I should be very glad to have 30 points for our next budget automatically, but I'd rather plan on having to roll that diplomatic snowball.
To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
- Thread starter OneirosTheWriter
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
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- Tags
- star trek exploration fully automated luxury gay space communism top level canon (canon) #hashtagcontent all-encompassing space amoeba cardassian boy bands cardassian magical girls darkest bureaucracy debate makes the qm cackle like palpatine hoh is an empire quest it has to be foreign infiltrators more ships ship happens singers delenda est starfleet this is not an empire quest ur waifu is collective?
One thing engineers can do if we buy them without heavy industry yet is rush the Betazed starbase to completion.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Thaaaat... is a very good idea.
Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
On the other hand, Heavy Industry could let us repair ships faster, which would let us get a lot of ships back sooner and make the GBZ safer. If we could get Kumari back a month or two early I'd feel a lot more confident about that flank.
Night
Widow Null
- Location
- Hoff
We probably need a Mentat to start figuring them out.
UbeOne
Daydreaming CPU
- Location
- Philippines
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Which faction has captured mentats doing theory work again?
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Maybe it would be better to have them work on extending mentat longevity. If they weren't so short-lived they might not be so reckless and would in general be less of a damn menace.
We might have political trouble if the first thing we do with our emergency powers for fighting the Licori is repair ships to go to literally the other end of Federation space.
Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
Maybe, but Sousa could spin it as preventing the GBZ from escalating by dissuading the Cardassians from attacking. Ainsworth won't attack again even if we get Kumari back early.
If not, we could use it for Courageous. Getting one of our EC ships back up and out there should be acceptable to all factions.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I like your second idea. Your first... well, let's just make sure to tell Ainsworth that.
Night
Widow Null
- Location
- Hoff
Well, we know they weren't Mentats at some point, so it might be possible to make them not Mentats again. Extending their longevity is a total unknown save by the closely related process of making them less Mentat.
My orders are to ... not ... attack? That cannot be right. Request Star Fleet Command send them again, via slow courier, so that I be sure that isn't a message corruption masquerading as a spelling error. In the meantime, we have Cardassians to hunt!
Omake - War Games - Briefvoice
War Games
"To sum up, our objective is to penetrate Commodore Grann's patrol area and travel inside Betazed's orbit around Beta Zeta. At that point our imaginary mentat will be assumed to have destructively completed her thesis and created a stellar event capable of annihilating the planet. Any questions?" Captain Samyr Kanil looked around the table at her senior officers and took a sip of coffee
The T'Mir's first officer, Commander Mica zh'Halron, scowled back across the table, her antenna twitching. "Is this even doable, Captain? It's not like we have a cloaking device. If Grann squats his entire force in-system-"
"He could, but that has its own problems. Betazed is a homeworld with all the traffic that implies. If he waits, then we can disguise our subspace wake just on their communications bandwidth alone, much less slipping in behind some convenient freighter. If we're allowed to choose our own trajectory in-system, then he has to hope he can scramble a ship to stop our approach before we hit our target space... and slow as an Oberth is, he doesn't have that many ships for a volume the size of a star system. No, the logical course is for him to set up a patrol screen. That way his ships get a parallax view of subspace activity, and it makes any concealment on our part that much harder."
Kanil's Tellarite tactical officer, Tolla Graffo, jumped in. "The two Betazoid patrollers are his vulnerability. Their sensors are decades behind the time. If we can find a seam where the Astute and the Assist are the closest ships, we can dive right in between them."
Zh'Halron's ever-present scowl weakened a little. "That's a serious if, Lt. Commander. We'll have to correctly map the patrol on long range sensors before they can detect us."
"Just like being back on the edges of Cardassian space," replied Kanil with more confidence than she felt. "The only ship I'm afraid of meeting on patrol is the Thirishar itself. What do you think the chances of that are, Ensign Fluttrax?"
The betazoid ensign, who was most definitely not one of Captain Kanil's most senior officers, flushed and hemmed. "Oh. I- I'm not sure-"
"Best guess," replied Kanil, talking over her. "I invited you for a different perspective because you've got the freshest psych-ops training on the ship. My senior officers and I have been trying too hard to think like Cardassians for the past few years. We might be in a mental rut."
Ensign Fluttrax calmed herself and took a few seconds to think. "I'm sure you're right on his optimal strategy, Captain, but everything in Commodore Grann's profile says he'd rather play defense. I think he'll keep his best ship tight to Betazed to stop us if we slip through the patrol."
"Which it's pretty much guaranteed to do," broke in Graffo. "Unless we manage to catch them at the extreme opposite edge of the system, an Excelsior is fast enough to race to catch us before we enter inner orbit. Maybe even then, if he treats it like the real thing and shaves some life off the Thirishar's warp coils."
"That's why we have the ace they don't know about making things a little more even," replied the Captain.
When they broke up a few minutes later, zh'Halron caught the captain's eye and got her to hang back. "What is it, Commander?"
"Wondering, sir. What do you think our odds really are here?"
= = =
"Almost no chance," said Rear Admiral Kimberly Pragur to Captain Alexandria Kuznetsova.
