ROBOTREK:
=========
THE SURVIVAL POSIT
==================
A Robotech/Star Trek cross-over
-------------------------------
by
--
Aubry Thonon
------------
Episode 01
"Worf In The Fold"
===========================================================================
[Ext. shot, Enterprise under warp.]
Picard (VO): Captain's Log, stardate 47026 point 8. The Enterprise has
just completed processing the data from the Borg's
databases; Hugh has allowed us to retrieve any and all
information contained in them pertaining to the TransWarp
Conduits and although these Conduits are extensive, it does
not appear that they will cause a threat to Federation
Security. However, it seems the secret of their
manufacture died with Lore.
We are now en route to Noltim VII, where we are to pick up
the planet's new Ambassador to the Federation and deliver
him to the Babel conference. I am looking to forward to
meeting Ambassador Tackoff. I hear he has a very
charismatic personality.
[Int shot, Enterprise Bridge.]
Riker: Three hours to Noltim VII, Captain.
Picard: Thank you, Number One.
Riker: It will be nice to have a nice, sedate mission for a change.
I've had my fill of excitement for a while.
Picard: Be careful what you wish for, Number One, you -
Worf: Captain! Sensors register a disturbance ahead of us.
Picard: Data?
Data: Confirmed. There is an anomaly in the space-time curvature
of the area in our flight path, coupled with irregularities
in the local gravitational field.
Picard: All stop. On screen.
Con: All stop, Sir.
[Shot of Bridge screen showing an area of space where colours are being
fragmented into their composite red, yellow and blue.]
Data: Captain, there is a breach opening within the gravitational
disturbance. It resembles the opening of the TransWarp
Conduits used by the Borg. Sensors detect movement inside.
Riker: Red alert!
[Opening sequence music.]
Picard (VO): Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the
starship Enterprise. Its on-going mission; to explore
strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new
civilisations, to bodly go where no-one has gone before.
[Opening sequence.]
[Ext. shot, Enterprise at rest in front of a large, mainly rectangular, mass
of panels and cables. The Conduit is no longer visible.]
[Title: Worf In The Fold.]
Picard (VO): Captain's Log, supplemental. The... object... in front of
us has made no move since coming out of the TransWarp
Conduit. Although it has the look of a typical Borg
design, its lack of hostility leads me to suspect they may
not be involved in this matter.
[Int. shot, Enterprise bridge.]
Picard: Mister Worf, please inform Noltim VII that we may be late
picking up the Ambassador. Mister Data, any lifeform
readings?
Data: For a few seconds after the object appeared, there seemed to
be some biological readings. However, they were *not* like
any I have encountered so far.
Riker: Ferengi?
Worf: Romulan?
Picard: Borg?
Data: They more closely resembled plant-life than anything else.
I am afraid that whatever it was is no longer alive,
Captain. The readings faded 38 milliseconds after the
Conduit closed.
Riker: Then it's possible that you were picking up sensor echoes of
whatever was on the other end of the Conduit.
Data: The sensor logs insist that the readings came from the
object.
Picard: We won't learn anything more by simply staring at it. Mister
Worf, do you detect any explosives or weapons inside that
thing?
Worf: Negative, Captain. The object is inert and incapable of
harming us.
Picard: Then please lock a tractor beam on it and bring it into the
Main Shuttle Bay. I want Engineering on it as soon as you
declare it safe. I'll be in my ready-room, explaining our
delay to Starfleet.
[Picard turns to leave.]
Riker: Aye-aye, Captain.
Riker to Engineering.
Geordi (VO): Engineering, Geordi here.
Riker: Geordi, I'd like you to take a team up to Main Shuttle
Bay. We're bringing something aboard we'd like you to have
a look at.
Geordi (VO): On my way. Geordi out.
Data: Commander. I would like to request permission to join the
Engineering team.
Riker: Granted. Mr Worf... Let's make this as gentle as
possible.
[Int. shot, Enterprise Main Shuttle Bay. The doors are open and a large
object is heading in from the outside. Worf is at the tractor beam
controls, guiding its way in. The large, rectangular object finally
settles on the floor, trailing cables behind itself.]
Geordi: Alright, people, look lively. The Captain wants answers
and he wants them yesterday.
[Int. shot, Enterprise Conference Room.]
Geordi: As far as we can figure, what we have here is an engine.
Data: We located a control panel on its surface, next to what
appears to be a computer uplink. The engine seems to
accomodate manual overrides as well as computer-control.
Riker: Any idea who built it?
Worf: The manual controls were labelled in some sort of
cuneiform writing. However, there were extra tags on some
of them. In English.
Data: The device itself seems to have been designed to create an
event-horizon around itself, but without the need for a
black hole at its centre. In effect, it allows a ship to
leave the space-time continuum and travel in another media.
Riker: Subspace?
Geordi: Hyperspace.
Dr. Crusher: I thought Hyperspace was just speculations.
Geordi: There were some experiments done trying to create a
Hyperspace drive early on in Earth's history, but with the
advent of the Warp drive and Subspace Theory, well... It
pretty much fell by the way-side.
Picard: Nevertheless, someone has managed to create such a drive.
Geordi: *If* it ever worked.
Data: Geordi is correct in his qualifying of your statement,
Captain. The fact that only the drive system, and no
accompanying ship, was found would seem to point to a
failure of some sort. Probably disastrous for those
testing the drive.
