Star Trek : Wisconsin - Launch

by Mashal Wisconsin

Join the newly formed crew on the new USS Wisconsin- a Constitution II Class otherwise known as an Enterprise Refit ship. Join as Captain Joshua Jeremiah Jacobs as he leads the crew into their first adventure while traveling to Starbase 5. A distress call diverts the crew to track down hostages taken by an old adversary of the Federation.

17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16 The Plan

DECK 2

USS WISCONSIN

OUTSIDE SYSTEM BLACKBEARD'S HIDEOUT

Deck 2 of the Wisconsin was another heavily modified room. Basically, it was a large room directly under the bridge that had a turbolift on one end and a drop-down stair toward the front that went up to the bridge. The briefing was conducted here because everybody could be fit in the room plus the room was outfitted with the best of Starfleet holography. Lt Jareau had a background in holographics. She suggested when the Wisconsin was being built of having a room on the ship dedicated to holoprojection. Entertainment of course, but also for briefings, simulation, whatever was needed. The latest version of holography could immerse a room in a virtual scene that looked almost real. If one looked carefully, you could tell it was computer generated, but generally people did not want to look that hard. If they could figure out a way of making these holograms solid, now that would be fantastic.

Jacobs stepped from the turbolift and all eyes turned to him. He started off, "Thank you all for this. You have all come up with solutions to your individual parts of the plan. Now is the time to give you all the big picture." And with that he pushed a button on his datapad to start the presentation. The lights dimmed slightly to help the holography out more.

The star system they were calling Blackbeard's hideout filled the room with the Sun at the center. "Here is the star system and our present position on this scale would be about thirty feet above our heads. The base is coded, as well as significant gravitational bodies. You all know that I like simple plans, and this is not one of them. But it does have simple elements and lots of cutout points that we can abort if things go very bad."

Jacobs pushed another button. "All times will be with reference to Badgers boarding the station, T-0. At T-30 hours, The Wisconsin will separate from the Claw at this point outside the system which is roughly in opposition to the base." Jacobs pushed a button and a flashing symbol showed the position. He continued, "We will also leave a care package for the Claw. Lt. Agathon is going to do his final preparations for his incursion into the system."

Dr. Mallard asked, "Isn't the Claw compromised? I mean did not the pirates image it back at that other system?"

Jacobs nodded, "Yes, we know that. In fact, we are counting on that."

Dr. Mallard raised his eyebrows. "Oh, I see. Forgive me."

Jacobs nodded understanding and continued. "Wisconsin will circumnavigate the system by warping over to this point," another flashing symbol showed up on the opposite side of the system, "On the far side of the sun. We will then put ourselves on a trajectory for the base and release the Raptors at this point, on the side of the sun facing the base at T-12 hours. Raptors with Carter and TC flying them will continue inbound on minimal power. The Raptor free trajectory is the clock that is what is governing the operation."

"Wisconsin will then use impulse to get back on the far side of the sun, cutting down chances of being detected then, warp over to the far side of the Gas Giant, technically called AGC-441a. If anyone has an idea for a formal name, please let me know."

Lt Agathon had been thinking on this a bit. "What about planet Distraction?"

Jareau offered, "What about Echo? Greek for distraction, diversion, misdirection?" Jacobs chuckled. "I like it, JJ, make the change." Jareau typed in the change and the planet now was renamed ECHO. Jacobs continued, "Wisconsin warps behind Echo, and we put ourselves on a trajectory for the base. What we now have is a three-pronged attack coming roughly 120 degrees apart, with two of the prongs masked by celestial bodies. Once Wisconsin gets on our free trajectory, we will go to battle stations EMP to make our detection difficult. We will leave the main computer on though."

TC asked, "Do you need to go all the way to EMP?"

Jacobs explained, "We will not fire the EMP, just have all the other things done to make it harder for them to pick us up. The computer will be left on for targeting and to make the power up faster. It is this kind of mission we built the Wisconsin for; all the hard work is coming to fruit now."

