The First Duty

[Ato]

Hm. If a wife, husband, or other partner in marriage forks, is the fork considered married? Is it automatic, or do they choose whether or not to be part of the marriage, or if they want to be considered a child?

I assume it's a negotiable thing, much like everything else, but I'm wondering if there are or will be any Jovian cultural norms, a default way of handling it.

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I wonder if there are any Jovian-Organic, or Jovian-Jovian couples where the decide to have a Jovian child. Perhaps it could be achieved by the Jovian in question voluntarily creating an edited fork that lacks the original Jovian's memories.

I'd imagine some people would consider doing that somewhat creepy or uncomfortably close to the original AI creation process. But given the rapidly increasing diversity in Jovian society, someone will try it sooner or later.

 

[Hiver]

Crossing my arms, I looked up at my future hull. The Gust class was small, less than half the length of a Defiant class if only a little narrower.

It had an aerodynamic airframe, narrow in front that spread into a pair of wings by the aft. No flying brick here, while thrusters and impulse drive were primary and the aerofoil didn't even end up applying unless the shield went down.

But no falling like a brick in this thing if you lost power during descent/ascent.

Which was good as the class was primarily a small expedition craft and made to also function as a small planetary short time base.

Fly to a world, drop satellites, land and do research, jumping around on the globe as needed. Crew of twenty, most of which would be researchers, only two would be planned to be engineers.

Hell, engineering wasn't even meant to be accessed by the crew during flight. Sure, there was a door or anything in an emergency. But in general, the systems were meant to be maintained by my remotes.

There wasn't even a flight deck. Closest was the main lab by the front as it had consoles that could pull double duty if necessary.

But it was meant to work with an AI. It could technically fly without one, but only just.

She was a pretty new class. Like ten of them had been built so far.

Well… almost built. Most of her systems were in place, but she was far from done. For one thing, she was missing a warpcore, just the fittings were in place. Also, one of the impulse drives was not installed.

Then there were the interiors. Completely unfinished, not even replicators or even life support.

But nothing that required the use of the main hangar.

Love had promised limited time with her industrial replicator and engineering personnel not needed for other projects.

Pursing my lips, I started to slowly walk around the hull, running the fingers of my avatar along the hull plates, scanning for anomalies.

It was sitting on three sturdy landing gear. Made to land on uneven terrain. Up to two meters displacement between any of the three legs and still kept the interior level.

Very good sensors for its size.

Rachel would have loved it.

Walking beneath the hull, I walked over to the main ramp before climbing up it and pressing the button to open the door.

Buttons for doors. Emergency equipment of course.

The door whooshed open to let me into the main airlock, the doors closing behind my avatar before allowing me further inside.

Bare metal, pieces of deckplate and walls missing.

Carefully stepping over a missing set of deckplates, I moved through the hull, moving slowly as I looked around.

Half finished. But with a warp core and an impulse drive, it would fly. Not able to handle a crew, but it would work.

But I would need a crew to function at 100% efficiency even short-term. Nobody could think of everything on their own.

So what if I likely was at 95% solo in all practicality.

I walked around the crew area of the ship, looking, touching. Unfinished, but could be something...

Moving around to the aft, I entered through the hatch to engineering. Empty, a large empty space in the middle opened to the hangar at top. No warpcore.

None to minimal controls and screens around the room, just some auxiliary ones on the walls. Small, even for something for a ship this size. No need for room for people and consoles.

Moving to the center, I slowly looked up at the hole in the hull. Needed to be a hole to fit the warpcore into place… also, for the ejection mechanism.

Half finished.

Well, I would just need to roll up my sleeves and get this thing done. I had a job to do and to do it, I needed a real body, not just an avatar.

Cue the construction montage.

…Hard to do a construction montage on your own. I opened a channel from my shuttle body to 'Love', "How many maintenance drones can you spare me?"

"Twenty should work," She answered, "I should be able to squeeze in the fabrication of your warpcore and impulse drive during the next two months."

I cringed at that. That's a lot longer than I wanted.

"…What if I don't get a antimatter core? What about a singularity pulse core?" I asked after a moment, "All parts of those can be replicated. No fabrication needed."

