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 240112.03 ]-

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"All of the groups reported at least limited success in their objectives.
The group we sent to Everon, for instance, was pretty typical. Over the
course of about 90 minutes, they routed the Hunters out of the settlement,"
Lieutenant Toudra reported. "That group of Hunters is escaping underwater
down-river -- Everon is built on the Deziel River -- but our group there is
in pursuit. Groups we sent to two other settlements reported even better
results. Denari, a commercial settle--"

Lieutenant Toudra was interrupted by a chime from the computer. The Bolian
had been briefing Admirals Theron and Aldur on the continuing defense of the
area around Churchill Downs from the Hunter and Hound assaults. The three
men were in one of the smaller conference rooms near Brian Aldur's office in
the Ministry of Defense. The computer in the center of the conference table
handled communications as well as Toudra's briefing materials, and Aldur
reached out and stabbed it with one finger.

"Aldur, go ahead," he said, voice somewhat impatient.

"Admiral, there's an incoming transmission, priority, from Pitstop. It's
Captain Renard," the voice of one of the communications techs said. Captain
of Engineering Taylor Renard commanded MRF Pearl, the task group's mobile
repair facility. He was also, ironically, the senior Starfleet officer in
the Pitstop system, new home to the Apori.

"Very well. Put it through, please," Aldur said, nodding a quick apology to
the Bolian Tactical officer, who nodded back. "Taylor, this is Aldur. I've
got Admiral Theron and Lieutenant Toudra with me. What's wrong?"

When Renard's voice came up from the computer's speaker, it was grim.
"Admirals, I'm afraid the latest attempt to communicate with the Apori has
been a complete failure. Ensign Winters is dead, and Lieutenant Talbot--"

"Dead? How?" Theron demanded from his seat.

Lieutenant Arwen Talbot was the latest ambassador to the Apori, the female
half-human, half-Betazoid Counselor from U.S.S. Odyssey. Ensign Jonathan
Winters had been her assistant, a full Betazoid. Every kind of telepath
sent to the Apori to date could generally pick up bits and pieces of the
Apori communications, but nothing definite enough for meaningful exchange of
information. The universal translator generally produced only gibberish (in
English at least, but still gibberish) unless the message from the Apori was
simple, direct, and repeated many times. The Apori were turning out to be
nearly impossible to find some common basis of understanding with. They
were also rabidly emotional. The single Vulcan that President Darine
n'Chamba of Reorsa had ordered sent -- Commander t'Lara's daughter,
t'Norah -- had managed to gain the most useful information to date. T'Norah
had reported that the Apori definitely did not have the same sense of time
that other species did, but had been unable to explain further and had burst
into tears soon afterwards. It had taken the woman two days to reestablish
her basic emotional barriers. n'Chamba had been reluctant to send her back,
and Aldur and Theron had sent Talbot and Winters as yet another possibility.

"We're still not entirely sure, Admiral," Renard was saying. "All I have to
go on right now is Lieutenant Talbot's report, and that is frankly
unreliable. We're not sure what the Apori did to her, but whatever it was
destroyed her telepathic abilities. Lieutenant Talbot is now about as
psi-aware as I am, maybe less," the man continued, voice still grim. Aldur
and Theron exchanged a look, and Toudra nearly dropped his PADD. "Based on
her report, I'd say that the Apori got frustrated that Talbot couldn't read
them, and kept increasing the strength of what they were sending until it...
overloaded her," Renard said, then finished: "The last burst crippled
Talbot's psi awareness and all but wiped out Winters' mind. He was dead
within a few minutes. There was nothing we could do, even with U.S.S.
Schweitzer right there."

Theron slammed his fist against the table. "Damn it! This is getting us
nowhere!" he said. Aldur laid a restraining hand on the younger man's arm.
Aldur assumed that Theron still thought of the Apori as little better than
scavengers. Aldur was taking a somewhat longer view: anyone who could
produce ships and weapons that were a credible threat to the enormous Pfhor
destroyers was worth having as an ally. And though Aldur wouldn't verbalize
it, even to himself, he privately thought they were worth having as an ally
virtually no matter the cost. The task group and their allies' chances of
stopping the Pfhor if the Hegemony launched a full invasion of Reor space
was nil without help from the Apori.

