ftp.ee.pdx.edu/2014.02.ftp.ee.pdx.edu.tar/ftp.ee.pdx.edu/pub/frp/stories/startrek/adv1/turn06

Text File | 1994-09-10 | 13KB | 251 lines

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                           Star Trek: Play by E-Mail
                              The Forbidden Years
                               Campaign Write-up
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                                 Adventure #1
                             Flight of the Phobos
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                                    Turn #6
                             Out of the Frying Pan
                                 Into the Fire
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              Copyright 1993 Jim Vassilakos / All Rights Reserved
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                                  Cast & Crew

                    ST-PBeM GameMaster   Jim Vassilakos
                            Dr. O'Neil   Mark Hammel
                        Lt. Bellasario   Alan Ward
                             Lt. T'lar   Ronnie Simonds
                    2nd Lt. Morchainte   Brian Chrisman
                         Ensign Arloch   Steve Hyatt


Stardate 6003.16 at 2220 hours: Borg cubeship, interior
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Peering inside the open portal, T'lar can see what appears to be a modified
phaser emitter of some sort. Two borgs are working on it, standing at separate
ends of the chamber, slowly cleaning away pockets of corrosion with long rods,
the ends of which are tipped in a bright purple plasma. Tsandzia's head emerges
beside her Vulcan companion's. Then the two heads duck back down as one of the
borgs looks up. He steps toward the chamber's wall, then hits some sort of
comm-unit.

"Weapons operational," states the mechanical voice.

"Weapons operational?" T'lar gapes, "They're dead."

She motions for Tsandzia to fry one while directing her own phaser fire at the
newly repaired equipment. Her beam ruptures the primary electro-plasma vein
leading into the submaster flow regulator! An astonishing shot, to say the
least. Suddenly the room's interior becomes a white-hot fireball, throwing
T'lar, Tsandzia, and Turak upwards, spiraling out the end of the conduit and
out of the Borg vessel. Gobs of boiling metal follow them as the entire conduit
begins to stretch under the stress of a serious plasma containment breach.
There is no way in hell that Gibbs or Sullivan could have survived that, T'lar
thinks to herself as she gets her tactical jets working and steadies herself.
She sees that her two companions are continuing to spiral off into space,
apparently unconscious.

T'lar winces, and opens a channel on her communicator. "Phobos... come in."

"Phobos here.... what the hell's going on, Lieutenant?"

"We got into a little scrape, Captain." T'lar takes another look at the gaping
hole in the side of the Borg vessel, plasma and reacting HPT-11 flowing out
like it was Niagara Falls. "Well... maybe not a little one. Requesting
transport."

T'lar sees the Borg ship moving father away and the Phobos moving closer. In a
moment, she realizes that Elineva must have ordered a tractor field to move
them to the stern of the ship, where she could safely drop the aft shields and
reel them into the shuttle hanger. The operation takes a few minutes, during
which Turak awakens. He's in some obvious pain, and when crewmen Harris and
Manson finally pull him free of his suit, T'lar can see the burns along his
right arm and the right side of his body where the suit couldn't completely
insulate him.

"Gak! Vabit! Zaet!" Turak screams. Now everybody knows a few Tellerite
profanities.

They put him on a stretcher and carry him and Tsandzia off to sickbay, leaving
T'lar to follow behind on foot. Once in sickbay, Tsandzia is diagnosed with a
concussion, and she awakens a few minutes later, a slightly stoned look on her
face as the medics peel the outer layers of skin off a now-sedated Turak and
spray regenerative chemicals on the soft white flesh underneath.

"Smells like bacon in here," somebody says when the medical officers aren't in
earshot.

*Beep* "Lieutenants T'lar and Morchainte to Auxiliary Control." *Click*

The Borg ship is on the main viewer when the two arrive. Even with many safety
mechanisms inoperative due to the HPT-11, the plasma breach didn't take out the
entire ship. But it did take out that conduit and a chunk of the surrounding
area.

Elineva turns around, and from the weapons indicators, T'lar can see that all
forward weapons have been armed and are currently trained on the former
conduit.

"What sort of scrape?" Elineva inquires.

Tsandzia looks toward T'lar, then back at the Captain, "Lt. T'lar, aiming to
disarm the weapon, must've hit a sensitive spot. This destroyed whatever there
was of the weapons system, and probably many other components of the ship.
Assuredly, it killed the two borg who were operating on the weapons."

T'lar gazes coolly at the Commander, "That ship is about to either fire on us
or blow up. Recommend we retreat to a safe distance, and if it does neither,
return after a few minutes, or when readings indicate it's... more prudent."
She approaches her helm station, taking a scanner reading, then adds:
"Reporting loss of team members Sullivan and Gibbs, sir."

Nien nods, thankful that the losses are no worse. A blast of that magnitude
could have taken out the entire boarding party. As it was, a 60% survival rate
is to be considered lucky.

The Phobos moves farther out. Neutrino-emissions seem to be spread out over a
wide area. LOTS of HPT-11 is escaping the ship, and the trace is down to
factor-24 (i.e., the ship is mostly a vacuum). Probably only about a third
still contains the HPT-11. That plasma fire must of chain-reacted down into the
vessel. Emissions show that there are numerous HPT-11 burns currently in
progress. A good chunk of the interior is slagging, no doubt. It does not
blow-up, however.

Tsandzia nods, "With the HPT-11 gone, we should be able to get a more accurate
scan of the ship. Perhaps we can tell if there is anybody else on the ship."