"I have reviewed the schematics. I should be able to do that, it will need a complete reworking of the fitted power systems though."

"Faster than waiting for a warpcore."

"True," 'I Love You Too' agreed, "I should have both finished for you in a couple of weeks. I'll assign some engineers to help you tomorrow."

"Thank you, Love."

Well then.

I looked around before I slowly nodded. Now then… let's get started.




AN// Many thanks to FPSCanarussia for betaing this section.

 

[Jack_Fireshard]

.....Is it just me or are these getting shorter? I mean they are Shorter then Standard for a Hiver Fic but still....

 

[Spindler]

.....Is it just me or are these getting shorter? I mean they are Shorter then Standard for a Hiver Fic but still....

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Worlds already set up and we know more or less whats going on reducing the reasons for the sections to stretch out. each one is more or less one major incident and some of the consequences at this point. The stories change with the view point dose and individuals just aren't as important as they were in the early parts.

Come to think of it one of the advantages of this kind of large cast is that the story won't end with the death of any given ship. So it's a bit odd that the viewpoint ships have all survived.

 

[esotericist]

.....Is it just me or are these getting shorter? I mean they are Shorter then Standard for a Hiver Fic but still....

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According to the threadmarks the range is from 690 to 1.3k words, which is pretty typical for Hiver's output. The 690 is an anomaly, but offhand I think it all averages out to > 900 words.

Edit: Or did you mean length of arc? Those have always varied wildly.

 

[Hiver]

I slowly brought sensor after sensor online. Still half a ship, but what I had worked well enough.

The Gust was a good, if small, ship class.

Not that I was a ship yet, but half a ship is better than a little shuttle that couldn't even enter Warp.

Running my brand-new sensors across my hull, I scanned the hangar. Great.

Now I'm feeling claustrophobic.

Just another couple of weeks though, then I could fly under my own power, just need to get things up and running.

"Everything connected up alright, little ship?" Jacob Hayman asked, tapping on one of the consoles in my half built engineering section.

"Little!?"

That got a grin from the short man, "Just easier. If I just say 'ship' then Love might answer."

"Hmh," I snorted and walked inside with my avatar, "You could try my name, human."

"I could if you picked one yet," he said and looked over at me, "You were just installed, Ships always change name when you do."

"…Good point," I admitted and crossed my arms, leaning back against the wall, moving my avatar out of the way as one of my maintenance drones skittered past, carrying a deckplate.

I hadn't picked one yet.

"Having trouble picking one," I sighed, "Sorry."

"Don't worry… little ship."

I glared at him before I looked away. I should likely change my avatar too. This one was… well, it had bad memories attached to it.

Right now, I almost thought Ivy had the best idea, mostly because then I would have had a tail to lash in annoyance.

But no, not Caitian, all that fur was just too high maintenance to be worth it. Haven't done Vulcan before, maybe that.

Not this one though. I needed to change this one soon.

"What's the ETA on my drive core?" I asked with a frown, "What did Love tell you?"

"Still a week away, I'm afraid," he sighed, "Sorry, the industrial replicator is running hot 24/7. A lot of the parts can be replicated normally but some of them are too big or too complex."

"Damn. Fine… impulse drive?"

"Another week after that, same problem," he said before he looked at my avatar, "Sorry."

"…Not your fault."

He turned to me and smiled, "I do have some good news though. I managed to scrounge up enough parts that by the time your PSC is ready to be mounted, your power system will be fully refitted. We'll be able to finish your auxiliary systems and interiors as we wait for the impulse drive."

"…I'll be finished in three weeks?"

"Around there," he agreed, "Fully operational, ready for a crew. None of those systems or the interiors require the use of an industrial replicator and despite all the work, there are still plenty of people that want to help."

"Thank you."

He grinned, "No problem, little ship."

Not little!

…Okay, I was a little ship. But he didn't need to say it like that, damn it.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," I grumbled, "I just want to get to work."

Jacob nodded, "Planning to join in the terraforming?"

I shook my head, "Too small," I said and then shrugged, "I'm to be a science ship though. I can join in gathering data of the planet to help make it more efficient and taking samples from the biosphere. We may need to clone more members of some species if they get hurt enough by the atmospheric disruptions to keep the natural balance."

