It Was Only A Game - III
Sorry about the amount of time that has elapsed since I last visited the starship Sovereign with you. I am working towards completeing my degree and had very little time to write over the last year!
This story represents a filght of fancy that I have had running around in my head for a long time. I finally got the nerve to write it down last year. Star Trek and all its related stuff is copyrighted by Paramount Pictures.
If you are underage, or if reading erotic fiction is illegal where you live do not procede any further.
Contact the author at [indybehr@yahoo.com](mailto:indybehr@yahoo.com?Subject=It Was Only A Game: Part IV)
It Was Only A Game: Part IV ===========================
The Last Few Years
The crew had settled into a comfortable routine. Jason had selected friends, family and several aquaitences to fill the positions of crew members he knew he would rely heavily upon. Trent, his first officer, was someone he had known for many years. Most of the choices were easy. His Chief Engineer, Cliff Jackson, was good friend from their Navy days. The Cheif Medical Officer, Tyler Davis, was Jason's ex-lover. They had been together for three years but things just didn't work out. IT was a pretty nasty breakup but after a few years they were able tro be friends
Most of the other positions were filled by various others friends. After the key positions had been filled, Jason started recruiting from the internet; placing clandestine ads at various places. The people who read them, and understood the cryptic want ads knew what they were getting into and were more than happy to leave their lives on Earth to serve aboard the Sovereign.
They had all gone through the Academy, granted it was the holodeck version but it was just as real. The "holo-Academy" as it was called was allowed to run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week on the holodeck. The "cadets" were expectedt report every day just as if they were actually in San Francisco, three-hundered years in the future, in a different universe. Upon graduating from the Academy last month, the crew began to use their knowledge to learn more about the operation of the ship that Jason had found himself accidentally transported to. They had warpped around the Solar System a couple of times, visited all of the planets, and Jason and Trent became the first human beings to walk on the face of Mars. The crew had also begun the terra-forming of the red-planet, three years ago, "We need a place to live eventually, and I would rather not be too far from home," Jason had mused.
So all the equipment was set up on Mars, Carbon Dioxide manufacturing was started and other greenhouse gasses emitted into the atmosphere at rates 500 times the current release of the same gasses on Earth. The reuslts were beginning to be noticed by the crew as well as by the scientific community on Earth. Sovereign actually had to destroy an Earth probe that was sent to ivestigate. "We'll let them know we are here when we are ready," Jason had said. Plans were in the works also for the terraforming of Venus but that would be a much bigger undertaking.
The greatest change of the last year had been a fundamental one. Jason had decided to change the species of his people. After much discussion with the EMH Doctor, Jason had hathced a plan to discard his and his crew's humanity. It was decided that they would beome an amalgamation of Vulcan and Betazoid. Drawing upon the best genetic traits of both species. They were a handsome people. Vulcans have body processes that are near perfect, they do not get fat. The body uses all the energy that is taken in, there is no waste or storage. The beauty is that no excess energy is ever consumed. Betazoid have remarkable mental abilities, not just telepathy, but also telekenesis. Most physical traits were kept as well, the vulcan pointed ears and swept up eyebrows, the Betaziod full heads of thick hair, soulful eyes, and striking physical beauty. The result was a race that Jason had dubbed Eridani, after the fictional star the planet Vulcan orbited. A new language was created and implanted in all members of the crew as they underwent genetic transformation in the medical transporter. A culture of trust and "live and let live" had developed among the Eridani as well. Religion was abandoned by most members of the crew long before they came onboard, and Jason had planned it that way. So no wars over religion, or god, would be started by his people.
