Omoikane - Space Dragons

[jayphailey]

Here is the start of my current cycle of fanfic

Omoikane 01 - Space Dragons

Note this story takes place in the STB-600 universe (Sort of).

Things are WIERD there. The Jay in this story is Jay-3. He and his crew were the second duplicate of the USS Harrier. All characters from the Harrier are similarly duplicates of the original ones.

Never one to waste a good thing, Jay-3 and his crew were put into a heavy cruiser and sent out to do Starfleet things.... There’s more to it than that, but that's the basics.

If you have questions, ask

-*-

We were mapping out the spinward frontier out past the Galra and the Jigufor. Things were not stable in that area and more information would be helpful.

There was a zone of subspace static. Noise. Interference. We were looking for the reasons behind it. It clouded our view past that area.

An alarm sounded on the tactical console.

"Whups! Weapons fire off the port bow. Range, 7 light years," Stephanie Anderson said.

"Set course and engage, best speed. Galaglan, once you're ready we'll advance to flank speed." I said.

The USS Omoikane (Oh-moi-kahn-ey) turned and rushed in the direction of trouble. She was a big fish. One of the newest Amani class cruisers. Her warp drives ate up the distance quickly.

We saw a small ship versus a large ship, but we couldn't get much detail at that range. They exchanged weapons fire. It looked like some sort of polaron beams and torpedoes versus something plasma-based. The ships merged. I hadn't seen a hostile docking and boarding operation for quite some time. It’s an aggressive and risky move. the victim of the boarding can do almost anything and mess things up for both parties very badly. Like both ships exploding, badly.

When we were an hour out, the bigger ship disengaged and left. It made a high sublight speed dash into the region of the north pole of the star they were near. Then it disappeared into the magnetic and radiation interference caused by the pole of the star. I figured they'd wait until the wrong moment for us and then come rushing out.

We dropped sublight very near the victim ship. Time was of the essence.

From the remains, It looked swoopy. It was a stealth ship. Something tickled the back of my brain. No time for that now "Hail them. Scan for life forms."

Vaurpuchu hailed the ship. Tillean scanned for life forms. "I'm reading humanoids. Orion, mostly."

The ship had been blasted and then torn. It looked like old scans of large grappling hooks used 400 years ago by Orion Pirates. Hull plates ripped in parallel, triangular tears.

There were semicircular bites taken out of the hull. The edges were melted. Some sort of plasma-edged grappling hook. One of the warp nacelles was shredded and partially missing and showed the effects of the violent grappling.

It sort of made sense. Even ruined warp drive coils could be sold for recycling. But the attack was exceptionally violent. The stricken ship would have been worth more as a prize if taken relatively intact.

We closed at high impulse. "Rescue stations, when we get close enough start beaming those people off of there."

The screen cleared to show a yellow/green Orion man. He was wearing some sort of techno-looking headband. The universal translator synched "What are you doing? You'll summon the dragons!"

"Would you like us to beam you off your ship?" I asked

"Yes, please! Then flee!"

We got into transporter range and beamed 83 people off the stricken ship.

The last one to beam aboard was the man we spoke to. He was carrying things. Some looked like crystaline memory units.

"Welcome to the USS Omoikane," I said "We are a starship of the United Federation..."

The lights flickered and the display screens scrambled briefly. "What in the hell?"

The transporter officer was looking at her control panel "Some sort of subspace interference, Captain. It’s powerful."

I turned "I'm Captain Hailey. Put your stuff down, it'll be safe. Then come with me.

"Lieutenant Sharmarlaz," He said putting down his belongings. "You should escape, now."

We headed for the turbolift to the bridge.

On the way, Red Alert sounded. "Captain to the bridge!" Li'ira called.

-*-

We bombed out of the turbolift and onto the bridge. The Omoikane was turning away from the wrecked ship.

"The raider has come out of the zone of interference. We think the subspace blast was him. It was very powerful. We're hailing."

Sharmarlaz said "He's called his fellows."

"Captain, I'm not sure what I'm seeing here, except it's not good." Stephanie Anderson said.

I went to the Tactical panel.

The scan of the raider was weird. Just weird. At this range, we should be able to see the opposing captain’s breakfast plates.

