CHAPTER 3:
Captain's Log, Stardate 45332.3: The USS Valparaiso is making her way into the 11th leg of our exploratory mission. We are currently entering a system which includes one star and one planet, but a massive asteroid field surrounding both the star and planet. Scans have picked up life on the planet, which is hard to believe, due to the fact that these asteroids pose the threat of colliding with the planet. Our course will take us within the asteroid field, and we will use two shuttlecraft to help in the scans. We will avoid all contact with the planet, since our scans cannot determine their level of technology. Hopefully this will be routine, so we can get to the 12th and final leg of our mission.
Captain Blando closed the small console on the arm of his chair and looked forward, between the helm and operations consoles, to the viewscreen and starfield ahead. "Helm, ETA to the barrier of the asteroid field?"
The young, black haired ensign at the helm straightened up and turned back toward his captain, who was sitting in the center of the bridge. "Approximatly 5 minutes, sir."
"Good," said Blando as he taped his comm badge, "Blando to Shuttlebay, Commander, prepare for launch."
Over the bridge's intercom came the voice of the Valparaiso's first officer, Commander Bihlman. "Aye sir. Lieutenant Millbranth is already in the Shuttlecraft Caeser. Just give the order and we'll get going."
Blando turned to the tactical officer behind him and nodded.
Without question for what the nod meant, the tactical officer taped commands into his console and soon the large doors at the aft of the Valparaiso began to creep open. Soon, two small Type-8 shuttles, flying in formation at first, and then veering off on different courses on either side of the Valparaiso.
Blando watched the viewscreen as the two shuttles sped toward their desitinations within the asteroid field.
"We are now entering the asteroid field, sir." chimed the young ensign.
The Captain continued to watch the viewscreen as small asteroid fields were knocked swiftly aside by the ship's invisible deflector field.
"We are recieving data from the Caeser and Viking, both report nothing unusual." said the tactical officer after his console had beeped repeatedly the information from each shuttle.
"Thank you Lieutenant. Inform me when we have completed our search. You have the bridge." Captain Blando stood up, and looked at the small analong clock on the tactical console behind him. He patted the tactical officer, who was now heading toward the chair in the center of the bridge, on the shoulder as the headed to the turbolifts at the back of the bridge.
Once inside the turbolift, he leaned against the wall and half enthusiastically told the computer to head to Deck 4. He looked at the small analog clock on the small console near the door. It was nearly midnight, ship's time of course. He stood there thinking about the boredom onboard the ship lately. Morale was low. The Valparaiso had been on exploration and science missions for nearly 2 years, nearly the entire time he was in command. His ship wasn't much of a science or exploring ship, she was made to perform normal duties within Federation borders. Yet Starfleet had, for some unknown reason, asked his ship and young crew to patrol the areas along the borders of the southern hemisphere of the Federation. Though the area had been charted, there was still plenty left to explore. Why he was the one exploring it, though, was a total mystery to him.
"Captain?"
Blando suddently realized the turbolift had stopped, and he was now standing there, looking at a tall, young, blonde ensign. He quickly spouted an apology and headed out of the turbolift, leaving the confused ensign alone as the turbolift doors shut. He walked the few meters to his quarters without thought, for fear of accidentally walking into a bulkhead or another young crewman. Once inside his quarters, he unzipped his uniform and layed down on the bed in the corner of the room. Without hesitation, he dozed off.
CHAPTER 4:
Lieutenant Crowe sat in the command chair of the now near empty bridge. Only Ensign Creekbaum and Cadet McBride, who was his replacement at tactical, were on the bridge. All the stations along the outer rim of the bridge were completely empty, with most of the consoles and screens shut down, except for those recieving sensor information from the ship or the two shuttles.
At around 0100, with his shift roughl half over, Lieutenant Crowe went over to the replicator near the front of the bridge to grab a small cup of coffee. He was soon joined by McBride, and the two started chatting. After two minutes or so, they headed over to the engineering console in the back corner of the bridge, and began looking over some diagnostics of the warp engines quietly.
