The Voyages of the Penelope and the Yydryl

Nenothtu felt a vibration at his waist that nearly made him jump out of his skin. Snatching off the comm offending comm unit, he wondered just what would prompt a silent alert in the midst of all this current crop of mayhem. All the explosions and rocking of the ship going on indicated to him that folks weren't particularly interested in secrecy at the moment.

a RED flashing light on the unit indicated someone in distress aboard ship, the scrolling readout below it indicated the problem area, the bridge. THE BRIDGE!

"By the fevered desires of the Goddess's Mother! I'll skin those boys alive if they've let the enemy get past 'em onto the bridge without alerting me that they were even on board!"

A sergeant in the detail next to neno looked at him quizzically. "I'd have never figured you for a Goddess Worshipper, Boss".

"I ain't. I just don't like cussing the same way twice in one day, and I've already used 'by Odin's stones' today." Neno raised his voice "ALL OF YOU, ON ME, NOW. PROBLEMS AT THE BRIDGE. I WANT US THERE 10 MINUTES AGO." And he raced off towards the bridge, taking the contingent of security personnel that were in his immediate vicinity with him.

When they were nearly there, the RED light on his comm unit inexplicably turned GREEN, indicating the all clear. What the Skred? You don't just call a 'drop everything' alert and then cancel it without reason. They kept running.

Nearing the bridge entryway, neno saw his own men locked in a staring contest with a contingent of the Marines. How's that? Mutiny? That would explain the unexplained order cancellation.

"STAND DOWN AND REPORT" bellowed neno. His own men immediately dropped the muzzles of their weapons, and about half the Marines did likewise. Half wasn't good enough.

Neno zeroed in on a sergeant that appeared to be in charge of the Marines at the entryway. The sergeant had not dropped his weapon, and nenothtu, quick as a cat, surprising even himself, snatched out his sidearm and levelled off on the sergeant's head. "You might not have heard me correctly" nenothtu said quietly. " I said STAND DOWN!. Son, you drop that weapon, right now, or I'm gonna make your momma cry."

The sergeant looked around at his own men, and reluctantly dropped his muzzle. "Sir, we've been ordered to detain the Captain on the bridge"

Neno snorted. AGAIN with the 'sir'! He reckoned he'd just have to get used to it.

"Tell me true, sergeant, 'zactly WHO has the authority to detain the Captain of a starship ON HIS OWN BOAT? Is this some kind of mutiny? An insurgency of sorts? I HOPE not, because I'll tell ya this, I've had a dealing or two with insurgencies over the years. It never turns out pretty."

Just then, the comm unit chirped at him again, followed by the Captain's voice. Neno was sucessful in NOT jumping out of his kin this time, with a bit of effort.

Originally posted by mf_luder



Security Chief Neno, this is the Captain. Consider Colonel Studious rogue until further notice. I need you to remove his marines from the bridge areas, as they and their commander seem to have forgotten they do not police Federation ships, security staff do.



[edit on 23-3-2009 by mf_luder]

"you gents may consider yourselves officially under detention until I get to the bottom of this. I'll not take your weapons, but you WILL give us the power packs out of them, RIGHT NOW. Sergeant, where is your colonel?"


[edit on 2009/3/23 by nenothtu]

"Sky you have to understand that if we give into their demands we will be placing the control of the entire western galactic community in jeopardy of enslavement or worse, the complete genocide of over 150 species of life."

Sky looked at her with the compassion of a thousand years of love for all life.

"They will stop at nothing to take overlord status through out the western alliance if we so much as take out the Rigel West outpost, with under 100 personnel it still holds secrets which if released to them could create a landslide effect for the whole Galactic interface, this is something I know you do not wish to have under their evil control..."

Sensing that Scurvy is feeling left out of the loop and knowing how that can create undue anger in the species, antar begins to speak telepathically to Sky and they both turn and walk back to the ships com center where Sky taps in the cooridinance and sets the warp drive at maximum.

Accepting her first orders antar sits comfortably into the first seat next to Sky and places her hands gracefully into a position she learned from the Zy's, closed her eyes and began to spiral into a gray space within her center to find the Captain once more...