What I was seeing instead was a mass. I could see the hull plates. They were some very odd form of tri-phased duranium, coated in crystalized silicon and carbon. They overlapped in a strange way. The raider was running very hot. Melted metals hot. It was an ellipsoid body with a long neck and some sort of pod on the front. Not unlike the Klingons or the Romulans.

The Warp Engines were symmetrically mounted along the top of the main hull, but... they were ... moving. Almost like some sort of liquid, or tendrils.

There was one life sign and it covered the whole raider.

"What in the hell?" I said

"You've never seen a dragon before?" Sharmarlaz asked

Tillean looked at the scan "It's a life form, Captain! A molten metal life form!" She was equal parts scared and excited.

"I have a visual." Varupuchu put it on the screen

It was a dragon. The pod on the end of the boom was its head. I yelled "Are you KIDDING me!?" Its scales gleamed in the sunlight.

We could see some damage from the dead scout ship fighting back. Not much. The dragon opened its mouth. Rows of teeth turned into arc lights. They were coated in plasma. It looked about as hot as our drive plasma.

"Engines to full, evasive maneuvers! Engineering, we'll need warp drive if this guy doesn't listen to reason! Hail him!"

**Warp Drive at your discretion,**

The dragon spread its wings. Weird liquid metal, the same stuff as our own warp coils, but in liquid form. How did it stick together? How did it stay in shape? On the scans, I could see energy doing very interesting, very wrong things.

"He's going to warp!" Stephanie called

"No, He's not," Sharmarlaz said

Plasma played across the liquid warp drive wings, and there was a burst of light.

The Omoikane shuddered

"Static warp bubble!" Stephanie called, "Warp drive offline until we get out of it!"

"Full power to impulse drives. Helm get us away from that thing."

The Dragon opened its mouth again. A ball of horrid fire erupted from it.

"Plasma Torpedo! Class R!" I couldn't tell if Stephanie was enjoying herself or was scared.

"Arm Phasers, target that torpedo, fire at will!" I was NOT enjoying myself.

The Omoikane seemed to tilt as Ensign Tarla fought to keep things moving in our favor.

The phasers lit up. It was the first time we'd fired them in anger. Although plasma torpedos are scary, phasers could damage them some. Our phasers sliced through the plasma and the magnetic field, causing some of the plasma to spill. The torpedo was weakened.

The Omoikane shuddered again as it hit, but it wasn't a bad hit. "Shields down by thirty percent in that facing," Stephanie said.

Then the dragon fired beams out of its eyes. I was interpreting them as eyes. I guess they were weapons emplacements. Two beams of hot green plasma raked across us.

"Light damage in upper aft quarter, Shields down by another fifteen percent," Stephanie said.

"He's closing. He's faster at sublight than we are," Li'ira's voice was quiet and tense

I looked at the closure rate, and did some math, "Tarla, fly straight away from him. Engineering, dump warp plasma into the impulse engines."

**Please confirm?** Galaglan said

"Confirmed!"

The Omoikane leaped forward. Bless her, Galaglan isolated one of the engines on each side. If worst came to worst we wouldn't be entirely immobile.

Even so, the dragon closed, although more slowly.

"Divert energy reserves into the aft shields."

More beams. Our shields were still holding, mostly.

Varupuchu's board beeped happily "We're clear of the static warp bubble."

"Warp two, engage!" I said

The Omoikane leapt to warp speed.

"Set course ninety mark zero, galactic reference," I said.

The dragon came warp and gained on us.

"Advance our speed to match his," I said.

I watched his warp bubble. It was wonderfully subtle and elegant. A side effect of living liquid metal warp ... wings

And there it was. He crested the energy lip into his next energy plateau. "We win. He's using a dilithium moderation."

The Omoikane was using disodium. We could outrun him.

He was blasting subspace static.

I had a thought. "Tarla, set course Z minus 90 galactic reference."

Our ship nosed down. "Keep increasing speed until he tops out. I want to know how fast he can go."

"Signal from the ... creature," Varupuchu said, "audio only."

I nodded and he put it on the speakers

"Meat things. I see you. I will enjoy eating you soon."

"Can we talk about this?"

"I fail to see the benefit to me."

"Are you sure we can't hurt you?"

"Perhaps, but never permanently. Run while you can. I will find you. Maybe one of my siblings or my children. Your ships are tasty treats. I enjoy eating them."

"The Federation is an organization of peace, but we will defend ourselves if need be. We'd much prefer talking and negotiation."

