The Federation Tribune - September 2004

[Rob Versteegt]

                  ==== The Federation Tribune ====
                           ==== August 2004 ====

Got a question? Visit the Newspaper FAQ!

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USS Atlantis Status Report, by David Susman.
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Stardate 2391.04.18 - 2391.04.19

Captain Ellie Charlile surprised everyone by departing the Atlantis
without warning.  The crew have been enjoying shore leave on Tau Epsilon
4, however that leave has been interrupted by a radiation leak in
Engineering and the subsequent hijacking of the Atlantis by parties
unknown.

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USS Odyssey Status Report, by Ben Versteegt.
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Stardate: 2391.04.14 - 2391.04.15.

As expected, the program of the Titanic ended after the gigantic steamer had
sunk. Control of the Odyssey was automatically routed back to the Bridge
after the program ended and now the crew of the Odyssey is in control of
their own ship again. The Bridge crew on the Titanic has safely left the
holodeck and are back at their positions once again.

However, all is not well yet. With a gap in its hull, the Odyssey isn't able
to go to very high warp. This will make the ship arrive at Starbase 12 later
than expected -- and that may be too late for Nurse Alvas, who is still in
coma. Luckily sensors pick up another ship, but they are not responding to
hails, probably due to damage to the Odyssey's tranceiver array.

Two containers of antimatter are ejected and detonated to send up a flare,
in an attempt to attract the attention of the other vessel. Incidentally,
the resulting explosions knocks the tranceiver in place, which makes it
possible for the other ship to hail the Odyssey. The other ship -- the USS
Caduceus -- is sent by Starfleet to pick up Nurse Alvas; medical experts are
waiting on the Caduceus to examine her and to devise a cure.

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USS Valkyrie Status Report, by Brandon Allard.
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(] Current Situation [)

Stardate: 2391.04.25

The evil Borg worshipping Kotarrani are causing trouble again. This time by
abducting passengers from the Valkyrie. Luckily their ambition was far
beyond their experience and with only a moderate amount of effort their
plans were quickly foiled by the superior StarFleet vessel.

It remains to be seen exactly what happened on the fleeing Borg vessel
before they were stopped, but if the Kotarrani were not assimilated it can
only be because of their detrimental effect on the collective's perfection.
It also remains to be seen if the Valkyrie's new captain will allow the
remaining Borg to retain their removable implants, regardless of their
rights as individuals, in a precautionary action against the Borg again
posing a threat.

With yet another possible disaster averted, as well as a cancelled
shoreleave, not to mention the remaining trip to the Betreka nebula, it's a
wonder we haven't seen an uprising of some sort amongst the enlisted crew.
This is one officer who is glad he doesn't bare the weight of command.

-FO Giellun Maiek

(] Other Comments [)

First of all, a very important point; a big apology to Bram. In rereading
last month's status report it seems I thanked Rob and Guido for making it so
easy for me. In fact that should have been Rob and Bram. Had he not been so
modest and pointed it out to me I would have corrected it sooner. Also of
course, the same thanks for this month since I didn't have to add up a
single post myself.

Secondly it looks like we are parting ways with Pandora and will be back on
our own very shortly. So that means everyone can clear out their inboxes (if
you're sure nobody is waiting for a reply from you) and get ready for the
next mission. So don't bother catching up on stuff you've missed if you
haven't already. I know we've got a couple LOAs dependant on getting caught
up so that means we'll see even more posts next month right? (just smile and
nod...)

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Pandora Station Status Report, by Bram Peeters and Rob Versteegt
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The USS Valkyrie had finally arrived at Pandora Station, and shore leave
seems to wait for the crew of the Prometheus-class ship. However, this
rest is quickly disturbed when the First beams both the Kotarrani who
didn't believe the Borg to be the Holified Ones, and some Borg from the
Valkyrie, to their ship. That ship immediately jumped into Warp, on a
course for the Kotarrani homeworld...

Both crews knew something had to be done. So, the Valkyrie crew had to
come back to the ship, and together with Captain Janssens, ACOUNS Tek,
Dr. Vok and XGO Underhill, they went away, on a mission to stop the
Kotarrani ship from reaching Kotarra.

On that Kotarrani ship, (the Sacred Hope One as they call it,) the Borg
have assimilated one of the Kotarrani... or at least they tried to.
However, it failed miserably. J'ony Septus, one of the Kotarrani who
refused to believe the Borg were gods, died in this faulty assimilation.
The First didn't seem to care, but some of the other Kotarrani, like the
Second, did. Especially when the Second saw his cousin dying because of
a faulty assimilation, he knew the Borg had to be stopped.

On Pandora Station, Ensign Muleya had discovered an open
communicationschannel, which was used to transmit everything that
happened at the Kotarrani ship, to Pandora. This allowed the remaining
Pandora crew to have at least some idea what was happening... Not that
there were a lot of the senior crew left on Main Ops... Commander Holmes
and the new CEO, Mr. Rixx, had gone to the Epimetheus, to prepare her
for launch, just in case the Kotarrani ship could jump to transwarp. It
took Holmes, Rixx and Morabulu about 15 minutes to have the ship
prepared, but when it was, the dockingclamps were released, and the
Epimetheus stood by, in case she was needed.

On the Valkyrie's bridge, the new Captain, Captain Main, had to get used
to this ship. However, because of the fact that they went on this
mission this quickly, he had to adjust real quick. The Valkyrie's crew
didn't seem to function as a whole, causing some interesting conflicts
between Captain Main, CEO Dumai, and EO Gnone. Nothing that couldn't be
handled though...

On the Kotarrani ship, the former Borg drone known as Carrie, teamed up
with the Hy'mar (the Second) and Tin'rala (the former Seventh), to
disable the warpcore. They succeeded, and dropped out of warp. On the
Kotarrani bridge, where the First had helped Borg drone Lonn to repair
the console which controlled transwarp, ordered weapons to be brought
online. When the Valkyrie also dropped out of warp, the Sacred Hope One
fired at them... with no damage at all to the Valkyrie. It appeared that
Carrie had also sabotaged the disruptors...

