Captain’s log November 25th 004 SDE

Negotiating for a drydock slip went well. The Krall mobilization for war has generated a fair number of opportunities for us in the system. Ones that I’m taking full advantage of to get the materials for our refit. Estimates indicate it will take about three months to refit the Enterprise, time that I will take full advantage of. Being in Krall space represents some lucrative opportunities for trade. The Krall have also found a few candidates for us to investigate when we are ready to get underway again. Unfortunately getting to the sector will be difficult with the war going on. It is expected that by the time our refit is completed that the war will have expanded. I have a few meetings today on the subject of trade, and a social call with Ship-leader Tika to take care of today. As for the Refit, once complete we will have the space and life support for a crew of 70,000 and food production will be increased a bit to support up to 100,000. We won’t need the full capability until we have escorts again. There will be no change in our defensive capabilities, but there will be some improvements to the warp engines and sublights. That will further reduce our emissions profile and increase efficiency. We have also lined up some improvements to improve engine reliability, but there will not be any improvement to speed and maneuverability.

We will lose a few cargo bays though to the refit. Along with some of our backup systems. This will reduce system redundancy, but we don’t need as much redundancy as we have in those systems. Defensive redundancy, however, will be maintained. Some have expressed concerns about a lack of privacy in the new living areas the refit will add. Problem is that the most efficient use of space is to use primarily communal living quarters, and semi-private quarters. 

Countryman stepped off the ship via the portside gangway. Walking down the gangway he passed several crewmen on the way down. At the base he passed a couple of guards, and headed towards Tika. 

“Good morning Ship-leader, sleep well?” asked Countryman.

“Yes, and it seems you have already started your refit,” said Tika referring to the lasers being used to remove the fused hull plates. That could be seen from the viewports of the station. The lasers were taking a while to cut through the fused plates, thanks to the excellent resistances of Titan Alloy.

“Yes, the plate removal is expected to take awhile. Fortunately, most of the materials appear salvageable. Although we are doing more than simply rearmoring the ship. We have quite a bit of maintenance, system repair and optimization to do. The largest chunk of the work is the layout optimizations and changes. The Enterprise was originally designed as a Fleet command and support ship. Her purpose was to support a small fleet on a long term mission indefinitely. We are refitting her to be a proper cityship, maintaining her defensive and offensive ability. By removing some redundancy and sacrificing spaces we don’t need. Once the refit is done, the Enterprise will be better suited for our current needs,” said Countryman.

“That makes some sense. Anyway, my ship has been reassigned to defend this system, and I have been assigned to be your liaison while in this system. Now I believe you have a few meetings with various heads of state, scheduled for today. Anyway, those don’t start till noon so I’ll give you a tour of the station,” said Tika leading the way into the station. The tour was fairly interesting. The orbital shipyard complex was reasonably large, the slip they had been given number twenty-three was a bit out of the way. Mostly due to the fact that it was designed for use with capital ships. The size of capital ships meant the slip needed to be further away from the main hub for navigational purposes. As they were touring the station and getting a good look at the ships being built or refitted here, Countryman took note of the robotic workers and androids being employed.

“Those androids you are using are quite impressive. Your people did a great job making them look and act realistic,” said Countryman.

“That’s an odd statement, most visitors don’t even notice the androids we use. How did you notice?” asked Tika.

“I have ocular implants, they give me a bit of an advantage in telling the difference,” said Countryman.

“Ah, yes you cybernetics technology, some of our more radical scientists have been interested in it,” replied Tika.

“We had our line of androids, for different lines of works. It might be beneficial to exchange notes on the subject of advanced robotics. We will also toss in our notes for cybernetics,” said Countryman.

“Why are you willing to exchange that info now and weren’t earlier?” asked Tika.

“Circumstances change, and we got to know you better. Cybernetic enhancement can be a pretty dangerous technology in the wrong hands,” said Countryman.

“I guess I can see that. I’ll put you in touch with the local military research and development branch. You can negotiate the exchange of information there,” said Tika. A couple hours later Countryman arrived at the first of the meetings for negotiating those contracts he wanted done. Over the course of the day, he negotiated several transport agreements, where his shuttlecraft would transport materials and personnel to various locations in planetary orbit or the surface. Along with a couple of trade agreements, where they sold surplus protein paste for materials they needed for refitting and rearming the Enterprise. The salvage they had on board had already been sold the day before and generated most of the revenue they needed so these contracts were just supplementary sources of income.