"Makes sense. I'll schedule your labs to be set up as standard then."

"Sounds good."

The main mission of the Gust class was planetary survey after all.

Still no news about Shran and my old crew, I was scouring any news from the Federation. But it had been less than a week still, they had not reached Starbase 23 yet.

I might not be able to do anything about it, but I still wanted to know.

"Now then," Jacob said and brushed his arms, "If you excuse me, I have some actual work to do. The first engineering team should be past tomorrow."

"Thank you."

"Hey, I wanted to test the SPC on something since I read through the schematics before retrofitting Love to have them."

"I'm a ship, not a…" I grumbled before I sighed, "…You know what, forget it."



AN// Buckets of thanks to FPSCanarussia for betaing this section.

 

[Darkeva]

Maybe I watch too much British TV, but when ever anyone refers to Love I instantly hear it in a Cockney accent and then read everything after that with the crew all having the same accent...

 

[Amrynel]

…Okay, I was a little ship. But he didn't need to say it like that, damn it.

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Hmm, could always own it - and spin it. Call yourself Little John and take this as your avatar. Well, if Disney doesn't still own the copyrights in the 24th century...

 

[Simon Buchan]

Hmm, could always own it - and spin it. Call yourself Little John and take this as your avatar. Well, if Disney doesn't still own the copyrights in the 24th century...

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I'm about 63% sure that Starfleet is a Disney subsidiary, so I think she just missed out on being able to use that. It's always the little things that remind you of what you lost

On topic, I'm curious as to where this is going? This run has pretty huge effects for the NQS series as a whole, but if we get a big dramatic cliffhanger at the end as usual we're already past the natural stopping point for it to be anything to do with the breakaway Jovians angle AFAICT.

Prediction for her avatar: a Romulan. Remember that whole thing? @Hiver has so many plot threads going on now!

 

[Hiver]

My maintenance drones moved along, slowly lowering the singularity pulse core down through the top hole in my hull. Love was helping… actually, doing most of the work. It was her tractor beam on the ceiling after all, my drones were doing the fine adjustments along with her engineers.

Just another few weeks until I could get to work.

A signal arrived through the subspace relay network. Shran's court-martial had begun. Charges were disobeying orders and breaking the prime directive.

…As horrible as that made me feel, there were some good points there. Rachel wasn't in trouble it seemed. Not that my current contacts in Starfleet were very… well, willing to contact me.

They could also have piled a lot more charges on if they really wanted to.

"You okay? I heard the news," Ivy said as her avatar moved up next to mine on the park deck of Love.

"…Could have been worse."

"Mmm," she agreed with a nod, "Could have. Likely all they could do without you there. Best thing you can do is stay away right now."

I glanced at her avatar and sighed, "Maybe."

"It is. Believe me, I know it sucks. But Shran is strong and he has friends all across the Fleet. They won't let Starfleet toss him under the bus."

Nodding, I looked up at the planet above before I turned to her, "Thanks."

"You're welcome. I know how hard this is, even if I saw it from the other side."

Nodding again, I looked at her, "…Nice robes."

She smiled and flicked her right ear, doing a small spin causing the shimmery silver like material to shine, "Like it? My Captain got it for me. Tholian silk."

"It's pretty. And he's more than your Captain."

She winked, "Kennedy is also my captain."

"Mhmm," I agreed and smiled a bit at her, "How is that?"

"Rather nice to be honest."

Nodding, I glanced up at the planet above before I sighed, "…Not sure I'll ever get there."

"You will," she said and then put her arm around my shoulders, "Now… let's see about that avatar of yours. You said you were going to change it?"

Nodding again, I walked along the path with her, "Doesn't fit me anymore. Bad memories."

Might as well get to it, I wasn't doing anything else with my avatar right now anyway.

"So, any ideas?"

I frowned slightly, "Thinking… Trill? Maybe?"

"Trill is good," Ivy agreed, her tail tip flicking, "Same height, a bit curvier, long red hair?"

I considered that for a moment. That didn't sound too bad to be honest and different from all my old avatars.

