CAPTAIN'S LOG:
A Joint RPG Newsletter of the Star Trek Universe
CAPTAIN'S LOG:
A Joint RPG
Newsletter of the Star Trek Universe
"Captain ... I believe
I speak for everyone here, sir, when I say, 'To Hell with our
orders.'"
~ Data,
Star Trek: First Contact
Issue 6: January 1999 - http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/3200/index.html - [email protected]
Begin Transmission………
Captain's Log, Stardate January 1, 1999:
Happy New Year! It is hard to believe just how much history has unfolded in our life times, as well as through the epic adventures that have been carried out in the imagination. Either way, we continue to celebrate not only Gene Roddenberry's creation, but also the human spirit continuing through yet another year. Around 30 years ago, Star Trek graced the screen. In 1966, the world was changing. The US was knee deep in Vietnam, a President had been assassinated before an entire nation, concerns over the environment and health were just become apparent, and people still lived in fear of the atom bomb and the "communist" threat. And yet, through all this, Gene Roddenbery gave us a message of optimism and showed us that we all, together, could make a contribution to society. And this message continues, not only through the adventures of our characters, but ourselves. Once again, we celebrate a new beginning and remember that truly, the human adventure has only just begun….
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The CO's Guide to Aliens:
Tholians
Criag Pichach,
Co-Editor in Chief
The Tholians are not native to our galaxy, but migrated here from another. They are the survivors of a race that once dominated their native galaxy, the exact location of which is unknown. The subject races of the former Tholian empire rose in a galaxy wide revolt some 200 years ago, overthrowing the Tholian dictators. The Tholians of our galaxy are the descendance of a group that escaped the debacle and manged, by means yet unknown, to bring their planet (which was a provincal capital and a small Dyson sphere) with them.
Tholians are crystalline creatures who exist in very high temperatures. It can be assumed that boarding party actions employ special environmental suits for one or both sides.
They settled on the edge of our galaxy at the end of the spiral arm that includes the Klingon homeworld. The Klingons had claimed this territory (and the Federation had tactically accepted the claim) but the Klingosn had not colonized it extensively. The Tholians now claim it as their own and defend it fiercely, which explains the considerable hatred between them and the Klingon Empire. The Federation has turned a deaf ear to Klingon requests, through diplomatic channels, for repatriation of the colonists and base crews from the area although it is doubtful any survived the Tholian arrival.
The Klingons could probably crush the Tholian holdfast at will, but have been unable to spare enough ships to do so without dangerously weakening their other frontiers. Also, the Federation has announced it will not tolerate any aggression against the Tholians. This would presumable involve Federation fleets operating in neutral or Klingon terrictory since foreign forces are not welcome inside the Holdfast. The Tholians have denounced Federation assistance and declared strict neutrality. The Tholians are masters at playing one side against the other; the first principal of war taught in their academy is "Let's you and him fight".
The Tholains suspect that some of their former subjects may be looking for them and want to avoid becoming noticeable. No evidence of such search missions was known to the Federation prior to the General War. The Andromedians have been definitely ruled out. It remains unknown if the searchers are operating in clandestine mode, haven't searched this far yet, or aren't searching at all. The Tholians aren't taking chances.
The Klingons, in an effort to keep pressure on the Tholians without starting a war with the Federation, maintain a strong squadron of ships (the famed Tholian Border Harassment Squadron) in the area and create incidents on a regular basis. Klingon ships are rotated through this area for combat training.
The Tholians never attack anyone and vventure into neutral terrictory only rarely. There is no pirate activity inside the holdfast and no smuggling across it's border. Incidents with the Romulans have been reported, but by and large the Romulans prefer to leave the Tholians alone; the Romulans have enough enemies as it is.
The use of webs by the Tholians is thought to stem from their advanced electromagnetic systems that they developed to move an entire planet. All other Tholian weapons are identical to existing Federation of Klingon types. It is not known if these are copies or native to the Tholian race.
The Tholians use only ships with hulls the size of the PC class (or two or three of them wielded together) because the only gorging facilities they have are those of the former provincial captial. Such a facility was never intended to build heavy starships. Larger ships were presumably built at a few centralized shipyards.
This points out the single most important facet of the Tholians. They are not an entire race, but only a group (albeit over a billion strong) of refugees. There is simply no one available who knows how (or has been able to figure out how) to design a forge to cast larger hull plates. The Tholians have electronic gear that they can build but do not know how to repair, weapons that they can understand and maintain but do not have the skills to build, and automatic machinery programmed to turn out copies of devices that they could never design.
Starfleet
Marine Corps: An Insider's Story
Commander
Reichmann, USS Phoenix
The Star Fleet Marines are the ground forces of the Federation Star Fleet. They provide most combat landing forces, security guards on starships and bases, boarding parties and ground security for forward elements. There are never enough Marines to satisfy the need for all the missions required of them and the adventures are non stop. RPGing these elite units requires special skills in terms of knowledge, characterization and mindset. Commander Reichmann for instance, a Marine Commmandant for one of the our member RPGs, pointed out many varying circumstances surrounding the Marine Core. From missions against the Dominion in high intensity warfare situations, guarding the crew during an away team mission or simply trying to fit into the starship community, the Marine Core missions cover a wide exciting spectrum. Thee new RPG'er must rely on what they know well, ask questions often, post short but as often as you can or have the ability to do so, try and work into current missions as much as possible and in the same posting style that the ship employs all in order to learn the special "mindset" required of a marine officer. When in doubt, the best advice remains to always ask someone you see in the ships posts that you like their style or content. All ships usually have mentors but not all players have open time, just asking isn't so hard and is usually replied to with interest and helpful information. As for exposure any department the Marine Core often needs a great deal of exposure just to get noticed in what is typically a Starship Operations playing field and to make certain everyone knows that they are there. With the coming of the Dominion war, it has become apparent throughout RPG sites such as Tango Fleet and Prime Directive that missions involving the Federation / Dominion War is an increased focus. Interactions and aggressions with the Dominion have escalated. Heightened combat readiness, tension and alertness is now the norm. More and more even the simple and basic missions are becoming dangerous as the threat of Dominion or Borg reprisal gets involved in the operation of the ships missions. Star Trek itself ( the show/tv/movie/etc.) has never had the direction that would involve more of a marine on screen presence. Gene Roddenbury the father of Star Trek had the more social and political dynamic issues in mind , and not just another guys over the hill good vs bad type of image
and political dynamic in mind, and not the over the top boys, good vs evil type of show. Most of the current Marine information therefore is "spur of the moment" and made up by the fan audience. The on screen development of the marine corps therefore has been the basis of various technical manuals as well as books and stories but not on screen. For the most part the support mechanism and technical information of the Starfleet marines is available through these sources. Books technical manuals, and such can be found in good book stores, the oddest places, mail order. as well as live science fiction or Star Trek all are valuable sources or marine core information. Searching for information on the people, weapons, equipment and history of the marine core is a matter of looking , or asking around till you find some one that has something you are missing you find some one that has something you are missing.
