IKC FHew 7C6110
Allegiances 3 – PD Tech
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope
Post Details
Marie and Tell were led along the corridor by the dock master. Whatever that scream had been about he did not seem concerned. All he did was mumble a continual litany of complaints about all the jobs he was required to do without being told the reason behind them.
Actually, now that I think about it, Marie thought, it did seem more a scream of anger or frustration rather than one of fear.
"'Course, I don't ask any more. It always takes 6 months to get an answer out here and the answer is always, 'Don't ask'."
They came to the intersection and headed right towards the area labelled 'PD Tech'.
"Someone down here requested the bolts months ago. We will see if they still need them."
They arrived at a set of three doors, each with swipe card locks.
"Wait here," the man said, swiping his card through one of the three and moving quickly inside.
Marie waited until the door had closed behind him before pulling out her new toy. With a few whirs and clicks it made short work of the lock. "For a high security facility, I don't think much of their locks," she commented acerbically.
On the other side was a short corridor with windows along one side and a door at the far end. Through the windows she could make out a large industrial type construction area. There are many people inside working. "It will be difficult to remain and observe – or move past the windows – without being seen," she said over her shoulder to Hope.
"We have to do it one way or another" replied Tell looking around. He eyes caught sight of a cupboard. "Wonder what's in there?" she asked Marie
The cupboard opened to reveal HES (Hostile Environment Suits). They were all enclosed and designed to protect against heat, radiation, vacuum, even low level phaser fire. Once you had one on, it was also impossible to see who you were. The two women glanced at each other and quickly grabbed the suits and climbed in.
They were still zipping up when a man in a similar suit stepped through the door from the warehouse, "There you are. Sorry boys, break's cancelled. We need to run the Phase converter at level 15 before the CO comes for a demo later today."
With out answering the pair followed the man through into the warehouse. It was obvious that this was part industrial construction bay and part research facility. Dominating the centre of the room was a device about 5 metres tall. it was attached to various power devices and a large sheet of duranium.
He indicated to a panel which Tell and Marie moved over to. Luckily Tell was able to see that it was a power distribution monitor, a device for monitoring and controlling the amount of power into the device. It required two people to operate; one to monitor, one to control. Tell quickly and quietly briefed Marie on what she was to watch for on the monitors.
"All right," called the man to the team of about twenty now gathered, "Suits on. let's bring the power up."
There was a hum as Tell began to transfer power to the device. It was drinking phenomenal amounts of energy. Enough to put the FHew at Warp 3. The power levels kept increasing till they reached the equivalent of Warp 6.
"Hold it there! Right activate the phasic compensator."
"Interphasics active!" another station called back.
"Allright. Let's bring it to level 13. We know it is stable there."
Another group began to fiddle and suddenly the plate of duranium began to fade. Marie and tell glanced at each other. A cloak? If so the Federation were taking a great risk. They had agreed with the Romulans almost a hundred years ago, in the Treaty of Algeron, never to experiment or develop cloak technology. Now on the brink of peace with the Romulans, they were doing this?
"Allright, take it up to 15."
The plate faded till it was the faintest of ghosts. Then a man stepped forward with a metal ball and phaser. He hefted the metal ball at the plate...
... and it passed straight through as if there was thin air. The plate was not cloaked it was out of phase. With this technology the Federation would be immune to attack by all conventional weaponry. They could literally pass through the hull of an enemy ship undetected, leave behind primed cobalt device, and leave before the whole ship went bang.
The man steadied the phaser and fired. The beam passed through the space, but the power display in front of Marla spiked and another station started yelling.
"Shut it down. Shut it down!"
There were sparks and the metal plate reformed, but the place where the phaser had passed through was bent and buckled.
The commander took his helmet of again, "All right, We'll reset it and run it again in fifteen. If you are on break now, don't waste it."
Marie and Tell quickly moved back out to the corridor.
"I don't give a toss about the Treaty of Algeron or diplomatic niceties or any such garbage" Marie said. "I'll tell you this though, I've seen what developing new technologies can do. Back on Nouvelle Nouvelle Caledonie, we faced this situation all too many times. One faction would get their hands on some new weapon and they'd have the advantage for a while. They'd justify their action by claiming that they were bringing peace by ensuring they were stronger than everyone else but, you know what, sooner or later all the other factions got their hands on the weapon. Then there'd be some sort of balance for a while until some other faction got some new weapon and it all began again.
"All it was was a good old fashioned arms race and, meanwhile, it was us poor sods on the ground who suffered. If the Federation goes ahead and brings this on line it will cause all out war with the Romulans. They won't care if its a cloaking device or a phase shifter or whatever the Federation chooses to call it. All they'll see is a clear and present danger. The Klingons will be much the same.
"I say destroy it now and all records of how it was put together. Then tell Ro'. Let him and his niece to work out how to deal with the diplomatic side of things."
Suddenly Tell dragged Marie into a small alcove. "Dammit Marie." She told her. "Looks like those other two engineers are looking for their suits."