Still, the First kept firing on the Valkyrie, as it got closer and
closer to the Sacred Hope One, ready to beam everyone on board. The
Valkyrie quickly disabled the Kotarrani's shield, and beamed all the Kot
arrani to the Prometheusclass ship... just before the Sacred Hope One
entered transwarp.

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Public Relations Status Report, by Rob Versteegt
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This month, there were 18 signups. (some of them were double signups) Not
that bad, but we can do better. Well... let's see where these signups came
from..

These signups found us though:

8: Google, yahoo, AOL, or other search engine
1: PBEM network
4: Topwebgames.com
1: Victory-A links
1: A friend
1: newsgroup advertisement
2: didn't tell

I've also talked to several people about Frontierfleet... both through
newsgroups, mail, and Real Life. No success though.. at least not yet.

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SF Academy Status Report, by Rob Versteegt.
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Stardates:
2387.08.30, and 2389.03.04 + 2389.03.05

==================
Instructors: (8)

Chief Instructor Sedaq, played by Adrian Rodd
Instructor Joran Moore, played by David Susman.
Instructor Vivienne Creenan, played by Rob Versteegt
Instructor Randy Orsolo, played by Dennis Church
Instructor Miranda Winter, played by Ben Versteegt
 Instructor T'Pott, played by Bram Peeters.
Instructor Sophie Jaune, played by Rob Verlinden

==================
Instructors on LOA: (1)

Instructor Patrick Kelly, played by William Lea

==================
Instructors gone: (1)

Instructor Leal, played by Kelley McKinnon

==================

Cadets lost: (4)
Cadet Daryk Berlyn, played by Derrick Larsen
Cadet Samual Darius "Mac" MacKenzie, played by Ken Clench
Cadet Abe Fadell, played by Awal Kumashi
Cadet Wayland, played by Bob Brazeau.

==================

New Signups: (18)
9 useless, leaves 9 new cadets (some of which are gone already :-( )

==================
List Cadets: (3) (Instructors are Bram, Sussie and Bobby)
Cadet Noah Williams, played by Noah Williams
Cadet Ritarin, played by Kall. Shakespear
Cadet Shane Moore, played by Jeremy Shaffer

==================
Individual cadets: (9)
Cadet Andree Dothan, played by Kenneth Martin (Dennis)
Cadet Andrei Brovchin, played by Andrei Brochin (David)
Cadet Blake Dorsley, played by Jason Frick (Rob007)
Callum Robinson, played by Callum Robinson (no instructor yet: still waiting
for a post)
Cadet Peter Franken, played by Peter Franken (Bobby)
Cadet Tarth Selano, played by Jordan Rattet (Bobby)
Cadet Tom Collard, played by Gareth Davies (Ben)
Cadet Tssarvk, played by Jacob T (Dennis)
Cadet Zim Tannan, played by Mike Tipy (Bobby)

==================
Graduates: none this month.

==================
End of status Report.
==================

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More behind the Scenes, by Martin Miller
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A little bit of info on every movie, on facts and little pieces of Trivia
that I have found from one place or another, and made it to one super size
addition of behind the scenes information you possibly did not know....

=====================================================

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Did you know?
That producers and studio honchos were already looking foward to a second
Star Trek series but feared Shatner's salary demands might rule him out.
Stephen Collins was seen as a possible next starship captain.

That Marcy Lafferty, who plays DiFalco, was married to William Shatner at
the time. No, that's not the wife who drowns. Shatner's next (3rd) wife,
Nerine Kidd is the Lady of the Pool.

That Uhura's communications earpieces are the only original props from the
original TV series. They were dug out of storage when it was realized
someone had forgotten to make new ones for the movie.

=====================================================

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

Did you know?
That this is a continuation of the TOS episode "The Space Seed" which
aired February 16,1967, the 22nd story of the first season.

That it is a therefore a bit odd that Khan recognizes Chekov inasmuch as
Walter Koening wasn't in the original episode as he wasn't yet a cast
member?

That Leonard Nimoy had to be promised a great death scene for Spock before
he would sign on. But producer Harve Bennett cleverly asked Nimoy to do a
mind meld just in case they wanted to bring Spok back in another movie.

That's Khan's final monologue is taken from Herman Melville' book "Moby
Dick" which Capt. Picard will quote in Star Trek: First Contact.

That all of Khan's men were Chippendale dancers at the time.

=====================================================

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Did you know?
That the only way they got Leonard Nimoy back was to offer him the job of
director.

That those are the same self-destruct codes for the Enterprise as those
used in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," a TOS episode? Wouldn't you
think they'd change them once in awhile?

Did you spot the Tribble at the bar when McCoy is trying to rent a
spaceship?

=====================================================

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Trivia

Did you know?
That Eddie Murphy was considered for the part that became Dr. Taylor? But
Paramount nixed the idea.

That great scene with everybody splashing in the water was ad-libbed.
James Doohan fell in the water and everbody else dived in!

That the success of this film finally convinced network execs to do
another Star Trek TV series.

=====================================================

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Did you know?
That the mountain Captain Kirk is climbing in Yosemite is named El
Capitan.

That ILM, Industrial Light and Magic, George Lucas' special effect shop
was unable to work on this Trek as they had on the others. They were too
busy with "Ghostbusters 2" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."
Regrettably, it shows.

That they wanted Sean Connery to play Sybok. Now that would have been
cool.

=====================================================

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Did you know?
That William Shatner fought Sulu's promotion to Captain of a starship.

That Gene Rodenberry died 2 days after he first viewed this film.

Another death - Merritt Butrick who played Kirk's son David Marcus died in
1989 of AIDS. His picture appears on Kirk's desk.

That Klingon blood is purple in this movie but red in the TV series?

=====================================================

Star Trek: Generations Trivia

Did you know?
That Kirk's home, farm and horse in the Nexus are really William
Shatner's.

=====================================================

Star Trek: First Contact

Did you know?
That this was directed by Jonathan Frakes, who got the nickname "Two Takes
Frakes" because he often nailed the scenes in 2 takes.