FEDERATION SENATE HEARINGS

OVERSIGHT ON WISCONSIN DESIGN

TWO YEARS AGO

Jacobs sat down at the table in front of the Senate Armed Service Committee. Beside him was Admiral Kirk and behind him were some of his officers that helped conceive the vision of the Wisconsin. Directly ahead of him sat Senator Jameson, chairman of the committee. Jameson had made all sorts of inquiries during the initial part of the design phase. Jacobs was suspicious of the senator's inquiries, and it rapidly turned into dislike. Jameson did not like their idea for the ship that had not even made it off the drawing board. Up in space, from Jacobs' office in space, he could watch the Wisconsin being built, the ship barely had a frame welded together and now this is turning into a full-blown controversy. Jacobs suspected that Jameson wanted to change the direction and the mission that the Wisconsin was going to go to.

Jameson gaveled the hearing into session. "This hearing is brought into order. I have called this hearing because of concerns as to what Starfleet is changing into. I see the Wisconsin as a threat to interstellar peace. It is a provocative ship, not a peaceful ship, but one of war. I am concerned that Starfleet is going to abandon its mission of peaceful exploration and go to one of military conquest. We need to make sure that Starfleet doesn't abandon its charter to explore the vast reaches of unknown space in peace."

Jameson looked directly at Jacobs, "Mr. Jacobs, we have a virtual laundry list of changes you are proposing for the Wisconsin."

A voice to the chair's left came up, "Mr. Chairman, I object. You are speaking to a Captain of Starfleet. Address him as such." Admiral Robert April (Retired) recently won a Senate seat, and was immediately put on this committee.

Jameson started seething in anger. "I stand corrected, Admiral. Forgive me, no insult intended Captain Jacobs."

Jacobs smiled forgivingly, "None taken Sir."

Jameson glared at him, "That's Senator to you."

Jacobs continued his smile, "Yes, Senator."

Jameson tapped on his datapad, "First item I want to talk about are your shuttles. Why do you have non-Starfleet standard shuttles?"

Jacobs tapped on his datapad and brought up a diagram on the big screen to the side of the room. "First of all, Senator Jameson, Wisconsin will have the full complement of shuttles. We have two additional craft that are Raptors. The Raptors can do missions that normal Starfleet shuttles cannot perform."

Jameson pointed to the display. "Even by your admission, the Raptor is an old design, not currently in service. Why do you have it on board?"

Jacobs answered, "I am not understanding the reasoning behind your question. We have everything that a standard Enterprise class Heavy Cruiser is tasked to have plus the two Raptors. Is your issue that we lost some hangar space or that we have the Raptors onboard?"

Jameson thought a bit, he did not expect this. He did not want to tip his real motives. "My issue is that you are compromising the Wisconsin's mission by having extras onboard that have nothing to do with your mission."

Jacobs countered, "I disagree Senator. First, you will have to explain why having these extras compromises the Wisconsin. The Raptors can do missions that Starfleet shuttlecraft will not be able to perform."

"Such as what kind of missions?"

Jacobs pushed a button and it showed a Raptor leaving an old-fashioned Carrier, and starting a decent. It entered the atmosphere and during the re-entry, the underside heated up dramatically. "One kind of mission would be rapid reentry, such as rapid deployment of forces planeside. This is of course assuming that the transporter system could not be used."

Jameson scoffed, "And how often is that?"

Jacobs remained calm, "From the logs from of the twelve Constitution-class starships on the Grand 5-year mission, approximately five percent of the time."

Jameson waived his hand, "Miniscule."

Jacobs rapidly replied, "Not so, Senator. Another way to think of that is, one in twenty planets has something about it that will prevent safe transporter operation. That figure is low, because there are other factors besides nature that prevent transporters from operating. It is rather simple for somebody to set up jammers to prevent transporting in or out, so the percentage is higher than that. If you use the one in twenty probability, right now we would be having fifty starships that can't transport to the planet they are orbiting. I cannot imagine all those fifty starships are in calm situations. One of the original requirements of the Raptor was combat landings, which the Raptor performs much better than a shuttlecraft."

Jameson leaned forward. "You mean to tell me that those ancient pieces of junk can outfly a modern shuttlecraft?"

