Augment Gothic - Part 26
Holosuite. Deep Space Nine
Jadzia Dax moved slowly through the holosuite's simulated cave. Her long dark brown hair, normally arranged in an exceedingly neat ponytail, was loose and tousled from the strenuous workout she was getting. Her dark blue leotard clung flatteringly to her slender toned body. Beads of perspiration, which had formed on her brow, were now running down the side of her face, and she was forced to wipe her face on the back of her sleeve just to keep her vision clear.
It was then that she thought she could hear a noise coming from just around the next corner. She lifted her Klingon blade with both hands, just as a large form leapt from behind the corner. Just as she'd expected, it was Gothic, the Bajoran militia general and her current enemy.
He swung the bat'leth to attack and Dax blocked it expertly with her own blade. If any veteran Klingon warriors had been watching at that moment they would have quickly realized that the general wasn't using his sword very skillfully when compared to the Trill, but he did have tremendous raw strength and speed on his side, two advantages that could bridge most gaps in skill and mastery.
The sparring match didn't last all that long, but while it did, there was a furious exchange of blows. Both of the combatants knew that they couldn't really hurt each other with these holographic weapons, but they still blocked blows and attempted to strike each other down with the same fervor and intensity that they would as if their lives really were in jeopardy.
Suddenly Dax felt something hook behind her ankle and a slight push in the opposing direction. Before she could move away from this new danger she found herself falling hard to the ground. With the speed of a snake striking its prey, Gothic had somehow managed to stick his leg in between hers during the last exchange of blows and then he'd pulled her foot forward with his, causing her to fall hard to the ground.
Somewhat dazed, Dax looked up at the simulation of Gothic's unique sword as it gently touched her neck, thankfully, with the anti-proton edge absent, lest even that small touch had partially decapitated her. This round, like her life would have been if this fight had been real, was over, so she surrendered in good sport.
"Computer, towel," commanded Dax aloud.
A small fluffy towel appeared on a nearby rock which she used to mop the sweat off her forehead.
"Good workout," she praised her sparring partner, "that was clever, knocking me off my balance like that."
Gothic didn't seem all that pleased with himself.
"You were distracted," the former freedom fighter turned General said. "It was pretty easy to get past your guard even while holding back."
Jadzia wasn't really offended upon hearing that, not with him. She knew very well that if the Khan-era augment had wanted to end the match more quickly he could have, but this was more about exercise and honing their individual skills than anything else. Even holding back significantly, his superior physiology bridged the gap in their skill levels all too easily, though each fight she could tell that he was learning from her, getting better and better, relying less and less on his overwhelming physical power to defeat her lifetimes of experience.
"Now, now, general," she said playfully, "you seemed a little distracted yourself."
She knew the sight of her in this outfit would distract any man, and many women. It hugged her curves beautifully and had become somewhat transparent due to the layer of perspiration that had formed on Jadzia's overheated body.
"You wore that purposefully to get my attention," the human said with a devious smile. "Well, you got it, my dear."
He approached her slowly, like a great cat stalking its prey, and began to undo the fastener in the front of his trousers. Dax was surprised, normally she had to make her intentions very clear before Gothic responded so aggressively, so dominantly, like she wanted and loved. It was a very rare sexual partner that could successfully dominate her like Gothic could, rather than the other way around, but Gothic was one of those rare gems whose personality and power could overcome even her centuries of experience in the bedroom. This time he was taking the lead right from the start, demanding her submission. She hadn't actually intended to let things progress this far so soon, but she certainly wasn't saying no now.
She got on her knees at his unspoken command, while giving the militia officer another cheeky smile. Her eyes met his. When his large fleshy sword was out and in front her she wrapped her right hand around the base of his shaft and started pumping slowly, with a firm grip.
The augment moaned as he felt the soft skin of Dax's hand pumping up and down on his hot, hard shaft. Soon he felt his knees begin to buckle, one hand going to the cave wall for support the other threading through her hair to the back of her head, his hand pulling her head forward.
Dax's wonderful hand pumping suddenly stopped, and Gothic looked down at Jadzia's pretty face. She looked him right in the eye and opened her mouth wide, giving in to the relentless pressure of his hand on the back of her head urging her forward to engulf and suck his cock ravenously. Dax had been both a man and a woman several times in her life, so she knew exactly how to expertly handle a cock.
Dax closed her eyes in bliss, delighting in her submission, and sucked harder, occasionally letting a muffled moan reach Gothic's ears. She did this on purpose knowing that it would arouse him even further.
While using one hand to keep herself steady she used the other to touch herself. She started at her large breasts, kneading and rubbing each of them through the thin and wet leotard, then squeezing and pinching her nipples hard. After that her hand slipped down her stomach, to the growing fire between her legs.
Once there her fingers got to work as she once again called upon her several lifetimes of sexual experience to expertly pleasure herself. At the same time Dax continued to suck with unbridled enthusiasm, moving her head up and down, faster and faster, before she suddenly stopped, as Gothic shot his large load deep into Dax's mouth. Jadzia had correctly guessed that it was about to happen and she let the delicious cum fill her mouth before pulling away. Was Gothic's cum naturally this good tasting or was it another aspect of his genetic enhancements? Some of the man's seed spilled out of her mouth despite her best efforts to swallow it all.
"Computer, a wet, warm towel," Jadzia ordered, once her mouth was empty.
A wet towel appeared in Dax's hand which she used to wipe the excess cum off her face and neck. Then she began to sensuously strip out of her leotard so that she could apply the towel to other parts of her body.
"I've always noticed how men looked at me," Dax said matter-of-factly, another of those small knowing smiles she was known for on her face. "You know I've never minded, especially when it's you."
Before long she was naked, and like always Gothic soon became rock hard again, which was exactly what Jadzia had wanted. A Khan-era Augment could be a demon in the bedroom and she had every intention of trying and failing to wear him out.
(Line Break)
As I got up off the floor of the simulated cave, I looked over at Jadzia who was still on the ground. She was naked and panting, slowly and sensually stretching like a contented cat, which was an incredibly erotic sight for me. Who knew that I, a former Star Trek nerd, would ever get the chance to fuck the beautiful and sensuous Jadzia Dax in real life into a pleasure coma? Unfortunately, I didn't have time to enjoy the afterglow or try for round four. I had to go and get changed into my dress uniform before some visiting ambassadors arrived on the station. As the head of the off world militia it was my job to handle visits with visiting dignitaries, especially at these early junctures. Mostly so that no one from the provisional government would have to.
"Well," said Dax quietly, while smiling up at me, obviously rather worn out. "That was one hell of a good workout!"
I genuinely smiled at her. It had been a good work out, with a great blowjob just being the start. Life was very kind to me and my girls had worked their way into my heart.