That Zefram Cochrane's character is established in the TOS story
"Metamorphosis" which aired Then the part was played by Glenn Corbett.

Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" is referred to by Lily and Capt. Picard in
this movie as well as by Khan in Star Trek: Wrath of Khan. Of note, at the
time of filming, Patrick Stewart was starring as Captain Ahab in a TV movie
version of Moby Dick.

When Lily and the Captain enter the Forties era holodeck, did the guy who
greeted them sound familiar? Well, he should. That's Ethan Phillips who
plays Neelix in Star Trek Voyager.

=====================================================

Star Trek: Insurrection Trivia

Did you know?
Brent Spiner sees himself as "skating on thin ice" in regard to growing
too old to play Data. He feels he has maybe one more Trek film in him even
though they could come up with an excuse for the change in Data's
appearance. He feels that certain elements of Data require a youthful
presence and "child-like naiveté" that aren't attractive on a guy in his
mid-fifties.

They tried to repeat a Deep Space Nine cameo a la Robert Picardo's cameo
in First Contact as the holographic doctor by having Armin Shimerman make
an appearance as Quark at the end of the film. But unlike the Picardo
appearance, Quark's was more of a standalone tag at the end of the film
that it really didn't fit in and was cut. Max (Rom) Grodenchik's cameo as
a Trill in the library scene remains if you look closely. Originally
Grodenchik threw a spitball at Riker in the scene, but that was cut out
also.

Star Trek: Insurrection is composer Jerry Goldsmith's fourth score for a
Star Trek film, in addition to scores for both Star Trek: Voyager and Star
Trek: The Next Generation.

Goldsmith likes the fact that director Jonathan Frakes is a trombone
player because it means he understands music and it makes it easier for
them to discuss music for the films.

Because the cast wants to put a little more space between films, to
maintain the interest of the fans in the meantime, Spiner suggests that
the regular Next Gen get together and do a non-Trek film with each actor
playing very different roles. Since it would not be science fiction, the
budget would be much smaller and it could attract a larger audience. This
alternate film could come out in about two years and then be followed by a
Trek film in another two years. Frakes thinks it's a wonderful idea he
plans to take to Paramount. He would also like to direct it.

The opticals for the final explosion in STI were dropped as recently as
November 30.

Spiner doesn't like heights, but he enjoys swimming so he loved the scene
of Data walking in the lake. He wasn't as fond of having to take a
helicopter to the mountains for some scenes, though it did give him an
excuse to hold Donna Murphy's hand.

An executive at Viacom sold Frakes on the title Star Trek: Insurrection
rather than Star Trek: Prime Directive by pointing out that it was Cecil
B. DeMille-like. They were also concerned that than Star Trek: Prime
Directive would be "too inside" because "Prime Directive to non-Trekkers
means 'important memo,'" said Frakes.

Jerry Goldsmith was approached to write a Star Trek opera. Goldsmith was
interested but turned it down to other commitments. Frakes thinks it's a
fabulous idea and hopes someone else does it.

To hedge the odd-numbered sequel curse, Frakes referred to Insurrection as
"nine of ten," a joking reference Voyager's beautiful Borg.

Patrick Stewart is a big fan of the old TV show Thunderbirds and one of
his ambitions was to appear in an episode of Doctor Who.

Spiner originally had mixed emotions about the his action figures but then
figured, "if it's good enough for Alec Guinness [Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star
Wars]..." then it was good enough for him.

When discussing ideas for the next film, Frakes wondered what it will take
for Picard and Riker to get promoted because characters on every other
incarnation of Star Trek have been promoted except the two of them.

While Star Trek: Insurrection has some elements of a Western, Spiner feels
that the films are more like Tarzan movies with Picard as Tarzan and
himself as Cheetah.

=====================================================

Star Trek: Nemesis

Did you know?
That this was the longest gap between Star Trek movies. 4 years.

That Brent Spiner has wiriting credit and was an instigator in the idea to
scarifice Data.

That Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) was in the movie, remains in the
credits, but all of his scenes were cut.

That Michael Shanks of "Stargate SG1" tried for the part of Shinzon.

=====================================================

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ST Frontierfleet Posting Stats, by Rob Versteegt.
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Posting Statistics:

#10 Aaron Langston: 20 (Panda 20) PC: 4

#9 Martin Miller: 22 (Atly 21, Panda 1) PC: 9

#8 Gael Imadeddine: 22 (Panda 22) PC: 7

#7 Jake Hanlon: 27 (Cal 27) PC: 26

#6 Ben Versteegt: 29 (Ody 13, Panda 16) PC: 9

#5 Kelley MacKinnon: 36 (Cal 36) PC: 8

#4 Laura Elliot: 36 (Cal 36): PC 12

#3 Bram Peeters: 37 (Atly 8, Ody 2, Valk 8, Panda 19) PC: 5

#2 David Susman: 46 (Atly 18, Ody 9, Valk 6, Panda 13) PC: 8

and the nr 1 poster in August is:

#1 Rob Versteegt: 74 (Atly 12, Ody 8, Cal 5, Valk 8, Panda 41) PC: 10

Posting Stats:

