Distractions

Posted on Mon Jan 3, 2022 @ 1:58am by Captain Larisna Koralova & Lieutenant Rei Yamashi & Lieutenant Penny Mc Taggard & Lieutenant Jaro Antos

Mission: Mission 2 - A World With A Bluer Sun
Location: En Route to Typhon Expanse
Timeline: M2D01 1800 Hours

Following the harrowing situation in the border region between the Klingon Empire and Gorn Hegemony, the Hornet was reassigned to a survey and mapping mission. This was a far calmer change of pace, the Typhon Expanse was still ripe for exploration. A few days at Deep Space 4 saw the fitting of a pod fitted with long range sensors to aid in this task, and Starfleet Command was interested in seeing how well the Monarch handled this mission when compared to the Nebula class. But for the crew, it was just a lot calmer. Less pressure hanging on them this time, exploration did not hold such risks.

Naturally, this also meant that the transit time was also a good time for the crew to go through their day at a normal pace.

Larisna decided to take the opportunity after the end of the Alpha and Beta shifts to unwind in a favorite manner - a holodeck program set during dawn of the 20th Century on Earth, a frontier known as the "Wild West". Something she got into during her time at the Academy, it had many different ways to be utilized, but for today, she was back in the story. She dismounted her horse and tied it to a hitching post in a small muddy town, a hub for farmers and hunters in the area. Her attire matched the location and time, a blue shirt, black pants, dark brown boots, a light brown jacket and a black wide brim hat. She also wore a pair of pistols on her brown belt, one at her side and one across her torso. Her spurs clinked as she stepped off the muddy street and onto the wood sidewalk, approaching the pharmacy - a store that sold medicine that probably would trigger a tirade from most medical officers in Starfleet.

Larisna made a show of looking around the store as the other customers milled around, and once they completed their transaction, she approached the shopkeeper.

"Help you, miss?" The man asked pleasantly.

"Yeah, reckon ya can." Larisna said in a drawl that was practiced but quite out of place for her. The instructor she got the program from encouraged her to give it a try, made it more "authentic".

"I want ya to let me into the back room." She said, "And I want ya to keep it quiet. Ain't no need to make a fuss, unless you got a burnin' desire to see how well you can treat yer own gunshots..."

"I...I...I don't understand...why would you..." The shopkeeper paled.

"You've got some guests that I've got an interest in. Now, I'm fixin' on settlin' things with just them. But if you're wantin' to get involved, I can oblige ya..." Larisna said as she pulled the black bandana around her neck up to cover up part of her face with one hand and the other rested on the pistol at her hip.

"No...no trouble at all miss. But...they'd kill me if..."

"Well. If you excuse yourself, then they ain't gonna know it was you. Just open it up, say you left to get some lunch, and..." She heard the door open behind her.

"Aw hell. Now why'd y'all have to go and complicate matters..." Larisna spun around drawing her pistol up before suddenly realizing who just wandered in and snapped the barrel up. "Computer, freeze program!"

"Why did you freeze the program?" Amanda asked.

"I was coming in here to take a bath, it's awfully dusty on the Santa Fe trail." Amanda added.

"That would actually be done at the hotel or saloon in this era." Larisna explained, chuckling, "But I didn't realize you'd joined in. I try not to go brandishing weapons on the crew - bad for morale."

"Well I thought a drink was appropriate. How many saloons do I get to see? Put away your gun, I'm not hostile to you." Amanda said.

"Not quite the point. When you're fixin'...ahem...planning...to commit a crime of sorts, it doesn't pay to have witnesses." Larisna pointed out, "And the lawman's office is right next door. Part of the risk versus reward of this era..."

Before she could continue, there was the chirp of an incoming communication.

=A= Sakkar to Captain. =A= The operation's officer's voice came through.

=A= Go ahead, Lieutenant. =A= Larisna replied, her drawl now gone.

=A= Captain, we are detecting unusual readings at heading zero eight zero mark one five. Gravimetric disturbances and traces that could be some sort of subspace signal. With your permission, we can alter course to investigate. =A=

Larisna tucked the pistol back into its holster as she raised an eyebrow.

"The only thing out here is some system no one bothered to survey in depth. That's very unusual." Larisna said to Amanda.

=A= Go ahead and change course, Lieutenant. I'd like to see this for myself, I'll be on the bridge shortly. =A=

=A= Acknowledged, Captain. Bridge out. =A= Sakkar replied.