"The visiting ambassadors will be here in less than an hour," I reminded the Trill. "You need to get up, shower and go put on a dress uniform just like I do."
She didn't get up.
"I'm not sure I can move," she told me.
This I gave some thought.
"I could go get Doctor Bashir," I threatened. "He'd certainly appreciate the view."
Jadzia didn't panic, but it was clear that she wasn't exactly keen on this idea.
"Don't you dare," she said, giving me a gimlet eye.
I smiled my best devilish smile again.
"I quite wonder how he'd react to seeing you lying naked on the ground, covered in sweat, with my cum still leaking out of your delicious, well used cunt," I offered as if really curious. "Shall we find out?"
With great effort the beautiful Trill woman managed to grudgingly get to her feet, and after getting dressed as best she could she began limping towards the door after sharing a gentle kiss with me. I'd really done a number on her, and despite the minor discomfort that she was no doubt feeling at the moment I knew that sooner or later she'd be back for more.
(Line Break)
Airlock. Deep Space Nine.
I was so glad that I'd gotten to design my own uniform because the dress uniform for Starfleet officers and rank and file members of the Bajoran militia just looked so stupid. Mine made me look like an officer in a proper military, only I didn't have any medals, mostly because the Militia had never given any in its short existence. I'd have to do something about that, as it'd go a long way to giving the impression that we were a proper military, but since no one in the formal militia command hierarchy actually outranked me, though I obviously took orders from the First Minister, I had no idea who could award me a medal. Life was just absurd sometimes.
Those absurd thoughts were quickly pushed aside as I saw Commander Sisko, Doctor Bashir, and Major Kira approach the airlock. They seemed to be taking their sweet time getting here, not that I blamed them their reluctance. A visit by a group of Federation ambassadors to the station wasn't going to be a cause for celebration given how notoriously unpleasant such missions typically were. Especially not when they were coming due to the recent Hur'q attacks the quadrant had suffered. I could worry about those meetings later, for now I had to deal with the ambassadors' arrival on the station.
"You're cutting it close," I chided the officers with a mocking grin.
They grimaced but said nothing in response as the airlock door was now sliding open in that peculiar Cardassian manner, and guess who should step onto the station but Lwaxana Troi, who I'd last seen back on the Enterprise after we'd both been abducted by one of Quark's people.
"Oh, Gothic!" she greeted me happily. "It's so good to see you again! I asked Deanna what you were up to the last time I was on the Enterprise and she told me that you were all the way out here in the middle of nowhere."
They talked about me? Well, that was kind of flattering. Maybe I still had a shot at banging Deanna?
"Yes, I..."
I stopped when more ambassadors came through the airlock, and a Vulcan ambassador started complaining about something or other. Before I knew it, poor Julian was taking them all to their assigned quarters and I was left alone by the airlock wondering what to do next.
(Line Break)
Quark's Bar. Deep Space Nine.
I often came to Quark's at the end of a long day. It was nice to just sit back and watch people going about their lives. Since I was just so damn clever I could do that while also working on something, like my latest holonovel or the design for some cool new tech.
Right now I was working on the next generation of omni-tools to be released in the next 2-5 years, long enough for the basic omni-tool design to hopefully catch on. Unlike the basic design, these were all different and meant for specific and specialized occupations. For example, I had a design for a medical omni-tool which had very sophisticated inbuilt scanners meant specifically for medical purposes, which could be used for advanced scans and diagnostics of a person's body. It could work in tandem with a glove I was designing to be worn on a humanoid hand in which the palm and each finger had a different scanner technology built into it. This was a huge advancement as this sensor glove could accomplish the same deep scans as many other larger pieces of technology, but this was all in one device, was portable and could be worn, and would feed its output back into the omni-tool for analysis.
The glove wasn't strictly necessary, but if you wanted more advanced scans it was a Godsend. The tool's onboard database was filled with medical knowledge the user could review as needed and its built in micro-replicator contained the patterns for the most commonly used medical tools small enough to be replicated by the omni-tool, like a hypospray with pre-filled drugs. This particular design was somewhat like the personalized version of the omni-tool I'd created for Julian Bashir that he happily used every day, but powering the micro-replicator was still an issue using current Federation technology.
The model for engineers was pretty similar, including the sensor glove, though obviously with more engineering oriented scanning technologies, only a bit bigger as the replicator was designed to create commonly used tools and spare parts.
While working on these designs I sipped my Romulan ale. I actually had a whole case of the stuff that Quark was keeping for me personally in his store room. It was legal here since this was a Bajoran station and Bajor was not a member of the Federation yet and I'd also used my influence to ensure it was legal here. By the time Bajor joined the Federation hopefully the Federation/Romulan alliance would still exist and that legality would continue for one of my favorite beverages. If push came to shove I could always smuggle some in, but it probably wouldn't be necessary.
"Working on more omni-tool designs?" the bartender asked me, obviously curious what I had in the design pipeline.
He had a vested interest in the tools as he got a small amount of the profits from sales, which weren't great at the moment. While Grand Nagus Zek had authorized the mass production and sale of the devices after our deal with each other was struck, the process had only just started. Tens of millions of the things still needed to be manufactured before distribution could begin in earnest.
"Yes," I answered. "I'm creating new specialized versions of the device meant for different professions, though I don't think they'll be released for another 2-5 years at least."
Quark nodded at that, not needing any further explanation. It would take time for people to learn about, accept, use, and come to rely on just the basic omni-tool in their daily life, the release of a specialized version of the device meant for specific professions was premature at best at this point.
I let the bartender have a quick look at the padd.
"You know, there are plenty of businessmen like myself who could do with an omni-tool that lets them keep a close eye on the markets, both galactic, sector, and local, and their own individual accounts and investments," Quark said. "Perhaps you can make an omni-tool for people like me."
That wasn't such a bad idea. It really wouldn't be that hard either, technically speaking. The trick would be to aggregate and synthesize all that incoming data and making it usable for the user.
"A business oriented omni-tool that keeps you linked to the stock markets and gives you around the clock access to your accounts for information and trades, etc.," I mused aloud. "Possible, but to keep it secure you'd need to link to a subspace receiver to keep the information up to date, and a transmitter as well if the user wants to make real-time changes or orders, etc."
Even a simple subspace radio was too big to fit in an omni-tool, which was why they were programmed to link to and use the communication network of whatever city, colony, planet, ship, or station the user was on.
"Not with the right encryption," said Quark. "The tool can use local communications for most of the data transfer, like the basic omni-tool, you just need to secure the local linkup appropriately with-"
He ended that sentence abruptly and started another when someone took a seat next to me.
"Just give it some thought," he advised.
I turned on my bar stool to regard Kira who had taken a seat next to me.
