AC Stories (discovered)

[Mr. President]

The parallel universe one was pretty good, actually. The final episode has Q, so you figure it's gonna be reasonably good. I think there was another Q episode in that season, where he sends Picard back in time to the academy so he can try to avoid being stabbed and getting an artificial heart.

The worst one, though, is the one where Picard and Crusher are kidnapped by aliens and become able to hear each other's thoughts.

[Sovereign]

I remember that one with the mindreading thing. Seriously, after that experience, in subsquent episodes they should have explored the after-effects of that mindread thing.

Instead of that episode, I think they should have written a better story, maybe with the Captain and several refugees or people in danger, and the Doctor is offered two choices. Allow the Captain to live, at the death of the others, or allow the others to live at the death of the captain.

Then somehow the refugees save themselves when Beverly made her decision, and she is about to carry it out.

[Mr. President]

You should have been a script writer for Star Trek!

Have you seen the latest movie Nemesis? It's damn good. But the ending is very sad.

[Sovereign]

Yeah. Wish Data didn't die.

I got a secret plot, thanks Prez! I'll build a time machine, go back in time, rewrite all the Treks... and maybe get engaged to Marina Sirtis or one of the hot Trek guest stars.

[Mr. President]

I hope it turns out good! Or should that be "has turned out" good?

[Sovereign]

Hehe.

I'm curious, who do you think was the hottest Trek chick? Seven of Nine doesn't count.

[Mr. President]

Seven of Nine doesn't count? I guess Terry Farrell, then. Who would you say?

[Sovereign]

Seven of Nine is such a shoo-in, hence me deciding she doesn't count.

I think they were a few hotties that are tied in my opinion.

1. Nicole DeBoer (Ezra Dax, DS9)
2. Famke Janseen (guest star on TNG)
3. Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi, TNG)
4. Jennifer Lien (Kes, Voyager)
5. Ashley Judd (Ensign Robin Lefler, TNG)
6. Terry Farell (Jadzia Dax, DS9)

I think Jennifer Lien would be more sexy if she had long hair, rather than that short haircut.

[Mr. President]

Wow. You really know your Star Trek women, eh?

Which episode was Famke Janssen in? It's gone clear out of my head.

[Sovereign]

I think the episode name was "Metamorph"

Famke guest starred as a incredibly sexy woman who was encased in a cocoon, and is a powerful empath. Even more so than Deanna Troi.

She was supposed to marry a ugly chancellor and literally become his woman of his dreams. She can adjust her personality and pysche to match any male's desires.

She had a crush on Captain Picard, but unfortunately she had to go off and marry that ugly dude. I think it would have been more interesting if Famke's character stayed on the Enterprise with Picard, just to see the possibilities.

Deanna out of work, Beverly having to comepete for attention and affection, etc.

[Mr. President]

Dang, I must have missed that episode.

I'm sure I would have remembered Famke Janssen. She made such an impression in GoldenEye.

They're going through the episodes in order out here. Yesterday was the one where Ro Laren joins the Maquis. Next week, though, it All Good Things, the last episode ever made. It has Q in it.

[Sovereign]

w00t!

Is it presented in a single show (2 hours) or in 2 parters (1 hour show the next week, then the 2nd showing the week after)?

Which channel or TV station though? I lost count of which Trek shows go on which stations! Its like figuring out a puzzle.

[Mr. President]

I think it's in two parts. It's on TV1 on Australia's Foxtel (cable ), the "Home of Television's Greatest Hits".

The term "Greatest Hits" applies rather loosely, of course, in certain situations.

There's seven seasons of Next Generation, so after All Good Things they really won't have an excuse to re-show ones they screened recently.

[Ouro_827]

I'll post a link to a semi-stupid story that I'm still writing after school...

[Ouro_827]

Ignore the numbers, they're there for school...



1 The Empire was falling. All that had been achieved over the past centuries, the studious use of Chiron’s resources had not been enough to uphold the Empire. It had reached its apex, and now, it was crumbling. From her chambers in Gaia’s Landing, Lady Deirdre Skye looked out on her creation, for she was one of the three. The core group of the Empire was formed of three factions, three ideologies. Deirdre was one, and the other two were Academician Prokhor Zakharov, and the strange entity that assumed human form, Prime Function Aki-Zeta Five. The last, and least of the core influences, didn’t help form the Empire so much as she helped train those who did. This was Colonel Corazon Santiago. Santiago and her Spartan ‘s had long since moved on towards other planets, where there had not been so much of a human influence, where they could better exploit the resources of the Manifold. So much had been achieved since they landed, and there was still so much to be done. They had pushed back the forces of the traitorous Miriam, and stopped the onslaught of Chairman Yang. Why, had the empath’s chose to withdraw now, when they were most needed? The drones were rioting and the mind worms, once driven back, were now assaulting in full force.

Zakharov, Chief Science Officer of the long-dead ship U.N.S. Unity, sat brooding in University Base. His troubles were not with the general population, or on the surface. Instead, his problem was his facilities. To be precise, his orbital science station
Chiron’s Breath had reported that somehow, some of the planetary fungus had made it aboard. That was two days ago. There had been no word since. Still, to comfort him, he had gotten his hands on a nice little piece of data regarding the possibility of settlement on a small planet orbiting Regina VII. Maybe something might be made from that bloody accident yet.......

