Our intrepid protagonist is given command of a Q-ship that was converted from a merchant hull, rather than purpose-built as a combatant. As you can imagine, purpose-built merchant ships are designed to be cheap and economical to produce; this is essentially antithetical to how one designs a ship intended to face combat.
Our intrepid protagonist is given command of a Q-ship that was converted from a merchant hull, rather than purpose-built as a combatant. As you can imagine, purpose-built merchant ships are designed to be cheap and economical to produce; this is essentially antithetical to how one designs a ship intended to face combat.
On the other hand, said Q-ship was also used as a testbed for a number of absurdly potent experimental weapons. The net result is that her ship has tremendous alpha-strike firepower, but is hideously, hideously vulnerable to even small amounts of return fire if an enemy lasts long enough to shoot back.
No, I'm not, I was intentionally setting an upper bound.
"Sub-nanogram" strongly suggests a quantity that is less than one nanogram, but not orders of magnitude less. Giving the upper bound value (which I figured everyone knew I was doing) gives a sense for how big the explosion could be in principle if it involved, say, more than 500 picograms but less than 1000 picograms. And the answer is "about as big as an artillery shell, plus a radiation pulse."
Oh, puh-lease, Gaeni civilisation would have long ceased to exist entirely if they weren't very good about ensuring anti-radiation shielding is included in all building structures and very high-quality radiation therapy is available cheaply.
Side-note: Tourists be sure to take your iodine tablets before beaming down.
This is almost certainly true, and I suspect that their anti-radiation treatments, unlike a lot of their other technology, are reliable and effective. Otherwise, there would be no naturally conceived Gaeni of any variety; the entire species would have to be conceived artificially from ova and sperm stored in deep, heavily shielded vaults or something. And if the Gaeni were the sort of people who could think that far ahead about the implications of their experiments, then they wouldn't behave the way they do on a day to day basis.
I recall it did fairly well aginst pirates. Granted that was because the recent military game changer was such that a merchant ship with a giant cargo hold was well suited to take advantage of it. Still, being able to kill an escort with the element of surprise isn't too high a bar.
Though it would encourage further commerce raiding to involve destroying merchant ships at range rather than trying to spare the crew. Assuming that the crew are being spared, maybe Q ships are not such a good idea.
If we actually had large scale, ongoing problems with raiders all over our space, a few Q-ships might not be such a bad idea. And it would be good if our fleet auxiliaries were armed and shielded to repel at least low-end escorts, or at least give lone raiding escorts enough of a kicking that they'd risk being damaged and vulnerable to any avenging warships that showed up.
But I don't really think Q-ships are a good answer to this specific problem, compared to a proper Starfleet garrison based in the border region, combined with an actual campaign by Starfleet and the Diplomatic Corps to establish the nature of the problem with the Sydraxians and resolve it.
Convoying would probably work, but we'd really, really need to commit enough escorts and cruisers to the Sydraxian Border Zone and the adjacent sectors to ensure the plan worked. I'm not sure I'm qualified to judge how many would be enough.
It is just about exactly the kind of thing we could use Miranda-As for, outside the context of an actual pitched naval battle. They're not fast, but they don't need to be for convoy escort. They're reasonably powerful and well-shielded by escort standards, so they can stand up to an enemy raider in a fight. And they're cheap enough that we can afford to easily repair or replace them if we lose a few on escort duty.
Nash Ka'Sharren leans up against the Transporter room wall, a half smile on her lips, arms crossed. Her stomach is uneasy: a churning mixture of anticipation, excitement, anxiety. And deep down. A smidgen of fear.
The Andorian woman tries to distract herself. Eyes flicking back and forth as she watches her transporter chief work his panel, hands steady and confident, much as he has for the last six years. Nash remembers him as an awkward fresh enlisted and also remembers giving him the little silver hexagon that he now wears.
As the Petty Officer finishes his work Nash turns her eyes back around to a swirling cylinder of blue light on the Transporter pad as it resolves into a familiar face, "Sam!" Ka'Sharren says, gently pushing herself off the wall, "It's good to see you again" Nash reaches out to shake an extended and fuzzy hand before pulling her former XO and long time friend into a hug, "Punctual as always, Captain Mrr'shan." She says as they begin to pull apart.
"It's good to see you too, Nash" says Mrr'shan as the two part, "I always felt bad about making Harriman wait. So I made sure to be here on time."
Nash moves her shoulders in a miniature shrug as inside her gut anxiety suddenly spikes, "Take it from me, he probably appreciated the extra time with his ship."