Exploration of Earth's nearest interstellar neighbors had begun as well. Several M-class habitable planets had been discovered, but so far no other civilizations had been encountered. Jason knew it was only a matter of time. Knowing that they needed a place to live that for the time being was outside of the view of the Earth, a planet had been chosen that was remarkably Earth-like and colonized. It was named Gaia, and one major city, Cernunon. The plan was to eventually colonize Mars once the people of the Earth were made aware of the Eridani. They were not without the comforts of home, plants and animals that were familiar to them were transplanted, and did remarkably well. The Gaian day was 30 hours, and their year was exactly 600 Gaian days long. The development of a calendar similar to the one on Earth was a little difficult to accomplish, Gaia has seasons just like earth, but the winter was much shorter, only two earth months, which amounted to only ten percent of the entire Gaian year. It was decided that the calendar would be divided into 10 months of 60 days, with one month of winter. The "Spring" and "Fall" were not quite like the Earths lasting only a couple of Gaian months each, the rest of the year was a paradise akin to living in Southern California during the most temperate time of the year, where the temperature was a modest 23 degrees the whole summer. The plants and animals loved the climate, the trees were a little stressed about not getting three months of rest, but thrived on the light from the Gaian star - Innana. The native species were not affected by the introduction of the new plants or animals, the food chains adjusted to new predators and prey. And life went on.
The city of Cernunon was built to blend in with the environment and not take advantage of it. Solar collectors in space beamed their energy to the planet in the form of microwaves, producing no ill environmental affects. Movement within the city and around the planet was accomplished using shuttles and ground transport based on impulse technology. The city had grown over the course of the five years it had been in existence. Industrial replicators made quick work of almost any project! The population was almost 100,000 and growing daily. The economic model of the parallel universe of the Federation had proved to work very well. There was no poverty, and no crime. Of course it was hard to commit a crime and get away with it in a society of telepaths. This had also led to a society of brutal honesty, it is very hard to lie to someone when they can tell you are doing it. Most Eridani had learned to shield their thoughts from unwanted intrusion, but emotions are harder to hide, as they are more of an unconscious act. So lying, deception, and prevarication became a thing of the past. It was definitly not politics as usual on Gaia.
Yes, the last year had brought much change to the Eridani. But their greatest challenge was only a few days away.
Earth, you have a problem
Brandon Hull, was a communications specialist back on Earth. He has stumbled upon the recruitment ad, literally using the browser add-on called "Stumble Upon." He knew that is was not a joke and sent in his resume. Now here he was five years later, the communications officer of the USS Sovereign. The captain had decided to stick with the "USS" part of the ship's name, but changed the acronym to "Uniformed Space Service." Brandon was happy, he had never had a more challenging and fulfilling career, he even liked being another species. His partner Tobey Groban, was one of the ship's nurses. They had a great officer stateroom on deck 11. He was standing the first watch of the day on the bridge at the comm station.
Prior to leaving the Solar System last year, the captain had placed a sensor array in lunar orbit where it would not be easily detected. It had a suite of sensors that constantly monitored what was going on back home. The captain got a briefing every morning about what happened on Earth over the last 24 hours. The array also allowed the crew to be aware of any space exploration that could alert the people of Earth to their existence, which was how the Mars Scientific probe was dispatched last month.
Brandon was busy preparing the morning brief for the Captain when a red alert was issued by the array. Brandon brought up the sensor log, and immediately called the First Officer, who was not due on the bridge for another hour. "Comm to Commander Paxson."
"Go ahead," Trent responded.
"Sir there is something on the Earth array I think you and the Captain need to see."
"What is it?" Trent asked.
"Sir there appears to be an asteroid heading towards Earth, and it is about one-quarter the size of the moon," Brandon told the First Officer with a nervousness that he felt was reminescent of a messenger who knew he would be shot later for delivering the worst possible news.
"Stand by." Trent called the Captain tapping his communicator, "Captain?"
"Go ahead," Jason replied, looking up from his reading.
"Sir we, or rather Earth, may have a huge problem. Can you meet me on the bridge?"
Jason put his book down and headed for the dorrider, "On my way." He got up and went into the living quarters he shared with his partner Sean. "Hey I need to get to the bridge a little eartly." He leaned down and kissed Sean on the forehead. "I'll see you later, I love you." Sean rolled over and went back to sleep.
Once he got to the bridge he went directly to the Science Station where his First Officer, and Science Officer, Galen Tark, were gathered. "What have we got?"
