Re: Hevordah Imperium - Story thread - Updated 6-13-03!
Note: Sorry for the delay. This is a huge (7 pages or so) chapter because I just could not stop writing. It could be alot bigger but I'm splitting it up in two parts. Enjoy this chapter. I am going to take a couple days off from writing now as my brain is cooked. Feedback is always welcome.
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Chapter 4
Explorations of the Great Unknown – Part 1
2400.2.37
The space station Ambition had been in outer space for over a week now and all operations were going smoothly. Qullum Gorgas and his team of researchers and field experts spent that week establishing a constant communiqué channel that would remain open at all times. Allowing data to be sent and received in just a matter of seconds compared to the hours it took when the station was first launched and orbit was established around the planet. The activity on the Ambition was unbelievably high. The station was designed and built for a maximum crew of only 175 Hevordian peoples, but the current count of workers was well above 250. Having so many people on board created a very hectic and stressful working environment as it meant that people were crowded together at different stations and so forth. The employees that would be permanently station on board the Ambition could not wait for all the testing and diagnostics and simulations were complete so that the extra crewmembers could return to the planet surface.
One of these persons was Tib’klor Shoosh, commanding officer of the space station Ambition. Captain Shoosh was a proud man; but he was not proud of his Last name. It reminded him of an old romance novel from the 3rd century of his planet. Very sappy, mushy, indeed, not fitting for the commanding office and the captain of the first ever space station. Thus he went by his first name, Tib’klor. Now this name, this name sounds like a warrior. Indeed, it fit him very well as he was the best warrior of the Hevordag people at one point in his life. But now…now he was a peaceful man. He had come to his senses and joined the Hevordian movement. In doing so it helped the Hevordians win their civil war against the Hevordag over one century ago. He was just now in the prime of his life and he loved every minute of it. Yes, even though he had become Hevordian, he was still Hevordag by heart and still the warrior he was trained to be.
Being such a warrior he was tempted many times to kill those pesky crew members that were getting things in final working order on the station. He was constantly running into crewmen as he went about his business. He was working on a relay when he stood up and turned around and began to walk when he bumped into an officer once again. He was not in the best of moods and you could see it in his facial expressions and you could hear it in his voice.
“Watch where you are going officer!” he said has he continued to stare and punch in commands to his H-Padd. He then began to have this feeling in his gut that indicated that he should look up. Once he did he realized whom he had ran into. It was his second in command, XO Too’pla.
“Too’pla, I’m sorry,” said the Captain as he began to apologize for the way he said what he did.
“It is ok, Sir. It is understandable. We have all been under a lot of stress this past week.” Replied the XO.
“Indeed we have XO. It’s just with all these crewmen running around here and bumping into me constantly it is getting rather frustrating. Sometimes I wish I were still Hevordag so I could rip their heads off and play Dread Ball with them. That would be some fun times.” Said the Captain with a sly grin on his face.
As if the Captain formerly being Hevordag wasn’t bad enough he had to go and say such a thing? Too’pla was getting rather nervous around his commanding officer as this present time. Too’pla then took a big gulp and stated, “Well, that is uhh, well, umm, that is nice to hear, Sir. I’ll be going now.”
The Captain could tell that his XO was unsettled by what he had said so he reassured him. “Ahh, do not be worried about what I said officer. It is just the pure Hevordag blood speaking. I would never do such a thing to a fellow officer, let alone my very own XO. At least not unless he gave me reason to.” The Captain grinned in a way that unsettled his first officer even more so then the fact that his Captain used to play Dread Ball with his enemies heads. “Now, did you have something to tell me, or were you just goofing off when you bumped into me?” continued the Captain.
“Well Captain, I came down to report to you that all these crewmen are going to be leaving the station tomorrow by 0900 hours. And we also received a communiqué with our orders that we are to begin working on immediately.” Said the XO in reply to his Captains inquiry.
The Captain began to speak once more, “Then get on with it. What are our orders?”
