Gallus

After running out of fuel and supplies, the passengers of this bus took up piracy. They were less than successful.

Asylum AENG’s Shore Leave Part II It was like a challenge to the death. He may have well challenged this man to Ushaan for the reaction that he received after he heard the allegations. The Vulcan attorney looked as if he would strike Gallus down, inject him with poison and then phase pistol him for good measure, he clearly did not like Romulans, the Andorian would have normally wondered why, but at this point, he was looking at the possibility that he would be prosecuted by the Andorian government once this was over. There would be a heavy cost for any acts of espionage they convicted him of, there was no escaping it. Hopefully Tomov was some sort of legal genius. He’d better be, for the credits he was charging. On the way to his office during the recess between sessions of court, the Vulcan finally broke the silence. “I must ask you to be entirely truthful with me, are you a Romulan spy?” Gallus couldn’t fault the man for his question, it was at least direct, somewhat respectful, it made the Andorian feel as if the Vulcan’s mind was receptive to the truth. A rare thing. “No more than you are, this is a false allegation, I think that my government wishes to prevent me from pursuing a life beyond the Central Command, although I cannot see the objective just yet, it makes no sense to me.” “I am supposed to take your word for it then?” The Andorian bristled at this comment, he didn’t like being accused of lying. “I thought you Vulcans were supposed to be about logic. What logic would there be in lying to you when I depend upon you ability to extricate me from this precarious situation?” “What logic would there be in admitting guilt?” He shook his head, “No, I suppose there is nothing to be done but formulate a defense for this charge. From what I have seen of his evidence, it appears that he has a solid case for espionage, these communications will be difficult to refute, there are fifty-nine separate transmissions in this database.” Gallus looked at the padd in front of him, accessing the logs one by one, he noticed something was off about them, “It seems as though the person who sent these messages used a triaxilating frequency modulation. The frequencies, amplitudes and offsets of each individual data pulse was altered, the only way that a protocol like this would work is if the other side had a way to discriminate which pulses were noise and which were signal. How would the Andorian government have access to the Romulan algorithms that they’d need to do that? Without a prearranged formula or sequence from the person sending the information, it is supposed to be impossible to tell if there is a message, and if it is by whatever chance that they do detect a message, there is no way that they can find the source or snag any significant part of the data.” “I have no idea what you are talking about, but what if you are saying is true then how can they have these?” This was probably the first time that he had heard a Vulcan admit ignorance, this did not bode well. “They are either fabricated or the espionage is being conducted for the Andorians, the alternative to those is that the spy sent the message via government computers and transmitters, but no one is that much of an idiot.” The look on the Vulcan’s face indicated that his lawyer was indeed that much of an idiot. At least he understood that this meant he might that he might win for once. “Is there any way to disprove the account logged by your communications officer, T’Parek?” That pointy-eared seductress, his stalks curled with repressed fury, ”No, that incident actually occurred, the best that I can give you is the contents of the message, if our resident Vulcan backs up her data like she is supposed to, otherwise, she can explain the misunderstanding, it was a letter to my family.” “Are the comments and complaints lodged by your chief of security based on ‘fact’, and if so can we disprove said ‘facts’?” More anger at the fools that he works with, how could that evil cat-thing-slave lodge official complaints?! What had he done?! NOTHING! He balled his fists and considered finding a bladed weapon so he could start hunting down the Caitian in return for her efforts to sabotage him. “Our chief of security is a housecat that hates me, I’ m sure that she hasn’t found any such ‘facts’ as there are none to find, cats evidently have problems dealing with emotions.” “And finally, their most serious charge, the theft of data from the University computers, was this also a fabrication? I would be fascinated to hear your explanation.” Well, that was downright hostile. “That actually happened.” “Indeed, the evidence points to that conclusion, evidently your terminal aboard Challenger transmitted an id sequence when you opened the subspace link.” “There were mitigating circumstances! I can’t be expected to program gigaquads of data from memory in order to allow a starship to pass through a fold in subspace without shields. I was working against a deadline, my only other alternative would have been to duct tape the windows and hope for the best.” A look of bewilderment crossed the Vulcan’s face. He quickly recovered. “It is possible that the board will consider the theft of the data enough to disqualify you from continuing with Starfleet, it is also possible that they will take the circumstances surrounding this action into account when making their final decision. Tomorrow the hearing will continue, it is likely that some your crewmates will be called to testify. If the board decides that you are innocent, they will send you their determination on the matter of asylum soon afterwards. Now go to your ship, we have nothing more to discuss.” There was no reason to argue, Gallus was hungry. He walked towards the shuttle port that was situated near the lawyer's office. San Francisco was as hot as ever, but at least the sun was beginning to go down. The Andorian contemplated taking a shuttle to Antarctica, but decided against it, he would be happy just to get off this verdant sphere. About halfway there he felt something odd, it took him a moment to realize that someone had grabbed him and covered his mouth, it was not nice to do someone still dealing with the aftereffects of two days solid drinking, but did this rude person read the book on etiquette? Most decidedly not. “Don’t struggle, just listen.”

