Topic: It's All Relative (Read 14292 times)

Lieutenant_Q · « **on:** January 30, 2012, 01:41:21 pm »

Launch Site Alpha
West Texas
17 June 2013 00:11 CDT

The glow from the half-moon setting in the west filled the small cabin with a faint light, not that James Atkinson could sleep anyways. And with all that had happened earlier in the day, he should be sleeping like a baby. He had spent much of the morning giving interviews to all the Sunday Talk shows, trying to win a PR battle that, until this point, had been seen as a losing fight. The PR battle was a secondary, even tertiary battle, it hadn't occurred to him, or the board of investors behind the project that it was even necessary at the moment. They all knew that a day would come that it would be, but they were all hoping on the success of their mission to be all the PR they needed. Unfortunately the United Nations had decided that they were going to wage it now, and last week it claimed the first casualty. Their Cargo. While important to their mission, critical even. Denying their cargo was not going to prevent today's launch of the other two parts of their ship. That more than anything was what was keeping him up. Earlier last week he had gotten a phone call from an assistant to the deputy director of NASA, telling him that they were going to delay the launch of their cargo module. A half dozen calls and a couple of emails got to the heart of the reason: The United Nations. They had decided that, since the mission was the first of it's kind, that they, as the one world government, needed to have a guiding hand in it. They wanted a supervisory presence on the mission. James had told them in no uncertain terms to go to hell. For that, the United Nations had called in a few favors, and even bullied the White House to scrub the launch. A launch that he and his investors had paid quite handily for. They scrambled to find a way to get around losing the facilities at Cape Canaveral, they mostly had done so, except for what was already there. The initial plan was to launch the Engineering and Secondary Cargo Modules first, at 09:00. Followed twenty minutes later by the Command and Crew Modules. After the four Modules had connected to each other, Cape Canaveral was to launch the Extended Cargo Module, this was to occur around 13:00 EDT. After a few systems checks and a stress test, the combined freighter was to leave orbit. All that had changed now.

James ran through the various options available, some were good, some were down right terrible. The most promising option was the PR battle, and that included going on the four major Sunday shows: ABC, CBS, CNN, and FOX, to plead his case. He scored some points, especially on the FOX interview. Demographically FOX viewers were more likely to oppose anything the UN did to step on the US, more so that either of the three other networks. He was hopeful that some of the seeds he planted there would blossom into a Launch, even if it was delayed for an hour or two. Weather was becoming a problem as well, as Tropical Storm Chantal was gaining strength as it passed near the island of Hispaniola. It was forecast to either make landfall, or clip the Canaveral launch area by Wednesday, as a Category 2 storm.

A mediocre option was the courts, and his investors filed a lawsuit in the 11th Circuit Court. James knew that a court battle was likely to be a long and drawn out fight, one that was going to push back the launch for at least a month, putting them behind schedule, and over-budget.

A bad option was hauling their cargo module to this launch site. The time involved with breaking down the assembled module, and moving it to Texas would push their launch back to November at the earliest, assuming that NASA, or some other Federal Agency, didn't decide to interfere.

The last, and terrible, option, was intimidation. The freighter was designed in a way that, once the mission was complete, it could be disassembled and re-assembled into a Warship. Bullying the White House and the United Nations would be a really bad idea, but it would provide for some short term gains, at the expense of any long term relationship.

James just had to hope that the PR battle would turn in his favor. He turned over and glanced at the clock embedded in the wall above his nightstand. He sighed and turned away from it, knowing that he needed some sleep. Not a second later, his wall display lit up to inform him of an incoming message. It wouldn't ordinarily disturb him unless it was marked as urgent. He reached over to bring the message onto the screen, it was a short simple message that said to expect a phone call around 07:30 Monday to discuss the launch.

####

-09:19 CDT

"Ten.... Nine.... Eight..."

Strapped in to his chair, James went through the phone call in his mind again. They won the PR battle, but the administration was not happy about it, the NASA crew at Cape Canaveral began fueling the Ares V rocket an hour ago. It was hard to tell what they were more upset about, that they had to face the wrath of the United Nations, or that they were going to miss out on the additional launch revenue that his investors were going to provide to launch three more Extended Cargo Modules. With the money that those four launches were going to provide NASA, they could have completed the floundering Constellation project. Or maybe it was that they saw themselves being put in the back seat by a what was essentially a corporation.

"Seven... Six... Five..."

He glanced around the bridge, everyone was strapped into their chair, relaxed and waiting for the launch. There was nothing to be done at the moment, everything was being controlled from the complex's main center, the last time this freighter will be under external control for several months. They never took the time to name the freighter, some considered that a bad omen, but for James and most everyone else, it would have been a worse disaster to name it, and then rename it after they rebuilt her as the patrol ship. Currently every station on the bridge was aligned to the axis of the ship, which at the moment pointed down to the earth. When the ship is at station-keeping, or not thrusting, the stations orient themselves perpendicular to the axis, this arrangement allows the easiest movement around the ship. The current arrangement allowed for normal movement during maneuvers, but it meant a lot of climbing, and sometimes in multiple 'gee' environments.

"Four... Three... Ignition... Two..."

The whole ship began to shake as the rockets they were attached to, a variation of the STS launching rockets, ignited.

"One... Liftoff... We have liftoff."

James felt himself pushed back into the seat as they left the ground. In his mind the clock began ticking now. They had a little less than 72 hours once they reached Low Orbit to attach themselves to the engineering module, or they would fall back to the Earth and likely burn up. Their craft had the aerodynamics of a large rock, and nothing more than attitude control thrusters and what amounted to a one shot burn rocket in case they over or under shot the mark. They could not make a stable orbit with what they were launching with, and while the engineering module made it on target, they still had to make their mark. The next fifteen minutes were critical to their survival. The crew of sixty crammed into the modules undoubtedly were nervous, some for the lack of space, some for knowing just how important it was that everything goes right, and being completely helpless to do anything about it. The computers on the ship and the launch site worked in tandem as they rocketed their way up to the Stratosphere. Every second seemed like a minute as he strained beneath the gee-forces of the launch. Surprisingly even with the rocket just outside the hull, the sound levels were only slightly above normal, a steady vibration seeped into the bridge from the rocket. The altimeter beeped at every kilometer, and the beeping began to grow more rapid. Then the craft began to level out, and the beeping slowed.

"SRB separation in five seconds."

Despite being lighter than the Orbiter, the modules still needed the SRBs to push their thrust power over what was needed to counter-act the force of gravity. The SRBs did allow them to attain a slightly higher orbit than the Orbiter, before the Orbiter fired it's main engines anyways. After SRB separation, the flight became much more relaxed, as the bulk of the danger was now behind them, and the crew began slowly taking control of their craft. Orbit wouldn't be much longer now.

-09:56 CDT

The launch was a success. They had undershot their target by only 50 kilometers, something their one shot booster could adjust for with ease. They were in that burn now, they would overshoot their engine module, flip over with their attitude thrusters, and thrust back towards the rest of their ship, a not so complicated maneuver, they would be doing more of these types of maneuvers in the future, just not with a one-shot engine.

"Passing Engineering module now." Ashley Hudson, a lithe blonde at the helm station, she had weathered the launch surprisingly well for her stature. She had cut off the thrust of the one-shotter a few seconds earlier, and had already flipped them over.

"Begin braking burn."

"Braking burn commencing."

The feeling of gravity returned as they were all pushed to the burn floor, otherwise known as the back wall. On his panel, and on her screen, was their velocity relative to the engineering module, as it slowly ticked down towards zero they all grew more excited. "Cease burn in five... four... three..." The RV value reached zero, "Two... one... now!"

"Burn ceased. Relative Velocity: 2.3 meters per second. Contact with Engineering section, in fifteen minutes." Ashley leaned back in her seat and unbuckled her straps, she, like the rest of the crew was now simply floating around the cabin.

By Relative Velocity she meant that they were merely traveling 2.3 meters per second slower than the Engineering module, which was traveling at 5 KILOMETERS per second. But the first thing that everyone learned about space travel is: It's all relative.

Scottish Andy · « **Reply #1 on:** February 01, 2012, 01:36:36 pm »

Very well written but all very mysterious, since I know nothing of anything to do with this story. Set in the near future but apparently at present having nothing to do with Trek. It is current enough to have my interest though.

Curious enough to want to see where it goes. A good start, Lt. Q.

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #2 on:** February 02, 2012, 02:34:10 am »

Lunar Lagrange Point 1
19 June 2013 - 02:23 Zulu

"Braking Maneuver Complete."

James felt the pull of the ship's thrusters fade away as the gyroscope in his chair re-oriented him 'downwards'. He looked over towards Ashley, "Position report?"

Ashley had unfastened her straps but remained in her seat, "One hundred fifteen meters from Lagrange Point 1. It'll be a tighter orbit than we anticipated, but the Walkers won't have far to go."

Walkers, two-thirds of the crew were Walkers. Their sole purpose on this mission was to get the cargo out of the Extended Cargo Module, and assemble it at the L1 point. It was going to be dangerous work. Out at the L1 point the ship and her crew were outside of much of the Earth's protective Magnetic Field. Solar radiation was a concern at all times, but while the people on the freighter had the hull of the ship, specially lined to give some additional protection, all the Walkers had was their suits. Time to get them moving though, he pressed the intercom panel on his chair, "Bridge to Sickbay. We're in position. Solar activity remains normal."

A crisp response came over the ship's intercom, "Sickbay ready, radiation sensors come back green."

James nodded to himself as he toggled the intercom panel again, "Bridge to Walker Control. It's your show now, we'll keep you advised of the weather, and Sickbay will keep your people's radiation monitors under close observation."

"Acknowledged Bridge, deploying Walker Alpha now."

James pulled his station monitor towards him, to lighten the ship's load he was tripling up as science and operations officer, just as Ashley was doubling as helm and communications. It cut the bridge crew from 18, to just 6. Technically they should also have a weapons officer, but the two particle beam weapons mounted on the front of the ship for meteorite defense could easily be handled by the ship's computer, with target selection from either him or Ashley. The only department they had fully staffed was Sickbay, two Doctors, and eight Nurses. Engineering came close, with six of their normal ten, however four of them were doubling up as Walkers, not that they really needed more than one person on duty when they were at station keeping. Of the forty Walkers on board, four of them were Walker Control officers, essentially foreman, responsible for assigning the various Walkers their tasks, and keeping construction on schedule. The other 36 were divided into work sections, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. Each section was to be used in six hour shifts, 30 minutes to prep, five hours in space, 30 minutes for decontamination and medical checks. After that, they had two hours ship-board to update their work progress, make suggestions, and stand by in case of an accident. As the first of the Walkers emerged from their hatches, James opened the Extended Cargo bay doors, allowing them access to the materials they would be needing for the project.

"When are we switching to Zulu?" Ashley inquired as she settled in at her station.

James chuckled to himself, "Honestly, we did it about 2 and half hours ago."

"So, we get our relief..." She trailed off, expecting him to finish the statement.

"In about five and a half hours."

"Hmph..." She sounded annoyed, but then she perked up and looked over at him, "If that's the case, would you mind terribly if I floated on down to the Crew deck and got me some coffee?"

"Only if you bring back some for me, black." James smiled, "And don't worry, we aren't the only ones pulling an extended shift today. Micheal and Robert are pulling twelve hours themselves, by the end of the week, we'll be where we want to be in terms of shift schedule, but the next couple of days will be rough until then."

She smiled, "Back before you know it." With that she kicked herself off of her chair and towards the access door. As she reached the door, she tapped the panel aside it to open it, she barely slowed down as she went down the length of the access tube. He lost sight of her as the door swooshed shut.

"Aren't you back yet?" he said sarcastically as went about the mundane tasks of logging their journey from Earth Orbit to their current position. It had taken them just under a day after all the delays and tests were taken into account. The ship performed not quite up to her simulated norms, but they had over a month to hammer out the bugs either in her computer systems or in her physical systems. "Engineering might just want to pull their four Walkers off Walking duty a couple of times a week so they can get all that done."

The door re-opened, Ashley floated there with the two Coffee mugs. "You said something?"

James looked over as she entered the Bridge, "Hmm? Oh, talking to myself. You heard that in the corridor?"

She nodded as she handed him a mug, "Thin bulkheads."

"We had to save on weight wherever we could." James held the molded piece of plastic in his hand, similar in many respects to travel mugs found in every gas station in North America and Europe, it had several differences that made it usable in space. First, there was no noticeable hole in the top of it, instead a 'straw' that created a vacuum seal when it wasn't being used extended into the mug. Second, the mug itself was vacuum sealed. In a laboratory where they tested this thing they filled it with a carbonated liquid, they then spun and shook the mug in a centrifuge for an hour. Not a drop spilled anywhere, until they tried to open it, that is. Third, the mug was attached to a tether that could be attached to an appropriate fastener on his chair. He did just that, and then took a sip through the straw. Not an ideal way to drink something like coffee, but it did allow them to have normal fluids away from the crew deck. "Thank you, Ashley."

"Did I miss anything exciting?" She asked sarcastically, knowing full well she was only gone for three minutes.