Jacobs pressed a button and a diagram of comparative reentry profiles came to view. "I can pick several real-world missions that the Raptor will perform much better than a standard shuttlecraft."

Jameson shook his head. "This committee finds that hard to believe…"

Jameson was interrupted by Senator/ Admiral (Ret.) April. "Objection, the committee has not found anything. Captain Jacobs, do you have the Raptors flying yet?"

Jacobs shook his head. "No sir, we only found them last month and they are undergoing an extensive overhaul right now."

Jameson interrupted, "At Federation expense."

Jacobs was still shaking his head, "No sir, not entirely. Once I proposed this to the Admiralty, they approved it but with the understanding that we reuse spare parts from other Raptors, and all personnel involved must do it in their own time."

April was amazed. "You're kidding."

Jacobs still shook his head and pushed a button. On the viewscreen, came a picture of a Raptor in a boneyard, looking horrible. Seated on it from nose to tail were about twenty dirty, filthy, grimy people. People immediately recognized Jacobs in the center. "Meet part of the crew of Wisconsin. These people sacrifice their time, their sweat, their work to get these Raptors flying. They are committed to getting these back in space."

April, still amazed, asked, "Why?"

"Because they believe in the vision we have for the Wisconsin, and what an important role the Raptors play. Senator Jameson, you still have not answered my question. Why do you think the Raptors will compromise the Wisconsin's mission?"

Jameson was surprised by the direct question. "Because they take up space that could be used for accommodating new civilizations who choose to land on the hangar deck. Because the Wisconsin will lose valuable cubic feet of usable space."

Jacobs pushed another button and a diagram of the Wisconsin came up and some statistics. "I disagree with you. Again, referencing the cumulative five-year mission, I can show you that the Wisconsin could accommodate every mission concerning cargo space, hangar space, deck space, whatever. Because we would have two more transport craft than the standard Enterprise/ Constitution classes, there are some missions we would have accomplished quicker. With that, Senator, your concern is unfounded."

Jameson was seething in anger. "But you do not know what the future holds. You may need the extra space that those Raptors are using up."

Jacobs pushed another button and showed a diagram of the Wisconsin with tractor beam emitters. "If we need that, The Wisconsin will have an extra, heavy-duty emitter capable of towing a starship at low warp speed. We will throw a couple of standard shuttlecraft overboard and tractor them behind us."

The gallery started chuckling at the use of words. Senator April stepped in, "Captain, what would be your ideal situation for the Raptors?"

Jacobs nodded. "First of all, I would have one of my Chiefs, namely Tyrol, in charge of the reconstruction of both Raptors. I would have five people tasked to each Raptor for the overhaul of them. The frame is made of material that is still standard shuttlecraft material, however there are other materials that we can use in various places that will make it stronger and lighter. We would upgrade all the avionics with the latest, standard shuttlecraft avionics. We would also have the Starfleet armory custom make some weapons that only the Raptor could use."

April looked at Admiral Kirk. "Admiral Kirk, why hasn't the Admiralty granted this request?"

Kirk leaned ahead to the microphone, "Sir, we initially did, however later the JAG office informed us that we had to stop."

April blinked, "Why?"

Jameson interrupted, "You are out of order, Senator April."

What followed was a few minutes of arguing about parliamentary procedure. Jacobs sat politely while he saw the whole spectacle in front of him. He would rather be surrounded by Klingons than this crowd, that happened once and he survived. A quick message showed up on his datapad and he opened it. It was from Pastor Octavian, who was watching from somewhere. "Here is your chance to see their true colors. Stand fast, keep the faith. We have the group here praying for you. The Lord will bless, 8" Jacobs inwardly smiled. Octavian was always steadfast.

April spoke up, "By the rules I call a vote on the question to Admiral Kirk."

The vote was taken and by two Senators, they allowed Kirk to answer. A surprise Jacobs thought. Maybe Jameson's hold on his side of the aisle is cracking?

Kirk answered, "The JAG office informed us that Senator Jameson told them all shuttlecraft had to be properly procured, and the shuttlecraft maker was insistent that it's contract be honored."