#1 Rob Versteegt: 74 (Atly 12, Ody 8, Cal 5, Valk 8, Panda 41) PC: 10
#2 David Susman: 46 (Atly 18, Ody 9, Valk 6, Panda 13) PC: 8
#3 Bram Peeters: 37 (Atly 8, Ody 2, Valk 8, Panda 19) PC: 5
#4 Laura Elliot: 36 (Cal 36): PC 12
#5 Kelley MacKinnon: 36 (Cal 36) PC: 8
#6 Ben Versteegt: 29 (Ody 13, Panda 16) PC: 9
#7 Jake Hanlon: 27 (Cal 27) PC: 26
#8 Gael Imadeddine: 22 (Panda 22) PC: 7
#9 Martin Miller: 22 (Atly 21, Panda 1) PC: 9
#10 Aaron Langston: 20 (Panda 20) PC: 4
#11 Sussie Andersson: 19 (Ody 4, Panda 15) PC: 8
#12 Aaron DeLay: 18 (Cal 18) PC: 18
#13 Chantal Sellers: 18 (Atly 9, Ody 9) PC: 8
#14 Jeremy Beeler: 15 (Cal 15) PC: 7
#15 Dennis Church: 14 (Ody 9, Panda 5) PC: 9
#16 Patrick Buiding: 13 (Atly 7, Cal 5) PC: 3
#17 Jonathan Hardy: 13 (Ody 12, Panda 1) PC: 6
#18 Alonzo Soban: 9 (Atly 9) PC: 5
#19 Brandon Allard: 8 (Valk 8) PC: 3
#20 Reed Aiken: 7 (Panda 7) PC: 7
#21 Richard Clogston: 7 (Valk 7) PC: 7
#22 Michael Smith: 7 (Panda 7) PC: 7
#23 Brandon Wooten: 7 (Atly 5, Ody 2) PC: 5
#24 Matt Brown: 6 (Valk 6) PC: 6
#25 Cody Ferro: 6 (Cal 6) PC: 4
#26 Craig Dannenberg: 5 (Atly 5) PC:5
#27 Eric Hess: 5 (Cal 5) PC: 5
#28 Adrian Rodd: 5 (Cal 4, Panda 1) PC: 3
#29 Jed Cohen: 4 (Valk 4) PC: 4
#30 Merijn Donders: 4 (Atly 4) PC: 4
#31 Dreamer Jopnes: 4 (Valk 4) PC: 4
#32 Guido Dorssers: 3 (Valk 3) PC: 3
#33 Mike Sheinin: 3 (Atly 3) PC: 3
#34 Dave Church: 2 (Ody 2) PC: 2
#35 Rob Verlinden: 2 (Ody 2) PC 0
#36 William Lea: 1 (Ody 1) PC: 1
#37 Treassa Cumpston: 1 (Cal 1) PC: 1


Top 3 posters of the USS Atlantis: (Total104)

3: Rob Versteegt: 12 posts.
2: David Susman: 18 posts.
1: Martin Miller: 21 posts.

Top 3 posters of the USS Odyssey: (Total 77)

3: David Susman / Chantal Sellers: 9 posts.
2: Jonathan Hardy: 12 posts.
1: Ben Versteegt: 13 posts.

Top 3 posters of the USS Calhoun (Total 157)

3: Aaron DeLay: 18 Posts.
2: Jake Henlon: 27 Posts.
1: Laura Elliot and Kelley MacKinnon: 36 posts.

Top 3 posters of the USS Valkyrie: (Total 54)

3: David Susman and Matt Brown: 6 posts.
2: Richard Clogston: 7 posts.
1: Bram Peeters, Brandon Allard, and Rob Versteegt: 8 posts.

Top 3 posters of Pandora Station: (Total 168)
3: Aaron Longston: 20 posts.
2: Gael Imadeddine: 22 posts.
1: Rob Versteegt: 41 posts.

Dutystation Rankings:
#1: Pandora Station: 168 posts
#2: USS Calhoun: 157 posts
#3: USS Atlantis: 104 posts.
#4: USS Odyssey: 77 posts
#5: USS Valkyrie: 54 posts.

Total posts in Frontierfleet, in August 2004: 560!

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All that Glitters, Chapter 3, by Bram Peeters.
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(] Summary [)

Starfleet and civilian scientist had established an outpost on the planet
Din'ghes VII to research the large deposits of green crystals. The crystals
emitted various toxic gasses which required the use of environmental suits
outside the outpost.
Civilian Dr. Moebius and Lt. Commander Kane had been on the planet for two
weeks when an away team discovered that people had been to the planet
before: they had found the remains of a crashed shuttle.
During the investigation of the crash site Lt. Bor was attacked by a
mysterious creature, exposing him to the lethal gasses in the - what was
thought to be uninhabited - planet's atmosphere.


(] Chapter 3 - Nightly Visit [)

June 6, 2386, 10:05 - Din'ghes VII, Tiber Station

Kane was waiting for them in the outpost's small medical facility. While Dr.
Krel started treating his patient, Kane looked at Moebius. "What exactly
happened out there? What attacked you?"

"I have no idea..." Moebius started. "It must have some sort of creature,
but we weren't able to get any clear tricorder readings, and we didn't see
anything. Only Bor must have seen it."

"But how is something able to survive out there?" Kane looked at the
unconscious Andorian on the biobed. "I guess that's not the most important
question though... How's Bor doing, Dr?"

Krel looked up. "He seems to have inhaled quite a lot of Tiberium gas. I
have no idea yet what it is doing to his body, but his condition seems to be
stable." The Trill doctor looked at Moebius and Kane. "I will need a few
samples of this gas to run a few tests."

"Of course, I'll get them for you," Moebius said and he left the sickbay. He
kept wondering why they hadn't detected any life forms on the planet before.
The Tiberium didn't seem to interfere with sensors that much, although the
crystals itself were a lot harder to scan. Moebius entered his lab. He
picked up one of the containers with samples from the gas emitted by the
crystals. "This should be enough..." Moebius said to himself and he returned
to sickbay.

Over the next several hours nothing had changed. Bor's condition hadn't
changed at all, neither in a negative way nor positive. Krel's tests also
seemed to have no results. He had taken blood samples from everyone in the
outpost, and exposed the sample to the Tiberium gas to find out if it had
any effect. Even after four hours, there had been no change at all.

"Are you still working?" Moebius asked when he noticed the lights were still
on in Krel's office.

"What? Oh, yes... I am going to check these blood samples one last time
before I am going to bed," Krel said while he picked up one of the samples.
"This is odd," he said. "There hasn't been any change at all, as if the gas
isn't there at all. But I haven't been able to revive Bor, so it must have
an effect on him."

"Perhaps it only affects Andorians?" Moebius asked. "I know that it's
improbable with all the toxic components, but it might not be impossible."

"I agree, Sherlock," Krel said and yawned while he picked up a hypospray.
"I'll take another sample of Bor's blood, but I think it's better if I study
it in the morning."

