Captain’s Log – March 26^th 2157 – The Memento Mori is currently en route to Echo 14 to investigate the sudden loss of subspace communication in the area. My Science Officer believes it may be an ion storm but I’m not taking any chances. I’ve ordered all personnel to their combat stations and our defenses systems are fully charged. I’m hoping however it’s just a simple malfunction.

#

The Mori dropped out of warp at the perimeter of the Beta Eridani system, a relatively barren system which made it perfect for an Echo Station–little interference. Rising from his chair, William took a few steps forward and looked towards Maria, “Bring Echo 14 up on screen.” The view screen switched from an image of the systems Star, to the small cylindrical subspace amplifier spinning powerless several dozen kilometers away. “Readings?”

“I’m reading no power from the station Sir,” Maria replied as she brought up a more intensive scan. “There appears to be no damage to the unit, it just appears to have gone offline. There’s no residual Ion radiation, and the electromagnetic signature has faded. There is, however, a small cylinder attached to the lower portion of the amplifier.”

“Bring it up.” The view switched to a small meter long cylinder tucked under the amplifier. “Magnify, I want a good look at it.” The metallic casing came up, its surface dotted by occasional writing in a script William felt was familiar. “I’ve seen something like that before. Ensign have you any idea what that is?”

Fairweather brought up a more enhanced version of the image on her console and looked it over. “It appears to be a variation on the Vulcan language sir, but not one I’ve seen before. The word roots don’t match up to anything we have in the database I can’t tell you what it is.”

William signed slightly, “Any peculiar readings?”

Maria shook her head, “Nothing sir, its casing appears to be designed to prevent scanning.”

“Ok then, back us away slowly Ensign I don’t wanna take any chances. We’ll destroy the unit from a safe distance then replace it.” The captain moved back to his seat and leaned back, “Engage.” The ships impulse engines flared to life. It began creeping away from the amplifier before an alarm klaxon blared through the bridge of the ship.

“Sensors have detected a fusion reaction!”

“Hull plating to maximum!” The screen was engulfed in a white light overloading the visual system before it could compensate and polarize the view screen. The Mori rocked, as the ship suddenly listed to the port. Power relays overloaded as sparks and smoke filled the bridge!

“Report!”

“Damage on all decks, hull plating at thirty-two percent, long range sensors offline port phase cannon offline, we have hull breaches…”

Lieutenant Commander Fairholm interrupted the status report, “Sensor Silhouette! I have a target lock!”

“Fire at will!” Three photonic torpedoes shot out from the ships forward torpedo launcher. The three antimatter warheads arced through space traveling at some invisible target. The second torpedo collided with something, the antimatter detonation washing over an unseen surface as the third torpedo hit home. Space rippled, as a ship with sweeping wings, clad in green and feather like designs faded into view, its starboard wing heavily damaged, a hole punched clean through.

Through of the haze of the smoke and the static of the view screen William recognized the ships design from the Enterprise’s reports, it was a Romulan Bird-of-Prey. Venting atmosphere and what seemed to be drive plasma the ship began to limp away. “Like hell, Ensign pursuit course best speed! Target that ship and fire!”

“Sir! Torpedo launchers are out. That last volley depleted the reserve power to the system, no more power is getting to the launchers. Port cannon still offline, pulse phase cannons at seventy-five percent.”

“It’ll have to do, fire at will. Damage control to forward torpedo launcher, it’s a priority.” The NV class cruiser crept forward at half impulse in pursuit of the damaged Romulan vessel. As red bursts of energy shot forth from the Mori’s cannons green lances of energy racked across the ships hull as the Bird-of-Prey returned fire. Rocking under the power of the enemy’s weapons William ordered the Starboard cannon to fire on the ships engines. The fiery red lance pierced through the green crafts hull burning away at manifolds and conduits.

The Romulan ship listed, her engines flared and went dark and the Starfleet ship bypassed her in a wide arc, bringing her aft weapons to bare. “Aft cannon Fire!” Two more volleys, crimson beams slicing across the green crafts hull. Something of importance got hit, or the crew on board knew they were done for and decided not to be captured. A second bright flash filled the void of the Beta Eridani system, the explosions shockwave washing over the Memento Mori but causing no damage.

“Damage report.” William said leaning into his chair and breathing a sigh of relief.

“Minor damage to all decks, significant damage to C and D decks. Hull breach on D deck, shuttle bay. Hull Plating at twelve percent. Multiple injuries reported, no casualties.”