Soon after Crowe and McBride had made their way over to the engineering console, Creekbaum noticed a small blinking red light in the top corner of his console. Without hesitation, he turned and called for Lieutenant Crowe.
"What is the problem Ensign?"
"There appears to be a small spherical object of pure energy of unknown origin heading toward the Caeser. It is approaching at .9c. It will intercept in three minutes."
By now, Lieutenant Crowe had been walking away from the engineering console, and slowed to a halt as he approached the command chair. He stood behind it, with his arms on the neck rest. He turned back to Cadet McBride, who had just gotten to his tactical station. "Cadet, inform the Caeser and Viking to stop what they are doing and return to the ship."
McBride quickly nodded and started to send out communications to each shuttle.
Crowe, seeing that the tactical officer was doing as ordered, turned back to Ensign Creekbaum. "Lay in an intercept with the shuttles and engage at full impulse. I want to get those shuttles back as quick as possible." Crowe sat down in his chair and watched the viewscreen as the asteroids and starfields began to bank and move with the ship's sudden course change.
"Sir, the object is still gaining on the Caeser. It will impact with it unless we do something to stop it."
Crowe rubbed his chin and thought for a moment. Of course, a moment was all he needed, because he soon barked out at the computer. "Red Alert! All hands to battlestations, Captain Blando to the bridge!"
CHAPTER 5:
Captain Blando was soon awaken by blaring klaxons, flashing red lights, and the murmur of people in the corridors right outside his quarters. Within minutes he had found his relief jacket and walked out into the corridor.
He found utter chaos. He was immediatly flooded by a mass of crewmen running down the corridors, trying to get to their stations as quickly as possible. He tried to put on his jacket as he headed into the crowd, but found it futile. Instead, he merely tucked the jacket under his arm and headed toward the turbolift. Once inside the turbolift, he found that the car was near full. Upon entering his destination, he found the computer was lagging by a second or so. He reminded himself to run more preporation tests on the crew from now on.
He now remembered why he had agreed to take the Valparaiso out into uncharted space. He hated when combat and emergencies were planned out, as he had experienced in the Cardassian and Tzenkthi Wars. He yearned for the surprise of an attack or mystery of something unexplained. He sighed, though quickly regained his pose as the crewmembers huddled around him looked at him oddly.
A minute later, he found himself walking onto a darker bridge then he had left. He walked slowly to his command chair, yet did not take the now open seat. He merely stood beside it. He stared blankly at the viewscreen in front of him, trying to figure out by sight alone what the small glowing object was. He then turned back to his tactical officer. "Status report Mr. Crowe."
"A small object with a massive energy signature is pursuing the Caeser.The shuttle is trying to avoid the object, but it is still closing. We are now attempting to intercept the shuttle and the object."
Blando turned back to the viewscreen, and watched as the object closed in on the shuttle. Suddenly, the object flashed and it streaked at a massive speed toward the shuttle. He gasped as the object impacted with the shuttle, utterly obliterating it. Almost an instant after his sigh has died away, the entire bridge grew silent, with the exception of the usual hum of the computer and other systems. They stood in awe, staring at the area on the viewscreen where the Caeser once flew. The streak of light then turned sharply, arching its way across space without being noticed. The object now heading toward the object at near light speed. Before anyone on the bridge could look for the least bit of protection, the object impacted and the bridge became a living hell.
Every console screen exploded in a flury of sparks and ashes. Bulkheads everywhere suddenly burst as the systems behind them overloaded. Half the bridge crew was uplifted and tosses to the opposing wall or floor. Some died upon impact from the explosions. The rest were paralized on the floor from the sudden jolt.
Captain Blando, who had been tosses to floor, was bleeding from the head and semi-conscious. He barely heard the damage reports come from Lieutenant Crowe, who had been lucky enough to stay on his feet at his post.
