jump

by asbs

not mine

4. 4

p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Woke up the next morning in my bed, in my warehouse, feeling… at a loss. Went down stairs… at a loss. Stared at the Elder Scrolls Font on the Vending Machine that was smack dab in the middle of my personal kitchen… the one that said 'The Vending Machine of Destiny!' (yes, with three exclamation points) and siiigghed. "First… this is my space. Keep your weird… Point of Sale Venue out of it. I'll look at it once I've had my coffee. Second, when the hell is this? Skyrim? Daggerfall? Morrowind? Oblivion? The first one… Arena? Or is this ESO, 'cause I haven't played that one? Fuckit, let's get this over with."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Muttering to myself, I examined the selection screen which was more like a Arcade Cabinet screen than a flat-panel Vendotron… though the machine had a coin slot on the side and a coin slot below that, and a big hopper for product to fall down into along the bottom. Very weird design, especially since the angled screen was eating a huge amount of internal real-estate. I checked my credit balance. It was at 1000. Good, at least that didn't suck. Everything else did. "Drop-In? No… I don't want to be myself right now. Mage? Done that. Thief? In Tamriel? Screw that. Merc it is then. [100/900/1000] Martial Training, Weapon of Choice, Light, Medium, or Heavy Armor. Always wanted to learn the Bow. Light Armor… Small House, Bag of Septims. Next!"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I used the joystick to make my selections, fairly hammering at the confirmation button and growling each time it asked, "Are you Certain?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yes I'm fucking certain," I half singsonged, feeling burned out and extremely cranky. "I know how to make character selections in a video game. I've been doing it since I was in grade school!" I half snarled… though I was glad I hadn't had to repeat that particular indignity yet. "Race? Well, kinda want to be a Khajiit but Argonian could be cool… or Elf. Fuckit, I'll roll the… spin the… Really?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"A One-Armed Bandit appeared next to the VMoD labeled RACES OF TAMRIEL! "Freaking Comedians here. Oh, for fuck's sake, Nord? Nord? I've been fair skinned and fair haired through… ah fuck it. I'll pay the cost to choose a race. Grumblegrumble. If I wanted to be a damned Nord I'd have gone to Skyrim. I'm gonna be a damned Argonian so I can fucking breath under fucking water. Oh… never mind," I grumped, noticing the fine print./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Apparently I only had to spin the RaceBandit if I wanted to or if I was a Drop-In. Really should read things through more, but I just wasn't feeling it. "So where do I end up? I swear to… hmmm… Talos… if I end up in Skyrim Imma punch somebody." I yanked the handle again, noticing that the Bandit now said REGIONS OF TAMRIEL! Clunk, clunk, clunk, CHING! "Summerset Isles. Fabulous. Altmer and grassland as far as the damned eye can see. Birthsign… hmmm…. Oh good, this one is free and I get to pick! Lucky meee."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The Tower sounded cool with it's 'You may open any lock with a touch once per day and possess the natural ability to detect enchantments!' I blinked, then giggled, "Why thank you strangely deep mental voice."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"The thirteen birthsigns of the Tamrielian Zodiac cleared away and were replaced with a screen entitled 'SKILLS and ABILITIES'… Fabulous. Three of them were flashing FREE; Amphibious, Athlete, and Disease Resistant. The first not only would allow me to breath underwater (no more enchanted SCUBA for me) but would allow me to swim 'very quickly'… would have to see how quickly was 'very quickly'… I could already outswim an olympic athlete. The second said I could run as fast as was humanly possible for as far as was usually possible (though not at the same time)… which might boost my speed and stamina… I wasn't certain how these all interacted. And the third was a blanket 75% reduction in my chance to get sick… and bloody useless, since I was already immune thanks to, you know… Pure Blood…/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Huh…" That was a good question. "Hey… got explain something for me," I said, tapping the machine's Service Request button. "So… like… Amphibious is part of being an Argonian and Disease Immunity is part of being a Magical Pureblood… and Biotics are part of being Asari and being a Conduit is genetic too… But I can use my Biotics and Conduit powers and even PokeMoves in other forms… how does this work?"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Ah. Yes. A good question indeed," the Machine said, a Max-Headroom-like face appearing on the screen, though the voice sounded more like Morgan Freeman than a stuttering Matt Frewer (what? I watched that show! It was funny!) "As long as the powers and abilities are inherent in a mostly humanoid shell, and something not reliant upon manifest biology, you can use them in all forms."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Soo… the Amphibious ability relies upon gills and webbed feet and hands… so that's manifest biology?"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Mmm… to an extent, but not one anyone would really notice."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""So I could breath underwater without the gills but less efficiently?" I interpreted./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Something like that, yes."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Nice. Very vague. What about perks that clearly are inferior to effects I already have? Such as a speed boost to normal human maximum, considering that I can outrun a cheetah."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""It all adds up." The face shrank, leaving 80% the screen clear. "To use a system you're familiar with," DD stats appeared. "Your baseline Strength from the Body Mod would be 18. Add in the value of Physical Fitness from PokeTrainer," a +12 appeared and the 18 became a 30, "and the value of Strength from Infamous," another +10 appeared and the 30 became a 40, "and the Stat Up of a Pokemon," the 40 became a 50. "It's not exact, because, well, your DD uses a bit of a geometric progression and this has been additive, but you get the idea. You start as a powerlifter and then add onto it the ability to lift a car three times. Does this mean you can lift something that weighs as much as three cars? Easily. It's all metaphysics, but nothing is ever totally useless."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"I grimaced, then chuckled, "Oh yeah? How does +75% disease resistance help boost 100% disease immunity? Where immunity doesn't just mean super-resistant but actually flat out means I no-sell illnesses and diseases. What, does the flu now suddenly have a 75% chance of getting me?"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Ahhmmm… noo… but you'll essentially develop a counter-contagion. Any disease you're exposed to you'll start spreading antibodies to those around you."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Huh. Well, fair enough… I think that's all my questions… bring back the purchase screen, if you would?" The face faded away and I looked over the twenty-three remaining options, x-ing out the ones I had no interest in, such as all the cheap stuff and most of the mage stuff. I'd just spent a decade picking up magecraft at Hogwarts; if I'd wanted more magic I'd have taken the Mage background. That meant Necromancer, Enchanter, Summoner, and Spellmaker all got the axe. Likewise, the incredibly expensive Dowsing, Shadow Hide You, and Thu'um also got tossed in the bin./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"The only three mid-priced abilities that really interested me were Poison Immunity, which wouldspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" have helped when Padfoot freakin tranqed my ass, but didn't stop booze or fun stuff from having an effect [200/700/1000]; Progress, which would allow me to pick up new skills quickly and then improve them quicker than usual [300/400/1000]; and Shehai, which was the ability to craft a sword from my own living spirit, a ghost sword that could, with time, become an incredibly formidable weapon… but buying all three would put me down to 100 and I hadn't even looked at the /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Gear and shit… I mean Drawbacks./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Hey… is there another of those Companion Import things on this… what was it that the Body Mod Pod called it? World Document?" I asked, pushing the button again. I mean, span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"what would I be without Zane? Good old Zane. Alone… with my thoughts… that's what./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Indeed there is," Morgan Headroom replied, "It is called 'Hail Companion'. 50 for 1, 100 for 4, and 200 for 8, just like last time. Race, Identity, and any associated freebies."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Wait… no CP budget this time?"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Not this time, no," the digital head looked sad, "But for 150 of your CP, one of your companions will gain a 500 CP budget. You can only do that once per companion."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Crap… I'm going to need some drawbacks," I said as the face faded away, revealing, yes, the FLAWS section. There were 9 of them, three each at 100, 200, and 300… and, "span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Wait… what the heck… My Favorite Drinking Buddy… Sanguine, the local God of Booze and Bad Decisions would become my friend and we'd go out drinking almost every night? Oh, that sounds so very very bad. I must have it! [+300/700/1300]. And that gives me enough for the sword made out of spirit [300/400/1300] plus [50/350/1300] for Zane the Man… and another [150/200/1300] so he could pick up some skillzzz. And 100 each for Highborn [100/100/1300] and Diplomat [100/0/1300], because more magicka good and good prices are good and making people see reason is reasonable…. and hmmm…"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"I looked at the screen… it said I could take up to 600 CP worth of Flaws and, to be honest, most of these weren't that bad. Outlander wasn't great, what with people treating me with suspicion, but all it did was mean that it would take people twice as long to warm up to me… sooo… three minutes instead of a minute and a half? I'm very likable… unless you're an asshat. Witches meant that a coven of witches would occasionally (25% chance per year) steal my clothes and leave me frozen in place for three days. Which could have been dangerous… but it guaranteed I'd survive and get my stuff back… wow. Such risk… not. Curse of the Dwemer was out because it said I couldn't ever acknowledge my belief in a deity and I was planning on going drinking with one. Those were just the 100s and the 200s were only mildly worse. An annoying but adoring Fan, swarms of the pterodactyl-like Cliff Racers (think seagulls the size of cougars) following me, or a Dark Brotherhood contract being placed on my head. The other 300s (Skooma Addict and Ebony Warrior) I ignored./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"After much consideration… i.e. all of ten seconds, I took the Witches [+100/100/1400] and the Adoring Fan [+200/300/1600]… both seemed harmless… and after all… if I was worried about being naked, I could get clothes from my warehouse or, you know, turn into a flaming monkey. I'd spent a decade wearing nothing but a scarf and a fedora… don't ask where the fedora came from, or how, exactly, it was fireproof. I dunno./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"That gave me enough points to buy… hmmm… Auriel's Bow (made by the Elven God Auriel and capable of setting almost anything on fire), Spellbreaker (a shield that could block any spell), or my choice of Artifactual swords such as Goldbrand, The Ebony Blade, or Dawnbreaker… that were blessed, respectively, with a formidable fire attack, a life drain effect, or an explosive sunlight effect respectively… or I could spend 150 and import the rest of my companions… but none of them seemed very interested in playing fantasy dress-up while I went bar-hopping. Fuck it… I took the shield [300/0/1600]/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I walked away from the machine to consider my purchases and grab some coffee because all that excitement had worn me out, then returned, munching on a pear from the fruitbowl that Ziggy had knocked over in the night. "Let's see what we hook Zane up with now," I said to no one in particular. "Race, Identity, Freebies, 500 points of skills. Cool. Make the Doggy a kitty… errr Khajiit Thief! Total stereotype there. Comes with Locking-Picking, Pocket-Picking, Sneak-Picking…. I mean Stealth. Dagger skills, an understanding of Tamriel's cities… that's impressive, ain't no one can understand how video-game cities actually function… Whispering Fang Style Kung Fu free for being Khajiit, Acrobat free for being a Thief. The Thief birthsign, obviously… and here's hoping he doesn't come to rely too heavily on his luck (I don't want him dying on me)… Critical is half price [100/400/500]… That's a good price for dealing massive damage every one out of nine blows… Poison Immunity [200/200/500] and Highborn [100/100/500]… do Khajiit even have social classes like that? Hmm… 100 left… Dragonskin and its 25% spell absorption… is that absorbed as health or magicka… or… hmm… Amphibious cat? Naw… Dragonskin it is [100/0/500]."br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"I sat back on my kitchen's breakfast bar stool and spun around a few times, shifting from one form to another as the profiles loaded. Once that was done and I'd tweaked what needed tweaking, I typed in the names 'Siso Jun' and 'Za'ain', and listed the personalities as 'Fun-loving, adventurous, devil-may care… unbothered by the past and unconcerned with the future. Fill in the blanks as need be.'