[IC] Confederacy: 2784- The Legend of the Gatekeepers (Open)

[RyonOlson]

Imagine a world where people live in harmony with each other, working for a common goal of expanding their understanding of the universe. A world where poverty, famine, and disease do not exist; one where the government works for the people, not itself. One where its military is for peacekeeping and exploring, not conquering and subjugating. This world exists in the Confederacy of Free Worlds, an organization of thousands of species and even more worlds working together peacefully.

The year is 2784, and a bright and promising future awaits. Each of you are a crew member aboard the Confederate Starship Enterprise, an Enterprise-Class Fleet Carrier and Exploration Vessel. You are the best and brightest the Confederate Space Academy has to offer, and have been offered a chance to serve aboard the fleet’s flagship. Your journey starts as you have just arrived on the ship, your graduation conducted only the day before and your assignments given.

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“Captain’s log, Stardate 2784.235. This being my first log as captain of the Enterprise, I feel I should have something grand and profound to say. But, no words come to mind other than ‘Why me?’ Yes, I accepted the promotion with gratitude and humility, as any officer should, but it is intimidating to know that I, James Langley, am the captain in charge of the largest ship in the fleet.”

James Langley paced his cabin, trying to find the words to say that would best portray his thoughts. But, few other words came. He decided to finish with his views on the day’s upcoming events.

“I have just completed my inspection tour of the ship, making sure the refit went as expected. The engineers at Starbase Antares have done a marvelous job at making this ship state of the art. Propulsion, shield, and weapon upgrades, along with a wholly new science lab that will allow a wider variety of studies as we carry out our deep-space missions. I feel that this ship will continue to be the pride and joy of the fleet.

“Finally, I must say that I am anxious to meet the new crew. I admit I only scanned their profiles, but nonetheless I remain impressed. I look forward to meeting them personally and seeing if they hold up to their reputations.”

James made a cutting motion with his hand, and the recording stopped and saved. He waved his hand again and a holographic display appeared in the center of the room, showing the Enterprise, Earth, and Luna. He spread his fingers apart, magnifying the Enterprise itself. He watched as three shuttles approached the ship’s fore end. ‘The new recruits,’ he thought.

He waved his hand and the hologram disappeared. He stepped to the cabin door, and placed his hand on the panel next to it. The door unlocked and slid open. He walked the corridors, nodding to and shaking hands with the crew as he passed them. After a short turbolift ride he was on the executive hangar level, where the new officers would arrive. As he reached the secondary barrier the shuttles were passing through the first atmospheric barrier. They spun around one-hundred and eighty degrees and landed in unison. Their rear ramps lowered and the new crew stepped out. He waited for them to finish lining up before he stepped up to the makeshift podium placed in front of him.

“Everyone, welcome aboard the Enterprise. I am your captain, James Langley. You can call me Captain, Mr. Langley, James, or whatever suits your purpose. Please, no nicknames.”

His comment elicited a chuckle from everyone, and he watched the tension ease away. After a few moments he continued.

“You may be asking yourself, ‘Why me? Why did I get chosen for this assignment above all other candidates?’ Frankly, you are the best and brightest the Academy has to offer. Graduating at the top of your class, showing good leadership skills, being curious and intuitive, and above all having a sense of exploration that most others don’t have. Don’t let that get to your head.” Again, more laughter.

“You will be challenged, in someways beyond your your current abilities. You will know fear, anxiety, anticipation, pride, and amazement. That is what it takes to be an officer in the Star Navy. With that said, I am glad to have you all here. In forty-five minutes you will report to your specific departments. In the meantime, feel free to mingle and get to know each other. You will be spending a lot of time together.”

James stepped down and watched as everyone broke rank and began to talk with each other. Nearly a dozen different races were present, representing civilizations all across the three galaxies that made up the Confederacy.