The last of the core group did not brood, nor did she panic. She simply was. Prime Function Aki-Zeta sat at Alpha Prime, going over the probabilities of these events happening all at the same time. Very recently, a virus had crashed six of her Network Nodes. As a former entity onboard the Unity, she had only recently assumed human form. To further debilitate the situation, the nanites that were needed for mining and production on Nessus Prime were delayed due to heavy instrument interference, making orbital insertions impossible.2 Deep within her, the original inhabitant of her body stirred. Aki Luttinen, formerly of Norway, shared a body with the intelligence Zeta-Five, and now asserted control of the body. Slowly she rose and brought back the memories of long ago, of an age long passed. When she was on Earth, she had done a lot of research into pre-senient algorithms. She had also experimented with brain functions, as mapped by a computer. One thing her group discovered was that if prolonged exposure to about 970 ß of neural waves, the brain would have responses, almost as if it had severe depression problems. Aki had several brain wave analyses ordered on her subordinates.





Several weeks later, CEO Nwabudike Morgan was on scene for the first disaster. He was at one of his favorite places, Chiron Trading. He was watching the prices go by on the ticker when it happened. Everything simply disappeared..... and didn’t come back. The power went totally out in Morgan Industries, which, possibly withstanding the three major headquarters, the base on planet with the most amount excess energy. He reached for his quicklink and immediately rang up the chief central engineering officer. The answer came over the line, “Yes sir?”
“This is Nwabudike Morgan. What in Chiron’s stalks is going on?”
The reply was simple, and devastating. “Sir, that is exactly the problem. The xenofungus seems to be sucking energy right out of the base, and we can’t stop it!”
3Morgan considered this for a second. “Shut off all non-essential functions. Deploy tachyon containment fields with resonance rovers. Burn back that fungus!”
“But sir, what about the Gaian’s regulations?”
Morgan screamed into the link,”Those regulations are to prevent over-use, not to stop us from defending ourselves. You heard me!”

The flares for the resonance lasers registered on some of the defense satellites still in the sky. It was downlinked into the University’s closest base, Monitoring Station, and transferred from there to major headquarters around Chiron.4 Immediately, alarms started going off at Gaia’s Landing. Deirdre rushed into the transmissions center,”What is it?”
“Well Lady,”one of the technicians said,”We’ve picked up resonance bursts around Morgan Industries.”
“Is he trying to harvest fungus? Send him a link, immediately!”
“Yes Lady. One moment please. We have him on visual.”
An image popped up on Diedre’s quicklink. “Morgan speaking.”
“Morgan, what do you think you are doing?! There are treaties about use of resonance technology you know!” Deirdre began to get very annoyed.
“I’m sorry Lady Skye, but the fungus was threatening our base.”
“That’s what you have tachyon fields for! What about the neuro amps we helped you with?”
“The tachyon fields failed, and the power was being drained, so the neuro amps were useless. We can send you footage if you like.”
“I’ll believe you, for now. Tell me though, what would make the fungus so aggressive?”

5 The problems around Chiron had begun. Planetwide sensors began returning results of extremely high fungus growth. Deirdre began growing suspicious, so she made a conscious effort to contact Planet. Nothing. She tried for two weeks without success. Contact was finally made when she was visiting Gaia’s High Gardens, to examine their new research that they had dealing with mind worms. She was watching some of the trainers work, where her former assistant, Lindly, stepped out of the shadows. “Would you like to try, Lady Deirdre?”
Deirdre considered for a moment then smiled. “Yes, I would. It would be relaxing, and I need to relax.”6 She stretched her mind out, and embraced the cries of the worms. The cries became a hum, graceful and calming. The simple command to rise made them fly for her. She felt pure ecstasy. Together they soared, her mind, and the worms. They ran through the fungus, bursting up to fall again. The song tugged at her mind, then from the fungus, Planet’s voice came unhindered into her mind.
“earthdiedre, we welcome you to our humble abode.”7 She looked around her, and realized it was pitch black. “plamet is sad with earthlings. planet hurt by earthlings.”
“Which earthling hurt you, Planet? We have tried to avoid any harm.”
“it is the loss of so much energy. so many earthlings leaving hurts planet.”
“What? Do you mean the spaceships? Or not having people on planet?”
“planetfungus, and planetmind are one. you are not part of the cycle. beware earthdeidre!” With that, Diedre felt herself return to the mindworms.8 Her mind cycled with them again, but her thoughts were elsewhere. She slowly disengaged and wandered off, deep in thought.

When Diedre made it back to Gaia’s Landing, she ordered immediate tests on the effects of starship burnoff. She needed to find out what was causing this problem, and she needed to find out soon. As such, she personally asked Zahrakov about the general effects of the chemicals released, and how the might affect Planet. As for if it was lack of people, well, she had an idea about that too.
Most Gaians were rather familiar with mindworms, so seeing them around in bases was easy for them. The idea was to see if they responded to young life. One of the assistants at Gaia’s High Gardens had recently given birth. Now, they were going to see how the worms responded to new life.9 When the door was opened, Diedre heard the worms let out an immediate hiss. The sound was not necessarily a bad thing, just a sound of surprise. The woman who was controlling the worms gasped, and her eyes flew wide open, as she gazed, unseeing, at the baby. As the worms surrounded the baby, it did the strangest thing of all. It laughed. A small giggle at first, but a smile came over its face. It stepped up to the worms, and was not afraid. The mother, watching for a little ways off, smiled, and so did her child. A small gesture, but it was enough.