"Should someone stay in sickbay all night?"

Krel shook his head and put another sample of Bor's blood on the desk. "His
condition has been stable during the last fourteen hours. I don't think it
will be necessary, the sickbay computer will wake me up anyway if there are
any changes in his condition."

It wasn't the sickbay computer however that woke everyone up four hours
later. "Someone, or something, has broken into the storage room, doctor,"
Chernyshev said when Moebius asked her what was going on. "Commander Kane
has already sealed the leak to keep any toxic gasses outside. He is
currently trying to locate whatever creature caused it..." Chernyshev
paused. "The creature that attacked the lieutenant must have followed you."

"But that's impossible," Moebius said. "We were traveling in a shuttle pod."

"You also said it was impossible that were any life forms on this planet,"
the female security officer said. "It could have been another life form, but
we've been here two weeks now. Why wouldn't we have seen something sooner? I
think..."

But Chernyshev wasn't able to tell Moebius what she was thinking, because
Krel came running towards them. "Moebius, Bor is gone!"

"What? How is that possible?" Moebius asked. "Where is he?"

"I have no idea," Krel said. "When I was woken by the intruder alert I first
thought something was wrong with Bor, but when I got to sickbay, he was
gone."

Fifteen minutes later T'Pek and Kane, who had been unable to find anything,
joined them. Kane was shocked when he heard that Bor had disappeared.

"Is it possible the creature got him, sir?" Chernyshev asked.

"At the moment I'm not ruling out any possibility," Kane said. "Although the
sensors haven't picked up any additional biosigns..."

"Well, we didn't detect that creature out there either," Moebius said.
"Something in those crystals or in the atmosphere is interfering with our
sensors..."

Krel was accessing sensor data on a computer console nearby. "We haven't had
any problems with the sensors inside before," he said. "The only thing we
haven't been able to detect was that creature... and..." Krel was looking at
the console in disbelieve. "Impossible."

"What is impossible?" Moebius asked.

"A minute before the alarm went off, Bor's biosigns slowly disappeared."

"What?" Moebius said. "Wasn't the computer supposed to wake you up if
something changed?"

"Only if the changes indicated his life was in danger," Krel said. "Bor's
biosigns were stable, but sensors just couldn't detect anymore, as if they
were shielded."

Kane looked at the Trill. "Could this have happened when the creature
entered the room?"

"It's possible," Krel said. "Maybe it is the creature, and not something in
the environment that causes us to be unable to detect them."

"So are we positive the creature took lieutenant Bor?" Chernyshev asked.

"I think so," said Kane.

"Shouldn't we take the shuttle pod then to look for him, sir?"

"How are we going to do that if our sensors can't detect him, or the
creature?" Kane asked.

Chernyshev looked around at everyone. "We can't just stay here and do
nothing!" She looked at Kane again. "Sir."

"It's alright Tanya," Kane said. "You and T'Pek can take the shuttle pod.
The rest of us will stay here in case the creature returns."

"Yes sir," T'Pek said, and the two female officers walked away.

It was thirty minutes later when T'Pek had something to report.

"We may have detected some movement one kilometer south of the outpost," the
Vulcan science officer said. "We are going to take the shuttle closer, if
our sensors are not working properly, we might be able to get visual
confirmation."


To be continued...

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The Alpha Centauri Mystery Part 15: On the Run, by Ben Versteegt
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The Alpha Centauri Mystery - Part 15 - On the Run

Summary: When a rogue Starfleet Captain steals valuable crystals and kidnaps
a member of the crew from the Federation Starship Aquinas, Captain Ayer
makes a deal with a Romulan commander who had attacked an outpost on a
planet in the Alpha Centauri system, where the crystals were found. Ayer
agrees to give tactical data about the Prometheus class starship that
attacked the Aquinas, in exchange for the Romulans' help to get his
crewmember and niece, Ensign Sandra Burke, back. The Romulans are just after
the crystal samples, which are rumoured to be an extremely powerful source
of energy. The senior crew of the Aquinas are beamed aboard the warbird,
together with a Cardassian prisoner they had in their brig -- he had tried
to steal the crystals as well. The attack on the Prometheus class starship
goes well (for the Romulans, at least). The Romulan commander prepares an
assault team to invade the starship, get the samples and Sandra, and beam
back. Captain Ayer and his crew are not on that team. Instead, the Romulan
commander gives orders to take the Starfleet crew to the brig...

And now the continuation:

The turbolift ride down to the brigdeck had not been pleasant. Disruptors
had constantly been pointed at the three Starfleet officers -- and the one
Ferengi, Zaag. Ayer knew Watters and Zjavick were thinking the same thing as
he was: he was thinking of a plan to escape. The four of them against three
Romulan guards was doable, but they did have disruptors whereas the
prisoners didn't. Still, four against three were much better odds than the
four of them against the entire Romulan Bridge crew. Ayer had nodded almost
unnoticeably to his Chief Engineer and his STC; it was a sign that they were
to take out the Romulan guards only moments after they arrived to the deck
of their destination.

The turbolift came to a halt, and Ayer tensed. This was it; they were going
to fight there way out. One hard knock on the Romulan's head, and he would
be down on the floor. Watters and Zjavick would do the same, and they would
have regained their freedom.

The doors opened...

...and Ayer stared into the faces of a Romulan security team of six, send
down here to make sure the prisoners were escorted to the brig. Escape
seemed impossible now. They couldn't fight their way out anymore. Not
against nine armed Romulans.

"Holy crap," Ayer muttered when he saw just how outnumbered he was. He was
pushed out of the turbolift along with Zjavick, Watters and Zaag; the four
of them were forced to walk through the corridor, closely watched by the
nine guards. They arrived at a room with a couple of holding cells. In one
of those cells, a Cardassian male was sitting on a bench. He stood up the
moment the doors to the brig opened. This, Ayer knew, was the Cardassian who
had tried to acquire the samples from Zaag and had subsequently tried to
take them from Sandra with force.

"You..." The Cardassian looked at Zaag. "Well, at least I am not the only
one who is captured. That is some comfort at least."

