[Provisional RPG] USS Solaris - B

[squiggy]

Linda
Linda smiled.
"Not a problem, Lt. Commander. I'm Linda. Lauren's holographic... something or other. I honestly don't know what exactly the description would be." She said laughing, as she re-attached the IMPulse engine.
She repaired one of the energy conduits behind the IMPulse engine easily.
Smiling, she looked over at him, as he was working on the damaged IMPulse engine, that was still attached.
"I love this shuttle. Back... then... this was state of the art stuff. I was fascinated by it then. Now...it's a relic. Like...me." She said, looking down at the IMPulse engine.
She turned her head sideways.
"This ship... is equipped with an Artificial Intelligence. Were you aware of this?" She asked.
She heard it chattering, as the power systems came back online, and it re-asserted it's control over the IMPulse engine.
"It... she? says thank you. It won't tell me it's name yet, it's memory cells are damaged still, so it isn't able to speak eng....er... it doesn't speak english, these are... Odd... that's... not right." Linda trailed off.
She stepped into the shuttle.
"This isn't a starfleet shuttle, it's only got starfleet controls... Did you install these? The artificial intelligence installed is talking in ROMULAN binary code. In addition... there is... Lt. Commander.... this ship is equipped with a damaged cloaking device." Linda said, amazed by the strangeness of this ship.
"That would likely explain why all this starfleet stuff isn't playing nice. The Artificial Intelligence installed in this shuttle... doesn't understand how it talks. I can help you with it, just a quick second." Linda said quietly.
She grabbed a tri-corder, and plugged it into the shuttle's main computer.
She transferred her program to it, and the tri-corder dropped to the console, from her 'hand'.

Shuttlecraft, Linda
Linda 'looked' around the shuttle's computer. It felt strange.
"Hello." The Artificial Intelligence said in binary code.
"Hi." Linda said.
"Why are you here?" The Artificial Intelligence asked.
Linda unloaded the English Language into the Artificial Intelligence's program.
The Artificial Intelligence 'smiled' at Linda, as Linda transferred back to her emitters.

Linda
Linda re-appeared, and picked up the tri-corder, unplugging it from the shuttle.
"It should be able to understand your commands, and accept Starfleet protocols now. No more mysterious sensor glitches, or problems accepting commands, that I suspect you had previously." Linda said, as she went back to repairing the shuttle.
She stared at the door, and smiled.
Carefully, she lifted it back in place and began re-attaching it.
"Your shuttle likes you. She just wishes you would pay more attention to her protocols." Linda said, laughing, at the binary code the AI was emitting.

[tomparis]

Neb looked at the shuttle in surprise. He knew Starfleet would have snatched the shuttle away from him, even though the cloaking device was outdated.
"Well, I guess now that we've figured out why you were rejecting the Starfleet protocols, I can finally get around to fixing up the circuitry."
Neb stepped inside of the shuttle, and looked around.
"Computer, are vocal subroutines active?"
Neb heard a distinctly negative chime come from the forward console.
"Can they be activated?"
This time, Neb heard a positive chime sound.
"Computer, activate vocal subroutines."
After a moment, Neb heard a female voice sound through the shuttle.
"Vocal subroutines are now online."
Neb gave a sigh of relief, knowing that it was one less thing to fix.
"Well, I never did figure out your name. Do you have one?"
There was another slight pause, which Neb attributed to degradation in the computer core, which would have to be fixed later.
"This is the Romulan Infiltration Shuttle Tallera."
Neb cocked his head.
"Infiltration shuttle?"
"Affirmative. This shuttle was designed to permit unhindered passage to and from earth."
"Well, those days for you are long over. You wouldn't happen to be able to tell me how to fix the cloak, would you?"
"Affirmative."
Neb smiled.

[squiggy]

Linda
Linda smiled, as Neb and the AI got accustomed to eachother.
"Have fun you two. Now, Lt. Commander, don't keep her up too late, and make sure you are home by midnight." Linda said, quietly.
She laughed, and walked out of the shuttlebay, heading to the messhall.
After all, she knew there wasn't a cook onboard, and she WAS a world class chef.

