OFF: sorry that it's so long, but it sure is worth your time!

ON:

<Science, USS Scorpion>

Thora was trying to get a grasp of the new equipment
and align them properly. She wasn't used to the new
controls and it had taken quite some time to get it
fixed. The problems were solved one by one but it
would have been a lot faster if she was used to the
interfaces.

At the end of her shift she was still in science,
working. There seemed to be some differences between
the data here compared to the ones she was used to.
Maybe they had come up with some new discoveries?
She would have to start looking at the stellar
cartography
info, could be some really interesting work. Exciting
times indeed.

She would probably have to wait though, she had other
duties as well and she would have to consult Gevran
about what needed to be done first. And maybe he had
already seen something new about this universe, he had
been here longer after all. She couldn't find him in
science and decided to take it up with him as soon as
she saw him, no important matters at this stage after
all.

She couldn't help but being a little excited about
what was to come, even though the trip here had cost a
lot of lives. They had to make it worthwile somehow,
not only by rescuing those left on the Tornado, even
though that probably would be enough.

She looked around and took a deep breath. She should
try and get settled in her own quarters, and then
maybe try a holodeck program that Fraiye had
recommended.
Her mind strayed to Knight and she blushed, she felt
ashamed for what she had said to him, sounding like a
little girl more than anything else. Who needed
holodecks to get emotions going when you did something
like that?
She shook her head to try and free herself from her
thoughts for a while and went to her quarters.


<< Thoras quarters >>

Her quarters were certainly more roomy compared to
where she had lived on the Talon.
She had a small window and a nice comfortable couch,
and 2 chairs. There was a bed and a few drawers to put
clothes in.
Not that she had that many civilian clothes with her.
Probably wouldn't have much use of them out in space,
or so she had figured.

She put up a picture of her family next to her bed and
a few of her paintings on the wall next to the door.
She sat down on the bed for a while and looked around.
It wasn't really a room where it felt like somebody
lived, it was like stepping into a room where someone
had randomly just put a few things and then decided to
call "home" for a while.
'Home is where you belong', someone had told her. Did
she belong on this ship or was it 'just' a job, a home
for the time being?
Well, it could be home, and it would be for
undetermined time.

She didn't feel like being alone, and asking Adun to
go with her for a cup of coffee would probably be a
bad idea considering how she had behaved the last
time. Maybe he was still mad?

And there was Alex in her thoughts again, smiling. She
gave herself a mental slap and regained some vulcan
mind control for a while.

Well she couldn't just sit in her quarters, work or
coffee?

"Computer, locate lieutenant Aturo Adun."
"Lieutenant Aturo Adun is in engineering."

She had some friendship to make up for.

=/\= Thora to Adun =/\=

=/\= Adun here, is there a problem? =/\=

Adun didn’t expect Thora to call him again, yet it
pleased him that she
did.

=/\= Yes lieutenant, are you working at the moment?

=/\= We're just laying the last hand on todays work,
what can I do for
you?

=/\= You can let me buy you coffee and not run away

Adun smiled, =/\= does the offer also count if i
prefer tea?


=/\= I will have to consider that for a moment
lieutenant Adun. Yes, request approved.

=/\= I'll be right there can you meet me outside
engineering?

=/\= Will do lieutenant.

Thora took a quick shower and slipped into a new
uniform, no use dressing up if Ádun was in uniform
anyway.
She took a quick glance in the mirror, found it
acceptable and went to engineering.

<Engineering>

"Ok people enough working for today" Adun said to his
crew, he already
saw
the other crews returning, and the two other
teamleaders handed over
the
PADD's as ordered. "It 's really fascinating, your
technology" the
stations
chief said.

"Any problems so far?" Adun asked.

"Well we have had some problem keeping on your tight
timescedule, your
configuration is very different then our own so it
takes little more
time to
comprehend it all, if we don't fully understand what
we doing there is
no
garanty that we do our job well."

Adun gave him a serious look, he was right somewhere,
most of the crew
working here were going to stay on Scorpion anyway,
yet giving them
inside
on all technology wasn't something Adun liked to do.

"As long as you do your best to keep the delay as
small as possible
Adun said, tomorrow we will have to run a extra long
shift to compensate for the delay."

Several ensigns grumbled on that statement.

"Dismissed" Adun said and headed for the exit of
engineering where he
first
put his PADD's in a locker.

When he walked outside Thora was already standing
there watching Adun and his team.

"Hello Thora" Adun said.

Thora nodded.
"Hello Aturo." She glanced over his shoulder at the
enigneers behind him. She walked a bit closer so that
they could hear her.

"Hello, I am the assistant science chief, Thora. I
will not introduce myself further as I am certain
lieutenant Adun has given you work to do."
Thora smiled briefly and looked at Adun.

"Are you ready to leave then?"

"Ready when you are" Adun smiled.

As Thora and Adun walked away several ensigns whistled
behind them.

Thora raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but smile as
Adun stared down on his feet. He seemed pretty
embarrassed.

"So, Qul Tuk then? I am certain the bar can provide us
with beverages without worms."

"He'd better, I didn't sleep very well last night
because of his crawling buddies."

Thora had felt no worms and was sure Adun was joking.
Surely they couldn't be alive.

<Qul Tuk>

They took a table at the bar, it seemed like there
were more people there now.

Thora went up to the bar and ordered a hot chocolate,
after some considering.

"Aturo, tea, Earl grey?"

"Yes earl grey please, I see you remember."

Thora took their drinks to the table, noticing Fraiye
talking to someone on the other side of the bar. They
seemed busy so she didn't want to disturb by going
there to say hello.

"How are the repairs coming along? You seemed pretty
busy?"

"We stopped repairs on the Talon after basic functions
were restored,
we are currently upgrading the Scorpion, which is one
hell of a job,
some parts of hardware have to be totally replaced,
and because
the engineers from this universe don't unsterstand it
all it takes
longer, so tomorrow an extra long shift." Adun said in
one breath.

"I see. Yes we've had our share of troubles in science
as well, I suppose it will all run smoother when
everyone is accustomed to the new ship."

She sipped her chocolate and instantly regretted
herself, she took a spoon and dug around in the cup to
find any traces of worms and then relaxed, it was ok.

Adun also took a sip of his tea, then he looked at
Thora. "Would you like to?" he asked with caution.

"Would what?" Thora replied with curiousity.

"Would you like to join me to run a holodeck program?,
to get away from the station for a while."

Thora thought about it. Could be nice to see
something else. Besides, she hadn't tried the
holodecks yet. And perhaps it would help her forget
Knight for a while.

"Yes, why not."

They finished their tea and chocolate and left for the
holodecks.

<Holodecks>

Adun got a programchip out of his pocket and inserted
it into the
holodeck
system.

“Computer, run program Horseriding 2.”

"Enter when ready"

Thora stepped into the holodeck and looked around in
amazement.
Adun had a program looking like earth, or very close
to it. The sun was shining from a clear blue sky and
the birds were singing among the green leaves.
A small path led through the trees and bushes and she
heard soft sounds beyond.

She carefully tread on the path and Adun followed
right behind her.

The sun was shining though the leaves, making the
world around them light green.
After a while she saw what was making the noices.

Two horses stood saddled with their reins loosely tied
around a slender tree.

Thora stared at them.
They were beautiful creatues, but she had no idea how
to ride them.

"Aturo, I can't..."

He hushed and led her to one of them, a brown mare
looking fairly calm.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, stand on the left
side of your horse,
then
take the reins in your left hand, put your left foot
in the stirrup and
lay
your right hand on the front of the saddle and pull
yourself up.”

He helped her up and she got into the saddle, taking
the reins Aturo handed her.

"How do I... steer it?"

“Steering is a combination of using the reigns and
your legs, if you
want to
turn right, softly push your right leg onto it’s flank
and take the
right
side of the reign gently of the neck while you keep
the left on little
tight.” Adun looked at Thora and saw she had quite a
good balance on
the
horse. Adun walked to his horse and got up as well.

“If you want to let your horse walk, press both your
legs in it’s flank, but don’t kick it, unless you want
to gallop right away,if you want to let
your horse move slower, lean somewhat backwards to
make yourself heavier and pull the reign towards you
slowly but stirn.”
Adun felt like his old teacher, yet he enjoyed to do
it.

The horses started to move at a walking pace and Thora
tried to get comfortabe in the saddle. It hurt in all
the wrong places.

The wind caught their hair and a bridge over a small
stream showed in front of them.

Adun falled into a trot and Thoras horse followed his,
and increased it's speed to keep up.

Thora closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. She
would go into a shuttle and start fighting a warbird
sooner than she would ride again.

After a while she opened an eye and saw Aturo grinning
at her. She immideately sat straight and took her
reins in a
faster grip.

"What?"

“You should loosen your muscles a little, shall we try
trotting?” Adun said and rode off.

Thora snorted and put her heels into the sides of the
horse to ride past Aturo.

The horse responded at once. The program was probably
set to a more skilled rider, and the horse shot away
at full gallop, with Thora clinging to the saddle and
mane with all her might.

She could hear Aturo shout after her, but not what he
said. She tried to get the horse to slow down, but it
seemed
to enjoy the run.

Her body landed on the ground, with the horse
disapperaring towards the horizon.
She lay still on the grass and felt bruised. She
stared at Aturo looking down on her.

Adun galloped behind her and jumped off his horse next
to Thora still
holding his reigns. He looked worried, “are you
alright?”

"Yes, yes Im fine." She got up and brushed the grass
of her clothes.

Adun looked at the horse in the distant, “shall we
ride back?”

"What do you mean, 'Ride back'? My horse ran away."

Adun extended his arm towards Thora, “Come on, you can
sit behind me,
the
saddle is big enough for two.”

"Are you serious?"

Thora got up behind Aturo and put her arms around his
waist. When the horse started moving she held on as
tight as she cold until Aturo started gasping.

“You don’t  have to strangle me” he chuckled, “try to
relax a little.”
"Oh sorry."

“I maybe programmed the horses a little too well, they
even react to
tension.”


She released her grip somewhat and they continued at a
slower pace, enjoying the surroundings.
If you listened hard enough you could almost hear
music and people laughing.
'Nice touch' Thora thought, but didn't say anything.

She carefully lay her cheek against Aturo’s back and
rested her head, watching the world pass them by.

Adun started humming a song, he closed his eyes for a
second and took a
deep
breath, he should do this more often in his spare
time.

Thora was surprised to see the change in Aturos
personality, he didn't seem as shy here as he normally
was. But then she was changed too, maybe she saw the
world from another perspective.

They rode alongside a river, Adun looked at the water,
“it isn’t that deep, shall we cross it?”

"Ok, you know this place better than I do."

Adun pressed his legs gently into the horses flanks
and steered it
towards
the water, the water was very clear and you could see
fish in it, and
various plants. As the horse stept in the water Adun
felt Thora shiver,
the
water was pretty cool.

When they reached the other side both their legs were
somewhat wet.

Thora tried to shake some of the water off, gently not
to scare the horse.
"Im all wet now" she complained.

“It doesn’t matter the sun will dry it in no time, but
it would dry
much
faster if we would gallop for a short while.”

"Gallop. Remember what happened last time Aturo?"

“Just hold on to me as you are doing now, and try to
breath normally.” Adun firmly pressed his legs into
the
flanks of the horse, the horse listened very well and
started
to gallop, a gentle gallop. At
first Adun felt Thora cling to his waist, but slowly
she
loosend her grip. They rode over a hill
and through a small piece of forest until they reached
a small ranch on the other side.

Thora was really impressed at the work he had put into
this. "This is really nice. Maybe you should consider
a new
career as holodeckprogramdeveloper?"

Adun let the horse slower down and stopped.

"It's a hobby of me, but it's not as exciting as
serving on a ship, but I'm glad you liked it." Adun
jumped of the horse and helped Thora off as well.

"Computer end program." The hologrid appeared again.
Adun streched
himself,
"That was nice, shall I escort you to your quarters?"
Adun asked. "It's on my route."

Thora raised an eyebrow, was Aturo a gentleman?

Adun walked Thora to her quarters, at the door they
stopped.
"Sleep well Thora" Adun said.

"You too Aturo. And thanks for today, I had a great
time"
Thora smiled and took Aduns hand and pressed it.

"Good night."

Thora went inside her quarters and fell asleep almost
instantly after going to bed.

After saying goodbye Adun walked to his quarters and
went to bed after taking a shower.

off:

long jp by:

Lt (jg) Thora
Ass. Chief of Science
USS Scorpion

and

Lt Aturo Adun
Chief of Engineering
USS Scorpion





_________________________________________________________________
MSN Zoeken, voor duidelijke zoekresultaten! http://search.msn.nl/

ON:

<Science, USS Scorpion>

Thora was trying to get a grasp of the new equipment
and align them properly. She wasn't used to the new
controls and it had taken quite some time to get it
fixed. The problems were solved one by one but it
would have been a lot faster if she was used to the
interfaces.

At the end of her shift she was still in science,
working. There seemed to be some differences between
the data here compared to the ones she was used to.
Maybe they had come up with some new discoveries?
She would have to start looking at the stellar
cartography
info, could be some really interesting work. Exciting
times indeed.

She would probably have to wait though, she had other
duties as well and she would have to consult Gevran
about what needed to be done first. And maybe he had
already seen something new about this universe, he had
been here longer after all. She couldn't find him in
science and decided to take it up with him as soon as
she saw him, no important matters at this stage after
all.

She couldn't help but being a little excited about
what was to come, even though the trip here had cost a
lot of lives. They had to make it worthwile somehow,
not only by rescuing those left on the Tornado, even
though that probably would be enough.

She looked around and took a deep breath. She should
try and get settled in her own quarters, and then
maybe try a holodeck program that Fraiye had
recommended.
Her mind strayed to Knight and she blushed, she felt
ashamed for what she had said to him, sounding like a
little girl more than anything else. Who needed
holodecks to get emotions going when you did something
like that?
She shook her head to try and free herself from her
thoughts for a while and went to her quarters.


<< Thoras quarters >>

Her quarters were certainly more roomy compared to
where she had lived on the Talon.
She had a small window and a nice comfortable couch,
and 2 chairs. There was a bed and a few drawers to put
clothes in.
Not that she had that many civilian clothes with her.
Probably wouldn't have much use of them out in space,
or so she had figured.

She put up a picture of her family next to her bed and
a few of her paintings on the wall next to the door.
She sat down on the bed for a while and looked around.
It wasn't really a room where it felt like somebody
lived, it was like stepping into a room where someone
had randomly just put a few things and then decided to
call "home" for a while.
'Home is where you belong', someone had told her. Did
she belong on this ship or was it 'just' a job, a home
for the time being?
Well, it could be home, and it would be for
undetermined time.

She didn't feel like being alone, and asking Adun to
go with her for a cup of coffee would probably be a
bad idea considering how she had behaved the last
time. Maybe he was still mad?

And there was Alex in her thoughts again, smiling. She
gave herself a mental slap and regained some vulcan
mind control for a while.

Well she couldn't just sit in her quarters, work or
coffee?

"Computer, locate lieutenant Aturo Adun."
"Lieutenant Aturo Adun is in engineering."

She had some friendship to make up for.

=/\= Thora to Adun =/\=

=/\= Adun here, is there a problem? =/\=

Adun didn’t expect Thora to call him again, yet it
pleased him that she
did.

=/\= Yes lieutenant, are you working at the moment?

=/\= We're just laying the last hand on todays work,
what can I do for
you?

=/\= You can let me buy you coffee and not run away

Adun smiled, =/\= does the offer also count if i
prefer tea?

