//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirty One- Under Way // Story: STAR TREK: EQUESTRIA // by Alicorne //------------------------------// CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE UNDER WAY “First Officers Log, Stardate 1007.7. Commander Starry-Eyes recording. The Hermes is on course for Cestus-III at space normal speed. The ships Main Computer is still compromised but our bypass measures will be coming online shortly and we expect to retain at least seventy-five percent efficiency in all ship’s systems. It has been five days since we received the false transmission for Starfleet Command and all shifts have been working non-stop to restore secure control of the ship. Note commendations to all Departments for their efforts with the modifications. In an intership communication five days ago, Captain Caper informed the crew of our situation and advised them of the nature of the adversary we’ve been pitted against. While opinion among the crew seems divided in regards to the authenticity of the being, Discord, morale remains high. Among the ‘Believers’, if I might use that term, there seems to be a real sense of anticipation building while the ‘Non-Believers’, who either outrightly scoff at the idea or maintain a neutral position, seem to regard this as just the sort of thing they joined Starfleet for… an Adventure in the Unknown. It is interesting to note and perhaps it is a comment about the nature of Ponies after the Romulan War that we veterans seem to represent a sort of transitionary period in Starfleet between ourselves and a newer, more idealistic breed of ‘New Ponies’… that is the term I heard used in the Media back on Earth…that Starfleet is drawing its ranks from in the future. I have noticed the change in the emphasis in our training between the wartime Federation and the peacetime. Our newer crewponies seem inclined to be more open-minded in their dealings with other species than we stodgy soldiers! As a case in point, most of the Senior Staff are in the Non-Believer camp, the notable exception being Sunny, myself, and quite possibly Captain Caper. Merry doesn’t give a flying buck one way or the other, it seems, as long as she’s in on the scrap! Dazzle, Stimbolt, Melody, and the rest of the, ahem, Younger Generation (Did the War age the rest of us so much?) seem to accept Tyllae and her story at face value. The prevailing opinion seems to be that even The Goddesses can find a place within a Federation that co-exists with so many Aliens. Is this simply the optimism of Youth or are they, indeed, fundamentally different Ponies than those who waged the Eugenics Wars? …And since when did I become a member of the ‘Older Generation’? Hmph! Ahem! Our efforts to deploy a Recorder Marker were a success. To bypass the Main Computer entirely all our information and logs were transcribed directly into a tricorder and uploaded into the Recorder’s memory banks. Not surprisingly, we have detected a Magical Aura surrounding the ship effectively isolating us from the electromagnetic and subspace influences of the rest of the Galaxy. Nonetheless Jerry and I determined it was just possible, by dint of precision spellcasting on the part of the Unicorn Engineers as well as deft manipulation of our electronic shielding within the limits of the technology, to pierce this Aura long enough for us to deploy the Marker. To cover its launch we broadcasted an abbreviated version of our message through the opening as the Recorder Marker went through. The attempt succeeded and no increase in the strength of the Aura, no retaliation of any kind, has been forthcoming. The Marker was programmed to remain silent for three days before activating itself, givin us time to move well away. Discord’s attention will be focused on the Ship and it seems he did not, or cannot, detect such a small target… at least at this range. The Aura was pierced for less than a tenth of a second but in that amount of time Communications picked up a repeating burst transmission from Starfleet Command to all ships in this sector. The Hermes, it seems, has been incommunicado for some weeks now! Any ship coming into sensor contact with us are being required to hail us immediately to advise us to contact Starfleet at once. Automated, repeating calls to us have been transmitted from Starfleet facilities all along the fringes of Tellarite and Andorian Space as well as Equestris, itself. Admiral Quicksilver… the real one… is quite concerned! Whereas it’s good to know that Starfleet is aware that we’re in trouble… or at the very least they know that something is wrong… the fact remains that they are weeks or perhaps months away from sending help. We are well and truly on our own, but that’s just part of the job. This time, though, so much is riding on the outcome… one way or the other. Copy to Science Officer’s Log, Commander Starry-Eyes, out.” I logged off and swiveled my chair around just in time to see Jerry come out of the turbolift. He nodded to the Captain and made straight for his station where