10 The University staff were being overwhelmed with data. The satellites were observing some sort of thermal flares on Alpha Centauri B, popularly known as Hercules. Apparently it was having some sort of burst, and that was pouring energy down. It was close enough some of the energy was entering Chiron’s atmosphere, and interfering with sensor operations. 11 The first step to countering sensor interference normally to launch some low-orbit communications satellites with special shielding. Unfortunately, the orbital insertion ability of the factions had been shut down. So, effectively, the entire planet was cut off. This was reported to the proper authorities, but nothing was made of it.

Far out into the see, beyond Data DeCentral, a Nautilius gunboat swerved from its patrol route, and right behind it passed a small black transport, undetected by anything. It swung its bow towards the closest landing area, and speeded up, repeatedly scanning the shores for any type of movement.12 As the transport it was guarding reached the shores, it pulled up as close as it could, and kept the shells ready for firing. Once the troops were unloaded, the boats swung out to shore, leaving them behind. The men moved out quietly, armed with Chaos Lasers. In the darkness of this rotation, the slight flash of lasers against fungus was barely visible, especially to the now-blinded satellites.

The first alert that anything was wrong came from the sensors outside one of the Data Angel’s bases. Their sensor registered the units as Nautilus before all transmissions from the area were mysteriously cut off. Extra security was deployed, and the tachyon field activated.13 Within five minutes, patrols sited the Nautilus units, and interrogated them with signals by radio. When no response came back, they tried hails. With still nothing, they fired a warning shot. Then, everything broke loose. The Nautilus units spun and fired as one, hitting several patrol members. The remaining broke formation and dove for safety, radioing in for reinforcements. Nearly instantly, several Needlejets were dispatched. The Chaos Lasers tore a swath through the vegetation. As soon as command got word, they alerted all other factions, then called up an ambassador stationed by Captain Svensgaard. He was cold to the ambassador, and refused to talk about the situation. Next, Needlejets reached in close enough and let loose with some old missiles they had onboard. These were stopped by the shields. However, none of the Nautilus units had SAM hardware, and the Needlejets didn’t get close enough to get caught by the lasers. 14After several runs of missile fire, and accomplishing nothing, the Needlejets headed back to base for refueling. One other thing that the Hercules flares accomplished was to shut off communications between factions, unless an ambassador was on sight. Long range communications was out of the questions. The Nautilus units pressed forward, confident they had won. Were they ever wrong! A newly produced wing of top-of-the-line Needlejets, equipped with the new Fusion Lasers dove on the Nautilus units. The Nautilus dove for cover in the xenofungus, but that was a bigger mistake. The mindworms rose up against the intruders. The Nautilus did have the newest in Trance technologies, but enough worms against that few units will overwhelm the men.15 The men were summarily turned into worm food.

The solar activity from Hercules persisted, so negotiations with Svensgaard were very slow, and very tedious. He refused to admit to any wrongdoing, or any invasion of territory. The patrol bodies could not be recovered, seeing that they had long since been eaten. The sensor logs, however, would prove useful, except that the activity prevented them from being sent by communications, and that was the only way they could be aucenticated. None of the scientists had been able to predict the solar problem until right before it happened, so they could not tell when it would end. It was very difficult to study the spot without ruining equipment.16 One of the worst effects of the solar flares was that not only planetary communications was cut off, but all communications to other colonies that had been formed. All broadcasts to the other worlds had been severed, and due to the suddeness of the flare, it was not sure whether or not the communication about the loss of communications had been sent or recieved.
Diedre had not become panicky, but the pysch profilers could not come up with any reason for the attacks by Svensgaard! Granted, they had not been to see the man recently, so they couldn’t give her an in-depth profiling, but you would think they could come up with something! She wasn’t sure why she felt that this was urgent, but there was something deep inside her that told her to hurry up the investigation. On the other hand, insticts could be wrong.
Aki-Zeta was taking the satellite loss the worst. To her, the satelltes were her eyes and ears, sensing out in the galaxy. They were her hands and her mouth, to speak to others with. Her entire function in the command sector was to deal with the general type of data like they got from satellites. Now, she was cut off.17 She was almost entirely without any tasks. She could not study the strange phenomenon, so she turned her attentions to physch profiling. She didn’t have the best empaths around, but her logic boards were modified to be able to predict human reactions and the like. She plugged in the information on Svensgaard, hoping something in human nature would be able to tell her why he had turned his back on the collective factions of Chiron. She sat and waited. One thing about Aki-Zeta was that she was patient. She could wait.