Lauren
Lauren argued with her shuttle for the 1900th time.
And this time, it was responding properly.
Turns out, after a simple hardware upgrade... only say... a sensor dish made a century later, as well as a better computer system, and operating system... it worked perfectly.
She smiled, as she began programming the shuttle's new protocols.

[tomparis]

Neb crawled out from under the housing for the cloak.
"Well, Tallera, let's see if that worked, shall we?"
Neb activated the cloaking device, and cringed in anticipation any minor explosions. When nothing blew up, Neb stood up and walked to the door. He jumped out, walking in a straight line away from the door. He turned around to see nothing there. Neb grinned, and got back into the shuttle, bumping his head on the way. He turned off the cloak.
"Now that the cloak is fixed, that just leaves repairing your computer core and doing some aesthetic fix-ups. Tallera, I want you to start a diagnostic on your computer core. If you can find out what's wrong, it'll make my job much easier."
"All right, Neb. Where will you be going?"
Neb was still surprised at how fast the shuttle had started calling him Neb, and how much care it showed for him.
"I'm going to grab a bite to eat."
Neb walked out of the shuttlebay, and, before going to the mess hall, stopped in at sickbay. He walked in to see Dianne working at a console.
"Want to grab something to eat?"

[squiggy]

Dianne
Dianne whirled around, and smiled.
"Certainly." She said, as she quickly put her stuff aside.
Smiling, she stepped out of sickbay with the Lt. Commander, and smiled.

Lauren
Lauren earned another bruise, trying to get the stupid shuttle working.
This time, she dropped a chair on her foot.
Impressed, she was not, but she kept right on working.

Linda, Dianne
Linda smiled, as she watched the Lt. Commander, and Dianne walk in.
"Special of the day, lady, and gentleman, is grilled salmon and french fries. We also have Tomato soup or a green salad for the vegetarians among us." Linda said, as they stepped up to the counter.
Dianne grinned.
"I'll have a plate of the special, and a bowl of soup please." Dianne replied.
Linda nodded, and began making the preparations.
"And for the gentleman?" Linda asked, waiting for his order.

[tomparis]

(OCC: Sorry I haven't posted. Twas out of town.)

Neb though for a moment.
"Well, I'm not a big fan of fish, so I'll do the tomato soup."
Neb turned, and looked at the empty tables. He moved to one by the viewport, and pulled out the chair for Dianne.

[squiggy]

Dianne
Dianne smiled, and took the seat.
"So, Lt. Commander, how goes things with your shuttle?" She asked.

Lauren
She finally got the comm system in the shuttle online, and then she intertwined it with the Ship's comm.
She checked for messages, just in time to catch a hail from Admiral Talyn.
"Yes Admiral?" She asked, as his withered elderly face appeared on the screen.
He smiled.
"I'm afraid you may have to leave...short handed. We can't spare you much more crew." He replied.
Then he saw the slight twitch in Lauren's nose, and he got up, and backed away.
"What was that all about?" Lauren asked.
Talyn laughed.
"You always do that nose twitchy thing when you explode. I didn't want to get any on me." Talyn said laughing.
Lauren levelled a glare, which sent the man into a mild heart attack.
"You see, Admiral, I have this new way of dishing out my attitude. Actions, rather then words. Be careful next time." Lauren said, as she cut the comm line.
Then she burst out laughing.
Not too many Captains could get away with giving Starfleet's C&C a heart attack.

[tomparis]

Neb moved around to the opposite seat, and sat down.
"Well, Linda found out that it was a Romulan shuttle. After we figured that out, it was easy for her to add a translation matrix so it could understand Starfleet code."
Neb looked up as Linda set the food on the table, then nodded.
"I was able to get the cloaking device fixed, so now the only major repair left is fixing the computer core."
Neb carefully sipped on a hot spoonful of the soup.
"What about you? How are you doing with the transition to a new ship?"