Yes you could say that: I believe like many older and or *chuckles* more seasoned players that in a trek genre game one (player) has to follow what the shows and Paramount call Canon or credited Trek sources .... hard data that has been in the mainstream of the genre. On TV or Movie or in technical books and manuals, or games..... stuff that has been designed for and or by those in the business. The equipment in service for the corps is believed to be just as it is today, overlapping elements and tools from several types and styles of the military all working under one command unit. For Trek it would just be further along in technology just as the starships are. So there are tanks, fighters, ground support, heavy weapons, body armor, powered armor, energy weapons but the use of them is restricted by the detachment size and description not all ships carry a full division in their hulls. All marines train 24/7 to be what they are, professionals..... every one is similar in that he is a trained professional soldier of combat BUT! they also train as part of the society they are in. Marines are not a one dimensional unit but instead there are doctors, engineers, physicists, teachers, and more in the corps. They are not simply killing machines. A marine is not segregated from the host ship and has to operate and interact with crew members as anyone else does . The profession he is in does isolate him , mentally and because of security and general physical needs of placement is often restricted in his constant connection with basic crew members, but is just as much a part of the crew as any player is .
Subscribing Fleet News
Newsletter
Consulting Staff
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: If you are a subscribing member and did not get your RPG news included in this month's issue, please send us a brief summary of important events that you would like to see posted in the February issue by the regular deadline for article submissions. If anything major happens after that point you can contact us and we will try to add it to the newsletter as events happen. I look forward to getting news from more fleets for next month!
Amy Lindeman
Co-Editor in Chief
Captain's Log News
Bravo Fleet: In the last month, Bravo Fleet been proceeding along as normal. We have welcomed to the family several new players, and even a few more ships looking for a home. We have added a few more sections and images to the Bravo Fleet HQ site < www.bravofleet.com > .We are also working on a few additions to Bravo Fleet for the new year. Most of all, we're hopping 1999 will be as good or better then 1998! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year everyone from everyone in Bravo Fleet!!
- FAdm. Michael Bremer, Bravo Fleet CO
Centauri Fleet: The Centauri Fleet, a basic and simply built RPG site, was founded officially on December 1, 1998, by Mr. Barry Moore. "The site was at first," he says ,"uneasily built. I had just joined Xoom, and wanted to build an RPG site where Star Trek lovers of all ages could enjoy a fun game, that wasn't hard to play." Moore, or Admiral John Westbrook (C.F. name) at first couldn't even upload images for his site. "I had had the idea of basic Centauri Fleet structure, when it was originally called Argmosa Fleet. It was basically the same ideas, but wasn't very fun to visit. When I learned how to get images, create links, etc., I started making more pages until my site was complete. I later had my first member join under the name Lt. Cmdr. Harry Penn." That's me of course. "Later," Moore continues ," I was just asking for some assitance from another fleet, when one of their members asked to join. He came up with the name Benjamin, Ben when of duty, West. He has helped me to advertise, ! and was the one who suggetsed that we join the Captain's Log Newsletter. He later, and still is working, on new site which is soon to be our main page." The new site will soon be listed on the Captain's Log directory. I thought that it would be interesting to share some of this information with you, and hope have enjoyed this brief little summary. That's it for our Centauri Fleet update, and have a nice day.
- Harry Penn, Centauri Fleet Consultant
Tango
Fleet: On behalf of
everybody in Tango Fleet, I would like to wish everybody a very
Happy New Year! This month has been relatively quiet for Tango
Fleet, except for those things which were decided during our
quarterly Command Council meeting on the 19th of December. At
that meeting we voted to initiate an official NCO program in our
fleet for a trial
period of three months, at which point we will evaluate it's
success and decide whether or not to keep it, as well as an
addition of an "Officer's Curriculum" at our academy.
Other decisions included establishing a standardized set of names
for the most common positions in the fleet, approving a
"Three Strikes you're out!" rule for people who
continually fail to post on their ships, planning an open forum
informational meeting on Marine policies, and setting up a
Bulletin Board available for public use, as well as a Mailing
List available to the Command Council, to increase fleetwide
communication and response. Now with these decisions made, we are
beginning to implement these new policies, and hope to see them
all operational by the time this newsletter is sent out.
Additionally, earlier in the month, we established the new
position of Cultural Director on the Command Council, and
Commander Maria Andrews has begun to work this position into the
fleet as an integral part of our administration, adding a
personal edge to things, she plans to send Birthday Cards,
Anniversary Cards, and maybe even establish an occasional open
chat! As a final note, in the last couple of days, command of the
USS Casey has been passed down from Commander Nataya Reveere to
her Executive Officer, Lt. Commander Winston Travers, and we all
wish to congratulate Commander Travers as well as wish Commander
Reveere well in her continued pursuit of the Trek ideals!