ON:

<Science, USS Scorpion>

Thora was trying to get a grasp of the new equipment
and align them properly. She wasn't used to the new
controls and it had taken quite some time to get it
fixed. The problems were solved one by one but it
would have been a lot faster if she was used to the
interfaces.

At the end of her shift she was still in science,
working. There seemed to be some differences between
the data here compared to the ones she was used to.
Maybe they had come up with some new discoveries?
She would have to start looking at the stellar
cartography
info, could be some really interesting work. Exciting
times indeed.

She would probably have to wait though, she had other
duties as well and she would have to consult Gevran
about what needed to be done first. And maybe he had
already seen something new about this universe, he had
been here longer after all. She couldn't find him in
science and decided to take it up with him as soon as
she saw him, no important matters at this stage after
all.

She couldn't help but being a little excited about
what was to come, even though the trip here had cost a
lot of lives. They had to make it worthwile somehow,
not only by rescuing those left on the Tornado, even
though that probably would be enough.

She looked around and took a deep breath. She should
try and get settled in her own quarters, and then
maybe try a holodeck program that Fraiye had
recommended.
Her mind strayed to Knight and she blushed, she felt
ashamed for what she had said to him, sounding like a
little girl more than anything else. Who needed
holodecks to get emotions going when you did something
like that?
She shook her head to try and free herself from her
thoughts for a while and went to her quarters.


<< Thoras quarters >>

Her quarters were certainly more roomy compared to
where she had lived on the Talon.
She had a small window and a nice comfortable couch,
and 2 chairs. There was a bed and a few drawers to put
clothes in.
Not that she had that many civilian clothes with her.
Probably wouldn't have much use of them out in space,
or so she had figured.

She put up a picture of her family next to her bed and
a few of her paintings on the wall next to the door.
She sat down on the bed for a while and looked around.
It wasn't really a room where it felt like somebody
lived, it was like stepping into a room where someone
had randomly just put a few things and then decided to
call "home" for a while.
'Home is where you belong', someone had told her. Did
she belong on this ship or was it 'just' a job, a home
for the time being?
Well, it could be home, and it would be for
undetermined time.

She didn't feel like being alone, and asking Adun to
go with her for a cup of coffee would probably be a
bad idea considering how she had behaved the last
time. Maybe he was still mad?

And there was Alex in her thoughts again, smiling. She
gave herself a mental slap and regained some vulcan
mind control for a while.

Well she couldn't just sit in her quarters, work or
coffee?

"Computer, locate lieutenant Aturo Adun."
"Lieutenant Aturo Adun is in engineering."

She had some friendship to make up for.

=/\= Thora to Adun =/\=

=/\= Adun here, is there a problem? =/\=

Adun didn’t expect Thora to call him again, yet it
pleased him that she
did.

=/\= Yes lieutenant, are you working at the moment?

=/\= We're just laying the last hand on todays work,
what can I do for
you?

=/\= You can let me buy you coffee and not run away

Adun smiled, =/\= does the offer also count if i
prefer tea?

=/\= I will have to consider that for a moment
lieutenant Adun. Yes, request approved.

=/\= I'll be right there can you meet me outside
engineering?

=/\= Will do lieutenant.

Thora took a quick shower and slipped into a new
uniform, no use dressing up if Ádun was in uniform
anyway.
She took a quick glance in the mirror, found it
acceptable and went to engineering.

<Engineering>

"Ok people enough working for today" Adun said to his
crew, he already
saw
the other crews returning, and the two other
teamleaders handed over
the
PADD's as ordered. "It 's really fascinating, your
technology" the
stations
chief said.

"Any problems so far?" Adun asked.

"Well we have had some problem keeping on your tight
timescedule, your
configuration is very different then our own so it
takes little more
time to
comprehend it all, if we don't fully understand what
we doing there is
no
garanty that we do our job well."

Adun gave him a serious look, he was right somewhere,
most of the crew
working here were going to stay on Scorpion anyway,
yet giving them
inside
on all technology wasn't something Adun liked to do.

"As long as you do your best to keep the delay as
small as possible
Adun said, tomorrow we will have to run a extra long
shift to compensate for the delay."

Several ensigns grumbled on that statement.

"Dismissed" Adun said and headed for the exit of
engineering where he
first
put his PADD's in a locker.

When he walked outside Thora was already standing
there watching Adun and his team.

"Hello Thora" Adun said.

Thora nodded.
"Hello Aturo." She glanced over his shoulder at the
enigneers behind him. She walked a bit closer so that
they could hear her.

"Hello, I am the assistant science chief, Thora. I
will not introduce myself further as I am certain
lieutenant Adun has given you work to do."
Thora smiled briefly and looked at Adun.

"Are you ready to leave then?"

"Ready when you are" Adun smiled.

As Thora and Adun walked away several ensigns whistled
behind them.

Thora raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but smile as
Adun stared down on his feet. He seemed pretty
embarrassed.

"So, Qul Tuk then? I am certain the bar can provide us
with beverages without worms."

"He'd better, I didn't sleep very well last night
because of his crawling buddies."

Thora had felt no worms and was sure Adun was joking.
Surely they couldn't be alive.

<Qul Tuk>

They took a table at the bar, it seemed like there
were more people there now.

Thora went up to the bar and ordered a hot chocolate,
after some considering.

"Aturo, tea, Earl grey?"

"Yes earl grey please, I see you remember."

Thora took their drinks to the table, noticing Fraiye
talking to someone on the other side of the bar. They
seemed busy so she didn't want to disturb by going
there to say hello.

"How are the repairs coming along? You seemed pretty
busy?"

"We stopped repairs on the Talon after basic functions
were restored,
we are currently upgrading the Scorpion, which is one
hell of a job,
some parts of hardware have to be totally replaced,
and because
the engineers from this universe don't unsterstand it
all it takes
longer, so tomorrow an extra long shift." Adun said in
one breath.

"I see. Yes we've had our share of troubles in science
as well, I suppose it will all run smoother when
everyone is accustomed to the new ship."

She sipped her chocolate and instantly regretted
herself, she took a spoon and dug around in the cup to
find any traces of worms and then relaxed, it was ok.

Adun also took a sip of his tea, then he looked at
Thora. "Would you like to?" he asked with caution.

"Would what?" Thora replied with curiousity.

"Would you like to join me to run a holodeck program?,
to get away from the station for a while."

Thora thought about it. Could be nice to see
something else. Besides, she hadn't tried the
holodecks yet. And perhaps it would help her forget
Knight for a while.

"Yes, why not."

They finished their tea and chocolate and left for the
holodecks.

<Holodecks>

Adun got a programchip out of his pocket and inserted
it into the
holodeck
system.

“Computer, run program Horseriding 2.”

"Enter when ready"

Thora stepped into the holodeck and looked around in
amazement.
Adun had a program looking like earth, or very close
to it. The sun was shining from a clear blue sky and
the birds were singing among the green leaves.
A small path led through the trees and bushes and she
heard soft sounds beyond.

She carefully tread on the path and Adun followed
right behind her.

The sun was shining though the leaves, making the
world around them light green.
After a while she saw what was making the noices.

Two horses stood saddled with their reins loosely tied
around a slender tree.

Thora stared at them.
They were beautiful creatues, but she had no idea how
to ride them.

"Aturo, I can't..."

He hushed and led her to one of them, a brown mare
looking fairly calm.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, stand on the left
side of your horse,
then
take the reins in your left hand, put your left foot
in the stirrup and
lay
your right hand on the front of the saddle and pull
yourself up.”

He helped her up and she got into the saddle, taking
the reins Aturo handed her.

"How do I... steer it?"

“Steering is a combination of using the reigns and
your legs, if you
want to
turn right, softly push your right leg onto it’s flank
and take the
right
side of the reign gently of the neck while you keep
the left on little
tight.” Adun looked at Thora and saw she had quite a
good balance on
the
horse. Adun walked to his horse and got up as well.

“If you want to let your horse walk, press both your
legs in it’s flank, but don’t kick it, unless you want
to gallop right away,if you want to let
your horse move slower, lean somewhat backwards to
make yourself heavier and pull the reign towards you
slowly but stirn.”
Adun felt like his old teacher, yet he enjoyed to do
it.

The horses started to move at a walking pace and Thora
tried to get comfortabe in the saddle. It hurt in all
the wrong places.

The wind caught their hair and a bridge over a small
stream showed in front of them.

Adun falled into a trot and Thoras horse followed his,
and increased it's speed to keep up.

Thora closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. She
would go into a shuttle and start fighting a warbird
sooner than she would ride again.

After a while she opened an eye and saw Aturo grinning
at her. She immideately sat straight and took her
reins in a
faster grip.

"What?"

“You should loosen your muscles a little, shall we try
trotting?” Adun said and rode off.

Thora snorted and put her heels into the sides of the
horse to ride past Aturo.

The horse responded at once. The program was probably
set to a more skilled rider, and the horse shot away
at full gallop, with Thora clinging to the saddle and
mane with all her might.

She could hear Aturo shout after her, but not what he
said. She tried to get the horse to slow down, but it
seemed
to enjoy the run.

Her body landed on the ground, with the horse
disapperaring towards the horizon.
She lay still on the grass and felt bruised. She
stared at Aturo looking down on her.

Adun galloped behind her and jumped off his horse next
to Thora still
holding his reigns. He looked worried, “are you
alright?”

"Yes, yes Im fine." She got up and brushed the grass
of her clothes.

Adun looked at the horse in the distant, “shall we
ride back?”

"What do you mean, 'Ride back'? My horse ran away."

Adun extended his arm towards Thora, “Come on, you can
sit behind me,
the
saddle is big enough for two.”

"Are you serious?"

Thora got up behind Aturo and put her arms around his
waist. When the horse started moving she held on as
tight as she cold until Aturo started gasping.

“You don’t  have to strangle me” he chuckled, “try to
relax a little.”
"Oh sorry."

“I maybe programmed the horses a little too well, they
even react to
tension.”


She released her grip somewhat and they continued at a
slower pace, enjoying the surroundings.
If you listened hard enough you could almost hear
music and people laughing.
'Nice touch' Thora thought, but didn't say anything.

She carefully lay her cheek against Aturo’s back and
rested her head, watching the world pass them by.

Adun started humming a song, he closed his eyes for a
second and took a
deep
breath, he should do this more often in his spare
time.

Thora was surprised to see the change in Aturos
personality, he didn't seem as shy here as he normally
was. But then she was changed too, maybe she saw the
world from another perspective.

They rode alongside a river, Adun looked at the water,
“it isn’t that deep, shall we cross it?”

"Ok, you know this place better than I do."

Adun pressed his legs gently into the horses flanks
and steered it
towards
the water, the water was very clear and you could see
fish in it, and
various plants. As the horse stept in the water Adun
felt Thora shiver,
the
water was pretty cool.

When they reached the other side both their legs were
somewhat wet.

Thora tried to shake some of the water off, gently not
to scare the horse.
"Im all wet now" she complained.

“It doesn’t matter the sun will dry it in no time, but
it would dry
much
faster if we would gallop for a short while.”

"Gallop. Remember what happened last time Aturo?"

“Just hold on to me as you are doing now, and try to
breath normally.” Adun firmly pressed his legs into
the
flanks of the horse, the horse listened very well and
started
to gallop, a gentle gallop. At
first Adun felt Thora cling to his waist, but slowly
she
loosend her grip. They rode over a hill
and through a small piece of forest until they reached
a small ranch on the other side.

Thora was really impressed at the work he had put into
this. "This is really nice. Maybe you should consider
a new
career as holodeckprogramdeveloper?"

Adun let the horse slower down and stopped.

"It's a hobby of me, but it's not as exciting as
serving on a ship, but I'm glad you liked it." Adun
jumped of the horse and helped Thora off as well.

"Computer end program." The hologrid appeared again.
Adun streched
himself,
"That was nice, shall I escort you to your quarters?"
Adun asked. "It's on my route."

Thora raised an eyebrow, was Aturo a gentleman?

Adun walked Thora to her quarters, at the door they
stopped.
"Sleep well Thora" Adun said.

"You too Aturo. And thanks for today, I had a great
time"
Thora smiled and took Aduns hand and pressed it.

"Good night."

Thora went inside her quarters and fell asleep almost
instantly after going to bed.

After saying goodbye Adun walked to his quarters and
went to bed after taking a shower.

off:

long jp by:

Lt (jg) Thora
Ass. Chief of Science
USS Scorpion

and

Lt Aturo Adun
Chief of Engineering
USS Scorpion




__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More
http://faith.yahoo.com

ON: USS Scorpion
<< Commander Harris's State Room >>

John was going through the manifest and decided he speak to Juan Sanchez
=/\= "Computer, locate Lt Sanchez"
=/\= "Lt Sanchez is in the Mess hall"

John got up and left his room for the mess hall. He arrived a few minutes
later and saw a room full of people and Sanchez speaking to them. He
entered
quietly so as not to disturb the meeting, an ensign noticed him beside him
and was about to snap to attention and John put his hand on the ensign's
shouder and nodded his head indicating it wasn't necessary.

<< Mess Hall >>

After the meeting was over Juan was about to exit the mess hall with his
officers in tow when he spotted the XO. He snaps a salute as do the 9
officers standing beside him.

"Mr Sanchez" John nodded and returnd the salute.

Juan relaxes " People this Commander Harris he is the Scorpions XO and our
boss.

Commander these officers will hopefully be added to our security force. So
is there anything i can do for you sir? "

"I was just coming to see you about the security of the ship and how your
preparations were coming along. "

Juan glances around at the officers signals for them to wait over by the
memorial.

"It seems I underestimated the number of security personnel required for
a vessel of this size. We have been working around the clock clearing new
security officers as well supervisory staff needed to man everything. "
checking his data pad " We require a total of 30 officers and 150 enlisted.
So far we have 13 officers and 75 enlisted. Most are in training as we
speak. "

"I see, this is a large task and you are a very resourceful individual"

" I've been getting clearance from the starbase and verifying them with
intelligence as well as doing it the old fashioned way. It's slow sir. I
still have allot of crew members to clear for the vessel. The department is
swamped with work. Currently starbase security is supplimenting us until we
get up to full staff. "

"I'm sure we will get up to staff and I wish you all the best in doing so,
if you need assistance with anything, please let me know."

" Thank you sir. I'll keep that in mind. "

"I will see you later then" replied John

The two of them then departed and went their separate ways

OFF: A Joint Post by

Commander Harris
XO USS Scorpion
Marquis Alliance

and

Lt Juan Sanchez
Chief of Security
USS Scorpion
desh713@...



--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .

On:

<<Engineering, USS Scorpion>>

In order to speed up the upgrades Adun had given some data to study to his
team, he didn't  like to give them the insights of the techonology, but it
was required to work together.

"Today we are going to start upgrading the shielding according to the
M.L.S.S system"

"The what" an ensign said.

"Didn't  I tell you to read the PADD I gave you?" Adun looked straight in
the eyes of the rude ensign.

"Eh yes sir, I have, sorry sir."

"Idiot" an other ensign whispered in the ear of the one who spoke.

Adun didn't pay attention to it further and continued:

"The M.L.S.S system, Multi-Layered Shielding System consists of 3 layers of
shielding, the reason why team 1 is so big is because we are going to split
up in three and work on the 3 layers seperately, each team will have  a
leader who will work close to eachother."

Adun looked around to see if everyone was paying atention.

"The upgrading of the shields is a very delicate procedure and the three
teamleaders will make sure the three teams work at the same pace. Myself,
your Chief Engineer and you Assistant chief engineer will be the team
leaders, If anyone has a promblem, contact your teamleader, if there is a
serious problem, please come to me."