April looked to Jameson, who was so mad he looked purple. He asked Kirk, "Who is based on Alpha Centauri III, Jameson's planet?"

Kirk nodded. "Yes sir. JAG told us that the wording was tricky on the contract, we had a good case to proceed, but Senator Jameson was pressuring us to drop the Raptors."

April looked at Jameson, "Senator, I move that we dismiss the gallery and witnesses and go closed session."

Jameson gaveled, "Agreed, dismissed. Open session will resume tomorrow morning."

VIP LOUNGE

STARFLEET HEADQUARTERS

Kirk, Jacobs, Octavian, and others from Starfleet and the Wisconsin build crew were taking the opportunity to relax after a stressful day. The banter was light, the mood was surprisingly upbeat.

Jacobs looked at Kirk, "Admiral, thank you for helping me out preparing for this. All that data crunching before hand was tremendous."

Kirk smiled, "Josh, you have a good vision for the Wisconsin. I'd love to have Enterprise redone in that vision. As you can see, the battles here are political and petty."

Jacobs chuckled, "What a way to be disappointed, seeing the reality. It was good to see Admiral April stand up for us."

Kirk pointed at a painting of a Constitution starship on the far wall. "He is the plankowner Captain for the Enterprise. He saw too much to sit on his butt and say nothing."

Jacobs asked, "He was before you?"

Kirk nodded, "Before me, Before Christopher Pike. He was at a time that we still had Marines. He's going to be a great ally for us on the committee."

Just then a chime sounded and a yeoman came in. She handed a pad to Kirk. "Attention, just got this from the committee. The committee finds that acquisition of the Raptors consistent with the contract for shuttlecraft and approves Jacobs' request for acquisition and refurbishment of the Raptors as discussed today. Congratulations Josh. It's Jacobs 1, Jameson 0"

Jacobs smiled an embarrassed smile, "It wasn't me; I think that we had some divine intervention."

FEDERATION SENATE HEARINGS

OVERSIGHT ON WISCONSIN DESIGN

DAY 2

The hearings opened with the announcement of the support for the Raptor program. April made the announcement and Jameson looked like he ate something sour. After April was done, Jameson started into the day's proceedings. "Captain Jacobs, we on the committee are happy to help you and Starfleet accomplish the Wisconsin's mission. Perhaps you could enlighten us as to what that is?"

Jacobs could sense a trap, thought for a moment, then answered, "Starfleet's charter is to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before. That is the Mission of the Wisconsin."

Jameson, already impatient, pressed, "But you've changed the standard design of the Heavy Cruiser, why?"

Jacobs pushed a button and it showed five variants of the Enterprise class. "Currently, beyond what I am thinking you call the 'standard' design, there are five variants of the Enterprise class. This includes the Carrier, the Command-and-Control ship, the Sensor platform, and the others. The Wisconsin does have some modifications for its portion of Starfleet's mission."

"And what is that?"

"Exploration is still the primary function of the vessel."

Jameson pressed. "What about the Raptors, the Badgers. Is it not true that you have made a commando ship?"

Jacobs thought for a moment. "Senator, first, to start to answer what I think your overall question is, I do not like answering negative or double negative questions, it leads to confusion very easily. The modifications that we have outlined is to help the exploration mission be safer."

Jameson scoffed, "How can you make it safer?"

Jacobs answered, "First, readiness in Starfleet Security has gone down since the Marines were disbanded. Commander Leonaidas and I talked about this and we wanted our security force to be elite. We wanted them to be far better prepared to meet the unexpected than what standard Starfleet security is. For this reason, we chose Lt. Cdr. Bauer as Security Chief. He used to be a Marine before they were disbanded, and knows what our vision for them is. The Raptors are integral for the various missions of our security force, called the Badgers."

Jameson realized he better move on; the meeting last night did not go well for him. He pushed a button and up came a schematic of the Wisconsin, with various systems colored in red. "As I understand it, you have proposed major modifications to various systems on the ship. I summarize your list; manual backup for attitude and translation thrusters, manually controlled telescopes, manual slaving of phasers to the telescopes, hydraulics for phaser aiming, and something called an EMP device. Why all this?"