[Melkor]

The evening prior was the graduation ceremony from the academy, Steven was one of the only that had received a PhD. He was also one of the youngest of the graduates. Most disappeared to parties the night before to celebrate, it showed on their faces as the new guys and gals stood there. They looked tired and a few were having a hard time staying at attention. When they'd been given time to mingle, many of them looked relieved. Steven didn’t know how most would stay awake during the day ahead.

Hewlett spent a few moments introducing himself to other graduates but, quickly, decided to just make his way down to engineering to give it a look. As the doors closed on the lift he’d entered, an AI spoke in a soothing woman’s voice, “Good morning Lt. Commander Hewlett. Please state your destination.”

“Engineering please, upper level.” He replied, looking at his holomap of the ship. The lift launched downward to the bottom of the ship, where all of the systems where located. Life support, weapon systems, generators and so on. The upper level of engineering housed all of the displays for the systems. Quantum energy levels, current power to the different systems, shields and so on.

After a few minutes, he found his office and the lab next door. It had all of the bells and whistles, he couldn’t wait to use it later. He made his way back to the control room and began to make sure that all of the systems were in working order.

[RyonOlson]

After the crew had dispersed, James decided to make his first proper introduction to the head of Engineering. He watched as Commander Hewlett entered the turbolift and descended to engineering. 'Better give him a few minutes,' James thought as he walked towards the turbolift. He entered the turbolift and waited for the doors to close. "Destination, Captain?" the AI's voice asked. James remembered that the ships AI was personalized to each crew member.

"Engineering, level three," James stated. The third level, situated below the control stations and ship systems were located, was where the Enterprise generated all its power. Housed in massive transparent cylinders sat the four quantanium-fueled reactors, known as quantum cores. Each reactor operated as a particle generator, drawing small amounts of exotic matter from another dimension where it would be sent into a particle collider. From there the energy released in the particle colliders was channelled into massive receptors, where it was used to power the entire vessel.

James exited the turbolift and stepped onto a large, railed catwalk. On each side sat two of the quantum cores. He watched as swirls of blue and purple appeared in the black mass that was active quantanium. He made a close survey of everything and found it to be in perfect working order. Feeling satisfied, he moved onward to the particle colliders. Each were surrounded in a forcefield, so every time a particle collided with another James had to shield his eyes. He felt no more of a need to continue forward on level three, so he once again stepped into the turbolift. He had it move up two levels to where Engineering operations was. He stepped out of the turbolift into chaos.

Crew were scrambling everywhere, trying to find their stations. A lieutenant was barking orders at several other officers, and nearly got knocked over when a large hovering crate went flying at him. James peered across the room and found Steven. He pushed his way through the chaos and stood mere meters from Steven.

"Hello, Commander Hewlett. What do you think of the Enterprise?"

[Melkor]

Engineering quickly became a chaotic mass of enlisted men running about, getting everything working, on Steven’s order. He’d introduced himself to his staff, then quickly got everyone to work. As far as he was concerned, the ship needed to function and for that to happen they needed man power.

This was the Enterprise’s first time out of the space dock after the systems were updated, Steven refused to have anything fail on his watch. After several minutes of chaos, Steven managed to busy himself rewiring one of the holo projectors, it hadn’t been installed right. He was on the floor, on his back, underneath one of the consoles messing with the cables when he heard the voice of a man, he recognized it from earlier.

“Captain,” He said as he crawled out from underneath the console and quickly saluted, “please step into my office sir.” He beckoned the captain into the room they were next to. It had a desk, a fully integrated quantum holo-computer, three chairs and some holo projectors. Steven took his seat and offered the captain one of the others.

He had a holo-window opened on his desk, displaying each system and its current status. He grabbed it and moved it to the wall, next to the desk, so he could speak to Langley.

[RyonOlson]

James entered Steven's office and sat down. He quickly dismissed the salute; he hated most of the formalities of command. "Please, no saluting. It makes me uncomfortable." He made a quick look around the office and noted that Steven was already well-situated aboard the ship. "The Enterprise may be an old ship, but our recent refit has brought it up to the standard of some of our newest vessels. Even our newest Z-19 series destroyers fall behind on some level or another."