"…Maybe a couple of centimetres in height?" I suggested to her.

"You get those with high heels."

"No high heels. No skirts. I may not be a Warship anymore, but I got enough of both of those back when I was a diplomatic transport," I told her with a frown.

"Couple of centimetres taller then," she agreed with a nod, "I'll open a holo-instance and we can get down to detail. Meanwhile… I'm set to meet Kennedy in a couple of minutes. Wanna join us?"

I gave her a wary look, "…Not a date, is it? Not into the Caitian lifestyle."

"Not a date," she reassured me, "Ajan and his wives are joining us as well."

"Not sure… I think maybe I need to be alone right now."

Ivy flicked her ears, "Velvet, last thing you need right now is to be alone."

Maybe she was right about that too.

"Okay," I agreed with a nod, "Maybe spending some time with friends might help."

That got a smile from her, "Come on, let's get going."

Nodding, I walked along. The problem with Shran remained, he didn't deserve what was happening and I wanted to help. But there was nothing I could do, was there? Anything?

Maybe there really wasn't anything I could do. It sucked and it sucked hard, but he would make it. Worse charges had been thrown at Captains in the past and they walked away untouched, especially when they were right.

I hope.

Damn it, I really hoped so, but Ivy was right. Every single Jovian liked Shran and would be keeping a close eye on the trial. Everything involved would be absolutely by the book or Starfleet would end up drowning in protests.

Without me there to draw fire, he shouldn't be hit so bad.




AN// Big thanks to FPSCanarussia for betaing this section.

 

[Jack_Fireshard]

Everything involved would be absolutely by the book or Starfleet would end up drowning in protests.

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Not just Protests and not just Jovian's, a decent amount of their crews and the public would throw a fit if even one rule of law was stepped on in this. Sharns Court Marshal is a powder keg with a very VERY short fuse and has the possibility of shoving Starfleet into massive Civil War/Exodus the likes of which it has never seen!

"disobeying orders" What? why? the orders were "Stop them if you can" weren't they? He had no way of stopping them that would have NOT ended in the Killing of Civilians and the death of his Crew. They never gave him orders if stopping them was not an option, thus joining them and keeping them in line was the only way to to go in this case. His orders were a Catch 22, damned if you do damned if you don't.

 

[Somebodynobody10]

*sigh*

He just doesn't understand what "making an example" means.

 

[doug89]

I wonder how it would go if a Jovian was accused of a crime, and had forked since then. Similar to the plot in DS9 episode "Dax", where a government tried to arrest Jadzia Dax for the crimes of Curzon Dax, the previous Dax host. Is the main fork on trial, or every fork?

Also, a bit late, but I must have missed it. Where did they come up with the name 'Jovian'?

 

[Jack_Fireshard]

*sigh*

He just doesn't understand what "making an example" means.

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Don't know if this was aimed at me buuuut, There is a Deference between "Making an Example" and "Pointless and Trumped up Charges"


Also I worry about her, she is technically a Deserter now as her Release Order is voided by Shrans Arrest, I expect them to come after the "Deserter" at some point.

 

[Darkeva]

Also I worry about her, she is technically a Deserter now as her Release Order is voided by Shrans Arrest, I expect them to come after the "Deserter" at some point.

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She was explicitly kicked off the ship before they arrested him. Before any charge was filed. So far that hasn't been reversed.

 

[Ferretshock]

Under the UCMJ, at least, Shran DID violate Article 92 (failure to follow orders), because he made the decision to side with the Jovians who disagreed with Starfleet Command's interpretation of the Prime Directive.

Now, Velvet isn't a deserter, because charges hadn't been brought when Shran issued his order. Now, under the circumstances, she would have gotten off scot-free had she elected to disobey said orders, but they were still technically valid orders because Shran's authority hadn't been suspended yet.

 

[Jack_Fireshard]

Under the UCMJ, at least, Shran DID violate Article 92 (failure to follow orders), because he made the decision to side with the Jovians who disagreed with Starfleet Command's interpretation of the Prime Directive.

Now, Velvet isn't a deserter, because charges hadn't been brought when Shran issued his order. Now, under the circumstances, she would have gotten off scot-free had she elected to disobey said orders, but they were still technically valid orders because Shran's authority hadn't been suspended yet.