“We have been ordered to begin construction on a exploration vessel that will be used to study and find out if there are warp-gates out there or not. It is being equipped with our most advanced scanners and sensors and scientific technology that is available to our disposal, Sir. We have a deadline that must be met as well. We are supposed to have construction done on this vessel by the 7th month of this year. In other words, it is 5 months we have to build it. If we get started right away I believe we can get ahead of schedule and have it done in four months. But it all depends.” Stated Too’pla.
“I see,” began Captain Tib’klor, “Very well. What will be going on down on the surface during this time then?” asked the Captain.
“Well Sir, they are also going to be working on building some of these ships. They can get one of these ships done in a single month due to the resources available to them and also because they can have more then one construction unit working on it at one time. We are confined to having just one unit to work with.” Came the reply of the XO.
The Captain pondered this for a moment and then said, “Ok, we will begin construction on the ship as soon as the construction unit is cleared to go, which should be in about 25 minutes according to the schedule.”
The XO nodded his head and swiftly turned around and began his trek back to the bridge where he had left a lieutenant in charge. To be frank he didn’t trust anyone to be in charge of that station but himself and the Captain. Even then, he barely trusted the Captain to run things around there. He had never been one to get along with Hevordags after they had mercilessly killed his family during the war. He had wanted so bad to just kill one of them, anyone of them, it didn’t matter who it was just as long as he got to see their face while they were dying, so that he could see on their face the same look of horror that was left on his families faces when they were murdered.
Back on Kriekaal work had already begun on the exploration vessel that would determine the fate of GorgaSpace, Inc. Yes; the future of this company was to be determined by this one vessel. If this ship were to find out that these swirling bits of gases were indeed warp-gates that could be traveled through and used to get out of this nebula in which their home rested, then it would be a glorious day for the Hevordian people. But if not, if these patches of gas that were spinning around were to be nothing more then a concentrated force of solar winds then GorgaSpace would lose its funding from the counsel and would be in ruins. The station would have to be dismantled piece by piece to Qullum’s shame.
As excited as Qullum was that his dream was being lived to its fullest, he could not help but be a little bit depressed in knowing that in just a few more months he would find out if his dream would continue on, or if it would crash and burn like the Hevordag movement did during the final part of the civil war. Ever since he had received the permit from the Board Committee he had not had to work as much as he did when he was paying for everything himself through fundraisers and so forth; and so he was able to sit back and plan out the future of his company, whether it be for the good or for the bad.
Qullum hated this fact but he had to have a backup plan just in case this all did not work out the way he was hoping. He knew he would have to have something to fall back on, he could not just expect his life to return to normal if everything he had dreamed of doing backfired on him. It was a plain and simple fact that if this all failed that he would not be able to continue on in this area of expertise, he would be ridiculed, put to shame, spat upon; all for the fact that he had given false hope to his people; for giving them a false sense of being.
Yes, it was the same way back when they had individual Supreme Lords leading the people. If they had made false promises, false hopes, false teachings then those Supreme Lords would never be anything in their society again. They would be looked down upon and have to live their life in shame.
Qullum wanted anything to not have to live his life in such a manner. His father could have easily lived such a life as hardly anyone accepted what he spoke of. But he did not, he was proud of that fact, he was proud that people looked down on him, for he knew that he was doing it for the right reasons, that he had proof of what he spoke of.
But alas, that was of no consequence of his time, the people were not open to change in their ways. They were stuck in their way of life and nothing would change that. Even if they remotely believe that Qullum Sr. knew what he was talking about, even if they believe everything he said, they still would not accept it because of that fact that they did not want change to come in their lives. But over the years while Qullum Sr. continued on in his research and studies, he slowly started making people realize that change was good, that change would help their society in those dark times of war. And him being able to accomplish this helped his son in his journey to follow in his father’s footsteps. It helped him in his quest to continue his fathers dream.