Its Not Easy Being Blue AENG's Shore Leave Part I It wasn’t strong, not as strong as any Orion beverage, nor as strong as Andorian ale, not even close to the Klingon's Blood wine. It did however have the virtue of being readily available in massive quantities, perhaps it was this that allowed the brandy, the finest in the world as the barkeep informed him, to do it's job. And it did, oh, it did, His family may have disowned him, refused to speak with him, but that was nothing compared to the bliss that unconsciousness brought upon his weary frame, unfortunate that he had to wake up. More unfortunate still that he no longer had any of his belongings. No doubt his scanner and communicator would fetch a nice price. At least he was back aboard Challenger, it was pleasantly cool and crisp in his cabin, no doubt he had found the time to tamper with the environmental systems in his drunken stupor. How he managed to get back aboard the ship was beyond his comprehension, at least for the moment. The disorientation subsided somewhat, his stomach ached, as did his head, alcohol was never his intoxicant of choice, engineering was his craft and he'd be damned if he didn’t enjoy it. Noticing his thoughts were starting to wander, he focused on ascertaining his current condition. Pain in his head and stomach indicative of a hangover, but the pain in his stalks was different, he doubted it would go away anytime soon, it was the same pain he had felt back on Earth, when he realized that he could never go back, when his father had severed the commlink that he had achieved with some degree of difficulty. It was irritating that he must feel, but that’s what separated Andorians from Vulcans and he knew what side of the scale he preferred, albeit ironically considering they rejected him. His hearing would be today. The hearing that would decide if the Humans would allow him to continue serving on Challenger. He hoped that he would be allowed to stay aboard, if only to be a thorn in the paw of that overgrown kitten. If only to have a place to call home. He got off the bunk, warily, in case the force of gravity conspired to bring him down to the deck. Fortunate that he managed to make it to the bathroom, frost had formed on the mirror and indeed on almost every surface, it was a pleasant feeling, almost like coming home again. He would have to see about making this change to his quarters a permanent one, if they would still be his after this hearing. He was still in his uniform, creased and torn, probably some sort of struggle, one that he could not recall. By the time he emerged from the bathroom, he was relatively awake, in a new uniform, and wondering where the crewman that he shared his quarters with had gone, how late was it? The room's terminal showed it was 0950, not too late. but he would have to hurry, the tribunal would convene to decide upon his request for asylum at 1100. He could catch breakfast if he didn’t mind scattering his atoms across the orbital space between here and San Francisco. He was hopeful that his hunger would not cost him his life, but such things rarely happened anymore... or so he was told, 'The transporter has been perfected,' go the assurances of the pink skins. The galley was surprisingly empty; clearly most of the crew that was on shore leave were still down on Earth. Choosing some eggs, toast and coffee, he started reviewing the complex legal issues that would be at the fore when they would evaluate his request for asylum. After the second sentence of the law regarding the acceptance of such requests, he shut off the padd. After finishing his meal, he disposed of his plate, cup and padd in the reclamator. When he got to the transporter, the crewman on duty was only glad to beam him down. San Francisco was hot. He was just a short walk away from Starfleet Headquarters, a complex of buildings ranging from almost a century old to ones that were practically brand new. His objective was a relatively small five story structure that housed the Advocate General's office and the courtroom that his hearing would be held in. He was a few minutes early, but his lawyer was not outside the room yet. He had never seen this lawyer before, but they had communicated via subspace before his arrival on Earth, he seemed very... proper. Extremely so, probably a useful trait when in his profession. "Mr. Th'Gos." From behind him came the gravelly voice he recognized from the last few days. He turned around to find an aging Vulcan in the most contemporary outfit he had ever seen a Vulcan of his age wear, a dramatic departure from the robes that you see all too often. But of course, the Andorian, having never seen his advocate was quite shocked that his representation was in fact a member of a race which ostensibly despised Andorians. He hoped that this wasn’t that security cat's way of getting back at him for all the slave-cat comments. "Ah, I have looked forward to meeting you in person, Tomov, subspace communication can be somewhat... impersonal." "Indeed. I must ask you if there have been any new developments in your case since our last communication four days ago." The Vulcan's tone was as icy as T'Parek's, leading the Andorian to wonder if it was just her in a mask. He resisted the urge to pull off his face. "There have been none." "Then it is important that you respond to the board's questions directly, do not say more than you need to and don’t speak out of turn." He had little doubt that breaking the Vulcan's jaw would result in his request for asylum to be denied, but that didn’t stop him from imagining it. "Understood." The group of officers that were to listen to his case entered the