/||\        -----------------------------------------
       / || \            Starfleet Command, Second Fleet
      /  ||  \             U.S.S. Coronado,  NCC-63100
   .-/   ||   \-.     Fleet Captain Brian Aldur, Commanding
   ./    ||    \.   -----------------------------------------
   .-_-. || .-_-.              Simulation Teaser
   .-_  \||/  _-.

 _______________________________________________________________________________
/ Simulation Teaser                                                             |
/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

 The doors slipped open noiselessly, and Dryden Tollory floated through them.

 U.S.S. Panache continued on course for Starbase 247, having rendezvoused
 with U.S.S. Swiftsure that morning.  The transport was now nearly full,
 conducting some 524 Starfleet officers to the Starbase at impressive speeds,
 if not in impressive comfort.  However, rank had its priveliges, obviously,
 because as far as Tollory could tell, Aldur had the port aft observation
 gallery to himself.

 All Federation starships are built around inertial dampening fields that,
 among other things, maintain a constant pull of 0.86 Earth gravities at all
 times.  However, the inertial dampening field had nodes and points of focus
 just like any other energy transfer technology.  As a result, there were
 nearly always locations within the IDF that experienced greater or lesser
 gravity than the norm.  In particular, where the various emitters exert
 equal force in three or more directions, there are nodes of zero gravity,
 where one can experience weightlessness.

 On most starships, these nodes are positioned around laboratories, zero-g
 gymnasiums, and other crew support facilities.  However, there are almost
 always two small nodes between the warp nacelles.  For the vast majority of
 Federation starships, however, these nodes land in the space outside the
 ship.  Norway class starships were one of the few exceptions, however, and
 each of them has two small four-meter nodes at the aft nacelle pylons.
 Since these spaces are too small to use as formal facilities, they are often
 observation galleries with a view aft of the ship.

 As Panache moved at high warp toward Starbase 247, Brian Aldur had sought
 out one of those nodes.  Tollory found him there, debating on the best time
 to broach the subject of his transfer with his soon-to-be former Captain.

 With only six days before Panache reached the Starbase, Tollory was sure he
 wanted to talk to Aldur face to face about it: his seeming willingness to
 watch Dev Wallace murdered in the Danav system; his playing poker with human
 life against Lieutenant Toria of Section 31; his refusal to use the Jaunt
 technology to restore Lynn Dauber to life.

 There was a cold, hard streak in Brian Aldur that frightened Tollory.

 More to the point, it frightened Tollory that this side of Aldur seemed to
 bring out such feelings in the Djaklian.  "You recognize what you are, you
 recognize what you could be," the old saying from his home planet went.  And
 if he saw something of himself in his human former Captain, what did that
 mean for his own future?

 So, Tollory had come here intending to talk to Aldur about it, but he hadn't
 expected to find the Captain in virtual solitude on such a crowded ship.  He
 became even more confused when he discovered what the Captain was doing.

 Aldur hung motionless in the center of the four meter sphere, "sitting" in
 thin air in a lotus position.  Hanging nearby were a pair of candles, their
 flames spherical in the zero gravity space.  Before Aldur floated a piece
 of white stone of some kind.  Tollory squinted.  It appeared to be carved,
 or perhaps a bas relief of some kind, but at this distance, he couldn't make
 out what it depicted.  As Tollory watched, Aldur began speaking quietly in
 a language the doctor didn't recognize.

 Most uncharacteristic of all, Aldur appeared not to notice that Tollory had
 entered the observation gallery through the short corridor leading to it.

 Interspersed through what Aldur was saying, though, Tollory caught some
 words and phrases that he *could* understand.  "Lynn Dauber" was, of course,
 recognizable, as was "muerte."  Aldur's voice was quiet and hurt and his
 head hung down over the white stone slab... suddenly, Tollory realized,
 cringing, what was happening in the small space.

 Turning in silence, the Djaklian floated out of the observation gallery, the
 door opening silently before him unseen.  Moving as quickly as the gravity
 gradient between the node and the rest of the ship would allow him, Dryden
 Tollory fled toward the more occupied parts of the ship, his mind in a state
 of confusion.

 His hard as nails Captain, his voice as pained as Tollory had ever heard it,
 was alone, praying for the soul of his departed Chief Medical Officer.

\_______________________________________________________________________________
\ End Simulation Teaser                                                         |
 ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

----------
Ross Glenn aka Jester
Fleet Captain Brian Aldur, U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-63100
http://www.ussrenegade.com/coro2400/