"Eviromental systems have failed! All primary and seconadry systems obliterated! Most engineering decks are exposed to space, forcefields are not responding! The warp core has been completely dislodged from it's support frames! We are in an uncontrollable spin, thrusters are not responding!"
Captain Blando somehow got to his feet, stumbling across the lifeless body of Ensign Creekbaum. Amid explosions, half audiable alarms, and darkness, he came to the wall toward the front of the bridge. Breathing heavily, he found the ship's dedication plaque. He looked out it, trying to make out the small words in the darkness. He found the quote at the bottom of the plaque: "I have chosen my destiny, and it lies here." He half smiled, and began to slide down the wall to the floor. A blood trail remained on the wall, dripping onto the plaque. He soon lost all conscience as the oxygen levels on the bridge finally ran out.
Commander Bihlamn stared in awe as the engineering hull of the Valparaiso was completely blown out by the impact. A large gaping hole was now in the middle of the ship, with tons upon tons of equipment and crewmembers pouring out. The ship began to list, and then spin slowly along all axises. Small asteroids started to make tiny holes in the ship's exposed hull.
She soon caught up with herself, and piloted her shuttle toward a large asteroid a kilometer or so away, hoping to hide from whatever just annihilated her ship. She found a slow moving asteroid, about a hundred cubic kilometers in size. She brought her shuttle to a stop on the asteroid's dark side. She then shut down her helm controlled, and looked at the small screen to her left that showed the Valparaiso, still spinning, now practically dead. The ship soon found itself heading toward a rather massive asteroid. The ship skidded into the tough asteroid's surface, with a massive amount of force. The ship skidded a few meters until the saucer was sheered off from the hull stress. The saucer soon dug itself into the astral dust, burying the entire port half of it. All lights had now faded with exception of the small formation light on top of the bridge, barely visible through the dust cloud kicked up by the impact.
The engineering hull continued some of it's spin since it was free from the grounded saucer. It too soon impacted with the asteroid, with her port warp nacelle hitting the astral landscape first. The nacelles exploded, sending out a massive shockwave that shock the already devastated saucer section a few meters away. Moments later, the engineering hull slid slowly into the dust, buring itself a few meters, and then skidding to a stop. All that remained were small pieces of equipment that had been released before or was not floating out of the hole in the engineering hull. Dead crewmen were floating among the wreckage. Some found their way onto this asteroid, others on others, and yet still other wreckage out into space.
After about ten minutes of utter silence, Commander Bihlman realized her situation. It appeared that the energy object was not coming for her, so she began to send out distress signals. As she leaned back after sending out the last signal, a small tear rolled down her cheek as she realized that the entire crew of the USS Valparaiso, besides her, were dead.
So, how do you like that? The rest of the story takes place about 7 years after this incident onboard the USS Thresher...but, I don't want to give the rest away. Please critique if you please. Also, the rest of the (shortened) story is at my webpage
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"The things hollow--it goes on forever--and--oh my God!--it's full of stars!" -David Bowman's last transmission back to Earth, 2001: A Space Odyssey
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Fabrux's Starship Page
"Dream not of today"
-Night blessing of the Yash-El
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"Resolve and thou art free."
Anyway, no, there are no pictures of the Valparaiso online, though i do have a rather large cutaway I created by cutting and pasting the large Enterprise-B cutaway from Generations. There are also pictures of the Titan class USS Thresher which is in the rest of the story here
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"The things hollow--it goes on forever--and--oh my God!--it's full of stars!" -David Bowman's last transmission back to Earth, 2001: A Space Odyssey
[This message has been edited by The359 (edited November 24, 1999).]
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If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16, 1969, make it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicles?
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Calvin: "No efficiency, no accountability... I tell you, Hobbes, it's a lousy way to run a Universe." -- Bill Watterson
