USS Skytoucher - Mission 4 : The Loxian Peace Treaty

[Loxians]

Zentox falls back on the ground at the very moment gravitiy is restored. But he was ready for this, and lands on his feet, just going a bit through his knees, but keeping his weapon firmly locked on Kowan, who falls back on the ground that moment too.
The Loxians who had stormed onto the bridge to free Kowan, were now on the ground as well, their weapons no longer in their hands.

"Well, Kowan, it seems that you are no longer in the advantage," Zentox says as he keeps his weapon aimed at Kowan. "So unless you want to die at my hand, tell your men to retreat, as well as your ship, and surrender."

Kowan stares for some long, silent moments to Zentox, his face turning red with anger, but then he lowers his head when he realizes he is beaten.
"You have heard him," Kowan then orders to his men, "stand back and let Starfleet take control over their ship again. Return to the ship and tell them to cease fire. And tell them I surrender..."

The Loxians look around bewildered for a moment, but then realise that they have no choice but to follow Kowan's orders anyway, and use a small object to push a button and to beam back to their ship.
Zentox keeps looking at Kowan, but does not smile. He simply nodds, and then looks at commander Burma.
"I believe you have a prisoner to escort to your brig, now."

[Loxians]

OFF: good move to get rid of Zentox, Burma :P

"Oh, I would not want to disturb the Great Messiah of the Loxian people, or keep him from his important tasks to keep the universe in balance... I shall reside where you believe it best. One question, however, do you have any idea how long it takes to reach your headquarters station?"

[Will Robinson]

"Until we return home Cmdr, I recommend we stay at red alert."

[Steve McKinley]

"Sure, why not? Who else wants to Come? Final Call! Im Heading to The Bridge for the Final Call!"

[Steve McKinley]

Sure, I will, when the time is right...

[Loxians]

After some seconds, captain McKinley realises he is no longer on the bridge of the USS Skytoucher, but in some strange, unusual and alien environment. Captain Zentox gets up from his chair and slowly advances toward the human captain, holding up his hand.

"Fear not, Starfleet Captain," he speaks up, "we did not bring you here to harm you."

McKinley: "What am I doing here? I demand you return me to my ship at once!"

"Captain," Vakin speaks up in a softer tone, "the Tolok Field is erected, transporter beams won't be able to penetrate for several hours now."

Zentox nodds. "Good." Then he turns back to captain McKinley. "Captain, please allow us a moment to explain. The situation is far more serious than you can possibly know. But let me welcome you to my ship, and may Zantay, the Supreme Loxian Goddess be good to you.
Yes, Zantay is in fact the name of our supreme Goddess, as we always name our ships after our gods and goddesses to receive their blessings on our journeys. But when I say 'we', I mean the exiled Loxians. Yes, we are exiled from our homeworld, because we did not want to agree with the dominating rule of the Loxian Government. Surely, they don't name their ships after our gods of old, but after their own magistrates! How pathetic is that, huh?
Let me introduce myself, captain. I am Zentox, commanding officer of this ship, and this is Vakin, my second-in-command. And this is my intelligence officer, Zayan. Again, captain, we will do you no harm, and before we continue our talks, we will let your ship know that you are alive and well. Vakin, open a channel to the USS Skytoucher."

Vakin turns to his panel and touches some buttons.
"Channel open, audio and visual."

Zentox turns to his viewscreen, with captain McKinley by his side.

"Starfleet vessel USS Skytoucher, this is captain Zentox of the Tazay. We know we have angered you by suddenly beaming over your captain, but as you can see, he stands by my side, sound and well. We do not intend to hurt him, so please do not fire on our ship. We simply would like to talk with him, and when we have done so, he will be returned to you as healthy as he was among you just now. I'm sorry it had to be this way, but when we have explained everything, you will surely understand we had no other choice. Again, we don't intend you or your captain any harm. Zentox out."

The channel is closed, and Zentox turns back to captain McKinley.

"Well, captain, I guess I owe yousome explanation for all this now."

[Loxians]

Zentox leads captain McKinley away from the bridge, and looks at Vakin over his shoulder.

"If the Starfleet vessel hails us again, explain them that all we intend is to talk with their captain, no more. And if the other Loxian vessels try to interfere, transmit a message to all those ships that if they blow up our ship, they will also kill the Starfleet captain."

Vakin nodds, and Zentox leaves the bridge with McKinley, to arrive at some small office.  This place was at least a bit brighter and cleaner than the bridge.

"Be seated, captain, and please forgive me for this... unusual capture. I assure you once more, we have no intention of harming you, your ship or your crew. All we want is that you listen to us. Let me explain why we brought you here.

First of all, you need to know a bit of Loxian history, to understand our situation. Centuries ago, a new planetary government was elected on our homeworld Loxius. Though the election was not exactly fair. They promised us citizens a great deal of good things, but things did not turn out the way they profiled it to us.
They promised us a safer world to live on, but instead it became a strict military regime where people are no longer free to do what they want, go where they want, or even say what they want. Over the many years, regulations have become so strict, that the government does not even tolerate the smallest uprising any more. To say it in other words, if you would simply SAY you disagree with some government's decision, is enough to face heavy charges, and often the penalty is either death or exile.
I am one of those many exiles, captain. I am one of the people who stood up for ourselves, and our true rights and freedom, instead of allowing our lives to be dominated by their power. And for that reason, I am exiled. I am no longer allowed on my own homeworld."