- Andrew Grimm, Tango Fleet Consultant
UFPI RPG: Happy New Year from everyone at UFPI. Recent happenings in UFPI have included several member started groups within the organization. The first started in our Marines Special Interest Group. A place for our Marines to get the help they need from the old pros for this much under used Star Trek position. Next would be the start of out Webmasters SIG. This is a place for anyone in the UFPI or any other group to join to discuss issues pertaining to web site design for good looking Star Trek designed sites or to discuss the difference of how something looks on a PC based machine vs. a Mac. Both of these SIGs and all the other member SIGs can be found on the UFPI web site.
- Michael 'Curdy' McCurdy, UFPI Liaison
The Spotlight: Prime Directive RPG
Craig Picach,
Co-Editor in Chief
PRIME DIRECTIVE ... SET TO "BOLDLY GO"
Space, the final frontier.. In an age of discovery, a galaxy in term-oil….
Over six months of research and development have finally come to an end as Prime Directive prepares to set sail. This new play by email role playing game is unique, not only in it’s development time, but also in the universe it is set in: the Star Fleet Universe. Created in the late 1970s by ADB and Task Force Games as a separate gaming and literary entity, the Star Fleet Universe is a larger background of governments and military organizations based upon Star Trek: The Original Series. As the years went by, these two reflections of the same universe diverged slightly, yet it remains closely linked with the established canon universe. Popularized by such games as Star Fleet Battles and Federation & Empire fans of the game later came together and submitted a proposal to ADB regarding a PBEM game surrounding this universe. Later, a development team consisting of Role Player’s from several Role Playing Games, including Seventh and Tango fleets, as well as 3D artist Ted Geibel set out to design a beta "prototype" web site. The goal: create an entertaining, exciting, interesting and in-depth game based upon the ideas of teamwork and simply having fun. It was no surprise, that upon starting out, the development team was simply overwhelmed. Immediately the team turned to advisors including ADB, other popular RPGs and, above all else, Star Trek: The Original Series. As some key members pointed out, many of the problems and concerns faced by the team were quite similar to the hardships faced by the Original series creators. Some in fact found it quite humorous and before long, emails included quotes from "The Making of Star Trek". Another concern was the 20 years added by the Star Fleet Universe. This included new races such as the Lyran, Kzinti, Gorn, Inter Steller Concordium, Orion Pirates to mention a few. Not to mention the violent and traumatic Star Fleet Universe timeline including massive wars, ruthless Klingons, galactic invasions and new technology. By month three, the situation was starting to look grim. Yet the team continued on with new ideas, concepts. New technologies surfaced not only for the game, but for the web page as well: Real Audio for streaming CD quality audio, a search engine and of course Ted Geibel’s amazing 3D graphics.
Six months later, and the result, Prime Directive: The Play By Email Role Playing Game beta page is ready to commence January 1, 1999. The concept: Space, the final frontier, a universe set admits the unknown. A time where nations fight for survival, rights and ideals. The fate of the galaxy lies in the hands of those who accept the challenge and face the danger, those who serve within the Star Fleets. Nothing you have ever done, nothing you will ever do, can prepare you for the adventure that lies ahead. Across a thousand worlds, from the darkest regions of known space, to the inner spirit of the heart, the adventure has just begun. These are the voyages of those who have ventured where none have gone before, those willing to fight for what they believe in. There are no limits to what lies ahead, the unknown depths of a frontier yet to be explored. Epic Star Fleet Battles determine the fate of billions of sentience in moments of stark, screaming terror. This is an interactive universe, one which these missions ultimately shape the future of the entire galaxy as they continue the exploration and defense of these environments. The future of a thousand worlds depends upon your actions, exploration and the epic Star Fleet Battles......
The question of whether Prime Directive will fly remains a mystery but either way it goes forward with the spirit of it’s motto: Boldly go.
Meet the Members: RPG Experiences
Craig Picach
& Amy Lindeman, Co-Editors in Chief
In celebrating Tango Fleet's three year anniversary, the Captain’s Log team asked Co-Editor Amy Lindeman, also Game Manager of the Tango Fleet RPG, to recount one of her favorite experiences:
The History of the Atrius is way too long to fit into one little article for the newsletter, as is my own history in Tango Fleet, and so I won't even try. That leaves my favorite mission, but to be honest, there are way too many to choose. So, I'm going to rebel against the established prompts and right about something totally different. The topic of my article will be none other than mushrooms. I guess my rebelling isn't too unexpected for those of you who know the character that I am writing this from the perspective of, because if there is anything that Amy deLancie-Grimm can't stand more than anything else, it's authority.
With that in mind, perhaps you'll understand the dilemmas she had with the Atrius' original First Officer, Commander Blaize Mendak. When Amy first came to the Atrius, she got along with Mendak well enough- they certainly weren't enemies, at least. As time progressed, however, and as I got to know Blaize Mendak out of the game in chatrooms, as well as on the Atrius through our characters, a sort of natural feud developed between our two characters. This was quickly influenced by my character's promotion to ship's Second Officer and marriage to Admiral Grimm, and by the time the Atrius had finished her second mission, it had grown into an all out rivalry.
While still acting as Second Officer of the Atrius, deLancie did something which eventually grew into the very symbol of this rivalry, and allusions to which can still be found in Atrius posts today. Commander Mendak had received a temporary demotion to Cadet as the result of a romantic attempt to win the heart of the ship's Assistant Science Officer, Rianne Troi, and by the grace of fate (and a little help from Admiral Grimm) found himself assigned as a Junior Science Officer to the Science Department, under the direct command of Acting First Officer and Chief Science Officer, Commander Amy deLancie-Grimm. Now, this demotion may not have been so bad, if not for the fact that it had given Amy the power that she essentially spent her entire career on the Atrius working towards-being able to sit in the XO's seat. This new power having easily gotten to her head, Amy decided to take advantage of her position while it lasted, and ordered Cadet Mendak to sort every single sample of fungi alphabetically.
