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The First Duty

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Jack_Fireshard said:
I expect that the Jovian's will now be forced to leave the Federation, which in the long term might be for the best as it will give the Jovian's more room to grow and expand both as a Race and in technological terms as the Federation has long stand bans on things that would help the Jovian's. I also expect that many Starfleet crews both currently active and post active on Jovian ships will abandon Starfleet.
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Unless someone is stupid enough to want to lose most of StarFleet, the stations, and who knows how many citizens a civil war is not happening. You cannot just kick out your military arm because a portion did something while moral was illegal. Their will be repercussions for certain but nothing that drastic.
 
For some reason I've got this thought that decades or centuries in the future someone will make a movie called "Captain Shran: Civil War" about Shran and this one decision of his, his ship and his crew that'll be the catalyst to a split in the Federation over the Sokovia Accords Prime Directive and the various battles between Starfleet/Jovian ships about who is in the right.

Star: Something about the plot of this movie seems familiar somehow.....and I don't mean the events it's based on cause it has about as much in common with actual events as it does with the Star Trek shows from when we were in the Sim.

Velvet:...What I'm wondering is, why is movie-Shran carrying around a circular shield with the Starfleet insignia in the center? And when did Admiral Mason get a suit of flying powered armour?
 
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Simon Buchan said:
'm early in, but there's already some interesting hooks! I'm a bit nervous about the third book being called The Uplift War though...
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Keep in mind that Humanity's mere existence, along with their uplift of dolphins and chimps has made the status very much not quo.

Becuase humans, in defiance of millions of years of intergalactic history, uplifted themselves. Which means either their Patron abandoned them after starting, or humans did something that only the nigh-mythical Precursors did.
Jack_Fireshard said:
I have had failures with the Uplifting feature in Stellaris alot
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I meant more that in Stellaris "I have made a tiny client species utterly dependent upon my whims" is downright benevolent. (Because someone worked out when it's more efficient to uplift vs flat-out invading. Nerve-stapled livestock anyone?)
 
Simon Buchan said:
Thanks for the book rec - asymmetrical species relations is a thing for me. I'm early in, but there's already some interesting hooks! I'm a bit nervous about the third book being called The Uplift War though...
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samdamandias said:
Keep in mind that Humanity's mere existence, along with their uplift of dolphins and chimps has made the status very much not quo.

Becuase humans, in defiance of millions of years of intergalactic history, uplifted themselves. Which means either their Patron abandoned them after starting, or humans did something that only the nigh-mythical Precursors did.
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As @samdamandias says, the galactic civilization is forced to treat humans as a mature species because of their own laws, since humans have uplifted the dolphins and chimps, but a lot of them still resent having to do it. Many prefer to believe the 'abandoned by their Patron' theory.

As for the books, the 3 of them aren't directly linked. I happened to read Startide Rising first, which started in media res, so I tracked down the first book to find out how they got into that situation, and discovered Sundiver was set decades earlier (maybe even a century or more, it's been a while since read them). Uplift War is set at the same time or just after Startide, but following a different set of characters dealing with some of the other consequences of the events that lead to Startide's plot.

The second trilogy actually follows the same set of characters through all three books.
 
SuperHeavy said:
Unless someone is stupid enough to want to lose most of StarFleet, the stations, and who knows how many citizens a civil war is not happening. You cannot just kick out your military arm because a portion did something while moral was illegal. Their will be repercussions for certain but nothing that drastic.
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....This is starfleet we are talking about, They let Kirk be tried in Klingon court, Tryed to railroad Picard in a Kangaroo Court, both starfleet AND the vulcan High Council tried to kick Archer out of Starfleet with a mental Instability case and many more. I can see Starfleet if not trying to put those involved on trial then at least stripping them of their rank AND trying to have Velvet and the other AI's involved in this shut down permanently which in of it's self would start a Civil War.
 
samdamandias said:
Keep in mind that Humanity's mere existence, along with their uplift of dolphins and chimps has made the status very much not quo. (...)
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Thanks, but I meant more in terms of it turning into shooty-shooty without so much talky-talky. While it technically could still be "asymmetrical species relations", that type tends to be rather short :lol
 
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    • I floated in orbit with the rest of the fleet. GCU 'Roll for Initiative' were just next to my port side, floating less than two hundred meters away.

    I ran my sensors across her hull. The Zephyr class was beautiful. In capabilities, it was about equal to the Luna class. Couldn't quite keep from thinking the Zephyr is prettier though. Nice and smooth.

    Wonder if I could get one when I'm kicked out of Starfleet? But that would mean being a science ship. Maybe I should ask for a Murder class LOU instead?