But enough of pondering the past, enough of worrying about the future of his company; this is neither the time nor the place to be discussing that Qullum thought. It was time to worry about the present, time to worry about getting this ship done on time and launched. Everything was going according to schedule and the ships hull was constructed in just a matter of ten days, or a week if you so wish to call it. After which work began on the interior of the estimated 150-kiloton mass of ship. Much work still had to be done, even though the hull was completed they still have to put the outer armor on, install computer systems, guidance systems, you name it.
Two weeks later and the ship was nearing completion. They had finished installing the computer systems and now they were working ever so diligently on equipping it with the needed life support systems and quarters for the crew to stay in during the night. The ship would hold a crew compliment of roughly 60 officers. 20 of them would be working at any given time while the rest were either relaxing or working on side projects. In the case of an emergency 40 crewmembers could and would be ready to take action.
It had been a full 36 days since they began construction on the ship and it was finally completed. They were now in the process of running computer diagnostics to insure the safety of the crew and the equipment on board. Qullum stood back a ways from the ship and just gazed upon it. It was a beautiful piece of technology if he had ever seen one. It was also a massive ship, much larger then he had imagined it, and he could not wait to see it flying. He decided to go check on how the diagnostics were proceeding.
“How are things going Jotag?” Qullum inquired of the newly appointed officer working on the diagnostics. “I trust things are going smoothly and we are on schedule to launch in a couple days.” Qullum finished his statement.
Jotag put down his H-Padd and stood up. “Oh hey Qullum. Well things are not going perfectly. The systems seem to be working fine when I run the diagnostic but for some reason we cannot get the system to run that good when we start it up.”
“I see, will it hinder the launch date any?” asked Qullum.
“I cannot say for sure, sir. All I know is I am working my *** off trying to get this thing up and running.” Replied Jotag “I know it means a lot to you, and quite frankly it is starting to mean a lot to me. I want to see this mission turn out to be a successful one.” Finished Jotag.
“As do I Jotag,” began Qullum. “Keep up the good work and I want this system to be up and running by the end of the day. So that we can work out the final bugs.”
“Yes sir!” said Jotag.
Qullum continued making rounds of the ship checking up on the progress of production. From what all he had heard they would be pressed for time to get the ship launched on schedule. But he had faith in his employees and so he did not worry too much about the issue. But rather he went back to the plant and continued working on a bigger ship design. This new design would be roughly 25% bigger then the ship he was about to send out to space. He knew he would need the extra space for supplies, cargo, extra equipment, should this mission succeed.
A couple days later the ship had finally finished production and was ready to be sent out to space. The systems ran perfectly on the ground engines ignited just the way they were supposed to and scanners were working on all frequencies. Qullum’s dream was taking one step further on this very day. It could be a step to remember, for it would either be a building block for the future, or it would be step back in time. For Qullum’s sake, everyone hoped it be for the former.
The ground based ship yard launched the ship and it reached a slightly higher orbit of the planet then did the space station Ambition but it was exactly where they had hoped it would go. It was running by itself for the moment before the crew reached the ship. The crewmembers were not allowed to be in the ship at the time of launch due to the risk involved. Many things could go wrong and they did not want to take the chance of losing some valuable members of the team.
On the day that the crew would be teleporting up to Ambition there was a huge crowd of people at the tele-station, family members, friends, and just the general public. They all came to see their loved ones become a part of history and to say their goodbyes for they knew it would be a few months before they returned home. Lead researcher Sor’kla Ma’glore was also present as he was instructing ones as to how things would be carried out.
“First of all everyone, I would like to personally think you for volunteering to be part of this great mission.” Began Sor’kla. “It shows that you take a real interest in the future of our society. I will not take too much of your time here today I just want to quickly tell you how to proceed from here. First of all you will be teleported to the space station Ambition from there you will sign in and register with the station as members of the ship. The ship is currently being docked onto the station to allow easy access into it. Once boarded you will depart as soon as you go through the system check down list. From there on you know the mission. Any questions?”