"Paperwork, and the Walkers are about to put the first piece of the superstructure together."

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #3 on:** February 04, 2012, 11:23:58 pm »

Lunar Lagrange Point 1
24 July 2013 - 15:40 Zulu

The Crew deck rotated around the axis of the ship, providing approximately .4 G's worth of centripetal acceleration. What this meant for the crew was a place to eat, drink, and sleep without having to bear the bad morale effects of being constantly in weightlessness. While even a little bit of gravity helped morale considerably, it was less effective on some of the health issues, Bone Density for instance. They were being proactive in having everyone on board take calcium supplements, and the medical staff's other job was to determine a way to completely stop the De-calcification of the bones, continuing the work done just a few years prior by NASA on the ISS. It wasn't going to be seen as a terrible issue now, or even on the next couple of missions, but beyond that, an answer needed to be found. James sat at one of the tables in the mess room, he had his usual breakfast fare in front of him, Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Toast, and Coffee. The eggs had to be scrambled because it was really the only way they could be stored long term, and still be edible anyways. The Coffee was in a Space Mug, as he intended to take it with him to the Bridge was he was done with breakfast. There was the entire Walker Delta Section spread between three tables also in the room, and James made a mental note to find a way to allow the tables to be moved so larger groups could congregate. Unfortunately the tables in the room had to be designed so they could be used whether the Grav Deck was spinning or not. As the delicate machinery involved in rotating the deck could not withstand even a slight bit of sheering force, the Deck had to be stopped, and locked down, before the main engines could be fired. But that also meant that the tables and chairs had to have the same gryoscopes in them that were in the stations on the Bridge, and that meant they had to be fastened to the deck.

"Bridge to Captain."

James looked over to the intercom panel, sighed and put down his fork. He had finished about a quarter of his eggs, and half of his toast, and he was hoping he was going to get a chance to finish the rest of it. He wiped his face and hands and got up from his chair. Five steps later he was at the intercom panel. He noticed that Delta Section had quieted their conversation significantly as he pressed the intercom panel, not so much out of courtesy, but probably out of curiosity. "Go Ahead."

Micheal Sinclair, the Alpha Shift leader, responded immediately, "We have a solar disturbance developing, I think you'd better get up here."

James nodded, "On my way." He pressed the button again to close the channel. Since they had shifted to Zulu time, James had chosen to be the Beta Shift leader because that was daytime for the Western Hemisphere, and it made it convenient for everyone involved for him to be available should the investors, or some government official call. He walked over to his plate, ate the rest of his toast quickly, grabbed his Mug, but stopped. He noticed that Delta Section was completely quiet now, and all of them were staring at him. He smiled at them and picked up his plate, "Anyone want the rest of my eggs?"

Four hands shot up in response. He strode over to their tables and set the plate down between three of them. But before they could start at it, he grabbed the two strips of bacon off the plate, "Sorry, these are mine." He walked over to the exit and pressed the button to open the door. As he stepped through the door, he had to make a conscious effort avoid the ladder that was running parallel to the current floor. That ladder was necessary for use of the room while the engines were burning. Several strides down the corridor took him to the access cab. The only elevator on the ship, it would take him up to the center of the Grav Deck and allow him access to the rest of the ship, while the Grav Deck was spinning it was the only way into or out of it. He ate his bacon in the cab, which allowed him to use his now free hand to push himself up the access shaft to the Command Module. Two minutes after the call he was floating into the Bridge. "Report."

Micheal started to respond but a flash from the main screen cut him off.

"Was that a flare?!"

Micheal looked back at the monitor he was floating next to, "Yes, sir. And it's heading right for us."

James had managed to float over to the command station in that short amount of time, and was already slamming his fist down on the intercom panel, "Bridge to Walker Control. We've got a flare heading straight for us, get your people back in here now!"

"Oh for f*cks sake!", came the response.

"Excuse me?"

"Not ten minutes ago one of our suits had a malfunction. Her thruster pack is completely disabled. Her partners are trying to get her back in, but I don't think I can get her in here in fifteen minutes." Fifteen Minutes, everyone on board knew that if a flare was coming their way, they could have as little as fifteen minutes to take shelter. Now one of the Walkers was potentially stuck outside.

"You get her in here. I don't care what you have to do. What rules you have to break. I don't care if that suit ever works again, you get her in here in fifteen minutes."

"Aye, sir."

James turned his attention back to Micheal, and then realized that Micheal was the only other one on the Bridge at the moment, he started to ask the question, but Micheal anticipated the question, "Continuing the report, Robert is down in the armory preparing a probe for launch, he should be ready..."

"Armory to Bridge. Probe is ready."

James nodded, and Micheal pressed the button to launch the probe. "If the Flare launched its wave of protons at the speed reported in the January 2005 event, we'll get warning of that 30 seconds before impact."

James toggled the intercom, "Bridge to Sickbay. Prepare yourselves for a radiation storm." he toggled the channel to a second line, "Bridge to Engineering. How long can you give me one-oh-five?"

"About 40 hours sir. Are we going to be needing it?"

"Most likely George, most likely." James toggled the channel one more time, "All hands, this is the Captain." He heard his voice reverberate through the ship, "An approaching flare, along with a Coronal Mass Ejection, is putting our work on hold for the time being. Once the flare hits us, we should be through the effects of it in about twenty minutes, but the CME is right on it's tail and we expect that to hit us only a few hours after the flare. All hands are to report to the radiation bunkers. We're going to be putting our radiation screen to the test here, and if it holds up, you'll be free to go back to your business. Captain out."

"Captain, three more Walkers have left the ship."

"Probably trying to do whatever they can to get her in here before the time expires."

"Indeed, the three of them have stopped roughly 25 meters from the cargo bay doors, and apparently have some sort harness, or a net with them. They are pulling it tight between them."

James looked over at the door as it opened to admit Ashley and Robert. "What about the stricken suit?"

"She's currently 23 minutes from the bay doors. They'll have to increase her speed somehow."

James looked up at the countdown timer, twelve minutes remained on it, then he looked back at the side monitor. "I think the netting is going to be there to stop her, but I don't see what's going to stop the net." As he spoke those words, a thruster flare ignited from the back of the stricken suit.

"They've punctured her thruster pack! Her two partners are applying thrust away from the ship. They're trying to keep her from getting out of control. The other Walkers, now six of them, are all holding the net and thrusting towards them. She'll now be on board in seven minutes."

"And undoubtedly with some broken bones," James punched the intercom panel again, "Bridge to Sickbay, prepare for incoming wounded."

"What's going on?"

"Nine of our Walkers are about to go splat against the cargo bay wall."

"I'll get a triage post set up outside of the cargo bay."

"Good, let's hope it's just bumps and bruises."

The next six minutes felt like an eternity, but with each passing minute the four of them began to relax, they saw the plan, they knew it wasn't going to be pretty. But they also knew that it was her only chance. The sudden change in direction that they were going to have forty seconds before the cargo bay doors was going to seriously hurt the six of them, but the final impact forty-five seconds later could kill all nine of them. Then suddenly the entire ship shuddered, maneuvering alarms sounded, and decompression sirens wailed.

"Captain," Robert looked at the operations station quizzically, "The fire suppression system in the cargo bay just activated. But the entire cargo bay is now exposed to vacuum."

James flipped the main screen to the cargo bay camera, a large white blob grew smaller on the screen as it flew out the cargo doors. He smiled as he realized what just happened, "He pressurized the cargo bay, engaged the fire suppression system and then forced open the bay doors without depressurizing. He's hoping to provide a sort of cushion to break her fall. What did we lose?"

Robert shook his head, "Nothing except the foam has left the cargo bay, he must have gotten everything else tied down. But the foam's not that massive." As he spoke the foam cloud impacted the six Walkers and the net, which caught the stricken suit and the two guidance suits at almost precisely the same time.

James looked over, "Well?"

"All I can tell you is that they are inside the ship."

James sighed, "Alright then. Shields up."

Captain Sharp · « **Reply #4 on:** February 05, 2012, 12:11:21 pm »

Uh, dude...this is good!

Keep it up!

I like the level of detail. Precise but without slowing down 'the action'. The bit with the Walker coming back with a damaged suit was inspired. You've set a great pace, established a good level of realism, and its still entertaining as hell to read.

Bravo!

--The Guv!

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #5 on:** February 05, 2012, 09:26:31 pm »

"Radiation levels dropping! We're through the flare!"

The tone of relief in Robert's voice match what James had only partially felt. The ship and crew made it through the flare wave without triggering a single radiation alarm, but there were other things on his mind. "Compile a damage report, I'll be in Sickbay." Without another word he unfastened his straps and shot towards the exit. The Magnetic Field Generator had apparently done it's job, he could have waited for the details, but he had people in Sickbay that could be dead or alive, and he had to find out. The trip from the Bridge to Sickbay was very short, in fact, the two rooms were almost adjacent to one another. Sickbay was a Cylindrical room, wrapped around the central core of the ship, the main holding area was at the beginning of the room, while just out of sight around the core was the Doctor's offices, and further beyond that was the Intensive Care Unit and the Surgical Theatre. When he entered the room, he saw twelve people laid out in various positions around the room, some were simply floating in place, others were fastened to a bed. Nurses moved back and forth like fish darting in an aquarium. One noticed him and floated towards him.

"Space Sick, Captain?"

A female voice from around the core interrupted him, "He's not here for treatment, Arian, he's here for a report." Doctor Elliot floated into view, "Am I right, Captain?"

He fixed her with a somber stare and nodded.

"Six cases of Space Sickness, and one minor concussion. Radiation levels inside the ship didn't move so much as a RAD. Exterior levels were high enough to kill anyone outside, but the hull plating took care of that." She beckoned him towards her. "As for the Walkers..."

They had floated towards the end of the room, and stopped just outside the entry to the ICU, "The good news is that they are all alive, and that three of them only suffered some bumps, bruises, contusions and lacerations. I've sent them to their quarters for the rest of the day. Of the other six, we have: fifteen broken bones, nine cracked ribs, four concussions, three punctured lungs, two torn rotator cuffs, and one ruptured spleen." She opened the door to the ICU, "I don't even know how Steven is still alive, but I have him stable. But if I don't operate on him in forty-eight hours, he'll die."

James narrowed his eyes, "Then operate."

She closed her eyes, "I can't."

James felt a wave of fury well up within him, "What do you mean, 'you can't'? Is it beyond your ability?" She shook her head, "Do you not have the equipment?" Again she shook her head. "Then what?!"

She drew a long breath, "I can't perform the surgery in micro-gravity."

James stopped for a moment and looked back at Steven, then back to her, "How much gravity do you need?"

"Some. It doesn't have to be a lot, one-fifth, one-fourth."

James blinked, "How long is the surgery?"

"Three to five hours. I can do some of it in micro-gravity, but two to three hours of it has to be with some gravity."

He closed his eyes for a moment, running the available options through his head, of the four they had, one was thrown out immediately because of the approaching CME, "We can't get him back to Earth."

She shook her head in agreement, "I don't even think he'd survive re-entry."

"The other problem we have is the CME is going to make it a rough ride, You probably can't perform surgery during that." She nodded, "And since we don't know how long we're going to be in for that rough ride..." he trailed off as he eliminated two of the three remaining options. "Care to perform surgery on the Lunar surface?"

"That's not a good option."

"But it's our only one right now." James floated over to the intercom panel, "Captain to Department heads, conference room, ten minutes." He closed the intercom, "We'll see about getting you a proper theatre set up down there."

Scottish Andy · « **Reply #6 on:** February 07, 2012, 01:08:59 pm »

Very good stuff, Q! I second the Guv's comments in reply to the previous section. I am quite curious as to the purpose of all this, but it is moving along well, and the hazards and obstacles facing them are believable and well done.

Looking forward to more.

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #7 on:** February 07, 2012, 09:46:09 pm »

(Thank you for the comments, I've had to break up this part a bit more than I would have liked to, but the purpose will begin to come into focus here, and soon, quite soon, we'll start to see it integrate into... well... pre-Trek? I guess is a word for it?)

James laid out Steven's dilemma to all the department heads: all four Walker Section Leaders, Chief Engineer George Wood, Doctor Sue Elliot, and Micheal Sinclair. He let it sink in for a moment before continuing. "Because of various issues, most due to the approaching CME, we have thrown out the options of taking him back to Earth, operating on the Grav Deck, or operating while under power. We have the parts that will eventually become the space station's Infirmary, I propose that we take those parts, and assemble them on the lunar surface. If we assemble it on the dark side of the moon, we can avoid the worst of the CME, and Dr. Elliot can perform her surgery."

Juan Menedez, Beta Walker Leader, raised his hand first, "Why not just assemble it to the station and use our radiation shields to protect it?"

George shook his head, "Won't work, the shields could be extended far enough to provide protection for the station, but I'd have no power left for anything else, including life support. Also, the station's power plants aren't with us, the first one is scheduled to come here on our next mission."

Dr. Elliot added her disapproval, "It also doesn't give me the gravity I need for the operation."

Micheal spoke up, "We'd have to provide some shielding for the surgical room. Even on the dark side, radiation levels are going to be near lethal levels."

