Nova Visitors (Part 2 of 5)

Posted on 23 Apr 2015 @ 7:51pm by General ('aj) JataQ & Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D. & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Petty Officer 1st Class Rebecca Williams & Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones & Ensign K'os Beaumont & Petty Officer 1st Class Unit Cu-47 "Copper"

3,105 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Galileo - Bridge, Main Engineering
Timeline: MD 01 - 1017 hrs

Previously, on Nova Visitors (Part 1)...

Robert kept his face neutral as he watched the exchange. He'd had his encounters before with Klingons, having fought with them in the closing phases of the war. He'd also picked up a smattering of Klingon here and there, a few phrases he'd learned.

"yIteb targh qaStaHvIS ghob, vI'elta'bogh ghob qaStaHvIS targh." Robert remarked.

Stace, at the assault of all the Klingonese, cleared her throat and not being quite adept at the language as the rest of her assembled team merely widened her eyes and smiled clearly. "Then without any further delay, let me introduce you to our science vessel. And a little of what it can do." She turned on her heel and led the party to the doors. "We'll start on the bridge, General, if you'll permit." The question was rhetorical as Stace flashed a smile and turned on her heel to exit the transporter room.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Deck 1 - Bridge

Nervously, Wintrow sat at helm control. He had corrected their minute drift and wondered how he could've let that slip. But he was nervous; he'd never seen a Klingon up close before and he was desperate not to fail. He was rather anxious not to appear weak in front of a species that carried so much weight on personal honour. But...he'd had classes with Oren, and he prayed that their quick studies had paid off.

The door to the bridge parted as the first few officers stepped out. The turbo lifts being as small as they were, and Klingons smelling as beastly as they did, Stace had split the delegation into two and used both lifts to enter the bridge. She stepped out first, waiting for both lifts to clear and then joined her second team at the centre of the bridge at the back by the MSD. She paused and allowed the Klingons to view the circular room in its entirety, turning around herself to look at it with her own eyes. "General, Commander; this is the command centre of the entire vessel. The bridge. Every essential system can be accessed from here. Would you care for a look around?"

JataQ, his large red cloak billowing behind him, stepped through the turbolift doors and into Galileo's bridge while his son appeared through the alternate turbolift doors on the other side of the command center. Both of them paused about five steps into the area to look around. Once again, it was an overly-bright room flooded by an undesirable amount of unnecessary lighting.

"An interesting bridge..." said JataQ in a low, grumbly voice while his dark eyes privately scrutinized ever design detail of the room. He was able to identify all of the primary stations such as the conn, Ops, and Engineering, but he could not for the life of him figure out where the weapons station was located.

"Where is your tactical station?" he bluntly asked with little regard for cordiality.

Turning, Wintrow glanced across the bridge hoping someone else would point out the requested station. Truth be told, he wasn't 100% sure himself since he very rarely even had bridge duty. So, he just simply watched the Klingons, trying hard to keep on a brave face and not feel intimidated by their sheer size and bearing.

When no-one did point it out, he raised his arm and pointed at a single console. "Over there sir," he answered timidly.

Stace led the Klingons over to it after the prompt from the cadet, and with a gesture introduced Gyce. "This is our security and tactical officer, Lieutenant Benice. She's taken over while Mr. Wyatt here accompanies us on the tour of the ship." Stace smiled widely and stepped back so that Benice could introduce herself properly.

"Sir," Gyce greeted with a dutiful headbob.

Stace smiled awkwardly and then turned her attention back to the Bajoran woman. "Why not run the general through what the Nova class can do, Lieutenant?" she asked, nodding to the Klingon briefly. "I'm sure he's interested to see what sharp teeth such a little fish can have."

Gyce almost launched into the whole explanation. And then it dawned on her that their little supply ship. Frigate really, might just be facing up against their guest. She was, as such, not keen on sharing the entire loadout, but instead gave a very broad answer that revealed nothing.

"Well Sir..." Gyce began, "we have a pretty standard ordinance package, given the ship's science capacity. Having said that, she's still very much capable of handling the most unique of situations."

Nevermind her phaser arrays and burst-fire launchers. Or the type of ordinance held in the torpedo storage bays. If she were facing off against this massive Klingon in a war game, then she politely started playing said game as diplomatically as possible.

Ko'daQ, a bit more interested in the fighting capabilities of the Federation starship than his father, quickly stepped in next to the Bajoran and looked down at the tactical console. He had never operated a Federation tactical station before, but was interested to learn how their targeting system interface operated. Without asking, he reached down and began to tap away at the colorful display, bring up various LCARS sub-menus while attempting to acclimate himself with the computer software.

"What is the maximum energy discharge rate of your phaser arrays while in combat? And what is your standard deflector shield emitter output?" he asked while continuing to navigate the console. "I wish to see a demonstration," he added.

"As we do not know the rules or conditions, much less opponents just yet Commander?" Gyce began with a very respectful tone. "It would be very poor judgement to display the tactical capabilities of this ship. I can say that our phasers fire 250 gigawatts of an electromagnetic energy per energy stream. How many per second and how long until constant firing burns out our main batteries? I am not at liberty to say at this time, with respect Sir."

