~\\_
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`\\\\\ -----------------------------------------
|\\\\\ Starfleet Command, Eighth Fleet (OOC)
\\\\\|__.-~~\
_--~ ~~/ Defenders Task Group 85.3, "Whitestone"
/~ _-~~~' Embarked on U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901
('-//////-// Rear Admiral Tebrun Lora Kor, Commanding
////// }}-) -----------------------------------------
/////~ Simulation Teaser
_///~ Stardate 240309.29
`
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/ Simulation Teaser |
/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
<<The story in this teaser begins with...
http://www.jestertrek.com/coro2400/simtrans/reports/coro417c-t.html
and
http://www.jestertrek.com/coro2400/simtrans/reports/coro505a-t.html
and
http://www.jestertrek.com/coro2400/simtrans/reports/coro513a-t.html
and
http://www.jestertrek.com/coro2400/simtrans/reports/coro605b-t.html
...and will be concluded in one final teaser before the end.
Foreshadowing: a valid literary technique. ;) Enjoy.>>
=/.= June 4, 2431 -- Churchill Downs, Reorsa =/.=
Joe Fisher had ended up telling the tale of much of the Pfhor War in
Reunion Square, and the crowd had broken only reluctantly to allow
the Destiny plankholder and his family to finish their explorations
of the square and its environs.
The day in the square over, the family had boarded one of the many
floaters that were the primary means of travel in Churchill Downs
and Fisher's Landing. The floaters were much as they had been for
more than 75 years, open, roofed vehicles with banks of seats facing
each other in pairs, mounted over an anti-grav platform, placed
behind a closed cockpit driver's cabin. A Braid was doing the
driving, a young one by the look of his few Cords. The Braids had
been driving floaters since time out of mind, and were good at it.
The family was split up across four pairs of seats in the floater
and Joe Fisher ended up in the back pair of seats with his daughter
Lorene and one of her children, Annie, now 12 years old going on 25.
Fisher was content to watch the Bazaar pass on the floater's left as
the vehicle sped toward their hostel on Churchill Downs's
northeastern shore, but his reverie was interrupted by Annie, not
content to chat with her mother.
"Grandpa Joe? Do you remember today when you said that after the
War, the Defenders had to find out what was behind the Tear?" The
old man nodded. "What's the Tear?" she asked.
Lorene exhaled sharply and started to interrupt -- Fisher could
almost hear it begin: "Honey, your grandpa is tired" -- but Joe
Fisher held up one hand. "No, Lorene, it's a good question... and
if she's old enough now to ask it, she's old enough to get an honest
answer."
Lorene started to object again, but Fisher looked at her... just
looked. And Lorene suddenly remembered that Joe Fisher was a
retired Defender starship Captain. This man had cut a swath through
a vast territory of the former Pfhor Hegemony. He had come up
against Drohak warships and come out on top. He'd fought the
Saevoy, negotiated with the Zheda, travelled to the Ildarys home
world. Joe Fisher's judgement was trusted by millions and Lorene
realized that for just a moment, the starship Captain in him had
come out. He was not going to be moved. Biting her lip, Lorene
nodded.
Fisher, meanwhile, had turned back to Annie as if this were a
foregone conclusion. Considering the question thoughtfully for a
few moments, he finally held out the corner hem of his grey jacket
with both hands, then pulled it tight until the fabric stretched out
tightly. The fabric trembled for a moment, then held steady.
"Annie, if I pull this fabric apart hard enough, for long enough,
what would happen?" he asked.
The girl looked from Fisher's face to the straining jacket fabric
for a moment, then looked up. "It would tear?" she said, much more
question than answer.
Fisher nodded. "Yes, it would tear... but how? How would it
happen? Think of it as if it were happening in slow motion. Talk
it out."
Annie's face screwed up in concentration as she thought it over and
Lorene realized she would remember this moment always as a tableau.
The young girl and the old man, seated across from each other on the
floater, the edge of the old man's jacket held taut in his hands,
the scenery going by on both sides of them, unseen. Annie reached
out hesitantly, touched the straining fabric. When she responded,
her voice was initially uncertain, but gained confidence as she
talked it out.
"Fabric is made out of... thread," she said. "Thread. When the
fabric tears, it's really those threads that are breaking..." She
looked up, not really sure of herself, but Fisher nodded,
encouraging Annie to go on. "At first, just a few, then more and
more... and pretty soon, one big rip!" Annie looked pleased with
her deductive reasoning abilities.
Fisher tucked one end of the taut fabric under his arm, bracing it
with his elbow, continuing to hold the other edge with his opposite
hand. "That's very close, Annie, very close indeed..." The girl
beamed. "...but not... exactly right. There's an old saying: a
chain is only as strong as its weakest link. And fabric is just the
same. You won't just get one big rip... you'll get a tiny rip
here... and here... and over here," Fisher said, touching the taut
fabric here and there. "Places where the thread has gotten old and
brittle and breaks more easily."
