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https://www.shadowfleet.org/forum/katra-station/s3-m8-best-laid-plans-13866/msg259687/#msg259687

Tag to the EMH, it does have feelings after all! And Chigorra

["No, no, belay that please"¦"]

Ambassador Chigorra
[Klingon Embassy - Katra Station - 0812 Hours]

"No, no, belay that please"¦" she said to Serena, shaking her head like a distressed bovine beset by biting flies. "It's already passed"¦ Whatever it was, it made me feel awful. If you didn't feel it, then it as well, it may have just been something that affects my species." She huffed, pushing the odd event into the past where it belonged.

"If you still have time, let's see that reception desk connected to the station's information and communications network. Anything on that system will be non-sensitive, but a similar physical disconnect would be marvelous."

[Klingon Embassy - Katra Station - 0812 Hours - Medical EMH]

A medical hologram appeared.  It looked around, fixing its eyes on the Ambassador "Please state the nature of you medical emergency" it said.

It flipped open a medical tri-corder.  Prepared to start taking scans.  But waited for a reply before doing so.

Ambassador Chigorra
[Klingon Embassy - Katra Station - 0812 Hours]

Chigorra could only look on with horror as a holographic being appeared in her Embassy. While it might be Federation technology, the presence of the thing confirmed that such holograms could be projected into her space. The Klingons were familiar with holographic technology, but only a scant view of their vessels and bases employed it in any capacity. Klingons tended to play rough with their holosuites, to the point where the maintenance costs skyrocketed beyond the actual value in the eyes of Imperial bureaucrats.

"No, false alarm. No emergency." Chigorra claimed, waiting a few moments for the thing to disappear. Once it did, and once she confirmed the thing appeared to be gone, she looked to Serena. "Can we... disable the holoprojectors in this room? I'll put in a ticket, if need be..."

[Klingon Embassy - Katra Station - 0812 Hours]

The EMH didn't fully believe the Klingon.  It did flip the tri-corder closed though.  But looked to King before disappearing.

"Ma'am.  You were the one to call, correct?" it asked.  But frowned when the idea of disabling the program was mentioned.

[Katra Station | Klingon Embassy | 0813 hours]

"Uh..."

Serena frowned, turning from the Ambassador to the EMH and back. She then hesitated. This was the Klingon Embassy and was thus sovereign Klingon territory. Chigorra's wishes had to be taken into account. Hesitating a fraction further, she decided the Klingon, while stubborn and prideful, was honorable, but not non compos mentis at this stage.

She turned to the EMH and opened her mouth and closed it. As an Engineer, she was fully conscious of the debates whether a hologram was sentient or not. Although most of the responses were programmed or coded, there was a fine line between an AI and true sentience. Best to play a neutral ground.

"I believe it is a false alarm. I trust the patient in this instance and will take responsibility. However, you may be called upon again. Computer, deactivate EMH."

Turning back to Chigorra, she bowed slightly. "The Emergency Medical Hologram is just that for a reason. In a true emergency it can respond in seconds, faster than a physical medical team. It is out of an abundance of caution. I prefer not to use them myself, but in the event of an emergency, you'd want them available too."

Hi Kirok, Kyle,

Let me compromise this for Engineering:

1: If the ship needs to sail, check with Rinaya Riss firstly. If she wants aboard, that's fine, I'll stay on Katra
2: If Rinaya doesn't participate, then I'll go on Lirpa. With PO1 Samantha Spalding (human female) as Katra's senior NPC Engineer. We'd spoken about this separately

But please put ol' Spalding on the NPC roster anyway.

https://www.shadowfleet.org/forum/katra-station/s3-m8-best-laid-plans-13866/msg259593/#msg259593

Tag to Chigorra. For once Serena is useless in a situation like this. 

["If you'd be so kind."]