"Charlie, calm down. We'll try again," Aldur said, voice slow and calm.
"We'll send--"

"That won't work, I'm afraid," a new voice said behind Aldur. The
communications with Pitstop terminted with a chirp from the computer. Aldur
suddenly found that he had leaned forward and pushed the button to end them
himself, although he couldn't remember doing so or even why he had done it.

He spun in his chair to find that Lieutenant Toudra was gone, replaced by a
tall, gangly four-armed hominid with a hairless, elongated head. The
hominid was dressed in little better than rags and a slightly arrogant
half-smile. Aldur frowned in recognition. Theron stood up. "Who are--"
the Reorsan Admiral started to ask, then looked at the Taeren intruder
again.

"Jia Ron..." Aldur started to say, then stopped, frowning again.

"Drull," the Taer said with an amused expression -- the Taer's standard
facial expression, actually. "Jia Ron Drull. Very good, Admiral,
especially considering you have only heard descriptions of me, but seen no
images," he said. Theron nodded, recognizing the name, and sat down slowly.

Aldur also nodded. "You are very much as my officers described you," he
said, then cleared his throat, matching the Taer's jocular tone. "I
apologize for not remembering your full name. Where is Lieutenant Toudra?"
he asked.

Jia Ron Drull smiled more broadly. "And you are every bit as impressive as
your officers think of you, Admiral," the Taeren said, then looked at Aldur
appraisingly, "although not nearly as tall, for some reason. I apologize
for impersonating the Lieutenant -- I assure you he is fine. Sleeping at
the moment, as a matter of fact. I wanted to meet both of you... to offer
my services, in fact." The Taeren seemed to relax a bit, then continued in
a more businesslike tone. "It is quite unlikely that you will be able to
communicate with the Apori, Admirals," he said. "Their mindset is far too
different from yours. I myself have been... well, you could call it
'listening in on them' for several weeks and have only recently been able to
start to talk to them." For a fraction of a second, the Taeren looked
vaugely guilty -- the expression looked wrong on the Taeren's long face.
"It is... perhaps... even my fault that your two officers were injured. At
the time of their... injury, the Apori were in fact angry that they could
not communicate with their species as easily as I."

Aldur nodded slowly and glanced at Theron. The younger man seemed to be
content to let Aldur take the lead, so Brian did, leaning forward. "I see.
And if you are... offering your services, I will be happy to accept, of
course," he said. "However, I would be curious about first, why, and
second, what you might want in return."

The Taeren threw his head back and laughed, a surprisingly human-looking
gesture. "Very good, Admiral!" he said, when he was done laughing. "What I
want from you, indeed." The Taer was obviously highly amused by the very
idea. "I assure you there is nothing I... want, even if there was something
you could offer," he said, that infuriating amused look back.

"Then why?" Theron demanded.

Jia Ron Drull shrugged, again, a very human-like gesture. "You -- and the
Apori -- are far more interesting than the Pfhor and their allies," he said
simply. For the next fifty minutes, Aldur and Theron were completely
incommunicado courtesy of Jia Ron Drull and were therefore not a factor in
dealing with the starbase-sized vessel that folded into the Reor system.
That left Fleet Captain Tebrun Lora Kor, still on the surface, as the senior
Starfleet officer in the system.

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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: Ens. 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: Maj. Thomas Wayne (Masters)
Wing Leader: 1Lt. Craig Serrold (Aggie)
Wing Leader: 2Lt. Andrew Stylus (JadeFalcon)
Chief Engineer: LCdr. Zunite Oswald (Sonya)
Assistant Engineer: Lt. Jack C. Farley (CCC)
Assistant Engineer: Lt. Aramis Skylooker (Skylooker)
Chief Medical Officer: Lt. JG Jason Thompson (Thompson)

On Extended Leave of Absense:
None!

Positions Available:
Assistant Medical Officer

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