"I can see where that makes sense for you. My preferences are different. Please feel free to build battle fleets and come challenge us. The denser the metals of your ships, the tastier they are for us."

The dragon broke off the pursuit and wandered back towards the wreck.

It was using an Ancient Orion frequency and code to talk to us.

[jayphailey]

The USS Omoikane is an Amani class starship, built by the Ane

https://trekcreative.fandom.com/wiki/Amani_class

[jayphailey]

Omoikane 02 - The Shard

We watched the dragon go, and the secured from alert. We had some damage to repair. No injuries this time.

I turned towards Sharmarlaz "Okay, We have questions. I'm sure you do too."

He nodded "Many."

"Let's get you situated and then you can tell us where we're taking you."

"Absolutely not."

"Sorry?"

"The dragons will watch you. If you take me to any Shard port, they will follow us there. I will not lead the dragons into the Shard."

"I'm sure there's something we can do to avoid that."

"Your engines are advanced. Everything else I see is mediocre. We had the best cloaking device the Shard could produce and the Dragon saw us. Your cloaking technology cannot be as advanced."

"Well, I'm sure our cloaking technology is behind yours. Let's talk about it and see what we can come up with."

Sharmarlaz nodded his assent "As long as we're not endangering my people, I am at your service."

-*-

"The Shard is what remains of the Original Empire," Sharmarlaz said. We were the first to rise to civilization and the greatest. Although our old empire fell, we survivors kept the light of civilization alive," Sharmarlaz said.

"Okay. We'd really like to open communications with your great empire. As I explained to the Dragon, The United Federation of Planets is an organization of peace. We believe in diplomacy and honest discussion to resolve problems," I replied.

"I note you're heavily armed."

"Not everyone agrees. We'd prefer to stay alive until diplomacy can be established."

"Forgive me. It sounds impossibly naive and utopian."

"It’s much more work, this is true. But we think it's worth it."

"How old is this Federation of yours?"

"Our founding was about three hundred and forty years ago."

He smiled "Ah. Newbies. You'll learn."

I decided to change the subject, "What can you tell me of the dragons?"

"They are a weapon from an ancient war. They are both a life form and a machine at the same time. They eat metals. When metals cannot be found, they'll eat asteroids and glean metals from them. They absorb the energy of stars. Somehow they store the energy. Most of the time you'll find them in a close orbit of a star, soaking up energy. They seem to have limited range and duration compared to a starship, but in close battle, they are deadly. Their living energy fields are a strong defense and they coat themselves in crystals of carbon and silicon to act as ablative armor.

If injured, they retreat and huddle close to a star to regain energy.

Although they can and do eat asteroids to glean metals, they find starships to be a rich food source.

They are on record as hating we 'meat things', and they enjoy destroying our ships, bases, and installations. They're slow in a strategic sense. They venture from star to star. They seem to dislike expending energy on long journeys unless they have a good reason.

Their bones and skin are some flavor of hull metal, distilled from eaten minerals and forged in fire from the surface of a star. Their organs are semi-solid metal devices that look like the organs of normal life forms but written in metal. Their blood is molten metal.

We have no idea how they store energy. It's an enduring mystery. But we know they do.

Since they absorb heat and radiation from stars, it takes a lot of concentrated energy to hurt them. The weapons of more primitive people are helpless.

Shard Battlecruisers and Dreadnoughts hunt the dragons. The Dragons hunt us back. Everything smaller must flee."

"Your ship was smaller. It looked like a scout." I realized what tickled my brain about the wreck. It looked Orion. Advanced and swoopier Orion, but Orion.

Sharmarlaz nodded "We felt we were skirting the edge of Dragon territory, at a reasonably safe distance."

"And you feel that the Dragons do not know where your empire is?"

"They seem to have a general feeling, but we take steps not to lead them back towards our main bases. They have attacked forward bases and colonies before. They seem to enjoy being destructive about it. As I said, they're on record saying they hate us and enjoy wreaking havoc on us. The main saving grace is that they take their time. They're slow and sometimes they spend decades bathing in energy. They may not view time the same way we do."

"Hmm," I said. Every word the man said was being recorded. It would be analyzed in minute depth.

"How old is The Shard?"

"We trace our history back some six thousand years, although there was an interregnum after The War of the Gods."

"War of the Gods?"