"Ah, Major Kira," Quark said with a smile. "What can I get you?"
"Spring wine," she ordered tersely, never coming to like Quark.
Kira then turned to me and grinned, like something amused her greatly.
"Poor Julian. Stuck babysitting a bunch of Ambassadors," Nerys said, throwing a quick glance over her shoulder.
Doctor Bashir was looking distinctly uncomfortable as he tried to placate the Bolian, Vulcan, Andorian and Betazoid Federation Ambassadors, the last who also happened to be Deanna Troi's mother, Lwaxana Troi, who was infamous among Trek fans, her episodes being the most memorable, hilarious, and mostly light hearted in the TNG and DS9 era.
This wasn't some random visit by some VIPs to see the wormhole like in the show, though. Because of the recent Hur'q attacks the alpha quadrant powers were trying to put together a kind of mutual defense pact/treaty that would allow the military forces of one power to cross borders in order to render aid and defend their neighbors from Hur'q attacks.
Ambassadors from the other major powers were already en route to Deep Space Nine, and rumor had it that even a couple of Gamma Quadrant races would be joining the talks, but given how limited contact was with the Gamma Quadrant races that might just be rumor and nothing more. Although, that would explain why this station had been chosen for the site of the meeting. Even though I would be attending this meeting, since Bajor's defense from external threats was officially my responsibility, I didn't even know everyone that was coming. It was really hush hush and Bajor's military might, or lack thereof, didn't really merit being informed of every detail.
There was a sudden scream that resounded from the nearby Dabo table and it had startled even me as my attention had been on Nerys. Doctor Bashir was now rushing towards the Betazoid Ambassador to see what the fuss was all about.
"Oh! Where is it? It's gone! It's gone!" Lwaxana exclaimed, while looking frantically around.
Bashir was almost equally as frantic as the Ambassador at this turn of events and who could blame him? If he screwed up taking care of the Federation diplomats assigned to him then the alliance against the Hur'q could be effected. That seemed pretty unlikely, but I figured it was Julian's career that would suffer should he screw up.
"What's gone, Madam Ambassador?" he asked.
"My latinum hair brooch!" she shouted.
Bashir whirled towards the bar.
"Quark!"
Even without super human hearing I wouldn't have missed a word of this because Lwaxanna could really project her voice. Now I remembered this scene from the shows.
Yet again I was in the middle of a canon scene and wondering what I should do, if anything. I could jump in and solve the problem, maybe earning myself some goodwill, or I could let canon play out and have Odo jump in and find the criminal. That actually made me worried for a moment, as it reminded me of how my presence was likely disrupting canon events. In the future, Odo was supposed to fall in love with Nerys and she in love with him. This was the sole reason he stayed on the station and refused to join the Founders and the Great Link during the Dominion War. Similar to my improving relationship with Dax potentially making it unlikely Worf and her will marry like in canon, my strong relationship with Nerys might similarly make Odo and her unlikely to happen. What then might that mean for the future during the Dominion War with Odo potentially returning to the Founders? Could we win without his help and presence? Could Section 31 still use him to infect the Founders with that deadly disease?
Fuck me this was getting overly complicated. Well, Odo and Lwaxana had a good thing briefly in the show, maybe I could do my best to fan those flames so Troi could step in and fill the shoes of Kira which meant I should stay the fuck out of this little situation taking place in front of me and let Odo save the day.
"I was leaning across the table to pick up the dice again, something brushed against me and my goodness, I've been robbed!" she exclaimed.
Quark arrived at the dabo table at this point.
"What's the problem here?" he asked.
"Someone has stolen Ambassador Troi's latinum hair brooch," Bashir explained.
Quark looked annoyed.
"I'm sorry, but as the sign says, the establishment is not responsible for the loss of any personal items," he said.
"Sign? What sign?" the ambassador asked in confusion.
Lwaxana looked around in vain for the sign.
"The one above the door," the bartender explained while vaguely pointing in the direction of the entrance.
Everyone turned to look. I could read it just fine, but I was genetically enhanced to have superior visual acuity.
"You'd have to stand on a chair to read that!" Basir complained.
"House rules. I'm very sorry. Have a nice day," Quark said as he walked away, or tried to.
The Ambassador's eyes flashed in righteous feminine fury as she grabbed the ferengi by the lobe, and not in the way they preferred.
"Aaah!" Quark yelled out.
Given that the bartender often served me well as an agent in my business endeavors I should really save him from harm, but this was just amusing, and again, the future was in jeopardy here and didn't need me meddling further.
"You are dealing with a daughter of the Fifth House, Holder of the sacred Chalice of Rixx, Heir to the holy Rings of Betazed," Lwaxana said in an impressive tone of authority.
I'd not heard her speak like that since she, her daughter and I had been captured by a Ferengi captain who had wanted to make use of her advanced powers of telepathy. It hadn't worked back then, but combined with the rough handling of Quark's ear it certainly seemed effective. Perhaps Lwaxana had studied the ferengi after being captured by that Daiman guy. That whole incident had never made sense to me. Surely there had been someone else less important and high profile he could have gone after, someone who might welcome a job like that.
"Not my ear, please!" Quark begged.
"Yes, and I know where it hurts the most, you little troll. Now I want this room sealed and I want everyone in it strip-searched until you find my brooch," she commanded.
At this point Odo entered the bar, no doubt having been alerted by either a deputy, or by other means. I wouldn't be surprised if the Constable had some sort of sensors permanently trained on Quark that let him listen in at all times. That would be illegal in the extreme, but he was a Founder and while Odo might act like a champion of justice, it was in fact order he truly wished to impose on this station.
"May I be of service?" he asked mildly.
Lwaxana let Quark go. Once free he rubbed his lobe.
"Oh, thank goodness," Bashir said in relief, happy to let someone else handle this burden of responsibility. "The station's Chief of Security, Odo."
"What seems to be the problem here?" he asked.
"Well, my brooch has been stolen. It's been in my family for thirty six generations. It's absolutely priceless, and I want it back," the Betazed ambassador said.
"You're certain you were wearing it today?" Odo asked.
"Yes, of course, I'm certain. I never wear this hair without it," she answered.
"I see. Betazoid? Telepathic?" he asked
"Of course," she replied.
"And you sense no guilt anywhere in this room?" he asked.
Lwaxana sighed and with a put upon expression she closed her eyes to focus her abilities. No doubt she was reading the minds of everyone nearby, though I wasn't worried about her reading my mind as that had proven impossible in the past, but my emotions were another matter. I'm not sure if she could detect those like her daughter could, so I focused on remembering Jadzia in the holodeck so that she could only detect lust from me. I actually had things to feel guilty about, such as killing people on Section 31 missions, and I didn't want people to sense that.