"And what does that mean, grandpa?"
"Well, Annie, those tiny little broken threads, all over my
jacket... those are like little tears... deja vu, we call that.
That's a tiny tear, maybe only a few hundred meters across, maybe
only a few hundred milliseconds long, where some people will
remember things as if they've already happened."
"And have they? Have they happened before?" Annie asked, a little
dubiously.
"Yes, they have... but only a few hundred milliseconds before,"
Fisher said. "The people that have deja vu during one of those tiny
tears think that the events happened before, but it's like an echo
in their own minds. By the time those tiny time loops have
happened, they're already over. Those are the tiny tears, happening
all the time, mostly harmless in and of themselves, because unlike
my jacket, the universe can repair all those tiny tears."
Annie listened closely, nodding in all the right spots, and Fisher
realized that his granddaughter was older than he realized. It was
definitely past time for this talk. "But then some of those... tiny
tears... get bigger?" Annie asked.
Fisher smiled, and nodded. "Exactly, Annie, you've got it now.
Some of those tiny tears get bigger. Just so. And instead of only
a few people affected for a fraction of a second, maybe a few
hundred people are affected for only a few hours. One starship,
deep in space... or maybe one part of Reorsa," he said, motioning
toward the planet around them with his free hand. Then he drew a
line across the taut fabric. "Those are bigger tears, and those are
more dangerous, because they can't be fixed on their own. And
sometimes, there are even bigger tears, ones that happen for days at
a time, across huge expanses of space. There was a big tear like
that not long after the War that almost everybody remembered. We'll
keep having ones like that, every once in a while, until the Odyssey
succeeds... or fails. Until then, every time a bigger tear happens,
someone has to patch it."
Annie considered this for a few moments and when she spoke again,
her voice was hesitant. "And there's a bigger tear, isn't there.
A giant one?"
Lorene started to open her mouth again, but Fisher silenced her with
a look, then turned back to Annie. His voice was serious, and
Fisher told the young woman the truth. Annie was approaching
adulthood, and had to learn that some truths had to be faced, no
matter how his mother might wish to protect her. Fisher's eyes were
locked on Annie as he answered, the fabric still held taut between
them. "Yes, there is, Annie. The biggest Tear of them all. The
fabric gets pulled tighter and tighter, for longer and longer..."
Suddenly, Lorene was reminded just how strong a man her father was,
because a seam came apart on the edge of the jacket he was holding
and it ripped open with a sound audible across the floater.
Annie looked suitably impressed. "And that's what the Odyssey is
about?"
"That's right, Annie... just so. The Odyssey is out there... and
someday, they'll find the Tear, the big one, and they'll mend it.
And then the little tears and the bigger ones will never come again."
For a long time after this, Annie was quiet, considering his
grandfather's words. When she spoke again, Annie's final question
was one that Captain Joseph Fisher, Defenders Starfleet (Retired)
was damned impressed with. Few full-grown adults, even those born
and bred on Reorsa, thought to ask that final critical question when
faced with these hard facts of life in M64.
\_______________________________________________________________________
\ End Simulation Teaser |
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
Defenders Task Group 85.3, "Whitestone" Staff:
Commanding, TG 85.3: RADM Tebrun Lora Kor (Jester)
S-1, Group Adjutant: Cmdr. Sieven Drexler (Brad)
S-3, Group Logistics: Cmdr. Savant (Savant)
Commanding, M64 Ground: Brig. Jeremy Ironside (Fraser)
U.S.S. Coronado Crew Roster:
Commanding Officer: Capt. William Daren (Chris)
Executive Officer: Cmdr. Velorna Tal (Aggie)
Chief Flight Operations: Lt. Maiko D'Rall (Farrell)
Battalion Commander: Maj. Jacob Prescot (Prescot)
Marine Flight Leader: Maj. Maxwell Deveraux (TylerSmith)
Chief Tactical Officer: Lt. Thirishar ch'Thane (Alffred)
Watch Tactical Officer: Lt. Ariana Marist (Dolin)
Watch Tactical Officer: Ens. Derek Canterbury (Spuzzum)
Chief Engineer: LCdr. Jack C. Farley (CCC)
Assistant Engineer: LCdr. Aramis Skylooker (LewisSharp)
Chief Science Officer: Lt. Anna Brooks (Kari)
Chief Medical Officer: Cmdr. Alec Reed (McC)
Assistant Medical: LCdr. Lauren Dyson (Natty)
On Extended Leave of Absence:
Chief of Operations: Cmdr. Olme Tlaloco (rev)
Positions Available:
S-2, Group Intelligence: (---)
Marine Flight Leader: (---)
Assistant Engineer: (---)
------
Jester
Rear Admiral Tebrun Lora Kor
Commanding, Defenders Task Group 85.3, "Whitestone"
embarked on U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901
http://www.jestertrek.com/coro2400/