After spending hours cataloguing the fungi alphabetically by homeworld, Mendak realized his mistake and spent even more time correcting it and cataloguing the samples alphabetically by their scientific names. DeLancie got away with that stunt, but their troubles were far from over. Some time later, the positions became reversed, and Amy found herself the Cadet, while Commander Mendak ordered her to catalogue all of the fungi alphabetically-by homeworld. Ever since, the two have mutually hated mushrooms, and yet, continued to use that particular weakness against each other. If I could pick just one scene from one post to get a still photo of, it would without a doubt be the image of Commander Blaize Mendak wearing his pajamas, tanding knee deep in mushrooms with his fiance, as mushrooms continued to shoot out of their replicator nonstop, and aiming his phaser at his replicator.
The moral of the story, you may ask? Well, I guess it's that you can have a lot of fun in RPGs by playing practical jokes! But don't let it get out of hand. Mendak and I are great friends online, and if we weren't, we never would have considered doing the kinds of things to each others characters that we did. If you can develop that kind of interaction though, it gets really interesting, and that is one of my fondest memories of the Atrius. Even with Commander Mendak gone, I still can't resist bringing up mushrooms every now and then in my posts!
Yours,
Amy deLancie-Grimm, USS Atrius
aka Amy Lindeman, Game Manager
Frustrating Fundamentals: Life Form Problems
Sean Berg, Fiction Editor, Co-Conspirator, Doorstop, Etc.
The article about all those little things that just don’t add up….
"It’s life Jim, but not as we know it…"
Perhaps you recognize this phrase from "Star Trekkin’ Across the Universe." It may very well be that those people had a point. You may also have noticed that on Star Trek, a suspiciously large percentage (95%) of the alien species seen are ‘humanoid’ in appearance. There is, of course, a very good reason for this, being that one can only have human actors playing alien beings. For now, an unfortunate-seeming reality of Star Trek is that, for all that they can do, creating affordable, truly alien aliens is usually beyond the abilities of the crew and most importantly, the budget. Even so, there have been some rather feeble makeup jobs done… Bajorans as being ‘alien’ is laughable, since the only difference between us and them is they have a ‘crinkled’ nose that has no obvious purpose. Then again, some characteristics of people have no obvious purpose either, but are merely hereditary.
Then again, there are can be serious genetic differences between two species of flowers that make the two completely different, or other organisms that have been classified in a similar grouping due to appearance and other characteristics. (This is the science of taxonomy and biological nomenclature… something which remains in flux to this very day.) By the same token, the differences between two seemingly VERY different species, such as a human and an orangutan or gorilla are smaller than one might think, and this is one of the many reasons why evolutionary theory believes that we evolved from lower apelike life-forms. Now, consider two biological systems which evolved similar life forms (humanoid) light years apart having no contact. The genetics of the system would be very different, much as in the first case described above. Logically then… would Mr. Spock even exist? Perhaps it is going against the grain to say so, since Spock is everyone’s favorite Trek character, but it is highly unlikely that hybrid species between two humanoid ‘alien’ beings could be created… even considering the advanced genetic engineering of the future. Humans and Klingons, Bajorans and Cardassians… really it all doesn’t make much good sense. Yet we still have these characters to diversify things. Worse yet, when you DO have truly alien aliens, what happens? They take human form to save on the budget, and then fall in love with humans… <yech!> And then there are other nonsensical things such as the Klingons and their make up… "We do not speak of it," as Worf said, which seems a better explanation (the lack of one) than any.
Then again, all of these things, alien species and all, are nothing more than plot devices to explore issues of human nature, such as the conflict of cultures, racism, and other elements that make up the human psyche. As Gene Roddenberry had put it, everything, the ship, the aliens, the stories… all of them are secondary to what’s going on. It’s the people (be they green, brown, with forehead ridges, pointy ears, or otherwise) that really matter. Bravo, I say.
Neophite News: The Academy Question
... To Be or Not To Be?
Kiara Priest, Tango Fleet
Super Hero Syndrome is an all too common problem in RPGS, and it will help save you a lot of grief if you can avoid it! What is Super Hero Syndrome, you may ask, well, the best way to explain SHS is through example:
Say your current
mission is to protect a sector from some raiding pirates and
you're the assistant flight control officer. Do not make a
post that while on duty you detect a large deposit of metal on a
remote moon. You steer the ship over to see what it is and
find the pirates secret base. Your post then goes on to have the
ops officer hail the pirates and tell them to surrender.
They do.
This is known as the Superhero Syndrome. Characters
shouldn't be made "gods", knowing everything and doing
anything perfectly, or even graduating within the top 10% of the
class.
The same idea applies to your individual games - while TV shows
mostly do this sort of thing due to time constrains, e-mail has
all the time in the world. Analyze the above actions and you can
see a lot of plot problems - for one, the helm doesn't do
scanning for metals, science, tactical, or operations does.
Second, if you had the captain order you to pilot to the base,
and if you had the Ops
officer hail them, you've broken the cardinal rules of e-mail
simming, which are NEVER undermine the CO or overuse another
person's character without his/her permission. Finally, pirates
would not surrender that easily. It's definately a fine line that
is tread when it comes to plot lines. When in doubt, stick to
what you know and what you can do at your post or in your current
situation. If you have a question about what the sensors might be
reading, or even if you'd like to suggest a plot change, contact
the commanding officer or executive officer.