A member of the crew barked up from the back, “I have one question sir. Since we are going to be on this ship for a few months, do you not think that it would be wise to have a ship name or designation?”
Sor’kla just smiled and nodded as if he knew that would come up. “Yes you are very right crewman. I keep forgetting to let it be known what the ship in question will be named. Due to this being our first ship to leave the planet and its mission to explore the nebula we - Qullum Gorgas and the rest of the senior staff including myself - have found it fitting to name the ship Expedition. ” Sor’kla let that sink in for a minute and then asked once more, “Any other…” Before he could finish his sentence the doors in the back of the room swooshed open revealing a tall man dressed in a outfit that denoted being part of the researching staff.
Everyone turned to see who it was and when they saw him, they took a deep breath and gasped. It was Qullum Gorgas. If not for the fact that he was holding two relatively large bags of luggage no one would have paid much attention to him, at least not as much as he was receiving now. Among the crowd was Shi’kla, Qullum’s personal assistant. She approached Qullum and stated the question, “What are you doing here with that luggage in your hands? Tell me you are just dropping it off to one of the crewmembers.”
Qullum just smiled and replied, “I am afraid I am not just ‘dropping it off.’ What do you think I am doing Shi’kla?”
Shi’kla just shook her head, as she could not resist the comment she was about to make. “If I knew what you were doing I would not have asked now would I?”
Qullum laughed at the remark, as he knew that Shi’kla would say exactly that. “I am going up to the station and from there I am going to board the ship. This is my project and I am going to see it through.”
“I am afraid I cannot let you do that. You have meetings, studies, and a lot of other responsibilities here on the planet surface. You do not have the time to partake of this mission.” Said Shi’kla.
“Oh yes I do have the time,” said Qullum in reply, “I have all the time I need. I spent all of Last night and this morning contacting everyone and letting them know I was going to be on the ship studying the anomaly myself.”
“But sir!” came the reply of Shi’kla in a rather irritated tone.
“No buts about it. This is my mission and I am going to see it through. If it fails I can at least say I found out for myself. If it succeeds then all the better.” A smirk came across Qullum’s face as he thought of his next comment. “You seem pretty determined to keep me here on the planet Shi’kla. Any particular reason for that?” Qullum continued to smile as he awaited the young women’s reply.
“I…Uhh… well it’s just that…” came the reply of a rather embarrassed Shi’kla.
“It’s just what exactly?” Qullum loved every second of this as he had suspected for a few months now that Shi’kla had something for him. This proved to be the best time to play it out a little bit and get to the bottom of things.
Shi’kla just looked to the ground and replied. “It’s nothing really. It’s just that I am your personal assistant and I am supposed to look out for you that’s all.”
“I do not remember that being in the job description Shi’kla. But whatever you say.” At that Qullum assured her of his safety and that he would return in a few months when the mission was over. After which he embraced her in a hug; and as he backed away he leaned down – as he was much taller then the young lady – and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. He smiled has he let go of her and he stepped on to the tele-pad.
Shi’kla was just awestruck, as she never thought she would experience such a thing from Qullum. She had dreamed of it but never did she think it would happen. She bit her bottom lip and smiled as Qullum barked out to Ensign Scot’tie who was running the tele-pad.
“Take us up Scot’tie!” said Qullum as him and the rest of the crew of the Expedition were dematerialized and teleported to the space station Ambition .
Upon reaching the space station Qullum headed straight to the registration center and logged in. The log in system was put into action in order to avoid having false officers boarding the ship if they were not supposed to be there. It did this through advanced technology that scanned the back lobe of their brains and also checked DNA strands and compared it the files on record. It would be very difficult indeed to breach such a security system.
Everyone had finally registered with the station database and they were ready to depart. The doors leading onto the ship Expedition shut and sealed themselves and everyone reached their quarters and took their stations. Two hours later they began to leave the dock. They ran through the systems check and everything was going perfectly. They expected it to be an eventless journey until they reached the coordinates in the nebula where they would begin their studies.