Rebecca frowned as she watched the Klingon start to bring up schematics of the USS Galileo and her tactical systems. Her instinct was to move in and intercept; shutting down the screens but she knew that it wasn't her place to do this. She could only hope that someone else acted quick before the General's son gathered more information than he needed to know.

Allyndra glided over and putting on her most demure look, took the general's son by the arm. "I have been dying to talk to you alone for a moment, my people know very little about your culture but from what I have read it sounds fascinating perhaps you indulge me and tell me about it?"

Ko'daQ did a double-take when he saw Allyndra and her wings, having never before seen a species such as hers before. Her eyes were strange-looking and her figure appeared very lithe yet tall, and he was immediately distracted from what he had been studying on the tactical console. "My...culture?" he repeated. "What species are you?"

"Akkadian sir. We are not Federation members. Second in Command, you must be very good at your job. Come tell me more about yourself as we continue the tour." Allyndra guided the Klingon toward the turbolift.

Wintrow breathed a sigh in relief as the doctor guided the Klingon away.


Deck 7 - Engineering

Grayson was ill at ease, waiting about. Everything was polished, sitting ready. He had cautiously turned all MSD screens off and all other critical systems were displayed in screens in his office. So far he had spent the morning making sure his team were ready. Orders were given for some systems to be cleaned up, others to be locked down. Even the casing of the warp core had been given a quick polish, he felt sorry for having to give that order, it was no easy task.

Like a commander in chief, he stood in his office, overlooking the comings and goings of the crew, awaiting orders or notification the 'party' was bound to begin.

K'os was on the upper level organizing the specialists into their duty assignments. Tour or no tour, work orders didn't stop coming in for repairs. When the upper level was prepped and ready to go like the lower level, K'os made his way to the rail and looked down into Main Engineering and signaled that they were ready as well.

"All hands, make ready. They are a few moments out," Grayson called out, receiving word the party was on its way.

The young hybrid snatched up a PADD as he made his way back down to the lower lever. Along the way he checked on various teams of enlisted crew to see if anyone needed help with anything. Between each station he visited he hummed verses from one of the Klingon drinking songs he'd been memorizing. He didn't know what all the words meant, but it was an easy enough tune to learn.

"It's rather compact and as such, I believe, expertly designed to accommodate such a powerful warp core for its size," Stace could be heard saying as the large, rolling doors to Engineering parted revealing the diplomatic party. "Hitting a maximum warp factor of eight point nine five in an emergency."

JataQ -- his impressive cloak once again billowing with his movement and accentuating his large frame while also accompanied by his son -- moved into the tiny engineering section and paused to glance around the cramped room. The warp core appeared to be the epitome of Federation design, a large, glowing and pulsing column of matter/anti-matter energy, but it was hardly what he would have expected from a Klingon vessel.

"I see," came JataQ's curt reply while he surveyed the chamber. "And this...warp reactor. What is its power output? How does it produce enough energy to operate this vessel's weapons and shields while maintaining efficiency for your other primary systems?" he half-demanded.

Vermeer Talbot looked over at Grayson for a moment before looking at the Klingons. He was half tempted to go 'because it is more awesome than your technology!' but he knew that wouldn't be well received. And he sort of liked his throat intact. So...he kept silent.

Rebecca shifted in her position behind the group as the Klingon's questions once again orientated towards the ship's defense and offensive power. She could understand that want for this knowledge giving the upcoming competition and wanting to understand what their opponents would have but still....If the questions had come from anyone else they would have been escorted off of the ship before they even finished their question.

Up on the upper level, the Exocomp Unit CU-47 hovered just above the railing. His proximity scans had revealed the Klingon entourage before they'd entered Main Engineering and he wanted to check them out. Someone had decided at some point to paint green and black camouflage on part of his hull. More likely, the unit had done it himself. It wasn't certain though. On his holo-display, he projected a large flag of the United Federation of Planets that seemingly flapped in the 'wind'. If one was standing next to the unit, you might even have heard the UFP national anthem.

"Output stands and 2,000 Teradynes a second on an average day. More than enough to maintain all systems that we need as we need them. Grayson Jones, Chief Engineer. Welcome to Main Engineering." Grayson stood to his best, remained confident, professional and was doing his best to give out an air of authority over what was for now his Engineering Room. Any information he gave over would simply be enough to impress, but not give out any critical systems information. He continues, "Of course, we can augment this with power from the impulse fusion generators. Galileo may be on the smaller side, but she can hold her own." Not that he would ever admit in prolonged battle situations, from his reading of the database so far, Nova classes can sometimes be flying by the seat of its hull in terms of power distribution and management.

"I see," replied JataQ while he inspected the chief engineer who had just spoken to him. "Thank you, Lieutenant Junior Grade Grayson. And what of your computer systems? Do you use organic circuitry like other Federation vessels?" he inquired, referring to the bio-neural gel packs Starfleet had developed in the early 2370s.