In this area, one can certainly not be exhaustive in listing what
is and is not proper to do in your posts. It's always a
good thing to keep in mind the Golden Rule, if you would not want
another character to make the post you're about to make, then you
shouldn't make it. Remember, the commanding officer
may do some of these things from time to time, but she/he is
doing it for good reason (discipline, plot development, etc...)
and that does not mean that you should reciprocate.
Star Trek Trivia
Stacey Lauer,
Trivia Guru and Photographer
Answers to the December set:
1. In "Crossfire", Kira tells Odo that
she liked a certain article of clothing that he used to wear, but
didn't anymore. What article of clothing was this? BELT
2. Spock once said, "______ is the
beginning of wisdom, not the end." What is the missing word
in this quote? THE ANSWER COULDN'T POSSIBLY BE
"LOGIC" COULD IT?
3. Who was the first captain of the Enterprise? DEPENDING
ON YOUR LEVEL OF TREKINESS, YOU COULD ANSWER JAMES KIRK, CHRIS
PIKE, OR ROBERT APRIL. IF YOU ARE REALLY OBSESSED (LIKE ME :) )
YOU'D ANSWER ROBERT APRIL.
4. What was the name of the woman who Kirk,
Spock, and McCoy met in "The City on the Edge of
Forever"? EDITH KEELER, PLAYED BY JOAN COLLINS
5. What is Commander William Riker's martial
arts style of choice? ANBO-JYTSU
6. (nice easy one for you) Who plays Guinan? WHOOPI
GOLDBERG
7. What TV movie based on a classic novel did
Patrick Stewart star in this year? MOBY DICK (GOOD MOVIE,
GO RENT IT)
8. What is the name of the lovable lounge lizard
that inhabits Quark's holosuites? VIC FONTAINE
9. To whom did Captain Janeway say, "I
dread the day when everyone on this ship agrees with me." ? SEVEN
OF NINE
10. From the New Frontier series, which
characters went to the Academy with Worf? SOLETA, MARK
McHENRY, AND ZAK KEBRON.
And the January ten:
1. In "Tattoo", we learn a little
about Chakotay's past. What's his father's name?
2. How many starships were lost at Wolf 359?
3. The Vorta clone their diplomats. How many
Weyouns are we up to, as of the episode "Faith, Treachery,
and the Great River"?
4. Who was the only regular TOS cast member who
did not lend his/her voice to his/her character in the Animated
Series?
5. What was the name of the Federation
President, and how did Sisko convince him that the Federation
needed better security?
6. In the event of a water landing, Data is
designed to do what?
7. How many crewmembers did Calhoun bring with
him from the USS Grissom? (Extra Credit: What are their names?)
8. What are the only 4 characters to cross over
from TNG to VOY?
9. What berry started the Ferengi/Federation
meetings with the Dominion?
10. What creature did Cyrano Jones use to get
rid of the tribbles?
Have fun!
Anniversary Celebrations: The Tango
Fleet RPG
Amy Lindeman,
Co-Editor in Chief
One of the advantages of editing a newsletter like this, is that I get to have a say in what I gets put into the newsletter, and so, when my Co-Editor, Craig Pichach, asked me to share some news about Tango Fleet's upcoming anniversary, I was only too happy to comply. Afterall, what better way to honor three years of gaming tradition, than to share your festivities with those who understand just how much those three years really mean! And so, with no futher ado, our celebrations...
In preperation for the celebration of our Third Anniversary, on January 6, 1998, Tango Fleet officers have kept ourselves very busy this month! A fleetwide chat is currently in the planning, and if it comes through, it will be the first of it's kind under the administration of Admiral Grimm. We hope to have more information about this posted on our webpages very soon. In addition to that, however, several other events are already in the planning to commemorate this event. Two new ships will officially launch on this date: New Orleans Class, USS Avalon, under the command of Captain Andrew Zankin and Commander Joseph Armadioni, and Sovereign Class, USS Endymion, under the command of Rear Admiral Tara Marshall-Hoss and Commander Marvin Tee.
Numerous individuals in Tango Fleet's command staff will also receive promotions and/or commendations on this date, including: Commodore Tara Marshall-Hoss, Captain Fyed S'Slanne, Captain Haakon O.V. Vinje, Captain William A. Kyle, Commander Deidre MacTaggart, Commander Cody Barnes, Commander Meruke Jev Lenore, Commander Arania Lucard, Commander Nine of Eleven, Lieutenant Commander Tzipora Simcha, Lieutenant Commander Nashka Jadar, Lieutenant Commander Selisca Jarax, Lieutenant Commander Winston Travers, Lieutenant Commander Kal'Ven, Lieutenant Elvon Jarax, Lieutenant Commander Sporak, and Major General William Roesch.
To those of you in Tango Fleet, I told you it was a good idea to subscribe to this newsletter! *grin* To those of you not in Tango Fleet, please don't spread these names until after the sixth, as we are hoping to make these promotions / commendations as much of a surprise as possible for the people in our fleet!
We will also be holding a guessing
contest, in which members of our fleet are invited to guess which
baby picture belongs to participating members of the Command
Staff, in celebration of Tango Fleet's "Birthday," as
well as the much anticipated publication of a
"Reflections" edition to Tango Fleet's newsletter, The
Tango Fleet Information Service. In addition to all of this, the
Commanding Officers (both past and present) of Tango Fleet have
been working diligently to compile "History Archives"
for their ships, in which the story of each ship's unique history
and experiences in Tango Fleet will be retold. We look forward to
an exciting month, full of fun and surprises, in honor of this
event!