I will hand you over a PADD with detailed information of the shieldlayers to
the teamleaders. After each workingday the PADD's will be returned to me."

There started a soft mumbling in the engineering crew.

"Don't you trust us with the data sir?" the Station's Chief Engineer asked."

"It's not that I don't trust you or any of your men, I just want to minimize
the chance that the data will fall into the enemy's hands."

"I understand" the Chief nodded.

Adun handed the two officers their data PADD.

"Let's get working" Adun clapped in his hands, everyone reported to their
teamleader for further instructions, and 15 minutes later everyone was busy
and the sound of working people filled engineering.

off:

(note: for more info on the M.L.S.S. system surf to
"http://www.bravofleet.net/bravofleet/shelds-mlss.htm")

Lt Aturo Adun
Chief of Engineering
USS Scorpion

_________________________________________________________________
Abonneer je op de MSN Nieuwsbrieven van jouw interesse
http://www.msn.nl/services/webcourier/

<Science Office> Gevran finished his reports quickly, feeling a little
guilty about having left the calibrations to do them. They were as much a
part of the work of the department as anything else, but there was a
difference, and he wanted to be seen to be working for the people whom he
was expected to lead.

Finishing the last one, he was out of the seat and moving before the PADD
had reached the desk, and the door hissed open a shade faster than he did,
slipping through before it was finished the movement. Stepping along the
hallway quickly, he came to the turbolift and sent it on its way to
Astrometrics. He wasn't often given to impatience, but the transit seemed to
take ages as he waited to see the fruits of their labours, and he whisked
into the room with a wide smile that slipped when he saw the room was empty.

He picked up a PADD, noting the report thereon that said the work was about
eighty percent completed, and that had been over an hour and half ago.
Smiling wryly, he realised the work must have been finished in his absence,
and being in dock the department had taken a well earned break.

*Can't blame them.* he thought, realising how much work they had achieved in
a short time. *Well, I wanted to be here when it all went on line, but
that's what I get for choosing good people I suppose.*

Stepping up to the console, he viewed the large screen before him with a
smile. "Let's see what we've got then... Computer, display scan of Qul'Tuq's
control zone."

"Unable to comply, sensor arrays are off-line." Now, he was confused.

"Why?"

"Sensor arrays are currently being upgraded by Engineering."

"What!" *Why wasn't that on the work-schedule! Why didn't someone tell me
when they saw that sensor calibration WAS on the schedule for this
morning...* he fumed, turning to call up the records from the console.

"Borg enhancements! Like hell!" Sending the information to a PADD, he turned
and left the lab in more of a hurry than he entered, his face set in stone.

"Computer, where is Captain Aldous?" he asked, in the corridor.

"Captain Aldous is in his ready-room." He almost caught the doors of the
turbolift, having to twist slightly to pass between them, his eyebrows
plunging in the centre in a frown that made his vulcan heritage obvious, and
yet completely at odds with the expression.

"Bridge!"

OFF>



Lt Gevran Torm
Chief of Science
USS Scorpion
Maquis Alliance
GevranTorm@...
Steve_Hedger@...
Vanguard_4@...




_________________________________________________________________
Surf the Web without missing calls! Get MSN Broadband.
http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/freeactivation.asp

ON: <Engineering, USS Scorpion>

Sofia had just got her assignment from Aturo and she headed
off to see her group that she got assigned to head.

Sofia got there and said "Attention, everybody please assemble here"

Everybody stopped with what they did and looked at Sofia to see where the
voice came from and somebody who seemed to be the leader of the group
that seemed to me Mr Le Clerc who said "Yes, ma'am" and added to the others
"You heard the Lt"

Everybody assembled around Sofia who had her PADD in her hand. She have had
a brief look at everybody's background to see what they were best fitted to do.
She
had a thought that maybe she should use that leader to make the necissary
arrangements,
for spreading the workload around, after all he should be best fitted to do
that. She said:

"OK, I am Sofia Duncan and is your team leader, I have checked your backgrounds
a little
bit to determine which assignments you indvidually are best suited for, but I am
gonna let you
Mr Le Clerc decide on that for now since you know the group best"

Mr Le Clerc said: "Understood, ma'am. I will try my best. What is needed to be
done?"

Sofia remembered now that she had forgot to copy the PADD that she got from
Aturo
and had to tell Mr Le Clerc the orders herself

She said "I forgot to copy the PADD, but I will give you one later, for now,
what is needed
right now is that we need to continue the adjusting of the warpcore to this
unviverse"

Mr Le Clerc looked puzzled and said: "Why do we need that, isn't it already one
of ours"

Sofia replied "No, Mr Le Clerc, we decided to go with our technology on the ship
and adjust it
to your universe because it would take less time to adjust that way then the
other way around"

Mr Le Clerc hadn't thought of that and he nodded his head after thinking about
it for a little while.
"I guess you are right, we have not really seen the more advanced technology
that you had, what else"

Sofia said "There are odd jobs here and there, like checking and improving the
powercouplings here
in engineering, I will give you all the small jobs in the PADD within half an
hour"

Mr Le Clerc nodded and said: "Understood ma'am"

Sofia said: "Start delegating assignments and get to work"

Mr Le Clerc answered: "Yes, ma'am"

She went back to her station and start copied the information for Mr Le Clerc,
when
she was done she gave it to him and started to do her own work. When the shift
was
over she headed off for her quarters fast and hit the sonic shower and after
that she
was off to the Qul Tuq-station to do some shopping

OFF:

Lt Jg Sofia Duncan
Asst Chief Of Engineering
USS Scorpion
sunshinecoast@...

-----Original Message-----
From: Stanley Deshields [mailto:desh713@...]
Sent: Wednesday, 16 October 2002 4:14 p.m.
To: startrek_uss_scorpion@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ USS Scorpion ] Memories #16

ON: USS Scorpion

<< Security Office >>

 

    The reports were piling up and Juan was getting to be in a foul mood. He was definitely behind schedule and was being disturbed constantly by the influx of security personnel being cleared by the Marquis. Alex Knight had been screening people on the base and Juan knew that he had done a more than adequte job of it but Juan was used to a small department and a small vessel. Lt Smith had reported that at least one security team had gotten lost while on a routine patrol twice.

 

Juan sighed deeply as he finished reviewing another personnel file. Glancing at Lt Smith Juan grins " Hows it going so far? "

 

"Not bad sir. We have our security in place on at least 60% of the Scorpion. All alarm systems are operating. Patrols are out checking things out. Ensign Jiles has a team in training as we speak. "

 

Juan sighs " It's been a busy day. How many more security officers do we need exactly? "

 

Smith pulls out a data pad and reviews it carefully " At least 20 more sir. I have put a few possible prospects to the side for your review. They come highly recommended from the Marquis. "

 

"How about the starbase security teams assigned to assist us until we are up to full staff? "

 

Smith glances at Juan " Most of them have been replaced by our own people. Oh yes the brig is fully staffed, Armory is fully staffed and we have assigned patrols for all decks. "

 

"Once the new security personnel have been choosen and started thier training i'm going to see about arranging additional training with the medical and Marine section. Perhaps new Marine force can assist in the training of our people. The training would definitely help out. "

 

Lt Smith flinches slightly " I don't think that will be necessary sir. Most of the new recruits have seen combat or served on other vessels. "

 

" Your opinion is noted Lt Smith but you can never have too much training. "

 

"Aye sir. "

 

Juan grins slightly " I'll be back going to take a brief look around the ship. She is a fine vessel. Hell i haven't even been to my quarters yet. "

 

Lt Smith smiles " Hope you like them as much as mine. They keep treating me like this and i'll never retire. "

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<< Lt Juan Sanchez's Quarters >>

 

    Juan enters his quarters and takes a good look around. His belongings had been transported earlier and he still had unpacking to do. He was quite comfortable with his new surroundings. The place was much larger than his on the Talon and would take some getting used to. Sitting on his bed Juan leaned back and shut his eyes and fell asleep. It had been awhile since he had a good rest. The security precautions for the Scorpion had taken an enormous amount of time.

 

LT Juan Sanchez

Chief of Security

USS Scorpion

desh713@...

 

 

 

 

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
startrek_uss_scorpion-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

ON: USS Scorpion

<<Counsellor's Quarters>>

Fraiye woke up with a foul taste in her mouth and stumbled over to brush her teeth. She looked into the mirror with one eye, the other one refusing to open as yet. "What the heck did I drink last night?" she thought to herself. She stared at the relection for a moment to think. As she remembered the events of the previous evening her hand came up to her belly. "Ugh" she said remembering the 'wormdrink'. Surely it was dead by now.

After removing the remnants of the night before with her toothbrush and a quick shower, she got dressed into a fresh uniform. She sat down on the couch and then looked around the room. This was the first time she had actually stopped to observe it properly. She looked over at the bed and the floor right beside it. There was stuff sprawled all over the place. The items that were on the bed were now on the floor.

She couldn't even remember getting the last of her possessions into the room, let alone remembering going back to the Talon to get them. Maybe she had them transported.....How did she get back here even!? It was all a blur. "I have to stop being so adventurous with my drinking." she thought to herself.

Her thoughts returned to the room and she stood up to have a good look. It was rather spacious and bare, besides the mess in the sleeping area. She moved over and began to unpack her meagre possessions hoping for the place to feel more like home, but somehow it wasn't quite the same as the Talon. Maybe all it lacked was memories.

She sighed. After thinking back to everything that had happened yesterday she preferred to have a quiet one. One thing that was on the cards, was a good meditation session....."later" she thought. With that she headed out. What would 'today' bring her way....

OFF: Post by

Lieutenant Fraiye Ta-rot
Counsellor
USS Scorpion
ultimax@...
ICQ: 107297435
MSN: estera66@hotmail(chat only)

ON:

<<USS Scorpion>>

After sleeping for several hours Adun got up, took a shower and
got dressed. After yawning for several times and two cups of tea
it was time to get to work. He hand't slept very well because of
the worms crawling around, but they finally seemed to have died,
a disgusting thought. Improvements to the Scorpion went smooth,
the engineering team was very motivated, intstalling technology
they didn't knew before.

When Adun reached the engineering section, Duncan was already present.

"Good evening Duncan, you're early."

"Good evening, Aturo. I have planned to go on to the Qul Tuq and do some
shopping after my shift is over"

"Sounds nice. How did the latest integrations affect the warpfield, have you
managed to compensate for the different conduet configuration?"

"Yes, I have, that has not been a problem so far, however according to the
simulations that I have run, the speed issue still seems to be a problem,
but I know what to do and how to fix it, it just takes a little time" Sofia
said.

Aturo looked slightly surprised and said "Howcome that it's still an issue?"

"The thing is that we have taken our technology and adapted to the universe
instead of the other way around. I think it is the best idea because it
takes less time to adapt it that way"

Adun smiled, "Wonderfull isn't it" he said as he looked around at
engineering, with the huge warpcore in the middle. A slight shiver went
through Adun, this ship was really intimidating.

Adun called Alomar, Petrov and Ingross over for the roster.

Alomar, Petrov and Ingross went over to Adun and said with a unison voice
"Yes sir"

Adun scrolled through his agenda, "I'm going to work on the shielding with
the main engineering team, if you need more assistance here I'll see if I
can send some to you to help. "Alomar you are in control of team 3, you will
upgrade the sensors with Borg technology, Petrov you will do the
weaponssystems with team 2, and Ingross will be in charge of transporter
system and lifesupport, team 4 will go with you"."

"Today will be a major day, most upgrades are started, we have a great
security team, yet I want you to report any strange events or unknown people
being in the wrong place, no matter how good their excuse is, we can't
afford to have spies around."

"Yes sir, we will instruct our teams as well" Alomar said.

"Yes sir, you can count on that." Petrov added.

"Yes, sir" Ingross also added

They walked away to their teams, and Adun turned back to Duncan.

"The crew of the starbase are very curious about the Borg, they want to know
everything about them, I just hope they don't go looking for them."

"So do I, although we cannot be sure that there are Borg in this universe,
they might have never evolved so to speak, or been extinct, but if so there
are much more powerful beings around"

"Yes could be, if the Federation never invented the intrepid class, there is
no voyager, so species 8474 wouldn't be stopped by it."

"Perhaps the Borg never opened the rift at all, they haven't met the
Federation, so maybe they didn't have the need to expand to find ways to
beat and assimilate the alfa quadrant." Duncan replied

"I hope you are right" Adun said, Duncan had a good point there.

Adun suddenly turned around, an ensign was listening behind a barrel.

"What are you doing there ensign? shouldn't you report to your teamleader?"

The ensign quickly got away from the barrel. "Yes sir.. sorry sir." The
ensign said and walked away.

"I don't blame them, what would you do if two people would talk about
dangerous aliens you never discovered?"

"I know what you mean, Aturo. I hope to get a chance to unwind a little
here before we get off to our next mission. I mean like actually being able
to relax when not on duty." Sofia said with a smile and added
Maybe when we get on our next mission you can train me for the Asst Chief Of
Engineering job"

"Your training has already started," Adun grinned, "You'll get a team of 7
people, you have to tell them what to do and assist them if necisarry, I
can't think of a better training. I'll be nearby if you might need me, do
you think you can handle it?"

Sofia was rather surprised by that, but she realised at once that Aturo was
completly correct and said "I hope so, sir, and you are right, it is the
best training. Which team do you want me to lead?"

"You will lead team 5, here are their names and profiles" Adun handed over a
PADD, "Most of them are fresh from the Maquis academy, so you'll have your
hands full."

"Thanks sir"

Sofia took the PADD and started to read up on her people. She went back to
her station and continued to read

Adun checked if he didn't forget anything, then he walked to his team, he
saw that the chief engineer from the station was already making
preparations.

"Right on time sir," the other chief said, "Time to show us the tricks from
under your sleave."

Adun frowned, "Becarefull what you ask for, you might not like it." He said,
he saw that everyone was watching him, and the unpleasant thought of being
kidnapped for technology crossed his mind. He shook off the thought and
started working.

off:

A jp by

Lt JG Sofia Duncan
Assistant Chief Of Engineering
USS Scorpion
sunshinecoast@...

and

Lt Aturo Adun
Chief of Engineering
USS Scorpion
Bas_Veenstra@...

ON: USS Scorpion
<< Walking the ship >>

John was carrying the his gear to his new quarters, the door opened and he
liked what he saw, a large room and spacious in comparison to the Talon.
Although he did like his room on the Talon, this was a marked improvement
and he even had a window seat.  After putting stuff into place in the room,
John decided to discover the rest of the ship. He stepped out of his room
and saw Jim Hawkins coming toward him, he hadn't had much of a chance to
chat to him, so he thought now was good "Mr Hawkins," John said "How are you
doing" he extended his hand to shake.

"Hello sir," said Jim, falling into step with John.  "How are you doing?"

"Good thank you, please call me John when we are the only ones around, don't
see the need to be too formal"

"Ok... John," smiled Jim.  "And you can call me Jim," he added.

"So what do you think of the Scorpion? I am just doing a walk around to
familiarize myself now, have been a bit busy so far."

"Well, it's certainly impressive," Jim replied.  "But I served on the
Enterprise-E as its helmsman for a while, so it's not new to me.  It's
almost like being back home, in a way."

"I am upgrading from previous ships, I was on the Talon as you know and
before that an Akira class, this is a big step up from those ships." John
observed Jim to be a strong willed man and one of integrity.

Jim smiled at him as they walked.  He was heading to the airlock, to go and
see Alex on Qul Tuq, and he wondered if the Commander was heading to the
airlock as well.  "How have you been settling in then?" Jim asked.

"Well, I have only just brought my gear onboard, so you will need to ask me
that question again in a month or so. It looks like you are heading off the
base, I still have some exploring to do here."