corridor, followed by the Earth representative that would try to prevent him citizenship and a commission in Starfleet. The six of them entered the courtroom. Gallus had little doubt that the three officers were against him, and that the opposing attorney was skilled, the only doubt in his mind was how this Vulcan would perform. Ironic. They all sat down at their respective places, the hearing officers at a raised table on the far side of the door and the two parties at separate tables on the other side of the room. There was a chair in the center of the room, it looked comfortable, but it was probably for executions, he had heard rumors amongst his crewmates of the existence of an 'electric chair' with which humans killed their prisoners. The officer in the center of the raised table stood, "We convene this hearing today to determine whether or not to allow Galluskek Th'Gos asylum on Earth from Andor and also if he should be allowed to continue serving aboard the starship Challenger, NX-05. The rulings of this court shall be preliminary in nature, this hearing is to be considered a prelude to a an expanded inquiry into the matter, as the subject is of great importance to interstellar relations. We will begin with a statement from the esteemed Tomov, representing Th'Gos." With an air of dignity, the Vulcan stood, "This hearing is convened in order to discuss my client's eligibility for asylum from Andor. According to the statutes concerning the acceptance of such requests, he has met all the conditions, he is currently serving aboard an Earth starship, he has not broken any law nor been accused of any crime, and he is not afflicted by any disease which would be considered grounds for dismissal of this request, as attested to by the physical examination of one Dr. Marlin upon the assumption of his post aboard the starship Challenger. The conclusion that this evidence supports is that Mr. Th'Gos is a candidate for citizenship and should be allowed to continue serving aboard Challenger." He sat down, finished. The other lawyer was next, "My colleague would have you believe that Galluskek Th'Gos is harmless, that he would just be another person seeking refuge from an arbitrary decision made by his government and while it may be true that he is technically eligible for citizenship, I submit that the circumstances surrounding his expulsion from his home planet must be taken into consideration, especially in these times of political tumult. His government contends that his own actions forced their hand in this matter and we believe that they invalidate his claim to citizenship." It was very unsettling being able to do nothing but watch as two parties fight over your future. More unsettling still that the opposition is using broad claims of treason and treachery against you. Opening statements are evil. "This court would be very interested in hearing these charges you say have been leveled by the Andorian government, you may proceed with those, Mr. Bates." He stood, this 'Bates,' the opposition's name was ugly, guttural, thoroughly displeasing. "The Andorian Central Command forwarded documents pertinent to this case at our request, together with logs made by the Challenger crew, they support the conclusion that Th'Gos was conducting espionage while aboard Challenger. But moreover, that this information was not going to the Andorians, but rather a third party, our information clearly indicates that Th'Gos is a Romulan spy!" At the mention of Romulans the entire courtroom reacted with some surprise, Andorian inclusive. After a brief pause the commander on the left of the presiding officer spoke. "You said you had evidence supporting this accusation?" That evil Bates raised a padd, " I hold in my had a list of covert communiqués sent to me by the Andorian Central Command, the contents of which are encrypted, but the few that we have been able to decrypt are in some sort of code, although they seem to refer to installations on Andorian worlds, and deployments of Andorian forces. Furthermore, the communications officer on Challenger reported the unauthorized use of their subspace transmitter by Th'Gos and logged that he sent, and I quote, 'an encrypted message of a suspicious nature.' She later recommended that he be removed from the ship citing him as a security risk, an assessment that the current chief of security aboard Challenger agrees with, she recently informed the Captain of that vessel of her belief that he was security risk during a staff meeting, calling him untrustworthy and irritating on more than one occasion. And, most recently, the University of Andor's servers were broken into and several gigaquads of data were uploaded before the connection was terminated, the origin of that signal was Challenger's Engineering section, the origin of that signal was Th'Gos' console!" Tomov stood, "I object, this information was not presented to us in a timely manner, and should be inadmissible in this court." The board deliberated for a few seconds, "Considering the importance of the evidence presented and the sheer weight of such an accusation, we are forced to allow it, if Mr. Th'Gos is a Romulan spy it would not be in our best interest to allow him access to one of our most technologically advanced and strategically important starships. However, we cannot deny that the evidence was not presented in accordance to the law, we will allow one day for the court and you, Mr. Tomov, to review it in depth. This course is in recess until tomorrow. We will resume at 1200 hours." The three officers silently left the room, followed by that tyrant Bates. The Vulcan turned to Gallus. "It appears we have much to discuss."