Galen responded, "Sir we were just notified by our Earth Array, that an asteroid roughly one quarter the size of the moon, is on a trajectory that will cause it to impact. We have calculated the impact site about 1,000 miles east of the Japanese Archipelago. It is moving at over 700,000 kilometers per hour. It will impact in 10 days. Based on projections of the impact it will be an extinction level event."
The Captain looked at the data, turned to the helm and said, "Set a course for this object maximum warp, NOW!" The ship jumped from orbit of Gaia and sped towards the Solar System at almost ten times the speed of light. "what is our ETA at this asteroid?"
"Eight hours sir," Trent replied.
"I want options for stopping this thing. We have to prevent this. If it hits the earth, everyone and everything on it will die." He turned to his Science Officer "Galen can we stop it?"
"Jason I don't think so, the mass of this asteroid is 18 quadrillion tons, there is no force this ship can generate to affect something that large. In order just to move the trajectory 1/10 of one degree would require us to hit it with a tractor beam at maximum strength, tied through the warp enigines mind you, for 25 years and that would not even be enough to deflect it from impact."
The Captain turned to his Tactical Officer Nathan Hireck, "What about weapons? Is there anything we can use?"
"Captain our biggest explosive device is a tri-cobalt torpedo, and its maximum yeild would not even put a dent in that asteroid. Even if we buried a hundred of them in the middle of it, and detonated them all at once, all it would do is fracture the acteroid, the mass would remain the same and still impact. If we had more time than 10 days we could detonate it and then take out the pieces with our phasers, but it would take 8 days to get the tri-cols into the core. So unfortuantely sir, wepaons will not help us. If we had five or six starships we could do it. But, sir, there is nothing that one starship can do. I'm sorry. We need to find another solution."
Jason looked at his crew, "OK. So we can't stop it, what can we do?"
Nathan, turned back to his station, "Sir when the asteroid hits, it will devestate the planet's surface. It will impact here," Nathan pointed to a spot in the Pacific Ocean. "It will be visible in the sky for several days, they will know it is coming. It will cause widespread panic. When it hits the crust of the planet will peel away like an orange skin, the deepest parts of the ocean will look like a thin film. The crest tsunami will spread out in a concentric circle. The islands of Japan will be brushed off the planet, so will porions of the Asian continent. The crater will be 2,400 miles across, the rim of the crater willrise some 7,000 feet from the floor of the ocean. But this is just the beginning; the hell on earth will just be starting, the layer of the crust that was skinned from the planet will be thrown up out past the atmosphere and will rain back down as mini-asteroids all over the planet. Rising in a dome from the impact site a cloud of super-heated rock vapor will spread out in all directions to cover the face of the earth." As Nathan spoke a computer simulation dipicted the horror he described. "When the vapor reaches the Himalyas the perpetual snows will evaporate instantly, within three days the entire planet will be enshrouded, it will be as if the firey interior of the planet had come to visit the surface for a while. Every plant and creature that is on the surface will instantly vaporize. Soon the oceans will boil, and evaporate the rate of five centimeters a second. Leaving the salt behind, which too will eventually be turned to gas. Within a month the only thing left on the planet will be the superheated bedrock, glowing like a piece of coal in a furnace."
Jason watched the viewer, his stomach churning at the thought of what was about to befall the place of his birth, "And you are telling me there is nothing we can do to stop this?"
Nathan looked back at his Captain from his station "No sir, I'm sorry, the only thing we can do is save as many people as we can."
Jason headed to the turbolift, "Trent, you and Nathan keep on this. I am going to go talk to Aiden." Aiden was an android. When Jason first found himself aboard the shiop, he discovered that the computer had become self-aware at some point before he arrived. Jason encouraged the computer to build itself an android to house the sentient part of its intelligence. The computer chose for itself the ideal man for the Captain, a holo-image of someone he had dreamed up. Aiden had tried to get the Captain to love him back, but Jason only had eyes for Sean.