"Sir..." Jim asked, and John stopped, looking at him.  "I just thought I'd
say that if you need any assistance with the marines, or Intelligence...
I've had some experience with both those areas in the past.  Feel free to
call on me."

"That is likely to come in handy, I will keep that in mind"

"Thanks Commander," Jim smiled.  The corridor to the airlock was just ahead.
"I'll see you later," he said as he went into the airlock corridor.

"No problem" John turned and headed the other direction to a turbolift


OFF
Joint post by:

Lt Commander Jim Hawkins
Chief Flight Officer, USS Scorpion
MAQUIS ALLIANCE
-------------------------------
URL: http//uss-scorpion.magickalmusings.com/
MSN: nzalan@...
ICQ: 4403192
-------------------------------

And

Commander John Harris
First Officer, USS Scorpion

Gevran made his way across the umbilical connection to the station slowly,
reading from the PADD as he went, absently acknowledging the greetings of
the people he passed. Turning right as he got into the station's concourses
he slipped into the turbolift, and muttered quietly as he changed PADD's.
"Command Deck."

The lift hissed away, the doors closing with a loud, mechanical *clunk* that
shook him from his reverie for a moment. It didn't last long, though, and
when the doors hissed open again, he was back in his reading, stepping out
into the hub of activity at the top of the station.

Alex was sitting at the XO's station on the main 'bridge' of Qul Tuq,
reviewing crew records.  He was trying to work out who the security risks
were likely to be.  He knew that Security would be doing the same thing, but
he was yet to trust them.  Until they proved themselves, he would do what he
could to make sure nothing happened on his 'shift'.

He looked up as the turbolift hissed open; he still hadn't gotten used to it
yet.  He noticed that Lt Gevran Torm, originally from the Tornado, had
stepped onto the bridge looking very distracted.

Gevran finished his piece, turned off the PADD and looked up, scanning the
room quickly for the senior officer. Seeing a Commander sat off to one side,
he headed in the direction.

"Sir?" he said, attracting the man's attention. "Lieutenant Torm, from the
Scorpion. I'd like authority to check the Qul'Tuq's personnel banks for some
science staff I think we'll need. It won't let me search without an
authorisation."

"Hello Lieutenant.  I'm Commander Alex Knight.  I'd be happy to organise
authorisation for you," he smiled.  "It's good to see that your eyes have
healed."  As he said that, Gevran realised his voice sounded familiar.

"Thank you, sir... " he said, making to turn away, and pausing. "Sir, have
we met before? I have the strangest feeling I recognise your voice."

"Yes...  I was the Chief of Intelligence on the Talon.  You probably
remember me talking when we were at the executive meeting on that ship."

"Ah..." he said, with a sigh. "That would explain it. Well, you certainly
seem to have made a step up." he replied, gesturing to the station about
them. There was also the small matter of having left Intelligence, but it
probably wasn't polite to mention that.
Alex smiled.  "Come on, let's go work on that authorisation."  He led Gevran
over to the security station.  "I'm only going to allow you access to the
science staff records, I'm sorry.  Unless you think there's anything else
you'll need?"

"Well, it's unlikely. Could you give me access to the records of all staff
with scientific degrees, instead? I need a scientific engineer and a
materials scientist. They could well be working in Engineering somewhere."

Nodding, Alex pressed a button on the console.  "Computer, compile records
of Qul Tuq personnel with science and engineering degrees."  The computer
beeped it's compliance and instantly a long list of personnel were listed on
the display.  Alex stepped aside so Gevran could look at it.

Cycling quickly through the list, Gevran couldn't help but feel a little
uncomfortable at the figure peering over his shoulder as though he couldn't
be trusted. Of course, you didn't say that to a senior officer, but he felt
his neck craning in between his shoulder-blades as he continued.

"Well, sir, it appears that you are as short of scientific engineers as we
are. I'll request a few transfers, not as many as I'd like but I don't want
to leave your own science department short-staffed." He stood up, almost
brushing against Knight as he did so, forcing himself not to deviate around
the man.

"I'll organise for this list to be transferred to your station on the
Scorpion if you like.  It'd probably make things easier for you than to work
with it here."  Alex smiled at him.

"Thank you sir." *Trying to get rid of me so soon?* he thought. *Perhaps
you've not left enough of intelligence behind after all. Scared I might see
something I shouldn't? Learn something?* Smiling benevolently, reasonably
sure that his own expresssion came as far short of genuine as the Commanders
did, he stepped away with a nod. "If there's nothing else then, Sir?"

"Is there anything else I can do to help out?" Alex asked, curious as to why
the man had suddenly become so tense.

"No, thank you, Sir. This was all I came for." *And now I'd just like to get
away, unless you have a thumbscrew you'd like to apply? A rack perhaps?*

Alex was wondering what was going on.  The Science officer's jaw had
hardened, and his temple was pulsating with increased blood flow.  SIgns of
rising tension and stress, Alex thought.  He observed the Lieutenant for a
few seconds and then nodded, gesturing to the door.  "Glad to be of help,"
he said with a smile.

Alex watched him leave, walking very stiffly.  He didn't know what that was
all about, but it seemed that when he wasn't letting the man work on the
console by himself, he started getting stressed.  He frowned, wondering at
the implications.  He decided to keep an eye on Lieutenant Gevran Torm.

Gevran, for his part, returned to the ship with the intent of reviewing the
list, but as he walked the conversation played over and over in his mind
until, once on board, he returned to his quarters instead. Flinging himself
backward on to the bed, closing his eyes - which eased the slight headache a
little - he spoke.

"Computer, personal log...

What the hell is it with Intelligence officers?

Damn it, I'm a StarFleet Officer with an unblemished record, I don't deserve
to have the Major-Domo of paranoia staring over my shoulder to see what I
make of the information to which he limited me in the first place. What the
hell were StarFleet thinking when they created that branch.

A step away from Black Operations and that... what was it they called that,
last year. Section 13. Our worst nightmare - a unit designed to be unknown
even to ourselves. For all the human dominance in StarFleet's upper
echelons, they seem to forget their own lessons. Power corrupts, and
absolute power corrupts absolutely. What could be closer to absolute power
than a mandate to do what you think without anyone knowing who you are.

The sooner we grow out of this phase of secrecy, the better off we'll be..."

Lt Gevran Torm
Chief of Science
USS Scorpion
Maquis Alliance
Steve_Hedger@...
GevranTorm@...
Vanguard_4@...

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos:
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx

ON>
Having finished his log entry, Gevran sat frowning for a while at the
console, trying to rationalise what he was thinking, what he might be
feeling, but every time he found his thoughts turning around to the Tornado,
and that was not somewhere he wanted to go. Forcing himself to stand he
grabbed up the PADD with the new crew from the table and headed out the
door, intent on heading to his office to continue work.

That, however, hadn't settled his mind any before he had gone to the
station, and he saw no reason why it might settle him any more now. Instead,
after checking with the computer, he headed down to Astrometrics and
Lieutenant Thora.

"Lieutenant?" he called, quietly, as he entered. "Are you there? Are you
ready for the calibrations this morning?"

Thora had been studying the new controls and interfaces in Astrometrics and
was amazed at the efficiency and performance. This was something completely
different from the Talon.

She heard someone speak and saw her new chief of science.

"I am here lieutenant" Thora walked up to Gevran and extended her hand.

"I am glad to see your eyesight is improving, and yes, I am ready to get to
work lt."

"Excellent, and thank you. I'm still having a little trouble changing focus
quickly, but that will come back soon the Doctor assures me.

I've just been across to the Qul'Tuq to arrange for some new personnel,
though we're still going to be short in Earth Sciences and Scientific
Engineering. The chances of getting an Anthropology and Archaeology officer
are pretty slim, too.

However, we should have enough to get along, and we can train some people up
across branches if we need to. What I came to see you about was... when I
first came on board you were listed as the Astrometrics officer. Now you're
listed as Assistant Science Chief, which was not my doing. I just wanted you
to know that I had intended on coming to ask you before the decision was
made anyway. I've had a brief look at your file, there wasn't a great deal
of time for anything more I'm afraid, but it looks impressive.

I've not been in service a great deal longer than you, and only fortune and
a small science department made me Chief of Science on the Tornado, so...
although I'm technically head of department, I'd like to try and think of us
as equals in this, as far as possible?"

Thora listened and nodded, and tried to answer the questions from the
beginning.

"Yes, that is correct. I was assigned to Astrometrics at first, but got
reassigned to assistant chief shortly after. As you said, there isn't a lot
of staff.

I am sure we can make the department work with a minimum of staff however,
the equipment seems very efficient."

Thora motioned to a PADD she was holding with the manuals of the sciencelab
equipment and controlpanels.

"I will do my best to meet your expectations of me. I am glad to hear you
considered me as your assistant before we had the chance to discuss matters
further.

I have not had much experience working in the sciencelab, except from
Astrometrics then, and the brief time as chief science officer at the Talon.
But equals sounds excellent to me."

Thora smiled briefly.

"Shall we begin with the calibrations?"

"Indeed, let's get everything set up, and see where it takes us..."

Off> JP courtesy of...


Lt Gevran Torm
Chief of Science
USS Scorpion
Maquis Alliance
GevranTorm@...
Steve_Hedger@...
Vanguard_4@...

and

Lt (JG) Thora
Ass. chief of science
USS Scorpion
emeliew@...


_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos:
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Howard [mailto:nzalan@...]
Sent: Monday, 14 October 2002 10:14 p.m.
To: USS Scorpion
Subject: [ USS Scorpion ] New Beginnings #10


ON: USS Scorpion
  << Hawkins' quarters >>


Jim finished putting his uniform on and made sure everything was
perfect.  He looked at himself in the mirror.  He leant closer to the
mirror and looked in his eyes...  He saw something spinning, and he
frowned.  It was in his pupils, reflected in the mirror.  Suddenly he
realised what the spinning was.

He was in the lifepod, looking out the window.  Captain Barton was at
the controls, trying to stabilise it as it was shooting away from the
remains of the Tornado.  Jim could see parts of the ship being blown
off, and there, close enough that he could almost touch them, was Amber
Jade...  She was spinning around, arms and legs outstretched, with a
look of horror frozen on her face.  Dead.

With a snap, he was back in his quarters, and there were tears running
down his face.  The person he'd known the longest...  the person he had
wanted to know more.  Gone.  Like all the rest of them.  Gone.  All of
them dead.  Most of them dying slow enough to realise what was
happening.

With an anguished groan, he leant on the chair in front of the desk, and
then before he knew it, he'd grabbed it and with a yell he threw it at
the mirror.  It exploded as the metal chair smashed into it, and glass
flew around the room.  He collapsed, sitting down on his bed, holding
his head in his hands.  He couldn't get the image of Amber out of his
mind.  He'd been trying to block it out, trying to ignore it, but she
was back.  All he could see was her spinning face, looking at him,
accusing him.

Fraiye made her way to her quarters on the Scorpion, she had decided to
make two trips with all of her possessions. After placing the items on
the bed she looked around the spacious room and decided to unpack it
later. She headed out back to the main airlock to retrieve the rest of
her stuff.

As she opened the door, Hawkins was standing there.  His face looked
grimy... as if he'd been crying.  His eyes were red, and there was blood
on his knuckles on his right hand.

"Lt Hawkins, what happened to you?"

"I...  I think I need to talk to you..." he muttered.

Fraiye looked around, "Would you like to talk here or somewhere more
private?"

He looked around.   "Your quarters is fine counsellor," he said.  "If
that's ok with you," he added, realising it might not be appropriate.

"Sure, that will be fine." She turned around and headed back to her
quarters with Hawkins in tow. The two didn't exchange conversation until
they were inside. "Please have a seat," she said to him.

"Thanks," he said, slumping down onto her couch.  He looked at the
floor.  Now that he was here, he didn't know what to say.

Fraiye sat opposite him and waited for him to say something, after all
it was he who wanted to talk to her.

Jim realised she wasn't saying anything, and he looked up at her.  She
was sitting there, and smiled when he looked at her.  He realised this
wasn't what he wanted.  He was attracted to her, and now....  how could
he tell her all his problems when he wanted to...

He blushed.

Gathering himself together, he sat up straight.  "Counsellor...." he
began.  "I....  thank you for letting me talk to you.  I feel much
better now."  He gave her a half smile and then stood up.

Fraiye stood up with him, "Lieutentant, I can only guess what is going
on inside your mind right now, but I assure you, that talking about it
may be the best thing right now."

"I really should... err... I should talk to someone else I think."

"Do you have a problem with me sir?"

"No counsellor," said Jim, looking very sad.  "It's just..." He looked
lost for words.

"I won't bite you, I promise." she said with a sheepish expression.

He sat back down again, and decided to just let it all out.
"Counsellor...  I thought I was able to handle the Tornado...  uhh...
incident.  But I don't think I'm handling it very well.  And I just
realised that I'm...  ummm...  attracted to you..."  He sneaked a look
at her, but she was just looking back at him.   "I'm not sure it's
appropriate I talk to you, considering how I feel."  He slumped even
further into his seat, wondering what would happen now.

Fraiye raised her hand to her chin and stood there silently thinking.
She wondered about how a man who was obviously so distressed about the
death of his friends could be thinking about being attracted to her at
the same time. After a little while she answered him. "I am capable of
keeping this conversation on a professional level. Your attraction to me
should have no bearing on how you feel about the incident on the
Tornado."

He nodded, feeling a little relieved.  He thought for a moment on what
had happened only a short while ago.  "I had a friend on the Tornado...
someone who I worked with on DS9.  Well, I didn't really work with
her...  but we knew each other."  He realised he was rambling, and
stopped to gather his thoughts. "She was the last person I saw as I was
in the lifepod escaping from the Tornado...  she was...  she was in
space...  without a suit...  she was... she was dead."  Jim looked up at
her, tears on his cheeks again. "I can't get it out of my mind, seeing
her like that..."

Fraiye moved over to him and motioned for him to sit down, which he did
and she sat next to him. "That is not a pleasant memory at all." she
said softly.  "Can you tell me a bit about her?"

Jim sighed heavily, not really wanting to talk about her, but knowing he
had to.  "Well... she was young, and beautiful.  She'd been working in
Intel, in administration for a while, on DS9.  Then she wanted to be a
field agent, so she joined the Tornado as my assistant...  I was the
chief of intelligence on the Tornado...  and I really wanted to get to
know her more, but...  now she's dead and...." He stopped, and took a
deep breath.

Fraiye patted him on the back gently. "If you need to cry, then let it
out."

"I've already cried," he said quietly.  "It doesn't do any good.  It
helps later, I know, but not right now.  Now it's too close."

"I can't imagine how this must hurt you, but I can understand your
pain."

"How can you understand the pain?" Jim asked.  "Have you seen your
friend floating past in space moments before they exploded due to
decompression!!"

"Lt, that is not quite what I meant, I am sorry. I am here to help you,
not aggrivate you." Fraiye looked down at the floor.

Jim took in a breath and held it for a moment, before releasing it
slowly.  "I'm sorry counsellor....  I know what you're here for...  what
I'm here for."  He stood up and walked over to the window, looking out
at the interior of Qul Tuq.

"In the past, I've dealt with it by talking to other marines.  Sharing
our memories of those we knew before they were killed.  But here...  all
the other marines are dead too...."  He almost lost it again, but
controlled himself.  "Nearly everyone I was close to on that ship... All
of them died.  Or on the other side of the wormhole..."  Suddenly he
remembered his closest friend, who he hadn't even thought of until now.
With a curse, he slammed his hands down onto the window sill.