“Sir if I may, what is going on here? Where are we going? Why do the Betelgeusian rebels have Cadbury? Why is this whole mission so disorganized? Where is our replacement Comm. Officer? Why am I not told ANYTHING?!?! With all due respect I can't protect this flying shrub without a little more information and direction sir."


“Keep Going, Keep Going” Silo urged silently from where she blended into the background, close enough to hear them, not close enough, she hoped, to be discovered.
They were all so intent on their plight she might have walked right up and listened in but Silo couldn’t risk it.
And this Scurvy! He was off to a grand start but he stopped questioning far too soon!
She wanted more answers and had many more questions to ask.
But how could she?

The answer was she couldn’t.
She couldn’t even show herself.

And Betelgeuse Rebels?
Creator help the Yydryl did they have any idea at all what they were dealing with?
Their Captain was better off dead than in the hands of those Space scum!

Silo choked back the emotion building in her throat.
She didn’t even know Cadbury and she pitied him with ever ounce of her being.
Betelgeusian Rebels!

Silo tried to relax, last thing she wanted to do before gleaming as much information as possible was to expose herself.
But so many questions had her head spinning!
And for Creators sake what was with all the Long Arms!
Everywhere she looked there were more tentacles!

Silo breathed deeply and forced herself to relax.
What would they do when they found her?
Space law was known far and wide throughout the Galaxy.
Jettison.
Any and all stowaways were jettisoned, no questions asked.

She wondered if they’d believe she was as undeserving of being judged a stowaway as their own Captain was of being held a prisoner to the Betelgeusian.

With her luck she'd get her answer far sooner than she wanted...


[edit on 23-3-2009 by silo13]

Originally posted by nenothtu
"you gents are may consider yourselves officially under detention until I get to the bottom of this. I'll not take your weapons, but you WILL give us the power packs out of them, RIGHT NOW. Sergeant, where is your colonel?"

"Well, sir we are not quite sure where the Colonel is. We were told the Captain had ordered an attack which has killed all our pilots and were told to detain him."

Originally posted by Studious
"Very well, stay there I want no more bloodshed today."

The Sergeant continued "Give'em your power packs boys, remember the Colonel had said no more bloodshed."




The injured Colonel opened his tired eyes there was that familiar silhouette again. The voice pleasantly told him "Don't give up now. You never have befor..." The Colonel began to slip unconscious again but was jolted back awake by images of what had happened in dropship and on the bridge. By the time he was truly awake again the silhouette was gone.

The Colonel looked around. Marines under Lt. Jones were covering all the entrances. No other patients could be found in this bay. This had been the bay for the Marines and pilots..... Or at least it used to be for the pilots before the...

When he looked to his own wounds they had been hastily bandaged, field medicine style.

"This was a sickbay for goodness sake, why the heck have I not been treated yet."

A medical assistant who introduced himself as Jim Morrison walked up to Studious and began reviewing some charts. The Colonel grabbed his arm and asked very dramatically

"Dammit Jim, Where is the Doctor?"

The assistant replied "Doctor Who?"

With that Studious fell backwards and released the assistant.

"Why does no one remember seeing the Doctor? I read his personnel file right after I came aboard, I know he should be here." But other matters had to be attended to.

Turning his attention to Lt. Jones, Studious asked "Has the message been sent to the Admiral."

"Yes, sir." replied Lt. Jones.

"At least if I die the truth may still get out." Studious thought as he began to lose consciousness once again.


[edit on 23-3-2009 by Studious]

Before the sergeant could reply, a security detail reported in that there was yet ANOTHER showdown at the sickbay.

"Chief, we have a contingent of marines here trying to assume control of sick bay, and the colonel is inside bleeding all over the place."

Neno sighed. Don't these people ever take a lunch break? His growling stomach talked to him. he thought it said "Don't expect one soon!"

"Alrighty then! The Marines there are to stand down, IMMEDIATELY! Take the power packs to their weapons, under authority of the Captain as relayed through me, and see them to their quarters, pending further investigation. Except the colonel. Make sure he gets medical attention, and under NO circumstances is he to leave Sick Bay. He's under detention as of this instant. Marine Quarters are under security lockdown, effective immediately. You already have the security override codes to make that lockdown happen. NO marines are to be in the wild on this boat until I find out what's happening. Their quarters just became a huge brig. Boys, there's more of them than there are us, and the more we get under lock and key, the fewer we got to deal with. Nenothtu out."