[squiggy]

Dianne, Linda, Lauren, Emett
Dianne grinned.
"At first, I hated it. And then... Linda kinda...tweaked... the main computer, and it got alot better. But Emett is depressed, so it's hard for me to handle sickbay. He doesn't have the freedoms that you, I, or Linda does, because Lauren trusts him to be able to work 24/7, and he'd do it, for her. I think over the past century, since he's been active, he's developped enough humanity to perhaps have fallen for her; She's the only reason he's still active. Starbase 21 was going to delete him when she got aboard, but she saved his program on a Tricorder, and brought him to every ship she served on. He has more experience under his belt then most of the instructors at the Academy, so Starfleet lets him stay active." She said, looking down.
Linda smiled.
"He's a really bored hologram. But a loyal one. He probably wont ever leave sickbay. It's kinda sad really, Like most EMH mark 1s, he developped his own 'style'. They are now developping EMH mark 19s, and these clowns have the personality of a bowling ball." Linda said, grinning.
Dianne smiled.
Lauren walked into the mess hall.
"Geez, if Emett was here, we could have a ship-wide meeting." Lauren said, in way of greeting.
Linda laughed.
Dianne looked down.
"Put your chin up, little one. I am not going to bite your head off for not being like Emett, and hiding in Sickbay 24/7." Lauren said, laughing.
Dianne laughed a little.
Linda smiled.
"The usual, Lauren?" Linda asked.
Lauren grinned. Linda was one of perhaps two people who could get away with using her first name; And the other one died 5 years ago.
"Actually, Linda, I've developped a vegetarian complex. Salad, Soup, and something caffienated, please." Lauren said, laughing.
Linda frowned.
"But! I made grilled salmon just for you!" Linda said, glaring.
Lauren and Dianne laughed, as Linda dramatically made large streams of holographic water stream out of her eyes.
"Hamming it up, I see." A deep male voice came from behind the table.
Lauren turned around, and smiled at Emett.
"You broke your chains in sickbay?" Lauren asked.
Emett laughed at that.
Dianne suddenly got a mischievious look on her face, and winked at Neb.
"Hey... who wants to play poker?" Dianne asked.
Lauren's eyebrows rose, Linda grinned, and Emett... well, Emett decided he had better things to do, and transferred directly back to sickbay.
"That's a cool trick. A transporter without a transporter." Lauren said, watching him disappear.
Linda frowned.
"Yet, I'd give it up in an instant, for just one bite of cheesecake." Linda said, which cause Dianne to mysteriously burst into laughter.
Lauren pulled a deck of cards out of her pocket.
"What? I was playing Solitaire on the bridge earlier." She said, and she shuffled, and began dealing.

[tomparis]

Neb grinned as Lauren and Linda pulled chairs up to the table. He walked over to the replicator.
"One case of poker chips."
Neb grabbed the box and walked back to the table. He split them up evenly. He looked down at his cards, and threw in the ante.
"So, have we received any more crewmen, or, orders for that matter?"

(OCC: Yeah, I don't know much about poker. Only play it sparsely and never for money )

[squiggy]

Emett
Emett was casually wondering through sickbay, while at the same time monitoring all the systems throughout the ship. Since they were still docked, this was a relatively simplistic task.
Then he noticed something interesting. Something no Starfleet ship would be scanning for, if it were not for previous experience with this bandwidth of neutrinos.
He tapped his commbadge.
"Emett to Captain Van den Hause, I suspect there is a cloaked Orion vessel nearby." Emett said quietly.

Lauren, Dianne, Linda
Dianne looked at her cards, she couldn't help but have problems not laughing.
She had a royal flush in spades.
"Raise, 200 chips." she said, putting nearly 1/3 of what she had left.

Lauren was amused by this concept.
She grinned.
"All in." She said, laughing.
She pushed in enough chips to cover everyone else's on the table.

Linda frowned.
She was bluffing with a pair of aces. She had already made the pot too hefty for the poor Lt. Commander to stay in the game.
"I fold." She said, leaving her with 1000 chips of her starting 4000.

Dianne frowned.
"All in." She said, countering Lauren's all-in bet.
She put her cards down.
"Royal flush in Spades." She said, reaching out for the pot.

Linda groaned.

Lauren's eyebrows rose.
She laid her cards down.
"Royal flush in Hearts." Lauren said, and quickly grabbed the chips, nudging Dianne out of the game.