The Caitian looks away for a moment, wondering if she made a mistake by being here now, then turns back smiling, "Anyway. It's good to be back on Enterprise again."
"Oh, I don't blame you. Enterprise is lovely, but I'm certain you'll miss Lightning before too long." Nash says with a half smile as the two Captains move out of the Transporter room into the corridor, the doors parting with a cheerful whoosh, "So, I guess congratulations are in order. For Enterprise, I mean." Nash reaches out with her left hand to lightly run her fingertips along the smooth metal, "I'm willing to bet that you didn't really expect that when we stepped off that shuttle ten years ago."
The Caitian gives a shrug that is half lazy stretch, "I was just happy to be your tactical officer." Her ears flick briefly, "I am quite pleased though"
Ka'Sharren smiles as her fingers continue to slide gently along the Enterprise's walls, "I'm glad that you're taking command Sam. Someone that I can trust to understand how important Enterprise and her crew are."
Mrr'Shan tilts her head slightly, briefly catching her old CO blinking away some moistness, "I'm sorry, Nash."
"Hm? Pardon?" The Andorian is briefly distracted tapping a communications panel affectionately, "Sorry for what?"
The Caitian's ears settle back slightly, "For taking Enterprise from you."
The corners of Ka'Sharren's mouth tick down briefly before she chuckles slightly, "No worries Sam." She smiles, "No need to feel bad. It was going to happen eventually. Like I said. I'm glad it was you and not some other officer. One that didn't understand what we've got here."
There is a long moment of silence as the two Captains walk along Enterprise's decks without a destination; a heavy silence speaking loudly between them.
Ka'Sharren, starting to resent the sudden gap between her and her friend, settles her stomach and takes a small breath, "So. Sam. Got a senior staff picked out yet?"
Samhaya, relieved, nods, "I will be keeping a number of our existing officers on staff. Mr. Stol and Mr. Bazeck, for instance."
Ka'Sharren chuckles, "Can't pull them apart until they get that shuttle finished, now can we?"
"Yes ma'am."
The Andorian snorts in amusement, "You don't need to 'ma'am' me just yet Sam. I don't get to pin that Commodore's badge on my uniform until I get a permanent assignment," she reaches up and taps her Captain's bars, "'Commodore in charge of packing Nash Ka'Sharren's things' isn't a thing apparently. Turns out It's actually only a Captain's billet." She stares past a bulkhead for a moment, "Anyway, go on."
"Well, Commander Leaniss will remain first officer."
Ka'Sharren nods, "Makes sense."
"Acheson stays security chief." Samhaya ticks off officers on her fingers, "Doctor T'les is being confirmed for CMO."
"Ah, good, she'll be pleased to know that she can take the 'Acting' off of her paperwork" Ka'Sharren stops in front of a turbolift door, "Who is your Science officer?"
"Lieutenant Commander Sapok off of Cheron." Mrr'Shan sighs, "It's going to be odd having someone new in that chair."
"Mr. Zaardmani was a fresh-faced Lieutenant Commander once upon a time too." Ka'Sharren's mouth turns up at one corner, "He's teaching now. At the Academy. Imagine that."
"Oohhh…" Samhaya sucks in a breath, "Those poor cadets."
"Ah, he's not so bad anymore," Nash chuckles lightly, "plus anyone that he trains will know a sensor panel backwards, forwards, inside and out. An entire generation of science officers will come out of his classes, enshrining his legacy in Starfleet for a century at least." Ka'Sharren laughs using her hand to wave grandiosely, "Or at least that's way he put it when I last talked to him. I think he's enjoying himself."
"Speaking of which..." Samaya says without a wink, "How is Doctor Asurva?"
Ka'Sharren looks up at her friend from the floor where she's busy kneeling down and inspecting a Jefferies tube hatch, "Oh, Pri's doing fine." she sighs, "Well, she says she is, but I can tell watching Orion Space implode is hurting her. But at least she's there lending a hand. I think it would hurt her more if she wasn't doing anything to help"
Ka'Sharren turns around and sits with her back against the familiar and welcome texture of Enterprise's metal, "Can you believe everything that's happened over the last ten years? Everything that we've done since we first skidded onto Enterprise at the last second before her departure?"
Mrr'Shan leans back against the opposite wall, drumming her fingers against the wall, nails clicking against the metal, "I suppose that I have to. Everything that happened… happened."