At precisely that point, Engineering guards reported a firefight, in which the security staff was worsted. Marines had taken over engineering, and locked themselves in.

Neno wiped his hand down his face. "Oh great!" he muttered. "I'll be lucky to get supper!"

After hearing the report from the bridge guard detail that all was well on the bridge now, neno set off for sickbay, to 'interview' the colonel. If worst came to worst, and a general mutiny was afoot, they'd just have to use the security override on the engineering doors and take engineering back. That would get messy, as if the day hadn't turned out messy enough already!

Chief nenothtu would just have to get the story straight from Colonel Studious before he'd risk any further bloodshed.

Originally posted by mf_luder

"I can understand the protection of our vessel being paramount, but at what cost? We weren't even in danger of being taken, Seeker. We had taken on no boarders, the damage to our shields and weapons was minimal, we were winning that fight, for God's sake.

While Luder waited on the science report, he turned back to Seeker.

"You are an enhanced man, Seeker. You are more in tune with machines than anyone on this ship, but inside you are still a MAN. You have to have feelings and desires all of your own. You have to be able to discern when is the right time to carry out such protocol, you have concious choices to make and the ability to determine whether those choices are moral and right. I can't have you blowing our people out of the void left and right because of a hidden subroutine from Earth Command."

"You can plug back in. But in the future watch what you're doing or I'll have to find a new weapons officer."

Seeker dejectedly returned to his post, flopping down in the interface chair as if exhausted. It was a welcome relief to plug back in to the network. It was easier to sort out his emotions.

Moments after interfacing, the projected image of Seeker reappeared on the bridge. The captain had retired to his quarters.

Sweeping the field of battle with the ship's sensors, Seeker overviewed the debris field, analyzing the wreckage. There was not much wreckage to analyze.

It was then that Seeker felt a pang of regret at what he had become. No good man would do what he had done. Perhaps he was becoming more machine than he had intended. More "artificial" than "intelligence".

Logical and calculating, Seeker reviewed order Adamant Resolve. It was true to its origin. Earth command had legitimate concern for Earth's safety. Seeker perused the lines of code, looking for the event that had triggered the order to execute.

The boarding parties.

The marine boarding parties from the Penelope were deploying to the Nimitz, a ship possibly compromised by a new form of warfare that turned friends into enemies.

Seeker opened his memory files, searching for some tidbits of information that seemed relevant. Then, he found the source of Earth Command's concern...

Operation: Cold Harvest

It was a secret navy research project into mind altering nano-technology. Once introduced into a biological's system, it rewired their brain in such a way that foes became friends, and friends became mortal enemies.

The project had been scrapped and made top secret by Earth Command because of the volatile nature of the nano-compound.

In their fear, an appropriate addendum was added to Order: Adamant Resolve.

Had the marines made it to the Nimitz, they might have been compromised by such an agent and spread it to the rest of the Penelope's crew on their return.


Seeker packaged the relevant files and removed their top-secret status. With a thought, he forwarded them to the virtual inbox of every crew member aboard the Penelope. They had the right to know the reason for the loss of life.

With melancholy bordering on sadness (an emotion he had not felt since Asher), Seeker continued to survey the wreckage forever entombed in the space around them.

Lt. Jones ran in and whispered to the Colonel "The Security staff are outside they are ordering us to stand down."

The Colonel responded.

"There is no reason to force a fight. We have sent our message. An investigation will be launched in this. I trust Admiral Gordon without question, who ever did this will be punished."

As Studious watched the Lt. pulled out an analyzer with Galactic Web access.

"Sir" the Lt. said shocked. It's a message from the WCO Seeker.

"Well out with it man, what does it say."

"It talks of some project, Operation: Cold Harvest." The Lt. said confused.

"Give me that" Studious demanded.

Cold Harvest had been a scrapped project. Studious had opposed it right from the beginning fearing it could be used to control soldiers making them unable to think and act with a conscience. Making them the tools the commanders thought them to be. Studious feared it may even be used on him one day to rein him in, keep him from denying orders. Luckily for the Colonel the project was eventually scrapped due to its volatility.