"I'm sure it is," Zaag replied, his voice thick with sarcasm. "But I'm not
planning on staying here long."

"That's a good thing, I'd hate to spend days with you in a cell."

"The feeling is mutual," said Zaag. "But if you're locked up here with me,
at least you're not trying to steal the samples."

"Since I assume you haven't got the samples, and I sure know I haven't, and
we have been in a fight only minutes ago, judging from the turbulence, the
Romulans must have attacked the ship that did carry the samples, and they're
now retrieving them. My compliments Captain," he said to Ayer. "You managed
to get yourselves captured by the Romulans while they run off with a source
of power that could tip the scales of power in this quadrant in favour of
the Romulan Star Empire. Was that part of your brilliant plan?"

"You are almost Vulcan in your logic," Ayer replied. "And if you must know,
this is not part of my master plan. My plan was to rescue my crewmate and
return home with the samples, but I guess that didn't quite work out."

"It may still, Captain. It may still." The Cardassian took a step back when
a Romulan guard aimed his disruptor at him; the Romulans were about to lower
the force field to put Ayer in the brig with the Cardassian, but it appeared
that he had other plans.

As soon as the force field was lowered, the Cardassian dashed forward,
placing his shoulder into Ayer's stomach. Continuing to run forward, he
knocked down a Romulan guard when the latter collided with Ayer's back.

Seeing the chance they needed to escape, Watters and Zjavick made good use
of the confusion. They both charged the Romulans and managed to crash three
of the guards into the wall. Zaag also played his part; when the fighting
began, he noticed one of the guards raising his disruptor at Watters and
Zjavick. With a battle-cry that sounded an awful lot like 'Mother', he
jumped on his target. His hands covered the Romulan soldier's eyes while his
legs were firmly clenched around the soldier's midsection.

Meanwhile, the Cardassian and Captain Ayer weren't taking a break either.
After knocking down one of the guards (using Ayer as a battering ram), the
Cardassian struck another Romulan in his side. The guard winced and almost
fell down, but managed to retain his balance and raise his weapon. Kicking
the disruptor out of his hand, the Cardassian spun around and wiped the
guard off his feet, sending him down to the floor. He followed the Romulan
and landed his fist in the guard's stomach.

Ayer was just recovering from the blow he had been given by both the
Cardassian and the Romulan who had collided with him. He saw that the person
whom he had impacted with was regaining consciousness, so he moved fast and
grabbed the guard's disruptor. He stepped away and fired it at another
Romulan, who dropped to the ground.

This was noticed by yet another Romulan who had also drawn his disruptor. He
spun around to fire at Ayer, but Watters' fist had hit the guard before he
could fire. The two exchanged blows, while Zjavick shot another Romulan with
a stolen disruptor of his own. Meanwhile, Zaag had fallen to the ground with
his victim, and they were now rolling over the floor, while Zaag was rapidly
battering the guard with his fists. The guard seemed to feel nothing, since
he continued to try and strangle Zaag. His hands were firmly at the
Ferengi's neck when the Romulan was hit by a green beam and all strength was
drawn out of him. Ayer had fired.

"Bridge, we need reinforcements!" a voice cried out. One of the unconscious
Romulans wasn't so unconscious after all. A disruptorblast interrupted his
plea for help -- Zjavick had stunned him.

Watters managed to hit the Romulan he was fighting with enough to make him
loose consciousness and drop to the floor, while the Cardassian made sure
that his victim would never draw breath again.

"Let's get out of here," Ayer suggested, breathing heavily. A few of the
Romulans were already starting to come around again, and if they started
picking up their disruptors which lay scattered across the floor, then Ayer
and rest of the escapees would have knocked out an entire security team for
nothing.

Nobody argued, and they quickly left the room. Now armed with disruptors,
they finally had the ability to defend themselves -- although, Ayer had to
admit, they did a pretty good job of defending themselves without disruptors
as well.

"Where are we going?" the Cardassian demanded to know.

"A transporter room," Ayer replied as they ran through the many corridors of
the warbird. "We need to beam to that other ship. Sandra is there, and so
are the samples."

Zaag came running next to Captain Ayer. "Captain," he said nervously, "What
just happened?" It all happened so fast -- the one moment they were about to
be put in the brig, and the other they were suddenly fighting Romulans. It
had all gone a bit too fast for the Ferengi.

"We've just avoided imprisonment," replied Ayer. "We've also become the
target of every Romulan on this ship. That's what happened."

"Oh." Zaag sighed. "I didn't volunteer for this," he muttered. "I'm just a
simple bartender. I'm no commando."

Behind them, Watters, Zjavick and the Cardassian were also keeping an eye
out for any Romulans. On a Romulan ship, there were bound to be a lot of
them. They did encounter a few Romulans on their way to the transporter
room, but those Romulans had been quickly taken care of. A disruptorbeam at
stun was all it took.

"Thank you for you rather... unconventional way of giving us a chance to
escape," Watters said to the Cardassian after a while. "If it weren't for
you, we'd be standing behind a force field now."

"I only did it for myself," the Cardassian replied coldly. "I saw the chance
to get out of there and I took it. You just happened to be there when I made
my move."

"Then why go with us?" asked Zjavick.

"It gives me an advantage I wouldn't have if I attempted to reach that ship
alone. You're simply going the same way I'm going, that's all. I want those
samples, the samples are on that ship out there, you're going to the ship,
so I'm coming along."

"Reasonable..." Watters began, but suddenly signalled for the others to
stand still. He listened for a moment, and then turned to his fellow
escapees. "Footsteps!" he said. "Behind..."

He didn't have the chance to finish his warning, because a green beam of
light just barely passed by him and hit the wall of the corridor. "Captain,
we've got company!" He shouted as he returned fire.

They started running again, fleeing from the Romulan security team. They
were lucky that there were so many turns in the corridors; this way the
Romulans would have more trouble hitting them. Of course that meant that
they would also have a hard time hitting the Romulans, but that didn't
matter -- if it came down to a firefight in an open space, Ayer's team would
surely lose.