He turned around and faced her again.  "Counsellor, thank you.  I know
what I need to do...  I need to talk to another marine about this,
someone who really understands."  He looked at her face as he said that,
and saw her expression fall.

Walking quickly over to her, he held her hand.  "Hey, I'm sorry...  I
didn't mean it like that.  I just need to talk to someone who's been in
battle, who's seen it all and dealt with it."  He smiled at her.
"Really...  thank you for letting me talk to you."

Fraiye stood there stunned. She was for a loss of words.
"That...is....ok" she stammered out as he walked out of the room. "If
you feel the need to talk again, I am here," she called out before the
door closed behind him.


OFF
Joint post by


Lt Commander Jim Hawkins
Chief Flight Officer, USS Scorpion
MAQUIS ALLIANCE
-------------------------------
URL: http//uss-scorpion.magickalmusings.com/
MSN: nzalan@...
ICQ: 4403192
-------------------------------

And

Lieutenant Fraiye Ta-rot
Counsellor, USS Scorpion
ultimax@...
ICQ: 107297435
MSN: estera66@hotmail (chat only)



To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
startrek_uss_scorpion-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

-----Original Message-----
From: Bas Veenstra [mailto:Bas_veenstra@...]
Sent: Monday, 14 October 2002 10:04 p.m.
To: startrek_uss_scorpion@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ USS Scorpion ] New beginnings #9




<<Promenade, Qul Tuk station>>

Adun slowly walked away from the promenade, *why did she do this?*  he
thought, asking him out and then suddenly leave to with Knight. *I could

have known, the way Knight looked at Thora earlier.* Yet it was rude to
leave Adun behind like that, *Would Knight have planned this?, or was it
a
Vulcan way to show someone to back off.* Adun didn't know what to think
anymore, his thoughts were all clouded.

Adun didn't great anyone on the promenade and walked straight for the
USS
Scorpion, his shift was only going to start in 10 hours, but he felt he
had
nothing more to do on the promenade, so why don't go to work?

Adun shortly greeted the security officers on the way to the Scorpion,
took
his engineering kit and beemed over to the Scorpion. Upgrades were
comming
along fine, they had already made a great step in the upgrades against
the
Dominion, they would start in two days on the improvements which
originated
from combat against the Borg. Adun was glad the Borg hadn't been
discovered
here yet.

Adun managed to focus on his work, partially forgetting his incident
with
Thora for a while, yet he wasn't his cheery self. Several engineers came
by
from time to time to ask his opion or view on a matter, Adun replied
short
and when he almost snarled at someone Adun came back to his senses.
"Sorry
ensign," he said to the surprised ensign. "Your shift isn't going to
start
in 10 hours sir, why don't you take your time off."

"You're probably right" Adun said, he closed his toolkit, said a short
goodbye and headed back to the station. He couldn't help to give a short

glance at the table were Thora and Knight were, yet it was now empty.
Thora
had really touched him on a weak spot, he hadn't felt like this in a
very
long time, and wasn't sure how to handle it.

He stood there for a while, then he walked back in the direction of the
Talon, he still hadn't brought his stuff over to the Scorpion.

off:

Lt Aturo Adun
Chief of Engineering
USS Scorpion




_________________________________________________________________
Meld je aan bij de grootste e-mailservice ter wereld met MSN Hotmail:
http://www.hotmail.com/nl



To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
startrek_uss_scorpion-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

ON: USS Scorpion
  << Hawkins' quarters >>


Jim finished putting his uniform on and made sure everything was
perfect.  He looked at himself in the mirror.  He leant closer to the
mirror and looked in his eyes...  He saw something spinning, and he
frowned.  It was in his pupils, reflected in the mirror.  Suddenly he
realised what the spinning was.

He was in the lifepod, looking out the window.  Captain Barton was at
the controls, trying to stabilise it as it was shooting away from the
remains of the Tornado.  Jim could see parts of the ship being blown
off, and there, close enough that he could almost touch them, was Amber
Jade...  She was spinning around, arms and legs outstretched, with a
look of horror frozen on her face.  Dead.

With a snap, he was back in his quarters, and there were tears running
down his face.  The person he'd known the longest...  the person he had
wanted to know more.  Gone.  Like all the rest of them.  Gone.  All of
them dead.  Most of them dying slow enough to realise what was
happening.

With an anguished groan, he leant on the chair in front of the desk, and
then before he knew it, he'd grabbed it and with a yell he threw it at
the mirror.  It exploded as the metal chair smashed into it, and glass
flew around the room.  He collapsed, sitting down on his bed, holding
his head in his hands.  He couldn't get the image of Amber out of his
mind.  He'd been trying to block it out, trying to ignore it, but she
was back.  All he could see was her spinning face, looking at him,
accusing him.

Fraiye made her way to her quarters on the Scorpion, she had decided to
make two trips with all of her possessions. After placing the items on
the bed she looked around the spacious room and decided to unpack it
later. She headed out back to the main airlock to retrieve the rest of
her stuff.

As she opened the door, Hawkins was standing there.  His face looked
grimy... as if he'd been crying.  His eyes were red, and there was blood
on his knuckles on his right hand.

"Lt Hawkins, what happened to you?"

"I...  I think I need to talk to you..." he muttered.

Fraiye looked around, "Would you like to talk here or somewhere more
private?"

He looked around.   "Your quarters is fine counsellor," he said.  "If
that's ok with you," he added, realising it might not be appropriate.

"Sure, that will be fine." She turned around and headed back to her
quarters with Hawkins in tow. The two didn't exchange conversation until
they were inside. "Please have a seat," she said to him.

"Thanks," he said, slumping down onto her couch.  He looked at the
floor.  Now that he was here, he didn't know what to say.

Fraiye sat opposite him and waited for him to say something, after all
it was he who wanted to talk to her.

Jim realised she wasn't saying anything, and he looked up at her.  She
was sitting there, and smiled when he looked at her.  He realised this
wasn't what he wanted.  He was attracted to her, and now....  how could
he tell her all his problems when he wanted to...

He blushed.

Gathering himself together, he sat up straight.  "Counsellor...." he
began.  "I....  thank you for letting me talk to you.  I feel much
better now."  He gave her a half smile and then stood up.

Fraiye stood up with him, "Lieutentant, I can only guess what is going
on inside your mind right now, but I assure you, that talking about it
may be the best thing right now."

"I really should... err... I should talk to someone else I think."

"Do you have a problem with me sir?"

"No counsellor," said Jim, looking very sad.  "It's just..." He looked
lost for words.

"I won't bite you, I promise." she said with a sheepish expression.

He sat back down again, and decided to just let it all out.
"Counsellor...  I thought I was able to handle the Tornado...  uhh...
incident.  But I don't think I'm handling it very well.  And I just
realised that I'm...  ummm...  attracted to you..."  He sneaked a look
at her, but she was just looking back at him.   "I'm not sure it's
appropriate I talk to you, considering how I feel."  He slumped even
further into his seat, wondering what would happen now.

Fraiye raised her hand to her chin and stood there silently thinking.
She wondered about how a man who was obviously so distressed about the
death of his friends could be thinking about being attracted to her at
the same time. After a little while she answered him. "I am capable of
keeping this conversation on a professional level. Your attraction to me
should have no bearing on how you feel about
the incident on the Tornado."

He nodded, feeling a little relieved.  He thought for a moment on what
had happened only a short while ago.  "I had a friend on the Tornado...
someone who I worked with on DS9.  Well, I didn't really work with
her...  but we knew each other."  He realised he was rambling, and
stopped to gather his thoughts.
"She was the last person I saw as I was in the lifepod escaping from the
Tornado...  she was...  she was in space...  without a suit...  she
was... she was dead."  Jim looked up at her, tears on his cheeks again.
"I can't get it out of my mind, seeing her like that..."

Fraiye moved over to him and motioned for him to sit down, which he did
and she sat next to him. "That is not a pleasant memory at all." she
said softly.  "Can you tell me a bit about her?"

Jim sighed heavily, not really wanting to talk about her, but knowing he
had to.  "Well... she was young, and beautiful.  She'd been working in
Intel, in administration for a while, on DS9.  Then she wanted to be a
field agent, so she joined the Tornado as my assistant...  I was the
chief of intelligence on the Tornado...  and I really wanted to get to
know her more, but...  now she's dead and...." He stopped, and took a
deep breath.

Fraiye patted him on the back gently. "If you need to cry, then let it
out."

"I've already cried," he said quietly.  "It doesn't do any good.  It
helps later, I know, but not right now.  Now it's too close."

"I can't imagine how this must hurt you, but I can understand your
pain."

"How can you understand the pain?" Jim asked.  "Have you seen your
friend floating past in space moments before they exploded due to
decompression!!"

"Lt, that is not quite what I meant, I am sorry. I am here to help you,
not aggrivate you." Fraiye looked down at the floor.

Jim took in a breath and held it for a moment, before releasing it
slowly.  "I'm sorry counsellor....  I know what you're here for...  what
I'm here for."  He stood up and walked over to the window, looking out
at the interior of Qul Tuq.

"In the past, I've dealt with it by talking to other marines.  Sharing
our memories of those we knew before they were killed.  But here...  all
the other marines are dead too...."  He almost lost it again, but
controlled himself.  "Nearly everyone I was close to on that ship... All
of them died.  Or on the other side of the wormhole..."  Suddenly he
remembered his closest friend, who he hadn't even thought of until now.
With a curse, he slammed his hands down onto the window sill.

He turned around and faced her again.  "Counsellor, thank you.  I know
what I need to do...  I need to talk to another marine about this,
someone who really understands."  He looked at her face as he said that,
and saw her expression fall.

Walking quickly over to her, he held her hand.  "Hey, I'm sorry...  I
didn't mean it like that.  I just need to talk to someone who's been in
battle, who's seen it all and dealt with it."  He smiled at her.
"Really...  thank you for letting me talk to you."

Fraiye stood there stunned. She was for a loss of words.
"That...is....ok" she stammered out as he walked out of the room. "If
you feel the need to talk again, I am here," she called out before the
door closed behind him.


OFF
Joint post by


Lt Commander Jim Hawkins
Chief Flight Officer, USS Scorpion
MAQUIS ALLIANCE
-------------------------------
URL: http//uss-scorpion.magickalmusings.com/
MSN: nzalan@...
ICQ: 4403192
-------------------------------

And

Lieutenant Fraiye Ta-rot
Counsellor, USS Scorpion
ultimax@...
ICQ: 107297435
MSN: estera66@hotmail (chat only)

<<Promenade, Qul Tuk station>>

Adun slowly walked away from the promenade, *why did she do this?*  he
thought, asking him out and then suddenly leave to with Knight. *I could
have known, the way Knight looked at Thora earlier.* Yet it was rude to
leave Adun behind like that, *Would Knight have planned this?, or was it a
Vulcan way to show someone to back off.* Adun didn't know what to think
anymore, his thoughts were all clouded.

Adun didn't great anyone on the promenade and walked straight for the USS
Scorpion, his shift was only going to start in 10 hours, but he felt he had
nothing more to do on the promenade, so why don't go to work?

Adun shortly greeted the security officers on the way to the Scorpion, took
his engineering kit and beemed over to the Scorpion. Upgrades were comming
along fine, they had already made a great step in the upgrades against the
Dominion, they would start in two days on the improvements which originated
from combat against the Borg. Adun was glad the Borg hadn't been discovered
here yet.

Adun managed to focus on his work, partially forgetting his incident with
Thora for a while, yet he wasn't his cheery self. Several engineers came by
from time to time to ask his opion or view on a matter, Adun replied short
and when he almost snarled at someone Adun came back to his senses. "Sorry
ensign," he said to the surprised ensign. "Your shift isn't going to start
in 10 hours sir, why don't you take your time off."

"You're probably right" Adun said, he closed his toolkit, said a short
goodbye and headed back to the station. He couldn't help to give a short
glance at the table were Thora and Knight were, yet it was now empty. Thora
had really touched him on a weak spot, he hadn't felt like this in a very
long time, and wasn't sure how to handle it.

He stood there for a while, then he walked back in the direction of the
Talon, he still hadn't brought his stuff over to the Scorpion.

off:

Lt Aturo Adun
Chief of Engineering
USS Scorpion




_________________________________________________________________
Meld je aan bij de grootste e-mailservice ter wereld met MSN Hotmail:
http://www.hotmail.com/nl

ON: USS Scorpion
<< flight deck >>

Jim had still wanted to know about Larkcha, the Hirogen, so he decided to go
talk to Sinclair.  The computer had advised him that Sinclair was on the
Scorpion's flight deck, so that's where Jim was now.  He'd just stepped out
of the turbolift, and looking around, he saw the man sitting on a crate near
one of the walls.  Jim walked over to him.

Eric had come to the empty flight deck to think. But he heard the tell tale
whine of the doors opened and Commander Hawkins quickly came into view.
"How's it going Commander?"

"Hello Captain," Jim said.  "Do you have a moment?"

"What can I do for you sir?"

"I wanted to ask you something about the ambush by the Federation on the
Tornado...  are you up to talking about it?"

Eric really wasn't, but he didn't have much choice. "Go ahead sir."

Jim sat down on another crate opposite Sinclair.  "I feel responsible for
the Hirogen...  He's listed as being killed, but I want to know if you
actually saw his ship destroyed, or is there the slightest possibility that
he could be still out there somewhere?"

Eric leaned back against the crates and thought back to the battle. The six
fighters and Warhammer runabout had warped into the area and found the
Tornado under attack. Larkcha had been flying on the other side of the 4
fighters that had been destroyed at the onset. Eric had been too worried
about himself to notice whether Larkcha had survived. He didn't however see
him again after.  "I'm assuming he didn't make it sir. He flying outside our
flight pairings on the port side. He never reported back to me when I made
roll call."

"At what point did you make the roll call?"

"Once we'd cleared weapons range of the lead Sovereign. 30, maybe 40
seconds. Jacks couldn't find him on the sensors, but the jamming was quite
heavy and there was lots of debris out there to sift through."

"How many answered roll call?  I understand you and Jacks were the only
known survivors?"  Jim was trying to get a picture of what had happened out
there.

"Wraith 3 was the only one to answer. Lieutenant Jacen and Corporal K'targ.
They got vaped just before you guys abandoned the Tornado."

Jim sighed heavily.  "Ok...  how many fighters did you NOT see get
destroyed?  If there's a possibility that there may be survivors out there,
we need to go look for them.  It's been only three days, there might still
be time - but we need to be sure the risk of going back out there is worth
it."

"I watched them all die Commander. Larkcha and Lieutenant Belle are the only
ones I don't know for sure. But that's in Federation space. If they
survived, they'll have been captured by now. It would be a waste of lives
and resources to go after them.

Jim nodded.  "Ok Captain, thanks for your help."  He stood up and began to
walk away, and then stopped and turned around.  "Captain... are you alright?
Is there anything you want to talk about?"  Sinclair was the only one he
hadn't really talked to yet.  As the Tornado's ex-XO, he still felt
responsible for knowing how his crew felt, even if they weren't his crew any
more.

As much as Eric wanted to tell Jim everything, the Marine in him stopped
him. "Just mourning sir. I'll be fine once we get back to our regular
duties. Besides Jacks is around here somewhere if I need someone to talk to.
Thank you anyway sir."

Jim looked at him.  He sensed that Sinclair wasn't being honest with him,
but there wasn't much he could do if the man didn't want to talk about
things.  He put his hand on the man's shoulder and smiled. "I'm available to
talk about anything, anytime."  He turned and started walking back to the
turbolift.

"Sir?"

Turning around, Jim raised an eyebrow.  "Yes captain?" he said, beginning to
walk back to him.