Captain Kuznetsova shifted uneasily. She and Pragur had been dispatched from Starfleet Tactical to watch the exercise in real time. It was all being recorded, but this way any follow-up questions for the commanders involved could be asked immediately, while all memories were still fresh. Normally this wouldn't be a task for someone of Pragur's exalted rank, but this was also a chance for her to inspect the rapidly forming fleet and have some talks directly with Rear Admiral Eaton.
"I think you might be underestimating the T'Mir," said Kuznetsova. Her hands itched to start pulling some lunch off the table and begin demonstrating, but Pragur was not only two ranks above her but also Admiral Sulu's chief of staff. Self-control was called for. She placed her hands in her lap, then reconsidered and sat on them instead.
"I give the T'Mir a lot of credit, but- Hmmm, let's say this crumpled up napkin is the Beta Zeta System. Now we not only have an outpost there- I'll put this salt shaker to represent, but also Betazoid system traffic control is entirely separate, and they're always looking for ships in trouble, which means ships not in position or not doing what they're supposed to. Let me just scatter some chip crumbs all over the napkin for that. Now all of this is completely separate from Commodore Grann's fleet and ought to be enough all on its own. You add in the ships... let me represent their patrol patterns with these butter knives."
Was... was Pragur doing this on purpose? She was! Kuznetsova could see the laughter in her eyes. This woman was the devil! She was the devil! And a rear admiral. And the chief of staff. The rumors were true, Sulu's people knew everything.
Kuznetsova continued to sit on her hands and watch the remains of their lunch be manipulated.
= = =
Shayla Fluttrax sat in the center of the small group of Betazoids serving on the T'Mir. They had all been pulled off their duties to, hopefully, do nothing at all. Telepathic probes should be useless at these distances. Key words, should be, but there were some Betazoids capable of exceptional range. Shayla's group were to let Captain Kanil know the instant they felt telepathic contact of any sort, just in case an exceptional individual turned mind their way. You had to be on the look out for that sort of thing, invading the Beta Zeta system.
She wondered if this was cheating, but the Captain said that like having access to Commodore Grann's personnel file, advantages like these were meant to simulate the sort of scientific miracles a mentat might pull out. Besides, so far they had felt nothing and odds were it would stay that way. Shayla was a little surprised the exercise had gone on this long anyway. The captain had talked a good game, but the whole crew knew that they were depending on an awful lot of things going right. It was mostly a matter of how far they could get.
= = =
"Decoy is away, Captain," said Lt. Commander Graffo.
Captain Kanil nodded approvingly. "Good. Now we see if the Thirishar follows."
Just as Ensign Fluttrax had predicted, Captain ch'Gharist and his Excelsior had been held back as the final line of defense. This was the most delicate stage. If they didn't take the bait and pursue, the exercise was as good as over right here. They waited.
Finally Graffo announced the results. "Thirishar is warping out. We got lucky, Captain. They were on the wrong side of Beta Zeta. The star's interference helped fool their sensors, and I think they held off going to warp an extra few minutes to avoid disrupting local subspace. Not willing to have interstellar communications jammed up over an exercise."
Captain Kanil gave the order. "Move in. Keep the subspace relay between us and the Outpost, and start spoofing our identification beacon to match that in-system freighter, 'Light of Rixx'. With any luck, traffic control will think they're burning extra hot to make up time."
Her first officer commented. "For once being an Oberth comes in handy. Try having a Connie-B initiate a freighter. Like an adult trying to hide in a classroom full of children."
There was a general chuckle around the bridge. No outsiders got to make fun of an Oberth's size, but it was okay for them to have a laugh about their wee little ship.
Samyr waited for them to be detected. And waited. This was a home system. They weren't really going to get away with this, were they? There were defenses. Stations. You couldn't sneak up on a home system like this. You couldn't. It wasn't... wasn't logical, said her old Surakian studies.
Finally the waiting ended. "Captain, we're in position. We won," said Graffo. She sounded excited, still in competition mode.
Samyr felt sick to her stomach. "Send the signal. Let everyone know the exercise is over." She turned on the intercom. "All hands, this is Captain Kanil. The exercise is over. The T'Mir is victorious. We penetrated the Beta Zeta system. If this had been a real attack-"
What the hell was she saying? Samyr cut herself off. "Congratulations on all your hard work. We've learned a lot."
The ulcers were gone months ago, but the stress caused phantom pains to reappear. She walked casually to the rear of the bridge, pretending to inspect some screens there. Mica moved up behind her.
"Are you all right?" asked her XO quietly.
"I'm fine. I- We learned a lot, and I don't like what we learned."
Mica nodded in understanding.
I was going to request a transfer off, thought Samyr. A decade was a long time. She had literally been the only captain the T'Mir had ever known. But then this damn war popped up, and she couldn't abandon the T'Mir. Not at a time like this.
= = =
Rear Admiral Pragur's face was still pale, an hour after the exercise had ended. She and Captain Kuznetsova were still reviewing their questions. Still trying not to let them boil down to, "How the hell did you let this happen?"