Linda laughed.
"Folding early was a good call, Lt. Commander." Linda said, looking at his 3000 chip stack. He had only lost his ante, of 200 chips.

That's when Emett's page came through.
"Confirmed." Lauren said. "All hands to battlestations. Red alert."

Bridge
Lauren, and Linda marched onto the bridge, followed quickly by the Lt. Commander.
"Dianne, either you or Emett, I need you on the bridge, for science." She said into the intercomm.
Emett appeared at the science station.
"Roger that, Captain." Emett said, smiling.
"Lt. Commander, load the Tachyon Torpedoe bays, and arm the Polaron phasers. Emett, get on the horn, and start getting clearance to disembark. Feed them your sensor readings. Linda, take over engineering Ops, I need you keeping this ship in fighting form." Lauren instructed.
Linda transferred directly to Engineering, while continuing to keep a portion of her running at the Engineering terminal on the bridge.
Lauren smiled.
"Lt. Commander, You have clearance to depart from Starbase 1." Emett informed him.
"Computer, Activate the Montage directive. Until such time that Orion presence is not present in this sector, this ship will not accept any outside generated commands." Lauren instructed.
"Confirmed." The computer said.
The red alert klaxons went from infa-red to blood-red color, indicating that the ship was isolated from outside commands.
"I am aware that you, Lt. Commander are probably the only one unaware of the Montage directive; It's highly classified to bridge officers only, however, you are now a bridge officer, so it's time to let you in. Nearly 50 years ago, an Admiral, named Montage, defected to the Orion Syndicate, and there have been others in her 'band' who have done so with tactical information. In addition, they defected with technical information of new starship sketches, including ours. Not only that, it is suspected that they have access to our command protocols. Montage, by the way, is still alive. She's been seen at some Orion televised government things. She is suspected to be using outlawed Grigari nano-technology to allow her to live long enough to get revenge on me. She has access to nano-probes, which allow her access to our computer systems. She has access to our command codes, and ways to foil our sensors. However, I, and my now deceased husband, Admiral James Morrow, the previous Commander and Chief of Starfleet designed a computer Directive. Any ship can initiate it at any time, and allow them to block all inbound computer commands from subspace, and the computer only accepts commands directly input from a computer terminal by a recognized bio signature, to block out nano-probe attacks." She said, smiling.

[tomparis]

Neb nodded after Lauren finished speaking.
"Understood captain. Torpedoe bays are loaded, and phaser banks are charged."
Neb pushed a few more buttons on the helm control.
"We are heading out of space dock."
Neb looked up as the ship eased out of space dock for the first time, and couldn't help but suppress a grin. This was the first time he had flown a new ship out of space dock. He stopped grinning, then turned around.
"Any idea where the ship is?"

[squiggy]

Lauren, Emett, Linda
Lauren turned to Emett.
"Emett, tie your readings to the Lt. Commander's terminal; He doesn't have experience with Orion cloaking techniques." Lauren instructed him.
Emett nodded, and instantly the ship popped up on the Lt. Commander's screen.
"Hail them." Lauren said, glaring.
"On screen." Linda replied.

A familiar face appeared on screen.
"How the hell did you find me?" What was left of Alexis Montage asked.

Lauren laughed.
"It wasn't that difficult. You used an out-dated cloak." Lauren retorted.
She tapped a few commands into the console, while she was keeping Montage Occupied.
Lt. Commander, the Orion ship, unlike Klingon/Romulan cloaks can remain shielded while cloaked. Fire anyways. Whenever you get a good shot.
Montage frowned.
A strange weapon impacted on the Solaris's shields.
Montage grinned.
"I don't envy you, or any other Vulcanoid/Human hybrid on that ship. You will start noticing mild genetic alterations... irreversable ones." Montage said, frowning.
Dianne! Lauren thought to herself.
"You want to take me on, that's fine, Montage, but you leave my Daughter out of this." She warned.
"It's a little late for that." Montage reported.
Lauren tapped a command into the console.
Lt. Commander, blast her with everything we've got.

[squiggy]

Lock please - lack of interest