Jacobs pushed a button and data came up on the screen, "This is a history of all the incidents Starfleet has had where the crew either lost control of the ship because of the computer, or because of total power failure, or external interference, or other causes."

Jameson cut him off, "Impossible, a Starship losing power?"

Kirk answered, "It happened to me a few times, also we lost helm control due to computer problems more than a few times."

Senator April added, "I am familiar with the history of what Captain Jacobs is talking about. Please continue."

Jacobs continued showing diagrams on the big screen, "Given that we could lose control of helm with the Wisconsin, we approached the problem from the aspect of what else could we use to control the ship. We thought it would be better to see if we can control the ship with pure mechanical control, which would be very hard for an enemy to interfere with. We think we have the answer. Working with Shorewood Systems and Controls, we think we have a control system that is purely mechanical."

Jameson snorted, "Impossible."

Jacobs pointed at the diagram, "Not so Senator. It may require a little bit of muscle, because of the long control paths, but it is possible. Controls would be coming from either the main or auxiliary bridge, pass through a mechanical control mixer, then out to thrusters at various parts of the ship."

April asked, "Are you saying you can maneuver the ship purely mechanically?"

Jacobs nodded, "Yes sir, we will be able to. We will have attitude control, limited translation control, and impulse power."

April thought of something else, "How do you navigate?"

Jacobs brought up a picture of the concept of the bridge. To either side of the viewscreen there was what appeared to be, periscopes. "With these. These are manually controlled, hydraulically activated powerful passive optical sensors. In short, telescopes."

The room was quiet. Jameson sarcastically said, "What do you think you are, an ancient submarine captain? Really, do you expect us to take you seriously?"

Jacobs smiled, "Of course Senator. We can not only look around in the immediate vicinity of the ship, but the phaser banks are going to be slaved to them. What we see, we can shoot."

April asked, "How do you get power to the phasers?"

Jacobs answered, "From a hardened impulse drive."

Jameson interrupted. "You are not planning on using the standard impulse drive?"

Jacobs shook his head. "No Senator, we are not. There is an alternate drive that has about the same dimensions and mass, the tradeoff is it has about fifteen percent less power output. We will be able to maneuver with it if we fire the EMP device."

Jameson shook his head, "We'll get to the EMP later, why not a standard impulse device?"

Jacobs pushed a few buttons and the two impulse drives came up on the screen. "I will take you at your word about the EMP. Short answer is that the standard impulse drive will not work with the EMP fired. If we could have impulse power, we could change our velocity to escape velocity for planets, even for most stars. That is a tremendous advantage."

Jameson leaned forward. "Who makes the other impulse drive you are requesting?"

"Setlk industries on Vulcan."

Jameson leaned back and shook his head. "I don't think that will do."

April interrupted. "Chairman, that debate will come later. Captain Jacobs, can you point to incidents where the drive would have helped."

Jacobs pushed a couple of buttons. "That is a tough question to answer, sir. There are numerous starships that have been missing or destroyed and we have no idea why they met their demise. So, all I have are starships that survived, but they survived because they overcame what obstacles were presented. The incidents I have are ones where a hardened impulse drive would have made a difference."

April nodded, "Go on."
Jacobs pushed a button. "Starship Constitution, Stardate 1140.5. It was in standard orbit around Cygnus Alpha 1. A massive solar flare, largest to date recorded, scrambled all ships systems frying the computer and most electronics. With the loss of electronics, the ships repulsors failed causing the ship's orbit to decay."

Jameson asked, "What do you mean decay, it's in orbit, why wouldn't it stay in orbit?"

Jacobs couldn't believe that somebody overseeing Starfleet wouldn't understand this. "Senator, when a starship enters standard orbit, the orbit is exactly one planetary radius away from the planets surface. For Earth, standard orbit is roughly 3,700 kilometers above the surface. From this height, we can easily transport back and forth to the surface. The starship will use its repulsors to hover above a spot on the planet to provide support for the landing party at this distance. Since we are typically much lower than the geostationary orbital altitude, the ship will fall if repulsors are lost. This is referred to a decaying orbit because it is an orbit, but one which the minimum altitude is much less than the planet's atmosphere. Usually, a decaying orbit has a perigee much below a planet's surface, this of course is physically impossible, and would end up as a crash. So, if one loses repulsors, you have plenty of time to use the impulse drive or warp drive to escape the planet."