"I was wondering if you could give me a hand with the lateral sensor array
on the new Cyclone that we got today. The techs at Qul Tuq are good but they
don't know the hardware."

"I'd be happy to," smiled Jim, thinking that he didn't know the first thing
about lateral sensor arrays on Cyclone-class fighters.  But hey, it was
obvious Sinclair wanted to talk, and this was his way of doing it.  They
walked over to the fighter ship sitting nearby and Jim let Sinclair show him
what needed to be done.

"I just need you to hold this hydrospanner over the power coupling and
depolarise it while I replace the ODN conduit."  Eric passed the
hydrospanner to Hawkins then crawled under then duck walked under the
fightert to access the ODN conduit.  "Sir, where was Lajlah when the order
was given to abandon ship?"

As Jim was doing what he was told, he answered Sinclair's question, but
didn't realise he had misheard him; Larkcha and Lajlah sounded the same when
he was only thinking about the Hirogen.  "Unfortunately, I was on the bridge
making sure everyone was being evacuated.  Captain Barton and I were
apparently the last off successfully, before..."  He paused.  He didn't
really want to mention what happened after that.  Not yet.  Maybe HE was the
one who should talk to a counsellor.

"I don't know which of your team survived or not.  I do know that you had
landed, along with Larkcha.  We only saw the last 4 destroyed.  I'd heard
you flew out of the exploding ship... do you think others could have as
well?"

Eric noticed the quick subject change in Hawkins and pressed his question.
"Where was Lajlah?"

"She was in the sickbay..." Jim said, realising what Eric was asking.

"Did anyone even try to go get her?"

Jim stiffened slightly, as he remembered that Sinclair and Lajlah had some
kind of relationship.  He removed the hydrospanner and crouched down under
the ship, so that Sinclair could see his eyes.  "If anyone stopped to help
the injured or unconscious, they wouldn't have made it to the escape pods in
time," he said gently.

"That's a poor ass excuse sir."

"It's not an excuse, captain," Jim said, frowning.  "It's what happened.
There wasn't time for people to get the injured off as well.  The only
reason there were 89 survivors is because they were the ones closest to the
lifepods before the ship exploded."

"Do you know for a fact that they couldn't get off? And unless you're Q, you
DON'T know. SIR."

"Do you want to take it out on me?" Jim asked.  "Is that it?  Do you feel
you need someone to blame?"  He looked at Sinclair sadly.  "I know I was the
XO... I know I'm partly responsible for what happened. But I can't change
anything, just like you can't.  But if you want to take it out on me, be my
guest."

Eric stoped before answering the question. As much as he wanted to punch
Hawkins' lights out, he realized that he was only mad at himself. He should
have been there to get Lajlah out. Now she was gone, and there was
absolutely nothing he could do. "No sir. Thanks for your help but I'll
manage the repairs on my own from here on in. I apologize for my actions
sir. You are a superior officer."

Jim sat down on the flight deck, with his back against the forward landing
strut of the fighter.  "I didn't know the captain like you did," he said
softly.  "I respected her greatly though, and I'm sorry I didn't know her
for longer."

"So am I sir. Could you pass me that polaron decoupler?"  Jim leant across
to the toolbox and grabbed the decoupler and handed it to Sinclair.  Eric
opened his mouth to say something to Hawkins but decided against it. "If you
don't mind sir I have lots of work to do. My techs haven't arrived yet and
I'ld like to take the fighters out for a spin before the end of the week."

Jim nodded.  Without saying anything, he stood up and walked away.  That
hadn't gone very well, he thought sadly.

Eric continued to work on the lateral sensors as he heard the shuttlebay
doors open close again. He was once again in solitude and he broke down and
cried while sitting under the fighter.


OFF
Joint post by:

Lt Commander Jim Hawkins
Chief Flight Officer, USS Scorpion
MAQUIS ALLIANCE
-------------------------------
URL: http//uss-scorpion.magickalmusings.com/
MSN: nzalan@...
ICQ: 4403192
-------------------------------

And

Captain Eric "Slick" Sinclair
Cyclone 101 Pilot, USS Scorpion
ICQ# 76947994
AIM: Zoolander623

OFF: This takes place on the Talon, but only because the dr's still stuck on
the sickbay there.  I'm posting it to the Scorpion list though because
that's where we're all supposed to be posting.  Doctor Suro, please post
about your transfer to the new sickbay on the Scorpion.  Thanks.


ON: USS Talon


Thora left the sickbay, unsure if she had done what she had set out to do,
trying to be a friend. She decided that she atleast had tried, it couldn't
be easy having lost ones legs and coming out of a coma like that.

She still had time off before going to the Scorpion and begin her work.
Should she go to her empty quarters, mess hall or try the holodecks out as
Fraiye had told her to do. To try and act as human as possible.  Whatever
"human" was supposed to mean. She steered her way towards the holodeck.

"Lieutenant Thora!" she heard behind her.  Turning around, she saw Lt Alex
Knight walking quickly towards her.  Only now he wasn't a Lt, he was a
Commander.  And he wasn't in Intelligence any more either; he was wearing
the Command department uniform.

Thora looked at Knight, knowing it was him but completely different.   "Well
hello... commander?"  Thora raised an eyebrow and looked at him.

"I'll have to explain," he smiled, looking a little embarrassed.  "Do you
have time for a drink or something?"

Thora left the plans of holodecking, she would have plenty of time for that.
"Yes commander, as long as there are no worms present in it"

"Worms?" Alex asked with a raised eyebrow, as they headed to the Talon's
mess.

Thora nodded.  "I had a try of klingon cocktailmaking over at the Qul Tuk.
They obviously consider worms "refreshing."  She shuddered slightly.

"In a cocktail?  Very strange...  Obviously something you didn't agree with
then," he smiled at her.

She glanced at Knight.  "I prefer things that have not lived and wriggled in
my drinks. " She returned the smile and found it easier to do it than she
had ever before. Maybe this wasn't as hard as Fraiye had said, coping with
her human feelings.

They walked into the mess, and quickly got themselves a drink, sitting down
at one of the tables.  There was no one else here, so they had the mess to
themselves.  Everyone else was on the Scorpion or Qul Tuq.

"Lieutenant... I mean, Thora... The reason I'm a Commander now is because I
was one before I joined the Talon.  I was assigned by Starfleet Intelligence
as their observer on this mission into another reality.  Because there was
already another Commander onboard, I was given a lower rank and a background
as part of my cover.  It was only to make things easier with my presence
onboard."  He watched her face, wondering what her reaction would be to
finding out he wasn't what she thought he was.

Thora listened to Knight and let his words sink in. Everything he had told
her could be a lie as far as she knew. But then she had never really asked
about his background.  "I see. Well it is logical that they would give you a
lower rank, but why not join as an observer rather than use a cover of
sorts?"   She hid her feelings now, trying not to feel cheated somehow. He
was right. And probably telling the truth now. Maybe.

"There's this mindset in Intelligence that dictates you can't tell anyone
the truth.  If there's a choice between the truth and a lie, it's always got
to be lie."  He shrugged.  "But I'm not lying to you now."   Not that he
ever really lied to her before, he thought.  The question of his true
history had never popped up, and she had taken him at face value.  But
really, he was living a lie in that respect.  He sighed.  He had never
expected to meet someone that he would feel compelled to tell the truth to.

Thora let out her breath, not knowing she had held it while he spoke to her.
She wasn't sure what to say. It wasn't up to her to tell what was wrong and
not, he was in intelligence, he was following orders as anyone would have.
Why did she even care about wheter he had told the truth or not? Why was he
telling now?

"I believe I understand commander."  She used his rank to take the privacy
off the conversation. Not intentionally, just a reflex.   "Well I suppose a
congratulation is in order then. Where are you going to be stationed?"

"I've accepted a request to be First Officer of Qul Tuq.  I'm actually quite
surprised they've considered me, considering I'm not from this universe.
But Captain Barton is happy with my experience, and it seems the Maquis
trust all of us because of what we did against those Federation ships."  He
looked at her closely.  "I'm going to be leaving the ship."

She felt sad, that was one thing she had not expected at all. They had met
justa a couple of times, why would she feel a sense of loss of someone she
didn't know? She didn't even know where he was from. Would she tell him this
or keep it to herself now that he was leaving?

She felt sad, that was one thing she had not expected at all. They had met
just a a couple of times, why would she feel a sense of loss of someone she
didn't know? She didn't even know where he was from. Would she tell him this
or keep it to herself now that he was leaving?

"I am happy for you Comma...  Alex."  She looked into his eyes.   "I am
certain you are a good choice for the first officer position."  She heard a
faint noise behind her and turned around. Aturo Adun was watching them from
the entrance. They were alone, he couldn't be watching anyone else.

He stepped up to them, silent, and turned to Thora.  "Stop playing games"

Thora looked in suprise at Adun.  "What..?"

Adun put down a glass in front of her, complete with worm and walked away.
She realised it was the same they had had at the Qul Tuk.

Thora turned to shout but Adun was already gone.  Fraiye had been right, she
needed to sort out her human feelings, how could humans possibly live with
things like this happening to them every day without going insane?

Alex had sat back when Adun approached, watching him.  Now he was watching
Thora.  "Do you want to go talk to him?" he asked.

Thora was torn between going to her friend or staying with Knight.

"I think it's best if I let him be for now."  She sighed.   "People are not
being logical when their feelings are using them as puppets."

Alex nodded.  "I think he's jealous and upset," he said gently.  "You need
to talk to him about that.  He's got expectations about your relationship,
and you should work out what that relationship is."  He leant across the
table and placed his hand on hers.  "Let me know when you work it out too."
He smiled at her, and then got up from the table and walked to the exit.

Thora got up from the table and talked to Knights back.   "We have no
relationship. We are just friends, and up until now I was sure he felt that
way too. We have never..."   She was starting to feel angry, how could he
just presume she was involved with anyone after not even asking?
"Commander Alex Knight, would you believe me, I am not in intelligence so I
wouldn't lie to you."  She tried to keep her voice in a 'matter of fact'
tone.

He stopped and turned around to face her.  "What are you saying?" he asked.

Thora blushed.  "I am telling you I am not in any relationship with anyone
as far as I know."

"Good," Alex smiled at her.  He looked at her again for a few moments,
letting her be the next to say something.

Thora didn't know where to go from there. 'Good' as in good she had control
over who she indeed was in a relationship with, or 'Good' she was not spoken
for, yet?  Should she say something? He was leaving soon anyway... Did she
know what she felt at all? She tried to collect any sense from her vulcan
part of her mind.

"I like you, Commander Knight, and I don't want you to leave like this."
She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. So much for being vulcan
and logical.

Alex smiled at her, but then it changed.  "I like you to... Thora.  But I'm
leaving the ship.  I don't know if we'll get to see each other."

Thora looked at Knight and felt foolish.  She had told him she liked him,
someone she hardly knew, and someone who had been lying at that.  She was
sure she had misinterpreted his signals now. Still, he was leaving and she
had never felt romantic feelings for anyone up until now. There would be a
lot of hours on the holodeck...

"I am aware of that. I wanted you to know, Alex."  She said his name
carefully and wondered if she should leave, this surely made him
uncomfortable.

Alex looked at her and then slowly brought his hand up to touch her cheek.
She sure was beautiful, he thought.  "I'll see you again soon," he said.
Taking his hand away, he smiled, turned and left the mess.

Thora watched him leave and closed her eyes. Wonderful, absolutely perfect.
She had confessed her  feelings for a superior officer, who was leaving the
ship, and who probably though she was saying this to every man she met
considering what had happened when Adun walked in.  She should sort things
out with Adun, but now she wanted to be alone in her quarters. She looked
around one last time knowing she probably wouldn't see this mess hall again
and walked away.

Alex smiled to himself.  He was excited that Thora liked him, and already
had an idea for their next holodeck session.  Heading to the airlock and
back onto Qul Tuq, he realised that today was indeed a good day.

OFF
Joint post by:

Commander Alex Knight
First Officer, Qul Tuq
MAQUIS ALLIANCE
-------------------------------
URL: http://www.geocities.com/qul_tuq/index.html
MSN: nzalan@...
ICQ: 4403192
-------------------------------

And

Lieutenant (jg) Thora
Asst. Chief Science Officer
USS Scorpion
emeliew@...

And

Lt Aturo Adun
Chief of Engineering
USS Scorpion

ON:
<Bridge, USS Scorpion>

Duo walked out of the Turbolift onto the Bridge, he was dressed in a plain
black, figure hugging one peice flight suit under what looked like an old
fashioned Bullet proof vest, and leg padding. He was carrying a backpack and
was carrying a helmet in his hands.

He walked up to the Captain's door and pushed the buzzer, then on the call
to enter, he walked in, Aldous looked a little suprised by his appearance,
so he started to explain "Hello Sir... I checked your roster... and you've
been off duty for th' past 4 hours... I was wonderin' if y' had time for
tha' holodeck simluation?" he asked lightly

"Now?" Steve asked in surprise, looking at Duo's clothing.

Duo nodded "Yeah.. I've got a flightsuit n' helmet here for ya?" he held up
the bag "I figured now was as good a time s' any Sir... if I'm gonna get my
mech, It'll have t' be soon, so tha' I don' have t' think about it when
we're gettin' ready t' go" he smiled

Steve glanced at his schedule and saw that he wasn't due for anything for
another 3 hours.  "We've got 2 hours, Mister Maxwell," he said with a smile.
Standing up, he followed Duo to the holodeck.


<5 minutes later, Holodeck 2>

"Computer create a dressin screen" Duo commanded, and a screen appeared. He
grinned at Aldous and handed him the bag "everythin' 'll fit Sir, I got your
measurements from your file" he suppresed a chuckle at the look on Aldous's
face

"And what gives you the right to look at my 'measurement'," he asked with a
frown while walking behind the screen.

Duo grinned, holding back a chuckle, he was glad Aldous couldn't see his
face "I used my initiative Sir" he grinned "don' worry Sir, you're pretty
fit for a.. well... your pretty fit" he was trying desperatly not to laugh
as he imagined Aldous's face

Steve was frowning as he took the clothes out of the bag and changed into
them, wondering what he could do to Duo to get 'payback' for his
'initiative'.  Looking at himself once he got his clothes on, he was
appalled at the nature of the suit, as it was like a second skin.  Closer
than a second skin.  He quickly took it off again and changed back into his
uniform.  Coming back around from behind the screen he threw the bag at Duo.
"I'll stick to my own uniform," he said bluntly.

Duo couldn't help it, he burst into a laugh, "Aye Sir.. but please put th'
body suit n' helmet on, even though the safties r' still on, y' can still
get bumped around" he chuckled again "Computer load Program Maxwell mecha.."
he thought for a seond "52"

The computer beeped, and the grid was replaced by a thick jungle, a few feet
away from them was a towering machine standing ona  concrete pad

Duo smiled for a moment, then the air of lightness around him began to
dissapear, as his face hardend slightly and his eyes took on a hard edge
"this way Sir" said Duo firmly, walking towards the mech

"You need to include intertia dampeners then, Mr Maxwell," Steve said,
looking up at the machine.  He threw on the jacket and put on his helmet.
"If I throw up, I'll be aiming at your head, do you understand?"

Duo smiled "It has them, but in atmosphere, Inertial Dampeners slow down th'
mech's reaction times....so I turn them off" he paused "an' I've been thrown
up on before, it's nuthin' new" he grinned

The pair reached the foot of the mech, and Duo reached into the bag. he
pulled out what looked like a remote control and pushed a button. Nothing
seemed to happen for a few seconds, then there was a hiss and a door opened
at the mech's waist level, two ropes came tumbling down, each with a foot
grip on the end of them. Duo smiled "jus' put your foot in the grip, grab
th' rope, an' up we go" he demonstrated by sliding his foot into the grip
and hoisting himself up onto the rope

Aldous frowned, then slipped his foot into the holster and grabbed the rope

The two ropes flew upwards at a good speed, and when they reached the Top,
Duo stepped onto the inside of the door, which was lowered like a platform.