"The Original Empire fell in The War of the Gods. The old records speak of people as both men and gods. It can be confusing. They wielded terrible power and were consumed with selfishness and hubris. Our technology has still not recovered that peak, but we like to think we've created a better system.

When the Lords of Oron fell to fighting, they destroyed all, leaving a desert where there were no inhabitable planets.

"Oron, you say?"

"Yes, supposedly our ancient homeworld. Some say it was fictional."

"We were there eight weeks ago. We dropped off supplies to an archaeology mission there."

He stared at me in shock, "Really?"

I nodded "We have other survivors of what I suspect you call The Original Empire as allies. And some as rivals. We would love to trade information with your Shard."

He blinked rapidly, "I see."

"So let's figure out how to get you to a Shard base, so we can drop your crew there and negotiate an exchange of information."

He leaned back in the chair of the conference room "Okay. Okay."

[jayphailey]

Omoikane 03 - Master and Servant

Tippalan came into my office. I looked to make sure she had room. Tippalan was a full Ane. Four hundred pounds of sophont antelope. Parts of the Omoikane were arranged for their comfort. Usually, Tippalan called me to her.

**Captain, may I speak to you for a moment? It's about our guests.**

"Sure," said. Galaglan grew grim. I guess she was hearing the news before I did.

**They are Orionoids, with some minor differences. They are closest to the Darnarans, but we see genetic changes. Tillean suspects some genetic engineering. My guess is that they eliminated imperfections, compared to the Darnarans.**

**But, Lt. Sharmarlaz....** She was unhappy **You’ve seen the headband he's wearing?**

"Yeah, I saw it."

**It's telepathic technology, like the telepathic interfaces we use. But it's pointed the other way. It's broadcasting into his mind. It's also a shield, so I can't see exactly what it's doing, but I suspect it's some sort of compliance device.**

I grimaced, "Aw, shit."

-*-

We went nebula diving while I considered what to do. Into the nebula, change our warp drive signature to the degree we could. Hang out in the nebula for a random amount of time, then leave it, from the facing away from the Dragons, and then head for another nebula.

Repeat a few times and hope any long-range senses they had missed us.

Space is big. It was a decent bet.

-*-

Tillean poured over the scans of the dragons we got and the subspace transmissions coming from them.

“Now that I know the transmissions are coming from a living source and not machines or natural processes, They make more sense,” She said. She called up a chart. “This one is the electrochemical signals in a person's body,” She called up another chart, “This is the frequency and pattern distribution of the putative Dragon transmissions.”

I saw colors. And shapes. There seemed to be a similarity in the patterns, but that could just as easily be the way the charts were formatted.

I just nodded and said “Good work. Keep it up.”

-*-

Sharmarlaz was in the forward lounge. It had a Winnie the Pooh theme. Holographic Winnie, Eeyore, Piglet, and Roo circulated among the patrons saying things appropriate to their characters. They were carefully limited so as not to become sentient. We didn't need to be bringing more holographic children into the world by accident.

I stopped for a moment and slightly regretted calling the Omoikane the "Hundred Acre Starship"

I approached Sharmarlaz. "Sharmarlaz, greetings."

He smiled at me. I could see a number of survivors from his scout ship there, too, mixing with my crew. Some of them had headbands, too. There seemed to be a pattern. Like some sort of rank marker. Bigger headbands carried more rank.

Sharmalaz was sipping a dark fizzy drink, "Greetings, Captain."

"Dr. Pepper?" I asked

He nodded "Recommended by your green XO. She's lovely."

I nodded "Yes, indeed she is. May I ask you a question?"

"Certainly."

"Your headband? I don't think we have anything like it in the Federation. Can you tell me about it?”

He straightened up "It's my badge of office. As a commissioned officer in the Shard Star Navy - this marks me as a true Servant of the Shard."

"Do you sleep in it?"

He blinked "Sometimes. I forget it's there every so often."

"Is it doing something to your mind?"

"It helps me to stay focused, disciplined, and loyal to the Shard."

"Would you be willing to take it off for me?"

He didn't like the idea, "Why?"

"I'd like to know you're not being controlled against your will."

He glared at me "Don't you have methods of ensuring the loyalty of your crew?"

"We prefer to work from the positive motivation angle."

"What if I say no?"

"I don't know. We value our autonomy and consent quite a bit in my culture. I'd really like to know you're not being victimized here."