Jameson had a shrewd look on his face, "So what is remarkable about the Constitution incident?"

"When the solar flare hit, they lost their power to run the impulse drive. They also lost the ability to control the ship because the computers were down. They were running out of time because the ship was falling to the planet."

April was familiar with the incident, he taught that at Starfleet Academy, but wanted to help Jacobs make his point with the other Senators. "How did they survive?"

"The Captain of the Constituition first evacuated the engineering section and separated the saucer, this made the ship much lighter and they had a better chance to circularize their orbit with half the ship gone. Also, was the manner of controlling the thrusters. The Captain had people go to the thrusters on the ship and manually operate them."

One of the other senators was amazed. "How did they coordinate all of this?"

Jacobs used his hands, "They got some fiber optic cabling from stores, strung it through the Jeffries tubes from the bridge to all the relevant thrusters, and when the Captain wanted a certain thruster fired, he would point to a person on the bridge and they would pull the cable. The person on the other end would feel the tug and operate the thruster until another tug told them to quit."

Jameson waived his hand, "So they survived."

Jacobs finished quickly, "Barely, they almost lost the ship. It is a small miracle that they did not lose the ship because without attitude control, there is so much that goes on inside a starship that your attitude will change. If you cannot control your attitude, you cannot control your thrusting vector. If you cannot control that, you crash on the surface. As it was, they lost half the ship. Cygnus Alpha 1 is currently a research planet as to the after-effects of a starship explosion. The explosion of the antimatter vessels cracked the planet, shifted its orbit slightly, and the debris caused the Constitution further problems as it tried to survive until help came."

April asked, "How would the Wisconsin fare?"

Jacobs pointed to the display. "Assuming we would have lost the same systems, the Setlk impulse drive probably would have still worked because it is designed for that environment. We easily could have circularized our orbit. We also would have had power beyond batteries, we could have even escaped that planet and exited the system. The helmsman could have single-handedly controlled ships attitude and the engineers would have run the impulse drive by directions from the Bridge."

April inquired, "How would they know what thrust to set?"

Jacobs brought up another diagram, "To answer that, it brings up another modification to the ship. We are going to outfit the ship with cable driven signage throughout the ship."

Jameson was cynical, "Inspired by the Constitution incident?"

Jacobs nodded, "Partly, also part history. When we were thinking of how to relay signals, Lt. Commander Santini suggested we use an old system used on steamships in America back in the 19th century. We took that idea and expanded throughout the whole ship. Even with zero power on the ship, we will be able to control the ship and mobilize the crew for certain contingencies."

One of the Senators asked, "Can you use the ship in a fight?"

Jacobs nodded. "To answer that, I need to go into the EMP device a bit." Pushing a button, a diagram of the warp reactor came up on the screen. "First, a short bit of history, Admiral Kirk, would you like to explain?"

Kirk leaned forward "About three years ago, Starfleet encountered a new Klingon weapon. We call it a stasis generator. The effect of the generator is that the target ship's systems are in a frozen position. Life support works, but little else. Computer displays freeze, helm control is lost, weapons cannot be either targeted or fired. The effect goes to the point of even affecting hand phasers, communicators, tricorders. The ship that is generating the stasis field seems to also be affected, to date no ship has fired a weapon on a target ship…"

Jameson interrupted, "So what is the problem? They use it but cannot do anything else."

Kirk, a little bit less diplomatically that Jacobs, shot right back, "Only an idiot would send a lone ship to attack somebody like that. Klingons send two, sometimes three ships. The result is usually a loss of our ship and crew. Starfleet has been trying to develop a counter to this problem, but so far has not been able to come up with a viable solution. The Wisconsin is our first chance of a counter."

April asked, "How?"