If the message was true then that meant the order "Adamant Resolve" had been made to counter any escape of this nano technology.

However, all samples of Project: Cold Harvest were destroyed, and the project files were eliminated. How could the Centaurians get their hands on anything like that.

This old order must have still been left inside Seeker just in case anything like this got out. He must have confused this project with what happened to the crew of the Nimitz.

But that left one question unanswered, Seeker had not miscalculated. He knew he was destroying the Nimitz. Why had the Captain covered this up?
Why did the Captain lie?




[edit on 23-3-2009 by Studious]

[edit on 23-3-2009 by Studious]

Arriving at Sick bay, nenothtu found a situation similar the what had been at the bridge, Security and Marines staring each other down. This time, a lieutenant was in charge of the Marine contingent.

"Lieutenant.." neno read the nametag in the Lt's starched uniform "... Jones. I understand your Colonel is in sickbay. I't my STRONG suggestion that you go in there and inform him that if these Marines here don't vacate back to their quarters, IMMEDIATELY, this corridor is gonna get really messy, really soon."

Lieutenant Jones reappeared at the doorway and instructed the Marine guard to stand down.

Nenothtu entered the sickbay, and saw a mess of a Colonel. All that starch wasn't doing him much good at the moment.

"How ya feeling Colonel? and WHY are your Marines shanghai-ing this boat?"



[edit on 2009/3/23 by nenothtu]

[edit on 2009/3/23 by nenothtu]

Luder wasn't sure what woke him up from his restless nap. Either the lack of the sound of engines or the insistent beeping coming from a computer console in the room. He stood up and walked to the portal. There was no indicaton of movement outside the ship. He felt a sense of anger, followed by fear. How long had he been out? He checked the chrono in the room and saw he had been down for nearly three hours. So, they weren't in Alpha Centaurian space anymore.

Luder walked over to the computer and flipped it on, more so to turn the beeping off than anything else.

He read the message sent out by Seeker to the crew.

Luder flipped on a recording device in the ship's logs.

"Captains' log, supplemental. As of last entry, we fell under heavy attack from a contingent of six Alpha Centaurian warships and the USS Nimitz. By our estimates, the Nimitz was taken over by nearly 4000 unknown personnel. The remainder of her crew as of now is still missing.

After the Nimitz entered the engagement, I ordered the crew to pull alongside and prepare boarding parties to nuetralize the threat and retake the carrier. My weapons control officer, Seeker, an enhancer.... Disobeyed my direct orders and fired a barrage of extremely high yield warheads into the carrier, destroying her and every single one of our starfighter complement who were in the area.

Upon further investigation into the situation, it is now revealed that Seeker apparently is or was following an old order to prevent the spread of a highly classified nanotechnology which alters the mindstate of those it affects. The entire record of exactly what happened was sent back to Earth Command for them to digest, so I will not be surprised if we are facing an inquiry upon our return.

Seeker isn't the only one who seems to be prone to be up for an inquiry. Moments after the nearly destroyed hulk of his boarding craft was tractored back on board the Penelope, Colonel Studious came to the bridge, brandishing a firearm and threatened mine and Seeker's life. He then attempted to use his marines to take over key areas of the ship. He feels this is just due to the nature of what Seeker did.

I don't think either one of them were or are in the right, but they are my crew. I can't let them kill each other, nor can I betray the trust of either of them. Seeker is a victim of his all-consuming love of technology and Studious is a victim of . . . . Seeker....

We've now apparently come to a halt in an unknown location and I am about to go light some fires under some crew to get us back to Earth."

Luder shut the recorder off and walked out into the command center.

"whiterabbit85, Why the hell have we stopped?"

The lieutenant entered again saying.

"The Security chief is threatening a firefight sir. What are your orders."

Studious replied

"Well if this message is correct, a firefight would be unnecessary."

Studious was still unnerved by the fact that the Captain had lied about Seeker's actions. That made him suspicious. But Nenothtu seemed like a trustworthy person. Someone not sucked in by the intelligence services code of silence and deceit.