Tag, you're it.

My new laptop has Vista Ultimate (curses!!!) and with that dreamscapes extra that they so gallantly provided (the only reason I havent downgraded) I made an eight second looping clip of M-5 thinking, my laptop is named M1 though, seeing as Vista is a total failure, something about the engrams of a canankerous 70-year old didnt make for a good OS...

Eagle 2: So, whats for breakfast? :looks around: Remaining Eagles: You.

On the contrary, my last one made a huge crash... it was incidentally shattered in the very same incident. In any case, back to the laptops, I must confess, even with all of my lenovo-love I think that any new non celeron works excellently, as long as it has XP on it. Get one you think looks great, and get a warranty just in case B)

I know that you arent really entertaining any brands other than Dell and Toshiba but you should know that I got a laptop a few days ago, a Lenovo. This is the best computer in the history of bottom of the line EVER. Actually its not quite the bottom of the line, I upgraded from the celeron that they offered to a Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, and of course I went for xp which shaved off like $50 from the price. I use this thing for everything, movies, internet, games :cough, minesweeper, cough: but my nephew plays City of Heroes on it without problems. The model is R60e. The actual machine is very sturdy, they advertise that they have some sort of roll cage built into the machines structural frame. I personally have no idea if this is useful or not, as smashing the computer is inadvisable no matter what the brand. I went with the 9-cell battery, not in spite of the fact it sticks out an inch from the back, but because of it. There is nothing more useful than being able to easily carry the laptop from one room to another while the screen is still open, not forcing you to go into standby whenever you need to move. Oh yes, the larger battery also stores a larger charge... 7 or so hours while working, 5 or so while doing particulate simulations, about full load. Typing at night is aided significantly by the keyboard light above the screen, it illuminates the entire board, something I look forward to whenever there is a power outage and I wanna do some hardcore :cough, reversi, cough: gaming. I must admit that I am anti-touchpad, but you can get IBMs with a touchpad instead or in addition to the trackpoint that they are so famous for. I strongly suggest that you go Lenovo, if I wasnt forced to by the total failure of my desktop computer, I probably would have gotten one anyways. Oh, yes the mandatory notification: I am in no way connected to lenovo... I am just a very enthusiastic person... it is uncontrollable... Additional note: It doesnt come bundled with useless software, but does include Norton Antivirus with a subscription, free of charge.

The military's policy was clear: Don't ask, don't tell.

The Winner, STSF Hawser, your turn.