/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"When the button for early insertion came up, I pressed it without a moment's hesitation. I was not enjoying my own company right now./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"INSERTION/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"You know that sensation when you wake up and it's the next morning and you honestly can't remember what the hell happened last night… that was this entire decade. Fuuuck. I was hammered to the back of beyond. If there was a strange place to wake up, I woke up there. If there was a petty, annoying, or deeply embarrassing crime I could be accused of committing… I probably did it. Is there any coherent plot to what transpired over the decade? Not even vaguely. Okay, okay. I wasn't drunk the whole time. Just… like 5 nights out of 7… and even with needing only three hours sleep a night and having hupersuhman… superhuman… superargonian constitution… I was… I drank a lot. One month, some time in the first year, Guido and I decided to try having a drink in every wine shop, public house, and brewer in the city. I don't rememember which one. It was a city. That's what matters./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"So we did that. Open, closed, burned down in a suspicious fire, buried deep in the catag… cagta… burial chambers beneath the streets… We hit them all. Even ones that hadn't existed… existed for centuries. And then we decided that we had to do the Whole Island… that took longer. Some people tried to stop us. I may… may… have used a plasma rifle on them. I don't remembner. I lost track of Zane around the fourth city… but he showed up again to help get me out of jail in the… something higher than 5./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I can safely say that… whatever the world shaking danger was… I didn't do it. I don't think. Also… don't think I stopped it. Zane might have… dunno. Heh. I got really good with a bow. And the pointy things. I can hit… like… any target you name… from pretty much anywhere… with… like all the booze in the galaxy in me./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I may have accidentally assassinated the Emperor. Don't membrener…/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"AFTERWARDS?/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Oh. My head. I was floating in the drydock… that was unusual… I think… my head…. oooo… gonna be… nope… what was that? wow… I looked around and then triggered my comm… at least I was wearing my comm… when had I put on my comm? "ZAAAANE! Why the hell are there tens of thousands of Tankards floating in my drydock?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""You said one for every bar…. Err. and brewery… and pretty much anything that sold alcohol." His face appeared in a solid light hologram, the room behind him coming into focus slowly as I adjusted to the perspective of looking down and sideways at the same time while not losing my… when was the last time I had eaten something solid… or, you know… anything at all./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""In where?" I asked, not quite tracking yet./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Ummm… Tamriel," he said with a shrug./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""All of it?!" /span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Think so. Dunno."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Ohhhh… my head. That explained sooo much… wait, who was that behind him… /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Zane… Is that Uriel Septim the VIIth (pronounced Viith) sitting on the couch eating popcorn?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Um… yes?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Why?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""He wanted to watch Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon again."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Again?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Oh, sure. You invited him to come over about five years ago. He's pretty regular here."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""But we can't take… he's the… I don't have a stasis pod to put him in."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Sokay."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Sokay? Howsokay?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Technically… he's kinda dead."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Oh?" Something about that statement was making me have what might have been classed as memories if they weren't so hazy and chaotic./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yeah… Some crazy ass drunk Argonian lady wearing a Mythic Dawn cult uniform stabbed him."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I looked down at my clothing. "Sort of like this?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yeah… looks about right./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Wait… that means this is… fuck… 3E 433. Didn't we arrive in 3E 427? That means there are 4 more years of this. Why am I back here?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Oblivion Crisis."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Oblivion Crisis?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Apparently. We got booted from the system. Been waiting to see if we can log back in."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""How long?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Just 15 hours."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Huh."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Well, I guess if he's comfy, he can stay there and veg all he wants."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Zane pretty much nodded./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""If I ever think unending drinking binges with gods are cool again… hit me with something."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""You got it, sis."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"SECOND INSERTION/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"[FILE NOT FOUND]/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"AFTERMATH/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Thank Talos that's over," I said, stretching and making certain all my body parts were roughly where they were supposed to be./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""You say that as if you didn't enjoy the Shivering Isles," Zane said./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""I didn't enjoy the Shivering Isles. I was drunk. They made my head hurt. I was wearing Horsebarding, and nothing was making any sense."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Can't say it wasn't fun." He grinned. He would have enjoyed them, the bastard./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Can too… I think my hangover is hungover. I did not know it was possible to get that drunk… without being booze."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""I had fun!" he said, bouncing a bit./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""I'm happy for you," I groused./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""You're a grumpy gus," he teased, making faces at me./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""And your point is?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""I think the Septim bloodline is secure."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""You think? Viagra Potions plus every damned loose woman in the Empire. Uri liked to party."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Think he'll be okay?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Well, no one knows he's the ex-emperor. He's 90 years old… what trouble can he get into?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""I shudder to think of it."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Eh. Beats being dead."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""True. Where's next?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Someplace called The United Federation of Planets."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Oh? Oh dear."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Problem?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""No, but I think we're about to Boldly Go where no Lucario / Krogan / Khajiit has gone before."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Shouldn't that be Go Boldly?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Shadaap. I'm going to have a very long nap. If I'm not back in three days, send in the Ziggy."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""You got it."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"THE WAREHOUSE SUITES/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Zane?" I asked, two days and eleven hours later./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yeah Sis?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Didn't we drop Uriel off in, what was it, Riften?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yeah?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Then why is he in our living room watching F*R*I*E*N*D*S?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""He came back."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""How?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Teleported, just like everyone but you does."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Ummm… but…"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""I didn't ask."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Where's he staying?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""RV 3… but we could move him into the apartment building next door."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Th… what apartment building next door? There is NO next door! We're in some kinda pocket reality!"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Next door to the house, duh… Oh, yeah… While you was… umm… sleeping, another supplement arrived. I did it for you."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""You… did it for me…"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yeah. I just thought, 'What would an uptight little goofball who doesn't know how to have fun if she's not totally plastered do?' And hey, presto!"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Hey… presto…"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yup."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""If this is a joke, I'm going to throttle you."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Naw, don't worry so much. It's all stuff we coulda built ourselves, pretty much."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""I have the utmost faith in you."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Thanks! Hey… wait a minute. You have faith in my good judgement or that I can fuck things up super bad?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Get back to me after I see what you did with the Apartment Building."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: underline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Zane's Log/span/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"So, like… I'm not good at this writing stuff down, but if I don't, then Sis is gonna throttle me. We been together for thirty years. I think I got her pegged, right?/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"So, let's see… it says "If you Build it, they will Come." It's got plans for a whole bunch of stuff, housing for extra companions and just, like people what want to tag along or something. None of its built or anything, so we'll have to get materials and stuff. Let's see, it covers a footprint of 20m by 40m and has hookups for water cause the warehouse does. If we want power, we'll have to source it ourselves. That's good. No wasted stuff there. And it has an automatic elevator for every floor we build./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Basically, it looks like this is mostly to add bedrooms and stuff. Nothing fancy like the rooms in the houses… Sis gets the big one, and we each have our own suites, you know? Us companions I mean, though I'm special acorse. Like AJ but, you know, more equal and stuff. Plus, I slept with Sis… okay, okay, it was before we were us in those bodies, but that counts right? In fact, since we was twins in the Potterverse, we slept together a whole bunch before we inserted… course that was, you know, platonic? Fraternal? Something. Not sexual or nothin'. Anyway the apartment building has more rooms for guests. Like Uriel or something I guess./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The Apartment building is 6 spaces per floor, each 7 by 10, central hall is 2 meters across. Has an elevator, I said that… but it don't go nowhere yet I guess. Every apartment we build comes with a Comp phone that maps the house and apartment and has its own number. That's good, saves programming or what have you. We can upgrade with smartphones, but everyone gets a basic model… modle? how ever you spell that./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Huh… look at that. Says we're supposed to have a week's downtime between jumps. Weird. Don't think anyone's told Sis that. Says we can upgrade to a month. We should totally do that… and make it so Sis has to spend it with us instead of just jumping into the next thing. She needs downtime… needs to learn to relax like the Zane-Man can! 'I Need More Time', it's called. Sold [15/235/250 BP]. Mustn't forget to tell Sis…. wait, what's BP? Oh… /span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Apparently, we start with 250 Build Points, BP I guess. Oh. That is cool. 'All That Space' [20/215/250 BP] makes Companion Rooms Closets bigger on the inside and customizes the bathrooms. That's a good one. God Room for Sis… that's a suuuper nice room it says. Also bigger on the inside. She wants that… even though she doesn't spend a whole lot of time in the House. Dunno why she'd want a magically growing bed. She only ever sleeps with Ziggy. Calls him her little teddy fuzz. Doesn't look like a Teddyursa to me, but Sis is weird sometimes. [30/185/250 BP]/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Hmmm… Medical Facility [15/170/250 BP]. Boosts the Medbay with more beds and puts it on the ground floor of the Building, but that takes two spaces. Still room for Uriel. Wait, Armory [10/160/250 BP] takes up another space, but we need a place to show off our good gear instead of just pulling it out of crates in the Warehouse… and this will port them to us if we summon them. Accio Pulse Rifle! And Game Store [15/145/250 BP] Hella yes. Buy and sell games from any Jump we pass through. Hobby shit too. Nicenice. Bookstore [15/130/250 BP] is a ditto. General Store [15/115/250 BP], Clothing Store [15/100/250 BP] Sweet. It's like. Umm… a mall! With people… person living in it. Wait, how many points do I got left? 100? Cool… lets see. And I used 7 rooms left of 6? But where's Uriel gonna… Weird… oh… just got a notification that the elevator goes to the second floor now… huh… oh… look at that, there's this… framework in blue lights. Okay. I should keep track of that./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Oh. Says we can move the pool inside the building… that'll clear up some floor space. But naw… swimming outside is better. Oh Excellent! Actual apartments! Says they are we can have as many as we want… oh… but each takes up a chunk of warehouse space… says we can cram up to 8 companions into each Apartment? Sweet. 