George nodded, "Shielding a small area is a lot easier than trying to shield us and the station. I can set up our Auxiliary Power Unit and hook it up to a small magnetic field generator. It won't cover much, maybe fifty, sixty cubic meters. We'll be a little tight for power up here, I can probably rig up a solar collector to run temporarily for at least a little power boost. We've got the parts from the stations emergency power systems that we were going to install once the central core was complete."

"Now the question that needs to be asked," James looked at everyone here, "Can we get this built in forty hours?"

George smiled, "I was tinkering with a small field generator already, was planning on installing it on one of our launch crafts. I can have that ready within an hour."

Ammanda Willard, Alpha Walker Leader, also grinned, "That'll be the easy part, we were expecting to have the Infirmary assembled in thirty-four hours, in micro gravity. Give us a bit of gravity, an we'll have it done in half that time!"

James nodded, "Anything else?" The room was silent, "Alright then. Let's get this done." He pressed the intercom button on the table between them, "Ashley, take us to the dark side."

#####

Lunar Orbit
24 July 2013 - 17:51 Zulu

"It's been over 40 years since anyone's been this close."

James stared at the screen and pondered what Ashley had just said. They were crossing the terminator into lunar night, "The cost of return was extremely expensive. It still is."

"Yet we're doing it."

James smiled as he turned his complete attention to her, "We're doing it because we have some investors who want to engrave their names in history. But there are some business opportunities out here, if you know where to look for them." He sighed, "And whenever you have a government agency doing anything, you can immediately bump the price tag of that item by forty percent. Easy. Or they do it for what would be considered market value, but it's done with so many corners cut, that you have to wonder how long it will last."

"How long will what we're doing last?" She was baiting him, and he could tell by the tone of her voice. They didn't always agree, especially on politics.

"Many things could affect how long it will last. If what we're doing is maintained well by our successors, the station could be around for several hundred years. Although I suspect it will be obsolete long before then. A rogue asteroid could hit it. Aliens could come in and blow it up. A space storm could tear it to pieces. Whether we, or a government built it, it will last the same amount of time in those cases. But if it isn't prematurely taken out of existence by forces outside of our control, I would imagine that our great-great-great grandchildren might one day tour the station as a museum."

She snorted, "You expect Klingons to come in and blow it up?"

"If Klingons exist, I would expect them to try to blow it up. Unless it was so obsolete it wasn't worth wasting a torpedo on it," he retorted.

Their conversation was interrupted by the intercom, "Launch bay to Bridge. Launch Crafts one and two are ready for launch."

James pushed the intercom button, "We're set up here, we've got roughly an hour before the CME hits. Get down there and get that field generator set up." He pressed another button on the panel, "Cargo bay."

"Menedez here."

"You ready down there?"

A pause came before her response, "I've got everything related to the Infirmary near the doors. Once they get back up, I've got volunteers from Gamma, along with my boys ready to load up the external mounts on the launch craft. We'll get it all down there in two trips."

"Good, the quicker we make this transfer the better." James pressed the button again, "Sickbay."

"Go ahead."

"It will take them two trips to get all of the Infirmary down there. You said you'd need a trip just for your equipment, and then one for you, your nurses and your patient. It will be cutting it close, but you'll have to be down there while they're assembling it. And depending on the size and strength of the storm, we could be out of communication with you for a day, maybe even longer."

"We'll have supplies for us and the Walkers to last us three days. I won't even be able to move Steven for at least a day following his surgery. So being out of contact just means that some of us might get a little bored."

"Bored and nervous. Good luck Doctor."

Captain Sharp · « **Reply #8 on:** February 08, 2012, 06:25:50 pm »

Two more good installments.

The surgery it is a good addition.

--The Guv

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #9 on:** February 10, 2012, 10:48:31 pm »

Earth Orbit
2 September 2013 - 16:12 Zulu

Construction Log, 2 September 2013. Despite the interference of the Coronal Mass Ejection event and its accompanying detour, construction of the first phase of Station L-1 went as smoothly as possible. We only arrived in Earth Orbit two days later than we were anticipating. The Station's super-structure, Infirmary and one docking arm are complete. The station also has minimal life-support, being powered by the solar panels that we installed at the end of the mission. The crew is looking forward to the four weeks of down time. I know I am as well. Of all the Walkers, only Steven and Elise are not re-upping. Steven because of his injuries, and Elise because she feels responsible for Steven's injuries. Re-supplying the ship will take about two weeks, and we'll receive our next Extended Cargo Section at a launch from Cape Canaveral on or around the 1st of October. NASA and the White House both promised that the launch would be free of political entanglements, a bit surprising given the general level of chaos around the planet. But that promise comes at a small price, and I have a meeting on that subject later today.

"We going to have a full crew this next time?"

Ashley had waited patiently for James to finish entering the log entry, but as soon as he had put down the PDA she spoke up. James shook his head, "We'll have a fuller crew, but we won't be full up this time around. The next construction mission is actually a short one. Crew areas, one of the six reactors, and of course, the #2 cargo bay."

The two of them were waiting in the launch bay, Ashley was going to remain on the ship, while James went down to deal with the administrative end of things. He planned on being down on the surface for a fortnight, before coming back to allow Ashley to have some time off. "What do you think the Pentagon wants?"

"I'm not sure, I know they are going to expect me to be a bit appreciative that they've allowed our launches, but I don't think they really realized that we could have, and still will, if we have to, launch our own ECMs."

She frowned at him as the light above the launch bay door turned green, "Don't step on too many toes."

He winked back at her as he pulled himself through the door, "Now where would the fun be in that?"

Pentagon - 10:00 EDT

Three layers of security brought him deep into the bowels of the Pentagon for, what was being described to him, as an eye-only meeting. Upon his arrival in a meeting room in one of the sub-basements of the Pentagon, he found himself alone with three other people. One, a three-star General, motioned for him to sit down across from the other two, a Major and a Captain. "Thank you for joining us, Mr. Atkinson."

James nodded, "Thank you for having me, General." He took the offered seat and looked at the other two officers, "I assume that this meeting has something to do with my station."

The man nodded, "It does. May I introduce, Captain Samantha Carter, theoretical physicist, and quite possibly the smartest person in the country. And Major Shaun Christopher, Space Warfare Division."

James nodded to both of them, "Captain, Major."

Carter spoke first, "We were all following your construction mission very closely."

Christopher nodded, "And it gave us some ideas as to what we could do."

The General picked up a remote from the table, "One of those ideas involves using your station as a staging post, for missions deeper into the fringes of the solar system." He pressed a button and the lights dimmed, a projector provided the lighting for the room now. The slide on the screen looked similar to what his freighter was going to look like after the final conversion, but much bigger. "This is what we're calling an Explorer class Starship. As you can see, we took some basic ideas from your freighter, and designed it for a long duration mission."

Christopher folded his hands in front of him, "Of particular importance we paid attention to the way you assembled not the station, but your freighter in orbit. We'd done similar things in the past, but never with something so massive as your freighter. You proved it could be done, and we've started thinking about assembling a ship like that."

Carter stepped in, "But a problem with something as expensive as this ship, is that we can't be assured that it will make it up, and then stay in orbit long enough to assemble to get it to a safer orbit. Now if we can get the pieces to your station, we can assemble it there."

James nodded, "We can coordinate in advance to have our picket ship be waiting to tow the parts to the station."

The General sat down, "We have some slight funding in the Fiscal Year 2014 Budget, which started yesterday. But we won't be able to really get moving on the construction until Fiscal Year 2015, assuming we can wrangle the funding from the Pentagon's continuously shrinking budget. In the meantime, I'd like to request that Captain Carter and Major Christopher be assigned to your ship for your next mission. They can be observers, or they can be active members of your crew, but we'd like to have them on-board.

"I think we can arrange that. But, about your budget, I thought with Iran stirring up all kinds of trouble in the Middle East, that shrinking your budget would be the last thing they'd want to do."

"You've been out of the loop for a bit. Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Libya, Syria. They've all ceased to exist as independent nations. The entire Middle East region has come under the control of one man. The Ayatollah Khomeini called him the twelfth Imam. We currently know him only as Khan."

Starfox1701 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 11, 2012, 04:06:08 pm »

Nice so I'll ask the obvious question so is that THE Cap Carter or did you just filch the name and brain?

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #11 on:** February 11, 2012, 08:27:41 pm »

"By using the engines to slow ourselves on the descent, we reduce the amount of friction that builds up on the exterior of the Launch Craft. Which reduces the heat build up, which in-turn keeps our between flight maintenance overhauls down to a minimum." James was explaining to Major Christopher and Captain Carter the design features of the Launch Craft while they were taking the ride up to the freighter. The three of them were alone on the shuttle, after he came down a week prior in the shuttle alone. "Currently we have two Launch Craft, we'll be getting two more for the next mission, which we'll leave at the station at the end of the mission."

Captain Carter looked over the controls in front of her, "How many times can they handle the atmosphere interface between overhauls?"

"Twenty to thirty, depends on how rough each one is. Generally the craft is inspected upon return, and any re-entry damage is noted. If the damage takes it beyond the threshold, the shuttle is taken out of service and refurbished. We can do it from a small machine shop on board."

Shuan looked eager to take the controls, he had looked eager the whole trip, "What's the range?"

James shrugged, "Short. We can make orbit, but not break it. If we had a full fuel load, and were as light as we are now, we could make the trip to the station, but it would take the better part of a week as we would have to drift there. The problem is, most of the fuel is used in making orbit, there's very little left to break orbit. It takes about 60% of a full tank just to make orbit, to descend from orbit takes about 15%, and breaking orbit costs another 25%."

"That's a full fuel load."

"But that doesn't count braking at the station. Sure we could break orbit, but we couldn't stop when we got to our destination."

Sam glanced over to him, "But that's just Earth."

James nodded, "Of course. Making Lunar Orbit is different than making Martian Orbit, which is different than making Earth Orbit. The amount of gravity from the planet itself is a major factor. You could fly from the moon, to Earth, or from the station, to Earth in a short amount of time, not using a whole lot of fuel, but the return trip would be near impossible." James fired the braking rocket as the freighter came into view through their canopy, "It's easier, and far more comfortable, to dock with a larger ship for those types of runs though."

The Launch craft slowed as it approached the underside of the ship. James spotted the docking arm that was extended and waiting for him. His job was to get the shuttle lined up as close to the arm as possible. Once there, the freighter would fire a series of magnetic grapplers that would pull the shuttle in the final couple of meters. He had done this several times in a simulator, but this was his first attempt for real. His eyes stayed closely on the RV indicator, and the distance to target readout, so closely that he never looked out the window to take in the view. Carter and Christopher did though, and they were speechless as they watched it grow larger and larger, until it filled their entire view. He cut the engines completely and felt the successive thumps of the grapplers striking the hull. They were pulled into the ship, and the launch doors were closed behind them. Now they just had to wait for the launch bay to re-pressurize.

"You're going to meet the helmsman and first officer for a brief couple of minutes, then she has to run down to the surface to take care of a few items before she comes back up." James unfastened his straps and smiled at them as the indicator light went green. "All aboard."

They unfastened their own restraints and pushed their way carefully towards the exit hatch, it opened with a press of a button and they found themselves looking around as the engineering crew began a look over of the craft. Fuel lines were attached, temperature probes were swept across the craft, even the small cargo section was opened and a stock of its inventory was taken. The three of them floated past them towards the decontamination chamber. Decontamination was the most important aspect of the ship, it tried to ensure that no one brought into the enclosed spaces of the ship, anything that could be considered dangerous or deadly. They hovered in the small room as they waited for the decontamination cycle to complete, once the light turned green, the door to the rest of the ship unlocked with a click.

James was the first one to float through the door, where Ashley was waiting for them. "Permission to come aboard?"

She smiled at him, "Granted. You have guests, I see."

James motioned to the next person to emerge, "Major Shaun Christopher."

She looked at him, "Shaun Geoffrey Christopher?"

He smiled, "Yes. And to answer your next question, yes my father was stationed at the Kansas Airbase, no, he did not launch on a mission to intercept a UFO in 1966."

She grinned, "That you know of."

He shrugged, and moved to the side. James looked back, suppressing a grin, "Captain Samantha Carter."

Ashley looked at her, "THE Captain Carter?"

Sam didn't look amused, "I graduated just before Stargate, the movie, first premiered. I was a First Lieutenant, when the series went on the air. I could have been the basis for the character, but the creators never bothered to talk to me about it."

"Launch bay to Commander Hudson. The Launch Craft is ready for you."

Ashley looked back to James, "All the uneventful and most boring details of the last week are tediously transcribed in the ship's computer. I hope your week up here is more interesting than mine was." She smiled at him, then turned to the other two, "Major, Captain, a pleasure." She pushed herself towards the airlock, turned back at the entrance and winked at them, "Have fun!"

James shook his head as she closed the door behind her, "I'm sure you two get that all the time. Must make meeting people interesting."

Sam laughed, "I'm actually surprised you didn't ask the questions. You're one of the first to not do it."

He shrugged, "I knew someone was, so I knew I could wait until then."

