View source for Omoikane 10 Boa-Olavax

== Omoikane 10 - Boa-Olavax ==



We entered the Boa-Olavax system. 

It was sprawling.  They had asteroids further away from their primary than Earth, but plenty of them, and a couple of good mining planets.

The system was littered with the usual stuff you see in built-up, civilized star systems.  There was their main military base, surrounded by military starships.  There were big solar-powered refineries, turning sunlight and deuterium into starship fuel. 

There was a lot of traffic.  We weren't asked to turn control of the Omoikane over to traffic control, but we were given a clear route.

We passed a huge horseshoe.  Their main civilian space city.  It was humming with activity and commercial ships coming and going.

We made our way to a big tree.

A huge cylindrical core branched off into branches and boughs.  It was more regular than a real tree, but it was clear where they got the inspiration.

Usually, trees are half buried, so you don't see that the root systems mirror the branches above ground.

Their Starship Tree looked like two top halves of a tree.  On the furthest extensions of the limbs, solar panels, heat radiators and sensor arrays all looked sort of like leaves, but more regular and technological. 

It was a sizable installation, rivaling a lot of starbases and spacedocks in the Federation.  It wasn't as big as a builder station, but then what was?

As we approached, we slowed down a great deal and picked our way through the equatorial gap where the leaves left an opening. 

Some of the branches had sub-branches where ships were docked.  Mostly Boa-Oalavax ships, but there were a couple of Bendarri cruisers and some Orion ships there.

Cocoons took up some of the Docking areas - the Boa-Olavax created large spun cocoons for doing heavy repair work on ships.  The material, a sort of high-tech flexible metallic fabric, wasn't as tough as hull metal.  But it could be rolled into interesting shapes and fixed with some high-tech epoxy-like material to create a temporary air pocket, allowing a crew to work in comfort.  They had standardized cargo locks incorporated into the structure, so materials could come and go. 

It was interesting and pretty - a starship tree with starship fruit in various stages of ripeness. 

At our destination, there was a Damyip transport.  The Damyip liked a curved ellipsoid as their ship basis.  They had a new run of ships that looked like a mix of Damyip and Federation technology. 

This one was the front half of a curved ellipsoid, with a spine frame extending aft. It had an engine pod on the back where new warp drives and impulse drives looked very Federation. 

It was labeled "DYP 14.8.10.2.45",  in Federation script right where the NCC numbers should go. 

Along the ventral side, cargo pods.  The Federation default pattern.

Those would be our new Impulse drives. 

We slid up to the dock, very slowly and carefully, talking with station control very clearly the whole way.  We got to the right spot and came to a stop relative to the station itself.  Tractor beams towed us into contact.  There was an adapter arm that fit our ship, and the fittings for external support mode. And docking adapters that fit our hatches and airlocks.

All of this was made of Damyip materials, to Federation specifications. 

"USS Omoikane, welcome to the Starship Tree at Saukassas. We're glad to have you.  Engage support mode."

"Engaging support mode,"  I said, "Thank you Starship Tree. We turn control over to you."

"Roger, Omoikane.  Enjoy yer stay."

We'd have to turn off the whole power system to replace the damaged Impulse drive units, so there was no help for it.

But it bugged my inner control freak. 

-*-

The Bendarri and Boa-Olavax delegations finished up our presentation looking grim and a little tired. 

"Well, that's interesting news,"  The Bendarri Captain tried to sound a positive note.

"I called for a Federation Diplomatic Mission to the Shard to negotiate treaties regularizing our contact," I said. 

"How soon do ya think we can expect the Shard or the Dragons to appear in our space?"  The Boa-Olavax General asked. 

"Well, I'd expect scouts from the Shard to be along pretty soon.  They seemed very interested in Oron and the Lefyt. They're also not dummies, so they'll want to gain information before planning any sizable policy about this area."

I continued, "As for the Dragons, you're at the far end of their range. The fact that we haven't heard of them already is good news.  I suspect they won't rouse themselves for a long journey without a good reason."

The expressions on the Boa-Olavax faces were not promising. 

"Computer,"  General Forty-Five said, "Call up Files in the X Zero Five folder."

"State Authorization."  The Boa Olavax computer replied.

General Forty-Five did so. 

The files showed wrecks encountered by the Boa-Olavax Space Navy and free-lance scouts along the spinward frontier. 

One was a Shard ship, another one was an Agusoapan raider.  One was a Boa-Olavax scout ship.  One was an adventuring mercenary ship.  One was completely unknown. 

All were torn up, and had large parts of their hulls missing, in damage patterns that were mysterious to the Boa-Olavax.  Until now.

These were all encountered in what the Boa-Olavax considered their Spinward frontier. 

A good deal closer than I thought the Dragons were.

"Aw, hell,"  I said. 

"Our ability to reinforce this area is limited,"  Captain Dorali, the Bendarri said. "We are currently engaged against the Thasites on our rimward frontier.  Although the fighting is low intensity, the Thasites are numerous."

Lotara was the name of the Damyip Social Unit.  It was her nickname. I didn't cope well with remembering the Damyip number designations in practice.  The Social units liked to take up humanoid-sounding names. 

Lotara said, "We will do what we can, to assist our friends."

"I will be recommending that the Federation send ships.  But I can't make any guarantees.  We're spread very thin."

General Forty-Five said, "It’s hard to make plans based on well-meaning assertions. We'll have to plan as if you're not coming until you get here." 

I nodded.  It was discouraging. 

-*-

In the old detective holo novels I liked, it was called working the phones. I was on the horn to Starfleet Command, reporting what we'd found and asking for backup. 

It was slow going.  We were far away from Earth and Starfleet Command. 

My doorbell chimed. "Come," said

The door opened to Tippalan. 

She had something in her mouth. **For our friends,** She thought at me.

I got up and took the thing.  It was a memory unit. Several isolinear chips in an array.

I plugged it into my terminal.

It was technical readouts.  I squinted at it.

Very very good Klingon shielding.  I didn't even know they could make stuff like this.  It equaled the best the Federation could manage. 

Anti-Proton weapon specs. These were wild technology.  I'd never seen the like. They fired a phased beam of antiprotons.  They were noted as being inspired by Iconian technology, but the components were Federation-ish.  It seemed they'd be decent anti-dragon armaments. 

Advanced power systems. These could channel large amounts of energy without overheating or breaking down. They were the equal of the systems on the Omoikane but from a different tech base.

<nowiki>**</nowiki>It's from your brothers in the Fulcrum. We're not cleared to share Federation technology.  But non-Federation tech is a different matter.**

I squinted at Tappilan.  "The Ane are okay with this?"

<nowiki>**</nowiki>I should hope so.  Getting it here took the combined efforts of millions of Ane.**

I started copying the data.

-*-

"This is going to take us a while to get up to speed on," General Forty-Five said, "But thank you.  I think we might have a fighting chance, now." 

"Usually we say ‘remember who your friends are’, but I'll wait until we earn that more."

The General raised an eyebrow at me  "Right,  Friends."

"I hope it works out that way in the long run."

"Me, too."