8 Uriels… no, wait, that's not how that works. I mean, 8 guests. Yeah, that's what I mean./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Hmmm… Godly Kitchen improves the kitchen? How? We got all the appliances… wait… it says that simple foods can't be ruined anymore. A kitchen that will stop Sis from burning the foods? No more crunchy ramen? Yes. Yes! Must have! [30/70/250 BP] is a bunch but who cares! Edible foods at last!/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Still got more. Bathhouse? We got bathrooms already. Naw. Ooo… Basements! Sis has been complaining about no basements! Whoaa… that's a lot of points… eh… hey, I got exactly that much left! Sold! [70/0/250 BP] And that's it! I spented all da Choices!/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"***/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I looked over Zane's… notes… and the pamphlet… not bothering to tell him that "No Time To Waste", the option that let me instantly trigger the next jump, was free. This was clearly important to him. I reached up and patted his head "You did good. Not exactly what I'd have spent the Choices on, but close enough." I looked over at the ST:TOS themed VMoD… I guess that was the thing now… and shrugged. "We'll worry about that in a couple of days. Let's get our relaxation on. And… don't worry. I'm not touching anything alcoholic. Not for at least a couple of years… maybe decades. My head really hurts."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"It had been 10 years and 27 days since last I'd done this, and the boss had apparently taken the spirit of Zane's desire to keep me around for a month to heart, as up until that penultimate day, it simply hadn't been possible to plan for the next jump as the Vending Machine of Destiny had simply refused to respond to any of my commands and there hadn't been any Choice Currency to spend, not even when I'd hit the coin return button./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"All that had changed on the morning of the 27th day following the end of TES Jump. The warehouse was gone and I had awoken in my bed in the middle of the quadrangle at Starfleet Headquarters, San Francisco, Earth. It was dawn, and time was frozen, but on the bedside table was a grey Starfleet Cadet's uniform, an admissions letter listing today's date, and a stack of span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"credit-card-like pieces of plastic in primary colors. "Not the Alternate Universe Timeline then." I said, smirking. "Good…. though maybe that's a later jump." That thought did not thrill me./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I looked at the machine; it was set up like a snack food vendor, with a different class of thing on every line. It was hard to see what was on the lower levels, since they weren't currently illuminated, but the top level had seven choices, each with a simply ghastly name and the shelf they were all sitting on said, 'Select no more than two." Ah… these must be the drawbacks." I commented aloud. The sound hung strange in the utterly still air./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"I found that, if I concentrated on the name of a drawback, the transparent window of the VMoD would shimmer and turn yellow, with brighter yellow-gold letters appearing to explain. Thus I was able to quite quickly determine that I'd have to be out of my fucking mind to take a single damned one of these. Living Stereotype would make me a, well, racial stereotype no matter which race I was. Curse of Lieutenant Sue was a reference to the original Mary Sue, a character from one of the earliest known fanfics, and one who was fairly moderate levels of better than everyone else. It would make me hatted if I was at all special, which sounded just like sooo much fun./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"Those were the ones that wouldn't kill me. Exploding Consoles, From Hell's Heart, Transporter Necrosis, and Redshirt almost certainly would. Sure sure, I was much tougher than the average human or vulcan and could regenerate having my face burned off, but an exploding console often meant a starship had just lost a vital control panel… a starship I was on, presumably. Hell's Heart would provide a nemesis or two or six… in a universe that had godlike psychics, time travellers, actual greek gods, and the fucking Q? Hell, there was no way I could survive my starship blowing up from a negative space wedgie, let alone mundane sabotage, and even stay on planet wouldn't keep me safe from a KEW Strike on the city I was in. Bad place to make enemies. Transporter Necrosis would kill me if I beamed anywhere… and since hostile beaming was a thing… no. just… no. And Redshirt? See list of things that could go wrong and still kill a super human… Volumes one through nine hundred and five, including but not limited to being eaten by a salt-sucking monster in my sleep, which, surprise surprise, I had no defense against./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"And then there was the one that inflicted me with Q. I think I mentally screamed for twenty seconds just thinking about that one. I looked for a way to move on and saw 'Zero Option". So I pushed that one./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"A candy bar fell out of the bottom of the top row and the lights shifted down to the second row. Curious, I reached into the hopper to find that I'd just purchased an 'Anomaly Bar', now with Zero CP! I flipped it around to see the ingredients list, wondering how far Quick was willing to take this./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Nothing can ever be simple around you!" read the blurb on the back of the candy wrapper. "Contains: Unexplained Scientific Phenomenon, Ancient Superweapons, Mysterious and Inscrutable Beings, Natural Flavors, Unnatural Flavors, Flavors Beyond the Comprehension of Mortal Minds, Sentient Shades of Red Dye No. 12, Netronium, Trilithium, and Anti-Matter as a preservative. Best if Used beyond the borders of the Federation."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Yumm…" I said, putting the candy bar on top of the machine. Maybe, if I didn't eat it, it wouldn't affect me?"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"Row two had five options and the bar read "IDENTITIES! Pick No More Than One!" The choices were Stowaway, Operations, Sciences, Command, and Trader and they ranged from free to 100 CP… which apparently stood for 'Coexistence Potential' in this reality./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Speaking to myself, I said, "Well, I could be command school. But that seems… Naw. I was all about that in the ME verse. But I do want to be invested here (I certainly wasn't in Elder Scrolls) so no Trader or Stowaway. That leaves Operations… that might be a bit dull… or Sciences. Sciences. Closer to "reality" for what that's worth. Oh… Medical is in Sciences! Saving lives. Very good. I like Saving Lives." [50/950/1000] CP got me a bag of Science Chips! Now with extra Sciency Goodness in EVERY BAG! Science Chips, Saving the Future, Except When We Don't! Contents: Eight Years of Starfleet's Best Education! Warning: Package Contains an Assignment to a Constitution-Class Starship. Do not Eat./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"Good thought that. Sciency types are known for eating random prizes in junkfood packages. Next up was the Biological Background bar, which had another eight options, plus a zero point option labeled 'Pick-n-mix' which I assumed was a totally random choice. The options included the big four (Humanity, Vulcan, Andorian, and Tellurite), plus three really minor and unimportant races (Jelna, Caitain, and Saurian). I had no idea who the Jelna were… maybe they were from one of the books I hadn't read… or Enterprise? Good lord that show sucked. The Saurians I knew of only from their brandy. and the Caitain Lt. M'Ress had appeared in The Animated Series. She was an anthropomorphic cat lady and another had appeared in Star Fleet Uniform in The Voyage Home Obviously, all races that, in theory, belonged to the Federation. None of the 'bad races' like Romulans, pre-forehead Klingons (the We Don't Like to Talk About It Era), or Kzinti./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I wasn't going to go random… that would almost certainly land me with something I definitely didn't want… since I was willing to put up with only five of the choices and really didn't want to be blue again. I could pick Caitain and be a cat… but I've kinda always wanted to be a Vulcan. [50/900/1000] CP got me Vulcan Drops! No Frills. No Chills. Contains Emotion Control, Enhanced Strength, Green Blood, Limited Psychic Abilities, Obsession with Logic, Groovy Eyebrows, Pointed Ears (but not too pointy), and a lifespan twice that of a human! Warning, May Contain Pon'Far!/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Mounted to the cardboard of the Vulcan Drops packaging was a spinner that said "SPIN AND WIN!" so I did. What did I win? Well, turns out I'm the age equivalent of 29… so… double that I guess. 58. Excellent. Still younger than myself… and that's a very weird thing to say./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"Training (A New Category!) was the next line and I was now having to crouch to read the options… while I did so, Ziggy tried to squirm inside the hopper, much to the machine's annoyance. It buzzed at him. He used squirm. It Buzzed louder. He used Thrash. It zapped him… He leaped back, then used flail as he landed on his butt and fell over… then he used Tackle, running headfirst into the machine… at which point the machine sent out a beam of light and Ziggy's status went to Zzz. I patted the brave warrior on his ittle head and turned back to the machine./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"Apparently, training was four years of specialized training in a key skill and the first purchase was free, and since I wanted to be in Starfleet Medical, that meant Medicine was my top pick. There were sixteen choices, all looking like packs of Gum, in red for operations, blue for sciences, gold for command, and green for trader. Medicine was the complete package… diagnostics, treatment, and prevention plus a working knowledge of pharmaceuticals… it tasted like spearmint./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"As I chewed my Medical Gum, feeling an awareness of all things doctoral flooding into my memory, the text under the bar changed to state that I could buy more training if I wanted. A second would cost 100, a third 200, and a fourth 300… for a total of 600 if I was super greedy. I guess that was the question… did I span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"want to buy more?/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Yes. Yes I did. I spent [300/600/1000] CP to pick up 'Physical Sciences' (an understanding of the natural laws which govern the physical world, including biology, chemistry, geology, and ecology… I'd taken Chemistry back in college and it had made my brainmeats hurt. Physics I'd understood much better… CompSci? I hadn't be able to make the leap from Machine-Code to C++.) to make me a Xenologist (a specialist in Xenobology, Xenobotany, and Biochemistry), and Engineering (you know, all the practical aspects of the sciences, including building, maintaining, and repairing machinery and computer systems, as well as designing new systems and upgrading deficient ones). I figured I might as well be a renaissance Vulcan and build a better medical systems… and maybe a Replicator. (They didn't have those yet as far as I knew. Maybe Enterprise changed that?) Engineering tasted like Wint-o-Green, complete with electrical tingle, and Physical Sciences tasted link peppermint… I wondered what pure Physics tasted like… but not enough to spend 300 on it./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"By this point I was sitting on the ground with a sleeping Ziggy-Monster on my lap, looking at the second to last row of potential purchases. This category was fourteen items long and, just like the Training, color coded, though here there was no green for Trader, only White, which I guess was not discountable… not that I had the points to squander buying either of them./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"I focused on stuff that would make me a better scientist, a better doctor. Let someone else make the command decisions, I'd be doing something important. First off, Scientific Mind was free for Sciencey Types, giving me a basic grasp of all the various branches of science, and making it so that, if I was diligent, I'd be able to quickly pick up more specialized scientific knowledge… even with stuff alien to the Federation… like cloaking and disruptors and transwarp… It was a brain shaped cream-filled oatmeal cookie… mmm… I love Little Debbie Oatmeal Pies… I wonder if that company is still around in the TOS era./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Unfortunately, Vulcans didn't get 'Highly Logical' for free, but Scientists did get a discount on it. For [150/450/1000] CP I fortified myself with 'Mental Control the likes of which could shame a Vulcan', 'Perfect Awareness of needs and wants', and 'Emotional Mastery' that meant I still feel them but would be able to them aside as needed to make the best decisions possible, when needed. That might… might keep me from making rash choices in the future… but I doubt it./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"But that purchase took me over the halfway mark, budget-wise. I figured it would be a smart idea to check out the last category, which had to be the actual items section… you know, before I had no points left to spend. Soo… what was on sale?/spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" A god-damned Cloaking Device!? A Runabout!? A Holodeck and or a Replicator!? Two of those don't even exist in this time. But I might be able to build a replicator. The tech is only… about 70 years early. I'd take my chances. Same for the Holodeck. The Runabout might be nice… but it would be 23rd century tech and I'd rather have one from TNG or beyond. Naw./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"What I did buy was a 24th Century TR-580 Tricorder. [100/350/1000] Being from a century in the future, it would be like cheating… but less so. I hope mine is from More Trouble, More Tribbles, one of the DS9 ones that was disguised to look TOSy. An advanced sensor package should make things a bit easier, science speaking. The Tricorder at least wasn't edible. And that was me at the 2/3rds budget line, enough left for one sizable purchase./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Well then, The Science capstone perk was called Technobabbler and, with my discount, it would cost me [300/50/1000]. "Let's break this time-like curve wide open," I muttered as I scooped up the Nacelle-Cake (a twinkie, of course) and read the packaging, "Guaranteed to make you 10,000% more creative, to fill your mind with brilliant ideas and stunning solutions to difficult problems! Implement these ideas easily, even in apparent violation of natural law!" Oh good… I've always wanted to change the Laws of Physics… Jim./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Crap," I had 50 Choice left and only three things cost that much, or rather that little… and I didn't want a Tribble, Half a Year's Pay in Federation Credits, or a dozen cases of Romulan Ale. I considered, then knocked on the front panel of the VMoD as if it were a door./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Hey, Boss. That Hail Companion thing from the last jump. Can I buy that? Just for Zane and all."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Well, strictly speaking, you can always bring up to 8 companions into the setting with you. They just don't… naturalize there. I mean, they'll look the part and all, but they won't have pasts. They'll always be drop ins, in other words. Still, if you want to spend 50 on Zane, that's fine. But you have to make him a Human."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Cool. Thanks."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""I'll even grant your people minor recurring roles that fit where you are when they exit your Warehouse."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Huh… groovy I guess." I watched as the machine cleared of all my purchases, now showing Zane's name on the LED panel and a credit balance of Zero… it was very frustrating how infrequently there was anything for my companions in these things… sigh./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""Your complaint has been noted and will be forwarded to higher authorities," Quick's voice said… huh… so he was middle management in all this… interesting… unless he was just yanking my chain. Maybe he wasn't so much 'The Boss' as… mmm… Financier? I'd have to consider that… but first… Zane./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Operations I think. Sulu was Operations… got to fire the guns… err.. phasors. Human, because Quick said so… Security? No… No… Bad… me? "What the hell is my name again… Um… Crap. I've forgotten… How the hell can I have forgotten my original name? I have a Perfect Damned Memory! Um…" I knew my initials were SJ. That was a given. "Um… Frack. Fine. Bad SJ. No making Zane a perpetual Redshirt… even if he can't be killed." Better make him Engineering. Everyone else can be a Redshirt. Or a whole series of them. They'll love that./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Zaaane!" I bellowed, "Tell everyone they're going to be constantly getting KO'd in dramatic ways to advance the plot."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Wooo!"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""You people are weird."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""We're not people! We're Pokemons!"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;""I'm NOT!" yelled Uriel, "I'm an Emperor!"/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I wanted to argue with them, but decided against it. Strictly speaking, Uriel was an Ex-Emperor and Zane had spent far longer as a non-mon than he had as one. Not sure what I was besides 'A Jumper' now… were there others?/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Let's see, Ship Shape was Free for Operations, meaning Zane would have less trouble remaining diligent and working hard, keeping him energetic and focused much longer than normal. It would even help him quickly familiarize himself with any area he'd be working in and once he was familiar with that area he should be able to quickly notice if anything was changed or was out of the ordinary. Good. Maybe he'd finally start cleaning his room… Yeah, I doubted it too./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I finished up my snacks, tossed the garbage, and handed over Zane's much smaller breakfast as he came over. "We good to go?" I asked, and he gave me the thumbs up… I pushed the button./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"INSERTION/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Ah, there you ensigns are!"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I turned, bumping into a tall human next to me. I turned the other way./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yes sir!" Zane snapped out as I was turning so I threw up a salute… the Klingon one instead of the Federation because I was a little off balance./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I quickly adjusted as I saw the Admiral's raised eyebrow. "Yes Sir, sorry sir."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Your shuttle for the Potemkin leaves in 15 minutes. Why are you standing around gawping?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Sorry sir. We were just talking about-" I'm not proud to say I slowed time as I raced through my new memories, "Captain Kirk's 5-Year Mission. And how he should be reaching the edge of the Galaxy any day now."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;" /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yes, well, you can chat on the shuttle. Get moving Ensigns."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yes Sir" we said in unison./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"What can I say about Starfleet or a Constitution Class Starship that you don't already know? If you don't know the show, you won't understand. If you know it, you don't need any help. Right? Wrong! First, the shows and books do a terrible job of showing that these things are military vessels run like military vessels, with military crews. Sure, they're exploratory and diplomatic craft, and in the 24th century they have families aboard, but in the 23rd century, it was pretty much military with some nods to the other stuff when it wouldn't compromise safety./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"With that in mind, let me demonstrate how much there is to know that the shows don't show. And before you ask, the reason there are so many x3's is because there are three shifts or watches; Alpha, Beta, Gamma. Each is usually 6 hours long. 6 On, 12 off. Keeps focus… focused. So when Captain Kirk calls, "All Hands On Deck!", that means everyone gets up from whatever the frack they're doing and runs to their assigned duty station to back up whoever's on shift. Sometimes that means standing around with your thumb in your butt. Of course, if you're senior to whoever's on shift, you kick them off and make them stand around looking useless./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"And what, you ask, do all these people do when there isn't a crisis? They make sure everything's working for when there is a crisis. Run drills, fix stuff, clean stuff, you know, the basics. It's boring as hell from what I've seen, but they should have gone to the academy if they wanted to have fun like me./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Ha. Ha. Ha. I mean fill out reports like me. That's about 90% of an Officer's Job. Filling out reports… or charts, if you're a doctor. The most fascinating thing in the Universe it ain't./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: underline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"USS Potemkin (NCC-1657) Constitution Class/span/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"70 Officers (SO – Senior, JO – Junior) / 430 Crew (PO – Petty Officer, CR -Crew)/span/p
ol style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-position: inside; list-style-image: initial; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Command:/span Captain (SO), First Officer (SO), Bosun's Mate (PO), Captain's Yeoman (CR). Yeoman Rand is this for Kirk./span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Engineering Division:/span Chief Engineering Officer (SO), Chief Engineer's Yeoman (CR), 24 Junior Officers, 73 Petty Officers, 157 additional Crew/span
ol style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-position: inside; list-style-image: initial;"
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Engines Power:/span Main Bridge Engineering Station (1 JO)x3, Main Engineering (1 JO, 3 PO, 12 CR)x3, Impulse Engineering (1 JO, 2 PO, 6 CR)x3, Primary Hull Battery Room (1 PO, 1 CR)x3, Secondary Hull Battery Room (1 PO, 1 CR)x3, Primary Hull Circuit Breaker Room (1 PO, 1 CR)x3, Secondary Hull Circuit Breaker Room (1 PO, 1 CR)x3, Environmental (1 PO, 3 CR)x3/span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Transporter Room:/span Transporter Operations Officers (2 JO), Watch Standers (3 PO, 3 CR)x3… I know, you're thinking, "But SJ, none of those rooms on the show were big enough for 6 people." Well, smart guy, there are four main transport rooms with the 6 man porters. There are also two cargo transporters in the cargo bays and five 22 man emergency teleporters. The four main transporters are all on Deck 7 and in pairs, starboard and port, across the hall from each other. Typically, only 2-3 are manned at any time, depending on if there's anyone on an away mission. The others are being maintenanced, checked, or whatever else the TOO is doing. Miles O'Brien is a Petty Officer, which is why he gets to run the console and not have to do most of the scutwork./span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Maneuvering Ordnance:/span Helm (1 JO)x3, Ordnance Operations Officer (2 JO… Sulu, Worf), Bridge Weapon Weapons Control Station (1 PO)x3, Phaser Room (1 PO, 2 CR)x3, Energy-Field Station (1 PO, 2 CR)x3, Torpedo Bay(1 PO, 4 CR)x3. Sulu, Chekov, Data, Jordy, and gitboy… er. Sorry, I should clarify, gitboy could be either Tom Paris or Wesley Crusher. Both work./span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Maintenance Repair:/span MR Operations Officer (2 JO), Main Bridge Auxiliary Systems Monitor (1 CR)x3, Maintenance Team (1 PO, 3 CR)x3/span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Damage Control:/span Damage Control Operations Officer (2 JO), Damage Control Center (1 PO, 2 CR)x3, Main Bridge Damage Control Monitoring Station (1 CR)x3, Damage Control Team (2 PO)x3/span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Technical Supply:/span Technical Supply Officer (2 JO)/span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Landing Bay Operations:/span Landing Bay Operations Officer (2 JO), Landing Bay Control Room (1 PO, 2 CR)x3, Primary Hull Starboard Docking Complex (1 CR)x3, Primary Hull Port Docking Complex (1 CR)x3, Flight Deck (1 PO, 4 CR)x3, Shuttle Crews (4 PO, 4 CR)/span/li
/ol
/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Science Division:/span Chief Science Officer (SO), Chief Science Officer's Yeoman (CR), 24 Junior Officers, 9 Petty Officers, 24 additional Crew. Spock who was also 1st officer, Data who was also 2nd officer, Tuvok who was also 2nd officer./span
ol style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-position: inside; list-style-image: initial;"
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Navigation Sensors:/span Main Bridge Navigator's Station (1 JO)x3, Sensor Room (1 PO, 2 CR)x3. MBN… that's the person who sits next to Data or Chekov. Sulu did Navigation once Chekov got Helm./span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Communications:/span Main Bridge Communications Station (1 JO)x3… yes, Uhura/span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Computer Operations:/span Computer Operations Officer (2 JO), Main Computer Room (1 PO, 1 CR)x3, Backup Computer Room (1 PO, 1 CR)x3/span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Research Analysis:/span Astrophysics (2 JO), Planetology (2 JO), History Archeology (2 JO), Anthropology Sociology (2 JO), Zoology (2 JO), Botany (2 JO), Genetics (2 JO), Chemistry Physics (2 JO), Lab Technicians (12 CR). This is pretty much the cushiest job on the entire ship. Unless there's an away mission or something to study, you pretty set your own schedule. But if there's an emergency that relies on your section and you blow it… bye bye career./span/li
/ol
/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Security Division:/span Chief Security Officer (SO), Chief Security Officer's Yeoman (CR), 6 Junior Officers, 6 Petty Officers, 60 additional Crew. Yar, Worf, Chakotay (also 1st officer), Worf, Sulu (also Helm / Navigator… Kirk liked his people to multitask)/span
ol style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-position: inside; list-style-image: initial;"
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Security Teams:/span Six Teams, all with 1 JO, 1 PO, and 10 Crew. Typically in 3 hour Patrols, 3 hour Training, 3 hour Standby that are staggered so one team is always doing Patrols, another is Training, and a third is on Standby. Sure, they claim they're overworked, but really? They're walking about for three hours in climate controlled areas on flat decks, then lifting weights and wrestling and shooting targets for three hours, then sitting on their asses for three hours… and they get a meal break after Patrol and another during Standby. Loafing around more like. Half the time they're playing poker or Dom Jot… and a lot of their training seems to be Paresi Squares or Basketball. But who am I to complain… I get paid to bandage their booboos./span/li
/ol
/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Medical Division:/span Chief Medical Officer (SO), Chief Medical Officer's Yeoman (CR), 5 Junior Officers, 5 Petty Officers, 34 additional Crew. Bones, Crusher, Bashir/span
ol style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-position: inside; list-style-image: initial;"
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Practitioners:/span Assistant Medical Officer (2 JO… including Me), Psychotherapist (1 JO… shut up), Dentist (1 JO), Chief Nurse (1 PO… cause even in the future, nurses get no respect)/span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Sickbay:/span Nurses (1 PO, 4 CR)x3, Medical Technicians (3 CR)x3, Medical Research Technicians (3 CR)x2/span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Recreation:/span Recreation Officer (1 JO), Recreation Personnel (1 PO, 4 CR)… okay, I lied before. These guys seriously have it easy. Except for, you know, having to remind people to relax./span/li
/ol