"No," the ambassador said once she finished "But betazoids cannot read ferengis, their minds are too dense, which I'm thankful for, as they're probably full of things I can't mention in polite company."
Quark just smirked at her in response. Then Odo glared at the ferengi.
"Quark has plenty of reason to feel guilty, Ambassador. However, he doesn't have to resort to petty theft to fleece his customers," the shape shifter said.
Odo looked around then and quick as a striking snake sent a stretching elongated arm out to catch an alien that had been about to leave. He reeled in the alien like it was a fish, and it did look a bit fish-like. Some aliens were really ugly that way.
"Empty your pockets, now," Odo commanded.
The alien turned to be quite a busy little pickpocket, his loot was substantial, and it included a comm badge.
"Well, since when did you join Starfleet?" Odo asked the theif.
The alien could only cower meekly in Odo's tight grip and then comply.
"That's it," Lwaxana said with delight and picked up her brooch, "but how did you know?"
"Dopterians are distant relatives of the ferengi. It made sense that if you couldn't read Quark, you might not be able to read this charming fellow either," Odo explained.
"How perfectly brilliant of you," she replied with interest.
Lwaxana smiled, and I knew that she was already smitten with him, and while it would be amusing to observe more of this I had things to do. Meetings to attend to and all that. Hopefully the future could be preserved even if Kira and Odo never happened.
"Back to work for me, Nerys," I explained to Kira, after getting up from my seat.
The Bajoran woman gave me a surprised look.
"What could you be working on at this time of night?" she asked.
Nothing fun that was for sure.
"I have days worth of meetings ahead with ambassadors from all over the Alpha Quadrant," I told Nerys. "It's going to be hell."
With that I left the bar.
(Line Break)
Office of General Gothic. Deep Space Nine.
I sat back in my chair behind my desk and let out a loud sigh.
"How did the meeting go?" Ro Laren asked as she brought me a coffee that I hadn't even asked for.
Ro always knew how to make me feel better, whether that was with sex or a just a delicious hot beverage.
"Well enough, I suppose," I told her. "The Provisional Government is fine letting Starfleet, Klingon and even Romulan ships enter Bajoran space in order to fight the Hur'q, but they aren't happy about Cardassian ships being allowed to cross the borders."
A comprehensive mutual defense pact was important, especially against the Hur'q, so we may have no choice. Bajor itself simply couldn't fight off a Hur'q attack of any scale, not with the station no longer in orbit of the planet, and by the rules of the agreement any allied power had to defend an ally's world should it be attacked by the Hur'q. And, unfortunately, the nearest allied military ships to Bajor were Cardassian ones. While having their ships defend Bajor would certainly be ironic, many Bajorans would rather die than accept their help, and they likely would if the Hur'q attacked the system in even a small force and chose to focus on the planet instead of the station.
As head of all off world militia forces it would be my fault in the Hur'q pillaged Bajor, but there really wasn't much I could do about it at the moment. My ship was a glorified runabout with extra tricks. Against even half a dozen Collector fighter craft, sure, it'd handle its own for a while, but anything larger than that would be beyond it.
"Once these talks are finished we'll be heading to the island," I told Ro, who was keeping herself busy with some paperwork. "It's more important than ever that I get the redesign and upgrade of the Flighty Temptress started. Bajor might desperately need the firepower to defend itself from the Collectors."
She nodded in agreement, fully understanding just how precarious Bajor's situation was if the Collectors targeted the planet versus the station.
"I'm ready to help in any way I can, Gothic, you know that. Until then there are few more immediate matters we need to discuss," she informed me. "I have a few requests you need to look over and approve before they can proceed."
Oh joy. Paperwork. What a charmed life I led at times.
(Line Break)
Ops. Deep Space Nine.
I got to what passed for a command centre on this station mere moments after the wormhole opened and spat something out. I'd been expecting this to happen around about now. Lwaxana Troi's first visit to the station was in the same episode that had an alien probe come through the wormhole and cause all kinds of computer problems. I didn't recall anyone getting hurt or dying in the show, but I did recall that the Ambassadors were temporarily in danger and had nearly died.
This was again another important canon event, one I wasn't sure I should actually mess with. An AI would soon be brought into the Station's computer systems, but it all worked out in the end, and the station's systems would run much better because of it for years to come. In fact I couldn't recall a single episode following this one which ever indicated there was an issue that came of all this. That said, while I wasn't going to interfere too much and potentially upset the good outcome from happening (again?), I still had a favor to ask of Sisko. There were a lot of poor decisions made during this encounter that I might need to point out that would ensure he'd be far more accommodating and agree to my request. Maybe it'd help them make better decisions in the future as well. One could certainly hope.
"Please tell me that you haven't linked up to that probe," I said aloud looking at the viewscreen. "It could contain anything."
O'Brien looked a little guilty at that, obviously not having considered that.
"I've already set up an uplink," he reluctantly told me.
First nail in the coffin.
"Memory nodes located. Proceeding with data transfer," the Cardassian computer let everyone know.
"You seem surprised, Chief," Jadzia commented.
He did actually. Pleasantly so.
"Well, knowing this computer, I thought I would have to reconfigure the whole emulator module to make it compatible with the probe, but it's cooperating for once," he said.
"Transfer of data is complete."
"Well done, computer," the human praised.
Time for the second nail.
"Please tell me, Chief, that you've downloaded all that information on a computer completely isolated from the rest of the station's systems by very good firewalls," I asked.
The look on his face confirmed yet again that he didn't do that either.
"Computer, run standard code translations on probe data. Isolate syntax results," Jadzia requested.
"Processing. Stand by. Analysis of all subprocessor modules is complete."
"Already?" O'Brien asked.
I listened as Jadzia studied the probe and reported her findings to Ops.
"No science modules, no communications system, and enough computer capacity to run a Galaxy class starship. It's very odd."
And they'd just hooked up the integrated computer systems running all of DS9 to this alien machine of unknown origin, capabilities, or purpose. I always downloaded potentially hostile data onto my omni-tool or a disposable tricorder with its communications abilities completely disabled, just in case of a virus or other malware. A 21st century IT department would have handled this situation better, with far more caution and common sense, than 24th century Starfleet had.
"That's an awful lot of computer hardware to simply navigate a probe," Dax commented.
I checked out the scans for myself.
"It isn't a probe at all, not really," I told everyone. "It's essentially a massive computer and a lot of memory storage with an engine attached. Its purpose isn't scientific and it's not armed. In fact given its lack of sensors I doubt it was even meant to come through the wormhole."
If I had to hazard a guess someone had stuck thrusters on to a hard drive and then had pointed it at the wormhole. It was all very, very odd. While the systems were advanced, they weren't advanced enough for me to be interested in reverse engineering them. The Husnock computer technology was superior, I knew.
