USS HOSHEA: Prologue

USS Alexander G. Weyger: Stardate 88969.9

All was quiet aboard the small but mighty border patrol vessel, a welcome change for Captain Rhol and the crew. Their vessel, along with others in the Goodson class, were designed to protect the Federation throughout the Typhon sector, and specifically to safely do so throughout the interior of the Typhon Expanse. They had done so for two years, engaging most recently with the Breen and the Tholians, successfully deterring their efforts to destabilize the region.

It was now time for a different mission. The Alexander G. Weyger was to become part of a new initiative coordinating the efforts of several of the Federation's prominent Fleets. Something was happening in the Kzinti Patriarchy, and the Alexander G. Weyger was there to represent both Deep Space 5 and Deep Space 4 in ensuring that a new hostile front was not quietly forming.

Captain Rhol sat in his command chair, clasping a PADD in one hand, while sipping on a mug of peppermint cocoa with the other. Something about the drink just put him at ease, and he was deeply grateful for the humans who had devised such a perfect beverage. "Listen to this, Number One." He lifted the PADD a little, and read aloud, "Earth has been involved in several wars with the Kzin Patriarchy - but in every single war, the felinoids attacked before they were ready. Federation historians note that had the Kzinti waited for their forces to accumulate by just one or two years, they would have won." The Betazoid Captain looked to his first officer, with a wry smile. "I wish there were a Kzinti strategist leading those last few Breen attacks!"

Commander Wilson nodded. "It would have been nice. So what's changed, Captain? I thought  Lotus Fleet had this one. The Pittsburgh was out here, right? Even had Captain Speaker-of-Names commanding."

Captain Rhol took a sip of his cocoa, then set it down on the arm of his chair. "The Patriarchy is comprised of factions, Evan. The Riit Pride, the Kdaptists, the Black Priests, the Conservers... many more. The Patriarch is at the head, and in theory has absolute dominion, but power is a tempting thing - and a volatile one. Who does the Patriarch listen to? For a long time now, it has been the Conservers. As a member of a family belonging to the Conservers, Captain Speaker-of-Names has done - by all reports - a superlative job. But even Captain Speaker was noting in his most recent reports that another faction was gaining ground. One dissatisfied with the limited territory they've been confined to for centuries, and I might add with little sense of history. They note the many wars we've been in since the late 24th Century and think we're almost weak enough to pounce upon."

Wilson frowned. "What was that about attacking before they were ready?"

The Betazoid nodded.


"Captain, I'm picking up an anomaly on long range sensors." It was Ensign Winters, at Ops. She turned to look behind her briefly, adding, "It just suddenly appeared."

""Just suddenly appeared", hmm? On screen, and magnify, Lieutenant." The Captain stood up from his chair, his dark eyes narrowing slightly at the viewscreen as he straightened out his uniform jacket.

His first officer stood up as well, coming up behind the Lieutenant's console to look over the data. "Definitely artificial," he contributed. "Showing a hull of tritanium-duranium compostion."

The science officer at the rear of the bridge added, "Tritanium-duranium, yes, but there's more to it than that. I've never seen this before." Her voice had a warm, earthy quality to it, tinged with deep puzzlement. "Captain Rhol," she said, addressing the Betazoid commanding officer. "The Hoshea isn't suppose to arrive at the rendezvous point for another two days..." The  woman trailed off, obviously leading and hoping.

Captain Rhol looked to his first officer, who shrugged thin shoulders. "I don't see why not," the XO helpfully replied, to which Captain Rhol nodded.

"Let's see what we have, then. Should keep Commander Laeldon busy for a few days while we negotiate with the Kzinti at the very least. Set course for the anomaly."

Soon, the Goodson-class starship arrived on the edge of 58 Ophiuchi, her hull glinting in the light of a yellow-white dwarf sun almost one and a half times the size of Sol. The anomaly drifted in a sector of space that was devoid of all other interests. No planets, no asteroid belts. The object sat there, spinning in space slowly, a dodecahedron with three spindly spires, the tips of which blinked in a slow, rhythmic sequence.