    "You know, you don't have to stick around," She transmitted to me, "You don't have to get involved at all."

    "I already am," I grumbled back, "Besides, Captain Shran wouldn't allow it even if I wanted too. Our orders were to patrol this area of space for Klingons, anything else were unofficial."

    "Shran really has grown since the academy, haven't he?"

    "Mmm," I agreed, "He has. This was our first mission, but I can already tell he is a good captain. I really hope he will be able to keep being one."

    "Me too. But he doesn't need to be in Starfleet to be a Captain. I have a Captain too… I actually think it's good for a ship to have a Captain, Starfleet or not. That companionship is nice."

    I opened a full channel to her and smirked, "Of course, you have a bit of a different relationship with your captain than I have with mine."

    She flicked her ear and stuck her tongue out at me, "Don't knock it until you tried it."

    I rolled my eyes at her, "Well, not trying it with Shran, that's for sure. He might have grown, but not 'that' much," I answered before I sighed, "You are coming down to the surface?"

    Ivy shook her head, "Don't want too many in the first away team. It's going to be difficult enough for the locals as it is."

    "Yeah. I'm going down, Shran insisted on going as the senior Starfleet officer on site."

    "Makes sense," She agreed, "Stuffy Starfleet types usually do."

    "Hey! I resemble that remark!"

    She winked, "Just teasing," she said before her ears drooped, "Still… sorry for getting you involved in this. We chose to be here, you didn't."

    "…Bad luck, is all," I said and shrugged, "…And if I'm to be completely honest, not needing to just stand by and watch these people die is going to help letting me look myself in the eye in the future."

    No matter how logical it might be with the political situation, that was largely theoretical. There people were dying now.

    Ivy just nodded, "Mind giving me readings from your avatar when you head down?"

    "I'll set up a datalink for anyone that want to listen in," I agreed with a nod, "Might as well."

    "Thanks."

    "…Not like I will be doing much more than tag along and keep anyone from arrowing my Captain. Shran and Love is likely to do most of the talking."

    Ivy nodded, "Keep on your toes."

    "I'm a Warship, I'm paid to be paranoid."

    "You get paid!?"

    Rolling my eyes, I cut the connection. That Smart ass Science vessel was nothing but trouble. Even if she had cute nacelles.

    "Captain?" I said, forming a hologram in his ready room, "Love say her team is about ready to head down."

    Shran shifted his antenna and looked up from his PADD, "Yeah, I'm about done. Your avatar ready?"

    "All dressed up," I agreed, "But I still want to bring something more suitable. The social interaction avatar is not made for hostile interactions… not even with a bunch of primitives. It lack offensive or defensive options. Especially non-lethal ones."

    He sighed, "Vel, we are not bringing a heavy combat platform down there. We want to look as non-dangerous as possible."

    "Sir, as somebody who grew up in a simulation of a more primitive civilization, I'm going to say that that is not quite true. It works, but they already have to respect you. Appearing in pillars of light will help, but having what they will easily recognize like a big fuckoff stick will make sure that they like remember it," I countered, "We are going to visit a King or Emperor or Godfigure, somebody who's literal word is usually law and anyone he doesn't like, he can have killed."

    Shran frowned in thought as he walked around the desk, "How sure are you about that?"

    "Sure enough. Like… seventy percent? At the very least, having a platform able to deploy forcefields will help a lot with keeping arrows away from your internals until the transporter is able to pick you up. It's up to you, sir, but it's my job to keep you safe down there and the transporter can take up to two seconds to finish a beamup if you are unlucky."

    He shook his head and held his hands up, "Fine, fine. Bring your heavy platform, damn, you are worse than Star!"

    "Listen to your ship, Captain," I said with a smile, "Or I'll tell Rachel."

    "Oh, that's just playing mean. How about we compromise? You bring your normal avatar and I wear power armour? They should be able to understand that and it should look intimidating enough. No helmet."

    I scowled at him and crossed my arms, "Helmet, clear faceplate."

    "Fine."

    Just as planned.



    AN// Many thanks to JoshRand1982 for betaing this section.
     
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    • Hiver said:
    I floated in orbit with the rest of the fleet. GCU 'Roll for Initiative' were just next to my port side, floating less than two hundred meters away.

    I ran my sensors across her hull. The Zephyr class was beautiful. In capabilities, it was about equal to the Luna class. Couldn't quite keep from thinking the Zephyr is prettier though. Nice and smooth.

    Wonder if I could get one when I'm kicked out of Starfleet? But that would mean being a science ship. Maybe I should ask for a Murder class LOU instead?

    "You know, you don't have to stick around," She transmitted to me, "You don't have to get involved at all."