Captain Sh’tor rose from his command chair and barked out the commands, “Ensign, takes us out of here. 1/8 speed, heading 192 mark 13.5-7.”
“Aye, sir!” came the reply of the young ensign in control of the helm. “Setting heading to 192 mark 13.5-7. Course laid in sir.”
“Very well ensign. Engage!” Then ensign inputted the commands and the docking thrusters ignited and slowly began pushing the ship out of dock. The crew of the Ambition looked on from the observation deck. It was a marvelous site as the ship soon was out of sight. Once it cleared the station it engaged its primary engines and in a split second it was long gone from the station and on its way to investigate further these swirling bits of gas.
Back on board the ship everything was running just as smoothly as everyone had hoped. They were working on established a communication link back with Ambition , they had never been this far away before so they were having some difficulties keeping a constant channel open. They were only able to get a couple sentences in before the link would shut down due to the ship going further and further away. They finally figured out how to maintain it for a longer period of time by focusing the communiqué channel to one single point on the station. This along with working up an algorithm that adjusted itself to the distance from the ship to the station. They would not keep a constant channel open, as that would deplete their limited energy reserves rather quickly.
Qullum was board out of his mind. As he was not a member of the actual crew that ran the ship he was just part of the research team that would take control of the situation once they had arrived at their destination. While Qullum waited for this time he just sat back and relaxed. Something that he was not used to over the past 3 years. Back then he was working every day for at least 27 hours of the 30-hour days. But he finally reached a point in his career where he did not have to do everything for himself. He was finally able to ask others to take care of something for him.
He missed being in control of his destiny so to speak. But he enjoyed having more of a life, he had found he was much happier in the fact that he actually had some free time every now and then. But at this point in time he had wished he had something to do. He began working on a research project but his interest quickly faded on that issue. He just sat in his quarters staring out through the view port and took in the beauty of the nebula. Never before had a Hevordian ventured away from their home planet. But now that they had he was awe struck. He had always believed this nebula was huge, but now that he was actually traveling through it. It was just simply amazing to him.
Two weeks later they were finally approaching their destination. Stations on the ship that were in active during the flight began to light up as the team of science officers took their positions and began running scans. Captain Sh’tor slowly arose from his chair and stepped closer to the main view screen. He put his hand on the rail before him and said to the helms officer. “Slow her down to one quarter speed ensign. Takes us in nice and slow. Close to within 5000 parsecs and then come to a complete stop.”
“Aye Captain,” relied the helmsman. “Slowing to one quarter speed… one quarter speed reached sir. She is holding steady.”
The Captain was awed at what he was witnessing. Before him on the view screen appeared a massive sector of the nebula just spinning like a top. He was amazed and a little frightened at the same time.
“Sensors, what do you suppose it is?” inquired the Captain.
“Well sir that is what we are here to find out. But according to Qullum Gorgas it is a warp-gate leading into another sector of space and out of this nebula. A sector filled with planets and asteroid belts; just like the ancient texts speak of that no one would believe” replied the officer manning the sensor station.
“Fascinating. Helm, all stop. This is as close as we get. I do not want to take unnecessary risks after traveling so Far.” Stated the captain in his usual tone of leadership.
“Stay at this position until I give further orders. Let the science team do their thing and do not interfere with their work.”
After giving his bridge crew orders he opened a ship wide channel.
“This is your Captain speaking. I want to inform everyone that the reason we have stopped is due to the fact that we have finally reached our point of destination. We are going to sit at these coordinates while the science crew studies the special anomalies. I trust that you will give them your full support. Sh’tor out.”
That was Qullum’s cue to quit what he was doing and report to the science lab to work on figuring out what was out there. A couple hours later after studying these anomalies Qullum was working on a formula that could possibly answer that vary question. Little did he know that the question was about to answer itself.
“Qullum, I am getting some strange readings from the anomalies over here. You might want to check them out.” Said the junior science member that was working along with Qullum.