Ambassador Chigorra
[Klingon Embassy - Katra Station - 0812 Hours]

Chigorra knew a little about Earther cultural and ethnic divides, but she knew few of them by name. Serena's education on the Chinese culture was welcome. Her knowledge of Klingon geography was accepted without special note; it was proper to be familiar with the most famous planet in the Universe, surely. Chigorra bent down, which was quite a long way for her, and ensured the cable was in the disconnected position for now. She wasn't quite ready for the next steps just yet.

In answer to Serena's question, she nodded briskly. "If you'd be so kind." she said, leading the way back to the entrance of the Embassy

Chigorra suddenly halted, as an entirely unfamiliar, unwanted, un-Klingon sensation flowed over her mind. She shook her head, but the sensation was pervasive, some kind of placid calm attempting to force out the feelings and thoughts that tended to violently thrash about in her mind. She pressed a finger to her temple, unable to push the feeling out as quickly as she wishes she could.

"What.... is.... THAT?" she asked haltingly, wondering if some kind of poison mist or telepathic weapon were being aimed at her!

[Katra Station | Klingon Embassy | 0812 Hours]

"Ambassador?!"

Serena had barely taken a few steps when Chigorra reacted to... Something. There was no visible sign of anything but something was happening to the Klingon. Serena was unaffected and she frowned.  "Send a medical team to the Klingon Embassy stat!"  For a few moments she couldn't remember where in the station Medbay was, but she knew if she tried to take the Ambassador against her will, it might turn into a wrestling match.

Any thoughts on a motto? The ship's logo should be done in a day or two, but the motto is going to be by group consensus...?

https://www.shadowfleet.org/forum/katra-station/s3-m8-best-laid-plans-13866/msg259510/#msg259510

Tag to Ambassador Chigorra

["Ah yes, qe'S'a'. I remember reading it at Klingon Academy. One of the assigned texts."]

Ambassador Chigorra
[Klingon Embassy - Katra Station - 0812 Hours]

"Ah yes, qe'S'a'. I remember reading it at Klingon Academy. One of the assigned texts." she said distantly, seeming to indicate that she hadn't read the text since.

The Ambassador listened politely as Serena shared her thoughts, observing her work without getting in the way. Her attention faded only briefly as Serena spoke about food, nodding along politely despite not having a strong frame of reference. It had been years since she had eaten gagh, of any kind, and the last time she had tried pipius claw, it had been when her sisters Gh'naya and Ed'ha were still alive. Chigorra was four at the time, and the claw had been served in the gelatin made from ground-up bone and, rather than eating it, the girls had flung it at each other across the table in a mass food fight that they were surreptitiously ordered to clean up afterward. Her only taste of the claw came from whatever had gotten into her mouth after receiving a blast of the gunk from an accurate throw of Gh'naya's.

Chigorra looked to where Serena pointed, indicating the section where a physical disconnection could be made. She then claimed that the work would not take her another minute, and Chigorra took her at her word. To continue the conversation, Chigorra asked an important clarifying question.

"Tell me what "˜Chinese' is, Serena, daughter of Teresa." She deduced it was a species from the context, perhaps one that this human admired? Or possibly a planet known for its own Opera?

[Katra Station | Klingon Embassy | 0812 Hours]

"Oh! Silly me."

Serena threw her head back and laughed. "Terrans. That is, the natives from Earth. We are genetically diverse, but also where on Earth we came from. Those cultures that developed along the shore would have their culture and their food develop more along from produce from the ocean. Those inland, near mountains would have a culture and food alongside say mountain goats or things found in caves."

She looked at the Ambassador as she worked "Much as how the Klingon peoples have their diversity. I'm sure that someone from say the Kingral Hills versus someone from Mempa, or Rura Penthe or Ty'Gokor has very slight differences in pronounciation and food habits. My... Background culture is ancient, several thousand years. Although our songs and culture are not as rich and while we don't have a single figure as prominent as Kahless, there is much the Chinese and Klingon cultures have in common."

Serena knelt down, wincing ever so slightly as she did so, finally attaching the circuits. "All done here. Your Operating System should recognize it now. You can physically press the switch, or use your own software to trigger it. And I noted you can even encode the reconnection to your credentials." She shrugged. "Do you want me to hook up your reception desk while I'm here?"