18 At the moment, Captain Ulrik Svensgaard was in his Command Center, contemplating his next move. He had not anticipated the Needlejets range. “By Chiron’s locusts,” he thought. “It must be those new pilots from the Cloudbase Academy. They are the only ones with that much piloting skill. What could he do now?” He turned to the comlink when he heard the tone for an private incoming message. “This is Svensgaard speaking,”he answered it, idly wondering who was close enough to contact him but wouldn’t approach him in person. He got his answer when the image flashed on the screen.19 The avatar that appeared was that of his secret contact.
“Your next target will be the old Peacekeeper base, U.N. Science Labs. We need it seized before the solar activity calms down.” Ulrik stood, stunned for a moment. U.N. Science Labs’ garrison had moved out over thirty years ago. Why was he being ordered to seize an abandoned base. The avatar finished,”Those are your orders. The end is near.” The screen flashed to transparency and receded.

Aki was running probe algorithms when her circuits returned a message that a critical task was done. She receded from the cybernetic link, and answered the beeping on her command board. 20 Up came the pysch results that she had asked for on Svensgaard. She stared in amazement at the chart. There was only three things that could logically cause this. One was an atrocity by the Data Angels, which was pretty much out of the question, since no genetic mutations had been detected. The second option was severe pressuring at removal from power. Doubtful, there was no sounds of revolution anywhere in the Nautilus bases. The third and final option was if there was outside pressure on him, promising even more power, probably planetwide control.21 That sort of thing could be a possibility, but where could the pressure be coming from? Aki made a slight notation to run a deep tracking scan on all of Svensgaard’s recent transmissions. Now, she had work to do.

Ever since the Data Angels had been attacked, all security at Data DeCentral had been increased. Sindar Roze was peacefully resting in her private quarters when the door tone aroused her from her leisure. She arose and went to the door. It was her Director of Internal Affairs, with a large scowl on his face. She lazily asked him whatever was the problem, so much that he could not handle it. He managed to sputter out a reply. “Datatech, there has been reports of minor uprisings by the drones, especially on the mining fields.”
22”Oh, quiet. The drones are always trying get someone to support them. They’ve always been trying for freedom. The worst time ever was those Hive drones that produced Domai, but that was because Yang oppressed those drones way too bad and you know it.”
He looked at her, disturbed. “This isn’t just any uprising. I think you might want to see this tape.....” He held up a standard holo-recording and set it to play. It showed a typical drone rally.
“What so different about it?”Sindar asked.
“Take a look at this. I’m disappointed. I thought you would see it.” He pressed a zoom in and it zoomed to a face in the back of the platform. A woman robed in white....... the traditional garments of empaths.
“I see.... Have you tried to identify her?”
23Her advisor looked uncomfortable. “I have initiated searches of the outer bases, but........” His voice faded off.
Roze looked at him accusingly. “You know her, don’t you! She’s not from an outer base. She’s from DeCentral, somewhere around here, I would imagine. Who is she?!” Her voice began to raise dangerously.
Again that uncomfortable look came to the director. “Well.... I have seen her. Look closly, Datatech, and focus on her right cheek. Sindar turned to the picture, already knowing what she would see there. On the upper right cheekbone of the woman was a flaming sword, and the insigna of the Data Angels was below that, that identified her as working in Command. The sword was a mark burned into her skin when she was younger, as a sign of possession.24 Almost like a slave brand, but it was supposed to show that she was a drone. She had been suppressed as a child, which is one of the worst possible experiences for an empath. She was also the empath for all senior command officials with the Data Angels. Sindar should have recognized the face immediatly, but she had missed her last few appointments. And now, this!
She turned to the director. “I need to see Empath Rolowski in the Interrogation Room in four hours. Now get to work!” It had been a hard day.

[Ouro_827]

25The small, secluded room was dark and dank. The techs weren’t sure when the last time any of them had seen the light of either of the suns. It had been only their work which occupied there attentions for too long to remember. But something, maybe just a sparkle, but it looked like they had finally found something. “Take a look at the Gamma Alpha batch. Charlie!” one of the techs said to another, finally displaying some emotion. “That one might be a segment of the Rimera virus. It looks like it from topside.” He handed the other man a small holo-generator and a small plate of glass. “And run the seventy-second poly’rithim through it. We might find something in that too.” They went back to their slow but steady pace of work.
26It had been a long and hard day, especially for one as busy as Rolowski. She now had to deal with the Internal Affairs Director charging into her office and demanding that she report back to Command immediatly, and refused to tell her what it what it was about. She was led by a silent guard into the classified labs, filled with equipment and papers that didn’t even exist. He led her to a door labeled “Interogation Room,”and motioned for her to enter. She smoothed out her uniform and stepped through. Inside, sitting at a table, was Datatech Sindar Roze. Sindar rose to her feet and greeted Rolowski.27“Empath, please sit.” She motioned Rolowoski to a chair. “Now Empath, this investigation is not regarding you specifically,”Sindar began. “However, any attempts at cover-up will be detected and you may be punished. So please, be completely honest. Now, for starters, where was your superior, Empath Giardi?” So was suspicion sowed.