“Any other ships?”

“None Sir, but they could easily be hiding.”

“No, I think if there was another they’d have attacked by now. We’re pretty much sitting targets. No there was only one.”  William rubbed his side, bruised from the rocking of the ship. “Takes back towards where Echo-14 was and deploy a new unit. We need to inform starfleet that the Romulans have changed the rules of engagement. They’re now getting involved directly.”

March 26^th, 2157

William leaned against the chair in his ready room, enjoying his second cup of coffee of the morning. “Captain McRea.” William’s eyes opened at the sound of the comm. “You have a priority one message from Admiral Cayson.” Sitting up William pressed the comm button, “Patch it through.” Putting his coffee down he turned and faced the console as the Admiral’s image appeared on the screen, “Admiral Cayson, sir.”

“Captain Mcrea,” Admiral Cayson aknowledged. The admiral was not an officer that William had any prior dealings with; the Captain honestly didn’t know what to expect. “Anything interesting going on in your sector besides the obvious war?“

It was not a question that McRea had expected. “Well sir, we’ve been following, and have been followed by a sensor shadow since we reported from the Epsilon Eridani system. Other then that sir, there hasn’t been any signs of telecapture activity in the area.”

“Good. Intelligence suggests the Romulans are bringing in those Birds of Prey the Enterprise ran into two years back.”

William had heard of the Birds of Prey. Ships with sweeping, bird-like designs, capable of becoming invisible. William had actually suspected the sensor shadow they had encountered might have been one.

“Mcrea, I have a favor to ask. I need you to play spotter for the Phoenix.” Admiral Cayson added, changing the subject.

“Spotter sir?” Williams asked, rhetorically. “Frankly sir, I’d be all for it. We’re not really doing much good running around in circles out here between Earth and Andoria.”

“Good. I will transmit the location to you. Your fleet commander will be Captain Iliana Rya. I can’t be in contact with the fleet after it’s launched so orders will come from her.“

“Very good sir,” William plugged his pad into the console to store the coordinates of the main computer. “Standing by to receive coordinates.”

“Transmitting,” the admiral said. As the coordinates began to come through, the admirals image flickered and the audio started to cut out. “Codes through but,” the transmission cut out was replaced by static on the screen. “Damn!,” William exclaimed, his shout echoing through the room. Rising from his chair the Captain moved through the door onto the bridge. “Birnberg, why did I just lose communication with the Admiral?”

Maria looked up from her consoles and brushed her black hair from her eyes, “We lost contact with Echo 14 sir.” She looked over at the comm station where Ensign Fairweather, a former student of the Enterprise‘s Hoshi Sato, stood. “Last readings from Echo 14 included its sensors picking up a large amount of electromagnetic energy before it cut out,” Fairweather said.

“Perhaps an Ion storm sir.” Birnberg speculated.

“Perhaps. Set a course for Echo 14–maximum warp. Bring hull plating online, I don’t want to take any chances.” The Memento Mori‘s engines flaired to life as she arced through space before streaking off into warp.

All Alone In The Dark

Captains Log – March 18^th, 2157 – Captain William McRea reporting: It has been exactly two months since the Memento Mori left the Sol System with her refit, and more then a year since the Romulan war officially began. To this point, the Memento Mori has remained around Earth due to the limitations of her systems. But now with a warp five engine and a vast array of weapons, we’ve finally been assigned to the front lines. Not that “front lines” is a very detailed term in this war. With the use of the Romulan’s damned telecapture devices, any ship could be an enemy combatant. With that in mind, Starfleet has ordered the Memento Mori out into the space lanes to keep an eye out for any potential telecapture victims, and to deal with them accordingly. We are currently responding to reported telecapture activity in the Epsilon Eridani system, along the established Andorian trade route.

#

The Memento Mori was not at warp as one might expect for a ship on patrol. Instead it was moving at one quarter impulse, creeping through an asteroid field. Ensign Mary McNeill, the Memento Mori’s pilot, used her masterful hands to guide the ship around one particularly massive planetoid before the finally coming to a a standstill between two slowly rotating, potato shaped asteroids. As the rest of the bridge crew released their collectively held breaths, the young Ensign kept her hands on the thruster controls–just in case.

“Good work Ensign,” Captain McRea said as he got up and patted the helmsman on the shoulder. “Keep us between these two asteroids for now, I don’t want anything sneaking up on us.” The captain looked over towards his science station, “Status?”