Trying to find the balance between staying low and running fast, the five
escapees went round another corner, evading even more fire from the security
team that was sent to retrieve them. Watters and the Cardassian covered the
rear as they laid down some fire to keep the Romulans at bay. There was no
stopping them, though. The Romulans had superior forces and they wouldn't
stop hunting down Ayer and his crew. It seemed only a matter of time before
the Starfleet Captain and his four accomplices were put in the Brig again.
Unless they could find a transporter room before that, of course.

"Does anybody even know where we're going?" the Cardassian shouted as he
fired his weapon again and kept moving as fast as he could. Unlike the
others, his shots were accurate and rarely missed, even though they were all
running. One could tell that this man was an assassin or some other kind of
trained killer.

"The transporter room!" Ayer yelled back.

"And have you any idea where the transporter room is located?"

Ayer fired his disruptor before answering. "I was hoping one of you knew."

"Great," muttered the Cardassian. "So you're saying we have no idea if the
direction we're going in is the right one?"

"That's basically it."

The Cardassian expressed his frustration by shooting down two more Romulans.
"Then who is to say we're not running into a dead end?"

Ayer began to run slower and finally came to a complete stop. "I *really*
wish you hadn't said that," he said as he looked at the corridor in front of
him. It was a dead end. Two windows filled the wall in front of them,
showing them what lay beyond the windows: space. The Prometheus class vessel
was also clearly visible.

"Now you're saying all this is *my* fault?" asked the Cardassian.

Ayer pretended to ignore the Cardassian's comment. "Zjavick, see what you
can do with that panel over there," he said to his Chief of Engineering
while pointing at a wall-mounted console. "The rest of us will try to hold
off the Romulans."

Zjavick nodded and went to work on accessing the panel. "Anything in
particular you want me to do?"

"Oh, I don't know... Access transporters and beam us out, maybe?" said the
Captain, the sarcasm apparent. "Or a force field to keep the Romulans from
firing at us would be nice too."

"I'll see what I can do, Captain."

Ayer kneeled down to get into a firing position, When he slowly looked
around the corner, he suddenly saw three disruptorbeams heading towards him.
He quickly moved back again. The disruptor beams impacted with the wall
instead of Ayer's head, and dispersed harmlessly. "They're waiting for us to
come out," Ayer said to the others. "They know this is a dead end; they
don't have to do anything but wait."

"Transporter systems are encrypted with some kind of security lockout code,"
Zjavick reported as he continued tapping the console screen. "I'll see what
I can do to override the code."

"In the meantime, let's keep the Romulans busy," suggested the Cardassian.
"They are waiting now, but if we don't take action, they may come here and
kill all of us before your engineer can transport us out of here."

Watters saw the merit in the Cardassian's suggestion. "He has a point,
Captain. If we do nothing, they will have no reason to stay where they are
anymore. But if we fire at them and pin them down, they won't be able to
come here, should they want to."

"Then by all means," Ayer sighed. "Start firing."

Zjavick was desperately trying to break the codes that restricted access to
the transporter controls. He did hear the firing and paid attention to his
Captain's orders, but he was more focused on the console at the moment. If
he couldn't find a way to transport the five of them out of here, then they
would surely be captured again.

As a disruptorbeam impacted with the wall next to him, he quickly tried
another algorithm. Again, he had no luck. The transporter system was too
well protected to access, it seemed. Actually, every major system was too
well protected to access. It would take him hours to break the codes and
access the transporter system, yet he only had minutes. That meant that he
just had to get lucky. Maybe one of his algorithms would work. He tried
another one -- it failed as well.

He cursed under his breath and inserted another command override algorithm.
It too wasn't working; the code remained unbroken. "Where is a algorithm
specialist when you need one," Zjavick muttered and continued to try.

Meanwhile, the firefight between the Romulans on the one side and two
humans, a Cardassian and a Ferengi on the other side continued. The Romulans
gave their opponents little time to shoot, as they kept firing their weapons
whenever the head of one of their targets emerged from its hiding place.

"Any luck?" Ayer yelled as he ducked to evade another disruptorblast. "Have
you got access already?"

"Not by a long shot," Zjavick said between his clenched teeth. "I'd need
several more hours before I could crack the code to access the
transporters."

"We don't have..."

"I know, I know!" Zjavick said loudly. "We don't have several hours, so I'll
just have to get it done in two or three minutes. I'm not a miracle worker,
you know."

"Then it's time you became one!" Ayer shouted back. "We need transporter
control *now*, Commander!"

"You're asking the impossible!" Zjavick said. "You want me to disable all
security lockout codes that are preventing transporter access, and re-route
control to this panel? I may be able to do that within two *hours* on a
Federation ship, sir, but I'm not familiar with Romulan technology. This is
going to take at least five hours, and that's if we're lucky!"

"I'm no engineer, mister Zjavick," said Ayer. "but can't you go around the
problem?" A disruptorbeam impacted just a little too close to Ayer for the
Captain's liking. "Look, we're pinned down by a superior number of Romulans.
They're throwing everything they've got at us, and we barely have the chance
to return fire. We're not going to be able to hold on for any longer than a
few more minutes. After that, we'll either be dead or captured, and all will
have been for nothing. Now, Commander, I don't care how you do it, just find
a way to transport us the hell off this infernal ship!"

Zjavick gritted his teeth. He was still mad with Captain Ayer about him
striking a deal with the Romulans. But he had to admit; the Captain had a
point. He needed to come up with a solution to this problem fast, or they
would be captured again by the Romulans. If only there was a way to bypass
the codes... But there wasn't. At least not a way that Zjavick could see.

Sparks emerged when a disruptorbeam collided with a nearby wall panel. The
subsequent explosion made Zjavick look away to prevent any sparks from
making contact with his face. As he looked back at his panel again and then
at the exploded one, his mind came up with an idea -- an unorthodox one, but
there was a chance that it would work.

"Captain, I may have found a way..." he said as he frantically tapped the
controls on the panel. "You just need to hold on for just a little longer."
Ayer acknowledged and Zjavick proceeded to set his plan in motion.

