Leaving Sigma Iota II

[Amanda Rose]

"Captain's Log

We have just finished our investigation and study of Sigma Iota II. The inhabitants are quite intelligent but they are somewhat imitative. I hope that we provided them with a good example of the new
Federation. The Iotians are in their Industrial Age. Who knows what they may accomplish in the next 100 years? I almost wish I could see that future now. However, we must continue to explore the galaxy, as we were chartered. I certainly look forward to a challenge.

End Log"

Captain Gary Stephen Alexander left his quarters and headed to the Bridge. He nodded to his Executive Officer, Mary Wells, gave her a small flirtatious wink and clasped his hands loudly, "Well, I see that we're all back aboard. Is there anything around here that anyone finds interesting and worthy of exploration?"

tag - all

Alexander shook his head, "I am not interested in worlds with non-intelligent life. What good will they be to Starfleet?"

tag - all

Alexander listened carefully and said, "Well, Navigator, where is the nearest star system from here?"

A dark skinned ensign replied, "Twenty light years, sir."

Alexander said, "Very well. Start at 1/8 impulse in that direction. The rest of you can study this solar system as best as you can from the ship unless you can convince me otherwise. Questions?"

tag - all

[Sjet]

Silence.

It was the sort of silence you could drown in as the twenty men and women crammed into one of the largest spaces on the Horizon stared dumbfounded at the wall. One side of the gymnasium turned conference room were people dressed in the lime green and red shirts of the Kiev Dynamos, and on the other the sombre blue and whites of the Nigerian Warriors. Between the two groups were people in off duty wear of all descriptions, and half empty refreshments were scattered on the few tables someone had brought in as a second thought.

But no one moved, and no one spoke, as then once rowdy group of soccer fans looked to the large wall screen and its simple blinking message: Loss Of Signal from Subspace Buoy ECHO-2. And with that LOS from a train car sized space buoy half way between here and home, the semi finally game of the Worlds Cup had been cut off in the 98th minute with Vladamir Puskin leaping up to block the ball from the corner of the net.

Suddenly the pressure hatch to the gym slammed open and a engineer in work out sweats swaggered, took one look at the brightly coloured mob before him, and made an about face in the same step. This interruption broke the spell more thoroughly than the gently rumble and inner ear trickery that swept over the Horizon as her impulse drive began to push her slowly out of orbit.

Goodbye oh distant star, and hello to horizons new.

The crowd began to break up, making jokes about the game and polite ribbing about the outcome that might very well have come of it. Maybe Vlad had fumbled the catch, leading the Warriors to a point winning game that saw them progress nowhere. Or perhaps Vlad had saved the ball, allowing the Dynamo’s the point they needed to be carried over into the finals that were to be held on Andor this year against the reigning champions: the Vulcan Volcanos.

“So where do you think we are going?” asked one of the Nigerian Warrior fans as he brushed past Arkady Sjet on his way to the door. The solidly built Russian, a diehard Dynamo fan through simple dint of being Russian, rolled his shoulders to release a little tension and shrugged

“I have no idea. Captain-” or as his accent pronounced it ‘kip-tin’ “-see’s shiny new thing, he goes over to investigate it. He is like grow in field of tin foil, so much to see whilst this-”

Akrady slapped a hand against the bulk head as he stepped through the hatch and into the main corridor.

“-fries us all with four different kids of radiation that theory has yet to name. Sometimes getting the tech upgrades does not mean getting the best things.” Arkady sighed “I’m going to the bridge to try and convince our fearless leader to let me at least run the entire reactor crew through decontamination before releasing them back into crew population after we jump to warp. I like have full head of hair, makes me look distinguished.”

The many broken nose upon his face just made him look tired, but the hair did give him a winner’s class in the long run.

He found a turbo lift, and with ease soon had the car’s door opening upon the rounded interior of the USS Horizons bridge deck. People in uniforms, all looking very busy and professional, paused for a moment as the lime green and red jersey clashed with their coordination.

“Two points of business.” Arkady said loudly as he stepped out of the car “Firstly captain I would like to implore you again to let me run the entire engineering crew through sickbay for thorough examination after we go to warp, and secondly if anyone tells me the score for the Warrior/Dynamo game I will play game of Operation next time they have surgery.”

TAG-Gary, bridge crew.