“You must listen to me, Academician! I tell the bitter truth, and you do not accept it!” A hand slammed down on Zarhakov’s desk “Why do you persist in such utter nonsense? We both know that they will not come up with anything! Is it simply a gesture of power?!” All this came from the mouth of a man who was storming through Zarhakov’s office.28 He whipped around and stared at Zarhakov. “Don’t just sit there! Answer me!”
Zarhakov calmly looked back at the man. “Alexandri, you must not get so angry. It is bad for morale. Yes, I know that all results coming from the labs have been negative. But you must believe Alexandri! Believe! Is it not worth the risk to find out?”
Spit flew from Alexandri’s mouth. “Indeed, it is worth it, if it was possible to even find out! But these algorithms that have been developed are simply recurring loops in the standardized form as proved by the Urian Theorem. You know that!” Alexandri threw his weight into a chair, exhausted.
“I know that the theorem says it can’t be. I also know theorems can be wrong.” Zarhakov reached into a drawer and pulled out a bottle.29“Here. Would a little vodka help? It isn’t the original, I don’t have much of that left, but it is good and strong!” With a tilt of the bottle, he fills up two glasses, and handed one to Alexandri. “To the good times, old friend.”
“To good times and those to come.” With a gulp, he drained the vodka and smacked his lips. “Now then, it is time to do something about those foolish Pirates. Do you agree?”
Zarhakov smiled, an evil smile. “Yes, it is time. And I think I have just the thing......”

Once again, the Paer’dt was on the move. The security teams had missed him on the last sweep, but he needed to work fast.30He activated the timer on a diversionary device, and planted it to the right of the path. Lastly, he called out with his mind for the worms and began running. About twenty-five meters down the trail, he heard the first scream from his device. He dove for cover, and began to crawl along the bank of the trail. He heard gunfire, and voices. Inside his head, he heard a little voice telling him to stop, but he had long since stopped listening to it. From his pack, he pulled a batch of explosive material. He next hefted it in one hand, to estimate its weight and how large of a detonator would need to be used on it. Another set of blaster fire rang out, much closer. He stuck the material back in his pack, and crawled on.31 As he reached the beginning of the sensor grid, he removed a small pen-like device from his pack. Slowly, and with precise movement, he pointed it at the sensor. A small, bluish stream was emitted, similar to a tuning tool. The sensor beeped once then went quiet. He removed the tool, and did the same thing to the next sensor. Next, he stepped out into the field, and activated the grid....

Alarms in the networking center of Zybroski began sounding. The techs raced over to the terminals are read the messages. Someone was in the network. Immediately the loudspeaker began giving orders out, and someone commed the on-duty technician in charge of network patrols. Armed with standard security measures, he entered the system.32 The first thing he noticed was the damage. Someone was in his precious system, and didn’t mind leaving tracks. He armed the first tracking probe, and set it loose, keeping his eyes ‘open’ to watch for signs. A rush from the left, and three hunter viruses swirled towards him. Focusing, he bounded up, sweeping them out with a viral probe. He looked around for his assailant, but saw nothing. His arm went up, then nothingness. He blinked his eyes, and found himself back at the data port. Realizing what had happened, he tore the link from its socket and threw it on the floor. 33 Sparks began to fly out of the socket. He grabbed the nearest com-link. “Get electrical down here, priority urgent!” After the repair team came down and went to work, he slumped back into his chair, disgusted. He had been so close. They didn’t even have a probe on him, so the other patrol technicians were going to be having trouble.
Indeed, the others were having trouble. The Paer’dt was skilled in cyber-combat, and had the advantage of being on the attack, which is almost always a good thing. The only problem is that it can be turned against you very easily. The techs were attempting to trap him, but he would never come all the way after them.... It was almost as if it was simply a distraction. The tech that used to work at University realized this first, and sent a com out.34 Command got the word out to patrols in the right areas to be stepped up. Meanwhile, research was trying to find out where this guy had come from..... The only place where people get this good was with the Data Angels, and they hadn’t been having problems.. Had they? Long-range communications was impossible, so they couldn’t find out very easy. Bolt fire rang out through the voice, and the sound of a returning volley. Sensor techs had alarms sounding around the area, and patrols gathered to defend the base like bees are drawn to honey. More bolts rang out, and then the screams were heard. Quickly, several patrols rushed forward.... to find the remainder of the perimeter patrol, who had been assaulted by... droids? 35 They quickly examined the remains, to find nothing incriminating. Nonetheless, they took the parts for further tech examination. After clearing the area, they headed back, making sure to leave some patrols behind. By the time they made it back, there had been a full network shut-down, incapacitating production for now, but ridding their systems of the intruder. It had been a very bad day.
The Data Angels were reasonably infuriated by the claims made against them. They vigorously denied having any rouge personnel36 . This forced network evaluation of every system within linkage distance of Zybroski. This, of course, delayed production for a while, and the normal insurrectionist activities used this as fuel for their war campaigns. Security activity was severly increased, which created more discontent. Meanwhile, the leaders of the factions were in severe standings with each other, the effect multiplied due to lack of good communications. Everything was coming together, and the end approached.....
Defensible positions on the fungal ridge arose.37 More sensor grids were erected, and constant checks were run on the surveillance equipment. Aki-Zeta started upping prices on her sensor algorithms, and began to have energy pour in. Morgan’s monopolies began to vanish beneath him, and Svensgaard became more in more withdrawn. Drone uprisings and revolts happened frequently, nearly everywhere. The Free Drones became generally regarded as terrorists, as the closest represenative of their kind. Empaths started congregating with each other, and avoiding normal people. Generally, the social structure that had been built up began to erode beneath the factions.38 Everything was coming apart and together at the same time.....