Amy Lindeman, Game Manager
Tango Fleet Role Playing Game
[email protected]
www.tangofleet.com
Classifieds Column
Captain's Log
Editing Staff
ITO NEWS ALERTS: Often times rumors will escalate to a status where they will pit different role playing organizations against each other because of one fundamental lie that was started by an unknown prankster. In an effort to prevent this kind of thing from happening, we have established ITO (an acronym for "In The Open") as a way of getting these things out in the open so that everyone is aware of potential disturbances, and can thereby prevent anything from every coming of it. If you know somebody who has been disruptive to your RPG group, or perhaps an anonymous person who has been spamming your ship, things like that, please e-mail these reports to [email protected] and we will be happy to post such reports to the ITO alert sent to all subscribers of our newsletter! All that we ask is that you please do not abuse this service as a way of getting back at people you don't like. Also, please note that the contents of this column are purely submissions we recieve from concerned readers, and in no way represents Captain's Log taking a side on any inter-fleet disagreements. To become a part of this ITO alert chain, simply subscribe to our newsletter at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/3200/subscribe.html.
STAR TREK MAILING LIST: Thought you might be interested in joining an opt-in email list. Focus is Star Trek memorabilia; buy, sell, trade. Also for announcements. This is free. If interested, mail to: [email protected] You will automatically be entered into a drawing for a free copy of "The STAR TREK Fonts Program". Software by Bit Stream. One winner drawn for each 100 people joining our list. For example: if 425 people respond to opt-in, there will be 6 names drawn.
CONSULTANTS NEEDED: Dear readers, in order for us to better service you, we need consultants from our subscribing RPG groups that can supply information and news on your RPG group to be added to the upcoming issues of Captain's Log! If you think you would be interested in this position, or know somebody else who would be, please talk to your fleet commanders about it and if they agree, check out the Captain's Log Staff page to see if the consulting position for YOUR fleet is open, and if it is, email us at [email protected] and let us know what you would like to do!!
SUBSCRIBE YOUR RPG: In our effort to include as much of the Trek RPGing community as possible, Captain's Log is continuing to accept subscriptions for Trek RPG Groups that are interested in being listed as Subscribing members of this newsletter! We are no longer accepting charter members, however, anyone who wishes to subscribe their RPG group is ALWAYS welcome to do so! Just email us at [email protected] or see our webpage at: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/3200/fleets.html for more information!
WRITERS NEEDED: As always, anyone interested in writing a column for Captain's Log, submitting a piece of fan fiction, or even submitting an article describing something that you would like to share with your fellow Trek/RPG community, we would LOVE to hear from you! Drop us a line at [email protected] and let us know!!! Deadline for all submissions to be placed in the upcoming issue is the 20th of the month.
PLACE YOUR ADD HERE: Is there something you're dying to share with the rest of our readers? Submit your classified add to [email protected] and we will add it to this column in next month's issue, as long as it follows all of the submission guidelines listed at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Hollow/3200/rules.html
USS Avenger: "Infiltration" Part
II
Sean Berg,
Fiction Editor
BIOGRAPHY:
Seed, Lieutenant Senior-grade
Marista
Position: Ship’s counselor
Age: 26
Born: Ninth day of Myntal, 2347
Birthplace: Arias
Physical Attributes: Arian, Female
Height: 5’8 Mass: 58.1 kg Hair:
Dark brown Eyes: Hazel
Attended Starfleet Academy Medical after graduating from the University of Arias with degrees in psychology. Possesses unique abilities of mind-reading and ESP inherent to the Arian species. Has no immediate family.
Frambert, Lieutenant
Junior-grade
Position: Operations officer; Assistant
Chief of Security
Age: 21
Born: Stardate 30215 (year 2353)
Birthplace: Andorian colony Mintak Prime
Parents: Orphaned, was raised by relatives of
same clan.
Physical Attributes: Andorian, male
Height: 6’5" Mass:
76.2 kg Hair: Silver Eyes:
Grey-green
Attended Starfleet Academy and graduated at age 20. Was a student of Captain Michael Jeffries in advanced tactical training; took additional courses and promoted to lieutenant. Was transferred to USS Avenger at the request of Captain Jeffries. Has no immediate family.
STORY: (Continued from December 1998)
Gary Chan exited the turbolift onto deck 10, as the computer had instructed him that the recently returned ship’s counsellor could be found in the ship’s lounge, Space Central. Able to sense that something was not right, but never knowing quite why or how, or what thoughts truly belonged to him, Gary quickened his pace. The newly rebuilt corridors sported a new-age look that consisted of bright metallic surfaces of silver, blue, and grey, with a splash of maroon on the doors that lined the passage leading to who-knew-where. Gary marched briskly through the decorative wooden doors to the lounge, which hissed almost silently open at his approach.
He surveyed the room, and found the diminutive figure of Marista framed against the twinkling lights of the spacedock outside the windows, staring into the shipyard with a distracted fascination. As he drew closer to her, however, she shifted her attention to him, and the cold expression in her eyes remained while a warm smile melted across the rest of her face.
Gary embraced her, then after a long pause, whispered, "You know you can’t fool me like that, Marista." He tapped his temple. "Remember?"
Though perhaps they might have discussed the situation, it would seem that fate had other plans in store. The overtone of the intercom sounded, and the captain’s clear voice rang out. "This is the captain speaking. All personnel report to duty stations. Prepare for departure."
The embrace lasted a few seconds longer and then the pair split and walked out in opposite directions, Gary to engineering and Marista to the bridge. Somewhere in the shadows of the room, a gelatinous ooze crept out from a ventilation grate and smoothly formed itself into an engineering technician. Moments later, it marched out the door and headed in the same direction that Gary had.
***
The deck rumbled ever so silently as the engines began to energize, and Commander Ariel Sanders gripped the rail that separated the aft deck from the forward section, staring at the image on the main viewer. "Clear all moorings. Engage thrusters. Bring us about, fifteen metres per second," Sanders ordered.
The ship began slowly to move, drifting in reverse, then turning about in the restricted quarters of the shipyard. The Starship Enterprise remained visible on the viewscreen for a few seconds longer as the Avenger slowly rotated to face the eagerly awaiting star field beyond the huge space doors at the edge of the yard.
