From: owner-spectre-nrpg@startrekfreedom.com on behalf of Michael Drake [michael@startrekfreedom.com] Sent: Saturday, 12 November 2005 9:35 PM To: spectre-nrpg@startrekfreedom.com Subject: SPECTRENRPG: Compile #20 Sorry Tony – I realised as I clicked “Send” that I’d used the wrong account. -=/\=- Compile #20 Covering 7 posts from 10 to 18 September 2005 -=/\=- Mission: Whom do you trust? Day: 3 Stardate: 2406.11.12 (USS Phantom, Bridge – StratOps, Commander Tahlmari – 1958) (USS Phantom, Bridge – CO, Remae Ktell – 1959) (USS Phantom, Ready Room – CO, Remae Ktell – 2001) (USS Phantom, Ready room – Captain Antoine Beal – 2003) (USS Phantom, Cargo Bay – StratOps, Commander Tahlmari – 2005) (USS Phantom, Cargo Bay – CMO, Williams – 2007) (USS Phantom, Cargo Bay – StratOps, Commander Tahlmari – 2010) (USS Phantom, Torpedo Control – Pierce Orde – 2230) (USS Phantom, Bridge – CO, Remae Ktell – 2230) (USS Phantom, Cargo Bay – CMO, Williams – 2235) (USS Phantom, Cargo Bay – StratOps, Commander Tahlmari – 2039) (USS Phantom, Bridge – CMO, Williams – 2240) -=/\=- (USS Phantom, Bridge – StratOps, Commander Tahlmari – 1958) "Commander Tahl, can you and Doctor Williams head down to the Cargo Bay and find out how those people are down there?" asked Remae. Tahl nodded; "On it." He turned to the body that Williams was inhabiting. "Doctor, shall we?" He motioned to the turbo lift. Following the CMO he took one last look at the strange scene behind him. People he barely knew in bodies that didn't belong to them. He shook his head, knowing that they were in for some rocky times, if and when they got back to the Spectre. (USS Phantom, Bridge – CO, Remae Ktell – 1959) "Ktell... I'm sorry, Captain Remae, could I talk with you in my ready room?" Remae looked around at the former Captain of the Phantom and nodded, they departed the Bridge. (USS Phantom, Ready Room – CO, Remae Ktell – 2001) Remae as Danielle didn't sit down, he simply stood and waited for Captain Beal to do the talking. (Reply from Beal and Room for More) (USS Phantom, Ready room – Captain Antoine Beal – 2003) As the door closed behind them Beal noticed that Remae didn't sit down. That usually meant a sign of irritation. He could understand his old friend’s feelings, but he had to understand that this was an extremely odd situation, and Beal had to be sure that he was dealing with a friend. Trying to ease the tension he took a seat on the small couch, and leaned forward. He took a deep breath and began to talk. "Please, have a seat. You must understand my position. What I'm about to tell you is quite classified." (Reply Remae) "You really don't know who I am, do you?" Beal asked. (Reply Remae) "True, I was in a different body when we were together on Bajor. And you were a bit younger. We spent a lot of time together at the shuttle repair facility. I was Malafor Beal, the ACEO, at the site." (Reply Remae) "Anyway, that's not what I want to talk to about," he said, having built the strength to go on. It was difficult to talk to the body of Danielle Conner, someone that he'd come to care for and who'd betrayed him. "We've been caught in this stars gravity well for a little over two years now. We came here to conduct experiments on a new technology. It was creating a neural interface with the crew and the ships main computer. The hopes were in being able to have the ship respond more quickly, and actually recieve power boosts from the crews collective neural activity. "It worked," he paused, "to an extent. Neural interfaces are nothing too new, however, to avoid the usual hardware issues, certain members of the crew had been given neural implants, that were remotely connected to the interface. These worked too, but had little side effects that I'm just becoming aware of. Like the implants picked up on character flaws and transmitted them as well." He paused a moment again and sat back in his seat. "One of the experiments we were to run was an attempting of a time slip by way of slingshot around a star. As we were coming around for the slingshot, the neural interface overloaded the power relays and conn station, putting us in this orbit, and in cloak. There appeared to be no way out. We worked on it for months, to no avail. Nobody was coming, since nobody wanted to know why we failed, or even admit that we existed. After about six months, our reserves were depleting. The stasis pods were another phase of the experiment. They are connected to the main power core. We were going to use the neural energy as our main power source. When it was obvious that we weren't going to get out of here on our own, we rearranged the power to maintain the stasis pods, and put the entire crew in stasis. I remained out with my FO, my CEO and a few others. But the solitude was proving too much for us all, so I ordered everyone into stasis. My pod had been programmed to be the first to come offline if sensors picked up a ship, or if there was a problem. When I woke up, well, I found myself in our current situation." (Reply Remae) "The only thing I can think, on how they exchanged bodies was using the neural interfaces, and somehow connecting them with the transporters. They must have figured a way to only transport their essences, in transference. I'm not sure exactly how, they must have been working on it for a while. But that means they were working on it in stasis. I can't understand that. It must have something to do with the implants." (Reply Remae) (Oosted by Al Muir) (USS Phantom, Cargo Bay – StratOps, Commander Tahlmari – 2005) The duo stepped through the doorway to the cargo bay and Tahl looked on, amazed. He couldn't believe what he was looking at. He'd seen reports, and even a few pictures of such a sight, in intelligence reports. But even what he got in StratOps was filtered through the dreaded SFI. These types of "experiments" had been used as long range mission alternatives, storage of troops, with the idea that it would keep them "fresher" for battle, even as a possible think tank, where the minds of the occupants were somehow linked together. "Well," he said to Williams, "I suppose the first thing we need to do is to check on the condition of the inhabitants. There has to be a monitoring station around here, somewhere." (Reply Williams) (Posted by Al Muir) (USS Phantom, Cargo Bay – CMO, Williams – 2007) "Well," he said to Williams, "I suppose the first thing we need to