Just to state for the record since Engineering has two players, I wouldn't mind, as long as the two of us have enough workload, separately.

Okay. I'm going to do something different. We can talk about whether a ship looks cool, or its specifications. Does no good without taking into account our limitations.

• Katra is a station, not a starbase. We don't have full overhaul and repair facilities, though there is (archived) An Auxiliary drydock
• Katra is 7 days' hard travel at Warp 8 (ref)
• Katra has a Firechain Defence System
• Katra has a complement of 785, with an additional 1500 persons as overcapacity visit (ref)

While we can all discuss the merits of one ship design or another's specifications, the above realities must be kept in mind.

Overall, the station cannot support a "ship of the line". A smaller vessel, yes, but not a large one. It has to be fairly fast, as Katra is the only sovereign Federation territory, any support has to come through the Wormhole, or it has to be any garrison/support vessel. It should also have a longer refit cycle where possible, unless Starfleet graciously loans us another vessel during said deep maintenance cycle.

While the station has organic evacuation facilities (escape pods, shuttlecrafts, Runabouts etc), because of our remote location... If we had to evacuate, we would get everyone off the station. But they'd be stuck there (assuming a ship can depart DS9 immediately, it would be a full week). Therefore, any ship would have to have around 1,000 persons evacuation limit (any other transit visitors would have to leave by their own ships).

Despite my overall brilliance, I'm going to leave the sleuthing to the rest of you. But before we take on any serious candidates, we must define the role, scope and missions of any vessel before we look at a single design. It has to be appropriate to what Katra is and is to complement, not supplant, the station.

[OOC: This concludes this holo thread. Thanks for shipping along!]

[USS Schwarzkopf | Outbound from Katra Station en route to Bajoran Wormhole.

"Thank you."

An Ensign had shown her to the guest quarters. Strangely, they were smaller and even less nicely appointed than on the Squall. From the small porthole, she watched the Scoutship recede. Flopping onto the bed, she sighed and hoped she would rejoin the station before too long. She missed Gideon. She loved Gideon.

OOC: This concludes this holo thread. Thanks for shipping along!

[Scoutship Squall | Approaching rendezvous]

"There she is."

Serena looked out the viewports at the Oberth class Schwarzkopf wasn't particularly pretty, but there was a small, yeoman like quality to it, a faithful companion through thick and thin. Dressed in her standard utility uniform, she didn't carry anything, the replicators would sort out all needs. Having already acknowledged the computer response, a timer started until they'd beam her off. "Duty calls. I'll see you back on Katra"

https://www.shadowfleet.org/forum/katra-station/s3-m8-best-laid-plans-13866/msg259376/#msg259376

Tag to Ambassador Chigorra. qe'S'a' is The Klingon Art of War It's a nice meta-non-fictional book.

["Without knowing more about your interests, I'll hazard my best guess!"]

Ambassador Chigorra
[Klingon Embassy - Katra Station - 0811 Hours]

Chigorra nodded as they spoke. Ignorance of one's parentage was a rare thing among her own species; to be born out of wedlock was not a direct mark of shame upon the child, but upon their parents. In Klingon society, one's honor and prestige was directly tied to that of their family. There were the occasional pregnancies that came out of unmarried passion, but they were often followed by a formal committment. Chigorra, at least, was worldly enough to know that other cultures might handle such things differently, so she made no comment about Serena's parentage.

The door in the right wall opened at Chigorra's presence, and a waft of steam flitted out that the Ambassador walked through quite naturally. The steam was emitting from a large cast iron cauldron, a heavy, beaten thing sitting atop an electric heating element. Something... several things, were boiling away inside, and the motion of the water was causing solid objects to bounce against the insides of the cauldron. Either that, or there was something alive in there, struggling to escape...

