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 240112.10 ]-

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Captain Tebrun Lora Kor looked at the sphere, amused. Vice Admiral Brian
Aldur looked a good deal more skeptical. Both officers stood near a
gathering of others, Coronado's senior engineers and Lt. Commander Drexler
among them. The gathering was being held in one of the hangars in the
spaceport outside Churchill Downs, where a standard-size replicator had been
set up for the creation of small repair parts and tools used in the hangar.
About a meter wide and two meters high, it had a slot suitable for those
products, or for a tray of food just above waist level.

This replicator, however, had been modified to include the equations sold to
Captain Lora Kor by the Ventu.

Emerging from the replicator slot was more than three-quarters of a
translucent sphere about a half-meter in diameter and apparently made of
thin crystal. While Lora Kor walked over and tapped the sphere
experimentally, Aldur turned to Lt. Commander Zunite Oswald. Behind Oswald
was her engineering team. Behind everyone, Drexler leaned against the wall,
relaxing and apparently waiting for something.

"That's it?" he asked the young engineer, his feelings apparent in his
voice. One suppressed hand motion made those feelings even clearer.

"Well... if you mean, is everything made with this replicator made from that
material... yes, Admiral," she said, then when Aldur's face started to
darken, hurried on, "but you can make anything you like from it. Including
at least one useful object. Watch," she said. "Captain," she said to Lora
Kor, "you might want to step back."

Lora Kor, who had been running one fingertip along the sphere's surface,
nodded to Oswald and stepped away, approaching Aldur. "The surface is odd,
Admiral. Feels almost... frictionless," he said. Neither man noticed
Lieutenant Farley nod at the Captain's comment.

Aldur turned his annoyed look on the Trill Captain. "Tebrun, you really
should know better than this," he said. "The Ventu ship folded out the
second we paid them, and I can't believe we'll see them again. Wanting to
make allies is all well and good, but an invitation to talk should have been
extended..."

Lora Kor stood his ground. "Admiral, I extended such an invitation, and the
Ventu rejected it," he said. "You heard the transmission yourself: 'We
cannot visit the homes of Bound persons,'" he said. "Either they're
physically unable, or perhaps there's a religious interdiction at work. But
I think we'll see them again."

Aldur nearly snorted. "Of course... when they have some other useless
trinket to sell us," he said. Aldur turned to Farley as Oswald reconfigured
the replicator. "Lieutenant, why can't the sphere be removed from the
replicator?" he asked.

Farley looked up from watching Oswald's work, glanced at the Captain
briefly, and then answered, "Admiral, whatever this material is," he said,
"it needs a constant influx of energy. If we tried to remove the sphere
from the replicator, it would collapse in less than a second."

Lieutenant Skylooker, also watching, nodded. "We can make more portable
objects from this material, but we'll have to mate a smaller replicator to a
small power source," he said. "It's doable -- we have microreplicators for
medical use to make drugs and other liquids... we just need some time to
modify them."

"Ready," Oswald said, straightening, and after making sure everyone was well
clear of the replicator, tapped in the programming change. The sphere
seemed to melt and stretch, and soon a long thin bar, about a meter long,
was projecting from the replicator. Oswald smiled crookedly. "The material
has some interesting qualities, Admiral," she said. "Watch."

Waving over a pair of technicians, she directed the two men to pick up a
piece of hull plating sitting on the deck. Lora Kor recognized the
distinctive sheen of tetroburnium, one of the strongest alloys Federation
science knew how to make. He started to smile when he noticed that the hull
plate was one of many littering the floor -- and all of them were different
sizes. "Frictionless," he murmurred, seeing what was coming.

It was still something to watch, though. The two technicians slowly guided
the plate under the thin apparently crystal bar, then lifted it into the
path of the bar as if the bar were an emormous knife. The replicator didn't
move, nor did the bar... but as the two technicians lifted the hull plate,
the bar cleanly cut the hull plate, again as if it were a crystal knife. A
moment later, the two men were each holding a piece the split hull plating.
Both took a few steps away and let the plates clatter to the deck to join
the others.

Aldur couldn't help it. He blinked. "It'll cut --," he started to say,
then looked at Oswald.

"Anything we've tried so far, Admiral," she confirmed with that small smile.
"I'd love to try it on some neutronium. The Camelynians think it's the
greatest thing since genetic engineering," she said. "They've already
started making swords out of it -- a power source, a medical-duty
microreplicator, and boom, a crystal sword. One of their Dukes told me that
the equations were worth another thousand Spectres to him. He expects to
make a fortune with this material on Camelyn."

Lora Kor glanced at Aldur and chuckled. "I suspect we can find some uses
for a substance like this, even without the Ventu's help or an alliance with
them... don't you, Admiral?"

Aldur nodded slowly, approaching the bar. "What is it?" he asked, careful
not to touch the bar but examining it closely. Lora Kor looked at his
engineering team.

"Well," Skylooker said, starting, "the Ventu call it 'false matter,' but
it's not really matter at all."

Oswald nodded. "It's more like an area -- or almost a zone -- of
nothingness. It doesn't so much cut things as..." She looked at Farley.
"How did you put it?"

"It pushes things aside," Farley said. "I don't think real matter can exist
where 'false matter' does."

At this, Lt. Commander Drexler finally stepped forward. "Captain,
Admiral... now that you know the properties of this false matter, I have a
couple of ideas about how to apply it."

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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

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