With the HPT-11 scattered in the area and radioactive fires aboard the ship,
however, it's a damn difficult scan. Tsandzia and T'lar study the readings, and
with T'lar's expertise, they can pick up some form of omega-wave subspace
signal. It seems to be emanating from an ultra-high powered transceiver nested
deep within the core of the Borg vessel. Then, suddenly, there's some sort of
"ripple" in the readings. Tsandzia remembers reading a similar ripple back in
her days with Dr. Van Dalen at Cavum Nethrys.

"Get in close. They're going to be making a hole. We have to be able to get
there when it's made."

"A hole?" Nien inquires.

"A wormhole, sir." Tsandzia briefly attempts to bring up the data she has in
the ship's computer about the research she was doing with Dr. Van Dalen. "Oh
boy... that concussion must've hit me worse than I thought. I can't remember
where I put this garbage. It's just amazing. Dr. Van Dalen was right. It is
possible." Tsandzia begins to stare in awe as she checks the readings on the
phenomena, exhaling softly. "I hope _that_ Borg ship is doing this, and...
*shudder* not some other Borg ship."

"Scanners show no other vessels," T'lar notes.

Tsandzia stops gawking for a moment, "Dr. Van Dalen was a most brilliant
scientist. He did most amazing research on space-time foam, and quantum black
hole effects. But for the large part, his research concerned the "Collision of
Infinities Theory" and how wormsholes could be artifically generated. According
to his theory, wormholes can be created by focusing a coherent omega wave
pattern tangentally to a black hole's event horizon. Imagine if you can, being
able to open a two-way door to any point in space from one particular point
nearby a black hole. The implications are astounding. We were successful in
sustaining one only for a few microseconds, and the spatial turbulence was just
raucous. Unfortunately, Dr. Van Dalen was too obsessed, and planned an
'excursion' into the wormhole. I was there to stop him, fortunately."

Tsandzia tries to coordinate the readings she's taking from the sensors with
the data she already has in order to predict what phenomena might come next,
where a 'hole' would lead to, and when precisely it would exist. It is rather
difficult, however, not merely due to the time constraint. In the first place,
her experience involved Van Dalen's work. Apparently, the Borg ship is using a
different technology (since there are no black holes in the immediate area).
Different technology, but possibly the same results. In her research, the
origin of the ripple-effect marked the point of a subspace rupture which was
the initial stage of wormhole formation. Obviously, however, she's never seen a
ripple-effect this intense. As to where any wormhole thus generated might lead,
she has no idea. In short, the question becomes, where does she think the Borg
ship is going and does she really want to hitch along for the ride?

"Their shields are still down, sir," Trozena notes. "We might be able to stop
them."

"No, you'd destroy it," Tsandzia retorts. "There really isn't much choice. I
mean, we're further from Federation space than we can possibly imagine, so to
get back, we're going to have to rely on someone other than ourselves. See what
I mean? Even if it means plunging into the heart of the Borg Collective."

T'lar raises an eyebrow, "Sir, might I point out that if we don't go through
with them, it's logical to assume we'll _never_ be able to leave this... this
'not-home' area." T'lar's face twitches slightly at the phrase, but it's the
best she can manage without more data. "I have some reason to believe we're
EXTREMELY far from Federation space. I hesitated to bring it up because of the
lack of confirming information and time constraints, and I still hesitate to do
so. Might I request you ask for more details _after_ we follow the Borg?"

Nien takes a deep gulp of air, "Okay, Lieutenant. Take us in."

The Phobos darts forward on impulse as the Borg vessel becomes encompassed by
an expanding violet sphere. Ensign Arloch enters Auxiliary Control and stares
wide-eyed at the front viewer.

"Reporting for duty, sir."

"Warp speed, now. Grab on to something, Ensign. We're going on a little ride."

"Increasing to warp five," T'lar notes, steering the Phobos directly into the
heart of the sphere. "ETA in three seconds."

The entire vessel suddenly lurches as it breaks the sphere's perimeter, and the
starscape becomes violet and wavy as do the internal lights in auxiliary
control. Then the star field disappears entirely, replaced by a vast billowing
sphere of gray-colored haze. The sphere of haze contracts, threatening to
engulf the Phobos, but T'lar maneuvers closer to the Borg Vessel, until the two
ships are almost touching one another. The move proves to be a necessary one,
as were the Phobos any larger, certainly it could not have shared the Borg
vessel's protective bubble.

"The bubble's interior surface defies scans." Tsandzia notes, her voice
suddenly deep and reverberating, "I'm reading only subspace distortion. More
than I've ever seen before."

She turns around. The entire chamber seemed blurred, as though she's wearing a
bad pair of glasses, and the shimmering violet light reminds her of an over-
crowded dance club on Eta Capricorn IX. Suddenly the bubble pops, but instead
of a starscape, there is only shimmering violet in all directions. The Borg
ship hangs lifeless, as before, but this time, Tsandzia is able to pick up a
single life reading on her sensor console.

"Looks like Turak's theory was right. There is one Borg still alive."

"Where are we?" Nien inquires, watching the forward viewer, eyes wide with a
mixture of awe and fear.

"Appears to be some sort of energy bubble. Must be huge. Scanners still not
returning a measure of the volume. Wait. I'm picking up an object. Metallic.
Cubic. Measures a little over four kilometers on a side."

Nien's jaw drops, "That would make it..."

"...over five hundred times as massive as our friend here," Tsandzia completes
the thought, glancing toward the Borg vessel.

"Distance?"

"Two hundred thousand c-secs and closing."

T'lar looks up, "ETA in under one minute."

Nien takes another deep breath, "I am, again, open to suggestions."


                      _   /|        Jim Vassilakos
                      \`o_O'        [e-mail]
                        ( )         [e-mail]
                         U          Riverside, California

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