do is to check on the condition of the inhabitants. There has to be a monitoring station around here, somewhere." "Yes Commander." Andrew looked at the rows and rows of status chambers. There was what looked like a console at the far end of the first row. "I wonder if that might be it Commander." They walked over to it. Andrew looked closely at the reading. "This is amazing Commander. I've heard of putting people in states before but not on this scale." (Reply Tahl) He gave the console a quick tap and watched it run a check on all the chambers. He glanced at Tahl. "They all green across the board Commander. I can not find any problems with these people." He glanced again at the data. "From these neural scans they are in perfect health." (Reply Tahl) (Posted by Robbie) (USS Phantom, Cargo Bay – StratOps, Commander Tahlmari – 2010) As Tahl and Williams looked over the rows of stasis pods, the Zakdorn couldn't help but feel like someone was watching him. It was just eerie, all of those bodies. He was startled from his thoughts by the CMO's call. "I wonder if that might be it Commander?" Williams asked Tahl followed him over to what looked to be a master control panel. As he looked it over he agreed. There were literally hundreds of readouts, all giving the functioning status of of the stasis pods, and the life signs of their occupants. As he glanced over it, it would appear that they were all fully functional. "This is amazing Commander. I've heard of putting people in states before but not on this scale." Williams said. Tahl didn't really want to get into a debate about that prospect, right now. He just knew that it existed, but had no idea that it was being implemented. He watched as Williams checked the readouts on the panel. "They all green across the board Commander," the doctor announced. "I can not find any problems with these people. From these neural scans they are in perfect health." Tahl had to agree until his eye caught something. There were eleven, not functioning. "Look at this Doctor." Seven pods were empty. He wondered how many of the crew were taken over by the crew members of the Phoenix, not to mention how they did it. The other four pods had ceased to function properly several years ago, and the occupants had subsequently perished. He took note of the names so that he could present them to Captain Beal, upon return to the bridge. (Reply Williams) Tahl tapped his comm.-badge. "Tahlmari to..." Who did he contact? "…bridge, we have found the stasis pods, and almost all are in perfect functioning order. Should attempt to revive the others?" (Reply Remae) "We're on it." He turned to Williams; "Looks like we have a little work to do." They'd been at it for a while, and were getting close to readying the first pods for removal from stasis when the message came to report to the bridge. "It looks like things might be hotting up Commander," Williams said, trying to keep things light. "Out of the frying pan and into the fire," Tahl said glibly. Williams ordered his nurse to keep working until they came back. At that they headed off towards the turbolift. (USS Phantom, Torpedo Control – Pierce Orde – 2230) Somehow, once the orders to his own too-few people were handled, Orde found herself with precious little to do on the bridge. Well, other than rig a quantum torpedo with a contrived phase-cloak generator and a spare power supply. He figured that the phase shifter would burn out on the step out to normal space, and that the guidance systems would be worthless until it reverted. ~ Which is precisely what we need. Pity we only had the parts on hand for one torpedo, ~ he thought ruefully. He closed the housing on the torpedo and looked over his creation, running a diagnostic. He tapped his commbadge. “Captain,” he said, “I can give you one torpedo that we can fire under cloak.” (Reply Remae, any) (Posted by Lenox) (USS Phantom, Bridge – CO, Remae Ktell – 2230) =^= Captain. =^= "Go ahead.", said Remae once he heard the voice of the Security Chief. =^= I can give you one torpedo that we can fire under cloak. =^= He shook his head, "I don't think I want to ask how you did it, good work," said the Bajoran. On the viewscreen, the stars swooshed past but a gap in the trail they were following was ahead and Remae touched his commbadge, "All senior officers to the Bridge." They had made some time on the Spectre and according to the data, it looked like they stopped here. "Mr Banowsky, take us out of warp and initiate a scan.", said Remae, even under cloak, there was scans they could take of the area. (Reply Banowsky) They soon discovered a planet and some strange readings, "Standard Orbit.", he ordered unsure of what they were going to find. (Reply from Beal, Banowsky, Any) (Posted by Anthony Keen) (USS Phantom, Cargo Bay, CMO, Williams - 22.35) =^= All senior officers to the Bridge. =^= Andrew looked up from his tricorder turned towards Tahlmari. ~ How am I supposed to find anything if he keeps making me move? ~ "It looks like things might be hotting up Commander." (Reply Tahlmari) Andrew looked over to Douwsy who was a few feet away. "Douwsy you keep scanning here while we go to the bridge; I'll be back in a bit." (Reply Douwsy) Andrew turned and headed for the turbolift. (USS Phantom, Cargo Bay – StratOps, Commander Tahlmari – 2039) Tahl stepped onto the bridge and his mind went into command code. He'd been in command of the Cochrane too long to abandon those habits. Everyone was pretty much in the same place as before, although it looked like the captain's had covered some territory. His eyes turned to the view screen. He noticed that they had come out of warp by a planet. ~ Interesting. ~ He was surprised that the Spectre had been so easy to follow, assuming that that was what they had done. He stepped down to the command area to stand beside the captains. "Any sign of the Spectre?" he asked (Reply Remae) (Posted by Al Muir) (USS Phantom, Bridge – CMO, Williams – 2240) The turbolift doors opened and they walked onto the bridge. Andrew stepped to one side to let Tahlmari pass and stayed near the back of the bridge as there we no seat or station for him to go to. "Standard Orbit." Andrew glanced at the view screen and seeing a large planet on it. ~ Oh great! A planet; how wonderful! We might go for a little swim or a stroll along the beach; but not anything useful! ~ (Reply Tahlmari) (Posted by Robbie)