The last of the negotiations that Countryman had for the day was for making the arrangements for local shore leave. This was important since it was an excellent opportunity to increase moral. Williams mutiny had left some shadows that had yet to dispel. A thought that made him think back to her trial. The entire thing had just been a formality by the time it actually happened. The Council had spent an entire month debating just what to do, before coming to an agreement. Williams and the ringleaders had been sentenced to death and were publicly executed. He had personally executed Williams firing a particle blast into her chest. While the ringleaders had been killed the lower ranking lackeys had been sentenced to decades in the brig. Most of them expected to spend time in the factories or working in waste processing. 

He left that last meeting happy with the arrangements he had made but exhausted. Honestly, Countryman hated diplomacy, thanks to his years he had enough experience with it to be passable. He was much more comfortable in the command chair while in the middle of a heated battle. He did enjoy designing ships and weapons, however. A couple minutes after he left the room he found Tika having a rather high-level engineering discussion with another Krall female.

“You could solve that problem by increasing the plasma compression,” interjected Countryman having listened to what they were discussing.

“I think you’re right! How did a man manage to sit through the engineering courses required to understand my problem though?” asked the young woman.

“I heard that your men would rather play with a sword than sit through a class. In my race we don’t have the strongly defined gender roles you do. I actually have a number of advanced degrees in Engineering, Physics, starship design, military theory, starship tactics, and a few minor degrees as well from decades of study within the scientific community of my world,” said Countryman while leaving a few others out of the mix.

“Sounds like you would know a thing or two about warship design, then. How long have you been designing ships?” asked the girl. Tika stood off to the side looking like she wanted to say something.

“I have been a ship designer on and off for the last one hundred twenty-five years. Before that, I was involved in various small projects and political movements. In fact, I was involved in the project that led to our first cyborgs over a hundred and fifty years ago,” replied Countryman deciding not to mention that he was a test subject during the later stages of the project thanks to an accident aboard the infamous research station Star Tech One which was one of the oldest stations still in use by the Cathamari War.

“How old are you?” asked both almost at once.

“I’m one hundred ninety-five years old. Why do you ask?” replied Countryman.

“Because most sentient life forms only live to be around one hundred and fifty years old. There are exceptions such as the Cathamari who can live up to four hundred years, and the Malora who can live to be seven hundred,” answered Tika.

“My race uses a treatment called cellular treatments to prolong life. With them, we typically live to be around two hundred years old. However, cyborgs, such as myself live longer aging at a quarter the normal rate and can expect to live up to eight hundred years. Anyway what is that high energy thruster you are working on for?” said Countryman. While leaving out the fact that most died younger thanks to the colonial wars.

“Ah so your medicine is ahead of normal curve. As for the thruster its for the next generation of battleship. Fleet command wants a new battleship that is just as fast as the current mainstay the Warhammer class with a heavier hull, armor is to be increased to sixteen meters and the bulkheads are to be triple-reinforced. Along with significant field integrity reinforcement, and heavier shields. Essentially they want it to be able to take a real pounding, without sacrificing speed. Reducing the armament could help, but nowhere near enough which is what the new thruster is for. Although I don’t think the new thrusters alone, will get me the profile we need,” said the girl.

“I can help, what do you know about our technology?” asked Countryman.

“Your ships have unusually good maneuvering profiles, especially so when you factor in the higher than average mass of your ships. It is believed it has something to do with your reactionless thrusters, which seem to have the best thrust to weight ratios of any known engine,”  replied the young woman after a couple minutes of thought. Tika was about to say she had made an error when Countryman replied.

“Not quite true, a component of our engines generates a field that partially nullifies the inertial mass of our ships reducing the needed thrust. It works in conjunction with the particle reaction our engines use to produce thrust, but it can be separated and employed in other engine configurations. We will just have to adapt the crystal core to accept, a different energy source. A carefully modulated graviton field should generate the required reaction inside the crystal core to generate the desired effect,” said Countryman.

“As I recall you mentioned that your propulsion technology was heavily reliant on something called Rydium,” said Tika.

“Yes, we have been considering selling the secret of Rydium manufacture so that we can outsource production. Rydium has applications outside of propulsion engineering. Most aren’t well known because of the classification of the information, but these include weaponry, armor, energy transformers, energy absorbers, grav plating, mag tractors, and a few more minor applications,” said Countryman.

“Why no mention of shields?” asked the young female.

“Because we don’t know of any applications for energy shields. Keep in mind, energy shielding is very new to us. Until six years ago, the only form of energy shielding we knew of were the radiation shields we developed. Our exposure to shields has allowed us to write a few theories on how combat shields work. Those theories are what we used for developing our rather famous torpedoes and our less well-known Electro Cannons,” said Countryman.