Captain Sharp · « **Reply #12 on:** February 14, 2012, 05:57:55 pm »

Love how you're telling an independant tale, and dancing around references to TOS and Stargate.

Keep it up man. You got my attention.

--The Guv

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #13 on:** February 15, 2012, 01:31:53 am »

Earth Orbit
15 September 2013 - 18:12 Zulu

The two Air Force officers had been on the ship for only a couple of days, and already it was an easy guess as to where to find them. Captain Carter would be in Engineering, while Major Christopher would be on the Bridge. If Carter wasn't in Engineering, she'd be in the ship's science lab. If Christopher wasn't on the Bridge, they'd have to put out a missing persons report. James stopped just outside of the Engineering compartment, grabbed a radiation badge and affixed it tightly to his jumpsuit. Confident he'd know a few seconds before hand if there was any trouble, he pried open the Engineering door. Engineering was not a place he frequented very often, not because he was scared of the large Nuclear Fission Reactor that provided power for the entire ship, but because it was such a long way away from the rest of the ship. In the ship's present configuration, there was nothing more than an access corridor and docking clamps for the 175 meters between the ship's primary cargo bay and the Engineering section. Contrast that with the size of the Command and Crew Compartments, which was only 60 meters long, total, and one can understand why it's a seldom visited area. When the ship is transformed into a Warship, the entire connecting corridor will be removed and used for the sixth and final docking arm for the station, and the ship will be shrunk down to just over 125 meters in length. James ducked into the main engineering room, and found the five people he expected to find. Sam was in the office looking over something on the computer, George and two technicians were hovering by the reactor's control panels, chatting it up, while the last technician was checking and re-stocking a tool cart. George noticed James enter and waved his technicians away. "Captain, not like you to come down here."

"I don't usually like to disrupt the way you work down here. Not that I'd really know anything about what goes on behind that shield over there."

George chuckled, "I could give you a crash course in Nuclear Physics."

James shook his head, "Another time perhaps." He looked over to the office, and noticed that, if Sam had noticed his entry, she wasn't showing it. He lowered his voice, "At just prior to Nineteen-hundred hours, we're going to rendezvous with an Air Force X-37B. I need you to transfer its cargo to our bay."

George scratched his chin, "That's not going to be a lot of cargo. The X-37B can't carry all that much."

James nodded, "No, but it is carrying two prototype rail guns, and a thousand rounds of ammunition. We're going to replace those next-to-worthless particle cannons, and do some prototype testing for the Air Force."

"How did you pull that off?"

James stabbed a thumb in Sam's direction, "While I was meeting our two officers, one of the RnD teams at the Pentagon offered me the deal. Since they have no way of testing them in space yet, and they're technically bound by a treaty that prevents them from doing so anyways, they wanted us to test them. All they are is sealed versions of the rail guns the Navy developed a couple years ago. We test them for the Pentagon, we give them the report, and we get to keep them after the test. If China or someone else cries foul, the Pentagon will simply claim we either stole them, or reverse-engineered them."

George smiled, "Nice. It's a shame about the particle cannons though, I wish we could have found a way to make them work."

James shrugged, "We still might. But it's obvious that we need to refine a way of delivering the particles to the target. Our current method just wasn't cutting it. It would diffuse itself far too quickly."

"Well, I'll keep tinkering with it." George looked back over to the office, "Anything else? Is this supposed to be a secret?"

James shook his head, "Not really. Just wanted you to know the real story, because the story the two of them are getting will mesh with what the Pentagon will claim should there be a problem. If something does happen, the less they know about what really transpired the better off they are."

"Why are we taking directions from the Pentagon, anyways?"

"Why not?" James turned to head out, "There's no disadvantage for us in following it. Besides, we will probably need some cruise missiles eventually, what better place to get them from?"

George nodded, "Where are you off to now?"

"The Bridge, I'm going to have to keep Major Christopher distracted during the transfer."

Scottish Andy · « **Reply #14 on:** February 16, 2012, 12:35:48 pm »

Quote

If Christopher wasn't on the Bridge, they'd have to put out a missing persons report.

Funny.

I love that you have your Samantha Carter not be the Samantha Carter; it just makes your story very cool and more "real".

I second the Guv's... um, Cap'n Sharp's previous comments.

I was about to get all pedantic on your arse and say that Turkey-Syria-Iraq-Iran is separated from Egypt-Libya by Israel-Jordan-Lebanon-Arabia -- not to mention being on a seperate continent -- but realised just in time to save face that you listed merely a few examples of the whole Middle East (and Africa). Phew! Glad I didn't look like an idiot there. Wait, did I type that in my outside voice?

Now that we have Khan and Shaun Christopher and mentions of Stargate and Klingons, we're really getting into the swing of things! Good stuff mate, keep it up.

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #15 on:** February 16, 2012, 03:11:48 pm »

It'll be a few days before I post a new segment, so I figured I'd take the couple of minutes I have here to respond directly.

First off, Thank you to all of you the read this. And a special thank you to those of you giving the feedback.

Khan: It occurred to me a few years ago that Khan could very well have been a "product of late twentieth century engineering" and still not be a player in global politics until the mid-21st century. After all, you have to be born first. So I figured that Khan and his followers are a part of a secret Iraqi program developed by Saddam Hussein in the mid 1990s in an effort to counter the Western Allies technological superiority. Khan mentions 1996 because, well, he was BORN in 1996. That puts him at 17 right now, a bit young by our standards, but he is smarter, and stronger than the average human. During a reading of Napoleon Bonaparte's Biography I caught something that stuck with me, something that men of that stripe seem to do very often. Napoleon is purported to have said, (paraphrasing now) I will be a Protestant today, a Muslim tomorrow and a Catholic next week, if it gets me closer to my goals. Khan is a very charismatic individual, much like Napoleon and Hitler before him, I could easily see him adopting the Muslim facade of being the 12th Imam. That said, the Eugenics War will be a side show, not the prime focus of this story.

Shaun Geoffrey Christopher: As Star Trek does indeed exist as Pop-culture in this story, it is hard to say whether or not Shaun's parents watched the episode Tomorow is Yesterday, and decided if that was a great name for the boy they will have later on or not. He is THE Shaun Geoffrey Christopher, the ship at the Pentagon briefing is the USS Lewis and Clark, which will be his ship that he takes to Saturn in 2020. So... what would his name have been had Tomorrow is Yesterday not been aired? Obviously he'd still be Major Christopher, but...

The Station: As public funding for items like NASA dwindled with the growing deficit crisis, private investors begin to take up the slack. We already see examples such as SpaceX and Virgin Intergalatic. But these are all basically retreads of existing technology. The inevitable increase in taxation, and regulations that will occur to try to close this deficit gap, push people to make investments away from the long arm of the Federal Government. But despite the best efforts, there is still need for raw materials. The Station is designed to be a way station for a new breed to industry. Asteroid Mining. Raw Materials are relatively exposed, and once you build the ship, the costs of getting the materials out of the rocks out there comes down considerably. The Station is in a lot of ways like how Deep Space Nine started it's life, as an ore-processing center with a bit of commercial interests on the side. The flare up of the Eugenics War will push more investment into the safety of space.

More to come, just have way too busy of a weekend on tap to put any more up right now.

Captain Sharp · « **Reply #16 on:** February 18, 2012, 09:08:02 pm »

I like this story premise. Kinda/not really Trek. Take what ya wanna use, leave the rest. Works for me.

Sometimes, I think Star Trek: Enterprise should have doen more of that, broken the mold. But retconning your franchise wasn't cool yet.

Anyway, keep on diggin, I'll keep on readin.

--The Guv (yup, still using this sig[y'all gave it to me])

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #17 on:** February 19, 2012, 11:22:33 pm »

Station L-1
1 November 2013 - 22:15 Zulu

"Relative Velocity now, one meter per second. Docking arm one is one-three-seven meters and closing."

James glanced over to Shaun, "Are we lined up, Commander?"

Shaun Christopher looked over the operations station again. He was given the Naval rank of Commander while he was on-board, just as Samantha Carter was given the Naval Rank of Lieutenant Commander, "Not quite, but if we reduce speed to point-two five meters per second in one and a half minutes, we'll have a perfect soft dock in about three minutes."

"That's the plan." Ashley didn't turn towards them, instead keeping her focus on her controls.

James toggled the intercom panel, "All hands, prepare for docking." He switched it back off, "Remember that there is no life-support on the station yet. We tried to turn it on remotely but any number of things could have gone wrong, from a mis-installed battery, to a faulty receiver, to a bad connection from the solar array to the battery."

Sam piped in from the science station, "Not that there's much of anywhere to go on the station anyways, yet."

"True, and even after this mission there won't be many places to go. We'll get the Reactor Control Room installed, one corridor between there and the Infirmary, the rest of the upper superstructure, and Reactor number one installed."

Shaun leaned back as they slowed to point-two-five, "Doesn't seem like much on this mission."

James nodded, "Yes, and this will be one of the quicker missions up here. The problem with this mission was that the reactor just takes up so much space, We'll have five more just like it. But fortunately for us, all the structural work will be done after this mission, the rest is just filling the station out, making it livable, and equipping it to do it's job."

"How many missions are left?" Shaun turned his attention back to his monitor, but was still engaged in the conversation.

"Fourteen."

"I still don't understand why you need six reactors. Even with everything you're putting on the station, three reactors would be plenty." Sam had asked this question twice before, hoping for a different answer this time, maybe, what she thought might be the truth, as if she suspected that they were hiding something from them.

"Yes, three would be plenty. But, ships will want to power their reactors down for maintenance while they are docked, we'll need to provide them power for life-support and anything else they need left running while its down. We'll need to have reactors down periodically for their own maintenance. We could probably make do with four, but if we needed full power output, like say for shielding, while servicing a ship or two, suddenly we'd be short power, and in a world of hurt. Also, six reactors allows us to lose a reactor, without needing to decide what we need to cut off, while we are quite possibly facing a serious crisis. Plus, the extra power allows for future developments that might be even more power-hungry than what we already have."

The ship came to a stop, "Hard seal! Docking complete." Ashley leaned back in her seat, "Pressurizing docking arm."

James unfastened his straps, "Alright, Sam, Shaun, if you'd care to join me, we'll see if we can track down the fault in the life-support system, while the Engineering and Walker crews get started on unloading the reactor."

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #18 on:** February 21, 2012, 02:57:50 pm »

"Seal check."

Shaun and Sam both flashed a thumbs up as they put their helmets on. The three of them "stood" at the airlock entrance to the station, each of them had a tool kit in their hands as they waited to be the first to board the station.

"Docking arm pressure now 800 mb. You can open the door without a problem now." Ashley's voice came over their in suit speakers, "Good luck."

James pressed the button that now flashed green for them on the panel attached to the airlock. The twin doors parted slowly, the three of them felt the air push them out the door. They weren't completely in sync pressure-wise. The internal pressure of the ship was just over 1000 mb. The resulting pressure gradient pushed air, and them out into the docking arm, but there was no danger for them or the ship from such a small gradient. They began their push through the station arm. They all wore the space suits because there were sections that they were going to be traveling through and to, that were completely exposed to vacuum, and the ship's life support would have trouble getting the currently habitable sections, the enclosed sections, up to livable standards. The docking arm looked like a corridor or a hallway that you'd expect to see on Earth. Sam had the first question, "Why did you make it up like this?"

"Psychological. We could have made it a zero-g tunnel that had no floor, no ceiling. But we decided that this was going to be the first thing a traveler saw when they got here, better to give them something that they're familiar with, rather than completely blow their mind with a zero-g tunnel. Some of them will be having enough stress inducing things to deal with as it is, lets not throw their perspective off too."

"What did we just pass through?" Shaun looked back at an odd looking protrusion from both walls.

"Security systems, eventually. They are installed, but there's no power to them yet. That particular one was a metal detector." James paused for a second, "At the end of the tunnel there's a security station, where someone will be at all times monitoring those coming and going onto the station. The metal detector themselves, and the chemical sniffer ahead, and the two other stations beyond that, they don't make any noise to alert anyone that they've detected something, but the security station will have it noted, and based on what it sees, they can decide if its worth a search."

"You have a body scanner here?"

James chuckled at Shaun's question, "No." After a scathing report late last year indicated that the so-called "naked body scanners" were not as safe as the manufacturers let on, they were summarily ripped out of every airport in North America, the TSA almost lost their funding in FY2013 over the coverup, and only maintained their FY2014 funding by three votes in the house. "The closest thing to a body scanner is imaging cameras, very good ones at that. They can detect slight bulges in clothing as it shifts. Decontamination procedures ensure that it would shift enough that if someone was trying to secret something onto the station, the cameras would see it."

Sam grabbed a hand hold on the wall and came to a stop, "Did you hear that?!"

Shaun and James both stopped their conversation and listened for a moment. After a few heartbeats they both said, "No."

Sam pushed herself slowly down the corridor, "I swear I heard something."

James came up along side her, "What did it sound like?"

"Like metal, bending."

"It is the first time this tube has been pressurized, it's bound to have some settling in effects." James shrugged, but no one noticed in his suit, "Besides, if it does open up on us, we're fine, we've got thruster packs, we can make our way back to the ship."