he conferred with Lieutenant Sprocket, who commanded this station on this Watch, and checked the readouts once again before coming up to Caper’s chair. There was an air of expectancy on the Bridge today. Earlier this morning our by-pass repairs had been completed and pre-flight checks had been going on ever since. If they were acceptable we’d be getting underway under Time Warp Drive today. Otherwise Cestus-III would be more that eleven and a quarter years away at Space Normal speed! As Jerry approached, Caper caught my eye motioned me over with a tilt of his head. Jerry look preoccupied and more that a little tired as I came up. “Hay there, Starry.” “Hay, Jerry. What’s the word? Are we getting under way today?” I don’t believe he’d slept for the last day and a half. I hoped this would work if only for his sake! “As far as the simulations say, yes! The closest thing we have to a problem is the synchronization of the Inertial Dampeners and their Compensators. The lag involved in shunting them through the Sensory Processors has then coming out borderline safe two out of five times. The rest of the time they’re strained but ok. It’s hard to see just what part of the system is giving us problems in simulation. We’d be able to identify once we actually gets going and it happens. Right now it’s just a statistical probability.” He crossed his arms and shrugged with a sigh. “That’s as far as we can get it nailed down without actually accelerating, Captain, unless you want to wait another day for us to go through the systems again.” Caper grunted, then… “Am not inclined to linger in vicinity of Marker Buoy. If we stay so slow maybe prying eyes will have that much more time to take in other scenery, da? Let us be fast moving target that takes more watching! Hopefully systems malfunction only leetle bit enough to reveal themselves.” We all looked up as Xantippe, padd tucked under one arm, made her smooth, shuffling way over to stand just off to the side with her eyes cast down deferentially. “Otherwise we are ready, da?” He asked Jerry. “As ready as we’re going to be. Yes, sir!” Jerry said resolutely. Caper nodded once. “Da, then! Assume stations, everypony! We get under way! Merry, please to put me on intership speakers.” “Ain’t loik Oy’m able to do much else these days, Skipper! Moight as well take up knittin’ ta whoile away the time. Tell ya what! Oy’ll make ya a noice sweater as me first project!” She worked her board and made a final connection, nodding to Caper that he was on ship-wide intercom and neatly cutting him off from any retorts! Caper quirked a dangerous, bushy eyebrow at her before speaking up! “This is Captain. All decks prepare for Time Warp Drive in ten seconds. Be advised, this could be rough.” He nodded curtly to Merry who switched him off. Then, to Evee, “Lay in course for Cestus-III. Are trying for Warp Five but make best speed we can, da?” “Aye-aye, Sir. Updating course for Cestus-III. Going to Time Warp in five seconds.” Evee and Guiding Star worked their shared boards. Caper nodded. “Accelerate at half speed. Is reasonable precaution, nyet?” He took the padd from Xantippe and gave it a cursory look before scrawling his signature with a fingertip. He handed it back to her and sat up ramrod-straight. Xantippe took the padd without a word and stepped back to stand behind Caper on his right, her ears drooping just a bit as the poor Zebra mare made ready for her least favorite Starfleet routine. Evee flicked a glance to Jerry hovering about Sprocket’s station. Jerry spared her just enough attention to nod back curtly. Evee poised her fingers on her board before toggling the engine into action. All through the Ship the low thrum of the Warp Drive began. “Initiating Time Warp Drive at one-half acceleration.” She said quietly, scanning her board intently. I turned back to my board and called up a display into my viewer. A graphic of the Hermes sprang into being englobed in its emerging Warp Field as the high-energy plasma from the Warp Core and it’s dilithium-laced reaction chamber flowed from Engineering down into the long engine nacelle slung underneath the ship on the end of the connecting support superstructure. There it passed through the series of coils lining the core of the cylindrical structure inducing the controlled spacewarp pioneered by Starbubble so long ago in much the same way that magnetism induces an electric current in the copper coils of an old-style generator. In ten seconds Spacetime had curved around the Hermes in its protective bubble. The Ship was officially in subspace and was in a position to cut ‘below’ the curve of normal Spacetime. Four seconds later, at Warp threshold, the bubble began to flatten somewhat its long axis pointing forward in the direction of our intended course. A perceptible tremor quivered for the barest fraction of a second through the Ship and everything in it as Evee intoned, “Warp One.” The Time Warp Field flattened even more at its forward end, dragging the Hermes along its line of travel. To an observer from