Posted May 24, 2019, 1:54 a.m. by Gamemaster Delta Wolfe (Senior Gamemaster) (Andrew Robinson)
A solitary comet, alone and unconcerned, burned through the cosmos, on an eternal course to its inevitable death. The light of a nearby star struck the framework superstructure of what would, one day, be the Event Horizon Station. Still barely begun more than four months after the first units were transporter welded into place, the Starfleet Corp of Engineers had learned the folly of using traditional construction and transport methods when a wormhole was the primary source of that transportation. All that was currently habitable was the central core of the station, surrounded by a spiders web of pylons, walkways and crawlspaces. A selection of workbee craft and several hundred engineers in zero-g suits moved across the superstructure like a hive of ants. Nearby hung the silvered bulk of the Chisca Bay, hanging motionless near the station, an old guard dog at rest. Manoeuvring through the system in a patrol grid, invisible at such distance from the station, was the Avenger class Vigilante, the snub-nosed little powerhouse tasked with perimeter duty.
Hidden behind the skeletal mass of the station was the imposing bulk of the Manhattan, docked with the central command pod of the incomplete station. Off to the side, barely visible next to the massively larger craft was the smaller pistol-shaped Kazon craft that had carried their trade delegation. It was odd to think of the Kazon as anything other than brutal thugs, particularly given Voyagers encounters early on in their travels, but with the Delta Quadrant wormhole opening barely 300 light years from where the Caretakers array had been, it would be unthinkable to not develop some sort of diplomatic relations with a troublesome, if primitive, race that had been so intent on acquiring Federation technology at all costs.
The mouth of the wormhole burst into view as a group of larger runabouts tractored out a tightly wedged pack of pre-fabricated docking strut superstructures. Starfleet Engineering had originally tried bringing entire sections of the station pre-constructed through the wormhole, but the gravimetric shearing forces inside the wormhole had made that an insurmountable goal. Without the ability to generate massive warp shells to protect the fragile pods, they were torn apart upon exiting. With the current system, they could fabricate smaller sections on the other side which could be held together by tractor beams from multiple craft. It was significantly slower work but had prevented any further accidents.
As the Runabouts separated their beams, breaking the structure into smaller components, and made their initial run to bring the struts into place, alert systems on every vessel sprang into life, science and remote sensing stations on every ship and in the command pod of the Event Horizon bursting into life with beeps and alarm tones as they registered heavy concentrations of electromagnetic energy, neutron and proton scatter, as well as increase pressure on the native neutrino fields… Someone was scanning the area… With powerful equipment…
SGM
© 1991-2024 STF. Terms of Service
Version 1.15.11
RSS Feed