"At least the T'Mir will be on our side if mentats try for real," offered Alexandria.
"Did this happen because the T'Mir is so good, or because our defenses are so bad?" asked Pragur.
"That's the question of the day, sir."
Pragur shook her head head. "Going to be a lot of second-guessing about this, Captain. Unless I miss my guess, Eaton is going to rip Commodore Grann a new one in her polite English way. Or maybe she'll let McAdams do it for her if she doesn't feel like being polite."
"Sure, but it's not like any of us had any criticisms of his defense plan before the exercise went through. It was a good plan. The T'Mir had a lot of things go right for them," offered Alexandria.
"We're Starfleet Tactical. Our plans are supposed to succeed even if things go right for the bad guy," said Pragur.
"Sir."
"I know. I know that's not possible. That's the worst part about working for Vice Admiral Sulu, you know. The worst part and the best part."
Captain Kuznetsov's face twisted in confusion. "I don't understand."
"He makes you believe the impossible is possible. Sometimes that's the greatest thing in the world. Sometimes, like right now, a part of me is saying that if Sulu had been in command the T'Mir would never had gotten through. He would have figured it out. Why couldn't Commodore Grann?"
"Maybe the spirit of Sulu was with the T'Mir this time, sir. After all, if the impossible is possible then that's got to be true for both sides," replied Alexandria with a hint of a smile.
Rear Admiral Pragur laughed for a good ten seconds. "Oh. I needed that. Come on, captain. Time to start talking to every captain involved."
"Sir."
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We have Sulu and Kanil on the EC panel right now. I think it is Sulu's turn, but we have both the Excelsior launching this quarter and the Courageous to captain. So Kanil may yet get moved. Perhaps unfortunate timing, but an EC command may be good for her.
e: Actually, her luck and skill at evading surprises may be just what the Courageous needs.
e: Actually, her luck and skill at evading surprises may be just what the Courageous needs.
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AKuz
Been Better
- Location
- A Rising Tide of Horrors
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I quite liked that.
Only one nitpick: Kuznetsova's first name is Alexandria not Alexandra. If you're wondering why someone would give their kid such a finicky slightly off-center and uniquely precise name... then you've never met Alexandria's parents.
> : V
Huh, and I went back and checked the original omakes too. How did I screw that up? Will correct.
AKuz
Been Better
- Location
- A Rising Tide of Horrors
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Most people see what they expect to see. So if they see Alexandr- their brain is going to autocomplete with -a not -ia. I think I pointed it out once by saying something like "Like her first name, Alexandria Kuznetsova was slightly odd". It's supposed to be a way of signaling that this is woman either raised by eccentrics or is one.
She's named after the city; never been there personally, but she's heard good things.
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm PRETTY sure it says more about the T'Mir and Samyr Kanil than the rest. She first showed up simply having a moment of Active EWAR: Better Than You vs the biophage. Then she proceeded to inflict five or six years of Passive EWAR: Better Than You on the Cardassians.
With ten or eleven years of service, one super-long deep penetration recon patrol and two crew promotions the T'Mir is probably every bit as hot-rodded and optimized as any EC ship. Yeah, even the Enterprise. Enterprise isn't getting 300% of rated performance anywhere, now is she? And I'd say that only Zaardimani is better at sensor scanning in particular, at the rest of the skills need for cloakless stealth approaches there is simply no contest.
If your name is not Zaardimani getting into an EWAR fight with Captain Kanil is a terrible plan.
With ten or eleven years of service, one super-long deep penetration recon patrol and two crew promotions the T'Mir is probably every bit as hot-rodded and optimized as any EC ship. Yeah, even the Enterprise. Enterprise isn't getting 300% of rated performance anywhere, now is she? And I'd say that only Zaardimani is better at sensor scanning in particular, at the rest of the skills need for cloakless stealth approaches there is simply no contest.
If your name is not Zaardimani getting into an EWAR fight with Captain Kanil is a terrible plan.
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- Location
- Australia
Yes - for one thing you'd be getting options form all member worlds, and your 'bandwidth' of asset take up would be a lot higher.
Things are a little more limited here because the Arcadians are a chibi-empire in comparison to proper Tier 1 factions.
The thing is, Kanil was horrified to have succeeded. Because how does she know there isn't some mentat with their super-brain geared to EWAR to duplicate the feat?
There's only one possible solution; keep running the exercise and throwing new ships at the T'Mir until one group finally gets it right.
I mean, that's how war games are often run. There's no point in merely running it until someone "wins", you really do have to refloat all the sunk ships and undestroy the destroyed solar systems and do a bunch of practice in the designated scenarios.
This one was kind of special since you can't exactly run it twice under the same circumstances, but I expect that there will be smaller detection and patrol scenarios run over the weeks of the game that we don't hear about.
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- Location
- Central Standard Time
Great. Now I have the image of a Chibi Mentat Dikhed.
*Cough* Any artists want to draw this?
- Location
- the Moon
- Pronouns
- He/Him
isn't he the Ordos mentat in the Dune 2000 remake? that SOB is pure distilled nightmare fuel