The three of them wordlessly floated to the end of the tunnel, where a second airlock awaited them. They were all keen on listening to hear if there was any more 'settling' that the station wanted to do, but they didn't hear anything. The panel on the airlock door glowed red, indicating that a hard vacuum awaited them on the other side. "This is also where the power ends." James reached over to the wall and pushed in a panel, it slid down and exposed a large lever and a few indicator lights. He pulled the lever to the down position, and the indicator lights reversed their positions. A door emerged from the walls and closed behind them, sealing the three of them in a small chamber. They could feel the air being sucked out of the chamber. A digital gauge began counting down from 850, quickly down to zero. When the gauge did read zero, the red light on the door panel turned yellow, to indicate that while there was still something amiss on the other side of the airlock, the airlock could at least now be opened without damaging the station. Shaun pressed the button and the door split open silently. The three of them turned on their search lights and entered what will eventually be the station's promenade. A large cavernous section of the station, three stories tall with empty units lining the interior wall of all three levels, empty units also lined the exterior wall of the lower level, while the second level had multiple viewing ports, along with benches and tables, that could look out into space. There was no exterior section of the third floor, instead larger windows were irised closed. The Promenade extended only a few meters to their right, before it ended against a temporary wall. To their left, the Promenade extended a couple hundred meters, further than they could see, as the Promenade curved around the central core of the Station. Two of the interior units were already occupied, one had semi-transparent glass doors with a caduceus on the left side and a red cross on the right side. The other unit was adjacent to the first, sealed off, as an extension of the Station's Infirmary. It also occupied the two units directly above them, making it the largest, thus far, single unit in the Promenade. And only one of two that will be operating rent free, the other being the Station's main security office that has yet to be built. From the schematic of the station they knew that the Promenade currently was half completed, the other half would be built on the next mission.

"This is incredible." Shaun finally broke the silence. They had been staring at the Promenade for the last two minutes, and hadn't said a word.

James found his voice as well, "We're not the first to see this, but I wonder if the Walkers took the time to admire the view after they were done building it. Makes me wish I had found a of couple minutes on the last mission to do this." He laughed, "Imagine what it will look like when it's got lights and atmosphere."

"According to the station's schematics, the Life Support Station is one level below us. The Battery packs are eight levels beneath us. And the solar collectors are externally mounted on the same level." Sam reported what they all knew, obviously as an attempt to break them out of their revery and get them back to their task.

James nodded, "Right. Once we get Life Support working, we can take the suits off and really enjoy the view." He sighed, "But the eight levels are deceiving. The level beneath us is in the same shape as the Promenade, half complete. The six between that level and the Battery packs are, non-existent." He pointed to an alley between the Infirmary and an empty unit. "There's an access shaft, it will eventually be an elevator that will run between Promenade level 1, up there, and the two sublevels beneath the Promenade. The open areas of the station, only a few places within it will be restricted access. Right now, we can use it to get to where we need to go."

Shaun pushed himself towards the access shaft, "I'm up for a space walk, I'll check the solar collectors."

Sam followed, "So am I, I'll look at the batteries."

James chuckled, "I guess that leaves me on the station to look at the Life Support system. Keep your comm links open."

Scottish Andy · « **Reply #19 on:** February 22, 2012, 02:11:47 pm »

Very nice, moving along briskly and descriptively, with lots of cool tech details.

Keep it coming.

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #20 on:** February 22, 2012, 11:51:14 pm »

The three of them used the manual override to open the door into the access shaft, the same kind of switch that was hidden in the wall of the docking arm. They had to pump the lever several times to get the door open, as there was no power to this door. They slipped through the almost fully opened door into the five-meter wide access shaft, once in, a short upward thrust burst from their thruster packs sent them down the shaft slowly. They were careful not to touch the magnetic rails that ran along the length of the shaft, in case they damaged the future elevator propulsion system. James stopped his descent ten meters down and pressed open the manual override panel, pumping the lever three times got the door open wide enough that he could slip through, he pumped it a fourth for good measure and then closed the panel. "Good luck." He waved at Sam and Shaun as he slipped through the door. They had stopped five meters further down and were beginning to pump their own lever. Their lever exposed the tube to space, down the central shaft of the station, and giving them a view of the Walkers as they were positioning a portion of the reactor near to where it would be installed.

James opened the manual override panel on the other side of the door and pumped the door closed. After the door closed and the panel was shut, he turned to look down the corridor. It curved around out of sight, but it was however, directly beneath the interior units, therefore was slightly shorter in physical length. Doors lined the exterior side of the corridor, one every ten meters, intended to be office space, they all had a couple of windows that they could look out into space from. Only one door was on the interior side of the corridor, and that was the door he wanted, Life Support Engineering. One of several Life Support stations that will be situated around the station, its primary task was to provide Life Support to this half of the Promenade, and the office space beneath it. It's secondary task was to help provide Life Support for any other regions where the station assigned to that region was either disabled, destroyed, down for maintenance, or, as was the case now, not yet built. The manual override panel was the same as any other, slide it away and expose the lever. A couple of pumps of the lever and he could then slip through the door. "I'm entering the Life Support room now."

"We've made the trip to the Battery Station, Shaun is heading over to the collectors, I'm entering the Station again." Sam's voice came back over his suit's internal speakers.

"I'm at the collectors now, inspecting for damage."

James surveyed the room, tanks of gases lined the walls, Oxygen, Nitrogen were the most abundant tanks, other gases like Hydrogen had tanks as well, but only a few compared to the others. The Carbon Dioxide scrubbers took up a sizable portion of the room. He set his sights on the control console, a rather large station that should be illuminated. But at present was completely dark. "There's no power at all to the Life-Support systems."

"There's power here, the airlock opened with just a switch, I'm in the battery room now, and all the stations are lit up."

"The collectors appear to be undamaged, and the wiring to the batteries look good as well. There must be a bad connection between the batteries and the Promenade."

James opened the tool kit and pulled out a power supply, it was about the size of a twenty-ounce soda bottle. He pulled open a panel on the underside of the console and plugged the power supply into the available port. The panel lit up, indicator lights and gauges all told him what he expected to see. Nothing was wrong on this end, but the station was not getting power. "Connection problem confirmed, everything checks out up here."

Sam's voice came back in over the speakers, "I'm running a diagnostic check now. Standby." A quick moment passed, James took the time to remove the power supply from the port and close the panel. "It looks like the problem is about half way up the central core. I'm getting no results on anything above where Grav Deck level 2 will be."

Shaun came back quickly, "I'm done out here, I can be there in just a minute."

Ashley interjected herself into their comm link, "It might be unrelated, but I thought you should know, we can't seem to get the docking arm's internal pressure above 800 millibars. There may be a small breach in the arm."

James scowled to himself, "Ashley, prep a launch craft, I'm going to want a LIDAR sweep of the Station. See if there's any more issues we may need to be worried about."

"I'm here." Shaun's report began, "And I see the problem. It looks like something hit the wiring conduit and broke it open. Damage to the wiring itself doesn't look too bad, but I'm going to need a hull repair kit to seal the conduit."

"Get a picture of it, but don't worry about the conduit itself, a Walker can come by later and patch it up." James looked back to the open door, then back to the console as it flared to life. Lights began to come on in the room and out in the corridor outside, and then the door to the corridor silently closed. "Nicely done, the Life Support system is coming online." He settled in at the station and waited for its computer to boot, "You can come on back up."

Sam responded first, "I'm already on my way back, I should be back inside in one minute."

Shaun chimed in, "I'm just a little ahead of her, how long do we have?"

"The Life Support computer will be up in just a second." As he spoke the computer finished it's boot sequence, "I'm going to have it run a quick system check before it starts pumping atmosphere into the station. It'll be about five minutes." He set the computer to run the system check, the check mainly involved making sure all the pressure gauges on the station read correctly, and that the valves connecting the gas containers were in good shape. It also queried him for what settings he wanted the atmosphere composition, pressure, and temperature. He selected Earth Sea Level for all, and a temperature of 22 degrees. The entire check program took four minutes to run, three minutes in the door opened to admit Shaun and Sam.

"Sir, Launch craft is launching." Ashley's voice came in, "It'll take about two minutes to complete the entire sweep."

"The corridor looks like something you'd see in Star Trek." Sam was looking around the room, "In fact a lot of this place is something you'd see in Star Trek."

James smiled as he watched the computer finish the check, "And why not? I had an argument with some on the design team, wanted to save weight and space by just leaving all the wiring and piping exposed. I responded to them with, 'Where's your sense of pride? Why would you want to build something that within a couple of years will look run-down and decrepit?' I asked them to seriously consider choosing aesthetics over functionality, as long as it was still functional. Because we're setting the tone, but we still have to impress would be tenants. Obviously there's some places where functionality has to trump aesthetics. The lavatory for example." He turned to look at them as he mentioned that, and caught the slight flush in both of their faces, even through their helmets. "I know, I felt it too, the first time I sat on the zero-g toilet. Just doesn't feel right to have that sucking sensation on your butt, does it?"

"No it doesn't, but what about you guys...." Sam began.

James cut her off before the conversation got real awkward, "If you're smart, you don't try to pee standing up."

The panel made some noise. It had probably been making noise, but there was now enough air in the room that they were hearing it. James turned back to look at it, "Confirming the pressure loss in the docking arm. All other sections are pressurizing normally."

Ashley came back into the comm signal, "Launch craft reports fourteen sections on the station have taken damage consistent with a micro-meteorite impact. Of the fourteen, only the one in the docking arm, and the one that severed the power conduit hit anything vital, the rest just pockmarked the hull. I've already asked the Walkers to add the repairs to their list. George is already prepping for an EVA to fix the docking arm breach, he should have that fixed in the next ten minutes."

James looked back at Sam, "That was probably the bending metal sound you heard when we were boarding the station." He looked over both of them, "We've got about fifteen minutes before the station pressurizes and warms up to a comfortable temperature. You want to see the Promenade when its done?"

Commander La'ra · « **Reply #21 on:** February 23, 2012, 01:35:46 am »

Just letting you know I started this tonight and am greatly enjoying it. As a latecomer, I have little new to say beyond echoing Sharp and Andy's comments, but I'll try to toss in my two cents once I get caught up.

Scottish Andy · « **Reply #22 on:** February 23, 2012, 10:34:17 am »

Quote

Just doesn't feel right to have that sucking sensation on your butt, does it?"

LOL...

Good installment. I amstill wondering about the ultimate goal of the freighter-which-can-be-turned-into-a-warship, but the diversion to save the crewmember is engaging.

Keep it coming.

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #23 on:** February 24, 2012, 12:58:01 am »

Ah... I misunderstood the question you were asking Andy, sorry.

Regarding the freighter-turning-warship. The Investment group spent a lot of money just on building the freighter. They only need the freighter itself for the duration of the assembly mission. Just under two years, assuming no delays. After the mission is done, they have an expensive freighter, an expensive station, and no use for the freighter. It's really too massive to be making inter-planetary trips, at least with current technology, and it's too large to be simply transporting food stuffs to and ore from the station. Rather than have the freighter sit around and collect space dust, it made sense to reconfigure it. Reducing it's size by 2/3rds and cutting its mass by 1/3rd, it doesn't turn it into a pure fighting machine by any means, but it does turn it into a serviceable patrol and picket craft. A good thrust ratio, Newtonian physics remember, and a low forward profile, makes it a decent interceptor, and of course the most powerful Starship in the Sol system. (by default because no one else has bothered to build any thing yet) It'll be able to hold it's own against the DY-100s that will emerge in the next decade, a pure warship based on the USS Lewis and Clark.

Scottish Andy · « **Reply #24 on:** February 24, 2012, 09:58:16 am »

Ah, okay. Thanks for the clarification.

Um... what's the Lewis & Clark?

marstone · « **Reply #25 on:** February 24, 2012, 12:46:13 pm »

i would assume the Lewis and Clark would be an exploratory ship/survey cruiser.

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #26 on:** February 24, 2012, 08:40:04 pm »

Yes, I mentioned it once in an earlier piece that was not part of the story but was story related. The Lewis and Clark will be the ship that Colonel Christopher commands on his mission to Saturn. Externally it will be very similar to the DY100, although the DY100 in this story will be a Warship. The reason for it's existence (not the Lewis and Clark but the DY100) will be in part the Eugenics wars, the other part I am keeping under my hat for a bit. I've got a couple more bits in this "chapter", then, since I found some Autocad software that's free to use, I'll draw up diagrams for the station, the freighter, and the Lewis and Clark, and get them up here (assuming I can figure out the software... you get what you pay for most of the time). I haven't even yet put the designs on paper, although what they look like in my head hasn't changed since I "finalized" the design in my head about four months ago. A few details have evolved, (the docking arm airlock for example came into being as I was writing that part, I got to that part and said to myself... uh... how do they get onto the Promenade?) but the basic design has remained the same.

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #27 on:** February 26, 2012, 10:17:15 pm »

L-1 Station
2 December 2013 - 23:02 Zulu

"You're the last one on the station, Captain."