Aldous half fell, half stepped onto the platform, then grabbed one of the
handrails tightly "What now?" he said gingerly, expecting something worse.

Duo smiled and pointed inside, where there was two chairs and a lot of
levers, dials and lights. Duo smiled "th' back seats yours Cap'n.. I'll take
th' front seat... if y' want t' go in first, I'll make sure your straped in
right, an' your all connected up" he said.

Aldous looked inside "it's a bit cramped in here isn't it?"

Duo laughed "it's gotta be, no room for comfort, just functionability" he
said in a cheery voice.

Aldous grunted and moved inside the mech, then sat down in the bucket seat.

Duo smiled as he pulled Aldous's straps tight, then picked up a wire and
inserted it into a port in the back of the helmet Aldous was wearing. Then
he attached what looked like a visor to the front of the helmet. Instantly,
a display flashed across the visor, providing Aldous with information on the
state of the mech and it's systems.

Aldous didn't try to comprehend the data that was flashing across his
screen, the fact that it was all in a language he presumed to be Canq didn't
help.  "Can't you change this to English?" he complained, but Duo didn't
seem to hear him.

Duo threw himself into his chair, and fastened his straps down. He clipped
the visor into place, then inserted his plug. Instantly, data flashed across
the visor, but that wasn't the extent of Duo's connection, after a few
moments, the nural link connected, and Duo was part of his machine. The mech
began to hum gently as he began to start up the primary systems.

After a few minutes, Duo tapped a button on his left "We're ready t' go
Sir... push th' green button on the mid left pannel t' talk" he instructed
with a smile, he was sure Aldous was going to enjoy the ride.

Aldous found the green button, then pushed it gingerly, half expecting his
chair to take off or something worse, but he was rewarded by a beep "Ok Mr
Maxwell, show me what this thing can do." he instructed, holding tight to
the sides of his seat.

"Aye Sir... hold on, here we go!" he yelled, then pushed down a foot pedal
and the mech began to walk forward steadily, wading through the forest
bellow as if it was tall grass.  After a few moments of walking, Duo
grinned, it was time to shake the boss up a little.

He increased the mech's speed until it was running at top speed, the
pounding vibrations of the heavy footfalls shuddering through the mech like
earquakes. Duo kicked off from the ground in a jump, and then performed a
perfect mid air summersault, landing back on the mech's feet and not braking
the running pace.

Without warning, Duo skidded the mech to a hault and shot off in another
direction, he smiled as he thought about the next location, they were
heading towards a cliff.  The mech smashed out of the jungle and onto a flat
plain, before them, the cliff edge loomed closer and closer at an alarming
rate. Duo didn't break stride, he ran right over the edge of the cliff.  Duo
laughed as the mech free-fell down the cliff side, then as late as he dared,
he hit a button and the mech began to decelerate quickly, pushing the pilots
down into their seats.

Steve was thinking this was almost like some amusement ride, and smiled as
he enjoyed the feelings.  Having it happen inside a holodeck made it feel
the same way the amusement ride would.

The Mech stopped moving for about two seconds, then shot off away from the
cliff, now flying around 10 metres above the ocean. Duo performed a series
of acrobatic manuvers, pushing the mech through a series of rolls, loops and
twists.  After he had finished the last loop, Duo sent the mech into a steep
climb, then began to push buttons, the geforce felt by the pilots
dissapeared as the intertial dampning came on.

After a very short time climbing, the Mech pushed through the atmosphere and
into space, before them was an asteriod feild.

"less see how many I can hit" Duo said over the intercomm, his voice
sounding calm and collected.

The left arm of the mech lifted, and Aldous saw it was holding somethign
that resembled a phaser rifle. A sight appeared on both mens visor, and Duo
quickly began to move, sending 15 shots towards the feild and watching
triumphantly as 15 asteroids dissapeared in fire.

He then hit a button, and there was a clang as the shoulder boxes popped
open, suddently, 10 photon torpedoes streaked from the Mech's shoulders,
smashing into the feild and wiping out another 10 asteroids.

Suddenly, a wing of 5 fighters shot out from the asteroids, Duo smiled
confidently and pushed a few buttons. Aldous watched as the left arm and the
weapon dissapeared, apparently they had cloaked.

Duo chuckled as he moved the mech rapidly towards the fighters, who were
flying in a defensive formation and firing randomly, unsure of where the
mech was.

"behind you..." muttered Duo, as he moved the mech in behind one of the
fighters, following it closely.

Suddenly, Duo hit a button, and the mech decloaked, he used the right arm to
literaly grab hold of the fighter and crush the cockpit.

he cloaked again, and moved just as a volley of fire burned through the
space where they were a few moments ago.

Duo laughed out loud and dropped the weapon, it rematerialised in space
behind them and exploded when a pahserbolt hit it, Duo changed course as
fire shot infront of him, he had expected that.

Duo pulled what could only be described as a big sword from a holster on the
mech's waist, and headed towards the next fighter. He smiled and moved
infront of it, flying backwards and matching the fighters speed.

The fighter fired randomly, and the shots smashed into the armour of the
mech, Duo cursed and instantly decloaked, bringing the sword down in a huge
arc, cutting the fighter in half.

Duo cloaked again and moved off, and watched as the rest of the fighters
dissapeared back towards the asteroid feild.

Duo would normally have followed and finished the fighter off, but he sensed
Aldous may have had enough.

"Computer, end simulation" he commanded, and the mech dissapeared, replaced
by the yellow grids of the holodeck.

Duo unclipped from his chair, which had remained, and stood up. As soon as
he did, the chair dissapeared.

he turned to release Aldous, and found that he had allready let himself out
of the chair.

Duo smiled at him "Well, Sir... what d'ya think?" he asked lightly

Aldous was smiling.  "That was a lot of fun," he said.  "But I think you
should work more on the inertia dampening compensators.  You could make the
ride smoother in atmosphere."  He grinned at Duo and continued.  "I think we
should do another simulation with you in your... 'mech', and me in a Delta
Flyer.  But after you've done your modifications."  He nodded at Duo, and
then left the holodeck.


OFF:
Joint post by

Captain Duo Maxwell,
Marine XO, USS Scorpion,
Maquis Alliance
--
ICQ: 73054347
MSN: tcbuist@...
--

And

Captain Steve Aldous
Commanding Officer, USS Scorpion
-------------------------------
URL: http//uss-scorpion.magickalmusings.com/
MSN: nzalan@...
ICQ: 4403192
-------------------------------

<Science Chief's Office>

Gevran sipped gently at his milk, warmed as the Doctor had advised with a
friendly smile - it was a refreshing change. Leaning back in his chair he
recalled once again that it was uncomfortable, and this time took a moment
to record a reminder to have his old chair copied to be put in its place.
This one didn't even tilt back to allow him a view of the ceiling - he did
his best thinking laid down...

"Chief Science Officer's Log," he began, getting up out of the chair with a
sigh to stare at it. It looked so much like the last one, yet was so
different. Calling up the file as he spoke, he sent it through to the large
replicator in engineering with a request to produce it when there was some
slack time.

"Having reviewed the available science staff, I find that situation is as
bad as we feared. The Tornado's destruction cost us the vast majority of the
science staff there, and the Talon was never blessed with more than a
skeletal science staff, being primarily a ship of war.

Fortune, however, has smiled on the staff that remain. Lieutenant Thora
appears to be an outstanding Astrometrics officer, and her time as Chief of
Science on the Talon has given her a breadth of knowledge unusual in such a
junior officer." He was forced to stop and smile at that, for he was only
her senior by a matter of months, and circumstance more than diligence had
sent him to a senior position before her.

"Similarly, the small science crew of the Talon were chosen for their
diversity of talent, and most of the important functions, therefore, are
covered to at least the minimum requirements. Science can report as ready,
therefore, if still understaffed, but we need not accept simply any
application that comes our way. The calibration of the ship's sensors begins
tomorrow, which will be an excellent opportunity to find out exactly which
areas we do need help in - I anticipate at least one more exobiologist would
be helpful, lest we place an excessive burden on the medical staff.
Similarly, a scientific engineer would lessen our demands on Engineering,
but that may not be possible given some of the potentially sensitive
projects we are likely to be working on in the near future.

With tomorrow's tests in mind, I intend to speak with Lieutenant Thora this
evening to co-ordinate procedures before we begin. On a more serious note,
it is with some sadness that I hear Coltraine's condition is deteriorating.
The medical staff are, I'm sure, doing what they can, but with the memorial
service already completed I was hoping we would be able to start to put the
deaths behind us. Apparently not... perhaps Commander Hawkins was right:
perhaps it will always be there like a spectre on our shoulders. Hence the
memorial."



Lt Gevran Torm
Chief of Science
USS Scorpion
Maquis Alliance
GevranTorm@...
Steve_Hedger@...
Vanguard_4@...


_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos:
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx

ON:

<Starbase corridor - en route to USS Sorpion>

The walk was long.  Theodore's temporary quarters were much farther
from the dock than he estimated.  He had forgone the turbolift
because he felt he needed to go for a good walk.  Forty-five minutes
later, he was regretting that decision.  Dressed in grey civies and
carrying a generic duffel bag, Theodore blended in with his drab
surroundings as he hobbled down the corridor.  Every now and again he
would pass an unfamiliar face from this unfamiliar unviverse he found
himself cast into.

The sadness Theodore felt was not overwhelming, but it was wearing on
him.  He had not seen any of his crewmates since he awoke in the
station's sickbay a few days ago.  He was avoiding them.  He didn't
even attend the memorial service for his commrades.  He had no idea
who was alive or who was dead.  He knew what the stats were.  He knew
numbers, but not names.  He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Theodore stopped and rested his bag at his feet.  He leaned up
against a bulkhead and took a deep breath.  His left knee was
throbbing.  The doctors had patched it up quite nicely, but Theodore
had yet to become accustomed to bearing weight on it.  Slowly, the
pain subsided, and he picked up his bag and continued on his way.

The duffel bag was light.  After all, it was practically empty.  It
contained a uniform and three PADDs.  It was all Theodore had to his
name, and even the PADDs were on loan.  No personal effects had been
salvaged from the Tornado-A.  Theodore wasn't terribly bothered by
that, or so he thought.

Theodore had been walking for an hour and a quarter.  He was
beginning to wonder if he was even headed in the right direction.  He
reached into his bag and pulled out one of the PADDs.  He confirmed
that he was in fact pointed in the right direction and pressed on.
Shortly thereafter, he came to a large viewport.  He gazed out, and
his eyes fell upon a magnificent sight.  A Sovereign-class vessel
loomed in space, attached to the station at various points.  The
daunting war machine had a commanding presence that was quite
intimidating.  Theodore's eyes scanned the hull, and he read the
ship's name aloud:

"The USS Scorpion."

It was a formidable ship.  Much larger than the Akira-class vessels
Theodore was used to serving on.  He was slightly apprehensive about
his duties on this new ship, under a new captain.  He had only ever
served on ships of the Tornado lineage, under the command of Korax or
Dreki.  Needless to say, this was going to be quite different.

Theodore rounded a corner, and found himself walking out of the
station.  The corridor was almost completely encased by windows,
providing an incredible view of the station, the Scorpion, and the
blackness of space.  Theodore reached the other end of the corridor
and set foot on the USS Scorpion for the first time.  He was quickly
greeted by a security team.

He didn't recognize any of the three men, or the woman.  They didn't
recognize him either, and the civilian attire didn't help any.
Theodore gropped around in his bag for the PADD that contained his
identification.  He found it, and handed it to the young woman before
him.  She scrolled through the information, and then passed it to her
superior.  He gave it the once over and then handed it back to
Theodore.

"Welcome aboard, Lt. Shepherd."

Theodore just nodded as he brushed past the welcoming committee.  He
found his way to a nearby turbolift and stepped inside.  It brought
him to the crew quarters, and he stepped off.  He checked his PADD
for the location of his new quarters, and he arrived at his new
accomodations shortly after.

The door slid open and he walked into the living area.  It was big.
Not too big, but bigger than his quarters when he served on the
Tornado.  The walls were bare, and the lights were bright.  It would
take some work to get this place to feel like home.

There was a PADD sitting on the desk in the corner.  Theodore picked
it up and browsed through it.  It detailed his new assignment on the
USS Scorpion.

"Chief Tactical Officer."

Theodore was slightly surprised.  Even though he had served as a
department head before, this seemed a little unusual to him.  He
hadn't even met Captain Aldous, yet he had been named to his senior
staff.

"Hmmm.  Strange.  No arguments, though."

The PADD also contained a crew manifest, which Theodore accessed and
began to scan through, starting with the senior staff.

"Aldous, Harris, Hawkins— Hawkins?  That bastard," Theodore
sighed.  "Guess he made it out alive.

He continued down the list, recognizing few names.  He took note that
he'd be serving with Gevran and Slick again, but he didn't seem to
know anyone else.

He switched from the list of senior staff to the rest of the crew,
and began to scroll through the names.  He picked out a few familiar
names, but was disheartened to see how few he actually knew.

He closed the manifest and took another look at his assignment.  His
duties didn't officially begin for another few days.  On top of that,
he would only be working half-shifts to start things off, 'due to his
current physical and psychological states.'

"Bullshit."

He read further, and came across an order to seek counselling, as
well as to report to sickbay for a full physical.

"For chrissake..."

Theodore tossed the PADD back onto the desk.  He tossed the rest of
the PADDs from his bag onto the desk.  Then he grabbed his uniform
and hung it neatly in his closet.  He walked over to the bed and lay
down.  He barely had time to adjust his pillow before he fell asleep.

OFF:

Lt. Theodore Shepherd
Chief Tactical Officer (currently on leave)
USS Scorpion

P.S.  I guess my character is 24-years old now, since I've been
playing him for over a year.

ON:
<Corridor, USS Scorpoin>

Trowa walked down the corridor towards the Turbolift entrance, his mind filled
with conflicting thoughts and worries, half of him was happy and exited to have
a new command and new challenges, the other half was still hung up over the loss
of his last command, he shook his head, and decided to visit a councellor as
soon as he found time.

He reached the turbolift and stepped inside "Bridge" he called, then waited at
the lift hurled him upwards and forwards, to the command center of the ship.
Trowa stepped out onto the ship's bridge and sighed, he had allways wanted a
sovergien class of his own, now he wasn't so sure he did.

Shaking off the thought, he approached Aldous's door, then pushed the button and
waited, Aldous called enter and he walked in. "You wanted to see me Captain
Aldous?" he asked quietly

"Thank you for coming, captain," Steve said, gesturing at the chair in front of
his desk.  He waited for Trowa to sit down.  "I understand you'd like Alex
Knight as your XO?"

Trowa sat down and nodded "Yes, that's correct. I hope that's not going to be a
problem, because to be honest, he's the only viable XO I can find, what with the
war being so busy, there are none available within the fleet" Barton smiled

"It's no problem," Steve replied.  "He's already given me his agreement to it,
as long as I return to pick him up before we go back to our own universe.  I
promised I would."

Trowa nodded "that's only reasonable, you'll be able to drop off our people on
your way past, if you find a way home" he smiled, relaxing a little "How are the
upgrades coming, are my engineering staff helping enough?" he asked lightly

"Yes, but they're a little out of their depth with what we're requiring of them.
We're just making sure they do as they're told," Steve smiled.  He was keeping
security tight on the upgrades to the Scorpion.  None of the locals were seeing
the specs, they were just being told what to do, and different teams were
building different parts of the same devices, that way it was hoped no one would
get an idea of the big picture behind the upgrades.