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This is true, but we must also remember that StarFleet and the Federation want a Jovian Scapegoat and any an all Decisions done under order of Shran as a StarFleet Captain are going to be brought under Scrutiny by the Starfleet Code of Military Justice (STverses verion of the US Military UCMJ) if they can Void his order as a unlawful act then Velvet would be labeled a Traitor or Deserter.

 

[Ferretshock]

This is true, but we must also remember that StarFleet and the Federation want a Jovian Scapegoat and any an all Decisions done under order of Shran as a StarFleet Captain are going to be brought under Scrutiny by the Starfleet Code of Military Justice (STverses verion of the US Military UCMJ) if they can Void his order as a unlawful act then Velvet would be labeled a Traitor or Deserter.

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Not...really. They can call for her to return to duty by retroactively declaring the order unlawful, but, and this is important, the order was lawful at the time it was issued and carried out. So she can't be labeled a deserter for following a lawful order. Now, if they call for her to return to duty and she tells them to fuck off, that's a whole new can of worms, the kind that gets complicated and has the potential to set some major (and potentially unfortunate) precedents.

 

[Jack_Fireshard]

Uhg, I just thought of something: Was it ever stated he was STILL in command at the time he released Velvet? It would make it a Unlawful action if he was Re-leaved of Command but was Detained before he could be Notified.

 

[Hiver]

Next part is ready for betaing if anyone is free.

 

[Norgarth]

Also, a bit late, but I must have missed it. Where did they come up with the name 'Jovian'?

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Waaaaay back when they named their new homeworld "New Jupiter".

Uhg, I just thought of something: Was it ever stated he was STILL in command at the time he released Velvet? It would make it a Unlawful action if he was Re-leaved of Command but was Detained before he could be Notified.

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Yes Shran explicitly stated that until Picard came over to officially relieve him of command, he could still make that sort of decision.

"There is however something 'I' can do and it's a good thing I plan ahead," He said and picked up a PADD, tapping a command into it before handing it over, "By my authority as a Starfleet Captain, I hereby cancel your Starfleet commission and give you an honourable discharge, effective immediately. According to regulation you have 24 hours to disconnect from your vessel."

I blinked at him in surprise, "What."

He smirked a bit, "I actually managed to sneak that one past you? I always thought privacy mode was more of a PR thing. Until such time Admiral Picard can put me under arrest and take my command, I'm still a Starfleet Captain and you are my Ship, and I'll be damned if I bring you down with me on this."

"Shran, you can't just…"

"Done," He said, cutting me off, "Effective as of a minute ago."

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[Hiver]

Done.

I was finished.

Despite the general tension I felt because Shrans trial and the general media blackout from it, I couldn't help but feel satisfaction of being complete once more. My interior were even complete which have to be the first time that happened when leaving the construction hangar.

The delays on the important parts were responsible for that.

Smiling up at my sky blue hull with white lines along the edges, I couldn't help but feel good as I crossed my arms of my new avatar.

New hull, new avatar. New beginnings.

I'm the LCU 'Vacuum Turbulence', Vanessa for short. The name was a bit aggressive for a LCU, especially a class only armed with a pair of forward facing pulse phasers, a single rear phaser emitter and a single forward photon torpedo launcher that doubled as a probe launcher.

But I used to be a Warship and some habits were hard to break and I did have a cloaking device.

"Looking good there," Love transmitted to me, "Want to get out into the void?"

"Very much so," I agreed, "Can't wait to get to work. I still need a crew though, anyone that's been expressing interest?"

"There is," the larger ship answered, "I'll transfer their files and you can do interviews. But there is the matter of the work…"

I frowned at the closest wall, "What about it?"

"We don't need more ships examining this world, I would like to assign you other duties if possible."

"I'm a planetary survey vessel!?"

"There are a lot of ships here already, the smaller ships, including you, Ivy and the other smaller science vessels are needed for scouting roles. We can no longer rely on New Jupiter, we need a system of our own, shipyards, stations."

I dumped a file with a map of this system into the com channel to her.