"Okay, we're going to have to do this some other time. I'll head to the bridge after I change. See if you can't rustle up Lieutenant McTaggart, I'm sure she's going to be quite interested in this find." Larisna said.

"Computer, end program."

"So much for having a little down time." Amanda said.

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

Penny sat at a table in the officers mess sipping on a mug of coffee while reading a PADD. Since their encounter with the Alameda. McTaggard had been going through all the equipment in the science department. Fortunately everything was working properly except for an electronic microscope. With a faulty focusing lense. She hoped it was something they could see to without calling in engineering. As Penny knew they were quite busy in engineering.

Putting her mug down she could see it looked like a simple sensor recalibration. Penny nodded to herself. Yes. They could do this. McTaggard stood and with a smile went off towards the science Lab.

It did not take Penny as long as she expected to get to the science lab. The task of fixing the electronic microscope was a lot easier then she thought. All it needed was a simple reprogramming. The lense was not faulty after all which was a relief. As Penny was not sure she could replace it after all her reading. Something nudged at her elbow.

“ Och Chara yer wee beastie your nay supposed to be in here. Do want me to get in trouble with Captain Koralova!” She said. A red faced Ensign came up to her.

“ Sorry I was taking him for some exercise an he slipped his leash.” They said

“ Try the one with the harness he can’t slip that one so easily.” She told them.

The Chihuahua gave a little growl as the Ensign picked him up. But it was all in jest as the little dog began to lick their face. As if to say sorry.

Once they were gone Penny continued with her task.


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

Antos hit the ball towards the wall and smiled satisfactorily as it hit the white oval shape painted on the far wall and quickly rebounded, heading towards him. He prepared to score another point when he felt a force knock him off balance, nearly sending him toppling.

He looked up to see Aiko grinning mischievously at him as she used her racket to hit the ball into the wall. "Point for me slow poke."

Antos shook his head with a mischievous smile of his own. He knew her hit was perfectly legal. In truth, body check was legal in the game of springball but Antos had been less aggressive on the count of not wanting to overpower his fiancée. He should have known better he supposed. Not unlike him, Aiko was quite competitive.

"So it's like that?" Antos asked as Aiko managed to make another clean hit that sent the ball into the other side of the wall, within the white oval shape.

"Yet another point...you gonna play or keep complaining slow poke?"

"Oh...you just remember you asked for this," Antos warned. His eyes caught the ball fast approaching Aiko and as fast as a cat he leapt in front of it, leaving just barely enough room to allow him room to wind his racket back enough to power it forward and hit the ball, which sent it flying into the wall, well within the scoring boundary...

Meanwhile, throughout it all, in the personal quarters of one Rei Yamashi....

The rabbitess had just sat down to queue up some recently transmitted footage of some sports programming from home. It went through all the scrubbing, all the data mining, and was verified as alright for transport outside of the Empire. That, and with her new promotion, she felt she was due for some relaxing and some nostalgia from home. She loaded up the data cluster, sat down with some snacks and drinks, and loaded up for some good ole relaxing...

"WELCOME BACK TO KINETIC!" the viewer announced, in a voice too blessed by synthesized voice to be legal. A pair of Ts'usugi were at the announce table, "Good evening, I'm Tai Demart, and I'm joined by previous all star Kinetic champ, three years running, Sabin Dirata." and the camera panned to the second rabbit, who had a grin only a dentist could love. "And welcome back to Kinetic, where the First Law, is the Only Law."

Rei was enraptured.

"Tonight's matchup is the culmination of the season, Inertia fans. On one side of the court are the all moon champions the Takish Nebulas. Their rivals for three years running, the all district champions the Zanark Flames." a well put together graphic showed the two teams in their uniforms, posing for the camera. "And what a match we have here tonight. Let's go to the field and check in with the teams."

The field, as it were, was almost the scene from a demolished building. Debris was everywhere for a field about two hundred meters, square. Pillars and walls that looked like they had suffered massive impacts, leaving craters in their wake as whatever it was continued on. The only things that looked pristine on the field were two pillars, almost a meter and a half high, with a glowing blue sphere hovering over it.

The reporter on the field interviewed each team captain, and it was all the same. Tonight, was their night. Tonight was the end of the road for the other team. Though the big question on everyone's mind was... was the team nervous about the ball limiter being raised to four? It didn't seem to phase them. Both teams were ready and they took to the field. Each team had a goalie by the glowing ball, and various members throughout the field. Each member wore protective padding on their head, shoulders, and torso while on their hands they wore silver gloves. Drone cameras flew around the arena, and a thin protective shield was raised near the spectators. The whole time, the crowd was cheering, until the chant begin. "Ball."

