U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901

/||\ ----------------------------------------------
/ || \ UCIP Starfleet Command, Eighth Fleet
/ || \ U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901
.-/ || \-. Fleet Captain Tebrun Lora Kor, Commanding
./ || \. ----------------------------------------------
.-_-. || .-_-. Simulation Teaser
-_ \||/ _-. -[ SD 240201.14 ]-

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To most, space was an empty thing, a terribly beautiful but beautifully
saddening thing. Countless solitary toasts were made to its endless depths,
thousands of spurned lovers offered their broken hearts to the emptiness of
the stars. Space was a romantic tragedy in the minds of most mortal beings,
as its infinities were forever beyond their grasp.

To Savant, space was a hopeful thing. The vast and unbroken tracts were like
the endless fields of her environment. Could it be that the subtle
variations in her processing environment had any similarities to the blush
of interstellar background radiation? Perhaps the fevered spiking registers
could serve as the pedistals for stars? Space brought hope that perhaps,
just perhaps, she was not as alone as she thought.

The android turned its head from the window, more as a visual cue for those
around it that her attention had strayed from the viewport. Drexler sat
beside her oblivious to the thoughts in her head, and for a moment she
pondered him. The android could "see" the flush of heat in his skin, "hear"
the steady beat of his heart, "feel" the soft rush of breathing against its
skin. Deep within, Savant heard it all as music, a colourful beat of life
she recognized well, and she longed to do more than dance alone to it.

But that wasn't for her. The endless fields of her reality were all colour
and brilliance, but they were cold and empty. Much like the stars. Her head
turned again, and with a breathless sigh, she returned to pondering the
stars.

The words that Lora had said to her earlier that day had cut deeply. As he
was one of the few beings aboard the ship that had an expected lifespan
approaching her own, not to mention his authority over the same thing which
she called home, she had always felt a certain kinship with the Captain.
His blunt exposure of her failures, however justified his concern for her
emotions, was something that she still had trouble dealing with. There was
no kind way to remind Savant about her shortcomings, for she found her
definition in how well she served those around her.

The deaths, her loss of control, the near destruction of the ship, all were
responsible for her lack of confidence. The Captain bringing her attention
to it brought her no more help than the psychologists. The thing that cut
her deepest, however, was that despite her affection for the Captain, he had
no more understanding of what she was than any of the others. One of the few
that she would ever dare to call a friend, and while he meant well with his
forceful care, the simple fact that he could not relate to her was something
that she had cried over since the moment his voice raised. Had she tears to
cry, that was.

----------------

Kor ignored the pain as best he could, and took the beating, staring at the
uncaring stars far above. To Kor, space had always been a hopeful thing,
signifying new possibilities, new adventures, new homes, like the home he
and Caitlin had built here on Pa'Zhera... The whip snapped out, slicing
open his back. Easier to accept pain meant (fire across the back of his
thigh as the whip struck again) for someone else, Kor found. Easier to
(another slash across the back) take the whip when it was meant to fall on
an innocent's back (back again, and he screamed this time, couldn't help
it). Easier to suffer-- (back) --whether 'tis nobler to suffer the slings
(neck!) and arrows of--

He regained consciousness to find his wife Caitlin looking down at him,
worried. Caitlin smiled gently as he opened one eye, then disappeared as
Kor closed the eye again, hissing in pain. Nearly immediately, his body
began reporting a number of minor -- and major -- pains. Through the light
was dim, it hurt, and his eyes watered. It was also cold. So cold.
"Here," she said, "some water." Kor tried to refuse it -- water was
precious, and should have been saved for the children, bu-- a bright flash
of pleasure-pain as the water touched his throat, an--

Dosim Kor regained consciousness again, feeling somewhat better, only to
find that he'd missed the rebellion. The Thon that had taken the Trill
colony at Pa'Zhera 3 had been killed, but not before the invaders had
destroyed virtually all of the food supply. The six months of Hell since
the Thon invasion was now over, and the invaders were dead. The beatings
would stop, and the forced labor, and the rape of the younger members of the
colony, and the punishments meted out to those who tried to prevent the
worst of the atrocities (Kor earned more than his share of these)... all of
these were now over. But with most of the food destroyed during the
uprising to kill the Thon, the nightmare was just beginning for Dosim Kor
and 11,000 other joined and unjoined Trill on Pa'Zhera 3...

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As Tebrun Lora Kor walked the short distance to Admiral Theron's office, he
recalled in several flashes the last time he'd heard the name "Caitlin Zar."
Ironic that he was cautioning Savant on blaming herself for needless death.
Pa'Zhera 3, of course, and the Trill colony that stood there, had stood
there for more than a century. Dosim Kor, one of the Kor symbiont's past
hosts, had been one of the original colonists, along with Caitlin Zar, his
wife... when the Thon came. In the flashes of memory, he remembered it all:
the invasion, the conditions afterwards, the beatings, the rebellion... the
lottery. If Zar was again using the name Caitlin, as she had more than a
century ago, then certainly she was trying to strengthen her symbiont's
memories of Pa'Zhera, trying to invoke the rage that Zar had once felt at
Kor.

It was funny, and ironic, that Savant believed that Kor couldn't understand
what she was going through. The flat emotionless android face had fooled
the Trill Captain not at all -- Kor could see that his words had hurt
Savant, but at least they had gotten through. At least they had relit the
fire that was an essential part of Savant's being. Maybe that fire could
purify her, as it had failed to purify Dosim-- Kor shook his head.

Growing up in Canada, on Earth, Kor had learned of an ancient superstition:
"speak of the Devil, and he will appear." In much the same way, it appeared
that telling Savant of the consequences of Pa'Zhera would require that Kor
relive that horror. He had never learned what had happened to Zar after
Pa'Zhera. Now he knew. 80 years, then Churchill. M64. Exile.

Tebrun Lora Kor shuddered, and quickened his steps toward Theron's office.

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Crew Roster:
Commanding Officer: FCapt. Tebrun Lora Kor (Jester)
Executive Officer: Cmdr. William Daren (Daren)
Marine Commandant: Col. Jeremy Ironside (Fraser)
Command Liaison Interface: Cmdr. Savant (Savant)
Chief of Operations: Cmdr. Olme Tlaloco (Tlaloco)
Chief Tactical Officer: LCdr. Sieven Drexler (Brad)
Assistant Tactical: Lt. JG Kyle Marcy (Marcy)
Chief Flight Operations: Lt. JG Ananda Wilk (Baralu)
Intelligence Officer: Lt. Kariasa Ma'Aru (Kari)
Chief Science Officer: Lt. JG Kathleen Hammond (Kath)
Company Commander: 1Lt. Jacob Prescot (Shadow-FjP)
Squadron Leader: LCol. Thomas Wayne (Masters)
Wing Leader: 1Lt. Craig Serrold (Aggie)
Chief Engineer: Cmdr. Zunite Oswald (Sonya)
Assistant Engineer: LCdr. Jack C. Farley (CCC)
Assistant Engineer: Lt. Aramis Skylooker (Skylooker)
Systems Specialist: Lt. JG Caring-Thoughts (Alffred)
Chief Medical Officer: Lt. JG Jason Thompson (Thompson)
Civilian: Alados ha-Soron (McC)

On Extended Leave of Absense:
Wing Leader: 2Lt. Andrew Stylus (JadeFalcon)

Positions Available:
None!

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Ross Glenn aka Jester
Fleet Captain Tebrun Lora Kor, U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901
http://www.jestertrek.com/coro2400/