“What is it Mi’tha?” replied Qullum as he walked over to the young member of his science team.
Mi’tha began his reply, “That is the thing, I do not know what it is. I have been examining it for a couple minutes now but I still cannot figure out what it is.”
Qullum began to run possible ways to figure it out through his head. He came up with one possibility. “Put 90% of the scanners focus on this point,” he said as he inputted the coordinates. “That is where most of the signal is…” he did not get a chance to finish his statement as on the small screen he was observing from lit up extremely bright and when he looked again there was something coming towards them.
Qullum’s skin turned to a pale blue, as he was almost frightened. His eyes went from their normal pure white glow to a yellow glow from the fear in his eyes. He tapped the consol he was at and paged the Captain.
“Captain Sh’tor. Set a heading to these coordinates, I’m transferring them now. 194 mark 11.8-6. Do it now! Engage engines to full power or else you are going to lose this ship. No time for questions just do it!”
The Captain began to worry as to what was out there; he had no time to activate the view screen, as he was too busy barking out the command to move the ship. “Well, you heard the man! Move the ship, hard to port to those very coordinates. Full speed, engage!”
The helmsman’s fingers began to fly across his consol setting in the course. “Engaging full speed!”
The ship began to move and the inertia dampeners could barely keep control of everything, as it was a hard turn to the port bow. A couple seconds later, the ship began to rock like a massive tsunami. Everyone was jolted to the ground from the motion. After the rocking stopped the Captain rose to his feet once more and said, “Status?”
Reports starting flowing in from all stations of minor injuries, and a couple stations that were shorted from the rocking, but nothing major.
“What the hell was that?!?” inquired the Captain wondering what had just happened to his ship.
Before anyone could answer his question the lift doors opened up and Qullum stepped out. “That my friend was a asteroid, and part of history!” You could see the sheer excitement in Qullum’s face. Even though a few brief moments ago he was scared out of his mind.
Rather angered the Captain retorted, “Well that so called ‘piece of history’ just about killed us all!” He continued to the back half of the bridge where the lift was located.
“Do not worry about it Captain. The only way it would have destroyed this ship is if you did not do what I said and move the ship. As long as you reacted as soon as you did then we were going to be fine.” Qullum said with his smile still beaming from his face.
“How can you be so overjoyed when a rock half the size of Kriekaal nearly killed us?” asked the Captain, still obviously angry at the situation.
“I think we should take this to the conference room Captain.” Replied Qullum. The Captain nodded and signaled for his senior officers to report to the main conference room.
After everyone had made it into the room and took their seats Qullum stood up and began to speak.
“As you know that was a huge asteroid that nearly destroyed the ship. Many of you are wondering why I am happy about that.” After making this statement everyone just looked at the Captain and nodded in agreement. Qullum continued, “Well, it is because that piece of rock answered a lot of questions for our people. It shows that these anomalies are indeed warp-gates. We are in the process of studying the rock as we speak before it disintegrates from the gases in the nebula.”
Qullum looked around the room and observed the reaction of the crew. He continued speaking, “I propose that we take the ship through the warp-gate.”
The Captain immediately stood up and slammed his hands on the table and objected, “Like hell we are Mr. Gorgas! I am not risking the lives of my crew to find out what is on the other side of that thing. Who knows if you are even correct?” The Captain seemed pretty set in his ways.
“Captain, I can guarantee that the ship will be fine. It will be a rough ride but we will make it through.” Counter argued Qullum. After a couple more hours of debate Qullum finally convinced the Captain to give it a shot. He did not like it and he had a bad feeling about it but he was going to permit it.
“I am not trying to take command here, but once we break through to the other side,” stated Qullum Gorgas, “I want a full sensor sweep of the area around us. If we find nothing more then just some more nebulas then we turn around and come home. But if we find more then that, we continue on in our journey.”
“Very well,” replied Captain Sh’tor, “But how do you suppose we open this thing up?”