James could see that Steven was slightly confused by his rambling. That was good, since it gave him a chance to find out what kind of person Steven really was. Sure, he had an extremely impressive resume, and his scores were off the charts, but a true test of character happens person-to-person, not by reading a few sheets of paper.

"What is your impression of the ship so far?" he finally asked. He waited for Steven's reply.

[Melkor]

James Langley wanted to find out about Steven, and since Steven wasn't an ass kisser, per say, he didn't plan on doing so. But, he did know that he needed to make a decent first impression on his commanding officer. So he began to pay attention long enough to hear the captain ask Hewlett about his impression of the C.S.S. Enterprise. In-between thoughts, Steven had heard something about the ship being comparable to the much newer Z-19 Destroyers, but decided to simply answer the question as plainly as he could.

“I think the idea to use particle colliders as an energy source on the ship is brilliant. I know the base technology is several hundred years old, but it still functions perfectly in practice. When we launch two rodnium particles at each other, the energy released is about sixty times what we put into it. It is incredibly efficient. The quantum reactors transport certain energies from hyperspace, including materials like rodnium, in order to be used in experiments, for energy, and to be thrown into the collider for both.

“On another note: the artificially intelligent quantum computer on board is so much more advanced than anything I've worked with before. The base is the same, I can still program and such, of course, but the processing capabilities are beyond anything I've seen before.” Steven took a breath then continued rambling onward, “I’m impressed with the ring drive’s protection functionality - in a battle that would surely be an obvious target, but if it's very difficult to hit then it isn't nearly as much. Also, forty-one point six-seven kilometers per second is pretty quick. Not quite there, for space travel, since the universe is so incredibly huge. I mean massively huge, like - you may think that walking a few miles to the store is a big distance, but that's peanuts to the universe.” Steven occasionally made wild hand gestures as he spoke, but usually caught himself and got his hands under control.

“Though, I do want to know - is there really no one more qualified for this position? Don't misunderstand me, sir. I'm incredibly honored to have been granted this post - it's my dream job - but it's my first assignment. I thought I'd have to work my way up here.”

[RyonOlson]

James listened intently as Steven talked about the technologies aboard the ship. When he was asked about why he chose Steven over other available candidates, he leaned forward in his chair and his expression turned serious.

"I'm not going to lie to you, we did consider several others before choosing you. But, no one in the fleet has ever developed a hyperspace nacelle. Yes, we have used nacelles for warp engines before, but those are considered outdated. To consider revisiting a technology that is hundreds of years old, and bring it into the modern age is genius. At the time of your submission to join the crew, all other candidates were set aside. You are going to be a great asset to the crew, and I hope that you grow to become an even greater officer. Before I go, I want to lay down a couple rules for this ship. First, The captain gets final say. Second, no saluting or annoying formalities. We’re a family, so we work as one. Finally, if you have any issues, take them directly to me. I leave you with that, Mr. Hewlett. Officer briefing will be in four hours. Don’t be late.”

James got up and left for the bridge. He stood silently in the turbolift as it ascended two hundred levels, slid into another lift tube, and shot up another thirty levels. He exited onto the bridge, which was located atop the ship’s hull, suspended by a large, retractable neck. He watched the crew do final preparations for launch, and took the center seat. He watched as the crew slowly realized he was on the bridge. Each of them stopped to acknowledge him, but he waved them on, and let them get back to work. He looked over to the pilot’s seat, which was vacant. He frowned and called up a display.

“Computer, please display the profile for the pilot.” The computer beeped and a hologram appeared in front of him, showing the officer profile of Lyngia Starev. “Inform Ms. Starev that she is running late, and needs to be at her station immediately.” The computer beeped again and he turned off the display. He watched the turbolift, hoping that it wouldn’t take long for her to arrive.