Captain Rhol looked at the object, while Lieutenant Commander Caldwell reported from the science station. "Initiating scan... Captain, this thing is old. The accumulated space dust on its hull is-" She cut off. "Sir, recommend we raise shields. Something is powering up!"

She barely had the time to get the words out before a sharp green pulse erupted from the artifact.

"Evasive action!" Called out the Commander, who glanced at Captain Rhol, alarmed, and became further alarmed when Captain Rhol collapsed against his chair, spilling the mug of cocoa while clutching his head in pain. "Raise shie-" Wilson began.

The blast struck the bridge, passing from fore to aft, leaving not a single mark upon the hull, consoles, or upholstery. Where once Caldwell, Winters, Captain Rhol, or anyone else on the bridge once stood however remained only ash.

---

USS Hoshea - Starbase Lotus

"Captain's-Log, Stardate 88972.21

This is the inaugural logo f the USS Hoshea. As the Pittsburgh before it, her five-year-mission is to extend diplomatic negotiations with the Kzin-Patriarchy, to seek out new scientific opportunities within the sector, and to explore." Captain Speaker-of-Names paced his new Ready Room, peering at one detail or another, tail swishing behind him. "Just explore. I had misgivings about the Hoshea when I was first informed of her. She is a Luna-class. A deep-space-vessel being assigned to diplomatic-border-patrol. But what Copernicus-Shipyards has done with her refit is impressive."

The Kzinti finally sat in his chair, sized perfectly for him, and gazed out the viewport. His first command, the Starbase known now as Lotus, stretched forth as far as he could see. "The Hoshea is a mighty vessel. It is a clear policy-change towards the Heroes, one which I find appropriate. The Pittsburgh was purposefully undergunned to appear unthreatening to the Patriarchy. It showed our bravery, that we did not fear them. If actions were words, our actions would have been spoken in the Dominant-Tense. This new version of the Luna-class does not make pretense. Her senses are bright and aware. Her fangs and claws are easy to see and awesome to behold. Her engines thrum with power and it is clear she will move with predatory grace. Plainly we show our teeth because it is clear they have begun to forget."

"Yet plainly do we offer my fellow Heroes a place at our side, still. If only they would hear the words of the Kdaptists and the Conservers. It was not difficult to convince the Kdaptists that the God-of-Man protects not only the humans, but all of the Federation and its allies. Far more difficult will be the fight to win back the Riit-Pride's favor with both the Fanged-God priests and the Black Priests against us. Kdar-Pride, perhaps." Speaker flared his nostrils in annoyance. "I have strayed. Plans for the negotiations can be done on the trip to Homeworld. For now I must make this ship ready. Configure the Embasssy Diplomatic Sections for the Great Prides. Find out if there is some obscure Federation rule keeping me from beaming aboard zianyas for the pride-patriarchs and I to hunt in the Botanical-Deck."


The Captain finished his log and stood once more, "Speaker to Crew," he said as he tapped one of his four digits of his right hand to his combadge. "Report to your section-chiefs for assignments. Bridge-crew. Meeting in the Observation Lounge in one hour."

---

Commander Alani Bankole was familiarizing herself with the Hoshea's main bridge while the Captain was in his Ready Room. Like many of the areas of the Hoshea, the Bridge had a high ceiling, critical, she thought, to the comfort of the myriad of Federation races crewing the vessel. The command area was relatively typical: three chairs, the center the largest due to her commanding officer's build. The chair to the Captain's right was her own, while the chair to the left was reserved for dignitaries or mission specialists. Untypically, there were also curved benches capable of seating two to the dignitary's left, and two to her right, which she discovered was for ambassadors' aides. She realized she would have to relinquish her chair should the Captain decide to host two ambassadors at the same time. As was traditional, Conn and Ops were between their chairs and the viewscreen, which the designers had made to be two stories tall.

Much like the Enterprise-D, there was an arch that curved behind the Captain's chair and those chairs and bench adjoining it, but was made of white paneling and glass, with a polished silver railing over the whole thing. The arch curved down into the carpeted floor, then emerged again to hug the backs of the curved Conn and Ops consoles. The effect was that the command area and the Conn and Ops consoles were visually encircled. Even the floor was a different color. Two colors actually. The corners of the aides' benches formed the ends of a beige oval, while the rest of the circle of carpet was a rich dark blue emblazoned with the UFP logo, and bordered in that same beige color.