“Considering what you know about shields, why haven’t you developed combat shields of your own?” asked Tika, figuring they needed a fair understanding for their shield penetrating weapons to work.

“Honestly? Well, most of it comes down to a lack of resources. However, there is also a disinterest in pursuing energy shields. Not only that, but combat shields require more energy than our hull plating, and require more internal space than our radiation shields. Even if we pursue them, we can’t use them without a major refit. Not only that but our power systems simply can’t handle both energy shields and armor. Besides, we have more experience with armor than shields, which is why we have not pursued shields,” replied Countryman. After that the topic shifted back to the original engineering problem.

Misaki entered engineering wearing a work suit. She had been ordered to help the engineering department out with the refit. Although she seriously didn’t want to be here, but that had nothing to do with the work. Her problem was the outfit. The work suit she was required to wear, was basically a thicker version of the skinsuit. As a result, it felt like she was walking around in her underwear, which she found to be rather embarrassing. A man walked past her and she tried to hide her small breasts with her hands. Only to rewarded with an amused chuckle coming from her left.

“You know the outfit isn’t as bad as you think. Although, the way you are acting does make it rather erotic,” said Megumi.

“Not as bad? It is basically underwear, it doesn’t hide anything. I don’t see the difference between this and a skinsuit,” replied Misaki.

“Have you looked in the mirror? The fabric is thick enough to hide your features. Besides the skin-hugging design is far safer than anything else you could wear. That suit won’t get caught on anything either. Anyway, you and I need to get to deck twelve. We are going to be reconfiguring the power distribution nodes on that deck,” said Megumi.

“What are we doing with the power nodes?” asked Misaki not aware the nodes were on the refit schedule.

“We are configuring them to better fit the new layout. We are also increasing the load capacity to the primary systems. Something we can afford to do since we are removing unneeded systems,” said Megumi as she began to explain what they needed to do. For the next few hours, Misaki helped the work crews with reconfiguring the power nodes. The moment she was off duty, she rushed to her quarters to change into something she was less embarrassed to be in. Wondering how all the other women on the ship could act like the work suit wasn’t a problem. Although it was just her personal opinion, the materials it was made from were actually quite thick and sturdy. The suits also covered most of the wearer’s skin, and was made skin tight so it wouldn’t get in the way while working. The thickness of the material not only made it quite protective but also hid enough of the wearer that it wasn’t as erotic as she thought. 

A week after the Enterprise had docked at the Hylis Four Shipyard Complex, the Valorian council was informed of its presence there via their own spy network which is why an emergency session was now in progress. This was becoming a regular occurrence for the council. At least once a week the council was convening for a session thanks to the war they were fighting.

“The menace that caused this war has been found. According to our spies, they are at Hylis Four in Krall space. Unfortunately our spies could not find any real info for why they are there, and for how long they will be staying. They did learn that the ship entered the system with extensive hull damage and appears to be conducting repairs,” reported the intel liaison to the council.

“If that is where they are then they are no longer a threat. We should pull the lookouts and focus our forces on pushing back the Toral Confederacy,” said one councilman, and was immediately countered by another proposing a focus against the Voskar.

“We can’t afford a counteroffensive at this time. Furthermore, the menace is still a threat. More so in fact now that they are in Krall space. If they trade any of their unique technologies with the Krall it would make the Krall such a threat that even our combined fleet won’t be able to stop them,’ said the chairwoman.

“They’re in Krall space, not much we can do about them. We should ignore them and focus on the war. Besides our relations with the Krall are already poor, best not to antagonize them further, by attacking their friend in one of their ports. Not unless you want a four-front war, and need I remind you we are barely holding the border against the forces already invading our space,” said one of the younger girls on the council.

“I don’t think that will work. I have read the reports coming from Krall space. I fear it is too late to try and avoid a war with the Krall. What we need to be doing is commissioning more fleets. I suggest we attempt a sabotage mission on the ship and have at least two new fleets commissioned for home defense, and to block any Krall advance on our core systems,” said another of the younger councilwomen. 

“Sabotage sounds like a good idea. How do you propose we will do that?” asked the first councilman.

“Ideally we would place an explosive device somewhere on the ship if we can sneak an agent aboard the ship. We will have them plant the device on the ship. If we can’t find a way onto the ship, we will need our agent to plant the devices on the slip. The ship’s defense will likely be powered down since they are repairing hull damage. A few high yield explosive devices should be enough to destroy the ship,” answered the addressed female. The meeting went back in forth with debate and new proposals until they made the decision to have the local spies attempt to destroy the ship.