"Stand down, return to your quarters. I don't want this to turn ugly. We have lost too many today. I will not lose another, you hear."

The lieutenant joked
"Not one more eh, that includes you too sir."

"Could you relay this message Lieutenant, I don't think standing would be a very good idea."

The Lt. left and headed for the Security Chief but the chief had already arrived.

[edit on 23-3-2009 by Studious]

Whisper, after waiting for what had seemed days had retired to her icy cold quarters. No doubt there had been political intervening holding up the still mysterious mission of the Yddryl. She had never been one to care one way or the other along the political lines of Rigellian or the even more massive tentacle of the Orion Alliance. Having done the dirty work for each side of the factions, Whisper knew that no matter how honorable delegates started out to support their sectors, power and corruption reigned supreme.

Lazily, pondering these ideas of political corruption and the black tentacle that was she, slithering back to her quarters she became aware of a smell as she rounded the corner on deck six! Something or someone had just been here! She was aware that it had only been her and antar populating the ship. She had not yet visited antar for her pre-flight check up, Whisper resisted such protocols and did not like anyone making a fuss over her. Whisper could take care of herself, always had and always would – she needed no one. Or so the frontal brain told her – she wasn’t privy to the dark recesses of her third brain which protected her from others but mostly, from herself.

“I must be hallucinating.” Hangovers, they weren’t just for humans. She decided to stop at the mess hall to pick up a few libations to take to her room. She browsed the bottles, Rigellian juice, the human Coca-Cola (had this infested the entire known universe?) not sweet enough for her liking. Flicking an oily tentacle across the labels, “no, no, No.” With a heavy sigh, she realizes no alcoholic beverages were included in the mess hall stock. Snickering to herself she mutters, “That’s why you always traveled with your own supply.”

Always at the ready (frontal brain) but knowing no action would be required of her (rationalization from third brain) anytime soon, “Gwark we haven’t even received all of our staff”; Whisper retired to her desolate chilly quarters. Retrieving her black stylish luggage she searches for that special bag she can’t leave the galaxy without. Bottles clinking together, she pulls out a bottle of Betelgeuse ‘Juice’ and makes herself a concoction called a Betelgeuse Bomber. Most of her kind couldn’t stomach the highly expensive and rare cocktail. Humans passed out from just a taste. “Humans” she sneered. She ponders the 27,000 suicides in the last month and the implications. Whisper does another shot and settles back, tentacles restless.

THACK ALLON SST, THWARKSST

Gwark! How long had she been gwarking asleep? “GWARK” she chastised herself. Trying to get all of eyelids open she notices she has totally wrecked her cabin. “Two bottles?! I drank two whole bottles!” Whisper moans. That only left her with six bottles and who knows how long this undefined mission would last. Her tentacles shaking slightly, she grabs her tentacle oil hoping this will cover up the obvious smell still emanating from her. With another couple of her tentacles she scoops her personal mess into the small closet, grabs her standard issued Hyper Vortex Proton Disintegrator; the HVPD was her least favorite weapon. Whisper liked her kills a bit more…personal.

Whisper finishes dressing as she slithers along the halls. Antars message was urgent and distressed. “That smell again!” her tiny head whips right, then left; all of her eyes peering into the darkness. No time to investigate now she thinks to herself but does make a mental note to revisit the area later.

Whisper enters Yydryls command central to see antar looking quite distressed. “How long was I out?” she wonders to herself.

“Greetings antar, I apologize for my delay and my neglect to visit you upon arrival….antar you know I’m not an empath, please, I’ve never seen you so troubled. What is our status?” Whisper looks around, the only other entity she sees is a fellow worried looking tentacled Regellian, she nods in his direction with respect.

Originally posted by nenothtu
"How ya feeling Colonel? and WHY are your Marines shanghai-ing this boat?

"I've been better. I'd be even better if THERE WAS A DOCTOR HERE!"

Studious was yelling at the medical staff in the background. They had not patched him up very well and he was upset that they did not even know where the Chief Medical Officer was."