"If I was a victim of a mind control plot, what then?"

"Then I'd work to restore your autonomy to you."

He grimly took the headband off.

His face changed. He looked angrier, less composed. He held up the headband. "This helps us stay unified. This helps me be who I want to be. Some take off their headbands and retire to obscurity. I want to command ships. I want to attain rank and station. This is the way I'll do that. These prevent us from placing our own ambition ahead of the good of the Shard. These prevent us from tearing ourselves apart. Like the Original Empire. Like all Empires. In time your Federation will explode into civil war, with warlords vying for power.

The Shard will remain. We'll be unified and true to our oaths and our nation. We'll pick up the pieces when you fall. Voluntarily? I want this. If you destroy this one, I'll make my way back to The Shard and get another."

He put the headband back on "I hope this answers your question."

"It does. Thank you." I said. It was troubling, but that's the way he wanted it.

-*-

In time we randomly doodled our way to the galactic south and spinward. We got a lot of charting and scanning done.

Sharmarlaz and his crew recovered as well as they could. Some made friends and we learned a good deal about their culture.

The Shard was pretty full of itself. The Shard-folk let us know, in small ways that they considered themselves and their empire superior.

They were especially interested in information about the Lefyt, the Darnarans, and Bot'chok. We shared what we could within civilian classification levels.

-*-

The System ahead was moderately built up. An inhabited class M world anchored the system. We could see space stations and other modern infrastructure. Commercial and military ships came and went.

The Military ship designs were strangely Orion. Similar shapes and layouts to the traditional Orion ships we knew, but with different lines. More elegant, swoopy, and developed. Some were much bigger than anything the Orions had, rivaling the large Federation and Klingon ships.

Three destroyers decloaked and signaled us. Their commander was a yellow/green Orion with a slightly bigger and more ornate headband than Sharmarlaz. "Halt! Identify yourselves and state your purpose!"

"All stop," I told the helm. "Open Channel." The light came on to show I was live. "This is Captain Hailey of the Federation Starship USS Omoikane. We have survivors aboard from SMV Reetabal. We seek friendly contact and diplomacy."

"Stand by."

It was an awkward few minutes

"USS Omoikane, we're reading a biohazard aboard your ship. But the notation is ancient and the details are classified. We're messaging our command for clarification. May we speak to our survivors?"

"Certainly."

Lt. Sharmarlaz was perfectly groomed and dressed. Either for a job interview or a funeral, "Lt. Sharmarlaz reporting."

"Report."

"I am the ranking survivor of the SMV Reetabal. There are 83 survivors. We were scouting to anti-spinward when we were spotted by a dragon. These people rescued us. These people say they were on Oron ten weeks ago. We've seen holograms. It looks right."

The commander of the destroyer blinked slowly "Oookay. That's a remarkable claim. Please stand by Omoikane. We'll get this alert sorted out as well as possible." We could see communication traffic between the destroyers and the planet ahead, but it was too well encrypted for us to listen in.

"The Federation is an organization of peace, mutual aid, exploration, and defense. We have some public information about ourselves, if you'd like it." I said

He squinted "Why would you do that?"

"We think knowing is better than not knowing. We think people we meet will be more comfortable with us if they know what they're dealing with. We hope to facilitate understanding."

The commander looked a little confused "Sure. I guess. Please send it through."

We opened up the Public Access Data Base server and sent them the directions for how to tie into it.

We could see officers on the Shard destroyer boggling at how much information there was there was some discussion with the sound muted.

Then they slurped it all up, at the maximum speed our ship could serve it.

The Commander came back on the line "That's a lot of data, Omoikane."

"Yes. It's mostly cultural stuff. We have a hundred and seventy-five planets in the Federation and a lot more friendly worlds. So you have something about all of them."

"Alright. Well, I hope you won't mind if we call with questions later."

"Please feel free."

"Alright, until then, please stand by."

[jayphailey]

Omoikane 04 - Shard-Entelopa

The planet ahead of us was called Shard-Entelopa. Apparently, Shard was added to any named planet they claimed.

A cruiser left the planet heading for us. It wasn't quite as big as the Omoikane, but it was big enough. And advanced. They slid towards us on well-engineered dilithium warp drives.

A day and a half later they dropped to sublight, came face to face with us, and hailed. The heavy cruiser was the Orion pattern, but huge and advanced. Kind of pretty really.

