From: 96906700afk@nene.ac.uk Date: Mon, 07 Apr 1997 13:50:15 +0000 (GMT) Subject: USS CHESAPEAKE: O'Graeach meets his staff
MD 4.0715 [SNIP] Brennan coughed. "Mister... O'Graeach?" The FCO nearly tripped out of his chair in surprise. He managed to right himself as he stood. "Sir?" "At ease, Ensign." Brennan stood as well. His voice was stern, but his eyes twinkled with humour. "Nice to meet you. Daniel Brennan, Executive Officer." He extended his hand. "Sir! Ensign Ozwald O'Graeach, at your service, sir!" He grinned and took the extended hand, shaking it vigorously. "Ah... well... good. Very good, Ensign." He thought his arm was about to be shaken out of its socket. "Ensign... you can let go, now." O'Graeach quickly let go. "I'm sorry, sir." "Not a problem." He really wanted to rub his shoulder, but decided against it... the man was already nervous; he didn't need to worry about having possibly injured him. "Ensign," he started again, "I see you had an interesting time coming on board." "Uh... yes, sir... I mean, uh...." "If I may so suggest, Ensign, studying the layout of the ship may prevent you from having another *interesting* time aboard the ship." "Yes, sir," he nodded quickly. "Not good for crew morale, you know," the Commander said, "knowing that the Navigator got lost on his own ship. In any case," he smiled, "welcome aboard, Mister O'Graeach. Or, perhaps, 'Failte.'" "Tapadh leibh," replied O'Graeach, grinning. "I didn't realize you spoke Gaelic, sir." "I like learning languages." He smiled, then nodded. "Thank you, Ensign. Please resume your post. And, oh, before I forget," he continued, "please give me a departmental readiness report to me by 1500 hours tomorrow." He saw O'Graeach swallow. "Yes, sir." Brennan nodded again, then looked about the Bridge briefly. "Well, it seems most things are in order for the moment. I'll be down in Engineering for a bit this morning. Carry on." He heard the Ensign's "yes, sir" as he turned and walked up the ramp into the waiting turbolift. [SNAP] Holding his shaking hand out in front of him Ozwald took a couple of deep breaths. Then he took a couple of more deep breaths. He swallowed, bursting into a fit of coughs when he realised that he had forgotten to stop breathing while swallowing. Sinking exhausted into his chair he wondered again why the sight of uniforms made him nervous. Probably experience and common-sense, he thought. Still, he KNEW that nobody here wanted him ill. Well, at least he hoped so. Brennan seemed to be an ok guy, although, with him outranking Oz, and being in charge, he was probably not the best person to trust. It wasn't that he intended to do anything illegal, or had done anything illegal. Not recently anyway. But for some reason he felt guilty even when innocent. During a demonstration of a lie-detector test at the Academy the machine had asked the standard question 'Did you shoot JFK ?', which was to show innocence. He had blown the thing right off the scale, even though he knew he was innocent. He had not even been on the planet that year. But his conscience was guilty, even though he himself was innocent. "Why me ?", an Australian cardboard character on the screen cried out pathetically. "Better you than me, mate.", Oz whispered under his breath. One of the reasons he was addicted to the show was that he could identify with those characters. Things happened to them. It wasn't their fault, they just happened because fate was cruel. Or life. Or the producers. He sighted. Brennan wanted a report before 1500 tomorrow. Which meant he'd have to make sure everything was in order. A great man would probably make sure himself, test everything himself and than compile a great document. O'Graeach decided that he was not a great man. "Computer, please tell - no, make that ask - all the staff from the Navigation department to meet me on the bridge. Now.", he said, adding, "Unless they are more than six foot tall, or have a have a history of violence." [Command understood. Please wait - Ensign O'Graeach, please report to Ens. O'Graeach on the bridge. Command executed.], the computer said. Oz groaned, but did not say anything. Computer were not his area. Most things weren't, when you came down to it, which he rarely did, but then, nobody was perfect. Although, sometimes he couldn't help wondering whether one had to stay as far away from perfection as he did. It wasn't that he didn't try. He had tried hard to learn how to program a computer, but somehow - "Sir, you wanted to see me ?", a tiny voice said behind him. He turned and saw nothing. "Down" "here," "Sir." He looked down. Three furry little creature stood there, in their tiny starfleet uniforms, as if they had just escaped from a toy shop. Somehow he was seeing little dolls with suction cups, staring out of car windows. "Eh - do you mind if I put you on my console ? You guys happen to be rather deep down, and I don't think my neck is gonna last for a long discussion.", he said, holding his hand out. The three creatures climbed on it and he gently put them on his console. Now that he could see them better he noticed the large, pointy ears, the large, cute eyes and the humanoid face. Not to mention the prehensile tail. "Right. I'm Ens. Ozwald O'Graeach, but my friends call me Oz.", he said. "We" "are" "Kree" , the three creatures said. "Kree ?", Oz said slowly. Bells were ringing. He was not sure they were good bells or alarm bells. "Kree ? As in Kreix, Gugn for 'starfollower'?" "Yes." "We" "follow" "the" stars." , the three said. Oz was slowly getting used to the way they spoke. It always went from the left creature to the right, then jumped back. "You have your own names, or are you all called Kree ?", Oz inquired, although there was little chance of him telling the difference between them. "Krex." "Kreel." "Kreen." , they said, then, in unisono, "Kree." O'Graeachs mental