She turned her attention to the two areas flanking the command area. They weren't just consoles. They were inset rooms. On "her" side of the bridge, Bankole noted with pleasure, was the Chief Medical Officer's Alcove, partially separated from the rest of the bridge by a curving console capped with a thin glass wall with the Medical Caduceus emblem sandblasted into the center of it. Wandering inside, she found a single biobed with exposed holographic projectors and scanners. The room allowed the CMO to telepresence to any section of the ship an EMH could and administer any physical treatment right there. Bankole envied the ship's doctor. She'd been in Medical once and would have killed - figuratively, of course - for such a set up. There was even a direct, one-touch priority communication line to the transporter room.

The Commander surmised the same sort of set up existed for the Chief Engineer's Alcove, and when she'd wandered over, found this assumption true. Telepresence holography scanners and projectors were present here as well, an interface for combined one-command replicator and transporter functions, allowing the Chief to create and transport the repair equipment they needed to the location telepresenced to. It seemed like everything that could be done in Main Engineering could be done here.

Alani stepped out of the Alcove after that brief once-over, as Engineering was not her strong suit. Quite the opposite, in fact.

She decided to finalize the tour around the bridge by stepping behind the arch, where she located Security and Diplomacy, side by side facing the viewscreen. Controls on the touch panels activated holographic seating that could quickly be dismissed. She mused, aloud, "I should have checked the other consoles..." With such a varied species crew, holographic ergonomics would come in handy. She hoped they did. Security's station overlooked her chair. Diplomacy overlooked the Dignitary's chair. Interesting. She passed over the Security station - "seen one, seen them all", the old saying went - and peered down at the Diplomacy console. It was divided into three sections: Diplomacy, Communications, and AART Control. The Diplomacy Officer could quickly draw from the combined knowledge of every Federation ambassador with the Diplomacy interface, monitor subspace frequencies, open channels, and more with the Communications interface, and guide the new Automated Away-Team Recon Transmitters and their sensors using the AART Control section.

She turned, knowing Sciences would be in their traditional places, but even this arrangement was different. The wall was almost a shallow "W" in shape, but with the center point elongated. Remembering to check this time, she looked at each station for holographic seat controls. They were there. There were also clearly three Science stations, with the center one being the most important, the Chief Science Officer's station. The Chief's three consoles could each be configured to view and respond to various streams of information. Currently, the center one was configured for the Simurgh sensor array, the left for Stellar Cartography and Astrometrics, and the last was showing various vital statistics for the ship itself. Biosphere deck atmospheric levels, sensor palette allocation, average temperature and humidity by deck, ship's heat emissions... it was a very complete list. A quick check of the other two science stations showed they were also completely configurable, just contained to one console.

Commander Bankole looked behind her then as the doors to the Ready Room swished open. "Ah Captain. I have to say, this is a very nice bridge."

Speaker nodded, looking around. "It is very well designed," he agreed. "I have just ordered the crew to begin preparations and bridge staff to meet in the Observation-Lounge in one hour. You should prepare as well."

"Aye sir." Bankole departed the bridge through the turbolift doors behind the Diplomacy station - was that intentional, too?, she wondered - and set about coordinating for the ship's maiden voyage.

*     *     *

Jonathan Livingstone made sure he was the first to get to the information lounge and wait for the others to arrive.

He was positively elated.

The ship alone was as state of the art as the Phoenix had been, especially well configured for scientific endeavors too but with a definite interspecies relationships goal in mind in just about everything, from deck layouts to console systems, communications and living facilities; and the sensor systems were a true marvel to behold, beyond even what the flagship Horizon could boast. Before morning, when the ship was more or less asleep, he had toured it and explored it with his huge yellow eyes, his sensitive feathered hands and his sheereess, his brain implants allowing him to connect with any electromagnetic wave near him and, with skill and practice, activate any system of the ship with but a mere thought, as if it was part of his own body.