-*-

The man on the screen had a crown. It had crystals in it. They looked almost familiar. The crown was obviously a device and the fittings for the crystals in it were for data transfer.

Were those crystal computers like the Ane used?

"I am Admiral Legrano. Please stand by while I access the ancient data."

He unplugged one of his crystals, set it on a velvet pillow and took the crystal on the velvet pillow, and plugged that into his crown.

Then his eyes glowed and the crystals all glowed different colors. That looked fun.

"The Ane," He pointed, his voice slow, his accent odd. "It is said that when the Ane take vengeance, they take all the vengeance and leave none for anyone else."

I nodded slowly... there wasn't anywhere to take that really.

"And...." he pointed to Li'ira and to Lt. Kat-oh-lo, a Lefyt exchange officer. "Greens. Yellows. You host invasive species. Rulers and Slaves, corruptions of the True People. Warriors in the Wars of the Gods. We must resist this corruption."

The glow stopped and Admiral Legrano seemed to come out of a trance.

He blinked slowly "Interesting. We had no knowledge that any of the genetically engineered people survived the War of the Gods. We also didn't know there were still Ane.

He looked at Li'ira and me "What is your Green's position on this ship?"

"Commander O'Keefe is my Executive Officer and Second in Command."

"Tell me - does she exert any undue influence over you? The ancient records say the Greens controlled the minds of their slaves."

"No. The Federation is staunchly against slavery. Commander O'Keefe is a trusted comrade."

"You said the greens ruled their slaves and that the greens and yellows were rulers and slaves?" Li'ira asked.

"Yes. Apparently, someone named Motharaeus felt that a strong caste system would stabilize the Original Empire, so he created the Greens to rule and the Yellows to serve. He was considered radical, insane, and sacrilegious. Motharaeus and his Green Warriors were one faction in the War of the Gods. As the Original Empire fell, Motharaeus fled the Empire never to be seen again."

USS Omoikane, I invite you to Shard-Entelopa for a visit and diplomacy. But your genetically altered people must be monitored at all times and may not stay."

I nodded "Thank you, Admiral. We'll try to be good guests."

"We will beam the survivors aboard now."

"Thank you, Sir."

The channel cut.

Sharmarlaz let out a breath "That didn't go badly, all things considered."

-*-

We spent a week at Shard-Entelopa. It was a pretty world. Their technology was interesting. It was refined and elegant. No wasted lines or space. It was as if they'd been engineering from the same technological base for a long time.

Generally, the people were happy there. There was a strong class system. I didn't see any non-Orionoids wearing headbands. I asked Admiral Legrano about his crown. He had a much smaller off-duty headband. The big crown held information necessary for his command station.

The right kind of people could apply for the military or civil service. The higher your rank, the bigger your headgear. It did, indeed have symbology and meaning in its decoration, as well as being a telepathic device.

They didn't want to let us scan them or give us much detail about the operation of these headbands. Just that they ensured focus and loyalty.

The idea that two people with large hats would have conflicting views on what was the greater good for the Shard amused them. The big hats would meet in council and talk it out, for as long as it took. Civil wars, being horrible, were not tolerated. Corruption was not tolerated. Their ideas about what amounted to corruption were not quite the same as mine.

The ruling head gear folks were promoted along an orderly, systemic method including interviews with people up the chain of command.

-*-

It was my favorite time of day. The snuggle. Today Li'ira was in jammies. She wasn't always. But being off duty gave her an excuse to indulge her urges and she discovered that sometimes comfortable pajamas were soothing.

Today was Tellarite cartoons. Loud, talkative, and fanciful creatures loosely based on Tellarites and Tellarite animals built unlikely contraptions and argued with each other usually in humorously dysfunctional ways.

The underlying message was that you could argue sense into each other if you weren't being dumb about what the argument was ABOUT. If you were behaving stupidly, then Tellarite Acme came into play.

After that, it was similar to cartoons from Earth.

Li'ira sighed, up against my side. I was enjoying that, quite a bit.

"I don't like this place," She said.

I blinked "Our quarters?" I'd left most of the interior decor up to her.

That got me a desultory elbow. "No. The Shard."

"Oof. Yeah. Agreed," I said. "They are not the nicest bunch of guys we've run across."

"They're acting nice."