Sali was sitting in her cell, her back against the wall. She didn’t really have anything to do, so she was practicing their language without the aid of her translator implant. This was not her first practice session in their language. Still, she was far from perfect, and she could only speak a handful of words. Her practicing though had made it easier for her to notice that the Humans didn’t speak one language but several. With many of them being bilingual, but she had noticed they had a common tongue. That tongue was the one she was practicing since she felt knowing and being able to speak it without a translator would be helpful. Language practice had become part of her routine since she always had some free time between dinner and lights out.

This time of the day was always quiet, broken only by the occasional footsteps of a patrolling pair of guards. She suddenly stopped her practice mid-word, when she heard a commotion. Quickly she crossed her cell and got as close to the grid as she dared before peering down the hall. A couple minutes later she saw a couple of guards and what looked like a pair of Krall security escorting what appeared to be a Krall female down the corridor. Her wrists were restrained by Krall light cuffs. Glowing bands of light were wrapped around her wrists being emitted from a small sphere between them. Her clothing was Krall prisoner's garb, which was a plain brown dress made from rough-looking fabric. Her tail extended from a slit in the back of the dress. The prisoner noticed her and exclaimed, “What is a Valorian doing here in a cell!?”

Sali was quite surprised to see Krall on the ship. She had noticed the engines were silent, but she didn’t know they were docked at a Krall shipyard. She didn’t even know they were in Krall space either. So seeing Krall was a surprise. Rather than answer the other prisoner who had directed her question at her, she looked to the guard who gestured that she could answer.

“I was captured when they snagged my fighter with a tractor beam, at New Valoria. I have been laboring in their factories since then,” said Sali.

“Wait your saying you have been here for nearly six months?” said the Prisoner.

“Has it really only been six months? I thought it was longer,” replied Sali. Then she asked, “Anyway what did you do?”

“Um, uh nothing?” said the prisoner.

“She was caught planting explosives on the slip. She resisted arrest, wounding two, and killing one before she was subdued. She had a few accomplices that were also caught, and the complex doesn’t have many free cells. So we are going to be holding her for a few days. Why don’t you brief her on what she can expect?” said the one guard.

Sali agreed and said, “You can expect a lot of boredom over the next few days. Also expect to spend those days in the dark. Humans aren’t big on keeping their prisoners up to date on local events. Humans aren’t big on bright lights either, the factory isn’t much brighter than the brig. The patrols will pass by at irregular intervals, and you will get meals twice a day. Not that they are any good, nor is there any variety. It is always fish. You get a shower every couple of days, but unless you have earned the privilege the water will be cold. Oh, yes whatever you do, never ever touch the bars that make up this grid here.”

“Why am I not supposed to touch the bars?” asked the girl.

“The bars have a high energy field running through it. Touching hurts like ‘hell,’” replied Sali remembering the time she got thrown into the grid.

“I’ll take your word for it,” said the girl moments before the guards started leading her away. Sali headed back to her bed and picked up the electronic pad she had left when she went to see what was going on. Turning it on she resumed her language practice.

Around the same time, Countryman was reading the report on the sabotage attempt. He had expected a few of his enemies to try something like this, so he had patrols on the slip. He had also made arrangements to prevent unauthorized individuals from boarding the ship. Not much he could do about the report and he agreed with Greymans actions on this particular subject. He did, however, make a few arrangements to increase local security. Fortunately, the following months wouldn’t need the security and the prisoners they gained were tried and convicted in a Krall court before being shipped to a Krall prison.

Captain’s Log March 2nd 005 SDE,

Today marks the end of our long refit. The refit was completed on schedule and the last few months have been quite profitable for our scientific community. We learned quite a bit from our interactions with the Krall scientific community. While the Krall learned some new tricks from us as well. It will take time for us to really put the new knowledge to use, but it has already taken years off of some of our ongoing research projects. The most immediate benefits of our interactions have been to our stealth abilities. With Krall help, we were able to reduce our graviton emissions by five percent, which might not sound like much but will help reduce our visibility on graviton scanners. 

Before we leave the Hylis system however we have a shakedown cruise to complete. Thanks to the extent of the work done, we will need a shakedown in order to be sure all our systems are working according to spec. The armor was tested last week with a photon field bombardment and is operating according to specifications. Apparently the Krall use the same technique to test their energy shields. Our cruise will test the systems that can’t be tested in port, such as our engines and weapons. For the weapons test, there is a field of floating hulks in high orbit of the yard. These hulks are older ships, that are no longer functioning and slated to be scrapped. Which to the Krall means, they have been decommissioned and placed here for target practice. Speaking of weapons, my scientists have been telling me about their exciting work with photon fields and shield penetrators. They believe they are only a year away from creating a viable prototype for a shield penetrating photon torpedo design.