James nodded a mute affirmative to Ashley as he checked the seal on his suit. He probably wouldn't need it, but it never hurt to take the little extra precaution. The assembly of the reactor went right on schedule, it was powered up for a brief test, and to charge the batteries, and then powered down and put in stand by. Now James was the last man on the station, floating in the office space he had commandeered as his own for the duration of the mission. He could see the last of the Walkers entering the freighter from the view port in the office, more than once during assembly, a Walker had tapped the window as they went by, startling him away from his work. It was good fun for them, and he wasn't about to make a fuss over something that was so easy to keep them amused. James powered down the lights in the office and slipped out the door. He had taken the office directly across from Life Support, as such it took him only a split second to cross the corridor and enter that room. A few flips of switches powered down the Life Support systems. "Life Support is now offline."

Sam's voice came back over the comm, "Diverting power to the Station's shields. We shouldn't have a repeat of the micro-meteor impacts."

"Let's hope so, I'm making my way out of the Station." With Life Support off, all the lights except emergency lights were off as well. He made the slow drift to the access shaft, and opened it with the button on the panel. Nothing in this section changed as he shot himself up towards the Promenade. Upon exiting the Promenade he was assaulted by a wave of light. Sol was visible through the windows above the Promenade. While the windows were filtered to prevent solar radiation from entering, and tinted to keep the Visible Spectrum limited, it was still bright, and it forced him to avert his eyes as he made his way to the docking arm. Sol had just risen in this section of the promenade, meaning that it would be flooded with sunlight for the next couple of hours as the station slowly spun clockwise. "We might have to adjust the angle of the Station just a little. While being able to see Sol from Promenade 3 might be enticing, it'll get old for the merchants looking to attract customers." James reached the airlock arm and cycled it open without much difficulty, the station was still pressurized, and it should remain that way until their return. Although the temperature of the atmosphere in the station will be unpredictable. He made the trip up the arm and onto the ship, after the airlock door closed behind him, he took his helmet off and tapped the intercom panel. "I'm aboard, lets get back to Earth."

There was no response, but only a couple seconds later the maneuvering alarm sounded, he knew the first move was going to be a lateral move away from the station, he positioned himself accordingly and finished taking off his EVA suit. No sooner had he gotten the suit off and stuffed into the locker than the ship lurched sideways. He was pushed to the outer wall, but only briefly, and used it to catapult himself towards the central shaft. He made the central shaft just before the main engines fired. He had been counting in his head how long the delay between the disconnection push and main engine firing would be, and had it pegged perfectly. He climbed the ladder up to the Bridge and pulled himself in. "Report."

Sam and Shaun both looked at him like they were shocked he would be up here so soon, but Ashley calmly reported from the Helm, "ETA to turn-over point, three point two hours. We'll be in Earth orbit in seven."

James settled in to his chair, "Good." He took a glance over at the two Airforce officers, who were still a bit incredulous, "Yes?"

Shaun looked over at Sam, and then back at him, "For you to be up here now, you would have had to been moving around during the push off."

He smiled, "Not quite. I knew how much time I had and used the push away from the station to launch myself towards the ladder, from there its an easy climb. It's the little things you learn how to do. Not only does it make things a little more interesting, it also allows you to move around faster. I'd be getting on to the bridge now if I had waited until we were underway."

Sam shook her head, "But it wasn't necessary, you took a risk that you might be in sickbay right now instead, if you we're wrong, or missed."

"Practice makes perfect." He looked back at Ashley, "Speaking of practice, are you ready Ashley?"

"I think so."

"Good." With no other words being said, Sam and Shaun looked at each other slightly puzzled, as they made their way back to Earth.

****

Far too short, I know, I ripped an entire section out and moved it further down the line, but didn't have enough to re-fill it with.

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #28 on:** February 27, 2012, 02:26:16 pm »

Earth Orbit
3 December 2013 - 00:18 EST

"I hope you've taken something away from this trip."

Sam and Shaun floated down the corridor to the launch bay just in front of James. They entered orbit five minutes ago, and crew were already lining up to take the shuttles down to the surface. The forty people leaving would take two hours to get to ground on just two shuttles. The three of them were going to take the same shuttle down to Washington, while James would then ride the Amtrak up to New York, for a face to face investor meeting. In Texas, they were cramming the last pieces of their next payload into the next Cargo Module, in two weeks they would be ready to move it to the launch pad for a New Years Day Launch.

"I'd have to say we did learn quite a bit, Captain." Shaun looked over the line in front of them. "How long do you think we got?"

James counted the number of people in front of them, "Twenty minutes." He motioned for a couple of the walkers behind them to move ahead, "There's about a shuttle and a half in front of us, we'll be on the third shuttle down. Any final questions while we're waiting?"

Sam looked over the line, "Why only two launch craft? You had four on the way here."

James nodded, "And we left two of them at the station. We'll have four again on the trip back. The station is supposed to have ten, although the investors are talking about cancelling the last four."

Shaun craned his head towards him, "Why?"

James shrugged, "Cost overruns."

"Is it really costing that much more than you anticipated?" Sam lowered her voice slightly, assuming that that could be sensitive topic.

"Not on the assembly side of things, we're actually a month ahead of schedule up here. The problem is that Khan has control of 30% of the worlds Oil, and 60% of what is currently in production, and that's driven fuel costs through the roof. While our Launch fuel is not really Oil based, we do use Oil based fuels with our Surface Manufacturing Operations."

Shaun glanced over to the line as the last of the first two shuttle trip passengers entered the launch bay, "How bad is it?"

"Well, right now with Gas prices at $6 per gallon, it's manageable, but with Oil projected to top $200 per barrel this spring, I can see Gas getting up to $8 or even $9. We may have to get creative, or look for new investors to be able to finish it."

"That's why you're heading to New York?" Sam returned her voice to normal levels as the people waiting for the next trip went back to the Grav Deck.

James nodded, "I got a closed door meeting with all of our investors scheduled for 0930 today. I've a couple of suggestions, and some news I had been keeping under my hat, but I have no idea what's going to come of this meeting."

Shaun looked out the viewport, he could see the re-entry flares as the shuttles entered the atmosphere. The US East coast glowed like an oasis of light in a dark desert, "You know you'll have our business in a few years."

James laughed, "I hope so, but surging fuel costs effects your budget even more than it effects ours."

A new voice entered their conversation, "What about Keystone?"

James turned to Ashley as she drifted over towards them, "The Keystone pipeline is scheduled to be complete in June. It could have been ready now, but politics trumped reality. Would have done anything? I think Oil would be around the $110 range, instead of in the $150s. The biggest problem to Oil prices, is Khan. You just can't let someone take over that region and expect there not to be consequences. Had the US been drilling ten years ago, and had the pipeline been built five years ago, it wouldn't be a problem. But they weren't and it is. The blame game is often counter-productive."

Sam looked over to Ashley, "He asked if you were ready a few hours ago, but he hasn't elaborated on what that meant."

Ashley looked at James, who merely shrugged, "Unless there's a big change from the meeting that he's going off to, He's planning on staying on the station after our next mission."

James nodded once, "This freighter will be her command, and I'll be on the station."

Shaun frowned slightly, "When did this happen?"

James smiled, "It was the plan from the beginning. Once the station was capable of handling full time occupancy, I, the Walkers, along with support personnel, would take up permanent residency on the station, and we'd continue to build the station as quickly as Ashley could get us the parts."

Sam's expression became one of clarity, "If fuel costs are making the production aspect difficult, couldn't you make the parts on the station?"

James nodded, "Some parts can be built on the station, and that's one item I intend to bring up at the meeting."

Shaun shook his head, "Doesn't it get more difficult to have these meetings if you're up on the station?"

James smiled broadly, "No, it gets easier. One-point-one second time delay means that they can't interrupt me as often as they do in the face to face meetings."

Ashley looked over the three of them, "That just means that I have to deal with the face to face meetings."

James shook his head, "You may get one or two, but I'll still have most of the meetings."

"Is what you're talking about at the meeting classified?" Sam was fishing again.

James shrugged, "Not really, I imagine their going to want to talk about cost overruns and what we can do to stymie them. A few may be looking for a more immediate return on their investments, despite the fact that when they signed up they knew it was going to be 2015 before we started getting income from the station. I can tell you all that I've had a couple of pleasant conversations with Richard Branson. He wants to make the station a destination for the Lunar Cruise Line that he is wanting to announce in January. He's hoping to have the first cruise launch in December."

"What does that mean for you?" Shaun again turned back to the view port, hoping to see the shuttles when they made their ascent.

"Three things, first and foremost, we can charge a fee for their ship docking. Second, they'll have to refuel at the station, we can charge them for that. And third, the tourists will spend at least some time on the station, if we can get some merchants up there, we can collect a tax on anything sold on the Promenade."

Ashley frowned, "A cruise line for the super-rich."

"This isn't cheap. But that's where capitalism works. They'll be an effort to make it cheaper. As it gets cheaper, we'll see more traffic, as we see more traffic, we can lower our fees. 400 years ago, ocean travel was only for the super-rich, or those willing to sell themselves into indentured servitude. 100 years ago, it was made cheap enough that even the poor could make the trip. Space travel is at the same stage as ocean travel was 400 years ago. Somehow though, I doubt it will take 300 years to get to affordability. It took the invention of the steam engine to make ocean travel affordable. How long will it take for the invention of a more efficient rocket engine? I really doubt it will take long, we'll see it in our lifetime definitely. Things like the station, make the drive to get an efficient engine, all the more stronger."

Scottish Andy · « **Reply #29 on:** February 28, 2012, 12:33:59 pm »

My wife would love this piece, if she ever read anything Trek-related.

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #30 on:** March 04, 2012, 02:09:28 am »

New York City
3 December 2013 - 13:10 EST

The cold December wind blew through the streets of the Big Apple, temperatures were colder than James was used to. Being on the climate controlled freighter and station, or in the West Texas desert for the last three years had left him unaccustomed to temperatures anywhere near freezing. It got cold in the desert at night, but he was usually not out in it. Of course, it had to be raining, and that just seemed to make his mood that much more dour. He had only been out in the street for a couple of minutes and he was already feeling the rain soak through his overcoat.

"You look like you've been through a battle. I hope you won."

James turned at the sound of the familiar voice, but before he could finish turning he noticed the rain stopped beating down on him. He smiled at Captain Carter as she held an umbrella over the two of them, "It felt more like a war. Are there winners and losers in war?"

She smiled back at him, "There's definitely losers, you can debate as to whether there are winners or not."

He laughed, "That much is true. What brings you up to New York?"

She smiled coyly, "You do."

James was taken aback, "Me?"

She laughed, "I want a job. On your station."

He smiled as they started walking up the street, "What about the Air Force?"

"They would consider it a transfer." She took a deep breath, "I joined the Air Force not because I wanted to fly, but because I wanted to go into space. NASA used a lot of Air Force personnel in their Shuttle Program. I was hoping to be able to use the Air Force credentials, along with my education, to get a spot in their program. Then Columbia happened."

James continued, "And they announced that the Shuttle Program was going to come to an end."

She nodded, "I then went after the Constellation Program."

"And that was cancelled."

"It left me no where to go, until you came along." They stopped at a crosswalk and waited for the signal to change, "I wanted to get in when the freighter was launched, but you weren't really accepting Military Applicants, and I had just re-upped my enlistment."

"That's not true. I actually gave preference to Military Applicants, I don't ever remember seeing yours cross my desk." They began crossing the road, the subway station was just a few blocks ahead.

"I never submitted one. The Air Force wouldn't release me from my obligation at that time." She looked over to him, "That's when they decided to launch their own program. I joined that. Major Christopher and I have been a part of the program since it's inception."

He looked back at her, "And you're leaving it now?"

She shrugged, "Not leaving it. No. They won't let me, I still have four years left on this tour. But, they are more than happy to have me up there right now, what we learn up there, we can apply directly to the program."

He stopped and turned to face her, "Would you want to leave it in four years?"

She looked him straight in the eye, "I honestly don't know."

He nodded, "I can accept that." He sighed before continuing, "I've got a number of applications waiting for me in the launch facility. A shuttle is landing at JFK to take me over there. If you really want to be on the station full time, you'd better get some of your affairs in order here. It will be several months before you'll get back."

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #31 on:** March 08, 2012, 01:45:38 am »

West Texas Launch Facility
4 December 2013 - 16:00 CST

A knock on his office door brought James back into the waking world. He had been going through the stack of applications that was sitting on his temporary desk. He blinked a few times as he looked at the clock on the wall, wondering just how long he had been asleep. From the open door Captain Carter was looking in with a concerned look on her face, "You always nap with the door open?"

James shook his head, "Hadn't realized I had fallen asleep. I guess working under gravity is taking a bigger toll on me than I thought it would." He motioned for her to come in.

"You could have always done this on the ship." She stated as she sat down in the chair across the desk from him. The office itself was quite spartan, except for two chairs, a desk, and a wall clock, no other furniture adorned the small work space. There wasn't even a computer in the room, although ports were available for a laptop connection.