[Solame]

Lyngia glared at the tray in her hands with hard blue eyes. "You call this food?" she grumbled, poking a lump of mystery meat with her finger. Groaning, the woman dropped the tray on a table and glared angrily down at it. Before she could do anything else, fortunately, the voice of the computer reminded her that she had a job to do, and that she was late.

"I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date," she sang humorlessly to herself as she headed for the turbolift. It wasn't as though she truly cared whether she was on time or not, but she knew that the captain probably did. She also knew that she should be less angry and grumbly, but seeing as she hadn't been able to get any decent food......

As the turbolift doors opened, Lyngia remembered that she'd shoved a handful of fortune cookies into a pocket on her uniform, and she was buisily searching for them when she stepped out onto the bridge. "Do you really think you can hide from me?" she said quietly, not bothering to look around as she headed for her seat. She wouldn't have even realized the captain was there if one of the fortune cookies hadn't fallen from its hiding spot and rolled to a stop next to his foot.

"Get back here, little cookie," she whispered, about to reach for it, before noticing the foot, and the person to which it was attached. Oops. The woman faced her captain, back rigidly straight, her slightly unkempt magenta hair flopping into her eyes. "Captain," she said, meeting his eyes with a cool blue gaze. "My apologies for the tardiness." And for that wonderful first impression, she added in her mind.

[Melkor]

After the captain left engineering, evidently having other matters to attend to, Hewlett thought about his words. He’d never really been one to brag or boast. This had caused him to forget how fascinatingly amazing some of his accomplishments had been. He didn’t really need to ask why the post had been given to him, he already knew why - he was the best dammit and shouldn’t need anyone else to tell him that. In hindsight, the question makes me seem weak. Like I need some sort of self assurance… Dammit Steven, don’t do that… You’ve only just impressed everyone - they think it impressive that you reused old technology… Even if that was mainly because I can’t design that well so the old nacelle seemed perfect to use…

“Oh, well. Best keep the ship running.” He stepped outside of his office to find the chaos had subsided, though still present. “Excuse me,” He had touched the arm of an enlisted man who was significantly taller, better built, incredibly more muscular than Steven was, to a degree that the man could probably crush Steven with his pinky finger. The man stopped immediately when he saw who’d begged for his attention.

He snapped to attention and spouted, “Yes Commander Hewlett?”

“I just wanted to get an update on what we’re doing at the moment. I was in a meeting for the last few minutes.” He hadn’t had a chance to realize what sort of power he’d been given. He had what looked like several hundred people at his command in Engineering. Better keep that in mind...

“The engines are ready to run sir,” The man - Steven looked at his uniform and found out his name was Carlson - Carlson stated, “But as far as anything else goes, I wouldn’t be the man to ask, sir. I can find out if you want.”

“Thank you Carlson. You should get back to what you were doing. I’ll consult each station.” With that, Carlson saluted and left. “I’ve got to get used to all of this 'head of engineering' stuff… Not used to it.” Steven muttered to himself as he made his way through the crowd to the shield generator.

[RyonOlson]

James had a moment of surprise as he watched Lyngia walk out of the turbolift, hand in pocket, fumbling with something. The first thing he noticed was her blue and pink uniform, obviously custom-made and non-standard. He wasn’t going to say anything, though, because he knew it would have taken a huge amount of convincing to get that uniform authorized.

The second thing he noticed was her bright magenta hair. “That’s going to take some time to get used to,” he thought. He stood up to greet her, but before he could do anything he noticed a cookie roll out of her pocket and land near his feet. After a moment of awkward staring and a quick apology from Lyngia, James lifted an eyebrow and motioned to the cookie.

“You should probably pick that up,” he said. After she grabbed the cookie, he motioned to her seat. “Please, take your station. We are departing as soon as the engines are prepped and ready.” He chose to not mention her tardiness. One moment of embarrassment was enough for the day.