"Ball."

"Ball."

Even Rei was chanting it at this point. An official looking referee came in, and in his silver gloved hand, there was indeed... a ball. Chrome, to the point of a mirror finish, and slightly bigger than an Earth softball. "Tonight is championship rules, so the limiter is raised to four. Ready?" he looked to one captain, who gave a nod. "Ready?" he looked to the next captain, who gave a nod. Then, he released the ball, which hovered in place at about chest height. "Three! Two! One!" and then he ran off the field, and the two captains each made a grab for the ball. Their gloves didn't actually touch the ball, just hovered by it magnetically. A charge built up as the two wrestled against electromagnetism, and each other, for the ball. Then the ball shot out of their grip like a bullet, heading towards one of the arena walls and smashing into it. It bounced off at an angle, but what got the crowd going... what kept the crowd cheering... is that the ball didn't lose momentum as it hit the wall.

It preserved it. With each strike, with each bounce... It gained it. This blazing ball did not obey the laws of physics in any way.

Rei cheered as the match began, and as the ball picked up velocity she grew more and more enraptured with the sport. Eight meters per second, ten meters per second, a mistake could be painful at this much momentum. All that stood between disaster and triumph were expert deflections and expert teamwork from two champion teams.

The object seemed to be to guide the ball into the enemy goal, which would sap the kinetic momentum from the ball and store it in a battery. It wasn't about scoring points, it was about banking momentum. Once that battery had enough, that was the game. So a few quick and slow goals were playing it safe, but that's not what these teams were here for. Not what that crowd was looking for. Maximum velocity, maximum excitement, and a few goals at level four could easily win the match.

Welcome to Kinetic, where the First Law is the Only Law.

...

It was a grueling match, down to the last pass, and while there were injuries those were the risks of the sport. Block the pass, take the shot, but it's not about how hard you can hit. It's about how hard you can get hit. That's the sport of Kinetic, always about moving forward. At the end, though, there can be only one to take the title of champion. While the Nebulas fought fiercely, and gave it their all, the Flames came out on top. In the end, the captains came out to congratulate each other. One, congratulating the victor on a game well played, and the other, thanking their opponent for this night to remember. Bitter rivals leaving the field as ... maybe less bitter rivals. "And right there..." the announcer's voiceover intruded, "That's what Kinetic is all about: Always moving forward. That's our match for tonight. For everyone here at the Sunderdome, I'm Tai Demart and until next time... keep moving forward."

Rei sat there, having been on the edge of her seat for the last twelve minutes of the match. What an intense display, what a performance. "Hmmm, I wonder if I can start up a Kinetic league out here..." she mused. "Have to talk to the Captain first. Then the doctor..."

E'Lor was still in her own world on the holodeck. Walking through the Klingon streets and shops, reliving her heritage and enjoying some well deserved peace and quiet.

==============================================================================================================================================================
Larisna was on the bridge, back in uniform, and was already heading over to the bridge station that one of the relief officers was manning. Lieutenant Sakkar was also present.

"Alright, Lieutenant, what do we have?" Larisna asked.

"Sensors have detected a spike in gravimetric interference originating from what appears to be a system logged as J25-418Y. The system was mapped but not surveyed in-depth." Sakkar explained, moving aside to allow Larisna to look at the display.

"No prior history of these readings?" She asked.

"No, Captain. At this range, it would be impossible for any vessel to miss. This does suggest that the event is also recent. And highly anomalous." The Operations Officer pointed out. Larisna stood up and nodded.

"I told Commander Malloy to get Lieutenant McTaggert. This is worth the detour, Lieutenant. Maintain course and speed to J25-418Y. No sense rushing in and getting caught in something we don't need to be." Larisna said, heading for the center chair.

"I have also tasked the computer to extrapolate the source of the other signal we are picking up. It is artificial in nature, but distance may be degrading readings." Sakkar added.

"Alright, keep on it for now. Hopefully something turns up."

Commander Malloy walked onto the bridge about 30 seconds after the captain.

"Anything so far?" Amanda asked.

Larisna looked over her shoulder, "Is Lieutenant McTaggert with you? I'd really like to get her looking at these readings before too long." She said, "And alert the senior staff. May as well keep everyone in the loop as to why we're diverting course. Plus, with these readings, I'd rather be safe than sorry."

She then sat down in the chair. Back to work.