    "I already am," I grumbled back, "Besides, Captain Shran wouldn't allow it even if I wanted too. Our orders were to patrol this area of space for Klingons, anything else were unofficial."

    "Shran really has grown since the academy, haven't he?"

    "Mmm," I agreed, "He has. This was our first mission, but I can already tell he is a good captain. I really hope he will be able to keep being one."

    "Me too. But he doesn't need to be in Starfleet to be a Captain. I have a Captain too… I actually think it's good for a ship to have a Captain, Starfleet or not. That companionship is nice."

    I opened a full channel to her and smirked, "Of course, you have a bit of a different relationship with your captain than I have with mine."

    She flicked her ear and stuck her tongue out at me, "Don't knock it until you tried it."

    I rolled my eyes at her, "Well, not trying it with Shran, that's for sure. He might have grown, but not 'that' much," I answered before I sighed, "You are coming down to the surface?"

    Ivy shook her head, "Don't want too many in the first away team. It's going to be difficult enough for the locals as it is."

    "Yeah. I'm going down, Shran insisted on going as the senior Starfleet officer on site."

    "Makes sense," She agreed, "Stuffy Starfleet types usually do."

    "Hey! I resemble that remark!"

    She winked, "Just teasing," she said before her ears drooped, "Still… sorry for getting you involved in this. We chose to be here, you didn't."

    "…Bad luck, is all," I said and shrugged, "…And if I'm to be completely honest, not needing to just stand by and watch these people die is going to help letting me look myself in the eye in the future."

    No matter how logical it might be with the political situation, that was largely theoretical. There people were dying now.

    Ivy just nodded, "Mind giving me readings from your avatar when you head down?"

    "I'll set up a datalink for anyone that want to listen in," I agreed with a nod, "Might as well."

    "Thanks."

    "…Not like I will be doing much more than tag along and keep anyone from arrowing my Captain. Shran and Love is likely to do most of the talking."

    Ivy nodded, "Keep on your toes."

    "I'm a Warship, I'm paid to be paranoid."

    "You get paid!?"

    Rolling my eyes, I cut the connection. That Smart ass Science vessel was nothing but trouble. Even if she had cute nacelles.

    "Captain?" I said, forming a hologram in his ready room, "Love say her team is about ready to head down."

    Shran shifted his antenna and looked up from his PADD, "Yeah, I'm about done. Your avatar ready?"

    "All dressed up," I agreed, "But I still want to bring something more suitable. The social interaction avatar is not made for hostile interactions… not even with a bunch of primitives. It lack offensive or defensive options. Especially non-lethal ones."

    He sighed, "Vel, we are not bringing a heavy combat platform down there. We want to look as non-dangerous as possible."

    "Sir, as somebody who grew up in a simulation of a more primitive civilization, I'm going to say that that is not quite true. It works, but they already have to respect you. Appearing in pillars of light will help, but having what they will easily recognize like a big fuckoff stick will make sure that they like remember it," I countered, "We are going to visit a King or Emperor or Godfigure, somebody who's literal word is usually law and anyone he doesn't like, he can have killed."

    Shran frowned in thought as he walked around the desk, "How sure are you about that?"

    "Sure enough. Like… seventy percent? At the very least, having a platform able to deploy forcefields will help a lot with keeping arrows away from your internals until the transporter is able to pick you up. It's up to you, sir, but it's my job to keep you safe down there and the transporter can take up to two seconds to finish a beamup if you are unlucky."

    He shook his head and held his hands up, "Fine, fine. Bring your heavy platform, damn, you are worse than Star!"

    "Listen to your ship, Captain," I said with a smile, "Or I'll tell Rachel."

    "Oh, that's just playing mean. How about we compromise? You bring your normal avatar and I wear power armour? They should be able to understand that and it should look intimidating enough. No helmet."

    I scowled at him and crossed my arms, "Helmet, clear faceplate."

    "Fine."

    Just as planned.



    AN// Many thanks to JoshRand1982 for betaing this section.
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    You could've just built a giant fucking vacuum, vacuumed the ash, and had 2 years of food spontaneously appear in their storehouses.
     
    Introvert said:
    Nobody would remember by the time they achieved spaceflight, in a couple hundred years.
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    You know, it's quite possible for religions to last, say, two thousand years* with no great difficulty. We also have written works well over 4000 years old.

    * No, I'm not saying that is the oldest. I just picked it for impact. :p
     
    How much you want to bet that star going super nova nearby requires a lot more uplift than the Jovians initially intend right now?

    If it's big enough I can see them needing to uplift the locals and getting very involved to get the ships needed to ferry them away.
     
    megrisvernin said:
    How much you want to bet that star going super nova nearby requires a lot more uplift than the Jovians initially intend right now?