Along the walls of the room were metal racks filled with a variety of long tools, Klingon weapons, belts and straps of leather, pieces of armor, and several dangling hooks of various sizes. The center of the room was largely clear, though there were supply crates and boxes in varying stages of being deployed. A work desk with a metal ratcheting mechanism faced the door; the mechanism allowed the desk to be lowered for a seated worker, or raised for a standing worker. Around the desk were computing devices all of Klingon make; desperately heavy, with angled corners just begging to bruise or cut open humanoid flesh. Notably, several empty weapons holsters had been bolted to various places on the desk and computers; and those were just the ones immediately obvious to the humanoid eye. Serena's sharp eye, if she were to begin digging around or opening compartments, would find more odd, empty little places where a secret thing might be stashed.

This room, which Chigorra denoted as her 'office', had a Federation Replicator as part of the infrastructure of the nearby wall. Taking the chip in her half-gloved hand, she moved over to the Replicator, pausing to observe the little chip for a moment as she answered Serena's question.

"Without knowing more about your interests, I'll hazard my best guess!" she said. "My people are not ignorant in the fields of science, bureaucracy, logistics, and the like. Despite the impression many outsiders have, likely borne from the fact that most Klingons they meet are warriors only, we are a diverse and capable species." She squinted at the chip, looking for serial numbers and the layout of the circuits and resisters in order to glean its purpose. "We manage an Empire, spanning a great portion of the Galaxy, and have done so, with varying levels of success, for centuries. We've managed systems, organized the education of children, conducted the affairs of public health and taxation and the movement of populations between cities and planets and so on..."

She ran the chip through the Replicator as commanded, before bringing the little thing back to Serena. "Among my people are artists, dancers, computer programmers... Their positions may not be held with such high distinction as other callings in our society, but they exist." She paused there, to see if this topic was of interest to the hard-working woman.

[Katra Station | Klingon Embassy | 0812 Hours]

"qe'S'a', Klingon Opera and your cuisine."

Serena took back the device with a nod. "I was given a copy of K'Ratak's edition of qe'S'a' a few years ago but didn't read it in detail. The Fourth Precept Seek Adversity. I wasn't especially bright, but I was good with my hands, so I stuck with Engineering. The Seventh Precept, Leave Nothing Until Tomorrow is something else Engineers strive for, because we push ourselves to never leave a job undone." She paused with her fingers over the PADD, still programming as she went. "All legends have some basis in fact and while I'm much less aggressive, it makes for enlightening reading."

"Chinese Opera and Klingon Opera has its similarities, except the high nasal voices in Chinese Opera could make fresh Targ milk curdle. Both are complicated affairs and tell stories, though I would always fall asleep despite that riotous cacophony." Serena smiled wryly and winked.

"As for food... Marinated entrails. Heart, intestines, liver, blood, stomach. We marinate and just serve it up in chunks. I haven't tried Gagh, but I wouldn't mind. Rather similar to jellyfish, but that's not alive and wriggling. Pipius claw is quite similar to vinegar marinated chicken talon, I believe."

Serena looked up from her hand and pointed: "I respect your sovereignty on this. You can set yourself a separate physical switch or directly hit this. It sits between the station circuitry ends and your own circuitry. Press the button, the connections retract physically. I've also encoded some software, but your programmers can make use of it. You can encode any reconnection to your own credentials or passwords to prevent anyone else from reengaging them until you're ready. And this all sits on the border. Klingon sovereignty isn't something I'm going to break if I can help it." She pointed to the base of the data ports where it would go. "This won't take me another minute." She pulled out a circuit probe as she used the hyperspanner on the little device.

Thank you! A tag back for yourself! I hope the way I left an opening for your name is acceptable, and that I was alright in proceeding forward. I didn't want to slow the action too much. If you'd like me to change anything, please let me know!

https://www.shadowfleet.org/forum/katra-station/s3-m8-best-laid-plans-13866/msg259294/#msg259294

Perfect, but also return tag ! https://www.shadowfleet.org/forum/katra-station/s3-m8-best-laid-plans-13866/msg259298/#msg259298