The voice of the shipyard communications officer projected through the ship’s speakers, saying, "USS Avenger cleared for departure, dock 4. Good luck, Avenger."
Captain Jeffries, tapped a switch on the arm of his chair and replied, "Acknowledged, control. Avenger out."
Sanders stood up taller and marched slowly to the forward station. "Steady as she goes, Ensign. Stand by for one half impulse power on my mark."
Sarrell, currently engaged in steering the ship past a pair of half-constructed Defiant class battle cruisers, nodded. Sanders glanced at the two small warships and wondered at precisely how desperate things were becoming along the frontier. In the past 48 hours, the traffic through the shipyard had been virtually non-stop, as starship after starship completed repairs and weapons refits, and headed back into action. From the description of the hectic operations center that the captain had described to her earlier, it seemed that Starfleet was mobilizing all available forces.
Meanwhile, the open space doors loomed closer and closer still, and Sanders noticed three fellow Galaxy class starships, as shiny and new as polished silver coins, floating, almost menacingly, in close formation and blast into warp speed simultaneously a few seconds later in the distance beyond the doors. With a twinge of humour, Sanders nodded, saying, "Now, Ensign."
The slow, graceful departure of the massive vessel through the spacedock abruptly ended and the vessel rapidly accelerated through the exit, seeming to thunder into vacuum of space. Along the observation deck of the spacedock, observers stopped to watch the vessel roar away at an eight of the speed of light and into the distance.
Captain Jeffries, preoccupied, immediately stood up and marched into his ready room, saying only, "You have the bridge, Number One."
Eighteen hours later…
Lieutenant Frambert’s voice interrupted the captain and he was forced to drop the fork that he had been using to attack a plateful of an interesting herbal stew that he had decided for lunch, at Sanders’ suggestion. He looked apologetically at Sanders across the table in Space Central, still enjoying the tangy stuff and shrugged..
"What is it, Lieutenant?"
"Sir, internal sensors are reading some kind of a disturbance in Jefferies Tube 27-Alpha."
"Define ‘disturbance’, Lieutenant," the captain said shortly.
"Unknown. But a computer interface terminal was activated and then went off-line completely, immediately followed by an electrical short that seems to have disabled a section of the ODN lines in that area. The computer has re-routed signals, but…"
"Hmmn. All right, you and Stiles check it out. Report back what you find."
Deck 19, five minutes later…
Frambert bent down onto his hands and knees and managed to fold himself into the tube hatch, moving sluggishly along the gleaming metal surface of the floor plating. Likening the experience to that of a Centauri ant slinking through the boroughs of its ant hill, only one of metal as opposed to tonnes of clay, dirt and stone, the lieutenant persisted along, uncomplaining, despite the cramps that were beginning to develop from the constant crouching. Stiles, on the other hand, grumbled loudly about the lack of foresight in designing Jefferies tubes so that only children could possibly navigate them.
Several minutes later, they rounded a corner in the network of tunnels and stumbled across a semi-melted and completely scorched access port. Stiles whistled as he began to examine it. "Looks like a massive power surge ruptured a part of a power conduit and then fried the terminal," he muttered as he examined the small screen of his tricorder.
"The question is, what would cause this kind of a surge in the first place? I’m not picking up any residual signs of the charge in the power system. In fact, I’m… What the?!" Frambert responded, suddenly stopping as he paused to examine a strange device attached to an ODN line.
Stiles slid closer and scanned it. "What the hell is this thing? And where did it come from?"
Frambert tentatively pulled it off of the interface and examined it. It was a small, cylindrical piece of cold, black metal, shiny as though polished, and with short spikes protruding from the top and bottom. "It looks like some kind of remote interface device."
"What would it do?"
Frambert paused and brushed an antenna thoughtfully. "It might be capable of implanting commands into the data stream. It would only be useful if it was capable of extremely complex commands, though. They would have to be interpreted by the computer as priority-access inputs from the appropriate subsystem."
Stiles snapped his fingers and grinned triumphantly. "You mean, commands like sending instructions to the power subsystem to create an energy surge to overload a specific conduit?"
Frambert nodded. "Exactly. However, I fail to see how or why whoever placed it here would want to draw attention to themselves this way."
"Maybe it was intended as a distraction. To lure us here," Stiles suggested, running his hand along the blackened surface of the bulkhead beside him.
"There are a lot of easier ways to cause a distraction than this. Besides, what would anyone need to draw us into a Jefferies tube on deck 19 for?" Frambert argued.
Stiles snapped his fingers. "How complicated would the commands of this device be?"
"Complex, but small enough to be mostly unnoticed. I wouldn’t have even seen the ODN interference caused by the device if it hadn’t been at the same site as the power spike."
"If you had enough of these things hooked up, would you be able to take control of the computer directly?"
Frambert shrugged. "I suppose it’s possible, but that kind of interference would be easily detectable and blocked."
"Not if the man running the console is busy worrying about a power spike on deck 19, it wouldn’t," Stiles said.
"But, somebody in engineering would have noticed in time to stop it!" Frambert protested. "Besides, you’d need to have high level codes, like for example, the chief engineer’s credentials, before the computer would allow you to bypass its security so simply."
"I’ve got a bad feeling about this." Stiles hit his communicator. "Stiles to Captain Jeffries."
"Jeffries here. Find anything, Commander?"
"Sir, recommend that you immediately bring the ship to a stop and lock out the main computer completely. I’ll explain when I get back to the bridge, but suffice it to say that we could have a severe security breach on our hands here. Someone might be trying to take over the Avenger."
"Acknowledged. Jeffries out."
Frambert packed up his myriad collection of gear and stuffed the transmitter into the case, and crawled as quickly as he could back toward the access hatch in the passageway. "Hurry. We can figure all this out later."
Bridge…
Jeffries and Sanders emerged from the ready room with a purpose in their stride. Without even sitting down, Jeffries ordered, "All stop."