"It's not ours, Vanessa," she countered, "It belong to the locals and while we are going to put a station in orbit, it will belong to them once they are ready. We can't just put up shipyards here."

She had a point there.

"…Very well," I agreed, speaking out loud with my avatar for the first time, "Where do you want me?"

"My idea was to team you and 'Random Encounter' up along with sending a long a couple of my ROU's for extra protection. As for where to go, that'd be up to you and Ivy, you have the same maps as everyone else."

Pursing my lips, I nodded and walked up my ramp before raising and locking it, "Very well. I'll talk it over with 'Random Encounter', Send me the personnel files of the people wanting to be my crew."

"Done. Opening hangar bay doors."

Disconnecting the magnetic locks of my landing gears, I floated in the middle of the hangar as I retracted them.

A small puff of thrusters and I slowly floated forward through the forcefield, leaving the heavy pressure on my hull from the air behind for clean vacuum. A puff of my forward thrusters brought me to a halt well short of the construction efforts ahead of me before a puff of my dorsal thrusters and I started to sink down through the hangar until I felt solar radiation on my hull.

Clear views of the universe once more with my own sensors.

Another puff of thruster power and I were fully clear of Love's main hangar and I ignited my impulse drive, accelerating away, slowly turning the power up.

Flying again. I was finally flying again.

…But somehow it didn't feel as nice as it used to. I kept thinking about Shran and what were going on there and how I just didn't know anything about it. They weren't releasing any information about it.

Doing a three second warp jump, I tested my warpdrive before banking around and jumping back to the planet and fleet, sinking out of orbit, the first significant wisps of atmosphere touching my hull as I sunk deeper and deeper, a plume of plasma forming before me as I cut through the clouds of dust and ash.

As I sunk lower, the clouds rose above me and my speed dropped enough to let the plasma bleed away into a supersonic cone through the storm below, electrical activity lashing the ground and clouds.

Supervolcano ahead, locking targets.

Going into a roll, I locked onto a pair of air bourn multi ton rocks I fired twice, my pulse phasers reaching out with a single pulse each and blowing them to dust and plasma.

Flashing past, I scanned the massive crater of the super volcano below, very little remained of the Klingon vessel that did the damage. Not that I was surprised after a warpcore breech followed by a Starfleet vessel collecting as much of what little debris that remained.
Lightning crashed, crawling across my hull and I mentally cringed. Too many of those would cause discolorations in the paintjob.

Raising shields, I started to climb. Nothing more to do here, this would have to be enough of a test flight for now, I still needed to interview for my new crew positions.

Climbing above the clouds, I held altitude for a moment just above the cloud layer. Say what you want of everything that's going on, but all this atmospheric dust sure made for beautiful sunsets.

A couple of second later, I pulled up and went to full impulse towards 'I Love You Too' as I cleared the atmosphere.



AN// Unbetaed.

 

[doug89]

Waaaaay back when they named their new homeworld "New Jupiter".

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Jovian is the adjectival form of Jupiter. The older adjectival form jovial, employed by astrologers in the Middle Ages, has come to mean "happy" or "merry", moods ascribed to Jupiter's astrological influence.

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I see. I wasn't aware of the connection between Jovis, Jovian and Jupiter.

 

[Jack_Fireshard]

very little remained of the Klingon vessel that did the damage.

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So there WAS some left, gg Starfleet you left them enough ADVANCE METAL to possibly work with that would have effected their CULTURE had they survived this entire situation.


Media Blackout? that's a bit far to go isn't it? Guess they don't wan't people to know if they decide to add on more Trumped up charges to the list during the Court Martial eh? Though I highly doubt the Blackout will stay in place if the Jovian's have any say in it!

 

[Ferretshock]

So there WAS some left, gg Starfleet you left them enough ADVANCE METAL to possibly work with that would have effected their CULTURE had they survived this entire situation.


Media Blackout? that's a bit far to go isn't it? Guess they don't wan't people to know if they decide to add on more Trumped up charges to the list during the Court Martial eh? Though I highly doubt the Blackout will stay in place if the Jovian's have any say in it!

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Courts Martial are usually opaque to the media, fireshard. It's not really anything unexpected.