/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Services Division:/span Chief Services Officer (SO), Chief Services Officer's Yeoman (CR), 6 Junior Officers, 7 Petty Officers, 46 additional Crew. Yes, this is really a senior position. No, you never see this person on any of the ships except Voyager where it seems to be Neelix's job. Because Fuck Logistics apparently./span
ol style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-position: inside; list-style-image: initial;"
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Supply:/span Quartermaster (2 JO), Quartermaster's Yeoman (1 CR), Cargo Bay Operations (1 PO, 12 CR)… no, i'm not going to make snark about these guys. Sure, they're desk jockeys, but the ship would not function without them and they get zero respect./span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Commissary:/span Commissary Operations Officer (2 JO), Galley (1 PO, 4 CR)x3/span/li
li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Janitorial:/span Janitorial Operations Officer (2 JO), Janitorial Detail (1 PO, 7 CR)x3. Know how 26 people can keep a ship this big clean? They can't. That's why all the crewmen are constantly keeping their own areas clean and maintained./span/li
/ol
/li
/ol
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"There, don't you feel more enlightened? Well, good. Now, my ship. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you who filled every damned position. First off, while I did memorize the entire roster, it changed, a lot. Also, that would be boring… yes, even more boring than the table above… which often had holes because that up there is the theory and we were always below 'establishment'. Hell, even the Enterprise usually was below establishment and it was the damned flagship./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Anyway, the big shots are all you care about. The /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"Captain /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"was /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"Ernst Rademacher/spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;", a Human, from Old New York, Quiet, Aggressive, Tall, Muscular, Salt Pepper Hair, Hazel Eyes, 53 years old./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The XO was /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"Commander Sherwood Braunstein/spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;", also human, a little absent minded, often contradictory, 47, Brown Eyes, Rosy Complexion, Stocky, Athletic, from New Manilla. Moments from getting her own command./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The Second Officer, and our span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Chief Services Officer/span, was /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"Lt. Commander/span span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"Stacey Struchen/spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;". A Human/Vulcan Hybrid, she was relaxed, almost serene, 37, raised on Earth by her human father and Vulcan mother, in Lima Peru. Green eyes, pale complexion, wavy brown hair worn in ponytail. Average Height, Well-Built./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Though she wasn't senior staff by any stretch of the imagination, our Uhura or Harry Kim counterpart was /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"Senior Comms Officer/span span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Lt. Sindy Lenci. An original and surprisingly insightful woman, 23 years old, attractive. Grey Eyes, Olive Complexion, Platinum Blonde, Short. From Xiphias III… excellent in bed./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Our Worf was span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Tactical Officer Lt. Char Cring/span, an upright if somewhat reserved Tellarite in his early 30s. He had dark eyes, freckles, curly red hair, and was both tall and a little chunky, but not in a bad way. He hailed from Triangulum Beta III./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Our Spock was span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Chief Science Officer/span span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Sumit b'Onno/span, an inscrutable and extremely proper Acadian./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"My boss was /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Chief Medical Officer Lt Commander Asuna Yue/span, Female, Human, Neo Okinawa, New Japan. Attractive but no nonsense. Collected pre-war manga of all things./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Our Scotty was span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Chief Engineer Commander Kobok/span, an active but charmless Vulcan male, above average in height and fairly athletic. He better not go into Pon Farr anywhere near me./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Our span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Chief Security Officer/span was span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Lt. Shyvav Th'iryrrath/span, an ambitious and pragmatic Andorian female from Taxus VI. Short and slender, she kinda scared me a bit./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"In the medical department, there was our span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Chief Nurse/span: span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"CWO Kermit Trexler/span, Human male, 37, adaptable and mellow, brown eyes, fine blond hair, slender and fine boned. He was a lot of fun, but so very very omnisexual. He took great pleasure in trying to provoke emotional responses in me. Our span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Psychotherapist, Jenice Walinski/span, had a kind of breezy, personality that I found deeply annoying. 33. Gray eyes, radiant complexion, fine light brown hair unstyled to her waist. Below average height, quite muscular. She was constantly trying to get me to talk about my feelings. I am a Vulcan. I do not… have… Feelings. Our third Doctor, our span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Chief Surgeon/span in fact, was span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Doctor Rahl Ch'Sherorh/span, an Andorian male with a very stereotypical Andorian sense of superiority that meshes well with a stereotypical Surgeon's sense of superiority. Neither Yue nor I could stand him, but he was a damned good cutter./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;" /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"But you're not here for the run-down… you're here for the adventure… so… next time./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: underline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"JUMPER's LOG, Star Date 2265-December 21st (4 Months, 22 Days)/span/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Settling in aboard Pokey as Potemkin was affectionately known wasn't difficult. Zane and I were ensigns on our maiden cruises, midshipmen in the vernacular, and if we were treated like utter scutmonkeys for the first few months as the Potemkin stooged around the edge of the Beta Quadrant as the crew shookdown, none of the tasks we were given were particularly onerous. The lieutenants and petty officers in charge of turning fresh academy graduates into actual functional officers had no reason to push too hard and there wasn't really much rush. The workloads were heavy, but not crushing, and getting familiar with the reality of edge of explored space medicine / operations was an experience all its own./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Then the strange stuff started happening./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"We were doing a planetary survey of Nu Pegasi VII, a barely habitable L-Class trans-jovian planet far enough out from the primary to, in theory, support Vulcanoid life. It's year was… quite long, but Nu Pegasi is quite bright, and so the planet was only a bit frosty. Okay, it was a frozen ball of rock, but one covered with a dense argon / oxygen atmosphere and massive ice oceans. A little terraforming, and it would be colonizable, if wet./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Our away teams were shuttling down equipment, equipment I'd been placed in charge of double checking as it was unloaded (Zane, lucky bastard, was upstairs doing the same on the loading side of the mission). Strictly speaking, I was supposed to be along in case the survey teams needed medical help, but since no one was injured yet… aside from Lt. Caffery who'd managed to break his toe… such emergency, much medicine… I was doing, guess what? Scutwork!/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"At least I didn't have to do the actual unloading. All I had to do was check that each pallet had what it was supposed to have and that the various pieces of equipment went to the proper department's huts. Everything was ticking along without complications… right up until we started getting movement warnings all around us… which was impossible, seeing as how the ship's scanners had picked up exactly no sign of complex life anywhere on the planet./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"But scans or not, the flight of Icebirds that launched themselves out of the glacier we were standing on seemed fully lifelike to me. They came slicing out of the rock-hard ice, showering our team in powder, several hundred of them, and, circling once, flew off towards the nearby mountain peaks. Each looked to be about a meter and a half from wingtip to wingtip and about 250 cm from beak to the end of their triple-pronged tails. They were absolutely gorgeous, translucent, and my tricorder was telling me they were made entirely out of various forms of water-ice./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"A cry for "Medic!" drew me away from further study and I rushed over to where Ensign Showalter was clutching his arm, shock on his face, a spray of blood staining the snow, a whiteness of bone showing where one of the Icebird's wings had simply sliced the limb off a third of the way down from the elbow. I quickly rigged a pressure bandage and flipped open my communicator. "Ensign S'Janus, two and one arm to beam up, medical emergency."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I set the limb in place, though the ship's chief medical officer, Dr Yue (and yes, I considered laughing at that, but her first name was neither Wellington or Wana or anything else that started with W. In fact it was Asuna.) took over the reattachment./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"That kept us busy for a couple of hours, and by the time I was able to check on what was happening planetside, /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"we were seeing vast changes in the surface of the planet as more and more icebirds… and bigger ice creatures… all moved slowly, but steadily, for a point directly beneath our ship's geostationary orbit. Apparently, the Captain was considering moving the ship, but for the time being was holding off. Wasn't my decision, don't know what I'd've done in his place./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Several more injured crewmen were brought up over the next few hours before the Captain ordered a total evacuation of personnel from the planet. Unfortunately, one of the teams was deep inside an ice cave and couldn't be raised. As the junior-most Doctor aboard, the Chief Medical Officer ordered me to assist the rescue mission, in case there were any injuries./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"A team consisting of Lt. Commander Struchen, Lt. Th'iryrrath, and Ensign Rockhound, all of whom were from cold weather climates (Peru, Andoria, and Europa (the planet, not the continent) respectively), joined me in the transporter room. Commander Struchen looked at what I was wearing, the same thing she and the others were wearing, heavy parka, face scarf, thermal gloves, and smirked. "You sure you're going to be warm enough in that? Might want to wear an enviro-suit."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"To which I responded "If you can handle it ma'am, I can handle it."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"She didn't press further. "You're the doctor."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"We beamed down to the missing team's shuttle's location, then followed the line of beacons they'd left to guide themselves back to the mouth of the cave. I pulled out my tricorder, scanning the cave. "I'm picking up faint life signs… three… four… five… they're about half a klick inside the cave and about 120 meters beneath us. The signs are pretty weak, but I can't tell if that's from distance or medical issue."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The Commander nodded, then said, "We'll go in, but if anything looks like it's moving or anything starts shaking, we'll pull back." We placed a transporter relay beacon at the mouth of the cave and headed in, u/spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"sing phasors set to broad beam to bore our way through the ice. We weren't bothering to follow the natural curves of the place, but rather seeding field stabilizers every 15 meters to keep the walls in place until the cold resolidified them. About the lifeforms which could move through the ice as if it were empty space, we all had our tricorders set for any kind of moment. /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"As we went, I noticed something curious./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Most Illogical." I said, causing the Commander to chuckle./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Oh? Yes Ensign? What pray tell has piqued your Vulcan curiosity?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""It is getting colder as we descend. That is not logical. The pressure and lack of surface convection should mean the temperature should be, slowly, rising."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""That is curious. But not of pressing concern… it's not getting that much colder, is it?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""5 Degrees Kelvin since we entered the Glacier."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Well, keep an eye on it."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yes Ma'am."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Within 20 minutes, we'd covered the distance to our missing away team and found them, huddled for warmth around a generator, next to a large pool of what looked like water but which scans revealed was actually a bio-organic plasma, deep sapphire blue in color, and nearly 100 degrees Kelvin… or -171.2 degrees Celsius (-276.16 Fahrenheit)… slightly warmer than liquid oxygen. The temperature in the cave around it was -94 Celsius (-136 F), so cold it was rapidly degrading the health of our people and even the Andorian was having trouble. Me? I was fine, though through my winter weather gear it was hard to tell that I wasn't responding like a normal Vulcan would. I edged towards the pool as the Commander checked on our people and my fellow Ensign set up the transporter relay./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""What are you doing, Doctor?" Lt. Th'iryrrath asked./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""I am attempting to obtain a sample of this substance. I can do nothing for our people until we get them back to the ship."