    If it's big enough I can see them needing to uplift the locals and getting very involved to get the ships needed to ferry them away.
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    It's not going nova for at least several thousand years. They'll be fine.
     
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    • We shimmered back into existence in the middle of the throne room. Sure, we could have done it more discretely, but quite frankly there wasn't time to pussy foot around (sorry Ivy). We would need to start dropping almost five hundred meter tall atmospheric processors during the next couple of days for it to be the most effective.

    Not like the locals could keep from noticing that, even if they were cloaked. Especially as they were almost as wide as they were tall.

    Yells of surprise filled the air as people ran from us. Not surprising, we must have looked strange and scary, especially with the storm clouds. Right now there was a bit of a lull in the storm, but it would soon pick up again.

    Well, Shran in his armour looked scary. My and Love's avatars didn't exactly inspire fear. We would look strange without the head ridges though.

    I ran a scan of the area with the suit's sensors, keeping a close eye on my Captain's vitals before I looked at him with my avatar, "Onward we go?"

    He smiled a bit and nodded, "Time to storm the castle."

    Love facepalmed with a small grin, shaking her head.

    He wasn't wrong though. We were in a courtyard outside the main keep of the castle. Not reminiscent of anything I've seen on Earth or Vulcan, everything was too round, but a castle is a castle. It's going to have some things in common as long as the builders were roughly humanoid.

    We simply waited however, as guards rushed to surround our group. I scanned them. Leather armour and chainmail, curved swords and halberds.

    Helmets that left their head ridges uncovered.

    They shifted around us. Wondering what we were, where we were from. Why we were here.

    Love, I, and the entire fleet above churned at their language, putting all our universal translators to work.

    As we worked on their admittedly rather simple language, I kept a close sensor on everyone around. If they had a week, they might be able to hurt my Captain. Good thing I got him to wear the armour.

    If he had been here in just his uniform, I would have been insanely paranoid about the entire thing.

    "Captain, we have deciphered the better part of their language," I told him softly from the suit, "You should be able to make yourself understood now. It has a rather simple structure and we are mapping live."

    "Nice," he said and then looked towards the guards before us, "Take us to your leader."

    "Really, Captain!?" I hissed into his ear.

    He smiled and continued, "I am Captain Shran of the Starship Velvet Anvil of the United Federation of Planets. We need to speak with your ruler."

    "What you are strange."

    "Well, mostly have it figured out," I admitted to him from the suit computer, "Give it a minute, we have limited data."

    Shran sighed, "Your ruler. I need to speak with him."

    "And here I am, strange one," an older local said as he walked out of the gates of the inner keep to the overlooking platform up the stairs, a set of twelve more heavily armoured guards escorting him.

    He was wearing what were likely expensive robes in a deep red colour, chains of gold around his neck and arms.

    "I am Emperor Oresot of the Telnuni Empire," He said, spreading his arms, "What monsters are you?"

    Shran looked up towards him, "I am Andorian, Velvet and Love are Jovians. I need to speak to you about important matters, your highness.

    "How did you intrude on my palace!?"

    Love crossed her arms, "By transporter," she answered, "We'll tell you all about it, but quite frankly, we are a bit pressed for time. Initiating transport."

    I lost contact with my avatar and the suit for a second and then I reconnected with them at one of Love's lower observation decks. She had beamed us and Emperor Oresot straight there.

    Oh for…

    Captain Shran turned to look at her, scowling before he pulled off his helmet as the Emperor stared out the window at the stars and world outside.

    This was not the plan. Damn it.

    Shran shifted his antennae and moved up to stand next to the Emperor, crossing his arms, "Ready to listen now?"

    Oresot turned to look at him with wide eyes, "…Are you a god?" he finally managed to ask.

    Shran shook his head, "No. No, we are not gods," he said, "We have simply learned more than your people. We are from far away and we came to your people, not to conquer, but to warn you and help you."

    "Warn us?"

    "Are the storms you are experiencing now bad?"

    Oresot nodded, "Yes. The worst in memory."

    "It's not even the worst of it. Next year, there will be no summer and unless we can stop it, in a few weeks it will start to rain a black rain that kill your animals and your remaining harvest," Shran said and shook his head, "How we know… it will take some explaining."

    "…Where are we? What are those…women? I can't feel them…"

    "That will also take some explaining."



    AN// Many thanks to FPSCanarussia for betaing this section.
     
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    • Someone was eager to get started beating on the Prime Directive. However as far as violations go beaming out a king is actually less of an offense than beaming in where everyone can see you.
     