By the end of his tour, he had a good "feel" of and from this USS Hoshea.

Sure, this Luna class refit was heavily armed and that was most annoying to his inherent pacifism. As aX"Ell, he was unwilling and unable to commit any act of violence of any kind, down to his very core; not a philosophy wisely asserted as with Vulcans, but something that was ingrained in his delicate, fragile avian physiology. Fortunately,  the Hoshea's clear and effective design for diplomacy and exploration first and foremost was comforting, reassuring; the commanding officer of such a ship would understand this was not a warship and her mission would not be one of violence... hopefully.

Jonathan had taken the time to familiarize himself not only with the ship but with the pleasantly diverse crew, most of all the one individual that would give spirit to this vessel; her commanding officer.

The X'Ell had to admit that he was impressed; not so much by his remarkable career successes, including his admirable command of then Starbase 10 and Lotus Fleet during the horrible Last Borg War, but from his character. This Captain Speaker-Of-Names was Kzinti, a felinoid species just as inherently prone to predatorial instincts and territorial dominance as his wasn't. Yet, in every record and even rumor about him, he had shown to be well above his base nature, in perfect control of his instincts and a staunch beleiver of Federation values of peace and universal brotherhood.  

If there was but one example of what this United Federation of Planets pretended to be, hoped to be and how best it could be, it was him. He was in fact the first reason why Livingstone had applied to transfer to his ship.

But he was not the only reason. As a scientist, eager to discover this vast universe, the Hoshea was the perfect tool. Isolated from the rest of the galaxy for millions of years within their cloaked Dyson shell, his own people had full knowledge of it, even well beyond what Federation already had; but it was observational knowledge, not experimental knowledge. And contrary to most of his kind, Jonathan did not felt content with knowing; he wanted to live what this universe was and offered; most of all, it's sentience.

That was why he had left the Phoenix for the Hoshea; as a diplomatic ship, she would go out of her way to meet new people, new species and work dilligently to establish peaceful and mutually beneficial relations with them. That was what he craved for. Not only to live in peace, like other X'Ells, but to make peace.

And again, his thoughts went back to his new commanding officer. His former and first captain, the reknowned Vulcan captain Syntron, inventor of the now famous Space Sonar, was a logical, peaceful being sharing Jonathan's scientific curiosity. But he had shown himself somewhat reckless and coldly detached from the consequences of his curiosity when they had discovered an alien facility obviously belonging to an unknown civilisation. He had let his people carelessly tamper with it, despite dire warnings from his chief medical officer about this Prime Directive that most of all gives a glimmer of hope to this Federation. People had been hurt, things had been damaged and a threat had been brought to them all that only the experience of the starbase commander had managed to abort.

Later, Captain Syntron had showed better judgment when dealing with a lost starship invaded by a hostile energy lifeform, agreeing with Livingstone to do all that was needed to oppose, contain and nullify them with minimal violence and no loss of life; but his emotional suppression had the potential of reviving any time his cold uncaring attitude in the name of scientific inquiry.

The X"Ell was just as inquisitive... but never to the point of disregarding the rights and integrity of another being or culture. Born and raised in an environnement that was larger than all the M class planets of the galaxy put together, a X'Ell had no notion of  territory whatsoever; but a X'Ell had the highest regards toward life and self-determination. Hopefully, this remarkable Kzinti captain and this diplomatic explorer ship would share this outlook in deeds as much as in words.

And so, he stood there, on his bare scaly inverted three-taloned legs, the big round eyes of his thickly blue-feathered, lights-doted head blinking in anticipation to meet his new fellow explorers of the stars.

 Sean had boarded the Hoshea twenty hours ago and, but for a brief five hour nap, had spent the time familiarizing himself with both the bridge engineering alcove and main engineering on deck thirteen. There, with both the main computer core, main navigational deflector and both the main and auxiliary warp engine's handily available, he came to know the heart of the ship.  The computer cores main unit spanned decks twelve and thirteen, while the main warp core spanned decks thirteen through fifteen. With both an Auxiliary and a reserve warp core, plus the Sangliar impulse drive, this Luna Class starship had power aplenty and to spare.