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The Lt nodded, "Very well, just… be careful."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I was, using tongs and a isolation bottle to collect the sample. While I was curious to see if I could safely touch the substance, I wasn't foolish enough to plunge my hand into an unknown biological specimen./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""There's interference with the signal, Commander," Ensign Rockhound announced, right before the pool extruded a tentacle of Ice and punched right through the Ensign's chest, smashing the relay he was adjusting into shards. He grasped at the thing, but his body was already freezing solid, his expression of, 'You've got to be kidding me' fixed on his face. Even though I knew he'd be fine as soon as the Warehouse patched him up, I couldn't help yelling "ROCKY! Noooo!" and reaching for my sidearm./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Lt. Th'iryrrath was faster, however, drawing and firing at the tentacle in a heartbeat. The thing recoiled into the pool, the surface twitching./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Up.. Out of the shaft. Now!" The Commander yelled, kicking at our stunned and half dazed crew. They reluctantly abandoned the generator's warmth and shuffled towards the tunnel, looking like they were suffering from a mixture of severe hypothermia and shock./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I snatched my hypospray off my belt and injected each of them with a combination stimulant, powerful blood flow restorative, and anti-crystallizing agent. It helped, and they began to pick up speed, shuffling up the gentle grade in their iceboots./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""What the hell was that?" the Commander asked, looking at Rocky's frozen corpse./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Ice tentacle" I said, helpfully, as the Lt. shot the pool again just as it was seething uppity-like./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Thaanks," the Commander drawled. "Let's get out of-" But then the entire chamber started to crack apart, the cracks widening into crevasses that showed writhing sapphire blue tendrils crawling up the walls, shattering the floor beneath us. Time slowed. I grabbed the Commander and shoved her into the tunnel, then tossed an ice grenade into the nearest chasm and followed it up with my phaser, set to overload in 5 seconds. Still moving in overdrive, I pushed the Lt. into the tunnel and yelled "GO! I'm right behind you!" But I wasn't./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"As he ran, I turned back to the coming monstrosity and, sending Rocky's frozen form back to the Warehouse, flash froze everything around me, pumping out ice as fast as I could, letting it push me back up the tunnel. Talk about fighting fire with fire. I ran out of juice 58 meters later, gasping for air, wondering if I dared draw upon the cold all around me. I shrugged, figuring that cold was just… cold, and sucked on the elemental power within the massive glacier./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The sensation was… like nothing I'd ever imagined. In Infamous, Cole upgrades his powers by tapping into the city mains, sucking up more electricity than any simple building hookup could possibly contain. I'd tried to do the same with sources of cold back in Infamous World. Liquid Nitrogen, Glaciers, Icebergs…. And it'd worked, of course. Why wouldn't it? I'd also tried it again in Mass Effect World, with entire Ice Planets. And again, the results had been what you'd expect. Increases in what I could do, once I figured out what the new power did, but pretty much just following the same curve. This… this wasn't that./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"This cold was… it was what I imagined when I read DD books and they talk about 'Para-Elemental Ice.' This was living cold, cold that hungered, cold that thrived, cold that hated… not heat. Oh, no. That would have been simple. No, this cold hated the noise. It longed for silence. And our machines, our force-fields… they were its noise… and so were our engines. And it was going to do something about that very soon./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I gasped, feeling the planet beneath me. It wasn't a planet. It was a thing. An entity, older than the galaxy… resting here, soaking up solar radiation, argon, ice. That's why none of the other planets in this system had rings. Why there weren't any comets in the system. This creature had eaten them all. I flinched away from it as it became aware of me./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Child of the Ice," it called to me, as if it recognized a kindred spirit. "Make the noise stop, Child of the Ice… or I will Silence it."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I gulped, then dropped the connection, wrenching away from it. I aparated out of the Glacier, landing next to the away team's shuttle, hoping that they'd beamed up the moment they reached the surface. There was no one in sight. I looked around, pulling up my OmniGear (which had already absorbed my tricorder's systems specs) and scanned for my crewmates. Transporter residue, but no lifesigns within 12 kilometers. Excellent./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I looked at the shuttlecraft. It was toast; one of the nacelles had been smashed by a footprint the size of a walrus and the other had snapped cleanly off when the vessel rolled over as the ground dropped away from it./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Dr. S'Janus to Potemkin. Do you read me Potemkin? I am at the coordinates of Shuttlecraft Volga. Requesting evac transport. It is very cold and I've lost my gloves. Recommend moving the ship out of orbit. I think the planet is preparing to attack." I was shivering. I never shiver. And my teeth were chattering. I felt cold! For the first time since Hoenn, I felt cold! And not in a good way./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Then I felt tingly, swirly, beam-me-upsy, and then I was on Potemkin's transporter pad #3b. I tried to say something, but all that came out of my mouth was supercold air and I blacked out from hypoxia./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Four hours later, I came too, to find the Captain looking down at me. "That was very brave, Doctor. The Commander and Lt Th'iryrrath say you saved their lives with your quick thinking."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Th… the planet?" I croaked./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yes… we've moved. None too soon. Turns out, that structure it was building out of… living Ice?" I nodded, my throat feeling like it had been scoured with sandpaper, "was some kind of photon cannon. The lens was almost three kilometers across. We've pulled back to a safe location and continue to monitor conditions."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Planet… not… Planet. Bird. Dragon… Dunno… alive. All of it. Living Ice. Can… can move."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The Captain looked stern. "You're certain of that?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I nodded, gasping out, "Educated… Guess."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"He nodded, then commed the bridge. "Navigation… is the planet… moving?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""It seems to be flattening a bit captain. Hold one… Yes. It seems to be slowing its orbit."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Take us back, one quarter impulse speed. Drop some sensor pods, I want reports every five minutes."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yes Captain."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The process wasn't quick. It was, however, graceful. The Captain invited me to watch from the bridge as the immense creature slowly unfolded itself. It looked like a bird. Not one that had hatched on any known world, but still, a bird. Huge continent sized feathers spread slowly out from it as the atmosphere collapsed inward, forming a sapphire blue haze all over its forward edge. The white was eye searing, brilliant and growing brighter as it turned towards the system's sun and away from us. "Where's it going, Helm?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Hard to tell, Captain. It's pointed deeper into the Beta Quadrant. Mu Pavonis, maybe." The creature, Snowbird as the Captain referred to it, built up speed, faster and faster it went as solar gravity dragged it in. It glowed, brighter, brighter, a brilliant coma building up behind it as it reflected almost, but not all, of the solar energy hitting it… body narrowing, becoming almost a needle two fifths of a light second long… and then, just as it was about to cross the edge of the sun, it jinked, ever so slightly… and jumped to warp… a warp faster than even the fastest ship in Starfleet could go./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Well, that was impressive," said the Captain. "Hope next planet we come across gives us a warmer reception." Everyone on the bridge groaned… except the Lt Commander, who chuckled./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"And that's how I got my first commendation as S'Janus, the Star Cross. Oddly enough, it felt good, even though I'd gotten medals before, lots of them over the last 6 jumps in fact, somehow, I felt I'd really earned this one./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030;"Meanwhile, Ensign Rockhound was replaced by CPO Stone and Rocky was retelling the story whenever he could corner one of the others someplace where there weren't any muggles around to hear. He seemed inordinately pleased at the experience./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: underline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"JUMPER's LOG, Star Date 2266, April 3rd (8 Months, 4 Days)/span/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Blah Blah Blah. Boring stuff. Skip skip skip. The next incident of any real note, i.e. the next time I played a significant role in something worthy of being reported to Starfleet HQ, was when we picked up a faint radio broadcast while passing through the fringe of a local nebula. Tracing the signal back to its point of origin, we found ourselves near a quiet M-Class planet orbiting a small orange dwarf tucked away in a corner of space we'd have likely cruised right past had we not heard the signal. The signal itself was coming from an old Human Generation ship called the Tannebrook, an automated distress signal triggered by the ancient computers as the ship began to break down in several potentially disastrous ways./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The Tannebrook was abandoned and, thanks to the loss of station-keeping systems, in a slowly decaying orbit that would eventually see it break apart as it re-entered the planet's atmosphere. The nuclear engines were particularly nasty and would no doubt spread radiogenic particles all across the verdant and largely pristine globe, and the contents of the hydroponics section had mutated in ways that would probably not be good for the local ecosystem even should there not be a radiogenic incident./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Scans of the planet revealed one large human settlement surrounded by a couple dozen smaller ones along the north-eastern coast of a large continent, but we detected no technological signatures, and no other evidence of intelligent life… and the local fauna was mostly aquatic and the largest terrestrial non-Terran lifeform our scans could pick up was the size of a small beaver or large woodchuck./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"While Engineering went over to stabilize the Tannebrook so our historians could get at her computers, the Captain authorized a small, discrete away team. I was selected to do the basic medical profile, as Dr Yue was suffering a bit of a head cold and we didn't want to spread anything to the locals if we could at all help it. Our probes showed that the dress code was what one would expect of a British settlement of the mid to late 1600s, and so, one bonnet later, I looked… somewhat… presentable./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The towns were spread out around the large central port, at distances that ranged from 30 to 145 kilometers, and one was on the far side of the bay upon which most of them were situated. We (well, the senior officers) decided to go there first, as it was far enough away from the city that our behavioural gaffs might be viewed as explicable while not being so far away as to make our presence remarkable. A barge, or at least the sections of it, was fabricated to local specs from wood transported and processed from remote but local forests, and stocked it with glassware, silverware, and pottery that would be seen to be of excellent quality but perfectly possible by local tech levels./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"We also produced several copies of the King James Bible, as our probes had shown it to be the text found inside every local church, and all members of the away teams sported the wooden crosses that everyone seemed to be wearing. We weren't certain our bibles would match the local ones, but hopefully no one would look too closely./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Beaming down into a remote stretch of beach some 15 kilometers outside the town, we set about constructing our barge… or rather the Historical Reenactment Committee did, while I scanned the local flora and fauna. It wasn't Earth flora, but, like that of most M-class Planets, humans could survive on some of it and would be poisoned by other bits of it. The trees were mostly deciduous, pseudo-oaks and maples. One of them was even fairly close to a sugar maple, though the sap that collected from it would be amazingly spicy as it was packed with capsaicinoids. I took a sample for… reasons./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"It took most of the day to get the boat seaworthy and load it with our provisions, then we pushed off into the water and curled around the point of land so that, as the sun was rising, we'd become