Nash moves a hand over the carpet, absentmindedly feeling the texture, "I mean, I got married, married to someone we just made first contact with!" She smiles and looks down the hall, "How many First contacts did we make Sam? Four? Five?"
"Six." Sam tilts her head to the side for a moment, "Well, seven if you count the Kadeshi."
Nash pushes on, "We fought the Biophage at the side of the Romulans. We hosted Romulans aboard this ship in friendship. Not even Jim Kirk got to do that."
"We certainly did a lot." Sam smiles and relaxes her head back to rest against a strut, "You've got nothing to worry about. In terms of being compared to Captain Kirk, I mean."
"Phffft," Ka'Sharren waves a hand airily, "Never was. My time with this beauty," she pats the deck affectionately, "speaks for itself."
"Good." Mrr'Shan folds her arms, frowning slightly, as she chuffs a foot across the floor, "I guess it's just me that has to worry about being the dull successor, like poor Harriman."
"Sam." Ka'Sharren looks up, "Sam. Don't worry about comparing yourself to any other Captain. Just... " She shrugs, "You're a great officer, just worry about the mission and keeping your crew intact. That's all that's important. Never do it for the glory. Do it for the mission."
"Maybe I should take up a correspondence with Harriman?" The Caitian flares her nostrils, "How to step into the shoes of a giant?"
"At least give yourself a chance to sit in the chair for a bit. Do your own thing." Ka'Sharren stares past her old old XO, "I actually kind of wish…" she purses her lips, "I was thinking about what I would say to Jim Kirk if he came strolling back out of that Deflector Control room." she nods at a point fifty meters away through four bulkheads, "I've been thinking about what I would ask him."
"Any conclusions?" asks Sam, ears flicking forward towards Nash Ka'Sharren.
"Well, aside from 'Where have you been!?!' and 'Seriously. What happened?'" Nash grins upwards.
"Yes, aside from those ma'am," Mrr'Shan smiles slightly. She's missed this woman.
"How do you stop being Captain of the Enterprise?" Ka'Sharren looks down and rubs the carpet again, "How do you… do it?"
The Caitian tilts her head inquisitively.
"I've been Enterprise's Captain for ten years Sam!" Nash's voice is insistent, "Ten years where I've known deep down in my soul. In every part of me that this is my ship. That I am her Captain."
Mrr'Shan yawns expressively, "You fell in love." she smiles while uncrossing her arms, "I saw it in your eyes when you first took command. Your face lit up and you couldn't look away from her. Not even for a moment."
Nash sighs, setting her head against the hatch, rubbing her forehead, "That doesn't make it easier. How do I get past love then? This is what I've done. Who I have been. I think Jim Kirk would understand, If I could ask one that question it would be that one."
Mrr'Shan looks at her friend, then down the corridor, tail slowly whipping from side to side, "Honestly. I don't think even he ever found out. Look at all the times that Kirk found a way to get back to his Enterprise." she tilts her head and looks down at Ka'Sharren, "It's actually kind of tragic. He never got past his Enterprise… I think it was almost a blessing he died when he did. I think he would have faded away in misery if he'd had to retire."
Ka'Sharren slowly gets to her feet, stretching out and up against the wall, supported by Enterprise, "Who says he died?" she raises an eyebrow and her mouth quirks mischievously, "I know the plaque in Deflector Control says he died… But everyone knows he's just waiting to come back when Starfleet needs him." she pushes herself off the wall, "Even the PADD pushers know. He is only listed as missing in action after all!"
"True," Sam steps away from the wall as well.
"I hope that you don't mind Sam, but I'm still clearing out your new room." She sighs, heading back over to the turbolift, hitting the call button, "I didn't realise how much stuff I had"
The Caitian follows her friend into the turbolift, "I don't remember you bringing anything over from Lion."
Nash waves her hands dramatically, "Yeah! Exactly, I didn't bring a thing over from Lion and here I've got a box like this" she makes a half meter by half meter square in the air with her hands, "Full of booze people have given me. And I'm never going to drink any of it!" Nash throws her hands up as she steps out of the turbolift onto the deck leading towards her quarters.
Sam flicks an ear, "Has it gone bad?"
"No. That's the problem." Nash waves her hands around, "It's all really fancy stuff. I've got a bottle of Romulan Ale from the Senate itself. Some sort of really fancy Amarki stuff, this Apiata Sweetwine, and…" she hits the panel to access her room, "It's all too valuable to ever drink unless I meet God." she steps over the threshold, "And not the one Jim Kirk killed either."
