Deep Space, The Dead Zone
Aboard ISS Belfast Windfall

Biggs Hilsfar objected to the term 'mess deck.' It was known as The Lunch. Arella and Mack sat by a window in The Lunch, eating what was not lunch but a late dinner. Technically, it wasn't a date, but Mack was working his magic. Of course, an impartial observer might have disagreed about who was working magic on whom. Mack had been on bridge duty when Arella explained how she knew where the relay was. She promised to explain it to him in person. Dinner was his idea.

"Plasma bolts," she said, twirling her linguine on a spoon with considerable expertise. "The Uhlek came at the Allied fleets with plasma bolts, you poor thing," her grin would have been unbearable were it not quite so enticing. Mack's magic was working, all right.

"So how does that find the relay for us? Will plasma bolts enhance some kind of signal reception?" Arella rolled her eyes.

"You sorry circuit pastes are alike, you know. Always have your faces buried in the array console, playing with some pithy modulation or other." She was clearly enjoying dinner. "The harmless dolts, always buttering up to the captain," she preached to the room. Arella put on her best nerd face "oh, sir, perhaps if we rerouted the frequency emitter through the bloody lavatory, we might--"

"Hey, Hey! Throw me a bone! What about the relay?" He was working hard at being offended, but things weren’t working out.

"Oh, very well,” she relented. Leaning her elbows on the table, she began to explain. “Look Mack: image you were an Empire skipper. You've grown up watching the capital ships and fleets of Earth obliterated by Uhlek. What's more, you've suffered the opportunism of the Gazurtoid because you were too hammered to regroup. And why? Plasma bolts," she explained. "You might be able to outrun them, but only along a single vector; try to maneuver or dodge, and that's it. Imagine not being able to press home a good tactical position because the second they unleash a bolt, you have to run." Mack followed closely. A few pieces were still missing. Why was ISS Belfast Windfall heading to that dim brown star? There weren't even any planets there, just that goliathan asteroid belt at the edge...

"Was that a shining glimmer of realization I just saw?" asked Arella. "How charming. Lead them to water and they may yet drink," she smiled. Patrician in her manners, Arella left spot of food on her plate and sipped carefully at her delicate M’rellian wineglass. "Signal modulations, indeed." Mack had to laugh. "Do you see? The only way to neutralize a plasma bolt is for it to hit something else. Asteroids. With good enough pilots and small enough ships, you can tear through the outer edges of a belt, putting space rock between you and the plasma bolts. If I were desperate, that's where I'd plant the flag. If Earth were too vulnerable, I might also consider it as an alternate jump-off point for a Noah mission. But if you want to do that, you'd better have a means of communication coordination. If nothing else were available, mightn't you commandeer a Nomad Relay Booster to pluck your precious messages from the void?"

Mack was dumfounded. "Of course. It was probably built on the remote model! You don't relay, exactly. Not in this case, no. Instead you basically cast power along the route and tow--" He stopped when he realized Arella was paying no attention. She was placing her utensils on her plate. She looked up. The grin was not quite concealed.

"Now, you blathering goon," she said, "Aren't you going to ask me to dance?" Off the port side, the Nebula was once again the dominant view. The storms were somewhat in abeyance.

----------
Next: "First Wave"

Alright, already! Enough of this cerebral thinking-type trash. Next installment, we're bringing on the violence. Oh, yes. There will be explosions and discharged weapons. There's an old Thrynn saying that dates back to about 2771: "Ssssssson of a b----!" Stay tuned.

"Hilsfar & Company: Because Holodeck Plots Are Cheap"