanced torpedoes Most of them hit the rift and went through, exploding into whatever lay beyond the rift.
The tentacles let go of the Orion ship and whipped back, but not in time, the rift closed, chopping off the ends of the ship eating tentacles, leaving the tips wiggling, adrift.
“Hail that Orion ship,”
“On screen,”
The screen cleared to show a small, cramped bridge. Lights were flashing, and smoke filled the air. An Orion Captain said, “Thank you, Starfleet!”
“Get clear, and share your scans with Starfleet,” T’ari demanded.
The Orion Captain nodded “We sure as hell will, Precious Scarab out!”
The Orion ship was already turning and maxing out her impulse drives.
-*-
In the shuttle bay, the Ane watched the light show.
**What do we do?**
Captain Lellogalan teleported.
-*-
She appeared off the ground and not quite oriented right and went down in a roll.
She got to her hooves and stopped, centering herself. Now her awareness of her space set, and acted as an anchor for the rest.
More whooshes as Ane appeared at the right altitude and orientation
**Oh, Good, tunnels,** Captain Lellogalan thought.
-*-
“What’s that noise?” Tarah asked
It sounded like… flutes and piccolos calling out.
Tarah said “Esta, lets go see.”
“You should send us,” Ohjoss said.
“I absolutely will not be doing that,” Tarah said.
Ohjoss handed her another chem light.
Dr. Won got up and went with them.
-*-
At the top of the tunnel, an Animal…
**Commander! Report!** The Antelope thought at Tarah with a command snap in her mental voice.
“We’re unarmed. Eight Starfleet, one Arzalan, and five civilians.”
**Get them up here! We’re your ride!**
Tarah tapped Esta “Go,” She ran back into the tunnel for the others.
“Telepathic Antelopes!” Dr Won said, “Unusual!”
-*-
On the Richman, the howling and shuddering got worse. “More tentacles! They seem upset about something,” Anavar reported.
“They have the salvage cruiser.”
On the screen, T’ari could see the bigger Orion ship. It was caught from two different directions. Sensors were all but useless. They were firing by visible light targeting now.
“More torpedoes,” T’ari said
“We don’t have a good range reading.”
“Use lidar to range the Orion ship, and then guess, hurry.”
After a few moments work, Anavar fired more torpedoes. These weren’t as accurate. About half of them went into one of the rifts. It slammed closed
But the tentacles from the other side won the tug of war, pulling one of the wings of the Orion ship into the other rift. The rift closed, taking the Orion’s port wing and engine nacelle with it.
The Orion Salvager rolled away leaking plasma, lights flickering all over, all weapons silent.
T’ari called the shuttle bay “Shuttlebay, report!” She steeled herself to hear the attack had scrubbed the rescue, but at least then they could move.
-*-
Tarah was the last out. The Ululating howl was incredibly loud. She could feel her whole head vibrate with it. Her ears rang.
A large rift opened, and huge tentacles reached out, grabbing their shuttles and yanking them back through the rifts in the sky.
Tarah, Shoma and Tahna Mos watched as more giant tentacles grabbed the Azzic House with huge metal crashing noises, and dragged it up into the air and through a rift,
Ane appeared, and grabbed Tarah’s hand with their mouth, and then pop she was in the Sheldon Richmans starboard shuttlebay.
-*-
Creskulan’s Voder yelled into the Intercom “Extraction successful, all survivors aboard!”
T’ari said, “One quarter impulse, Phasers, maintain fire. Torpedoes. Try to keep those tentacles off that Orion ship.”
Ceriar asked, “How do you mean to rescue anyone? Transporters are offline.”
“I have no idea. We’ll make something up.”
The Sheldon Richman moved at a stately pace, throwing beams and torpedoes with abandon.
As they approached the crippled Orion ship, more rifts and more tentacles appeared around it. The Richman fired and fired, but more rifts and tentacles appeared. They struck the hull of the Orion ship and then yanked, pulling pieces off the ship.
The Orion ship began firing escape pods.
“All stop, prepare to take survivors aboard.” t’ari said.
Most of the escape pods flew right past the Federation ship, obeying their programming to find a class M world.
A few went to manual control and drove to the Federation ship and into the shuttlebay.
The Orion ship, torn to a ragged wreck, exploded as her warp power system failed.
“Alright, That’s enough,” T’air said, “Let’s get out of here.”
About 300,000 km, the subspace interference began to fade and no more tentacles appeared.
A metal spear fell from the sky and stabbed into the ground next to the ruined shuttles and the Azzic house. The covers popped off the back end, revealing high-definition cameras.
On the bridge of the USS Sheldon Richman Taisha, the science officer said, “I have good signals. Good video. Recording.”
-*-
In the Starboard shuttle bay, there was a whoosh as air got out of the way. Ane from distant locations teleported to the Starship. Many were wearing Starfleet Uniform, which for Ane was a collar with rank pips and the Starfleet badge. Others wore the ADF uniform. A similar collar in different colors.
The Sheldon Richman turned. The open shuttle bay doors filled with the planet Manriet III. A holographic circle showed the landing spot, visible directly from hundreds of Kilometers away
Virtual screens showed the video of the landing site in real-time.
The Ane studied the visuals. The first teleport would be risky, but once they’d been to both the shuttlebay and the landing site, the next teleport would be much easier. After the first Teleport, with the Ane telepathically watching it happen, the rest would be easier.
**What the hell is that?** one of the Ane said
The Sheldon Richman shuddered. An uluating howl filled the air.
A rift opened near the ship. Much bigger than the ones on the ground. Then another, and another.
As the red alert klaxon sounded, very large tentacles lept out of the rifts at the ship.
-*-
“Phasers, fire at will,” T’ari said “Load a full torpedo spread, helm, keep us oriented.”