The 'other' engineers certainly were puzzled over the missing suits but were more worried about being late for their shifts. Tell looked at Marie and shrugged her shoulders there was not much they could do about it.
Marie had other ideas. "There you two are," she said brazenly. "We had to cover for you while the test was run. We missed our break because of it. It's all over now but you'd better get in there quick and take over."
They hesitated. One looked ready to say something in reply.
"Move it!" Marie barked.
They scurried off, one of them mumbling something about their own break. Marie and Hope hurried out of the suits and stashed them away.
"So much for the treaty." said Tell "The Feds are all mouth and trousers when it comes to what they want. Yet I suppose they want to develop something like this before the other sides do. Though why they can't share their toys ...."
Marie sneered. "Federation be damned. I give as much thought to the Federation as I do to the Treaty of Algeron – none! What did the high and mighty Federation ever do for Nouvelle Nouvelle Caledonie? I'll tell you what.... It hid behind it's precious Prime Directive and did absolutely nothing! Anyway, if we sit here and pretend we didn't see anything then we're condemning this sector to all out war. Or do you propose we wait and hope our Klingon friends will find out for themselves and thus relieve our troubled consciences?"
"It has its faults like every one else. Mostly they do their best to try and keep the peace between everybody. With out the Feds it would be a different place altogether. I'm not a fan of chaos, better the devil you know sort of thing but I side with them and so should you. Their the best apple in the bunch so far."
"If you're that touchy about protecting the Federation then tell 'Ro and let his niece put her vaunted diplomatic skills to use. I have changed my mind on one point though. We need to protect our backs here. If we blow the place up the Federation will deny this project even existed. We need to get hard evidence of Federation involvement. That way, when they try to string us up for treason, we have a bargaining chip."
"There is more to it than this I'm sure. Its under the umbrella of the Feds but I wonder who really is in charge."
As if that matters, Marie thought but deep down she knew it did matter. It could be some rouge element pushing their own agenda without official sanction. It wouldn't be the first time such a thing had happened. "OK," she said reluctantly, "let's go exploring."
"I think we should go and find the others first," she told Marie "Lets see what they have managed to find out. Better now than later, who knows what those engineers will say."
Marie just shrugged. It made sense. They might have already found useful evidence. Anyway, she doubted those engineers would remain cowed for long. Sooner or later – probably sooner – they'd work out that there shouldn't have been two other engineers on a break at the same time as them. Then they'd start asking awkward questions.
- Warning. Sample case I-09 is reaching minimum containment. Biological breach imminent. -
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope
Post Details
| Title | PD Tech | |
| Mission | Allegiances 3 | |
| Author(s) | HoD Ro' Matlh & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope | |
| Posted | Mon Aug 01, 2011 @ 1:57am | |
| Location | Amerigo Research Station |
Actually, now that I think about it, Marie thought, it did seem more a scream of anger or frustration rather than one of fear.
"'Course, I don't ask any more. It always takes 6 months to get an answer out here and the answer is always, 'Don't ask'."
They came to the intersection and headed right towards the area labelled 'PD Tech'.
"Someone down here requested the bolts months ago. We will see if they still need them."
They arrived at a set of three doors, each with swipe card locks.
"Wait here," the man said, swiping his card through one of the three and moving quickly inside.
Marie waited until the door had closed behind him before pulling out her new toy. With a few whirs and clicks it made short work of the lock. "For a high security facility, I don't think much of their locks," she commented acerbically.
On the other side was a short corridor with windows along one side and a door at the far end. Through the windows she could make out a large industrial type construction area. There are many people inside working. "It will be difficult to remain and observe – or move past the windows – without being seen," she said over her shoulder to Hope.
"We have to do it one way or another" replied Tell looking around. He eyes caught sight of a cupboard. "Wonder what's in there?" she asked Marie
The cupboard opened to reveal HES (Hostile Environment Suits). They were all enclosed and designed to protect against heat, radiation, vacuum, even low level phaser fire. Once you had one on, it was also impossible to see who you were. The two women glanced at each other and quickly grabbed the suits and climbed in.
They were still zipping up when a man in a similar suit stepped through the door from the warehouse, "There you are. Sorry boys, break's cancelled. We need to run the Phase converter at level 15 before the CO comes for a demo later today."
With out answering the pair followed the man through into the warehouse. It was obvious that this was part industrial construction bay and part research facility. Dominating the centre of the room was a device about 5 metres tall. it was attached to various power devices and a large sheet of duranium.
He indicated to a panel which Tell and Marie moved over to. Luckily Tell was able to see that it was a power distribution monitor, a device for monitoring and controlling the amount of power into the device. It required two people to operate; one to monitor, one to control. Tell quickly and quietly briefed Marie on what she was to watch for on the monitors.
"All right," called the man to the team of about twenty now gathered, "Suits on. let's bring the power up."
There was a hum as Tell began to transfer power to the device. It was drinking phenomenal amounts of energy. Enough to put the FHew at Warp 3. The power levels kept increasing till they reached the equivalent of Warp 6.