"Maybe someone wanted to move it?" Jadiza mused. "Perhaps they were transferring a massive computer for some reason, and it got lost."
I really had no idea. It didn't make any sense to me when I first saw this episode and it didn't make any more sense to me now. If someone wanted to get rid of the AI onboard that probe then why had they not just blown it up with weapons or have it fly into a nearby star. Had they tried? Maybe the thing had fled somehow after it sensed its creator wanted to destroy it?
"So we could expect a visit from the owner soon," mused Sisko.
If someone did come looking for it then I had a lot of questions for them.
"If this was data I wanted back at some point then I sure would have made it harder for anyone to interface with it, such as putting EM shields on it to prevent remote linkage, firewalls and boobytraps to prevent physical interface. But there's none of that," O'Brien let us know.
Still, I was worried.
"The General was right, Chief. I suggest you treat that data very carefully. Keep it isolated and only access it in a quarantined system, just in case," Sisko ordered.
"Aye sir," he replied.
Somehow I doubted it would help, especially since so many mistakes had already been made, which I'd pointed out. Sisko definitely saw that I was unhappy with the lack of caution and good sense on display, especially with systems that belonged to Bajor and not the Federation.
"I assume you wanted to see me, General," Sisko said after leading me into his office, looking slightly embarrassed at the way this probe situation had been poorly handled.
I'd rushed up here because of the probe, but I had intended to come here anyway.
"Yes, I needed to ask about temporarily reassigning several station personnel for a special project I'm running down on Bajor," I explained to Sisko.
Neela, Kira, and Ro Laren were Bajoran Militia, so I really didn't need his permission to temporarily reassign them to work on the Temptress, this was a courtesy for them and he knew it, but I also wanted Dax, who was Starfleet and thus not under my command. He'd have every right to deny that request, but given the recent fuck up with the probe, I figured he'd try to be accommodating.
(Line Break)
Island Fortress. Bajor.
As planned, I finally had Neela, Ro Laren, and Jadzia on my island so we could work on the Temptress' refit, well not directly, we first needed to upgrade the island's technology first with what I'd learned from the Husnock database. Then the fortress should do most of the work for me.
I would have liked Nerys here too, but Sisko hadn't wanted to give up his second in command and his science officer at the same time. That made perfect sense given that the Hur'q could attack again at any time. Privately, Dax was the more valuable person for this project anyways given her heavy science background, but I wasn't going to tell Nerys that.
The Collector threat was the reason I felt such an urgent need to refit my ship as quickly as possible. In canon, even during the Dominion War, there had never been an attack on Bajor itself, only the station. With the Collectors attacking the quadrant, there was no telling if Bajor itself would be safe this time around, though my feelings said that I was going to need that extra firepower sooner rather than later.
"Okay ladies, let's get to work," I said.
(Line Break)
Conference Room. Island Fortress. Bajor.
This was one hell of a conference room I thought, while looking around the room. I had participated in most every aspect of the construction of my Palace Fortress on this island, had even replicated most of the furniture after the industrial replicator had been installed and overseen their placement, but this was the first time I'd had an opportunity to sit in this room and actually use it. Data had really out done himself. His designs were not just architectural; they were interior décor and choices in furniture he had personally designed for my use. Of course Data had provided multiple choices for each chair and table and carpet throughout the palace, so that I could ultimately make a final decision, but the level of thought and detail he'd put into the plans for my home had astounded me then and continued to astound me now. It was refined elegance, old world style mixed with functional cutting edge technology and I couldn't be prouder to say that this was all mine. Who knew an android could make something so beautiful, yet functional?
This large conference room was rectangular in shape dominated by a very long, almost rectangular conference table but with two gentle bowed out arcs on each side, like an oval, leaving a good amount of table space in the middle for refreshments or documents or anything else you could think of. The wood the table was made of was replicated, of course, but was native to Bajor and was polished to a high sheen. What wasn't immediately clear, though, was the copious amounts of holo-emitters and computer interfaces built into what looked, at first glance, like a gorgeous antique. More emitters were even built into the ceiling above the table. It was old world style mixed with artfully hidden and integrated high technology. If I wanted to I could project a fully 3-dimensional hologram above the surface of this table or at the end of the table and manipulate it both verbally or tactilely. Microphones hidden throughout would also ensure a person speaking would be heard by everyone else in the room. A subspace transmitter would even allow communications off-world or for a holo-image of someone to be added to the space to make it appear like they were present.
The room itself was on one of the higher above ground floors and had the far wall, on the exterior of the house, made of tall floor-to-ceiling windows providing a truly exquisite panoramic view of the surrounding ocean. A small door to the side lead to a long wrap around balcony for small breaks. The wall glass itself was also "smart" and could be used as a display as well to put up images or documents or other information when the view of the ocean outside wasn't needed. It could also be blacked out and the room hardened from most known surveillance technologies if needed.
This table could seat 30 people very comfortably in its high backed chairs and had a number of extra seats and side tables on the periphery for aids or assistants. Right now this rather large room only had four people in it, myself, Neela, Ro Laren, and Dax. I was sitting at the head of the table, of course, in the "king" spot as I liked to think of it. My girls were also sitting at the table with me looking around the room in appreciation at its beauty.
"Have to say, Gothic, this is one hell of a conference room, and that's coming from someone who lived a life as an ambassador," Dax offered while gazing around with a smile, taking in the room and likely noticing all of the hidden technology available. "It's comfortable, elegant, and functional with one hell of a view. Bajor's First Minister will be begging to borrow your home for conferences if he knew how nice it was."
"Thanks, Dax. I made the final decisions on certain aspects of this room and the rest of the palace fortress, but Commander Data of the Enterprise designed practically everything here from scratch, from the foundation to the roof and everything in between," I said. "Who knew the guy was such an amazing interior decorator too!"
"Well, my compliments to him, he really outdid himself," she offered. "Maybe I should see if he can come up with a plan to decorate my quarters on the station!" Dax joked, though I'm not entirely sure she was joking.
I suppose it was time to get this show on the road; clearing my throat I brought everyone's attention back to me.
"I wanted to start by thanking you all for coming today and agreeing to help me with this project which I suspect will take about 2 weeks," I started off, looking into each of their eyes. "Before I go any further, though, I want it made known that I've designated this a Top Secret military special project. Everything you learn and do here is top secret and you will be unable to speak of it to anyone not already in the know without my permission. Dax, per the agreement Bajor signed with the Federation to allow administration of the Station, the nature of this project and everything you learn here cannot be disclosed to your superiors or reported on as it has been designated a Top Secret military special project by the Bajoran Militia. Do you understand and accept that this will be the nature of the project you're about to begin? You can choose not to participate in this project and be returned to the station if you like with no consequence," I asked and advised, hoping she'd choose to stay, despite knowing she wouldn't be allowed to tell anyone about it, including Sisko.