"They're being diplomatic. They're sizing us up. I don't expect a lot of trouble on this trip. But I'll bet they'll be pills later."

"You're still engaging as if we could be friends."

"Yeah. Setting the groundwork for the long term. Maybe they'll buy a clue and things won't turn out as badly as I'm thinking."

"From your mouth to The Great Bird's Ears."

"We have to return to a Federation base to get the impulse drives repaired. Which one do you like for it?"

"1401. Damyip 14 has most of a shipyard set up there. They'll be able to knock out the repairs in short order."

I sighed.

"The Damyip?"

"Yeah. I grew up on stories of the AI war. The Machines were always the bad guys. The Damyip make me ... uncomfortable."

"What was that Picard said?" She mimicked his patrician tones precisely, "We come out here seeking new life! Well, there it sits!"

When you find yourself face-to-face with your prejudice, what do you do? I resolved to attack it. Later.

Right now, I had some snuggling to catch up on.

-*-

We had a shore leave along a very nice beach, Isolated from the natives of the planet. The ruling hats decided to release word about the Federation in a controlled manner.

There was an incident where Tillean got stung by some weird sea life and began swelling up. A quick transport and treatment by Dr. Hobolisk resolved it.

"And what did we learn?" I asked Tillean. I meant to chide her a little bit about carelessness.

"Oh, Lots of things!" Tillean beamed. Then she treated me to a thirty-minute lecture about ph levels and protein folding in this flavor of sea life.

I just listened and caught about every 4th word.

[jayphailey]

I am going to be breaking up the Omoikane Posts into story lines to keep it from becoming a 30 page thread that no one ever reads

[Innkeeper]

I had this shard come to me way to late. The Trek muscles are a bit stiff.

The Omoikane cruised near the 8 colonies. An area nearly as fractured and interesting as the Fulcrum. The proximity alarm went off.

Vaurpuchu reported. “Sir we have a ship approaching. Federation IFF, but I don’t recognize the regional coding. BCV Uncle Albert. Toby commanding.”

I sat up, “BCV? Just Toby, no rank?”

“Builder Contract Vessel, Captain.”

I shot out of my chair. “Li’ira, didn’t we have a briefing about Builders?”

Li’ira’s face shared my concern. “Yes, handle with extreme care. Federation member, but very literal. Get Ane to help.”

“Call Tippalan to the bridge.”

“Captain, we’re being hailed.”

I nodded to Vaurpuchu. “Open the channel.”

The screen cleared to show a globular bodied tentacled mess. I could not make out how many. “I am Toby. Correct Salutation Commander to Commander. I am to affirm that you have contact with the Damyip?”

Behind me the turbolift doors opened letting Tippalan in. Her ears went straight up. I continued. “Yes we have contact with the Damyip?”

I could not tell what Toby was looking at. “Then I have passengers diplomatic for you if you are willing. Mechinus group AG80-77853 wishes to deal diplomatically with the Damyip. Can you accept them?”

Tippalan said: **Mechinus are one of the distant Federation member in the Builder Zone. They are machine life.**

“More machine life?”

**There it is Captain.**

I turned to the screen. “Yes...Toby” it felt weird not using an honorific. “I can accept your passengers.”

“Proper sounds of gratitude. They are ready at your will.”

I turned to Li’ira, You have the Bridge Commander. I’ll go see what we are in for. Tippalan, you’re with me.”


I got there just as the transporter was powering up. Lt Giles noted our entry. “Six total Captain.”
The transporter effect cleared to show six mechanical humanoids. Only one had any pretense of trying to look humanoid. It turned ot me, “Permission to come aboard Captain.” The voice was surprisingly warm.”

“Permission granted.”

“I am supervisor AG80-77853-A44. I answer to Afourty. The rest of my node. AG80-77853-Z86, AG80-77853-Z55, AG80-77853-H987, AG80-77853-H343, and AG80-77853-H452. We work as one unit.”

I didn’t have time to get use to the Damyip and now… “Are you a single sophant, or individuals?”

Afourty replied. “We are individual sophants, some of us are better than others at various tasks. As an ‘A’ unit my task is to seek questions. Our ‘Z’ units are computators who examine things. The ‘H’ units are physical manipulators. We have been assigned to do diplomacy with the Damyip.”

I sighed, this would be interesting.

[jayphailey]

Interesting!

I dig it.