The University was the first faction to notice it. More accurately, the lack of it. When tech shifts ended, and the new ones moved in, a relative newcomer decided he wanted to see the flares again. He shifted view to the view of Hercules. Nothing. It looked normal. His eyes flared open, but he didn’t say anything, for fear of falling victim to a practical joke. He pulled up a communications window to a Consciousness base, a good distance away, that they hadn’t been able to communicate with. He sent a test firing out..... and got a return signature!39 A powerful one at that! He fired a few more test fires, and got returns every time. Finally, as a final test, he tried a private com to a friend he had there. The vid-link came up on the screen, her face showing bright. “Bryan! You didn’t tell me you were coming! Where are you?”
Bryan deadpanned,”Working. At base. The lines are open!” When this brought his friend’s eyes open, he said,”No telling yet! I get first!” He broke contact, and turned to announce it.40 This produced instant disbelief, but they took a look, just the same. When they realized what they were seeing, the lines began filling up with traffic, trying to verify this, before they announced anything.

The announcement went out on the University nets, and went from there to all the Conciousness nets, and then throughout the factions. For some reason or another though, the Pirates net was closed down, and nothing could get through their links, so all ambassadors were cut off.41 This made for some very slow negotiations, until the Pirates began expelling the ambassadors, and gunship activity was stepped up. For some, such as the Conciousness, this was the final straw. Their cruisers were taken out of storage, and their techs began studying blueprints from fifty to a hundred years ago, with outdated weaponry and shielding. New platforms would be needed, new AAA batteries, basically everything had to be adapted. Soon, the machine that was their manufactoring system began to wake up, and mass produce the new Tachyon Amphibious Cruiser. 42 Specially designed for ship-to-ship warfare, the troops aboard each ship were trained in boarding operations, and were skilled with normal hand weapons, and equally skilled in hand-to-hand combat.

The Data Angels had spread their security patrols, and information scans over a large area, but had not turned up and good leads on the location of the missing Empath. It was almost as if she had been swallowed by Planet. When this news reached Datatech Roze, she began her rampage. “We are called the Data Angels! This is the best that we can do? Are you trying to get me out on the networks? Do I personally need to run this search?”43 Her advisors attempted to calm her, but with no result. She brushed through them, saying,”Is she that good? The head Datatech of the entire faction has to go out to find her?” As she spoke the words, a chiming sounded. One of the techs raised their voice, as they typed furiously on their board.
“I have something, Datatech. You may want to look at this...” Roze launched herself over to the board, and stared at the screen. 44 A large diagram was shown, and a flashing icon in the corner.
Roze clinched her hand tight on the tech’s shoulder, and said,”Maximize the image!” The icon grew larger, revealing text. Roze read for a few moments, then turned. “Polito, we need five rovers ready to move, and three enhanced infantry armed and ready in two hours.” Her military advisor, who had been watching, nodded and reached for his com-link.

45 The University had sent up several ships to examine Chiron’s Station, all armed with the newest Tachyon technology. It had been up there for a while, and there was no telling how bad it had been contaminated by the fungus. Containment suits were mandatory on all walks around it, and there was a general area quarantine on merchant and transport traffic. Most research techs were busy analyzing the satellites data from the solar flares.46 They didn’t have much time to notice small overusage alarms that were going off... which resulted in some very bad things. Deep inside their data network....

The last of the mercenaries extracted themselves from the link, rubbing at the data terminal at the side of their neck. Svensgaard, standing there impatiently, asked quickly of them,”Did you get it?”
The leader, still rubbing his neck, responded,”Keep your men back. We got your data chip. Now, if you don’t mind, our pay?” Svensgaard handed him a cred-chip, and nearly ripped the data chip out of the man’s hand. Without another word, he rushed out of the room, and to his personal terminal. 47 Inserting the chip into the input drive, he loaded the data onto his screen. A set of building blueprints came up on the screen. After examining them, he stuck another chip in a second slot, and copied the chip off. The original chip he removed and hid it. The copy he took to the manufacturing supervisor, to see what he could do with it.48 Once the supervisor saw the plans, his eyes grew wide.
“Where’d these come from? I’ve only heard of this from two places, one that doesn’t exist, and one from a person that never was here. The last I knew, the..... Gaians were trying to develop this!”
“That, you don’t need to know. The question is, can you build it?” Svensgaard asked.
“Well...... let me see. Right materials, and a goodly allotment of techs. Maybe. I’d say..... fifty percent with techs and the highest quality materials. And that’s the best probability you’re going to get this side of whoever developed this.”
Svensgaard said,”Write up a list. I’ll see what I can do.” With that he strode off, not waiting for an answer.