"As for why I tried detaining the Captain, I left in a spec ops dropship and the next thing I remember, I was getting up off the floor. All seven men on that ship with me were dead. When I looked outside every fighter, and even the Nimitz herself was debris glittering in the starlight. Only one man on this ship had the ability to have ordered that, so I assumed it must be the Captain."

"When I got to the Captain he said they had 'miscalculated' the effects of the weapons. I did not buy that for a second. The Captain is hiding something."



[edit on 23-3-2009 by Studious]

[edit on 23-3-2009 by Studious]

[edit on 23-3-2009 by Studious]

reply to post by Studious


"Cap'n Luder hiding something? This don't parse out quite right. I haven't figured him for a 'spook' type. And your saying LUDER gave the order to blow you up? Why would he do that? Where's the profit for him to squash his own defenses?"

"By the way, you might want to tell your Marines in engineering to stand down before there's another 'incident'."

[edit on 2009/3/23 by nenothtu]

Most of us did not even know the Captain personally and yet felt passionate in our loyalty and determination to rescue him.

They had been wanting guidance, they had been wanting answers, they had been wanting leadership but I struggled to provide. What was I to tell Scurvy who demanded to "be in the loop"?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

the last time I saw our Captain was upon boarding the ship. Today I learn our Captain is gone without a trace and supposedly in the hands of an enemy.

We are heading towards Beatelguese, but before going all reactive and crazy I´d like us to determine just how the Captain was supposed to get removed from this ship and when.

Does anybody know whether we have cam-logs of the ship?

Does anybody know when the Captain was last seen, heard or logged into deck?

Studious reached his hand up to his ear and ordered the Marines in Engineering to stand down.

One of the Marines responded.
"Colonel the engineer here has found something, an order.... uhhh.... Adamant Resolve. He says it was sent to Seeker from cargo bay 37."

"Repeat that on the Security Staff frequency, so the Chief can hear it." Studious answered.

"Nenothtu, I think we have an intruder aboard."



"By the way, have you gotten Seeker's message?"

Studious handed Nenothtu a small pad that showed the message.

"If this is true Seeker believes this to be similar to Operation Cold Harvest nanobots. From what I have read they hide in the ships systems. They then release a biological or chemical agent, depending on the payload of these little bots, that can brainwash. I thought the project never got off the ground and was eliminated. Because of its official cancellation the specifics of the agents were never explained, only what they did and how they were to be delivered."

"Cold Harvest did not use Nanobots themselves to attack the body because they are too easy to detect and once detected it would be apparent someone was behind it as nanobots do not exist naturally."

"However, a chemical or biological agent is much more insidious, everyone would just suspect it was a disease or some environmental effect, until it would be too late."

"The Nimitz fiasco may or may not be the product of Operation: Cold Harvest but Seeker's protocols thought it was similar enough......."

"That intruder might be one of our own that has been brainwashed. They could be behind Fooks murder."

"In fact, if this is biological we all could be infected by now."


[edit on 23-3-2009 by Studious]

[edit on 23-3-2009 by Studious]

reply to post by Studious


"NanoWHATs? I'm afraid I may not be up to speed on things, what with all the commotion and all. Last I heard, we had a missing doctor, all hell was breaking loose, and NOW we got mechanical creepy-crawlies runnin' around? Where'd you get a notion like that? How hard DID you hit your head?"

As an afterthought, neno grumbled "Not bad enough to have a 'tin-man' pulling triggers for us, now the man tells me Seeker's got invisible cohorts aboard. Where IS a doctor when you need one?"

reply to post by Skyfloating


Still in Meditation antar speaks telepathically to SkyFloating:

"Sky there was a little- delay in boarding today and by the time I checked into the RB the announcement came over the Com's about VVs alleged suicide.

Never did see the Captain Sir.

"Now I'm not saying it is nanobots. I'm just saying the Nimitz crew, our own people, would never join the Centaurians willingly. Those triangles would have had a hard time trying to take down a Federation Carrier, and even if they did, the Nimitz would have been severely damaged. But when we engaged the Nimitz there was not a scratch on her."

Studious thought to himself. "Until Seeker destroyed her."

"There has to be another explanation for the Nimitz joining the enemy."


[edit on 23-3-2009 by Studious]

Engine room, this is Captain Luder. Why are the engines not turning?