"While unfortunately, I am unable to go into those specifics of the ships systems and their unique nature, I can say that the Galileo benefits from many of the most current and up to date Federation technologies," Grayson took a breath and smiled at all those around him. In an attempt to appease and diffuse any potential problems about withholding information, he continued with a very diplomatic, "Perhaps after these exercises, if the proper clearance is given, I would be able to discuss specifics further. Perhaps I can show another area of interest perhaps? A closer look at the warp core?"

"I suppose that will suffice," grumbled JataQ. He wasn't a man used to not being granted access to information, but he supposed Starfleet wanted to keep their secrets secret. "Show me your warp reactor."

"If you would follow me then," the Engineer began, "While a majority of the core is accessible here, it actually spans four decks of the ship. Further parts are hidden away behind the bulkheads above and below, mainly because, some say, they don't give off the attractive warm blue glow. Standard warp speed is 6, but we can push that higher if needed for periods of time." He took a breath, being a tour guide was never taught at the Academy, "The various status displays you see around here help check on the health of the ship in general and are programmed to display any inconsistencies to normal operating functions. All of which are alerted on a master ship display in the Chief's, or rather, my office over there," Grayson pointed to a medium sized perspex style window which looked out over Engineering.

As he watched Grayson escort JataQ towards the warpcore, he took the opportunity to hang back a bit. He watched as they left before turning his attention to Ko'daQ.

While his father spoke with the engineering staff, Ko'daQ had taken the opportunity to slowly wander around room and observe several of the consoles and display readouts. He looked towards the pulsing warp core once again, and in his peripheral vision noticed something at the upper level.

"What is that?" he asked, now pointing up towards Copper and the projection of the UFP flag. The Klingon had never seen an exocomp before and it at first glance it appeared to be some sort of robotic contraption he wasn't familiar with.

"That's Unit CU-47, sir. He's a sentient machine called an exocomp." K'os beamed a smile as he came up beside Ko'daQ. Though when he looked up at Copper, the the unit had fled. "Oh, I think he's coming down." K'os said as he did a quick mental map check on the junctions in the Jefferies tube. He turned towards one of the hatchways just as it opened and Copper came hovering in to join the gathering in Engineering.

"An exo-what?" Peering at the strange floating machine with intense scrutiny, Ko'daQ began to slowly pace around it in a slow circle to inspect the mechanical creature. "What does it do?" inquired the Klingon.

Copper like wise had started to hover and rotate with Ko'daQ, not feeling comfortable having him out of visual range. It was uncertain if this was part of the wargames, but if it came down to it, Copper was ready for whatever strange Klingon sparing ritual Ko'daQ might start.

K'os cleared his throat. He didn't like public speaking, but he had studied Copper and felt he was best able to answer his question. "He's a problem solver, and damage control unit. The uniqueness of his sentience and the use of his axionic chip network makes him the perfect tool for repair work. Adds to the efficiency of engineering by allowing him to work semi-independently on repairs while we focus on more specialized tasks."

"Interesting..." mumbled the Klingon who leaned in close to eye view the machine in detail. "And this repair drone communicates with you? Have you installed a language matrix into its subroutines?"

Within inches of the Klingon's face, Copper activated his mini holo-display and typed out the words, "Negative. Copper does not have subroutines. Copper has an axionic chip network. It is a neural network containing trillions of connections. Copper learned to communicate with flesh-machines by creating the correct network pathway to allow this. Copper is not a repair drone."

"It's sentient and competent, General," Stace cut in, wanting to stay a diplomatic incident between man and machine. She paused and then directed his attention away from Copper with a nod of thanks to him.

As Stace distracted Ko'daQ away from the exocomp and to another area of engineering, the Klingon cast one final glance back over his shoulder at Copper. "A very strange creature..." he mumbled to himself.

K'os watched as Stace whisked Ko'daQ away and he quickly walked to Copper to escort him away as well. He looked down and read the display before saying, "No, it's okay. Your words could affect incitement." K'os explained.

If that was the case, the unit thought. Copper turned as he typed something else for the Klingon to read, but K'os caught him and turned his attention back towards the jefferies hatch so no one else saw what he wrote.

"You can't type that either, Copper." K'os ushered him to the hatchway, but with a big smile on his face.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

General JataQ
Commanding Officer
IKS CharghwI'
[PNPC Saalm]

Commander Ko'daQ
First Officer
IKS CharghwI'
[PNPC Saalm]

Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy
Assistant Chief of Counselling
USS Galileo

Petty Officer 2nd Class Rebecca Williams
Commanding Officer's Yeoman
USS Galileo
[PNPC McCarthy]

Cadet Sr Wintrow Paragon
Helmsman
USS Galileo
[PNPC T'Vanna]

Lieutenant Commander Norvi Stace
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Luke Wyatt
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Benice Gyce
Security Investigations Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Grayson Jones
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

PO3 K'os Beaumont
Engineer's Mate
USS Galileo

PO1 Unit Cu-47 "Copper"
Damage Control Specialist
USS Galileo
[PNPC Beaumont]

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