"No." He began, he collected his thoughts and wondered if he should get a refill on his coffee, "It's not my ship, I'd just be getting in Ashley's way. Plus any interviews I would have to do, I would have to either come down for them, or bring the applicant up, which is a waste of fuel."

"You're not going to be getting a very good look at them if you're tired or sleeping."

He shrugged, "No, but the first applicant I have to take a good look at isn't until tomorrow."

She feigned insult, "So just what am I?"

He looked over at his coffee mug, and wished he had refilled it, "I... ahh..."

She smiled, reached across the desk and gave his hand a squeeze, "I'm kidding, I'm sorry. You're probably not awake enough to pick that up are you?"

He looked over at her hand and just stared at it, "No. But I am sorry, I should have phrased that a bit differently. I don't need to take a good look at you because I already have seen you in action. The only thing I have to decide with you, is where to put you."

She didn't move her hand from his but tried to bring his gaze back up to her face, "You mean there's a choice?"

He brought his gaze up and met her stare head on, "Yes, there is." He smiled at her, "I can make you the Science head, no problem, your qualifications are unmatched." He raised his free hand and pointed to the ceiling, "But, I could also have you on as Engineering, or Operations. Especially in the Operations position, there's a lot of perks. First off, the Operations officer is not going to be doing a whole lot while a ship isn't docked. And since there's only one ship right now, that's a lot of down time. Or you could be doing another task, like being in the Science department."

"You'd have me fill double duties?" She smiled back at him.

"We are limited in how many people we can bring along this time, both by space on the freighter, and by space on the station. We'll only have a crew of sixty, with forty of them being Walkers. And the freighter is going to be packed to the gills with people on the trip up. Eighty people will be a tight squeeze on there. Some of the medical and Engineering staffs will come over to the station, but we can't forget about the freighter's crew. Every spot we double up on, is one more role we can have on the station now. I've got to get twenty people, but some jobs aren't full time jobs yet, Security and Operations are part time, while Engineering and Medical are full time, Walkers are..."

She frowned, "You're rambling."

He stopped, "Am I?" He looked back down at her hand that still hadn't left his, "Sorry. The point of the matter is there's twenty people that will be the station's crew. Some jobs are taken, Medical staff, Engineering Staff. Those are requirements for operations. That leaves me with very little wiggle room. In fact, I've only got four spare seats available, and you and I are two of them."

She smiled again, "So if I double up..."

He grinned, "Then the seat I had assigned to an Operations Officer, can be used for another position. Like another Science, or Security person."

She withdrew her hand from his, "Sold. I'll be your Operations and Science officer." She winked at him, "As long as the new person is a Science person."

He nodded, "Well Bargained and Done."

She stood up and moved around his desk. When he looked at her confusingly she just smiled and grabbed him by the crook of the elbow, "We aren't done here. You need to get some sleep, so I'm going to haul your ass back to your quarters and make sure you get some."

He shook his head, "I've got work to do."

She picked him up out of his seat, "As your First Officer, I am relieving you of duty and ordering you to get some sleep." She began to lead him out of the office, "Don't make me have to restrain you to your bed to make sure you do."

He thought about fighting her, but realized that she would win a physical altercation, as they made it to the door, he came up with another tactic, "As interesting an idea as having you restrain me to my bed is, Sam. I'm afraid that just isn't very appropriate."

She jerked him down the hallway, "It doesn't have to be appropriate." She grinned as his expression became one of shock, "It doesn't have to be sexual either." They made it to the living section of the facility, "I'll go through the science applications for you while you're sleeping, consider it a delegation of responsibility." They stopped in front of his door, she opened it and pulled him through the door. Once in the room, she spun him around her and shoved him onto the bed, "Good night, James." She turned to leave, but stopped in the doorway, "If I find out that you got out of here before tomorrow, I will break out the handcuffs." She winked at him again and closed the door behind her, leaving him in the dark and exhausted, it wasn't even a minute later before he passed out.

Scottish Andy · « **Reply #32 on:** March 08, 2012, 01:05:07 pm »

Cute.

The portions are bite-sized though so it is difficult to comment on. I am commenting though, so you know you are being read.

It's very well written and angaging, and I'm looking forward to more morsels.

Captain Sharp · « **Reply #33 on:** March 08, 2012, 07:21:23 pm »

I got behind. Still catching up.

What I'm reading is good. Looks like its going to turn into a very long tale.

Keep it up. Looking forward to more.

--The Guv

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #34 on:** March 09, 2012, 09:15:46 am »

It's turning out to be much longer than I anticipated myself. I had one scene done in December, did two more on my drive to MI in January. And at that point, I thought that was all there was going to be, maybe I'd add a fourth or fifth just to connect the three of them. Would you be surprised to know that you haven't read any of the original three yet?

Captain Sharp · « **Reply #35 on:** March 09, 2012, 07:23:36 pm »

It does indeed, though it probably should not have. I often come up with entire stories where the first scene I detail is NOT the first one in the story. To me, the flow of what you have presented seemed like an idea that, I don't know...cascaded from one thought and built and built as you added detail and other ideas. What you have just told us only adds to my belief.

This is a good story, and one I cannot fathom WHERE it will eventually go.

Good show, sir!

--Guv

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #36 on:** March 13, 2012, 03:19:21 am »

West Texas Launch Facility
10 December 2013 - 11:32 CST

"A bomb exploded in central Tehran just twenty minutes ago, leaving at least a dozen dead, and hundreds more wounded. The bomb is believed to have been targeting the Israeli Ambassador, who was scheduled to be in the area, but was delayed by a traffic accident. No word yet on who planted the bomb, but the Persian State Media issued a statement from Emperor Khan stating that, 'Those responsible will be found, and dealt with swiftly and appropriately.'"

James lifted his head his head from the dossier in front of him, and stared at the radio on the desk. After a quick decision he reached over to the phone on the other side of the desk, he settled the receiver on his shoulder and punched in the code for the freighter, it rang once and Ashley picked up, "Hudson."

"Ashley. It's James. Can you bring the ship into a high orbit over Persia? There was a bombing this evening."

"Closer to home, Rebels today captured the port city of Puerto Vallarta. The once popular resort town is now dominated by street fighting as Loyalists try to hold on to their last stronghold in the state of Jallsco. Rebels today claimed that they have pushed the last organized forces out of the city, leaving only scant areas of resistance in some of the slums surrounding downtown."

"On it. We'll be in position in five minutes."

James paused for a moment, "Also send a message to the Persian Interior department, putting your resources at their disposal. I doubt they'll take you up on the offer, but it helps to look helpful."

"Roger that."

"On Wall Street today, Stocks are trading flat, with the Dow Industrials up by four points, S&P down a fraction, NASDAQ is currently unchanged on the day. Oil is trading higher, West Texas Crude is showing a current bid of $156.24, that's up 83 cents, Gold is up $12.30 at $2473.70. Even with those commodities up, the Dollar has currently set a new record high against the Euro. The Euro is currently trading at 68 cents to the Dollar, you could have had it for $1.40 three years ago."

"If you do get a response, feel free to interrupt me, I have two interviews, but this is more important than those interviews. Plus I want to see Khan's 'appropriate' response."

"Understood, who are you interviewing?"

James turned his eyes back to the radio, "A couple of Engineering positions. One's due in at 11:45 and the other at 12:30."

All this after the Markets in Europe fell sharply. France, Germany and the UK were all down roughly three percent, the sell-off there due in large part to the ongoing Italian Debt Crisis. The Italian Parliament was due to vote on Austerity Measures required to receive another EU bailout. The concern here is that Italy will follow the path of Greece and be forced to withdraw from the Eurozone if an accommodation cannot be reached, the Italian Parliament is still in session at this hour."

"Hmmph, The EU is done for," James muttered under his breath.

"If that's the case, I'd hate to see what's going to come out of there." Ashley must have heard him over the phone.

"With Khan's Persian Empire sitting right there at the door step, Eastern Europe is ripe for the taking, but he's actually been a god-send for the Middle East. I mean, who would have thought in our lifetime there would be both peace, and people still alive in the Middle East?" James turned to look out his window, "When Khan took over from the Mullahs, he cut funding to Hezbollah, Lebanese attacks on Israel stopped overnight. Hamas still gets some funding from front groups like CAIR, but they've been behaving ever since Khan used a couple Battalions from the 1st Iraqi Division to take out one of their supply bases. I think it was that use of force, and the return of some sanity in Tehran that got the rest of the Middle Eastern nations to line up behind him. Hell, there's an Israeli Ambassador in Tehran! Never in my lifetime did I expect that to happen."

"Entering high orbit. There's been a response to your query, 'Thank you for the offer, but we have everything well in hand.' Just as you expected."

"Not a surprise. Khan is more than willing to show that he doesn't need help. The Empire might not be one cohesive unit yet, but it's rapidly coming together. I am a little concerned as to what will happen when it does."

"Well it may not be long in waiting. A squadron of attack helicopters have just taken off from an airbase outside of Mashhad." Ashley's voice rose in pitch, "And a pair of MiGs as well."

James cursed silently as he wished he had a monitor in his office, "Where are they heading?"

"Looks to be a small town just inside what used to be the Afghanistan border." She nearly shrieked, "The MiGs were carrying Napalm! He just firebombed that village! Micheal, lock Rail Guns on those Attack Choppers!"

"STOP!" James nearly screamed through the phone, "Stand down!"

"But..." Ashley stammered out.

James cut her off, "It's not our place to involve ourselves. We don't need an International Incident. And we certainly don't need you shot down in response. Or are you forgetting that Khan has Nuclear Weapons, and the ICBMs to get one to you?"

"Stand down, Micheal." Ashley sighed, "I hope that something good is going to come out of our inaction."

"We'll be able to complete our mission. As for the rest, that's up to the diplomats."

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #37 on:** March 14, 2012, 08:51:05 pm »

United Nations Building
New York City
16 December 2013 - 14:15 EST

This was the last place that James wanted to be. He never wanted to ever step foot in this building. A couple of times earlier in the year, he had fantasied about reigning fire from orbit down onto this building. Yet, here he was. He was here at the request of two parties. The first party was the International Red Cross, they wanted him here because he was technically still in charge of the freighter that witnessed first hand Khan's response to the bombing last week. He had reviewed the telemetry that Ashley had sent him, and that was apparently enough for their purposes. The second party was Khan himself. Why Emperor Khan wanted him here was a complete mystery. He had elected to use a cane for this day, he didn't really need the cane, as he had recovered his stamina the week before, but it gave him a few sympathy points from a few of the Ambassadors. He sat in the corner of the UN General Assembly Room as the Ambassadors sat and listened to the IRC's report on Khan's Firebombing. He chose to wear a nicer version of the jumpsuits that they would wear in space, a jumpsuit similar in design to the Costumes wore on the Star Trek spinoff, Enterprise, that had aired a decade prior. The General Assembly building was designed to hold over 500 dignitaries, translators and aides. Just a year ago there was nearly 200 separate states in the UN, Now there was only 175. All of the lost states a result of Khan's consolidation of the Persian Empire.

Khan personally attended today's meeting, his usual Ambassador seated slightly behind him. James noted the extravagant Middle Eastern garb the two wore, which was fitting for men of their station in that society. But, this being the first time he had seen the two of them in person, he had also noted something else in their demeanor. Arrogance. Not surprising from Khan himself, the young man was apparently in his early twenties, and had already amassed an Empire that rivaled Alexander's. But coming from the Ambassador, a man of similar age, without Khan's achievements, seemed a bit out of place. Khan seemed to have noticed the attention that James was paying his direction and returned the stare. It was a brief meeting of the eyes, one that ended with Khan giving him a slight nod, before returning his attention to the nearly shrill individual who was now screaming about the follow up sweep the attack helicopters had performed after the initial firebombing. Those helicopters had followed up the initial firebombing with a sweep of the village that killed nearly anything that moved, anything that survived, the initial assault. The only video footage of the atrocity as it happened came from either US spy satellites, or from the freighter. Neither was good quality, but it seemed enough for the IRC to damn Khan to the seventh level of hell. Assuming that the man screaming even believed in hell. The man concluded his presentation with a demand that Khan be sanctioned heavily for his actions. He yielded the floor and returned to a seat in the other corner of the room. Khan sat patiently as he waited for the chair to recognize him. When the chair did so, he rose slowly, and flashed a smile to all assembled that told James, that you should feel grateful that I decided to grace you with my presence today. "Ladies and Gentlemen of this esteemed body." The sarcasm dripped from his words as he spoke in fluent English. "I come before you today to inform you, that I traced the individuals responsible for the terrorist bombing last week to the small town of Bunyad Khan. Once I had traced the terrorists back to their den, I instructed my forces to eradicate the terrorists, and those that harbored them. They did so. And they performed their task with the efficiency that I expected of them. That you would presume to lecture me as to the disposition of my subjects is laughable. I have done what no one before me has. You may scorn me, you may hate me, but you will not disrespect me. I have no regret, no remorse, I will do it again, and again. Those of you who would hide behind these terrorists, be warned, if you harbor them, you will meet the same fate as Bunyad Khan." Khan looked to the chairmen dismissively and then returned to his seat.