49 Morgan stood waiting, attempting simply by standing and staring to speed up the price transfer from the off-planet Morgan exchanges. As the last of the data made its way across the cables, he transferred all of it straight into the stock net, before the trading ended. As it went through what he felt were unnecessary barriers that scanned all the data, alarms began to sound, and his station went black, along with all the lights in his sector. He looked up, becoming suspicious. “Lights!” With no response from the automated system, he flashed his quicklink on. Nothing. The link was blanked out. 50 He heard the pounding of footsteps down the corridors. Then, a faint bit of light began to shine from the door. In a moment, the door blew back and a faint bit of light seeped through. Two men stepped into the open, and shone large lights into the room. They spotlighted Morgan, and said,”Anyone else in here?” not even recognizing him. He stood tall and stared them down, and began to approach them. A flash of recognition flashed in their eyes. They reached for their links, and said,”We’ve found the CEO. Repeat, we have found Morgan. Med team down here right away!”51 Morgan shrugged them off.
“I’m fine! Nothing happened to me... what happened to the computers and power?” The men looked at each other, than back at Morgan.
“You mean, you didn’t know?”
“Why would I be asking if I knew,”Morgan raged.
“Data link was corrupted, sir. Someone had a tracer in files going over our networks. Probably trying to get some data. We snapped them hard though, I doubt they’ll be back.”52 Morgan looked at them suspiciously.
“How many other sectors had this problem,” Morgan asked. He noticed both men twisting themselves to try and hide something.... guns? So that explained it! He looked accusingly at them. “You were going to shoot whoever was in here, weren’t you! You thought that someone was purposefully adding the tracer into the datastream in here! Who gave you the orders? Tell me now!”
“Director Aring, sir. Do you need any more help?”53 Without saying a word, Morgan stormed off past them.

Together and apart the loop pulled. Never ceasing in its endless revolutions. Aki sat contemplating the figure that was displayed on the viewscreen. A half-helix. It spun around nothingness, a point that was not there and yet was. It was times like these, that most of all, she let Luttinen have control. It was odd, such a severe personality acting like a little child. She could gaze endlessly at the spiral in front of her. Alas, she had not the time for such things, but such is life.54 She smiled briefly, then closed the contact on the circuit board, bringing up a display of the communications going through to Svensgaard. Tracers ran down the board, displaying known data from their own databanks. Next, Aki accessed the other factions databases, looking heavily at the Data Angel reports. Finally, she sent tracers on all the numbers contacted, checking for usage out. Now that that was done, she moved onto some slightly less critical things.

55 The mobilized gunboats moved about as little blinking lights on Svensgaard’s screen, as he waited to hear from the local supervisor of manufacturing. A small tone sounded. He activated the link. “Captain Svensgaard here!” he answered it. A lower chime that was the sound of the switching of circuits reached his ear, then the voice of the supervisor.
“I have the list you asked for, Captain. I’m transmitting it right now.”
Ulrik waited for receipt verification, then closed the channel with only a brief,”I’ll get back with you.” He looked down the list..... Nothing too hard to find.56 He looked over it once more, then opened up his list of suppliers.

[Ouro_827]

The Data Angel force that had been hastily moved across the harsh terrain, constantly receiving updates of their objective. According to the satellite feeds, there was nothing where they were heading. Energy, however, told a different story. The transmissions going in and out of the area seemed unusually high for a dormant area. Either there was a bloom there, or something bigger was happening. As the rovers cleared the last bluff, alarms sounded. 57 The drivers opened there eyes in amazement.... sensor grids surrounded the area... but deep inside the grid, was what appeared to be a thermal borehole farm. There were several platoons of what appeared to be photon garrisons. Slowly, they heard the whirr of defense grids coming on line. The drivers panicked and turned around, frantically trying to get an outgoing link to warn others. In their haste, however, they did not fail to notice the markings on the soldiers. 58 Each of the soldiers had an interlinked anchor and U on their shoulder, and three cannons on their right, the sign of the elite marines of the Pirates. Two fusion choppers, and six missile penetrators were sent as attack air craft, with four chaos intercepters as cover. In addition, more rovers were deployed as reinforcements for the ground troops in the area. Plenty was devoted to this effort, but as of yet, war had not been declared. 59 The noose closed and yet the victim was only dimly aware of it.

Zarhakov looked out on the bay of computers, all running in sychronized harmony. They monitored the brigade of hovertanks that sat in silence, waiting for their troops. They were still being outfitted with their bolt guns, but it was still a silent splendor. One of the techs approached him,”Sir, we have the results from the new lasers. After the overhaul, they are performing at 250% of their former capacity.” Zarhakov turned, a faint smile on his face.
“250%, eh? That is good news, no? Very well then, prepare the missiles for launch. The time for their use is near. Oh, and have Alexandri called.... He may want to see this...”