Totally absorbed in his work, he implanted a subroutine in the computer that
instructed it to re-route the EPS power distribution grid through a console
near the Romulans who were standing a little further down the corridor. This
was a minor adjustment, so no access codes were required to perform that
modification. According to the status display he was looking at, the power
to the transporters now came from the same power grid which ran behind that
console. Next, he instructed the computer to run a series of diagnostics on
the warp drive, the quantum singularity power core, the weapon systems,
internal and external sensors, transporters, and just about every other
system he could think of.

"Captain," he finally said. "The Romulans will be momentarily distracted
soon. I suggest you take advantage of that."

"What do you mean?" Ayer asked surprised.

Zjavick smiled and pulled out the disruptor he had holstered while he had
been working. "This is what I mean." He leaned around the corner and fired.

The beam of deadly green light made contact with the console that the
Romulans were standing next to. The console exploded in a massive show of
light and flames -- since there were active power conduits running behind
the console, the warp plasma in those now breached conduits had ignited too,
finding its way out into the corridor, engulfing the Romulan soldiers.

Ayer looked at Zjavick in utter astonishment. Before he could speak, Zjavick
returned to his own console. "We don't have much time. Hold off the Romulans
while I'm accessing the transporters."

"What... How..." Ayer had no time to reply, for a couple of Romulans had
escaped the explosion and were now storming towards Ayer and his team,
seeking revenge for what had been done to them. While Ayer, Watters, Zaag
and the Cardassian fought off the enraged Romulans, Zjavick accessed
transporter controls. "Interfacing with transporter control," he reported.
"Setting co-ordinates. Energising."

Green light surrounded the five escapees, and it was not made by disruptor
fire. The transporter carried them away in its bright green light,
accompanied by the familiar whine -- although the Romulan kind sounded
slightly different. The Romulan soldiers had no time to react; by the time
they had a chance to fire, Ayer and his team had already disappeared.

They reappeared again in what looked like a cargobay of the unknown
Starfleet ship. After quickly checking out their surroundings and coming to
the conclusion that it was safe (for now), Ayer turned to Zjavick. The
Captain had trouble not to look surprised. "How did you do that?" he asked.
"You said it was going to take several hours."

"I performed a miracle," a grinning Zjavick said. "Actually, I re-routed the
flow of warp plasma that was powering the transporters, so it would be
running right past the console next to which those Romulans were standing.
After that, I ordered the computer to run several diagnostics -- this made
the computer react a somewhat slower than it usually did, since it had to
process a lot of information simultaneously. When I shot the console, the
warp plasma overheated and poured out into the corridor, leaving the
transporters without any power." He smiled. "I knew that power to the
transporters would be restored in a few moments after that, but while the
computer was busy with the diagnostics *and* with arranging for more power
being routed through undamaged conduits, the subroutines that restricted
access to the transporter systems had been reset by the power failure and
were now easily accessable. Since the computer was too busy, it couldn't
initiate a new security lockout very quickly, and the coding subroutines
were therefore vulnerable to a direct attack. So I took that chance and
managed to gain access to the transporters -- fairly easily, actually -- and
when power to the transporters was restored again, I prepared a site-to-site
transport in combination with a ship-to-ship one, and energised. And now
we're here."

"And now we're here," Ayer repeated. "Great job, Commander. You truly are a
miracle worker." Ignoring Zjavick's broad grin, he turned to the rest of his
'crew' (although neither Zaag nor the Cardassian were part of his crew, of
course). "Without a doubt, there are Romulans on this ship who are bent on
destroying us if they see us. But we don't only have to watch out for them.
>From what we can tell, the crew of this ship is also hostile to us." He
sighed. "Our first objective is to find Sandra Burke. We can't leave
without--"

He was cut off by the Cardassian. "What about the samples?"

"Don't worry, mister..." Ayer trailed off. "You know, I don't even know your
name."

"It's best that you don't," mumbled the Cardassian. "Enbek," he said out
loud after a moment of hesitation. "You can call me Enbek."

"Very well. Don't worry, mister Enbek." Ayer grabbed hold of his disruptor
firmly. "I have no intention of allowing the samples to fall in the hands of
the Romulans. Once we have saved Sandra, we'll be going after the samples.
When we have Sandra and the crystals, we'll go to the shuttlebay, take a
shuttle, and get out of here."

"Unacceptable. We have to go find the samples first!" shouted Enbek.

"We're going to find Sandra first. She was carrying the samples when she was
transported off the Aquinas. Maybe she knows where they were stored," Ayer
suggested.

"Unlikely." Enbek snorted. "If she isn't dead already, she's being held
captive. And I doubt a prisoner would know where those precious samples are
located."

"That may be," Ayer replied, "but we're still going to rescue Sandra first."

"Then maybe it is time to split up."

"If that's what you want, Enbek, go right ahead," Ayer said. "I'm not
stopping you. But wouldn't it increase the chances of your getting your
hands on the samples if you came with us? Even you can't fight a ship full
of hostile officers and Romulans all by yourself."

Enbek pondered the situation for a moment, but Watters walked up to him
before the Cardassian could reply. "We need to get out of the cargo bay, and
so do you, Enbek. So we might as well work together, just as long as we have
to go the same way. When our paths split, we split up too. But why not stay
with us until then?"

"Until then, I'll come with you," Enbek said after a moment of thought. "But
not a second longer."

"Not a second," Watters replied with a smile.

Ayer smiled as well. "Let's go." He started to move towards the cargo bay
doors and the rest of the group followed, unsure of the resistance they
would encounter on this hostile -- yet Starfleet -- ship.


To be Continued...

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Chief Editor's comments
--------------------------------------------------------------------

In this edition of the Federation Tribune, there is no Status Report of the
USS Calhoun, because I didn't see the summary. That could be my fault
though: maybe I didn't look good enough. ;-) Still, I'm hoping that there
will be a Status Report of the Calhoun next month... ;-)

And also, there is no promotion section now, because last month, no
characters were promoted. ;-)

That's about it... keep those articles coming!
Regs,
Rob.