Lieutenant Commander Maria Birnberg looked down at her console readouts for a last minute check before addressing the captain’s question. “Hull plating is at ninety-nine percent. We took a minor scrape from one of the smaller asteroids to the port nacelle–no damage. Weapons are still on standby and power levels are still well within silent running levels.”

“And our shadow?”

“Since the last sensor ping, forty-five minutes ago, scans have not detected the signature. We appear, however, to be experiencing interference from the asteroid belt. There is a large concentration of radiolytic compounds which has been affecting our sensors since we entered the field. I’ll attempt to compensate.”

“Do your best. Status on weapons?”

Lt. Commander Fairholm looked up from his console, “Phase cannons and pulse cannons charged. Torpedo tubes loaded and ready. All we need is a target, sir.”
   

“Let’s hope I don’t have to give you one, commander,” William said, taking a deep breath and sitting back down in his chair. They’d been playing hide-and-seek with an unconfirmed sensor shadow for the past hour and a half and they hadn’t lost track of the damn thing until they entered the asteroid belt, forty-five minutes earlier, to try and root it out. Now it was a waiting game, which was not something that McRea was keen on playing, but he would nonetheless.
   

The Romulans had been trying to drive a wedge between Earth and its allies ever since the war began. Their use of the telecapture devices had made distinguishing friend from foe difficult. In the first days of the war, the Romulans used a group of Klingon ships to attack the Vulcans, and since then, a variety of different ships had been used to attack the Andorians, and other targets of the Alliance. That was why the Memento Mori was out in the Andorian trade route, to protect Andorian and Earth ships traveling the trade route between the two worlds.
And now they were playing hide-and-go-seek with something, which was not what they needed to be doing. “Birnberg?”
   

“I’m still getting minor interference sir,” Birnberg replied, her hands moving across the console. “I have, however, managed to cut it down significantly. There is a residual ion trail leading up to the asteroid field where we entered; it drifts as though it waited for a while, then it moves off away from the system.”
  

“Can you tell what kind of ship left the trail?”
   

“I’m afraid not sir. The radiolytic field has caused the trail to decay significantly faster than normal. It’s barely registering as it is.”

McRea sighed and leaned back in his chair, “Alright. Ensign keep us here for another half-hour, then move us out and return us to our patrol route. I’ll be in my ready room. Birnberg, you have the bridge.”

#

William sat at his desk, staring at the picture of the Memento Mori as it sat on his wall. Memento Mori–remember your mortality–it was an interesting name for a warship. It was the crews of the warships who were always faced with the possibility of a short lived life. He and his crew knew well their potential fate, but like most humans they were too stubborn or self righteous to do anything but put on a show of force. The bitter truth was Starfleet had so few ships right now that if they were to encounter an enemy force, they would be on their own–all alone in the dark.

Greetings dreamer. I invite you to experience a world like no other. A world of dreams, majesty, beauty and the mysterious unknown. Welcome to the world of dreams, the world of The Black Domed Sky, where our stories will take place. Mark Hardigan, author and dreamweaver, will lead you through your experience. For one year, 365 days, one post will be made adding to the current chapter of the story, influenced by your comments and suggestions. So come, dear reader, to the world of dreams, the world of imagination, the world of The Black Domed Sky.

As requested, moar school iconz.

Two more icons for Kecen, one of the members of the YV Club over in the EUC. Both are of Zenoc Quah, and is rather memorable toothy grin.

1. 2.

Got two batches of Icons today! Icons are Yuuzhan Vong or Yuuzhan Vong related (coming from subject mediarevolving primarily around them i.e. Star Wars: Invasion).

Batch 1: For Kecen

1. 2. 3. 4.

Batch 2: For Blue-But-Beautiful

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Continuing my quest to get some non TCW icons (I like the show, but we needs less Anakin and Ahsoka!) here’s some Icons from the Japanese cover of Enemy Lines II – Rebel Stand. This is the first of a series of Icons made from Images suggested to me by Blue-But-Beautiful.

In order from left to right, top to bottom

1. Wedge

2. Tsavong Lah

3. Mara

4. Lusankya

5. Luke

6. Leia

7. Han

8. Garik Loran

9. Millennium Falcon

10. Cityscape

DUN DUN DUUUUNNNN….

So, made a promise to NYCitygurl to do the march madness Icons. well here they are… sans the schools who’s logos I did for football some months ago.