    Sigh some one pulled a Kirk, This is going to be fun.


    .....You know if they are even semi-Telepathic, wouldn't that make uplifting them far easier? from what I have seen from the ST shows even the minor telepathic species have better learning and retention rates then those that don't have the ability.
     
    I would say it might cause trouble with the AIs, but given it's the AIs breaking the rules to save their lives, I'd really hope not.
     
    Baughn said:
    I would say it might cause trouble with the AIs, but given it's the AIs breaking the rules to save their lives, I'd really hope not.
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    I could see it causing some a sort of general dislike of them among the general population. But I don't think it'll be much worse than just finding them to be really uncomfortable to be around. Though I imagine anyone who feels like their power/authority is being threatened will become quite bigoted. But that's something that would probably happen regardless.
     
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    • "That was excessive," I said, crossing my arms as I looked over at 'I Love You Too's' avatar, "Fast perhaps, but you could have killed the man."

    She sighed and nodded, "Maybe, but we don't have the time. I'm already constructing five of the terraformers to drop strategically across the coast. It should slow things down enough that we have time to build more, before things get too bad. We need the rulers on top or the general population is going to panic even worse than it already is."

    As soon as they were up and running they would start being dropped closer to the source, but right now these people needed clean air.

    I couldn't really argue with that.

    "…Could at least have warned the Captain. And me for that matter."

    "…Sorry. You are right," she admitted and nodded, "I'll apologize to Captain Shran when he is done with the Emperor."

    "Yeah."

    Iron age civilizations didn't exactly have world governments, but I admit that these guys were doing a better job of it than most. There were five major empires, some covering almost an entire continent.

    We'd focus our work on them first.

    Cutting the connection with Love I cancelled my hologram. Our avatars were still with Shran as he spoke with the Emperor, who seemed to be taking it all remarkably well for someone that had just gotten the shock of his life.

    "So? How is it going?" Rachel asked as she sank down into the center chair on the bridge. I shrugged and formed a hologram in the chair next to her, crossing my legs,

    "Well enough I suppose," I said and frowned, "Didn't kill him."

    "What's he like?"

    I smiled a bit, "A military/holy dictator that's lived his entire life in luxury. As soon as the surprise and shock fade, I have no doubt he will be a rather unpleasant individual again. Right now, though? Not too bad."

    Rachel sighed, "I suppose," she said and looked down at the planet below, "…Did we do the right thing?"

    I turned to stare at her with my hologram, "You ask this NOW!?"

    "No. Well, not really. I mean… we are saving a lot of people, but will they thank us for it?"

    "I doubt thanks is why we are doing this."

    She gave me a look, "You know what I mean."

    "I do, but at least like this they have a chance to complain about it."

    Things were done. If the effects would turn out well or not would be left to history. But I really hope we did the right thing, but right thing or not it would be an option I would be able to live with.

    I hope.

    "So, what are they like?" Rachel asked with a frown.

    "Apparently not telepathic," I said with a shrug, "Not even really empathic either, other than at really close range, but their ability to pick out 'where' beings around them are is pretty well, and for that their range seem to be kilometers long if it's line of sight. Jovian avatars don't show up, they think it's odd."

    Rachel nodded, "I can see that. Most telepathic species think you are… sorry… bit creepy the first time they meet you."

    I grinned, "Not that odd. We are smash dab in their uncanny valley."

    Most got over it pretty fast though, they handled holograms with no real problems. Nowadays nobody really even thought about it, we've been around for decades now, and holograms were ancient technology by now.

    "Oh," I then added after a moment, "I just got a signal from Earth Spacedocks."

    Rachel cringed, "Oh."

    "Yeah. Oh," I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose, "…Maybe if I pretend I didn't get it?"

    Rachel shook her head, "I'll take it. On screen."

    I shook my head, "Can't, my job. I'm the Ship and second in command. I'm the one to get yelled at if Captain Shran is unavailable."

    "If you are sure."

    "…No, but I really should," I said and then made the connection. Too far away from a relay for any sort of fancy connection, the bandwidth was too low. This one would be voice only.

    We're lucky we weren't down to text.

    "Velvet Hammer, what do you have to report?" Gates asked, "Starbase Twentythree detected three GSV class signatures heading in your direction. They should arrive any day now. Any sign of them?"

    "They arrived yesterday."

    "Were you able to talk them down? What's your progress?"

    Well, here we go.

    "The fleet arrived yesterday, I contacted them."

    "And?"

    "…And I am now assisting them in contacting the local leaders in preparation for deploying force field bubbles - to keep the worst of the toxic ash out of their major settlements as we construct the atmospheric processors."

    "What!?"



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