He sat back down and hit the comm button. “Engineering,” he said, and the computer beeped in confirmation. He saw Steven’s face on the display. “Chief, are the engines ready? I would like to get underway as soon as possible.”

[Solame]

Lyngia scooped up the cookie and cast one last glance at the captain before taking her seat. Part of her was grateful for his choice to let her tardiness and the cookie thing slide; and another part of her was pissed that it had happened in the first place. But she knew what anger would do - and an awkward first impression was better than one of her 'episodes.'

So she removed the cookie from its wrapper and cracked it open, popping the two halves into her mouth and studying the fortune. "You love Chinese food." Well, that wasn't a lie. She could feel the anger melting away, and, tucking the fortune into a pocket, she turned her attention to the ships controls. The anger disintegrated completely as she ran her hands over the controls, calm rushing over her. She loved nothing more than flying.

Now content, Lyngia settled into her seat, waiting for the all-clear from engineering.

[Melkor]

“How are the shields chief?” Steven had made his way to the generator, found the man in charge - someone called Charles Hardwick, also known as Master Chief Hardwick. He was a scrawny man, a certified nerd, who didn’t have a family willing to allow him to attend an educational institution but managed to show his accumulated knowledge of shields and land himself a minor officer rank and oversight of the shield generators.

“Yes sir! Commander Hewlett!” He, almost shouted in his squawky voice. “The shields are at optimal performance sir!” He didn’t seem to know if he should salute, this left his arm twitching at his side.

“Thank you, Hardwick. There’s no need to salute…” Steven waved off the salute and made his way to the next station. He seemed to have to remind him of this whenever they spoke, though they’ve only spoke twice - he figured this was going to be a common occurrence.

After a few similar encounters, with other oversight officers, Steven took a seat in his office and got back to coding a hacking program he’d been working on when the computer made a beeping noise and Captain Langley appeared on his screen.

“Yes, sir.” He fumbled a salute, forgetting briefly that the Captain didn’t like saluting. “All systems are a go.”

[RyonOlson]

James nodded as Steven reported in. "Thank you, Commander. Prepare the hyperdrive. We will be making the jump to hyperspace the instant we exit Earth's gravity field." He switched his attention to Lyngia.

"Lieutenant Starev, we are cleared to disembark. Clear all moorings, release the parking brake, and hit the gas." He noticed Lyngia's confusion at his use of such an old phrase, and smiled. "Take us out, one-half system speed." The ship shuddered to life as the moorings detached. The exterior lights came on, and the registry lit up. C.S.S. Enterprise, CVS-90410 appeared brightly on each side of the hull. The engines began to glow a deep blue, but as the hydrogen burned hotter, turning into plasma, the engines became a brilliant orange. The inertial dampeners kicked in, but not until after everyone was jostled around in their seats. Within minutes the ship was clearing Earth orbit and leaving Earth Spacedock behind. The ring drive began to extend from the hull on its four support pillars. The connecting segments slid into place and the ring began to glow blue.

James looked at Lyngia, who seemed overly excited. "Punch it."

The ship jumped to hyperspace and hurtled towards the far reaches of the universe.

James pulled up a hologram of the ships power distribution, and noticed the hyperdrive was below optimal. "Just like the Enterprise to have trouble on its shakedown cruise." he thought. He hit the comm. "Looks like you are doing a good job, Commander Hewlett, but could you give the hyperdrive a little more power?"

[Melkor]

A few minutes passed as the starship navigated its way through system space before making the jump to hyperspace. When that happened, Steven’s computer made another beep as the Captain’s voice emitted itself from his speakers. “...but could you give the hyperdrive a little more power?”

“Sorry sir, despite what the specifications say, I can say as a Hyperphysicist that this is the actual optimal power level for the hyperdrive. Anything more than this, is just wasted energy.” He had written many papers on the effectiveness of hyperdrives and knew, for a fact, that eighty-seven percent power was the golden-spot. Anything more had granted a marginal increase in ability and wasted power. He relayed this explanation to the Captain. “And the way I see it sir, we could save the additional power and redirect it to shields so when we drop, we are safe from an ambush."