"Aye, sir, full stop," acknowledged Ensign Sarrell.
"Problem, Captain?" inquired Counsellor Seed. "You’re thinking about locking out the main computer?"
Holding up a hand to silence her the captain said, "Computer, lock out all command functions and controls, priority one security access only. Authorization Jeffries-epsilon-nine-nine-gamma-pi-three. Enable."
The computer chirped. "Unable to comply. Command functions have already been redirected and locked out."
"On whose authority?" Jeffries demanded incredulously.
"Main computer access was disabled at fourteen-oh-nine hours, by Commander Chan."
The captain was about to say something else, when Doctor Sinclair’s urgent voice interrupted him. "Sinclair to Jeffries, urgent."
"Doctor, this is not a good…"
Drowning the captain out, Sinclair continued, "Sir, it’s Commander Chan. He was found on deck 10 with a severe scull fracture from a blow to the head. It’s not known if he’ll survive. I’m taking him into surgery now. I thought that you would want to know."
"Thank-you Doctor. Bridge out," the captain said back bloodlessly.
Sanders met the captain’s eyes. "What in the world is going on?"
"We’re obviously in trouble. Jeffries to engineering."
"Midshipman Kima here, Captain. What can I help you with?" replied a woman’s voice.
"Crewman, I know this sounds irregular, but I want you to go into the main system controls and pull out the isolinear control chips and disable the primary bio-gel packs for the main propulsion, command and tactical systems. Also disable the transporters and shuttlebays. That’s an order."
Jeffries could almost imagine the puzzled look on the young woman’s face.
"Sir, someone’s erected a force field around the controls!"
"Then reroute it! Get someone to help you if you have to. This is an emergency."
"Aye, sir! Engineering out!"
"I honestly don’t think that Gary could possibly be responsible, sir," ventured Lieutenant Seed.
"Based on his current condition, I’m inclined to agree with you. But that means that we have an infiltrator aboard, possibly even a Dominion changeling. And that’s another problem entirely," Sanders muttered thoughtfully.
"Sir, if that’s true, then I doubt that we’ll be able to thwart him for long. Changelings are notorious for their ingenuity. We’ll have an hour. Perhaps two," pointed out Sarrell
Seconds later, Stiles and Frambert emerged from the turbolift. Hurriedly, Stiles said, "We found a remote data transmitter linked into the computer in the Jeffries tube. It’s capable of fabricating complex command codes. Put enough of them together and you could control the entire ship."
"It looks like somebody’s already tried that. The command systems have already been locked out. I ordered engineering to physically sever the controls, but they’re protected by a forcefield. All someone has to do is get into the computer core, and..."
"Damn. I’ll post armed guards around the computer cores and key areas of the ship."
"They also found Commander Chan unconscious on deck 10, but the computer was blocked out by him. I think we might be dealing with a changeling here."
"Keep your phasers set to level 5. Changelings are somewhat resistant to weapons fire, but setting 5 should be sufficient to knock them senseless," Sanders mentioned as Stiles turned and left the bridge once again.
The captain turned to Frambert. "Lieutenant, send an emergency subspace signal to Starfleet and inform them of our situation."
"No good, sir, subspace communications are out."
"Damn. Ensign Sarrell, how far away are we from Outpost Theta-27?"
"Thirty-one hours, eighteen minutes at warp 5. We are currently holding position."
"Good, far enough away that we won’t be in trouble. But this is very strange, if you ask me, sir," Sanders commented.
"I’ll agree with you on that one, Commander."
Just as he said this, the turbolift on the aft deck opened and the spitting image of Gary Chan emerged. He smiled enigmatically. "I headed straight up here as soon as I heard that we were having some computer troubles. Here, let me fix them for you. Computer, enable stage one."
The lights flickered, and everyone lost their balance as the ship kicked into maximum speed. Then he leveled a phaser at the captain and fired several shots. Sanders screamed out and knocked the captain flying, a stray blast catching her in the shoulder. An ensign at a station beside where the changeling had emerged jumped forward and managed to knock the phaser out of his hand, but was sent hurtling into another crewman on the aft deck and smashing his head against the tactical console. Frambert abandoned his post and dove for the phaser, catching instead a boot to the side of the face.
Meanwhile, Sarrell clearly but curtly called out, "Security to bridge, intruder alert!!"
Jeffries stood up again and lunged for the small hand phaser that the now-unconscious junior security officer had clipped to his belt. He got there at the same time as the changeling, but managed to deliver a solid kick to its ‘chest’, sending it pinwheeling into the science console. The changeling turned an arm into a massive tendril and whipped it at Jeffries, smacking him across the chin just as he managed to pull out the weapon, and knocked him ten metres backward toward the viewscreen. The changeling then bolted for the turbolift door when it opened and admitted a duo of armed security officers. Seeing him charging, they faltered for an instant then elected to fire at him, the force of their stun blasts leveling him. Still conscious, however, the creature gelled into liquid state and formed a long blade that it swatted at the security guards and impaled one of them, sending him lifelessly to the deck in a pool of blood. Sarrell, until now out of the fray, grabbed the captain’s phaser, set the weapon on maximum power, and fired at the gelatinous mass. The bright orange-red phaser beam penetrated the creature, igniting it with a bright glow as the nadion beam tore into it, and ten seconds later, it was vaporized with a sort of distorted cry of anguish that was mercifully terminated the instant it was released.
"Medical emergency, deck one!" the captain gasped. Jeffries got to his knees and looked on, to see Sanders clutching a scorched arm, Frambert rubbing a snapped antenna, and a flustered Stiles with a squad of security officers scramble out of the turbolift, phasers drawn. He immediately decided it might be a good idea just to collapse, and he did exactly that, sighing as his head connected with the floor and everything went dark in a wash of dull aches.
(To be Continued...)
 |
        |
 |
 |