Jacobs answered. "Just what we have talked about the last two days. The Wisconsin will not have to depend on systems that we know will be affected by the stasis weapon. It will be able to maneuver, launch Raptors, which in turn will have some weapons to employ. We were trying to figure out how to fire the Wisconsin's weapons and came across something completely by accident. An Andorian by the name of Shoron fifty years ago came across an effect completely by accident. He was trying to develop the next generation warp coils and noted that a particular substance reacted violently when exposed to warp plasma. The substance completely vaporizes, but causes total power failure for a limited distance."

Jameson was impatient. "What does that have to do with this?"

Jacobs continued, "Two things. First, he developed a shield to this effect. We think that this will protect a limited volume against the Klingon stasis weapon, such as our phasers. Secondly, we intend on magnifying this effect and installing it on Wisconsin. Somebody came up with the name EMP after Electro-Magnetic Pulse."

Jameson never heard of this, "What's that?"

"Its an effect that happens after a nuclear explosion. It causes a lot problems for electronics. The Shoron device is much more than that. Nothing works for a short time. No electronics, subspace devises will not work, not even flashlight batteries."

April was intrigued, "How does this help you?"

Jacobs smiled. "We pick the battlefield, in this case, to quote Brer Rabbit, 'Don't throw me in that briar patch.' We fire the device, fly the Wisconsin to take tactical advantage, target our targets with the telescopes, and fire on an unshielded ship with our hardened phasers."

Jameson, trying to regain control of the momentum of the hearing. "Captain Jacobs, why are you worried about the Klingons? We have the all-powerful Organians enforcing the peace treaty."

Jacobs shifted, looked at Kirk who shook his head, then answered. "Senator, first, my upbringing teaches that nothing is all-powerful except for God. So, if the Organians are not all-powerful, it stands to reason that they may not be able to protect us in the future. Secondly, as I have indicated earlier, the Klingons have used weapons on us. Organian intervention comes eventually, but that may be too late in the future."

Jameson shot back, "You are just making excuses because you want a first-strike weapon. You are trying to provoke a war between us and the Klingons!"

Jacobs looked him back in the eye. "Senator, if you are afraid of me doing that, wouldn't that mean that your statement of all-powerful Organians is incorrect?"

Jameson was livid, "Do not you lecture me. I dislike you, dislike Starfleet, dislike all you warmongers. If it were up to me, we would scrap Starfleet for a demilitarized exploratory organization. I am going to fight these modifications. I hope never to see you or the Wisconsin ever."

Jacobs nodded. "Senator, all I can say is that if you see the Wisconsin in action, you will probably be in serious trouble and need us. To that, I pray that you never need us."

VIP LOUNGE

STARFLEET COMMAND

Kirk entered the lounge and the officers of the soon-to-be Wisconsin stood up. "At ease, gentlemen. I have news."

Jacobs asked, "Good or bad."

Kirk handed the pad over. "I call it good and not-so-good. The committee really liked the concept of Wisconsin. Jameson's political ploys were largely thwarted. You basically got what you wanted, except that only one phaser bank will be hardened. Also, you will not get the Setlk impulse drive."

Jacobs shook his head. "Just what do they expect me to power the phasers with under EMP?"

Kirk had an understanding look. "Hamsters, lots of them. Sorry. Best you can do is the charging capacitor will have a full charge, and you might have a partial charge from a battery. There might be enough material to protect that."

Jacobs asked, "Why not the impulse drive?"

Kirk answered, "Some of the parts for the standard drive comes from Jameson's district. He also convinced some of the Senators that it is unneeded and those Senators have a stake in the standard drive as well."

Jacobs looked at him. "Politics."

Kirk observed. "You got most of what you want. For what it is worth, I would hate to come against you with the Enterprise. I think you still got a good ship."

Jacobs shook his head. "I know, and please, I do not mean to sound ungrateful. I am very thankful that now we have no more political obstacles to the ship. I wonder if they think about the people out on the front lines that need the best in equipment when they do their procurement politicking? Do they think that the Klingons or Romulans just play at battle?"

Kirk thought aloud, "We can only hope they are as screwed up as we are."