Yok, here's the result of a search into the number 443. Have fun :blink:

Red. Green. Blue. Wires criscross the console's innards, connecting every port, every housing, every component, a vertible bevy of colors, so vital to the funtion of this interface, yet so fragile, no more than thin lines from one corner of the mechanism to another. I'm sure the primitives that constructed it were similarly fascinated by what to them must be a nearly indecipherable array of parts and connections. Red. Green. Blue. This is an impossible assignment, simply infuriating, saboteurs, a nearly comatose first officer, and of course, the icing on the cake, a Vulcan. Not just any Vulcan, an insufferable, condecending, downright evil throwback to an earlier time. I might still have some preconceptions, I am still an andorian, flawed as we may be, we can still resist the insensitive... downright racist tendancies that we experience, but if this incident is any indication of the Vulcan's disposition towards me, the andorian people may not be the only ones who need to get over their prejudice. I'm the most grounded Andorian there is! How could she lecture me?! Which wire to cut? That idiot housecat completely destroyed the supplies for the interface repair, so of course, like any primordial space explorers, they have no replication technology to replentish their supplies. I am forced to cannibalize this console, and its not even an emergency, its a wonder that the Earth fleet could have survived the Xindi attack without having to cobble together their ships to make a smashed hulk of a vessel when regular maintinence proved too much for the aging neptune class starships scattered throughout the systems surrounding Earth. I'm sure their materials shortage isnt that extreme near their homeworld. Red or Blue? A critical component, a slip could destory it, forcing him to move on to the next console, and hope that nothing goes wrong there either, or the ship would soon be without the auxiliary functions that the crew has come to enjoy... instead of just losing the backup sonic shower near the mess hall, they might have to adapt to the lack of food, toilets, and of course sonic showers, but at least warp drive would be one hundred percent. Maybe it isnt an engineering question. maybe the vulcans are not alone, Humans have had a violent history... The pliers snip through it effortlessly. Nothing explodes, the component comes loose. How predictable. Blue. My handler will enjoy hearing my tale, that is if the computer aboard this starship can parse the datachip containing the fractal encryption algorithms that the finest cryptologic minds in his organization designed for his use, and of course that he could get a moment free of the distraction that these people present. I hope the Vulcan gets over her prejudice... pre-conceptions are sometimes... illogical.

"They'll never think to look for me in the deep fryer!"

I'd be pleased if I could have "The Cat's Out of the Bag."

Galluskek walked purposefully towards the cargo bay, sure of his mission, his goal clear, the path laid out. He would be fixing the energy manifold interface. No one could stop him. It was his first true assignment from the pinkskin who vehemently denied that the 'house cat' aboard the ship was a slave. Westler, the name rolled off the tongue and hurt his antenae, a pinkskin name to be sure. Still, this 'Westler' was his new commanding officer, and the Andorian Central Command expected him to represent the best, the ultimate, the role model of his people. Not that it would take much to impress these backwards peoples. Though Starfleet's choice of uniform colors could not be faulted, blue of course, it chafed his neck uncomfortably, clearly it was not designed to suit Andorian physiology. He would have to contact his tailor on Andor... if he could be bothered to design him a new one. Prominent in his thoughts was that slave-thing, that 'pet,' it appeared to have swung at him, an odd thing for a domesticated animal to do, if it wasnt for the random turbulance experienced by the flimsy Challenger starcraft it is possible that his uniform would have been more than Starfleet azure. It is clear however that the addition of this insolent servant (not a slave, must remember) is an asset to the crew, her effectivness as a security officer cannot be denied, although she does not have what Earth literature terms 'feline grace' a grevous fault for one likely to be involved in numerous fights... perhaps a terrestrial assignment would be more suited to her abilities, although removing her from the Starship may require the services of a 'firefighter' who oddly enough, seems to serve the purpose of extricating felines from trees. Perhaps a word to the captain would be necessary to quell this servant's rampant emotions. Finally arriving at the Cargo Bay, he begins to search the crates and barrels for the repair parts. On the floor, dented, damaged, scuffed and scratched is the one he wants, a blue barrel marked 'Manifold Interface Repair Parts.' carefully opening the barrel, he noticed that every piece of technology was crushed, smashed, and disfigured. The claw marks were evident. Everything, destroyed. That cat would probably be executed by the barbaric pinkskins, but at this point he didnt care. ---- <<Please be mindful I have nothing against Kansas Jones, nor her character, it is all in good fun, a misunderstanding, as it were>>