visible to the town's early risers without any of them wondering why they hadn't seen us coming the day before. We were running without any form of light, guided by our tricorders and powered by oars (and a small but powerful impeller engine designed to look like a keelboard). We lifted the keel as we approached the shoreline and hailed the town, our Universal Translators turning our 23rd century English into their 18th century English./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"At least half the town had come out to see us land, and an old man dressed as what I recognized as a preacher's outfit tromped down to the edge of the water. "If ye've come to trade, we don't want any firewater nor wine here, so you can be off with ye if that's yer business. We're full up stocked on fish and taters too, and we've enough salt poke and iron for the forge, so you don't need t' bother. And we're good on bibles and crosses and we don't need a bell for the church, thanks but no thanks. And…"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The Captain stepped to the prow as the barge ran aground, hat in hand, chuckling, "I'll stop you there, father. I'll just tell you what we've got and you can say yeah or nay, no hard feelings. Save you a mite of wind and effort listin' everything you've got that we might or might not have." That earned a few nods from the townsfolk, who saw the wisdom of the Captain's words, but it seemed to annoy the padre a mite to be interrupted./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The Captain had chosen to head this Away Mission not because such behaviour is actually typical of Starfleet Ship Captains, despite what you might have been lead to believe by certain over-libidinous hotshots, but because he was both an age-of-sail enthusiast as well as a mature male human, which given the culture apparently locally dominant would be the best leader to present the locals with. He even had a beard, which proved to be an excellent thing./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"We lowered the front of the barge and rolled one of the four carts we'd loaded as displays out onto the beach, laying wide planks for them to rest on so they didn't get lodged in the sand. We barely got them above the high tide line before the /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"townsfolk gathered round, oohing and aahing and picking at our wares./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Will you folks be staying long?" one of them asked./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Just till monday next. Can't go sooner and give you folks chance to consider your purchases, can't go sunday cause that's the lord's day. So monday it is," responded Captain Rademacher. We (the archeology department at least) were fairly certain the locals used the same seven days as most of the Human Race did, but it was a risk, especially since we were only vaguely certain today was tuesday. /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"They did and it was, so that worked out, but it was close, since linguistic drifted had changed the names of the days to maundee, duesdee, wansdee, tursdee, freydee, sautyrdee, and saundee, but our accents seemed to be within acceptable limits./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"There wasn't an inn in town, but a couple of the town Aldermen offered to allow us to use the town hall to camp out in if we promised to clean up after ourselves and donate that fine crystal goblet to the town Church. The Captain agreed and we rolled our carts up into the town and set up shop on the edge of the village green, where several sheep were grazing./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Natural curiosity seemed a little lacking in these folks, we noticed over the next few hours, but careful probing wasn't seen as offensive and we learned all about the history of Provincetown (pronounced Prahvehnztaun). It were the fifth Colony here in Massachusetts Bay, established in the Year of Our Lord 1700, and it was on that spot right over there that the Mayflower Compact was signed, yes indeed. The city folk may have settled over in Plymouth (Plehmuth) or up in Boston (Baaastun) which was looking to maybe overtake the capital in a few years, but everyone knew that Provincetown was really where New England started./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The thing was… this wasn't New England. This wasn't Massachusetts Bay or anything like it. As close approximations came, it was actually closer to The Gulf of Tonkin, but on the other side of the planet and upside down. And yes, that big old Island turned out to be Rhode Island. It was like a sick joke. Finding out what had happened to Old England earned us a lot of laughs and a couple of, "Well, if they could breath water, I guess they're still there, living with the fishes." And one "It sank, din't? Pa sais it sank, in the flood and all.. Like all the rest of the world's evil doers. Just us left, and all."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"It was at this point I decided to steal one of the town's bibles… for a few minutes. Pretending I'd accidentally dropped mine overboard (In actuality I'd shunted it into my warehouse) I entered the church. "Father?" I called softly./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"He looked up from where he'd been polishing the Altar "Yes Child?" He asked in a tone that said, "Go away, stupid woman."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""I… I accidentally… there was this swell… and I was reading…"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yessssss?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""I dropped my bible overside… and its only. You said the town had plenty… Could I borrow one? Just… Just till we leave? Or… or I could pay-"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""No!" he snapped, sputtering as if the idea was somehow shocking. "I mean, yes, yes of course you can borrow one. From… from the old ones by the door… yes, that's it."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I noticed he didn't move any closer to me, just waved me towards a couple of well thumbed leather bound bibles by the door. "Just return it before you leave, child." He seemed to stress the word, as if only a child would be so stupid. I ground my teeth, but took the book and fled./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I took refuge out in the fields outside of town, then, hiding behind a tree, OmniGeared the heck out of that book. The OmniGel flowed out into the pages, then whisked back, leaving the book slightly cleaner than it had been. "Well?" I asked VIctoria, my VI after she'd had a second or two to run a comparison./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""There are many differences between this edition and the standard King James," she replied./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Summarize them."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""There are too many to list in a short time, but this version rearranges many things, removing practically all contradictions, leaving the word of Jesus incontrovertible. The creation story has been modified to say Day of Eternity, and the Parable of the Bird and the Mountain added to the text to explain it. Adam and Eve are the leaders of the people of the Garden of Eden, the first King and Queen of mankind. It also moves the flood to the very end and puts Revelation in its place. Thus, this world is full of only the righteous who have survived both the test of fire and the test of water. It also includes most of the myth of Atlantis, replacing it with England… which also replaces Rome. Lastly, there is no mention of slavery anywhere in this book. The concept has been completely scrubbed, as has the ownership and sale of women, as well as animal sacrifice. The ambiguity of many of the commandments is clarified, usually in the most direct way possible. For instance, the line now reads 'If a Man fornicate with a Man, as he does with a Woman, He shall be flogged in the public square.' Incidentally, almost all the commandments have such punishments for infraction, save murder, the molestation of children or animals, and witchcraft. For Men, masterbation is advised to ward off the sins of infidelity or other temptations, and for Women, Lesbianism or The Sisterhood of the Flesh, is advised, for 'no ill can come of it, even should a married woman lay with her own daughter, be she of age.' It also advises that both men and women in their prime of life should do the work of the town while those who are two score and ten or older should have the charge of raising and educating the young. In addition-"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""I get it. Lots of changes. Oy. I better get back."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"And I did… but I tell you… kids are damned fucking sneaky… and good at hiding. And I was in a hurry. I'm not saying what happened was all my fault. Oh no. We'd already tripped the town's suspicion meter, but me talking to a disembodied voice in Vulcanese didn't help at all./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I reported in to the Captain, and he blanched visibly. "That… was very good thinking. We'll… have to get our books replaced at once. As soon as it's safe."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I/spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" agreed, volunteering myself and Zane to head into the woods with the old bibles and to bring back the copies. I'd already transmitted the revised text up to Potemkin and they'd begun fabrication even before the Captain ordered it. That went without a hitch, at least, thanks to Apparition. We snuck out of the building in the middle of the night, the bibles already transferred to the warehouse, Zane in dog form and me under my cloak, then, hunkered down in a field of grain,/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I jumped to the vacant beach where we'd launched from and Zane joined me a moment later. I patted his head "Good Puppy" and he shifted back, grinning at me./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Romantic night. We could stay for a few hours and-" He had the good grace to oof as I elbowed him. Vulcans are fairly strong, even without all of my boosting./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"We transported the new books down, and I promised the XO that the old books were well and truly dealt with, then jumped back… only to find that the Captain and everyone else had been clapped in irons and dragged to the church./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Zane… go Fido" I told him, as I transformed into my Asari form and went full stealth. I pictured the inside of the Chapel, using my Hypervisor to look through the walls until I found a safe spot to apparate to. I did so as the noise level peaked inside./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""They're Witches!"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""They're in league with the Devil!"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Two of them's missin'!"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""I followed their tracks and they vanished!"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Hang em!"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I groaned silently, watching the Provincetown Witch trial in the making. I apparated back out and subvocalized, "Commander, they've taken everyone besides Zane and myself. There are approximately 380 of them. We could, in theory, stun them all, but they'd definitely notice being knocked unconscious and then having 12 suspected witches just vanish."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Stand by. Don't do anything unless the away team is in immediate danger. We're getting data off the Tannebrook. It looks like the colony was deliberately designed and indoctrinated to believe they'd arrived here by boat and settled naturally. It looks like they landed their pods on the Island, built boats, and sailed into the bay from there."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Fascinating. But what about the Captain? We can't just prove they aren't witches. By these people's standards they are. But if we prove them right, we'll just start a purge. And if we go the other route and create a miracle, then we'll start a new wave of fervour. And if we just tell the truth, we'll be violating the Prime Directive," I rattled off the various disastrous possibilities as calmly as only a Vulcan can./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""I'm not sure of that. Strictly speaking, these are Earthlings, from Earth, and they've been lied to by their own ancestors. A reasonable interpretation of the regs says this should be considered a lost colony that's reverted, either through action or accident, to a Primitive State. Screw it. We're coming down to get the Captain. Stand by to assist the tactical team."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Rodger." I motioned to Zane, hissing, "Change back, help's on the way." And transformed myself. Moments later the Commander and crew beamed down… in… I kid you not… Red Coats and holding muskets… well… phasers built to look like muskets./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""If anyone asks, we're British," she said, and then they kicked down the door of the Church./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"All things considered, explaining that Britain had… ahem… been lifted into the Celestial Realm and transported to another Eden, rather than sinking, was… questionable. But we landed a shuttlecraft… painted to look like it was made of wood… outside for the townsfolk to gawp at. The Captain, taken aback, quickly understood, and explained that, yes, we were simply… visitors… checking in with the daughter colony to make sure all was well and faithful and that, soon enough, others would come, bringing with them fascinating tales of the old world and… wondrous goods from across the sea. We presented them with a lovingly detailed copy of Principia Mathematica, with sections on all sorts of useful inventions that might help their society, then bid them a fond adieu. I did have to explain to the child that I'd been praying in Latin, a language he'd never heard of, but I explained that Latin was the language Jesus spoke and he nodded as if this was sage wisdom./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Oh. That makes sense, 'cause English is British, not Israelish, Right?