Orbital History

Posted on Mon Jul 17th, 2017 @ 6:20pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi

Mission: When Iconians Deserve to Die
Location: Balcony 23C
Timeline: Shoreleave Day 1

Enalia was finally home after all these years away. Most people grew up on a planet or in a colony but this orbital fortress was where she grew up. There were no seasons. No classrooms full of rowdy students. She had private tutors and eternal spring for seventeen years. Looking out over the balcony of the twenty third floor of the central castle, she listened to the sounds of the main commons area behind her and enjoyed the artificial breezes and the view of the lake and forest on this side of the biodome that she had so missed. for sixty kilometers in any direction from the silver castle was a naturalist's wet dream. While the castle itself extended up past the actual dome and into space a few decks, that was still over two hundred floors of usable space and each floor had more floor space than deck ten of the Hera. As for the sub levels and the cellars... There was just no comparison. The Arton family name carried a fair bit of weight and this station backed that weight up quite nicely. As proof, the food and alcohol was real and the only concession to modern convenience that had been made was that the staff had to have been replaced some years ago because of her mother's negligence with holo-servants. Otherwise, this whole place would now be in shambles and unlivable. Thankfully, the Nova series singularity reactor was as stable as ever. The engineers that maintain it told her that that thing would outlast the sun the fortress orbited, it had been built so well and that they didn't even need to come back to check on it but once a year to check the backup batteries in the consoles.

Yes, this was still home. She was just now able to appreciate it more fully.

Thex like most of the crew was appreciating the shore leave though this place was leaving her in shock. Her own family compound could have fitted onto the bottom floor of this place with room to spare. Hell, the broom closets were larger than her room had ever been.

Her antenna sensed some of the hidden machines that kept the place running as she walked down the corridors simple amazed someone could own all of this.

As she walked passed one of the doors she noticed the captain standing on one of the balconies. The andorian walked over slowly grinning slightly to herself. " Captain i have no idea how your family built this place, but it amazing. " The young engineer said.

"Thank you. My great grandmother actually paid for it with the resources she salvaged from the planet we just watched blow up in 2160, if you can believe it," Enalia replied with a lopsided grin. "And it only took her three years of salvage operations to do it, too. For better or for worse, the years after that cemented my family's position in the aristocracy. Either way, this is home."

Turning to face Thex, Enalia grinned wider. "Is there anything I can do to make your stay more comfortable? Any questions I can answer?"

" Unlesss you have something to speed up my immune system to deal with this...." Thex replied holding up her arm where the medical rejuvenator was still attached to help her body deal with the bacterial infection from on the genetically modified creatures bites. " i'm okay. I'd like to know more about this place though. I mean what shielding does this place have so it doesn't get fried when a big solar flare goes off. " She asked politely the engineering side of her taking over and allowed her to ignore the itching on her arm.

"You could try the hot springs out at sector nineteen or the rejuvenating baths on deck sixty... something... I think.. The maids will know where they are..." It had been too long since Enalia had been back, it seemed. She only remembered the location of the hot springs because she'd been dying to go soak in them for months now. "As for the shielding, other than the normal planetary grade ray shielding, there's an electromagnetic field keeping a cloud of radiogenic particles around the dome similar to the Van Allen belts around most class M planets. Unless the local sun has a really bad day, we're perfectly safe. Even then, we have an early warning system and the power to move out of the way in time or at least evacuate, if it's absolutely necessary. In fact, I'd say we're safer here than on almost any Federation starbase."

" Sounds like your family thought of everything whilst building this place. If my antenna didn't pick up some of the noise, I wouldn't know where the machines were. Your a lucky woman captain growing up my room was smaller than the broom closets in this place. " The andorian replied grinning to herself.

Enalia grinned and stared out across the lake and forest again. "Lucky in many ways, yeah. In others, I'm not so sure. The only people my mother allowed me around were the staff and the aristocracy that came visiting until I was nine years old when I started looking into what it would take to run the family business. Even then, I'm pretty sure she did her best to keep me in a sterilized view of it. My tutors made sure that didn't happen though. Thank goodness."

" I know how that feels. All four of my parents wanted me to be a good little andorian extremist so i was locked inside the family compound and forces to do whatever I was told to do. " Thex replied looking out over the station's environment.

"It's funny how parents try to mold their children into replicas of themselves and Starfleet comes along and the next thing you know, we're nothing like them." Enalia scoffed lightly at the thought and turned back to Thex to try to change the subject. "So is there anything in particular you're hoping to do while you're here? Anything new you want to try or something nostalgic?"

" Well, as soon as my arms healed I plan to get in some swimming. The place has plenty of pools and the lake. After that, i was planning on heading out to the systems. There a fight pit one on of the planets and I'd love to get in some matches. My only decent family members said he'd meet me there as well. " Thex replied smiling to herself. " What about you Telvan you have plans?"

"I'm probably going to stay around here and enjoy being home. I haven't really been back since I joined Starfleet." Enalia smiled brightly as she straightened up and tugged down on her shirt a bit. "Besides, I need to be available just in case someone gets in trouble. I may have four pirate crews on my family's budget patrolling the system looking out for my crew, but that doesn't mean trouble can't still happen anyway. There are aristocrats out there that look down on my family even now because of our history as pirate hunting pirates, privateers, and mining entrepreneurs. Mostly the ones with ties to the Syndicate, of course."

" The ever annoying problem that is the Syndicate. No matter what we do they always seem to come back. My first ever intelligence job was dealing with them and they still plague the galaxy." Thex responded memories of her earlier life coming back.

"They'll likely be around for a few hundred more years too. As long as corruption persists, filth will linger in the shadows." Enalia was actually quoting her grandmother, but it applied to the Syndicate quite well.

" Indeed. Still, the galaxy has us to make sure they don't stray out of the shadows." The blue engineer replied with a grin.

"Thank goodness. I can't imagine a galaxy ruled by them and I sincerely hope they never do." Enalia grinned back.

" I doubt they could hold a stable government together for more than a couple of years before infighting started. Still, you are right I hope they never get any serious hold on power. They're bad enough just skulking in the shadows. Still, i'll go and find that pool you mentioned. Talk to you later captain. "