"Out of place emotions"

Doctor Seth
Medical Officer USS Sulu
http://come.to/dr.seth


Seth steadied herself as the USS Sulu lurched yet again 
under an anti-proton blast from the planet-killer.  The half 
Vulcan, half Betazoid Doctor steadied herself on a near by 
biobed and wondered what was going on with the ship.  The 
attack seemed to come out of no where, since the Sulu 
wasn't executing any sort of evasive maneuvers, which 
made Seth wonder what Captain Salinger was trying to 
accomplish.   She'd still not been contacted by the Captain 
regarding her theories and plan on how to defeat the hulking 
machine that was threatening to destroy Sigma Rogallis II.

The ship swayed again, as the inertial dampeners struggled 
to keep up with the shift of momentum while the Sulu 
changed course.   Seth checked the biomonitors of some of 
her patients, to verify all was well with their care.  While 
performing her assigned duty, Seth's mind turned to the 
current situation with the planet-killer.

The Vulcan side of her knew that even the best of plans 
would be doomed for failure if they were carried out in a 
tactically incompetent manner.    Take her plan for using 
brains over brawn to defeat the planet-killer machine.  It was 
made out of pure neutronium.  With the machines 
demonstrated ability to withstand direct assaults with Photon 
and Quantum torpedoes, which produced a destructive 
quantum wave a hundred times more devastating than a 
simple photon matter/anti matter explosion, the hull had to 
be at least twenty meters thick at the thinnest point.  Given 
the length of the machine, which stretched on for miles, it's 
hulking mass that protected it from the destructive forces of 
quantum explosions from it's exterior mandated that it's 
weight would be astronomical if brought within the vicinity of 
a larger, more massive object like a star.  It was likely one of 
the reasons why the planet-killer didn't destroy stars, only 
smaller orbiting planets with it's anti-proton beam.  Nothing 
demonstrated by the machine indicated it had any great 
power in the way of propulsion.  It derived it's energy source 
completely from the matter it consumed with it's great maul.  
When it propelled itself along, it could gather wanton debris 
to refuel itself.  But make no mistake, the act of propelling 
itself along required a drain of it's energy supply.  Just as 
using it's anti-proton weapon drew heavily on the same 
power stores, draining it's batteries and causing it to need 
more in the way of fuel to recharge.

Seth hoped that the tacticians in charge of the Sulu had a 
firm understanding of the capabilities and demonstrated 
characteristics of the planet-killer before any attempt was 
made to `slay the dragon' so to speak.  Too often Starfleet 
tacticians are close minded and rely on that "grunt mentality" 
that force is the only course of action.  Take the planet-killer 
as an example.  One would have to be utterly incompetent to 
try and divert it with the ship in close range of it's anti-proton 
weapon, especially if it's running on a full supply of fuel after 
consuming say three quarters of a planet?  It would almost 
be predictable that with such a large supply of available 
energy after a fresh planet `meal', that the planet-killer would 
use it's anti-proton beam without regard to conservation of 
power. . . a built in self preservation routine built into the 
machine to insure it had enough energy to reach the next  
available source of matter it could digest before it's energy 
cells were depleted.    That was the beauty of Seth's plan of 
tricking the machine into following the Sulu into close orbit of 
a star. . . once the machine was there, it would have nothing 
to fuel off of, and the sheer mass of five miles of solid 
neutronium armor that protected it from outside attacks 
would lock it in permanent orbit as the star's gravitational pull 
gave that mass * weight * that it's engines could not 
overcome without an addition source of fuel to replenish it's 
decreasing energy supplies.  With not enough fuel to escape 
the gravity well because of it's sheer, whale-like girth, and no 
sources of matter it can digest to build up it's energy
supply. . . the machine would be like a beached whale, 
waiting to die in a fiery abyss like that which it was forged 
from.

Seth shook her head, returning her attentions to her medical 
duties.  All of the crew members under her care were in 
stable condition.  The jostling around of the ship hadn't 
harmed them physically, though mentally it no doubt was a 
cause for concern.  Clearing her mind, Seth reached out with 
her Betazoid skills to try and sense what was happening on 
the ship's command center.   Closing her eyes momentarily, 
she was stunned to discover the strongest feeling radiating 
from the bridge wasn't one of anxiousness, or concern, or 
duty, or even fear.  The strongest feeling Seth sensed 
emanating from the bridge was one of jealousy, which made 
absolutely no sense to her Vulcan side at all.

"What was there to be jealous of?" she thought to herself, 
"That machine out there?"   Seth pondered over her 
discovery but chose not to sense any further.  Returning her 
attentions to her medical duties, the Doctor returned to her 
work.