Sean Meyers was a handyman. He could remodel the interior of a house in no time. And he did excellent work. He and Jason had met on the internet in a chat room, Sean was a bottom in search of a quickie, and Jason was a horny top. When the got together the first time, the sex was so intense neither of them quite knew what to do with it. The only thing that stood in their way was the mess that Sean's life was in. He had found out not long before that he was HIV+ and his life had turned upside down. Jason fell in love with him inspite of himself. He and Sean got together whenever they could and the sex was always the best. Sean was a world class bottom and Jason being a well-hung top, the sparks flew whenever they copulated. After Jason found the ship he made use of the medical facilities to cure Sean and they had been together as a couple since.
Aiden in the meantime, had built his android body and vacated his intelligence and sentience from the mainframe into his shell.He still maintained the ability to access the main computer directly if he needed to. In the process he essentially became another Mr. Data. Aiden was initially attracted to the Captain, but quickly realized that Jason truly loved Sean. When the other members of the crew began to arrive Aiden dated around and finally found his true love in Garrett Halliwell.
Jason tapped the comm announcer outside Aiden's door. "Come in." Aiden had disconnected himself from the computer, so he was not always aware of what was happening onboard, just like a normal member of the crew. Since he was a machine he also did not have inate telepathic abilities. "Jason, how are you?"
Jason walked into Aiden's quaters. "Aiden I have a serious problem that I need your help with. I do not know what to do. I am afraid of what is going to happen, and I can't do anything about it." He tapped his comm badge, "Nathan will you send all the information on the asteroid to Aiden's quarters?"
"Right away sir," Nathan replied.
"Look that over and tell me what to do." This was incredibly had for Jason to ask, and Aiden knew it.
"OK, I will. Have a seat while I look at it." Aiden went to his desk to review the file. When he was finished he looked over at Jason. "This is bad," he said.
Jason sighed and looked out the port to the empty space beyond, the starlight streaking past the transparent siding as the ship overtook and passed it. "I am sorry to hear you say that. It implies that you have no idea what to do either."
"If we had more time, our options would be more. But with so little warning, and just one ship. The options are fewer."
Jason stood and paced, his finger rubbing his Van Dyke facial hair. "Nathan says if we can't stop it, we need to rescue as many people as we can, save the diversity of the planet. We already have all of the plant and animal species back on Gaia. In addition to what have on the aboretum here on the ship. But the people, we don't have any humans."
"It is poossilbe to save a great many. We can replicate several hundred pattern buffers for the transporters. We can tie them into power from the warp core, put them into a continuous storage/diagnostic mode until we can get to a suitable planet, then transport them to the surface a few hundred at a time and let them build a new civilization."
"How many could we rescue that way?"
"About 20 to 25 million."
"Out of 6 billion, four-tenths of the entire population."
"It could be zero."
"True. Something is better than nothing. How long do you think it will be before the Earth is habitable again, if ever?"
"The oceans will evaporate, but they will not escape into space. The atmosphere will be chocked by the rock vapor for perhos two to three hundred years. It will finally cool and settle over the surface of the entire planet. Not unlike the layer that separates the jurassic and pelozoic layers now. The planet will probably have a ring structure the left over debris that does not fall back to the surface. After the atmosphere cools, it will condense and the rain will fall again, about 3,000 to 4,000 years after the impact. The oceans will refill, the size of the planet will have increased by the size of the asteroid. But it will mostly be absoebed by the core. The crater will become a permanent surface feature, most likely a circular continent in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Life will take hold again, all the sub surface bacteria and microbial life will not be killed off. Even if the surface is sterilized, the subsurface will remain at 13° Celsius. This will be the start of life on Earth again"
"Millions of years, and the human reace would not even be a foot-note in the history of Earth."
"The human race knows about dinosaurs. Nothing on Earth is ever truly gone. Fossilized remains of their civilization will remain."
"As will those we rescue. We need to get started, will you see to the replication and connection of the pattern buffers?"
"Yes sir. Jason, you are doing all you can, don't let this destroy you. It's not your fault."
"Thanks Aiden," Jason said as he left Aiden's quarters. I need to go tell Sean, he thought. Jason headed for the quarters they shared, the Captain's quarters.