Looking torn for a moment, she settled on resolved. "I understand and will not report on what I see or learn here during this special project," Dax answered with resolve.
"Good, I'm very glad you'll be able to help us," I responded with a smile, happy that she'd be able to help on this project and wouldn't report what she'd see to Starfleet. I had no desire at all for Starfleet to realize just how much advanced technology I had access to.
"Well, let's get to it! The end goal of this project is the redesign and upgrade of my ship, the Flighty Temptress. In pursuit of that goal I've obtained certain advanced technologies which should make this possible to do on our own, with no other help. The threat to Bajor that the Collectors represent has made this a much higher priority," I explained.
"Emma, please load ship design designated 'Dauntless,' display the ship holographically. Include preliminary design deck-by-deck blueprints next to exterior view and cross section of ship," I commanded.
At that command Emma loaded and displayed the preliminary designs of the ship I'd recreated partially from memory and partially with tech I'd found in the Husnock database. Anyone who had seen the show Voyager would immediately recognize the design of the ship as the U.S.S. Dauntless, a ship that would never be in this universe as the Borg had long ago been wiped out so Arturis would never design it to use in his elaborate deception.
My girls were in awe of the ship's design. Dax had even stuck her hand up and twirled the holographic model of the ship around to better see the Nacelle configuration.
"How big is this ship?" Neela asked calmly, her eyes still locked on the hologram spinning in mid-air.
"When complete it'll have 7 decks and be 150 meters long, 60 meters at the beam, with a height of 25 meters with a mass displacement of 470,000 metric tons," I answered.
They, understandably, reacted with shock at how ambitious my plans were.
"First off, wow, I had no idea your many talents included ship design and this design is very advanced and innovative. Second, when you said you were redesigning and upgrading your ship, I thought maybe you'd be making it a bit bigger since it's only slightly larger than a runabout now, maybe upgrade the engine speed or weapons. This is way, way beyond what I thought you were talking about. Those dimensions make this more akin to an Intrepid-class ship!" Dax exclaimed, taken aback at how big this ship was. "How do you possibly plan to build something like this with just us? You'd need a dedicated shipyard with hundreds of workers and a ton of raw materials."
"The Collector database we stole, that's what makes this possible, isn't it?" Ro Laren asked to Dax and Neela's confusion.
"Partially. This is top secret," I reminded, glancing once again at everyone to convey my seriousness. "Nerys, Laren and I encountered a Collector ship months ago. We boarded it and stole both technology and information before it took off again. The Collector database and the tech we stole that day gave me the chance to examine and reverse engineer many advanced technologies, including what will eventually power this ship, a power core which harnesses an artificial singularity on a scale that's hard to believe and far beyond anything the Romulans can reproduce."
"I'm guessing you're planning on building this ship here on the island and not in a shipyard, did you get some kind of construction technology from them too?" Dax asked.
"Again, that's partially correct, the Collector database had designs for a more advanced form of replication based on 'particle synthesis,' which makes it possible to replicate many materials that current replication technology wouldn't allow, the rest of the needed materials that still can't be replicated even with this more advanced form of replication I already have stockpiled from when I raided Cardassian ore freighters during the Occupation," I explained, though I really wasn't interested in disclosing that that technology had come from a stolen Husnock database the Collectors had somehow acquired. "What will really make this construction possible here on the island is actually a piece of technology encountered in the 22nd century. I've already finished the designs to create my own version. Once it's built simulations suggest the ship construction will take about a month a half and only require minimal input or if problems crop up," I said with a grin, knowing this would shock them all into a stupor.
"A month and a half?! To build a ship this size here, with just us? How would a piece of 22nd century technology allow you to build this very large and advanced ship here and that fast with this few people?" Dax scoffed.
"Emma, please display the auto repair and construction yard in its undeployed state, after 10 seconds please show gradual deployment to encompass project Dauntless inside," I commanded.
With that command the compacted cylinder from the Enterprise show was displayed in midair. 10 seconds later the cylinder slowly opened up and the Dauntless was projected inside. (See Automated Repair Station)
"Why does that structure seem familiar to me?" Dax asked, her eyes fixed on the frame surrounding the ship.
"It should be. This was a piece of alien technology the original Enterprise, NX-01, captained by Jonathan Archer, encountered and used in 2152. This repair facility repaired a giant hole in the saucer section of that Enterprise in 34 hours, a repair that would have taken 3 months with all the resources of Earth and it still wouldn't have been done as well as this automated technology did it. Each one of the station's automated 'arms' had replication and holo-tool technology built in so that large pieces of the ship could be replicated, assembled and precision installed in little time. Since we're not talking about repairs taking place in a smaller space, I expanded the number of arms given the size of the overall construction. Multiple parts of the ship will be worked on at once," I explained. "While the Enterprise was inside, T'Pol, the ship's science officer, took incredibly detailed and exhaustive scans of the station itself. The technology involved was far, far beyond Earth at that point, but current technology, augmented by the advanced tech I've recently acquired, especially in replication and computer processing, means this same technology the Enterprise once encountered could be used to build the ship I envision."
"Wait a second, I remember this holonovel now. Didn't the station steal a crewman to enhance its processing power?" Dax asked incredulously.
"Well, yes, that's true, but we've come a long way since then," I joked. "Rest assured none of your brains will be needed to enhance its processing power. The more advanced computer architecture and Emma, a VI of my own design, will direct efforts for maximum efficiency once I input the finished ship design."
"What do you need from us?" Ro Laren asked after everyone had a few moments of contemplative and thoughtful silence.
"There are several upgrades to this Island's technology and production capacity that are needed before I can just build the auto repair and construction yard. First, the two Collector power cores need to be upgraded and one of them needs to be plugged into the island's power grid. Neela can explain why an upgrade for them is needed. Second, the island's industrial replicator needs to be upgraded to allow for particle synthesis based replication, once that's done everything else will be easier since we can then replicate the replacement tech as needed. Third, we need to build one of the automated repair station berths that the Enterprise encountered including an anti-gravity field to be projected to fill the construction space in the unoccupied lower hanger bay since we're obviously not building the ship in space. Fourth, I need to finalize the design for the Flighty Temptress and start construction of the frame. Fifth, the transporters on the island need to be upgraded to the more advanced design," I explained. These were the priority projects in order, so that I could finally start on the ship.
"Again, that's a very ambitious set of priority tasks. How are we going to upgrade your existing technology with this more advanced alien technology we've never even heard of before or had time to study?" Dax asked.