beyond the Field we were now moving at the speed of light itself the Inertial Compensators, by their virtue of lowering our apparent mass, neatly avoiding the Relativistic energy-to-mass ratios of normal space. (It’s interesting that everypony hails Starbubble for the Time Warp Drive while forgetting his development of the Inertial Compensator that makes it possible! That’s History for you!) As I watched, the Field contracted again as the sounds of the Engine rose in pitch. Spacetime resistance built up forward of the Hermes, not unlike the wind resistance felt by old-style aircraft struggling against the once-infamous Sound Barrier. In those days the shapes of the aircraft had to be redesigned to allow better aerodynamic performance. Nowadays the Time Warp Field itself alters it shape to alter its spatialdynamics to allow it to pass through quicker. Like the variable-geometry wings of those bygone aircraft, the Field flattened even more as the Hermes progressed ‘deeper’ into subspace where the universe itself seems to contract and the distances between the stars grows less. Each Warp Factor represents the cube of our apparent velocity. Time Warp Two, when it came at twenty-eight seconds, indicated that we were now moving at a relative velocity of eight time the speed of light. At forty-two seconds underway we achieved Time Warp Three as twenty-seven times ‘c’. As I scanned my board I noted sourly that, as Navigation utilized more and more of my Sensors processing power, the range of my long-range sensors dwindled. Well, given our current circumstances, it couldn’t be helped! My computers were doing the job of Helm and Navigation, making the billions of calculations that both kept us on course as well as maintaining the Inertial Dampers and Compensators. If either of those systems faltered for even a nanosecond even an atoms worth of course change at transrelativistic velocities would reduce us all to carbonized films on whatever deck or wall lay opposite or direction of travel… right before the Ship tore itself to bits! …A fact that Xantippe was acutely aware of, poor thing! Time Warps Three and Four came and went, the normally barely perceptible tremors of each Warp Threshold more pronounced and prolonged as our systems strained to take up the slack normally taken up by the Main Computer. I did another quick survey of the Sensors and swiveled my seat to inform Caper. “Long-range Sensors down to ten light-years capability, Captain.” Caper sat in his seat looking around an everything at once while not seeming to, looking thoughtful at the performance of the Ship so far. “Noted, Starry-pushka. How do we do, Jerry?” Jerry never took his eyes of the board he was sharing. “So far so good, Captain. Warp Field nominal, antimatter containment nominal. Arcane dilithium matrix nominal. Inertial Dampers and Compensation nominal.” I was hoping to hear a note of relief in his voice… “Helm?” Caper asked. “Steady on course and handling well, Captain. Coming up on Time Warp Five. …Four point eight…four point nine…Time Warp Five!” It is a quirk of the Hermes that the Time Warp Five threshold was more pronounced than the others. Perhaps the effect would present itself at Warp Ten as well, but we’d never pushed the Engine that far before. As it was, as soon as we hit Warp Five the whole ship gave a lurch as a nearly subsonic rumble passed throughout its entire being. At once we all felt a ghostly tug toward the back of the Bridge in the direction of the turbolift as if the whole ship had begun to climb a hill! It lasted just long enough to make us brace against its pull, then faded away! The Red Alert began to sound and flash! “Engineer!” Caper barked. “There it is!” Jerry said excitedly. “Potential fault in the Compensators! We’re on it!” Sprocket’s fingers were already dancing on the displays pointed out by Jerry’s stabbing finger! “Maintain current speed, Helm.” Caper said calmly. “Holding at Warp Five point two-one-six, aye!” Evee acknowledged in her incredibly calm tones, both of them aware that the slightest change in speed…even decelerating… could have disastrous consequences in the event of a total Compensator failure. My eyes flew back to my own display but not before taking in the sight of Xantippe standing with eyes closed, her free hoof wrapped around the amulet round her neck. She whispered something, apparently in Zebrican from the sound of it. Yeah, it rhymed! I called up the Ships System Status display and studied it for a fraction of a second before calling out. “No stresses in Spaceframe. Hull integrity intact. Warp Field stable.” “Ditto for antimatter containment!” Jerry added, working part of Sprocket’s board quickly. “Reassigning processor priorities to Engineering to isolate and reroute the problem!” A warning flashed on my display as further tugs pulled at us, not more strongly but more numerous! The ends of my manedo twitched and swayed toward the turbolift. “Compensator failure in one minute ten seconds, mark!” I looked to Jerry as I called out and caught the surprised