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I nodded vaguely. "Something like that," I said, then patted his head./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"We left at that point, crowding into the shuttle and leaving our boat and wares behind. After many tense seconds, the Commander commented "These clothes itch," which cracked everyone up. I got my second citation for that, nothing fancy, just the Prentares Ribbon of Commendation. Praising a Volcan for being levelheaded… obvious much?/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Oh the other hand, Zane got one too and, I have to tell you, he looked excessively pleased with himself. Praising Zane for anything but courage… possibly unfounded./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: underline;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"JUMPER's LOG, Star Date 2266, June 12th (10 Months, 12 Days)/span/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"A month and a half after my promotion to Lieutenant JG (nine months exactly into my first year), the Potemkin entered an area of space where several transport vessels had gone missing in the past few weeks. Piracy was suspected, but no wreckage had been located, and none of the local criminal outposts had seen any of the cargos. Long story short, they were eaten by spacedragons. I singlehanded slew seven of them wielding only a quantum lemon and a bottle of gin./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I sense that you don't believe me? Fiiine. The reality is so much less entertaining? Still here? Sigh. Remember, you asked for this./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"We were cruising through the area, running long range scans, when, hidden in amid the moons of a Brown Dwarf we started picking up the power signatures of the missing ships, all on standby. Suspecting some kind of trap, the captain ordered the ship to Yellow Alert. Of course, I was in sickbay, being all ready for whatever, and not on the bridge where anything interesting was happening. Thus I can't really tell what happened up to the moment the entire crew was transported off the ship and into the center of a giant stone labyrinth./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The walls were reddish stone, tall enough to tower out of sight. The lighting seemed to emanate from the floor, but was soft and vague enough to make even that determination practically impossible. There was utter confusion as people who, a moment before, had been prepping for an ambush, or studying readings, realized they weren't where they'd been before./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The various Petty Officers got their people calmed down quickly while the Senior Staff filtered through the mass of people to find each other. I followed along, mostly out of a lack of any specific duty, but also curiosity. I was faintly annoyed to find that, like everyone else, I'd been transported in only my underwear. My Tricorder, OmniGear, and holdout pulse blaster (ME) and clutch 38 derringer (Infamous) were almost certainly lying on the floor of sickbay. I figured I could, in theory, pull more weapons from my Warehouse, but wasn't ready to do any such thing at the moment. I made a note to myself to find some way to retrofit a warp drive onto the Black Jenny, as (as stupid as it sounds) it had not dawned on me until that moment that she was sublight only without a Mass Relay./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The command group pretty quickly started divvying up assignments… they were in command for a reason. The Science section was set to figure out what had happened, if we could, while various other teams were set the task of mapping the local area. Of course, we had no paper, nothing to write with, and no way of communicating with each other, but what did that matter? Anything was better than just waiting for who knows what to happen, right?/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Normally, I'd have agreed with how the Captain and Senior Officers were handling the situation, but I hadn't spent seven years studying my ass off at Hogwarts to be thwarted by a Labyrinth. I placed myself in a corner, closed my eyes, and used a little bit of wandless magic to fade from the perception of others. It wasn't much, but as long as I remained essentially motionless, they wouldn't find me unless they were looking specifically for me./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"And then, I started mapping. Magic has many uses. Most of them are kinda pointless outside a fight, and many of them are kinda… I mean, seriously, what use does anyone ever have for turning a raven into a teacup? But they were not the limits of magic. Oh no. Take for instant, the Marauder's Map, a magical map created by Harry Potter's father James and his friends in their time at Hogwarts. /spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The Marauder's Map had always fascinated me. How could it accurately identify everyone and everything in the school… even stuff that had changed over the time between its creation and the Harry Potter books? How could it know everyone's names? How could it track moving stairs?/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The answer was very complex mapping enchantments tied to a semi-sentient magical object with expanded awareness. For all intents and purposes, the map was constantly scanning and remapping all of Hogwarts and its immediate environs, all the time. Now I don't know about you, but to me? M/spanspan style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"apping spells could be useful. Awareness Expansion spells could be useful. I used both./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"And so, following the old Gamer Adage, 'Left Until Death', here's what I did. After verifying that there really was a ceiling about eighty-seven meters up in the darkness, and that yes, it was covered in what I had to assume were a vast number of sensors, my awareness raced down corridor after corridor, tracing a mental map on my consciousness. I hit dead end after dead end, blind loops and cul de sacs, but I was slowly drawing a definite limit to the maze./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"It was huge, at least eight kilometers on a side and I soon located the first of the missing people, the crew of a Tellarite cargo vessel. They'd gone mad apparently, beating each other to death with their hooves or so it seemed, and one of them had run off into the maze, alone. The second crew I came across were Klingons, and they too had apparently killed each other, but there the sole survivor was just kneeling among the bodies, howling a Klingon Death Dirge in a broken voice. The third crew were Orions, all of whom had been attacked from behind… one of them while in the act of garroting a third. Two human crews followed… one were engaged in what I can only describe as an orgy of hate, acting utterly drugged and unmindful of the viciousness of their copulations, the other had scattered to various dead ends and were yelling at each other about trivialities./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"It was as if none of them realized they were prisoners. Within six hours, however, I'd mapped the entire maze. There was no way out. It was a death trap, just under twelve kilometers on a side. A circus, intended to drive those trapped inside mad, but for reasons I could only guess at./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I stood up and walked over to the Captain. "I believe, Captain, that this is futile," I said in my most utterly Vulcan. The Captain looked up at me from where he was kneeling, studying the floor. "I do not believe the goal of this test, and it clearly must be a test, is to see if we can escape this maze. Clearly, we'd be able to, simply by moving along one wall far enough… assuming the maze does not rearrange itself. That, of course would defeat the test of logic, and thus this cannot be a test of logic. Second, it cannot be a test of Ingenuity, for we have no tools of any kind with which to demonstrate that ingenuity. That means it must be a test of character. I believe we will find the missing crews in here eventually. They will have… failed the test. A Labyrinth is a puzzle that demands solution, and it is the nature of tool-using races to find solutions. I believe, however, that this puzzle's solution is, as they say, not to solve it at all. As one of your movies from before the Eugenics Wars would have put it… 'The Only Solution is Not to Play.'"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"He opened his mouth, ready to refute my words, but I quickly cut him off. "I believe, at this moment, you are finding my cold logic to be annoying and you are feeling anger towards me. I believe, as well, that you are considering how best to escape by yourself. I further suspect that all the humans in the crew are feeling likewise… or are growing progressively more aroused, depending on if they are Alpha Personalities or Omega Personalities, while the Andorians and Tellarites are growing progressively more frustrated and angry respectively. The Vulcans, I suspect, based upon my own behaviour, are slipping into greater and greater emotional detachment… which I believe is a good thing, because it means our emotions are being played with according to racial stereotypes, not actual core neurochemistry. Otherwise, I believe there would be no one left alive as all the Vulcans lost their collective emotional control and went, as you humans would call it, berserk."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The Captain considered my words for several long moments, then replied, "I do feel… off. Yes. I thought it was frustration at the lack of progress." He stood up and addressed the crew. "Raise your hand if you're feeling unreasonably angry right now and aren't quite sure why." All the Andorians, Tellarites, and a few members of minority races raised their hands. Some humans too. "Put them down. Raise your hand if you're feeling… sexually aroused and aren't certain why." About a third of the humans raised their hands as well as the ship's Chief Science Officer, Sumit d'Ono, an Acadian. "Thank you, you may put your hands down. Petty Officers, recall your people." He looked at me. "Very well. What's your solution?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""We should simply sit, and wait."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""That's it?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Yes. I believe we are being monitored. It is the only thing that makes sense. None of the ships appeared damaged in the slightest and all were maintaining their relative position to the Brown Dwarf. This must be a test we will be released from, once we have passed. If not, then we shall surely perish anyway. Our captors have already demonstrated that they could have dispatched us with ease."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Very well."/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"And that, essentially was that. It wasn't adventurous, or daring, or even particularly exciting. We wandered a bit, then sat down and tried to keep our cool until whoever was watching us got bored. Fascinating Television it would not have made. Finally, a soft, androgynous voice said, "Vulcans ruin everything." And we were back aboard our ship. A small imp-like man appeared in front of me, standing on the exam table. "You're special. I hate special," he commented./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"My only response was to materialize a proton rifle from the Warehouse's arsenal and blow his head off./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"As emergency klaxons went off over the sudden appearance of holes in the wall and (and the wall beyond that), I banished the guns (the rifle and my against-regs hold-outs) along with my clothes, then apparated to my quarters, where I pulled on a spare set of clothing as the alien's blood and brain matter simply sloughed off of me as undifferentiated dust. I banished that too; let the maintenance droids of the Warehouse deal with it. I rushed out of my cabin and towards sickbay (which wasn't far as Medical personnel are located close to the bay for… reasons) then pretended to be agog at the damage like the other crew members who were standing around. I was about to ask what had happened when I was summoned to the bridge./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"Jumping in the nearest turbolift, I was there in moments, just in time to see a massive ship that had been disguised as a small moon reveal itself. Her engines were failing and explosions that only seemed small because of how big the ship was were rippling through her as we watched. "That appeared moments after we returned. We picked up several hundred lifesigns within, and they're being beamed out as fast as we can get locks, but they're in a bad way. Any idea what happened?"/span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;""Perhaps it was being controlled by a singular consciousness and, once that consciousness found what it was searching for, it ceased to have a purpose anymore." I did not mention that now that we were back aboard the Potemkin, my companions had, one by one, slipped into the warehouse and, grabbing Fission-Fusion Pumped Laser Warheads from the MEverse, had apparated them into labyrinth and set them to drill kilometer long holes through the vessel from the inside out. The Captain didn't need to know these things and it would only have worried him./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"The incident in sickbay was written off as inexplicable and the corpse analyzed, but no matching species was on record. The rescued crews were rehabilitated if possible, returned to their respective governments if not. All of them were heavily traumatized. Several hundred ships were located in the area, apparently harvested over a course of decades or even centuries. The blasted hulk of the Minos, as the Captain had dubbed the Labyrinthine vessel, bereft of its station keeping drive, slowly spiraled down into the Brown Dwarf where the incredible pressure eventually caused it to implode, taking its secrets with it. Dr. Yue had advised against sending anyone over to investigate the ship. The risks were just too high./span/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;" /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #303030; text-align: justify;"span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"I was mentioned in dispatches as the old saying goes 'for inspired thinking', but inspired thinking doesn't win awards, and I think the Captain was a little suspicious about how the corpse came to be missing its head. I'd have to come up with something. Somehow, Lt. Ragazzi was the only casualty, having somehow managed to get herself stabbed to death by an apparently unarmed but very clearly deranged Klingon. Her smugness, I could tell, was only going to make the others try harder./span/p