Data Angel forces converged heavily on the once hidden Nautilus base. At that moment, Datajack Sindar Roze opened a com-channel to Svensgaard. “This is your warning, Ulrik! Either order your forces to stand down, or else you will find their ashes on your doorstep!”
Across Chiron, a vicious smile came to Ulrik’s face. “I have this to say to you, you thieving Data Angel. You and your kind shall vanish from Chiron, and the seas shall overtake you. Vendetta upon you, and all your allies, Datajack!”
She calmly watched the channel open icon vanish, then brought up another com-frequency, speaking this time to a young woman, who looked about twenty-five to thirty. “I tried, but he will not listen. It is time to initiate the Delta Tango.” The woman nodded, then vanished from the screen. 60 Within a minute, blasts began to rock the bowl that contained the Nautilus base, and penetrators screamed overhead. The rovers once again crested the hill, skirmishing with the guards. The infantry too cleared the ridge, and began firing on everything in the valley. A whine came from over the heads, and a voice in their earpiece.
“We have an incoming vampire! Scatter plan Romeo-Sierra! Get out of there now! We may not be able to catch it!” The troops began falling back firing, allowing the Nautilus time to regroup. The Angel commander at the base ordered the defense pods brought around.... and the controls stopped working.
A tech across the room looked up. “A minor virus, Sir. I’m not sure how long it will take...”
“Hurry it up then! Those are our men out there, and I wouldn’t put it past Svensgaard to try something nasty!” 61 All that was heard was the click of fingers over the boards. Meanwhile, they issued a defense call out to the other factions...
A few flashes of light shot towards the vampire from above, then it begins to swerve wildly. Then, still miles up, the warhead prematurely detonates, scattering the shrapnel of the missile, and sending out large sonic waves. Watching it on the camera, the commander leaned forward. “Did we do that?”
“No sir,” the tech answered. “The virus still has us locked out.” A few more vigorous types, and then he said,”System control back online. What keyed off the missile?” The commander rolled his eyes. 62 Sometimes those techs could be so dense...

As Ulrik recieved repeated reports of severe casualties, he slammed his fist down hard, causing various papers to scatter. “Why can no one tell me what happened with that missile?! I need answers people, otherwise some people are not only going to lose their jobs, but something even more!” The team in charge of the missile grid nervously looked at each other. He had been in this mood all day, and they had been getting very nervous. 63 The entire problem was that they weren’t sure. One of the men sighed, and tried again.
“Sir, there is a certain improbability to anything mechanical. When the missile began the seperation phase, to accelerate the warhead, the transmissions that command the missile began to slow down, possibly due to some atmospheric phenomon. The system has safeguard in to abort the attempt if that happens. This may have been what the missile did. In the abort phase, it is supposed to try to pull out. If the heat burned through the emergency shields...” 64 Another tech across the room shook his head frantically at the speaker, but to no avail.
Ulrik raised his voice and said,”And can we tell if that happened? Do we actually have any record of the shield dissipating?”
“Well, normally, yes, we would, but the record must be mistaken due to the bad transmission conditions....”
Ulrik turned to glare. “And why would the record have to be mistaken? Might it be just that you don’t have an answer?!” With that, Ulrik turned on his foot and stormed out.

65 A security guard stood firm between Morgan and the exit, arms crossed on his chest. “I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t allow you to risk your life. If you want, I can try and get a link to the director if it is urgent.”
Morgan tried to stand taller. “Listen to me! He is not a director! He is a suspect! A suspect, do you understand? I need him back in here immediatly! Do you understand that?”
The guard’s eyes flashed wide. 66 “You mean that the Director of Internal is a suspect? For what?”
Morgan looked at him carefully. “If you were meant to know, you would. Now either let me pass, or send out a patrol to retrieve him!” The guard, sombered by a direct command, reached for his com-link.

[Ouro_827]

Now, tell me how horrible it is and what could be changed.

[Mart]

Originally posted by DarkCloud
Alpha Centauri is jsut getting old
the only reason that civ is still having tales written about it is that it still has sequels being released

it's hard to get people to be passionate about something that only has a small audience.

SMAC definitely needs a sequel, for me playability of civ3 is much below playability of SMAC.

[Sovereign]

Ouro...

(eyes fall out of my sockets)

Egad! A lot of huge text blocks!

You need to break up the text blocks into paragraphs.

For example... every time you start a chapter, start a whole new paragraph.

For dialogues, person's thoughts, and communications, use a new paragraph with quotation marks. Thoughts should be italicized.

Take a look at my posts in the Beyond Alpha Centauri story thread. You'll get a much better idea what I'm talking about.

Hope that helps, Ouro.

[Alinestra Covelia]

And start a new Fiction thread, dude. AC-Fiction can always use a new thread...

[Mart]

Like one story - one thread. Easy to track for reading of next episodes

[Sovereign]

The AC Fiction forum needs to get more active.

More Threads!

More Posts!

Guys, give AC Fiction its props!

[Mart]

more posts - yes
more valuable fiction - yes
more spam fiction - no - "this" let's do in spam threads

[Sovereign]

Spam fiction?

Exactly what is that?

Unrefined fan-fic's.... porn fan-fics.... or what?

How or what fanfics would you classify as "Spam Fanfics"?

[Mart]

An example of spam fic:
"gf khfgk hg khgh ;hgik high; kh"

[Sovereign]

Heh.

In other words, a 1 post story, or a story in huge text blocks, huh?

[Mart]

nope - it's when the writing has no heart in it, speaking the most straightforward i can think about at the moment
------------
well, actually a lot of spam has a lot of heart in it, so maybe that is not so good definition.

[Sovereign]

Any particular story examples, Mart?

[Mart]

i gave one above. that is it!