"That's a good question. I've already done a lot of the preliminary planning work needed so you won't need to fully understand the new technology as well as I do. Each of your omni-tools will be sent the specific designs being used and exactly what parts will need to be swapped out and programming upgraded. IT should be easy enough to follow and if you really get stuck, I'm only a call away if you need assistance," I answered.
"What do you want us to do first?" Neela asked, her engineer mind already eager to take on the next task.
"That depends. Neela, how far along are you on the power core upgrade?"
"I've already upgraded the unattached power core and integrated it into the island's power grid. The second one I haven't even started on since it still needs to be removed from the Collector ship," she answered.
Dax game me another look of confusion at that.
"That's fine, the second power core won't be needed till after we've started on the frame of the ship," I answered. "I want you all to work together first on upgrading the industrial replicator. That might take a few days or more, but once that's done we can start building the auto repair and construction yard. With all the extra power the industrial replicator should have no problem producing what we need. While you're doing that I'm going to finalize the design of the ship. Now do you have any other questions before we get started?" I asked. Looking around it seemed that they didn't have any questions yet, but that would likely change after they spent some time reviewing the materials I sent to their omni-tools. Now I just needed to finalize my ship's design. That was easier said than done.
(Line Break)
Holographic Design and Fabrication Lab. Gothic's Palace Fortress. Bajor.
It had been a productive week and a half all told since I had given the girls their marching orders. The girls had worked extremely hard and had gotten through all of the major tasks I'd assigned them. There had been a few unexpected compatibility issues in upgrading the industrial replicator, but the girls had put their heads together and found a solution, one that would be used several times over in ensuring the more advanced Husnock technology worked in conjunction with the Federation technology.
Once the industrial replicator upgrade had been completed they'd started on the auto repair and construction yard. As 'the Yard,' as we were now calling it, was originally intended to work in space, we had needed to come up with a way to project an anti-gravity field which both lifted and locked in place the future construction inside the berth. Dax had come up with an ingenious solution by integrating an anti-gravity system into the 'ribs' of the yard itself. The system would constantly monitor the placement of the construction in progress and attenuate the power of the anti-grav field to keep everything in place. It really was an ingenious solution and I was very glad I had asked Sisko for her help. After that bit of adjustment, with the detailed scans from the Enterprise, it hadn't been terribly hard to replicate large pieces of the Yard and assemble them all together in the hanger bay.
Ro Laren, always the practical long-term thinker, had suggested building a storage berth in the wall of the hanger bay for the Yard to rest in when not in use. In the future, she advised, we may have need to bring it out again to build smaller vessels and the Flighty Temptress would benefit from having several smaller shuttles onboard. The Yard could build a ship the size of a cruiser or a small shuttle, it made no difference when the Yard could expand as little or as much as needed for the specific construction or repair. Using the transporter we'd beamed out a perfect cylinder of rock from the wall of the hanger for the Yard to rest in when not in use and replicated a frictionless metal sleeve and anti-grav lift to get it in and out. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that, but I was again patting myself on the back for not trying to do this all by myself.
At the moment Neela was finishing up her work on the second Collector power core, after we had all helped her remove it from the Collector ship. Dax and Ro Laren had left her to that task and had moved onto upgrading the Island's computer core. Dax was in heaven working with such an advanced system and Ro Laren was doing her best to keep Dax on task so that they could then move onto the transporter system and eventually begin the process of upgrading the island's weapons and shields. When I had told them that this new transporter could easily transport people from Bajor to the Station, they'd quickly realized that they'd be able to come relax in my island paradise whenever they wanted, with little planning and no need for a five hour trip by ship.
Maybe not surprising given how much of a perfectionist they knew me to be, I was the one holding up the construction of the Flighty Temptress now. When not helping them, I had been in my home away from home, the holographic design and fabrication lab working on the new ship design for 20 hours a day. It had come a long way from where it started, but it was still an incredibly complex endeavor, even with my shameless borrowing of ideas from both the Federation and Husnock designs I had access to.
Leaning back in my chair I watched my new completed ship turn languidly in midair; the more detailed deck-by-deck blueprints alongside it. Just as I'd shown the girls, it was based on the design and looks of the U.S.S. Dauntless as seen in Voyager and comprised 7 decks. If I had to describe it, it looked almost like a broadhead arrow with a sharp point and nacelles tucked under the main body of the ship somewhat.
In fleshing out that design I had decided on the theme of a luxurious warship, a home away from home for me that was capable of withstanding the conflict to come with both the Collectors and the Dominion and would use a combination of Federation, Husnock, and Collector technology.
The ship would have both a warp drive and a quantum slipstream drive based on Husnock engine technology. When I'd first thought about what engines to include I originally planned on only including the slipstream drive, but given the incredible speeds the drive was capable of, from 50 lightyears per hour to a 500 ly/hr maximum cruising speed, it didn't really make sense for shorter trips. The slipstream drive was like trying to fill a shot glass with a firehouse, an exceedingly difficult proposition and would require computer control to stop propulsion at the precise second needed to not drastically overshoot the destination. In situations where I wanted to hide my more advanced FTL capabilities, it'd also be useful to have the option to go to a maximum warp of 9.95 instead using traditional methods.
And even beyond these practical considerations, I was also rather concerned with both keeping my patron, the uber God who had brought me to this dimension, happy, since they were the one who had given me the Flighty Temptress in the first place, as well as ensuring I still kept the benefit of whatever notice-me-not magic field that had been placed on my ship that kept people from noticing and asking questions. To that end I was planning on reusing as much material from my old ship as possible to keep the metaphysical 'identity' intact, in other words reusing everything from the warp core to the deck plating. It'd be a bit of a pain to do it this way, but keeping my patron happy and that magic intact was well worth the extra effort.
As this was meant to be a warship, the weapons were formidable and all Husnock in design. Since the Collector power core produced a ridiculous amount of power I went heavy on the number of energy weapons firing jacketed streams of positrons and anti-protons. There were 7 beam emitters, one main emitter in the very tip of the arrow head at the very front of the ship, two a quarter of the way down the edge of the ship on either side, two in the extreme wing tips, and two emitters on each side of the very rear of the ship near the main shuttle bay. This was in addition to the anti-fighter phaser weapon and the omin-directional shock emitter. The Husnock were bloodthirsty conquerors that would make the Klingons balk and they didn't fuck around.
There were also five quantum torpedo launchers, which could also fire spatial charges. Two on either side of the arrow tip, one on the top edge of the ship's spine, and two launchers side by side near the very top of the ship where the Federation normally stuck their bridge. While these were technically quantum torpedoes, the Husnock had long used and perfected these weapons and were far superior to the current Federation equivalent. The modern warp drive, for example, was fundamentally the same as the one Zefram Cochran once created, but their capabilities were vastly different after centuries of improvements. Each launcher also utilized an innovative rotary cylinder loading and firing mechanism for quick firing of up to 6 pre-loaded torpedoes, something that Sisko invented in another dimension and had been inspired by an old Earth style revolver. Connected to the torpedo cylinder was a replicator with a small, independent Collector power core. In other words, when a torpedo was fired, within 10 seconds a new torpedo was replicated to refill the torpedo magazine stores.