look on Xantippe’s face as her hoop earrings swung and tugged parallel to the floor time and again. She clutched at one ear with the hoof that held the padd, nearly putting her eye out in the process! “We’re on it!” Jerry said tersely as everyone and everything in the Ship gave a little skip astern, making us all sway and clutch at our stations. Xantippe stumbled and caught herself on the back of Caper’s chair as Jerry informed us, “Port and Starboard Compensators are lagging and falling out of sync with each other. I’m allocating more processing priority to them. Starry! I need more of your computers! About twenty percent more!” Inspired, I reduced my Sensory needs! “All yours, Jerry!” “Ok! Reallocating!” The two of them bent to work as we rode out more twitching and tugging. “’Ere!” Merry called out. “Sickbay’s compliments an’ the Doc says the Morgue wants ta know what we all want on our Memorials!” Caper had reached back to pat one of Xantippe’s hooves calmly. “Advise Good Doctor not to be such pessimist. Have faith in capable Engineering Staff!” Even as he spoke both the frequency and strengths of the tugs began to abate. In just a few seconds they were gone. The sound of the Engine, now that it had come up to speed, faded away and allowed the Red Alert klaxon full voice. “See?” Caper said reasonably. Then, to Merry, “Damage Reports?” “Nuthin’ on moy board… though the Doc sounds likes she needs a fresh set of knickers!” Merry smirked. “Please to advise that she has permission to avail self of clothing replicators!” Caper said gravely before turning to Jerry. “How do we sit, Jerry-bubula?” Jerry gave his readouts one final look before answering. “Compensators nominal. We’ll have to fine tune the Starboard set to make up for the lack of processing power.” He sighed before looking my way apologetically. “What does that do to your sensors, Starry?” I consulted my readouts and kept the dismay out of my voice. “We have active Sensors out to three point seven light-years distant, passive Sensors out to eleven point six light-years. At this speed that gives us three and one-half days warning of anything in Normal Space. More than adequate for Navigation, I should think!” I said in an effort to find the silver lining somewhere. “Piece of apple cake!” Evee declared brightly. “Steady at Warp Five point two-one-six, by the way. Wild ride while it lasted, wasn’t it?” Xantippe had been cautiously tugging at her earrings, checking for damage no doubt. “For most of you this must seem like bliss.” She declared ruefully. “But I wonder if I’ll ever get used to this!” “But we survived, da?” Caper shrugged at her. “In words of great Rushin philosopher, Neightzche, ‘That which does not kill us only makes us stronger, nyet?” I coughed delicately into one hoof. “He was from Germaney, as I recall.” Caper waved a hoof breezily. “Is common misconception fostered by Twentieth-Century nogoodnik, Hitter, to bolster reputation of evil regime. Records no doubt have become distorted in ensuing centuries, da? Do you doubt Valiant Captain’s grasp of Glorious Rushin History, Starry-pushka?” Caper kicked his chair to swivel in a circle so that the entire Bridge could see the twinkle in his eyes and share in the humor that we all needed just then! “History is always open to debate.” I said. “It’s the ‘Valiant Captain’ part that’s hard to swallow!” Smirks, smiles, and quiet chuckles passed along the Bridge as Caper completed his circuit, coming to rest facing me with a pitying look on his face. “Bah! True Genius is always unrecognized in own time!” He grinned as he said it, though. Then, “What is estimated time until arrival at Cestus-III, Lieutenant?” Evee consulted her Helm. “Twenty-five point five-six days…” The Mare from Mares dimpled impishly and added, “Valiant Captain!” Caper threw out a hoof to her in vindication! “See? Is some hope for younger generation after all!” He declared. A raspberry came from Communications closely followed by a stylus in a high, arcing trajectory that carried it safely past the Captain to bounce harmlessly off Evee’s back! “Don’t egg ‘im on! Barely enough room up ‘ere already without swellin’ ‘is ‘ead any more’n ‘as it is!” Merry chortled! “Get back to work and will disregard misfired assassination attempt, Cossack Communications Officer!” Caper waggled a finger over his shoulder at Merry, smirking since she couldn’t see it! He became all business again a moment later. “Good work, Chief Engineer. Please to pass compliments to your staff.” He gave his chair another little kick so that he was able to regard the rest of the Bridge… except Merry! “Good job…to most of you! Level heads best way to handle situation, da?” He got up and retrieved Merry’s stylus and gave it an underhoof pitch back to her. “There! Now Ass gets assassinated !” He said smugly. Before Merry could launch into any more theatrics, Xantippe shook her head and made her way to the turbolift. “That is my cue to head for the door.” She said with a wink. “The Doctor is not the only one in need of a replicator!”