Dr Arkady Sjet
CMO
USS Horizon

[KendleRJ]

It had been one of those mornings. Standing at her regular position on the Bridge, she waited for the Captain's daily flirtations with the Commander patiently. As Yeoman First Class, Karina Tell was used to quite a lot of things that went on on The Bridge of a Starship. Or around it.

She was pressed, properly uniformed and professionally detached, with a tricorder in one hand and a stylus in the other. This was the easier part, watching the interplay as her mind went over her disturbing nightmare from the wee hours of the darkest part of the dawn. If there was such a thing in Space.

It had been one of the earlier horrors; one where she wore her long, flowing white gown, waiting patiently in a vestibule of a church in some part of the world she would have never gone to without the mother of the groom insisting on age-old traditions. Her family agreed, grudgingly, and so she ended up wearing a dress that she would never wear again, something old, new, borrowed and blue, and wishing that she'd just decided to elope with Commander Terrence Obermeier, XO on the USS Saratoga.

She kept her face professionally detached while she pondered the now blacklisted bastard and haunter of her nightmares. It had been months since she'd had one of that magnitude, and made a mental note to check with someone about a different prescription to combat the recurrence. It was so vivid that she remembered the scent of her bouquet, the colour of her eyeshadow they'd insisted on applying, and the small curling tendrils of hair that bunched at the base of her neck, twisted with ribbons and baby's breath, which itched her then, and felt so much more satisfying when she ripped them from her head.

She also remembered the look of her bridal party when they came to tell her what had happened, and the crunching sound of her hand as she pounded it into a pillar that had originally been a hollow plaster of paris replica, but apparently been replaced by a solid concrete one instead. Probably, also at the insistence of her fiancé's mother. Bitch. That alone had begged for her to work out her frustrations on a punching bag with her kick boxing finesse.

Heavy leaning on the 'bag'.

But with the football fans invading the gym space, she had to settle for a long, hard run through the hallways at 0 dark thirty. However, after shift... there would be much mayhem, and a much needed release of tension. She allowed a small smile to curl up a corner of her lip for the briefest moment before putting on her work face once more.

She flexed her right hand to dissipate the ache and stepped forward, only to have the turbo lift door open, so she stepped back dutifully. Giving a brief glance to the back of the man who entered, she recognised the Chief Medical Officer. Raising her stylus, she made her notes, and waited for responses to the Captain's questions and Dr. Sjet's before heading into the fray, judiciously highlighting the score and placing her thumb overtop of it, giving him the smallest of sideways glances.

No need to bait the Russian bear.

Tags All

USS Horizon
Yeoman 1st Class, Karina Alicia "Kat" Tell

[Melissa Richards]

Commander Mary Wells
First Officer
Main bridge


Captain Gary Stephen Alexander left his quarters and headed to the Bridge. He nodded to his Executive Officer, Mary Wells, gave her a small flirtatious wink and clasped his hands loudly, "Well, I see that we're all back aboard. Is there anything around here that anyone finds interesting and worthy of exploration?"

"Captain's on the bridge!" a security man announced.

Wells rose from the center seat. "Welcome back sir. Scans indicate, there are several worlds around this area that have rudimentary forms of life and vegetation which may be interesting. Certainly worthy of an expedition to catalouge."

Alexander shook his head, "I am not interested in worlds with non-intelligent life. What good will they be to Starfleet?"

"Everything may have worth to Starfleet." the XO supplied as she stepped to the left side of the command chair so he could take it. "Our duty sir is to explore and report, but of course, the decision is yours. You're the captain...sir." Her tone was mildly annoyed.

Alexander listened carefully and said, "Well, Navigator, where is the nearest star system from here?"

A dark skinned ensign replied, "Twenty light years, sir."

Alexander said, "Very well. Start at 1/8 impulse in that direction. The rest of you can study this solar system as best as you can from the ship unless you can convince me otherwise. Questions?"