Zentox gets up from his chair and slowly walks around in his office. There are some pictures on a table. Pictures of a Loxian female, and two Loxian children - a boy and girl of approximately 12 years old.

"This, captain, was my family. My wife, my children. I loved them to death. Do you know what happened to them, when I was exiled? My wife was brutally killed in front of my eyes! YES! But of course, that is not publicly known on Loxius, those things are 'classified' as they call it, and to suggest otherwise as Loxian civilian, means the same penalty for you. Oh, but they are good at eliminating such evidence, and at suppressing any form of rumour against them!"

Zentox slams his fist on the table, the photographs trembling on it from the shock. He takes a few breaths to regain his calm posture.

"And my children... they were allowed to live. But I would never see them again. It has been 20 years since I saw my children! What has happened to them? Are they happy? I can't know! All I know is that they were taken to some Loxian military base, where they were given a so-called 'official governmental education'. But I know better! They were brainwashed, and now they are the puppets of the government! If they would even remember their father, most likely they would not want anything to do with me any more! Can you believe that? My own children!
Ah, I'm sorry, I'm going too much into detail. It is not my personal life I intended to tell you, captain, but the life of thousands of Loxian exiles.
The many Loxians that were exiled from their homeworld over the many years of this governmental regime, retreated into the large asteroid field of the Dark Passage. And that was more than necessary, I tell you. Because the government likes to play games as well. Often, they send their cadets on 'field training', and that means: take a Loxian attack cruiser into space and kill as many Loxian exiles as you can.
They have no regard for our lives. An exile is not worth to live, in their eyes, we are deemed worthless. We are a filth to the universe. The asteroid field is a perfect hiding field for us to stay away from them. But it makes surviving very hard. There is nothing to be found inside this asteroid field, except for some few asteroids that are worth mining.
I will be blunt and honest with you, captain. All you see that I have here; this ship, our clothes, our food - we all stole it during raids. It was either that, or starve and die. The asteroids are not fit to live on, so our ship is our home. We live to defend it, and die defending it. If our ship is destroyed, we have no chances to survive. Among the exiled Loxians, there is no order, they are all splitted up in tribes - a tribe of one or a few ships, and often tribes will fight each other to gain the material and food of the others, when the survival needs press once more. We are doomed.

And when we heard about this situation that the Loxian government intends to sign an alliance with your Starfleet, we became desperate. Because we know them well enough - by the Goddess Tazay, we spent our lives fighting them and fleeing from them - and what they want is a strong partner, to eliminate us for once and for all.
Please, captain, listen very carefully. If you sign a treaty with them, you will never see the end of it! And our last hope for survival will be forfeit! Our last hope now, is YOU. You and your Starfleet ship, you can help us regaining our freedom. We will never have the means to fight back against the Loxian government, we are not strong enough for that, and every year there are fewer of us. Please, captain, at least think it over - we need your protection, now. Your protection against the corrupted Loxian government. No more."

OFF: now would be a good time for McKinley to respond http://expansionfleet.sparks.priorweb.be/ikonboard/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'>

[Skon]

Captain, after analyzing our latest sensor data, I have additional information. The warp signatures of the vessels that attacked the Tazay are consistent with Loxian military ships -- not Loxian renegades. I believe that the Loxian government attacked that ship.

(Edited by Skon at 2:54 pm on Sep. 15, 2003)

[Loxians]

Zentox gives a sigh of relief.
"Thank you, commander. You have saved many lives with this decision. The grace of the Goddess Tazay is with us today, and with you too."

[Loxians]

At that moment, the Loxian government ships attack the USS Skytoucher again. This time, they don't target the warp nacelles - since they are offline already anyway - but the shield emitters. The ship shudders under impact once more, but the Loxians do not give the Skytoucher the time to come about... and launch yet another attack of forceful firepower.
On the Skytoucher's bridge, panels explode and smoke spreads through the room.

"Listen to me!" Zentox' voice resounds somewhere on the dark bridge. "They don't care about you, they don't care about your ship, they don't care about your Starfleet! All they want is to exterminate me and my people - to any extent!"

Soon, he finds commander Burma through the smoke.

"Commander, if you will not permit me to surrender myself to Kowan, then please allow me to send a distress signal to my people in the asteroid field. I know a secured frequency code we always use. Kowan can never decipher it, its so different from their systems that they can never monitor our internal communications - one of the few ways that have helped us survive this far - but the Loxian exiles in the asteroid field will unmistakably recognize that it comes from me, and come to my aid. Perhaps then we can shake Kowan and his ships off, and save your ship and both your and my people."

[Vorak]

OFF: Skon, do you happen to have Internet Explorer 6? Because if so, let me know and the problem is easily fixed. It's a known problem with IE6 (long live IE5.5 lol) but it takes but a second to fix it, in that case.

[Vorak]

OFF: perhaps around now the ship could arrive at the station?

[Skon]

It has been a long time since I last sampled Klingon cuisine. I believe I shall accompany you, as well.

OFF: After all, the Three Diplomats should stick together http://expansionfleet.sparks.priorweb.be/ikonboard/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

(Edited by Skon at 10:25 pm on Aug. 6, 2003)

[Roland Burma]

thanx Captain, would you care to do the honours with the weapons?

[Will Robinson]

OFF: This is getting interesting http://expansionfleet.sparks.priorweb.be/ikonboard/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>