Picard: But the drive *did* make it to this sector of space without
any other means of transportation?
Worf: There were no ships within sensor range when it appeared.
Picard: So the experiment was not a *complete* failure, was it Data?
Data: Looked upon in this light, there was *some* success to this
experiment.
Deanna: Do we know how to work it?
Data: The entire system seems to operate on the theory that there
is more to the Universe than just three spacial dimensions
and one time dimension. If our understanding of the
controls are correct, then whomever built this device seem
to believe there were three spacial and three time
dimensions, as well as another set of three dimensions
which I have yet to define.
Riker: Obsessed with the number three, weren't they?
Data: Indeed, Commander. Very astute of you to have remarked
upon this. Our investigation does indeed seem to bear out
that the creators of this device were fixated on the
number three. All systems within the engine were made not
just doubly, but triply redundant.
Geordi: The engineering specs we found inside the engine's cover
were all in base 27. Three times three times three. Three
cubed. The controls were recalibrated at some point to
accept base ten and convert them to the original base 27.
Deanna: So what you're saying is that someone built the engine, but
another race tested it?
Data: It may simply have been another culture on the same planet,
but that is essentially correct. Those who last used the
engine were not those who originally built it.
Picard: Do we know where it came from?
Geordi: Not really. The engine's coordinate system seems to be
vector-based. Put simply, you give it a direction and a
distance. In other words, to get from A to B, you need to
know where A *is* so you can say where B is in relation to
you. But this doesn't mean we can't get to where the
engine came from.
Data: The engine's computer has a special buffer to deal with
situations such as this one. It stores the last set of
directions given to it.
Geordi: And it also stores an extrapolation of the directions
required to get it back to where it tunnelled from.
Riker: So all that's require is to give it some power, press the
"return" button, and it goes back home?
Data: Essentially. Although the actual steps are a little more
complex than those you have just described. The sequence
of buttons requiring to be pressed is Power, A9, H1 -
Picard: Thank you Data, we get the point. I don't think we are
equiped for dealing with a new drive system, no matter how
revolutionary. We will proceed to Noltim VII, deliver the
Ambassador to his destination, then stop at Starbase 126 to
drop off the engine into more capable - and better equiped -
hands. Mister Worf, please see to it that the engine is
secured.
[Int. shot, Main Shuttle Bay. Crews are securing the fold engine to the
Bay's floor under Worf's supervision.]
[Int. shot, Jeffries Tubes, Plasma Converter. There is a flash, followed by a spraying of fumes.]
[Int. shot, Main Engineering. An alarm suddenly sounds.]
Computer: Warning. Plasma leak in sub-converter seven. Evacuate the
area. Warning. Plasma leak in -
Geordi: Geordi to Captain Picard.
[Int. shot, Enterprise Bridge.]
Picard: Picard here.
Geordi (VO): Captain, the repairs to one of the plasma sub-converters
just gave way. Seven's only venting fumes for the moment
but we'll be venting plasma soon if I don't shut it down.
Picard: Make it so.
Data: Captain, there will be a need to evacuate the plasma
already in the sub-converter before it completely ruptures.
Riker: Any ideas?
Data: It should be possible to vent the plasma through Main
Shuttle Bay and out into space without too much problems.
Picard: Will it damage the engine?
Data: There is a high probability of damage due to the plasma's
extreme heat. However, such damage would be slight
compared to a failure of the converter when under full
load. The converter will fail in thirty seconds.
Picard: Picard to Mister Worf.
Worf (VO): Worf here.
Picard: Mister Worf, evacuate Main Shuttle Bay as soon as possible.
You have twenty seconds.
[Int. shot, Main Shuttle Bay.]
Worf: Everybody, out, now! Move!
[Int. shot, Bridge.]
Data: The converter is failing. I am now venting the plasma.
[Int. shot, Main Shuttle Bay. Worf is ushering the last of his team out of
the Bay when the outer doors open, with the atmospheric field on. The far
wall of the Bay begins to glow. Worf notices the fold engine is between
the glowing patch on the wall and the Bay's doors and rushes towards the
tractor-beam controls. At the same time as he reaches them, the wall
gives way and a stream of plasma hits the fold engine. The engine starts
to glow and beeps in random patterns. There is a bright flash. When it
subsides, Worf and the controls have disappeared.]
[Int. shot, Bridge.]
Data: Venting complete, closing Main Shuttle Bay doors.
Picard: Mister Worf, please inspect the engine for possible damage.
Mister Worf? Captain to Worf, please acknowledge.
Crewman (VO): Security Officer Williams here. I'm afraid there has been
an accident in Main Shuttle Bay, Captain. Mister Worf is
nowhere to be found.
Neoculture (Crash-Test Dummy On The Information SuperHighway)
-------------------------------------+------------------------------------
Dans le froid glace de l'Olympe noir | Dans le vide de l'espace infernal -
Les Dieux malins ont en vain | Fatigue, lasse, vainqueur -
Use de leur puissance, leurs pouvoirs| Ulysse pres d'une Aurore Boreale
Contre Ulysse 31. | Rechauffe un peu son coeur.
-------------------------------------+-------- Aubry.Thonon@qed.qld.gov.au