While I had once been extremely focused on acquiring a large Collector ship power cell, I realized having auxiliary power systems were also important. Thankfully the Collector ship I'd stolen had many mid-sized power cells that I had cannibalized and would be installed on my new ship to form the basis of an auxiliary power source.
During the last few days, I had also decided to reject Federation thinking on the placement of the bridge. For a warship a bridge at the very top of a vessel seemed like a supremely stupid idea. With the shields down or weakened one lucky shot meant the ship's entire main command crew could be killed as a group. My bridge would be on deck 4, at the very center of the ship itself.
The ship would also possess Husnock style regenerative adaptive lattice shields and thick ablative hull armor for defense. The outer hull would be painted a black and red color scheme to visually distance itself from a Federation vessel, something which could prove difficult because the Dauntless had been meant to look like a futuristic Federation ship. That could be tweaked if my girls had a better idea.
In addition to the Husnock style cloaking device, I'd also be using the stealth technology from the original Flighty Temptress. There were going to be many instances where full on cloaking was undesirable but being absent from long-range scans would still be useful.
The inside of the ship was where I let my creativity shine through as many of my design ideas were not from either Federation or Husnock ships. Because I had power to burn, I tripled the number of inertial dampers present. This would allow extremely fast turns and roll maneuvers like that unmanned Romulan ship in the show Enterprise (See Romulan Drone Ship). As the Collectors favored suicide ramming attacks when other tactics failed, the ability to roll the ship quickly could one day prevent the ship's demise. The better armor and stronger materials that made up the hull would further enhance structural integrity and allow for some crazy maneuvers to avoid both suicide ramming tactics and enemy weapons' fire.
Unlike the original Dauntless design I had expanded the trailing 'shaft' of the arrowhead shape to allow for a main shuttle bay and several smaller cargo bays. This expanded shaft also wrapped slightly around the ultra dense warp coils in the two nacelles further protecting the ship's engines from being targeted, just like the old Flighty Temptress had been designed.
The ship would also possess its own full sized holodeck utilizing particle synthesis based replication and the rest of the ship would be equipped with holo-emitters. With all the emitters present, I had some crazy ideas with regard to utilizing holographic anti-boarding measures. If any intruders successfully boarded my ship they'd find multiple force fields to pin them in, the artificial gravity rising to 5x normal, and supremely deadly holograms of Space Marines, Predator aliens, and Xenomorphs sent to kill them. With the safety protocols off, a hologram could be just as deadly as the real thing after all.
The Husnock actually used holography quite a bit on their ships to both reduce the size of the crew needed to pilot their large warships and also to maintain and repair their ships from battle damage on long-range, long-term missions that could span decades. The Federation had invented a holographic doctor, the Husnock had taken it a step further and invented holographic crew members, especially engineers, to effect repairs and direct small robots meant to perform regular service and maintenance. This was ideal for me, as I had long gotten used to flying my ship by myself or with a very small crew. The holo-engineers would be ideal for most tasks and having a holo pilot ready to respond to my commands when I was off ship was similarly useful, though my VI Scarlet could step into that role too.
There were several other additions I made to the final ship design that I thought would be very useful:
1. Infirmary – Surprisingly, Federation medical knowledge and technology was far superior to Husnock medical technology so I'd largely copied the infirmary design of Voyager and added multiple biobeds, a full surgical suite and tools, and requested a copy of the Emergency Medical Hologram, Mark 1, from Starfleet. The Federation had never really restricted its medical technology, in this case, as an allied general, they didn't even question it. My plan was to make multiple copies of the EMH to run in my ship's infirmary, but only after tweaking the physical parameters and personality to something more attractive. While I wasn't a good enough holo-engineer to mess with the medical protocols, the physical and personality side of things was something I was quite good at. I made a note to add a few EMH holograms to the Island's already existing infirmary as well.
2. Armory – A single armory would be on the ship containing personal weapons and a spare set of my weapons and armor.
3. Shuttlebay – Unlike the original Dauntless design, I had added a shuttlebay and was toying with the idea of keeping 3 smaller armed shuttles there at all times.
4. Transporters – There would be two, 6-pad transporters on the ship. One meant primarily for personnel transfers, the other in the cargo bay, but which could also be used to transport people.
5. Brig – A warship often needs to take prisoners, so my ship would have one to hold prisoners securely.
6. Landing apparatus – Since the new Flighty Temptress was going to be slightly smaller than Voyager anyway, I'd shamelessly ripped off their landing apparatus design so that the ship could be set down on a planet if needed or parked in my Island's hanger bay.
7. Industrial Replicator – Like most mid- to long-range Federation vessels, the ship had its own large industrial replicator for anything it needed to produce on long missions.
8. Multiple bedrooms – While I had quite a large ship design here, it really wasn't meant to transport a crew of a 150 plus people like Voyager did. It was meant to be a luxurious warship and a lot of space was required for all the weaponry, the two FTL drives, the shuttlebay and cargo bays. IT did possess a dozen large staterooms on multiple decks, though, including one large set of quarters meant for me, the captain. I figured if I needed to transport a large number of troops I could replicate bunk beds or something.
Overall, I was pretty proud of the ship I'd designed here. I'd stolen a ton of tech and ideas from multiple sources, including a lot of Husnock technology, but a lot of my own ideas were here too, especially those that were inspired by watching all of the various Star Trek series. The overall design also did a nice job of hiding just how well armed it was and the shields and hull material would prevent scans of the interior.
If Starfleet knew that an augment owned what was essentially a dreadnought-class warship, they'd flip their shit. The new Flighty Temptress could take on multiple galaxy-class ships and come out on top, but it wasn't invincible against fleets of ships and that's what I'd be facing with the Collectors now and the Dominion down the road.
With a sigh, I saved the design file and powered down the emitters. I'd run the final design by my girls tomorrow and see if they had any thoughts or last minute ideas to add to the design. Once it got their approval, I'd feed the design into the Yard and start the construction process. We had 3 days left before we'd be forced to return to the station by regular transport, since the FT was going to be taken apart shortly, so we could at least monitor construction for that amount of time before having to leave. If there were any problems or decisions to be made I'd instructed Emma to immediately notify me and I could clandestinely beam directly back to the Island if necessary.
The future was mighty bleak at the moment, threats all around, but with my new warship to protect me, my girls, and Bajor, hopefully we had a slightly greater chance of coming out of this alive.