“Aye, Sir,”
The big phaser banks of the USS Sheldon Richman hummed and then screamed as energy flowed. The Starship turned into a Fourth-of-July display with multicolored beams flying every which way.
“Tactical, report,” T’ari said
“The tentacles seem resistant to phasers. We’re not having as much effect as I’d like.” Glithaw Anavar, the Bolian Chief of Security said.
“Where is that noise coming from?” T’ari asked The howling of the rifts almost drowned out their voices.
“Subspace carrier wave, it’s blasting the subspace noise at such high energy it’s making our hull vibrate,” Taisha said.
“Our shields are holding,“ Anavar said
“The Orions are not having as much fun,” Taisha said.
“On screen,” T’ari said
The screen showed one of the Orion light raiders with a tentacle wrapped around its port nacelle. It was throwing every disruptor beam and torpedo available at the tentacles. The beams made cuts, the torpedoes dug holes in the tentacles, but not quite enough to dissuade them.
“Target that rift and give them a full spread of transphasic torpedoes.”
“We can’t scan the other side of those rifts. We don’t know what we’re shooting at.”
T’ari said, “I don’t care. They attacked us. They get torpedoes. Full send.”
“Aye, Captain.”
The Sheldon Richman spit a double handful of technologically advanced torpedoes Most of them hit the rift and went through, exploding into whatever lay beyond the rift.
The tentacles let go of the Orion ship and whipped back, but not in time, the rift closed, chopping off the ends of the ship eating tentacles, leaving the tips wiggling, adrift.
“Hail that Orion ship,”
“On screen,”
The screen cleared to show a small, cramped bridge. Lights were flashing, and smoke filled the air. An Orion Captain said, “Thank you, Starfleet!”
“Get clear, and share your scans with Starfleet,” T’ari demanded.
The Orion Captain nodded “We sure as hell will, Precious Scarab out!”
The Orion ship was already turning and maxing out her impulse drives.
-*-
In the shuttle bay, the Ane watched the light show.
**What do we do?**
Captain Lellogalan teleported.
-*-
She appeared off the ground and not quite oriented right and went down in a roll.
She got to her hooves and stopped, centering herself. Now her awareness of her space set, and acted as an anchor for the rest.
More whooshes as Ane appeared at the right altitude and orientation
**Oh, Good, tunnels,** Captain Lellogalan thought.
-*-
“What’s that noise?” Tarah asked
It sounded like… flutes and piccolos calling out.
Tarah said “Esta, lets go see.”
“You should send us,” Ohjoss said.
“I absolutely will not be doing that,” Tarah said.
Ohjoss handed her another chem light.
Dr. Won got up and went with them.
-*-
At the top of the tunnel, an Animal…
**Commander! Report!** The Antelope thought at Tarah with a command snap in her mental voice.
“We’re unarmed. Eight Starfleet, one Arzalan, and five civilians.”
**Get them up here! We’re your ride!**
Tarah tapped Esta “Go,” She ran back into the tunnel for the others.
“Telepathic Antelopes!” Dr Won said, “Unusual!”
-*-
On the Richman, the howling and shuddering got worse. “More tentacles! They seem upset about something,” Anavar reported.
“They have the salvage cruiser.”
On the screen, T’ari could see the bigger Orion ship. It was caught from two different directions. Sensors were all but useless. They were firing by visible light targeting now.
“More torpedoes,” T’ari said
“We don’t have a good range reading.”
“Use lidar to range the Orion ship, and then guess, hurry.”
After a few moments work, Anavar fired more torpedoes. These weren’t as accurate. About half of them went into one of the rifts. It slammed closed
But the tentacles from the other side won the tug of war, pulling one of the wings of the Orion ship into the other rift. The rift closed, taking the Orion’s port wing and engine nacelle with it.
The Orion Salvager rolled away leaking plasma, lights flickering all over, all weapons silent.
T’ari called the shuttle bay “Shuttlebay, report!” She steeled herself to hear the attack had scrubbed the rescue, but at least then they could move.
-*-
Tarah was the last out. The Ululating howl was incredibly loud. She could feel her whole head vibrate with it. Her ears rang.
A large rift opened, and huge tentacles reached out, grabbing their shuttles and yanking them back through the rifts in the sky.
Tarah, Shoma and Tahna Mos watched as more giant tentacles grabbed the Azzic House with huge metal crashing noises, and dragged it up into the air and through a rift,
Ane appeared, and grabbed Tarah’s hand with their mouth, and then pop she was in the Sheldon Richmans starboard shuttlebay.
-*-
Creskulan’s Voder yelled into the Intercom “Extraction successful, all survivors aboard!”
T’ari said, “One quarter impulse, Phasers, maintain fire. Torpedoes. Try to keep those tentacles off that Orion ship.”
Ceriar asked, “How do you mean to rescue anyone? Transporters are offline.”
“I have no idea. We’ll make something up.”
The Sheldon Richman moved at a stately pace, throwing beams and torpedoes with abandon.
As they approached the crippled Orion ship, more rifts and more tentacles appeared around it. The Richman fired and fired, but more rifts and tentacles appeared. They struck the hull of the Orion ship and then yanked, pulling pieces off the ship.
The Orion ship began firing escape pods.
“All stop, prepare to take survivors aboard.” t’ari said.
Most of the escape pods flew right past the Federation ship, obeying their programming to find a class M world.
A few went to manual control and drove to the Federation ship and into the shuttlebay.
The Orion ship, torn to a ragged wreck, exploded as her warp power system failed.
“Alright, That’s enough,” T’air said, “Let’s get out of here.”
About 300,000 km, the subspace interference began to fade and no more tentacles appeared.