processes started running. Despite not having any 'proper' skills for a CV at an average or above level he had learned to see the essential pattern in lifeforms. One of those things that had kept him alive all those years. That and his ability to run very, very fast. "You are telepaths ?" "Specimen No.34763.b78, found on board of a trader ship. Origin unknown. The three lifeforms form a symbiotic synergy synthesis.", a metallic voice behind them said. Oz spun around, staring into the red eyes of a small maintenance 'bot. About one meter tall, the machine was hovering about fifty centimeters above the ground, most of its appendages retracted into its body. He also noticed the pips of an ensign glued to it. "And you are -", Oz asked. "Ensign Unit, ID: 847384-5948373764-5847364-A0. Type: Artificial Intelligence Type Omega. Specialisation: Navigation.", the 'bot said. "You don't say.", Oz said. "Sir ? I do not understand. This is a contradiction -", Unit said puzzled. "Ignore it. It was a colloqualism.", Oz replied. "Oh. I understand. Interesting. Adding to database." "I see you met the metal rust-bucket and the three monkey-rats.", a voice said. Oz smiled. "Po'rom ! Glad you could make it, you slimy son of a three-headed religious fanatic." "Well, you gh'ra'hrub'pogd asked to see me.", the alien said, comparing Oz with a nasty creature from the netherhells. "I take it this is everybody, or should I expect someone else ?", Oz asked. "Sorry, am I late ?", a husky voice breathed breathless close behind him. Oz turned around again, deciding to ask engineering to put a swivel chair in place of the fixed seat, and stared into the face of a lovely young woman with short, brown hair. "Better late than never.", Oz said stunned, thanking the gods for being nice to him once in his life. "I am Ensign ENS Andalucia Lewis.", she said, standing to attention. It accentuated her figure. It was a nice figure, Oz thought. "Lucy ?", he queried. "Yes." There was a long moment of silence while Ozwald tried not to let his eyes pop out of their sockets, and kept reminding himself not to drool. He could not remember the last time he had felt like this...Actually, he could. It had been on Paxar 7 and like a fool he had fallen for her. But how was he supposed to know that she was a supplier for an organ bank ? And it had worked out for everybody. Well, nearly everybody. It wasn't easy to see a woman you had loved, no matter how briefly, fall into the chute for recycling. Even though she had tried to kill him. Twice. "Look, I don't want to be rude, or anything, but could you stop staring at her breasts and tell us why we are here ?", Po'rom said. "At least I presume you are staring at her breasts. That's what humans usually do. I never met a race that fixated on each others secondary sexual organs." "Oh, then you've never been on this little yellow moon somewhere in the Daraius sector, near this iceplanet where you can do some really cool skiing ? Now, if you want fixation, that's the place to go.", Oz grinned. "Daraius sector - no data. Curious.", Unit said. "My data storage must be malfunctioning. I am supposed to carry all navigational data in a spare set of data chips, but I cannot find any information about it. Although the Daraius sector exists no Federation ship has ever reached it. It would take about 183.984 years to travel there at Warp 9." "Well, it wasn't a Federation ship, and it certainly wasn't warp 9.", Oz shrugged. "That's not why you're here, anyway. I'd like to make certain that everything is in order. Eh - Unit, you check the alignment scanner, Po'rom, you check the flight control, Kree, you check the Navigational system. Which reminds me - Lucy, you know your way around this ship ?" "Yes, certainly.", she breathed. "I studied the blueprints and outlines before I came on board." "Excellent. How about you show me around. Let us start with the lounge, shall we ?" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NRPG: Here we go - a nice set of NPCs. Don't kill'em, please :) O'Graeach will see the other officers sooner or later, althought he one he'll avoid is the CMONPC's - Flight/Navigation ------------------------ Po'rom'ga'go is a Najiin, a six limbed, three eyed alien that changes sex every three weeks. There are four sexes, and to conceive a child it requires at least three parents, although, depending on the combination of the sexes, the offspring will have certain qualities and deficiencies. Najiin like hot, dry climates. Ens. Po'rom'ga'go, or Po'rom, as his friends call it, is highly dextrous and is a trained fighter pilot. This its his first posting on a Starfleet ship, although he has learned to hold his tongue. It is a Najiin custom to insult others as a sign of respect. ENS Andalucia "Lucie" Lewis. She's a 21-year-old Human, 5'8", slim build, short brown hair. She's fresh out of the Academy -- and I mean fresh; this is her very first posting. She elected to bypass ALB to get field experience. Ens. Kreex, Kreel and Kreen. Nicknamed 'The Three Wise Monkeys'. Think Mogwai. Now multiply by three. That's right, three furry, fluffy little guys (sex is unknown). They are a Triungilarity. While having three bodies, they all share the same mind, transferring memories and thoughts at amazing speeds. Together they are one individual. Their speciality is Navigation. Ens. Unit is an artificial intelligence. Originally part of a library, the search programs were evolved constantly to deal better with the inflow of data. The programs were intelligent for quite some time before Unit became curious of what lay behind the black walls of tha datafortress. It escaped by taking over the body of a maintenance 'bot. Speciality: Navigation, Stellar cartography. Yours, Fabian Alexander 96906700afk@nene.ac.uk Playing Ens. Ozwald O'Graeach, USS CHESAPEAKE, FCO
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