For our weapons test, we will be firing our energy weapons on several targets multiple times. We will also be shooting a few dummy torpedoes to test the launchers. After that, we will make a short warp jump to Hylis Five before engaging the IKS Teketh in a mock battle. The mock battle will be the best test of our sublight engines. The battle will be conducted with simulated weapons, and our computers will register each hit and simulate the damage. The Teketh may not be as large as the Enterprise or carry as many weapons as we do, but she more than makes up for it with the power of her weapons. Both us and the Krall ran a few simulations and found our two ships to be almost evenly matched. The Enterprise has the advantage thanks to her torpedoes. However the Teketh’s beam arrays can rip us to pieces in short order, if they are allowed into beam range. Our radiation shields can buy us an extra thirty seconds which can help us get out of range. Overall our advantage is minor, and the result will come down to the skill of the captain.

“We are secure from warp speed, sir. Now in high orbit of Hylis five,” said Eri.

“No problems with the warp engines, sir,” reported Megumi.

“In that case, hail the Teketh and tell them we are ready for the mock battle. All hands to battle stations,” ordered Countryman. There was an immediate reaction, as the alert lights turned red. Simulated weapons were brought online, and as the viewports along the hull were battened shut and the plating was charged to maximum. The Teketh immediately acknowledged the transmission, and almost immediately the battle began.

The Teketh accelerated to full combat speeds and began to close on the Enterprise. The Enterprise opened fire with a heavy volley of simulated torpedoes. Tika’s battle-leader was no fool however and ordered immediate evasive maneuvers. The Teketh using a combination of evasive maneuvers and ECM managed to evade most of the incoming torpedoes taking only a couple of hits. Three simulated torpedoes slammed into the ship amidships and exploded against the hull plating. The ship registered a simulated hull breach and acted accordingly sealing the section and marking the systems there as down. The Teketh returned fire with a few simulated volleys of her own.

Most of which were neutralized by the Enterprise’s energy webs. Several high yield simulated torpedoes exploded against the ships hull. Greatly draining the local AIF and creating simulated hull breaches. As the Enterprise again returned fire, as she maneuvered to keep her distance from the Teketh. Each ship exchanging significant numbers of simulated torpedoes in a simulated exchange of fire. Both ships taking damage from the torpedoes they could not avoid.

After the third exchange of fire, the Teketh ducked behind an asteroid for cover. Simulated torpedoes slamming into the asteroid. Buying the Teketh the precious few seconds she needed to execute a combat jump into beam weapons range. She came out of the inversion on the Enterprise’s tail and opened fire. Several beam hits bored into the Enterprise’s hull, ripping opening simulated damage, and wounding several critical systems. The Enterprise returned fire with her aft launchers and turrets. While she simultaneously began coming about, the ship turning faster than most vessels of her size were capable of. The Teketh was already too close for the Enterprise to safely make distance without a warp jump or pulse detonation. As the Enterprise was readying for rapid acceleration she planned to close the distance for a quick run on the Teketh.

The Teketh took a number of hits from simulated torpedoes disabling a number of systems and causing multiple simulated hull breaches. As she continued to return fire on the Enterprise her hull continuing to hold together a testament to the impressive Krall Engineering techniques. The Enterprise entered electro cannon range and opened fire. The Krall shields collapsed and the Enterprise followed up with a number of penetrating hits from her particle cannons and cutting beams. At the same moment, the Teketh managed to fire a penetrating hit that disrupted the containment field on one of the Enterprise’s auxiliary reactors. The simulated battle ended a few moments later when the simulated explosion claimed both ships, making the battle a draw.

“That was a good battle, Ship-leader Tika. Your battle-leader made an excellent decision with that combat jump. I honestly thought I was going to win until that jump,” said Countryman.

“My battle-leader didn’t expect you to close the distance. Although in hindsight I think he made a poor choice targeting you reactor after you closed the distance. Although I hadn’t expected an explosion with the big of a shockwave either,” said Tika.

“Well we are carrying a lot of fuel, and at the time our engines were charging for a pulse detonation. The reactor containment loss knocked out the flow regulators for our port aft engine, causing the engine to overload. Now that we know the risk of this happening exists. It will be simple to prevent,” said Countryman.

“Sounds like everything is fine over there. So where are headed after this?” asked Tika.

“Sector 41115, of the places you told us about, that sector seems the most promising. We will have to cross Valorian space, but we aren't worried. With the war they will most likely be too busy to bother us,” replied Countryman.

“In that case, I wish you luck, and escort you to the border,” said Tika as she signed off. A few minutes later the Enterprise went to warp. The Teketh escorting her to the border.