James couldn't help but smile, he scanned the crowd and observed the various diplomats and aides, very few were able to hide the look of shock, or scorn, on their faces. The most amusing look though, had to come from the IRC representative, the man had all but leaped out of his seat, his face contorted with rage, he couldn't seem to find any words to express himself, but it was clear to everyone who noticed him, that he did indeed hate Khan. James took a moment to re-gain his composure, and motioned to be recognized by the chair. He had been brought here by the IRC in case Khan had attempted to defend his actions by doubting the veracity of the telemetry. Since Khan had not, he wasn't going to be called, but he did feel that something else needed to be said. When the chair recognized him, he rose from his seat, making an exaggerated use of the cane to get to his feet. He took a couple steps forward and cleared his throat, "Ladies and Gentlemen. I do not pretend to hold any stature, I am not a diplomat, I am simply a man with a dream. I wanted off this rock. You may wonder why. The reasoning for that can be summed up very nicely here. In this room. This body has done nothing but coddle terrorists and their sympathizers since the day it was formed. You all are responsible for the bombing, indirectly. While I don't agree with Emperor Khan's methods, they were, in the end, completely logical. The Islamic culture is one that is very susceptible to subversion. A terrorist can enter a Muslim's home, and live there for weeks. Under Islamic culture, the host can not turn away the guest, he cannot report on the actions of the guest, nor can he give him up. If, as Emperor Khan says, the terrorists used Bunyad Khan as a base of operations, the entire town had to know of it. The compassionate thing to do would have been to send in a company, root out the house responsible and hold the man for trial. But it provides no dis-incentive for the terrorist to stop, nor does it provide a dis-incentive for the town to reject the terrorist's request for sanctuary. Annihilating the town, on the other hand, provides a small measure of fear. That fear will make another town think twice before welcoming in a stranger, a stranger who has destruction on his mind." He paused for a moment, then dropped his next bomb, "One thing that you should know, is that we were in a position to stop the Attack Helicopters. I chose not to. It was not out of fear of retaliation. It was out of respect for the sovereignty of Persia. That is something that this body would do well to develop, not just in regards to Persia, but to the rest of the world. You are not the answer to all of the world's problems. In fact, you are the cause of many of them. Earth is not yet ready for one world government, stop trying to force yourselves onto it."

Someone in the assembly shouted out, "Have you no respect for Human Rights?!"

James laughed, "That's an extremely laughable question coming from the people in this room. Your so-called Human Rights Commission, headed up by states who kill thousands of their people for the high crime of simply disagreeing with their leaders. He may have killed eighty people in that strike, but aside from the children, all of them were guilty of harboring terrorists. However, you will note, that Persian forces went out of their way to avoid killing surviving children." He scanned the room, some looked as if they agreed with him, but many couldn't hide their derision, he raised his voice to finish his statement, "One last item. While my station will be a neutral, international station. Anyone who can get there will be welcome there. Do not take it as an invitation to set yourselves up there. My station will not put itself under your jurisdiction. The United Nations is not welcome there." He turned on his heel and walked out of the assembly room.

Had James been paying attention, he would have noticed that Khan chose the exact same moment to get up and walk out of the assembly room as well, through a different exit. James though, had been entirely focused on making his exit without looking anyone else in the eye. He took a deep breath when he finally got out of the room.

"Your support is not unappreciated."

James wheeled in the direction of the voice, "Emperor."

He held up a finger, "Khan." He smiled as he stepped closer, his demeanor had changed to one of friendliness, "You made more than a few enemies with your statements in there."

James shrugged, "James, then. And I didn't have many friends in there to begin with."

"But you are correct. The United Nations is bloated bureaucracy that is corrupt to the core. If there is to be one world government, they will have no part in it. The truth can be a painful thing to hear when it does not match ones perception."

"Many people will blind themselves to the truth when it doesn't match that perception. If I may, why did you want me here?"

Khan turned to leave, "I knew from your earlier dealings with these people that you would be an ally. I do not forget my allies. Just as I do not forgive my enemies."

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #38 on:** March 19, 2012, 01:46:26 am »

West Texas Launch Facility
17 December 2013 - 12:10 CST

"I can't believe you spoke in support of that man!"

James looked up from the dossier folder in front of him at a fuming Ashley Hudson. "I'll call you right back." He took the phone off his shoulder and set it down on the receiver, "I realize that I have an open door policy, but it is usually polite to knock first." He pushed the folder to the side. "What brings you down here?"

"You supported that monster! And because of you he didn't even get sanctioned!" She didn't enter the office, but rather stayed in the doorway screaming at him.

James leaned back in his chair, refusing to let her anger rile him, "That I supported him was meaningless to the sanctions. I had spoken to the Chinese and Russian Ambassadors earlier in the day, they were going to veto any sanctions." He sighed, "Sometimes in politics you have to read other people. No one in that room really wanted to sanction him. Oh there were a few, but everyone knew what that would mean. Persia is not Iran, its not Iraq, it's not Syria, Egypt or Lybia. Its all of the above. Persia is like OPEC, with one leader. You sanction Persia, and Oil jumps to $200. The global economy is coming apart at the seams with the Euro collapsing, it can't afford $200 oil."

"I don't need to be lectured about reality to you! You stood by and let him slaughter those people! Innocents!"

"They were hardly innocent."

She stopped. He thought that he might have gotten through to her, but instead she produced a piece of paper from her shoulder pocket. "I can't work for you anymore." She stepped in and placed it on his desk. "I thought you were a decent person."

James looked down at the letter of resignation she placed in front of him. "I'm sorry to see you go. I take it you already have your belongings?" She nodded, he picked up the letter, "Then I'll have someone escort you off the base."

Her jaw dropped slightly, "That's it?"

He stopped half-turned, "That's what? Were you expecting something else?" He turned back to her, "A, 'You can't leave, what ever will we do with out you?' Micheal will be just fine in charge of the freighter. I'm not going to beg to keep you. If you feel you have to leave, then leave. I will miss you. You've been a good friend, but this is professional now. I don't think this is the end of our professional relationship, but where it goes from here is entirely up to you. As for our personal, again, that's up to you. I hold you in no less respect than I did before, in fact, if anything, I might have a bit more respect for you. You're following your principles, just as I am following mine. Neither one is more right than the other. A lesser person would have simply compromised their principles because mine are the ones in charge. I shall miss your counsel, but it changes nothing."

She stood straight up, "Then this is it then?"

He nodded, "Indeed. We'll see each other again."

She shook her head, "I don't think I'll ever be able to work for you again."

He shrugged, "You won't have to. There will be plenty of people looking to build a ship that would love to hire someone with your experience." He smiled at her, "I imagine you'll be docked at the station sooner than you realize."

"Until then." She turned and left his doorway.

He slowly turned back to the filing cabinet to file her resignation away. He contemplated the last two years, and what was their sometimes tense, but useful relationship. She did make a good foil for him and she would be sorely missed, but he was not going to give her the satisfaction of pleading with her to stay. No sooner than he had shut the cabinet than there was a knock on his still open door. He recognized the rhythm of the knock. "Hello Sam."

"So she left?"

He turned back to face her and nodded, "Yes."

"Hurts doesn't it?" She slipped in and sat down in the seat across from him.

He shrugged, "A bit. More than I thought it would." He looked beyond her, "I always knew that this was a possible ending. A likely ending. Our personalities were just so opposed to one another." He returned his attention to her. "Things change."

She reached across the desk for his hand, "What are you going to do?"

"The only thing I can do. Move on. What I told her was true. I don't need her. She will be missed, but Micheal can do her job just as well." He withdrew his hand from hers, "All it really means, is that I have to find someone to fill out the freighter's bridge crew now."

She looked at him as he turned back to his filing cabinet and pulled out a large folder, he set it down on his desk and opened it up. "Do you think she's right?"

He pulled a dozen pages off the top and set them aside, "Right about what?"

"Did you just speak in support of an evil man?"

"Good and Evil is subjective, based on your own moral compass. There are societal norms, and that's what we tend to base our definitions off of. No one is completely good, just as no one is completely evil. We are all shades of grey, some darker, some lighter. But to define a man as evil, or good. Well..." he trailed off as he found an application that peaked his interest, "It's All Relative."

END PART 1

Captain Sharp · « **Reply #39 on:** April 03, 2012, 05:35:10 pm »

I need to catch up on yours, sorry. Have a couple days off coming. Plan to do a lot of catching up...

--guv

Scottish Andy · « **Reply #40 on:** May 31, 2012, 01:02:03 pm »

Very nice, Q! Controversial and perhaps incendiary. it's a shame it didn't spark a political/moral/ethical debate, but I guess this is sci-fi forum and that belongs in the Off Topic or Equine Graveyard.

Apologies for being absent but I'll be back more now.

Lieutenant_Q · « **Reply #41 on:** May 31, 2012, 04:16:41 pm »

I went that way for a reason. Everyone here knows what Khan will become, but from his perspective he had his reasons to do it. He's already brought a good semblance of order to the Middle East. Granted there's a few places on the periphery of his Empire that aren't as well off as the central parts. But no one is going to be able to just suddenly crop up from nothing without some international support. Russia and China are constantly supporting powers in the Middle East that they think will either support their interests, or just be a thorn in the side of the "West". Quite soon the two of them will turn on Khan, once they realize that he's an immediate threat to them, and it will be the US and UK that will support him because of what he's been able to do with Terrorism in general. I know Roddenberry thought that the United Nations would be the entity that will lead us into a bold new future, but personally I do not see the United Nations accomplishing anything near something like the uniting of the World. In fact, it would not surprise me if the United Nations is a catalyst for a Third World War. These are the same type of people that supported the defunct League of Nations, who thought that the best way to stop all wars, was to outlaw it. We saw just how well THAT turned out, but they think that THIS TIME, they have all the right pieces in place. I'm sure that after the UN we'll have another entity that pops up that will try to do the same thing. Most bad ideas have to come around again and again a few times before most of the people realize that it is indeed, a bad idea. Is there a way to unite Earth? Not at present. I fear that it will indeed take the discovery of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence for that to happen. Because even if someone manages to unite the World by force, that unity will only be temporary. A world wide sense of purpose, whether it be to present a united Human face to an alien race, or even to sponsor a trip beyond the solar system, that's what I think it will take. But... well... I'll leave it at that because this isn't Hot & Spicy, and I don't want this over there.

I do not like having characters, especially main characters, that are "Pure Good" or "Pure Evil". Because NO ONE is either. Even a man as reviled as Hitler was not "Pure Evil", although he is about as close as you can get. I also like having characters that "grow" with the story. That's something that you really didn't get in TOS, but got in TMP and beyond. If a character did "grow" in a TOS story, it was usually just for the duration of the Episode, and then it was back to normal for the next week. I'm not saying that it's bad that they didn't, its a by-product of when it was filmed, continuity didn't matter from episode to episode, it wasn't deemed as very important, the story that was being told was what was important.

Scottish Andy · « **Reply #42 on:** June 01, 2012, 09:29:03 am »

Quote

I'm sure that after the UN we'll have another entity that pops up that will try to do the same thing.

The New United Nations?

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/New_United_Nations

As to the rest of your rationale, I fear that you are correct in your assessment. Currently, the members of the U.N. all seem to be in it not for the collective good of Humanity but for the increase in visibility and alliance-building influence for their own nation. When one or more big countries don't like something that goes against their own political goals, they use their veto power to stop it. Currently the U.N. is merely an international political forum. Nations do as they please and use all sorts of political wrangling to get what they want. It often is merely a P.R. campaign, putting the happy face of international cooperation over the back-room deals as nations wrangle to get the best "what's in it for me if I help you?" angle.

Very tiresome and disheartening, I must say.

What is it with veto power anyway? It just makes one country able to waste months or years of diplomatic and political effort and no doubt billions of pounds right at the very end of the process, or is a big stick to scare others into not even attempting to go forward with something. Why is this a good idea?

To unite the world, we'd have to do away with nation-states. As long as there are nation-states, those within it will always be looking out for what is best for them, which will more often than not be at odds with what is best for their neighbours or those they affect around the globe. Each nation-state is all about getting the ultimate best for their own, which will always be to the detriment of others. For common cause to unite the nation-states, it has to be a long-term, all-encompassing goal that can be dealt with by cooperation with all nations. Otherwise it's too short to maintain everyone's focus, and those who simply are unable to help won't care.

I totally agree about with you about Good vs. Evil. We can all be petty muppets thwarting someone else's idea because we don't like them or they wronged us in the past; or be the opposition whose aims momentarily line up with those of the proposers to get something done.

I'm going to be deconstructing your deconstruction of Europe in your second installment next. The individual European militaries are in no way as woeful a shape as you paint! Certainly not after only two more years. I've not finished reading it yet though, and I still have to catch up on the Guv's Cleo #2 and Rommie's story (just to let you know I've not forgotten about you!

) so I'll be around for a bit, making lots of comments and again trying to resuscitate this comatose forum.

Just out of interest, do any of you read (or used to read, when I regularly updated it) my website? I have been regularly updating it again now for almost two months continuously. Not much I grant you, but after about 5 updates in 2 years, I think it is a marked improvement. Go back and read it! Please?

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