"Hold it there! Right activate the phasic compensator."
"Interphasics active!" another station called back.
"Allright. Let's bring it to level 13. We know it is stable there."
Another group began to fiddle and suddenly the plate of duranium began to fade. Marie and tell glanced at each other. A cloak? If so the Federation were taking a great risk. They had agreed with the Romulans almost a hundred years ago, in the Treaty of Algeron, never to experiment or develop cloak technology. Now on the brink of peace with the Romulans, they were doing this?
"Allright, take it up to 15."
The plate faded till it was the faintest of ghosts. Then a man stepped forward with a metal ball and phaser. He hefted the metal ball at the plate...
... and it passed straight through as if there was thin air. The plate was not cloaked it was out of phase. With this technology the Federation would be immune to attack by all conventional weaponry. They could literally pass through the hull of an enemy ship undetected, leave behind primed cobalt device, and leave before the whole ship went bang.
The man steadied the phaser and fired. The beam passed through the space, but the power display in front of Marla spiked and another station started yelling.
"Shut it down. Shut it down!"
There were sparks and the metal plate reformed, but the place where the phaser had passed through was bent and buckled.
The commander took his helmet of again, "All right, We'll reset it and run it again in fifteen. If you are on break now, don't waste it."
Marie and Tell quickly moved back out to the corridor.
"I don't give a toss about the Treaty of Algeron or diplomatic niceties or any such garbage" Marie said. "I'll tell you this though, I've seen what developing new technologies can do. Back on Nouvelle Nouvelle Caledonie, we faced this situation all too many times. One faction would get their hands on some new weapon and they'd have the advantage for a while. They'd justify their action by claiming that they were bringing peace by ensuring they were stronger than everyone else but, you know what, sooner or later all the other factions got their hands on the weapon. Then there'd be some sort of balance for a while until some other faction got some new weapon and it all began again.
"All it was was a good old fashioned arms race and, meanwhile, it was us poor sods on the ground who suffered. If the Federation goes ahead and brings this on line it will cause all out war with the Romulans. They won't care if its a cloaking device or a phase shifter or whatever the Federation chooses to call it. All they'll see is a clear and present danger. The Klingons will be much the same.
"I say destroy it now and all records of how it was put together. Then tell Ro'. Let him and his niece to work out how to deal with the diplomatic side of things."
Suddenly Tell dragged Marie into a small alcove. "Dammit Marie." She told her. "Looks like those other two engineers are looking for their suits."
The 'other' engineers certainly were puzzled over the missing suits but were more worried about being late for their shifts. Tell looked at Marie and shrugged her shoulders there was not much they could do about it.
Marie had other ideas. "There you two are," she said brazenly. "We had to cover for you while the test was run. We missed our break because of it. It's all over now but you'd better get in there quick and take over."
They hesitated. One looked ready to say something in reply.
"Move it!" Marie barked.
They scurried off, one of them mumbling something about their own break. Marie and Hope hurried out of the suits and stashed them away.
"So much for the treaty." said Tell "The Feds are all mouth and trousers when it comes to what they want. Yet I suppose they want to develop something like this before the other sides do. Though why they can't share their toys ...."
Marie sneered. "Federation be damned. I give as much thought to the Federation as I do to the Treaty of Algeron – none! What did the high and mighty Federation ever do for Nouvelle Nouvelle Caledonie? I'll tell you what.... It hid behind it's precious Prime Directive and did absolutely nothing! Anyway, if we sit here and pretend we didn't see anything then we're condemning this sector to all out war. Or do you propose we wait and hope our Klingon friends will find out for themselves and thus relieve our troubled consciences?"
"It has its faults like every one else. Mostly they do their best to try and keep the peace between everybody. With out the Feds it would be a different place altogether. I'm not a fan of chaos, better the devil you know sort of thing but I side with them and so should you. Their the best apple in the bunch so far."
"If you're that touchy about protecting the Federation then tell 'Ro and let his niece put her vaunted diplomatic skills to use. I have changed my mind on one point though. We need to protect our backs here. If we blow the place up the Federation will deny this project even existed. We need to get hard evidence of Federation involvement. That way, when they try to string us up for treason, we have a bargaining chip."
"There is more to it than this I'm sure. Its under the umbrella of the Feds but I wonder who really is in charge."
As if that matters, Marie thought but deep down she knew it did matter. It could be some rouge element pushing their own agenda without official sanction. It wouldn't be the first time such a thing had happened. "OK," she said reluctantly, "let's go exploring."
"I think we should go and find the others first," she told Marie "Lets see what they have managed to find out. Better now than later, who knows what those engineers will say."
Marie just shrugged. It made sense. They might have already found useful evidence. Anyway, she doubted those engineers would remain cowed for long. Sooner or later – probably sooner – they'd work out that there shouldn't have been two other engineers on a break at the same time as them. Then they'd start asking awkward questions.
- Warning. Sample case I-09 is reaching minimum containment. Biological breach imminent. -