“That is a very good question sir, but I do not have the answer. I am guessing that it is basically motion sensitive. Once the ship closes in to a certain range I believe that it will open up and pull us through, resulting in us being able to shut the engines down for a brief period of time and save some power. But I cannot say for sure, all I know is it is worth a shot.”
“Indeed it is,” the Captain, said in return, “I will have the ship and crew ready in about an hour. I want you on the bridge for the whole thing, as you know more about this then I do.”
“Aye sir, I will take science station then.” Replied Mr. Gorgas.
“Is there anything else?” asked the Captain. “No? All right, dismissed everyone. Lets get to work!”
At that everyone left the conference room to begin preparing the ship for its travel into the warp-gate.
An hour later the ship was ready as she would ever be. They had already sent a message back to command informing them of their situation. They approved of the decision to take the ship in.
“Take us to full alert! It’s time to rock and roll!” began the Captain, even though he didn’t like the idea of doing this he was slowly finding that he was actually enjoying it. It was the first bit of action he would take a part of after being put in command of the starship Expedition .
“Helm, take us in. Nice and slow, one third speed.” The ship slowly began to move once more. As it closed in on the small sector of space everyone was tense and excited. It was time to find out how the future would play out.
“5000 parsecs and closing sir.” Came the report from helm.
“Continue on course. Everyone be ready for a rough ride.” Replied the Captain.
“3000 parsec and still closing. 2000. 1500.”
When the ship got closer then 1500 parsecs a bright light flashed forth and when everyone could see out the main viewer once more there was a huge tunnel like system ahead of them. “Steady as she goes ensign.” Commanded the Captain. Qullum’s face lit up with sheer joy at this marvelous vision he was now witnessing.
“Ensign, report.” Said Captain Sh’tor.
“We are approaching the threshold of the tunnel sir.” Came the reply. “Threshold breached.” Just as the ensign said that the ship jolted suddenly.
“Keep her going ensign. We will ride it out.” Qullum was flying over his consol running scans and recording the whole event. Even if there was nothing on the other side he would at least have this memory to relive again and again. The ship continued on its course and it continued to rock and move about like it was on the open sea during a huge storm.
“Status reports!” yelled the Captain as he was bracing himself in his command chair.
“Speed still holding steady sir.” Came the report from helm.
“Hull integrity down to 87% and falling sir. I do not know how much more of this we can take Captain.” Replied engineering.
“Qullum, this better work, or we are all dead!” barked the Captain to Qullum Gorgas whom did not even look up at the Captain but continued running scans.
“Do not worry Captain, it will be fine.” Replied Qullum as he continued working.
A couple minutes later another bright light flashed before them and then just as sudden as it started, the jolting came to a stop. Before the view screen could display the space outside the ship the Captain stood up and told his helmsman to come to a complete stop.
“Complete stop reached sir.”
“Now what are our coordinates? Where are we?” inquired the Captain.
The helmsman’s fingers flew around on his consol and he then replied, “Coordinates unknown sir. I do not know where we are.” He continued to punch in commands as the Captain walked around to the sensor station. “What is your status here?” Same as helm sir, nothing is registering on sensors. There is some heavy interference out there.”
The Captain rubbed his chin as he walked over to Qullum. Before he could ask Qullum a question the sensor officer spoke, “Sir… You might want to have a look at this. I got through the static, I am displaying it on the main view screen.”
All eyes turned toward the massive screen as it flickered to life. As the image came to its full resolution everyone just blankly stared at it. They could not believe their eyes. It was an amazing site to behold...
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The saga continues...
[ December 20, 2002, 23:14: Message edited by: Ragnarok ]
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Ragnarok - Hevordian Story Thread
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I think...therefore I am confused.
They were armed. With guns, said Omari.
Canadians. With guns. And a warship. What is this world coming to?
The dreaded derelict dwelling two ton devil bunny!
Every ship can be a minesweeper... Once
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Curiouser and curiouser...
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