"None sir.." Wells sighed, at least that had been accomplished. "Science and navigation, direct beams aft, and began full recording of all data we can gather on nearby worlds and their eco-systems and orbital bodies."



tag - all

[Amanda Rose]

Gary looked over at Mary. He recognized that tone. She was annoyed about something. No doubt, he would hear about it when they had dinner. He wondered why she could not lighten up a bit. Not everything had to be work. Heck! Work should be fun! So, what was it? The wink that annoyed her? The fact that he thought it was more important to merely attend to worlds that would have life or potentially have life on them? He mentally shrugged. One day I will figure out this woman. One day.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Arkady approach. Immediately, Gary started laughing. "Now, come on, Arkady, my man! You mean to tell me that you want to take an entire department off duty to do a medical examination once we go to warp. Let's be reasonable. Engines have to be monitored and the ship run. As to the Warrior/Dynamo game, you do realize that the results would now be at least a year old, right?"

tag - Arkady

When Gary's yeoman arrived, he gave her a warm smile. She stood patiently. He then noticed her thumb covering something. It must be the score, he thought mischievously. Gary's eyes stayed on the Yeoman for a noticeable time. Her clothes hugged her in such a manner that "form fitting" could be deemed a judicious term. However, he tried to cover it by looking at her PADD so that Mary would not be wiser.

tag - Mary, KAT

Gary gave a small chuckle and asked her with a flirtatious tone, "So, what kind of routine and dull paperwork have you brought for me to handle today, KAT? I am certain it would have nothing to do with the Warrior/Dynamo game, would it?" He took the PADD and said, "Hm. Seems that there is a score here...." He held the PADD tantalizingly close to Arkady.

tag - KAT, Mary, Arkady

[Sjet]

"Kiptin!" Arkady's accent had grown thicker now as his cheek reddened "I must insist! Dah, taking the entire department off line for a medical check up is out of the question. But having them rotated out so I can monitor their radiation tags and ensure their health fully is my responsibility. I am ships surgeon first, and secondly I am man of science. Lockheed-Energia shaved three millimeters off of the reactor shielding before they installed that monster into the Horizon to save over eight tons in weight. You don't just drop eight tons of doped lead shielding without letting dangerous high energy particles escape. This ship is time bomb of medical misfortunes pasted together by the lowest bidder. This mission is as much about exploring that-"

He pointed to the view screen, really more of a large display monitor set into the wall, and then pounded a fist on his chest.

"-As it is exploring us. We are among the first to be out this far from home. Far enough that news is still racing towards us from a year down stream, even with the ECHO subspace buoy network to boost the range. We have been playing with antimatter now for a few years, not even a full decade yet: and you ask that we all trust that the dragon will not snort in its sleep and burn us all alive?" he smiled smugly and turned his eyes on Wells "Kimmander Wells, perhaps you would like to weigh-in on this topic. Tell me do you still sleep soundly when the engine's stutter at warp two due to a bad fuel mix? Would you not feel better able to rest your head knowing the techs and power room crews were at peak health and fitness, and not having their minds eaten away to mush by radiation poisoning?"

This was always the old argument between the Old School and the Cutting Edge: why play with anti-matter when nuclear fission and fusion power plants were proven, stable technologies that did the job just fine. Yes with antimatter you saved weight on fuel, with a single nano gram of anti-Lithium holding as much energy as forty kilo tons of TNT. But with anti-matter you got exotic particle radiation and strange new types of high energy particles that physics were still trying to find names for. The accident investigations and medical journals were still trying to figure out some of the side effects of anti matter radiation poisoning, but so far the conclusion was a lot of death. The only differences in some cases was whether death was instant, or stretched out over a long period of time.

"And the score was 1-1. Vladamir catches the ball and they play out the extra time till the end. Dynamo's go through to the finals." Arkady finished, trying to keep his cool a little "I checked the data dump that accompanied the video file. To many Dynamo fans on the ship to risk a small riot over loosing the semi finals to a no nothing team like the Warriors. Like all bad news, is best deleted before becomes general knowledge."

tag-All

Dr Arkady Sjet
CMO
USS Horizon
What will he annex next...

[KendleRJ]

Karina smiled warmly back at the Captain, but still kept a professional distance in her eyes. She watched him watch her, and gave no indication that she was either self-conscious for the attention, or that it was unwelcome. But she also gave him no satisfaction that she noticed him staring either. She kept her PADD comfortably resting against her waist, and waited, stylus still lifted as she listened to Dr. Sjet.

Her jaw tightened once as he finished his tirade and he stepped down off his soap box. Passionate about the crew couldn't be a bad thing, but he and Captain Alexander were going to be at odds about a few items, she guessed. As well as throwing the good-natured jibe back in the Captain's face about the score; he was not a man who was likely to be caught off guard. Not just a Russian Bear then... also, a pit spider. It appeared that his request had become a challenge, and was now opening the floor to a discussion on the Bridge. A challenge to the Captain's authority then, and his influence with the Commander; an interesting choice to be certain. Making a few last minute notations, she waited until the Doctor was finished before she stepped forward.