[RyonOlson]

James sat and considered Steven's words for a moment, then replied. "Very well. Recalibrate the sensors so anything under eighty- two percent sets it off. If anything happens that needs my attention, call me immediately." He signed off and got up.

He walked to the front of the bridge and watched the colorful energies of hyperspace swirl around the ship, held back by only a microscopically-small energy field that if it failed could result in the ship being immediately destroyed. He turned around and headed to his ready room, which sat left-rear of the bridge. He entered the room and sat down, pulling up a complete list of officers that headed each department, along with the bridge crew.

After writing a few notes, a call came through. He answered to only find static. He listened for a few moments longer, checking to see if it was just hyperspace noise, and found a distress call. "...Starliner Star Queen, requesting emergency assistance. We are under attack by pirates. Any ship in range, please help!" The comm went dead again. "Computer, chart distance from the Enterprise to the distress call of the Star Queen," he asked.

"One hour, five minutes, and ten seconds," the computer replied. "That includes dropping out of hyperspace, recalibrating the navigation computer, and returning to hyperspace."

James nodded. "Thanks," he said as he got up. He ran out onto the bridge.

"Officer meeting in fifteen minutes." He called Steven on his wrist comm. "Meet me in the conference room in twelve minutes."

James motioned to Lyngia. "Don't be late."

[Solame]

"Oh, ha ha," Lyngia said, rolling her eyes as the captain left the bridge. "He does realize that I'm the one flying this thing, right?" Sighing, the woman shrugged and looked around at the others on the bridge. "Hey, is there anyone around here who wants to sit in this chair and make sure that the ship doesn't crash into any planets or anything?" she called out. A lot of people gave her strange looks, but eventually her hard stare convinced a young officer to take the seat.

"Don't even think about getting comfortable there," she warned as she left the bridge, her hair swinging behind her. "I can't be held accountable for what might happen."

[Melkor]

After the Captain signed off, Steven entered his computer and said, “Computer, open the code for the hyperdrive.” The computer let off a beep and a cascade of holo-windows appeared in front of Steven. “Err… let's try just opening the code for the optimal power warning.” The windows disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. “That’s better.” He sat forward and began typing at a such a high pace and with such accuracy that his hands could hardly be seen and he never had to press the back button on his holo-keyboard.

After Steven changed the if statement to only warn if the power was below eighty-three percent, his com beeped. The Captain asked Steven to meet him in the conference room of the command deck in twelve minutes. Does he know that I’m more than two-hundred floors beneath him..? Steven saved the file and ran it then jumped out of his chair. “You’re in charge Hardwick! I’m off!”

With that he ran into the turbolift, the doors closed behind him. “Good morning, again, Lt. Commander Hewlett. Where are you going?” The polite, female, voice of the ship’s AI was fed through the speakers in the lift.

Before the AI had finished asking the question Steven began speaking, quickly. “To the Command Deck! I need to get there yesterday, computer!”

“Hold on, Commander.” The computer warned him as the turbolift shot upward toward the command deck. Along the way it shifted several times into different lift tubes in order to make its way to the command bridge. The shifting process took a few seconds, it had to make sure that no other lift was coming and then move to the next one and start moving, over, again.

In just under nine minutes, Steven made it to the conference room of the command bridge. He had to make his way out of Engineering, into the turbolift and then had to make his way down several corridors before he reached his destination.

[RyonOlson]

James watched as Steven hurried into the conference room, and motioned for him to sit down. "Commander, thank you for getting here quickly. I needed to talk to you before the rest of the senior staff arrived. Ten minutes ago we received a distress call from the starliner Star Queen. The ship was under attack by pirates. We are the closest starship with the power to confront these pirates and rescue the ship and its crew. We know that they are Venerath, which means they are not only going for valuable cargo, but also hostages. That tells us that they are going to be reluctant to shoot anyone who might be of importance. I need you to develop a way for us to find out what they are after, and where they are going."