Trowa nodded "I'm sure with the help you have given us in your experts, we'll
catch up soon enough" he sighed "It's just a shame it cost so much...."

Steve nodded.  "The cost has been ours, captain.  You have only gained from what
we've lost."  Steve couldn't help but feel a little resentful that Trowa could
think the cost was theirs.

Trowa frowned "I never implied otherwise Captain, You think we enjoy gaining at
such costs?" he sighed "I would rather have not gained than have anyone pay such
a high price" he said, a slight tone of sad bitterness in his voice

"I just can't believe that everyone let the Federation slip into a civil war,"
Steve replied, shaking his head in disappointment.

Trowa sighed "It happened Captain... When the Federation delcared the Maquis as
terrorists and started attacking them, many, many ships refused to follow the
orders to attack... and it turned out there was greater numbers of Federation
Loyal ships, so all the Maquis friendly ships could do was succeeed to the
Maquis, they couldn't force Starfleet's hand" Trowa explained, hoping Aldous
would understand

"The Federation shouldn't have called them terrorists to begin with.  They did
the same in my universe...  it was something I didn't agree with.  But we had
different conditions than you.  We were faced with other enemies which prevented
us from squabbling amongst ourselves." Steve went silent for a moment.
He suddenly had an idea but he didn't like what it meant as a series of
consequences.  If he helped initiate contact with the Borg, or the Dominion, the
resulting conflict could help re-unite the quadrant.  But at what cost?  Those
were the consequences he didn't like.

Trowa nodded "perhaps it would have helped if we had such challenges... perhaps
we became too relaxed" Trowa mused "If we were to encounter a large enemy such
as your universe has, at the current time, I dont think we would survive" he
smiled thinly "devided we fall.. united we stand" he muttered quietly

Steve nodded, looking sharply at Trowa, wondering if he was really a telepath.

Trowa sighed and stood up "I really should be getting back to the Station
Captain, I still have a lot of crew to find, and time is ticking" he paused "the
engineering staff working with you will be swapped out after you leave, we dont
want to have to background check and screen another load of engineers" Trowa
smiled

"Good.  I'll let Knight know to report to you straight away."

Trowa nodded "thankyou Captain, good luck with the new ship, she's a fine one"
he smiled, then turned and left Aldous's office, allready worrying about where
he was going to find a new Ops officer

a JP with:

Captain Trowa Barton,
CO, Starbase Qul Tuq,
Maquis Alliance.
--
ICQ: 73054347
MSN: tcbuist@...
http://www.geocities.com/qul_tuq/
--

and

Captain Steve Aldous
Commanding Officer, USS Scorpion
-------------------------------
URL: http//uss-scorpion.magickalmusings.com/
MSN: nzalan@...
ICQ: 4403192
-------------------------------

_____________________________________________________________
Get your ZERO system enhanced email at http://webmail.gundamwing.net

_____________________________________________________________
Select your own custom email address for FREE! Get you@... w/No Ads,
6MB, POP & more! http://www.everyone.net/selectmail?campaign=tag

Gevran sat in his office, trying to focus on the screen but knowing full
well that the same information had scrolled across seven times now, and
he was taking in no more than he had been.  *What's going on here?* he
thought to himself, turning the screen away with a dismissive gesture of
the hand, and swinging back in the chair.  Rising to his feet, he
stepped out into the unfamiliar surroundings of the new ship, his new
ship.. his new home... and set out for the mess.

Jim was helping the engineers place the memorial in the mess.  It was a
huge room, with windows filling one wall that were looking outwards.
Through them could be seen the interior walls of the dockyards, and the
small windows of the internal decks of Qul Tuq.  But right now, Jim's
attention was on the opposite wall, where the memorial was being placed.
The 4 engineers had placed the restraining foundations on the wall, and
were now placing the bolts that would secure the memorial to it.  The
mess was empty except for them, so when the door opened, he turned to
see who it was.

"an' this is th' mess hall" Duo's voice rang out as him and Trowa
entered the Mess, Duo looked up "oh, sorry Sir... this 's Captain Trowa
Barton, CO of th' Station, I thought I'd give 'im a tour" said Duo,
unsure of the man infront of him.

Trowa stepped forward "hello Mr Hawkins... I see your hanging the
memorial" he said softly, much to Duo's surpise

"Yes sir," replied Jim, looking back around to see the engineers were
carefully lifting it up onto the wall.  The actual holographic generator
had been turned off, so it was just the large picture showing the stars
within the blackness of space.

Duo smiled in understanding, he remember that Hawkins had been the XO of
the Tornado, so obviously they allready knew each other, he walked over
to a table and leaned on it "It sure is a nice memorial... I hope..." he
stopped to look as someone came through the doors

Rubbing at the nape of his neck, Gevran followed the chain of lights on
the wall around the corner, to find a surprising number of people
already in the hall. Seeing the memorial being lifted into place, he
paused, unsure of himself.

"Uh, sorry." he said, stepping in cautiously. "I didn't realise there
was a ceremony this evening as well..."

"Come on in Lieutenant," said Jim with a gesture for Gevran to come in.
"Everyone, this is Lt Gevran Torm, the Scorpion's Chief Science
Officer." As Gevran moved over, Jim introduced everyone else there.

Trowa nodded, "Hell Mr Torm... how are your eyes?" he asked in a quiet,
but friendly voice

"Better, sir, thank you," he replied, stepping forward with a little
more confidence. "Though I think perhaps they'll feel the strain in the
morning. I've been staring at the screen in my office for about three
hours now."

Duo grinned and waked over "I'm 1st Lt. Duo Maxwell, the Marine XO
onboard this monster" he chuckled to himself "It's good 't meet ya Sir"

Jim smiled.  He didn't look like a marine...  didn't have the toughness
in his aura that you would expect a marine XO to have.

"And you, Mr Maxwell."  He hoped he'd hidden his dislike of the branch
well enough as he drew his hand back. They might be good men and women,
but he couldn't find it in himself to approve.  "I wasn't aware this
class was equipped for a marine platoon..." he said, then realised how
that might sound. "At least, they weren't in our old universe. I suppose
with the ware here, things are different."

Jim looked at Gevran.  "Actually, sometimes they were equipped with
marines...  it just wasn't an advertised fact."  He smiled.  "Mainly
when the mission required it.  But the facilities for it were always
built in."

"Why am I not surprised...?" he muttered under his breath with a sigh,
and stepped forward for a better view of the memorial around the
engineers. "It's going to be quite a memorial... how long do you think
it will stay there?"

Jim smiled.  "It's not going anywhere...  unless the wall goes with it."
He frowned.  "Hmm...  I think we should have a backup memorial for
moments like that."

"Do you not think it a little morbid to carry the reminder of lost
friends for the life of the ship?" Gevran asked, quietly, deliberately
not meeting anyone's gaze. "I know emotions are a little raw right
now... I lost friends as well... but life will go on, it must."

Jim frowned at him, and then realised what he might be feeling.  "You'd
rather try to forget?" he asked softly.

"No." he said, turning, eyes damp. "Not forget. Never forget. Memories,
however, do not need such prominent prompting... issues must be dealt
with, and made a part of the past, not all of the past."

Duo sat himself down on a table.  "They're dead now, nuthin can be done
about that... so I don' see th' point of th' memorial, personally" he
said lightly, and Trowa frowned at him, he hated Duo's seemingly
lighthearted view on death

Gevran raised an eyebrow at that, accentuating his Vulcan herie for a
moment, but didn't respond. It was, to him, the sort of thing you
expected from a marine.

Jim frowned again, but this time at Duo.  "I suggest you have some
sensitivity to the situation, Lieutenant Maxwell...  not everyone feels
the same way as you."

Duo looked at Hawkins, then at Trowa who was burning holes in him with
his eyes, and sighed, he hated having to be so sensitive all the time
"Aye Sir, sorry 'bout that..." he said quietly

The engineers were placing the last of the securing bolts through the
framework around the memorial, and Jim moved over to stand next to
Gevran as they watched the engineers finish their work.  It was only a
few seconds before it was done, and one of the engineers activated the
holographic projector switch from behind the display, and then everyone
stood back and looked as the Tornado appeared in 3D glory, along with
the names underneath.

Trowa sighed "I hope this Memorial will remind people to be vigilant..
and never let something like that happen again..." he said quietly

Gevran was silent a moment, reading slowly through the list of names,
recalling faces, expressions, reports... a few of the names brought no
memories at all, and that saddened him even more.

Jim noticed a few of the names standing out for him.  Captain Lajlah
Dreki.  Larkcha.  Sergeant Jones.  He sighed.  He'd especially miss the
captain.

Duo sighed heavily, the atmosphere in the room was going lower and lower
by the second, it was driving him crazy how everyone else was going
around being depressed and sad, he whistled a slow, soft, Canq death
march. it was then he spottted a name he recognised... Lt. Trowa Barton,
his whistle stopped abruptly, and he walked over to the memorial

Gevran felt a little odd, watching the name of Trowa Barton move past
his vision, standing as he was in the same room, and wondered what it
must be like for the man himself.

Duo stared at the name as it moved up the screen, he forced himself to
remember all the good things about Trowa Barton, and gave a smile
"L'aych trat yeamra" he muttered, then stood up and looked at Trowa "I'm
glad your still here Trowa, I would have missed ya" he grinned

Trowa nodded silently, he wasn't sure what to say

"It's a pity this universe's Lajlah Dreki didn't die on the ship
instead," Jim muttered.

"A blessing, Mr Maxwell?" Gevran asked, quietly, after a moment.  He
didn't seem the sort, given his earlier comments.

Duo looked at Torm "Not really... 's 'n expression from my home planet,
it means Let th' Dead Lie..." he paused "In my culture, we dont grieve
over th' deaths of people, instead, we celebrate thier lives" he smiled

"A common feature, especially amongst warrior and agricultural
societies... the cycle of life and death... Of course, to the Trill
death is a subject fraught with complications."

"In our culture Lieutenant, grieving is part of the process of moving
on, and the memorial is our way of remembering what we got from knowing
them," explained Jim.

Duo nodded at both men, he had heard of trill, people with worms in
their bellies, the thought made him shudder, but he chose not to say
anything "I suppose my culture was about as warrior as y' can get" he
said, then gave a chuckle

"Have you met the Klingons yet?" Jim asked.  "Now THERE'S a warrior
culture." He smiled.

Duo smiled "I like Klingons, they remind me of home... bit barbaric
though" he chuckled

Just then Captain Steve Aldous walked in.  "Hello everyone," he said
with a smile, as he walked over to stand with them.

"Captain." Gevran greeted him, turning slightly. "We've just been
discussing cultural views on memorials and the like..."

Steve nodded and then looked at Duo.  "I came here to see you, Mister
Maxwell."

Duo frowned "me?" he sighed 'what've I done now' ran through his mind

"Stand up, Lieutenant," Steve ordered, looking down at him sitting on
the table.

Gevran turned, slowly, surreptitiously, wondering what was happening
that suddenly required such a formal tone. It would be a shame for
something to go awry on the first day aboard...

Duo cursed under his breath, then stood up "what've I done this time
Sir?" he asked in a weary voice

Steve had already put Duo's new pips into his hand before entering the
room, and was having a problem keeping his face stern at the moment.
"It's come to my attention that you won't be needing your rank insignia
any more."  He reached up and took it off.  Handing it to Duo, he waited
for his reaction.

Duo snarled in anger, it had finally happened, they had kicked him out,
he took the opertunity "well if that's the case Sir, Since I'm not under
your command any more... I suggest you stay well away from me for the
next millenia, or your liable to end up in sickbay, in a lot of pain" he
said coldly, a sharp, menacing tone coming into his usually casual
voice, and his face hardning

Gevran let out a low whistle at the Captain's comments, and another
longer one at the marine's response. Backing away, he waited with morbid
fascination to see what would happen next...

Steve grinned at him, having expected his reaction.  "When, oh when, are
you going to learn, CAPTAIN Maxwell, that I do things differently around
here."  He showed the Captain's insignia to Duo.

Duo looked dumbfoundedly at the insignia, then at Aldous.  "Y' know
Sir... you wanna be carefull... I could've, probably would've hurt
ya..." he said quietly, then grinned

Shaking his head, sure he would never come to understand the marine
mentality, and more certain than ever that he was well served staying
clear of command, Gevran eased himself forward again now the threat of
immediate danger seemed to have passed.  "Congratulations, Captain." he
offered.

"Oh, I don't think you would have hurt me at all," Steve replied as he
pinned Duo's new Marine Captain insignia to his shoulder epaulettes.
"Besides, how would it look you assaulting the captain who's promoting
you?"  He grinned again.

Duo chuckled "thanks Lt," he said to Gevran.  He looked at Aldous.  "I
was gonna hit you... I'm not used t' these funny tactics.. misleadin'
people's not what I'm good at" he grinned, amazed that they had actually
premoted him, considering the trouble he had been in over the past
months

Steve looked at him, straight in the eye.  "Due to excellence of
service, and outstanding devotion to your training and to your station,
I hereby promote you to Marine Captain.  And if you ever hit a superior
officer, you can consider your Starfleet Career over.  Don't treat it
lightly, Captain."  And then he smiled again.  "Congratulations."

Duo grinned "If I ever hit a superior officer, It'll be because my
carrer is over" he looked at Aldous, his casualness dropping away
slightly "Thank you Sir.. I'm honoured, and I'll do my best t' make
myself worthy of th' rank" he smiled

Steve nodded.  "Very good Captain," he said.  He looked around at the
rest of them gathered there.  "Thank you for being part of the ceremony
gentlemen," he said with a smile.  "Captain Barton...  I'd like a word
with you in my ready room when you've finished here.  As you were," he
finished, looking at the rest of them.  He then left the mess hall.

Duo looked around "well.... tha' was a suprise... I'm a Captain.." he
grinned at Gevran "tha' means I dont gotta call you Sir.. umm...
actually, wha' am I supposed t' call ya?" he asked, chuckling

"Gevran will normally suffice." he said with a chuckle, "though if you
insist on being formal, Lieutenant."

Duo grinned "It's Gevran then... I'm never formal unless I gotta be"

"Congratulations Captain," smiled Jim.  "But you can still call me sir."
His smile changed to a grin.

Duo laughed "thanks Sir, I kinda expected that!"

Trowa cleared his throat, drawing attention to himself "If you'll excuse
me Gentelmen, I'm going to see Captain Aldous..." he smiled slightly

"And I have to be off too..." said Hawkins.  "I have to make some
modifications to the impulse engines, so that this ship can handle more
like the Talon."  He chuckled, and left the mess hall.

Trowa nodded at the two remaining men, then turned and followed Hawkins
out of the mess hall

Duo looked at the memorial, then at Torm "I think I'm gonna go check out
the marine deck, an' my office" he smiled, it was the first time he had
ever had an office, the Talon wasn't big enough for offices

Gevran smiled, saw them all off, and sat down on one of the chairs,
staring at the slow movements of the simulated ship in the memorial, and
cast his mind back for a while to the Tornado, and those who were lost
with her.


OFF
Joint post by


Captain Steve Aldous
Commanding Officer, USS Scorpion

And

Captain Trowa Barton,
CO, Starbase Qul Tuq

And

Lt Commander Jim Hawkins
Chief Flight Officer, USS Scorpion

And

Captain Duo Maxwell
Marine XO, USS Scorpion

And

Lt Gevran Torm
Chief Science Officer, USS Scorpion