She was slightly suprised by the Captain's use of her familiar name and raised an eyebrow at him, green eyes twinkling. "There are just the standard crew assignments, duty rosters, equipment requisitions, medical file updates, and even possibly an engineering rotation to accommodate certain tests that have been requested by the Chief Medical Officer aboard, Captain." She handed him the stylus and leaning over, tapped once on the screen, giving the XO a look to measure her reaction to the request and her initiative. "That last one is subject to final approval based on your discussion and decision of course, but the others require your signature to be included in today's official log."

She allowed herself an actual smile, one that dimpled her cheeks briefly and touched her eyes, bestowing it upon the Captain, before turning to the Doctor, eyes still smiling but the dimples gone. "I was wondering if you might have some time later on, Doctor. I wish to discuss a personal matter with you," Kat said quietly before turning back to the Captain.

Standing with her left hand extended, she waited for the PADD to be returned, the other behind her back, clasping and unclasping, one leg in front of the other. It was a polite and professional posture, but with one simple twist of her hip, it could have quite a different tone.

Tags All

USS Horizon
Yeoman 1st Class, Karina Alicia "Kat" Tell

[Melissa Richards]

Commander Mary Wells
Executive Officer


"And the score was 1-1. Vladamir catches the ball and they play out the extra time till the end. Dynamo's go through to the finals." Arkady finished, trying to keep his cool a little "I checked the data dump that accompanied the video file. To many Dynamo fans on the ship to risk a small riot over loosing the semi finals to a no nothing team like the Warriors. Like all bad news, is best deleted before becomes general knowledge."

Mary listened to the useless information, at least to her. But, it didn't pass her notice that Gary was once again less then subtly hitting on the next target, which happened to be Karina. Mary met the woman's eyes, gave her a look then moved over to one of the science stations.

"We're getting some interesting readings from some gaseous anomalies." she stated, both to irritate the captain, and also to throw off his predatory mood."Might be signs of intelligent life.." she followed up. "There's no scientific proof that intelligent life has to be on a planet's surface.."

tags

[Aoife]

Aoife Devlin watched the interplay between the higher ranking officers on the bridge. She shifted her stance a little to prevent her legs from locking into position, and to avoid muscle tension. Over the course of a shift, she would do this often, stretching subtly so that if needed, she would be ready.

In the meantime, she kept her eyes open and her mouth shut. There would be time to talk later, once the captain had decided where they were going. She considered the ship around her. Sleek. Silver. Clean. Clean was good after the last ship. A slight grimace crossed her face. The dirt balls in the corners there had started to get very familiar, and all of them had names.

The yeoman stepped forward. Aoife watched how she moved, assessing muscle tone and absently noting ability at the same time. It wasn't until the yeoman stopped and took up a stance that could easily shift into something more useful that Aoife's eyes narrowed slightly. That was interesting information to tuck away. Even here that woman thought there was potential need. Interesting indeed.

She tucked her thoughts away behind her professional mask, and returned to her routine checks of the security systems onboard the ship. She'd watch for now, and get to know them all later, when needed.

[Sjet]

"Judging by how I am ignored when I speak of horrible wasting radiation poisoning caused by poorly tested hardware, there is little scientific evidence that there is intelligent life on this bridge." Arkady reached out and patted the back of Gary's chair "Hey, if we find alien made of hot air, you will have something in common with it eh?"

With a Slavic grin Arkady turned about and strode towards the lift door, giving Well's the same sour look he'd given her upon their first meeting. All bright smiles and book learning in his opinion, but as substantial as oatmeal used as wallpaper paste. Maybe the Russian was being unfair, and maybe life was unfair and it was his duty to see to righting that karmic imbalance. But just by seeing the look she had given the Yeoman for 'poaching' gave Arkady all the justification he needed.

"I will be in engineering, checking over the rad monitors and safety tags." he looked over Gary's sat form to the rather dour faced security officer "Hey, you. Want to make sure I don't push the reactor scram button and ruin our day to spite our kiptin and kimmander's comical approach to work place safety? It'll be fun, like buddy cop movie. You can be on your way to retirement, and I can be the zany one."

TAG-All and Aoife. Would it be possible to get a phonetic spelling of this name, because I feel I'm butchering it and turning it into a Disney character name ever time I utter it.