He paused as Lyngia also entered the room, followed by the ship's Marine detachment commander, Charles Janson. James nodded to them as they sat down.

"Lieutenant Starev, have you run the simulator flight known as the 'Trantis Run?' That is what we are going to do here." He understood by the look on the others faces that no one else understood what the 'Trantis Run' was.

"The Trantis Run is a maneuver that was developed at the battle of Trantis Four during the Trakalian War in the 2400s. Right before a starship drops out of hyperspace, the system speed engines are powered to maximum and all shields powered to the the port side. When we drop from hyperspace, the ship rolls onto its side, and sets all weapons for broadside. If any enemies are in the area, we fire on them, disable their systems, and swing around between them and the disabled ship."

James looked at Lyngia. "Do you think you can perform this maneuver? It is one of the most challenging maneuvers that a starship of this size can perform, so it requires skill and precision."

He then turned to Steven as he waited for Lyngia to formulate her response. "Can the ship handle this kind of maneuver? The last time I performed a maneuver like this was aboard the Yorktown four years ago. That was using a 350 meter long, warp-equipped starship. Our ship is a bit bigger than that."

[Solame]

Lyngia laughed. "The Trantis Run? Of course I can do that, Captain." She grinned, like the question was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. "They test us with that at the Academy, you know. I ran it at least a hundred times." Waving her hand, as if it was no big deal, she sat down gracefully, the movement fluid and almost feline. Her grin was certainly a Cheshire grin.

"And I could do it with a ship twice this size," she added softly, twirling a strand of bright magenta hair around her finger. "That's my specialty, actually. Performing maneuvers meant for small ships with very large ones. It comes in handy." Not that she'd ever tell them how, or why, she'd developed that particular talent.

And Lyngia found herself already bored by the formalities that these military types were so fond of. While she waited for the great Chief of Engineering to try to explain why the maneuver was a bad idea, she swung her legs over the arms of her chair and lounged, flicking a piece of lint off of her knee.

[Melkor]

Steven couldn't think of anything immediately that would tell them what the pirates were after. His intuition said some cargo, or a wealthy family, but he couldn't think of it. In the meantime, the captain had asked the pilot about the Trantis Run. I recognize that one… That's never been done with a ship of this size…

The captain had turned to Steven asking if the ship would be able to take the maneuver. Hewlett had almost opened his mouth to say ”Without a doubt!” But, the pilot cut him off, exclaiming that she could do the maneuver with a ship twice the size of the Enterprise.

“And, that, I'd rather doubt.” He gave the pilot an apologetic look and continued, “The Enterprise should be able to pull it off, even if she is twelve thousand meters long. My only two concerns with trying that with a ship of this size is the differing rotational speeds of different sections of the hull. If we try to rotate too quickly -” he positioned his hands so one was the fore and the other the aft. He twisted them to signify the ship breaking apart.

“But, we have rotational dampeners for that. I'm sure they'll do their job. My main concern is the ring drive. It will be extended while we perform this - the inertia it will feel is the equivalent to trying to push an old battleship with your pinky - it's just an obnoxious amount. I'm concerned that they're going to rip apart more than the ship.

“While in hyperspace, the inertial dampeners are removed from the drive. This is because the drive isn't actually moving and it would impede the performance. But when we drop - the ship is shot out of hyperspace and the drive's dampeners are turned back on as quickly as possible. Usually the force doesn't cause any major damage. But if we want to roll around while dropping, move the shields to one side and fire from that side. I'm a little concerned. When we drop, we'll need to retract before we roll, otherwise we risk destroying our ring drive.”

He let that sink in. “Also, I'm going to set a hacking program to give me all of their files. It's quantum based, so distance doesn't matter. This way we can look at locations they've visited. Along with any calls they've made and what they might be searching for.”