Sam takes a long look around the room which is scheduled to soon become hers as she follows Ka'Sharren inside. The floor is almost entirely covered in boxes, and thankfully, mostly everything is packed away save some shelving on the far wall, "Oh," she says, having expected more mess, "You're almost finished."
"It's not like I was procrastinating" Nash says while frowning across the room at award from the Red Shirt society placed on the shelving, "I just had waayyy more stuff than I thought I did."
Sam inspects a citation from the Amarki guild of Adventurers. "The evidence of a life well lived, Ma'am."
"Ten whole years of it Sam." Nash sweeps an armful of framed pictures and awards into an empty and waiting box, "I have no idea where I'm going to put this." She plops down on a box, "In my office I suppose. Wherever they stick me."
Sam pulls herself onto the tallest box in the room, pulling her feet up cross legged, she gives Nash a sympathetic smile, "There must be something that you're looking forward to."
"Well," Nash stands up and crosses the room. Picking her way around boxes and checking labels, "I do have a dinner scheduled with Commander Leaniss on the fourth." She bobs her head in mild embarrassment, "Just the two of us"
Sam smiles, "I hope I don't have to worry about my new XO taking leave soon?" Her tail swishes from side to side behind her.
"Oh no." Nash pops open the box her breath turning to fog overtop it, "She's dedicated to her Starfleet career." She shrugs, "We just decided to see what happens. No plans."
"I distinctly remember you not meaning to marry Senator Leaniss in the first place," Sam says with a hint of a grin.
"I remember." Nash chuckles, "I remember the look on Maryam's face as she realised what was going on."
Ka'Sharren pulls a bottle of something blue out of the cooler and reseals it, "Okay," she sets it atop her small kitchenette, "Now I said that I had a box of fancy drinks too nice to actually use."
Sam's eyes widen.
"This is not one of those" the Andorian fishes around for glasses, "You uhhh… remember that Romulan commander after the battle of Kadesh?" she digs in a box, "Ve- something. Not Velim, a different one, the one that thanked us for saving her ship and crew?"
Mrr'Shann closes her eyes trying, to picture the woman again, tail swishing, "I think I do."
"She sent over a crate of this stuff." Nash sets a pair of glasses next to the bottle, "She said that it was for drinking." The Captain pours, "The note said… ah! "For Drinking to Remember or for Drinking to forget."
Nash Ka'Sharren hands a glass of Romulan Ale to her successor, "To Remember!"
"To Remember."
Most of a bottle of Romulan Ale later Captain Samhaya Mrr'Shan erupts into laughter while carefully perched atop a box in her friend's quarters. A furred grip keeps a steady hand on a glass of something bright blue as she titters in amusement. "I remember that" she chuckles, "I was so drunk, when I woke up the next morning, I thought that I imagined that whole thing!"
Captain Nash ka'Sharren waves her hands hands around, holding them widely apart, Romulan Ale sloshing around dangerously in a tenuously held glass, "I almost didn't believe myself that Leaniss stunned those Orions... " she takes a indelicate sip of her alcoholic beverage, "And I was stone sober!"
The two Starfleet officers laugh together in amused familiarity.
Sam'haya leans back one arm tucked away, the other swilling her drink around, as she regards her Andorian friend with half lidded eyes, "Sooo, speaking of Commander Leaniss…" a sly smile fixes itself on the Caitian's feline face. "She's not going to be under your command any more…" an eyebrow raises itself above a golden and slit-pupiled eye.
Nash tosses back the remaining third of her drink, "Well…. Let's just say if she tries to marry me again…" she reaches for a nearly empty bottle with a label covered in blocky Romulan symbols, "I'm not going to try nearly as hard for a divorce this time around"
Sam flicks an ear in amusement, "Go on…"
"Well hypothetically speaking; I've got an open invitation to dinner for her whenever she's in Sol. The good Commander seems somewhat receptive." Nash winks, "Expect your new XO to let you know she'll be taking leave next weekend. " The blue woman tops up her glass, "Don't worry. I'll try to make sure that your XO comes back intact and well rested"
A feline head tilts inquisitively, eyes sparkling in amusement, "...You'll try?"
Nash winks again, "No guarantees."
Sam shrugs while looking into the ripples of her drink, "I try not to pry into the lives of my crew." she takes a big gulp of her drink, "Nash?"
"Yesh?" the Andorian laughs as she hefts an almost empty bottle, "Whoops, drank a bit too mush. Much." she pauses for a moment, "Anyway. Go ahead."
Mrr'shan takes a deep breath, holding a confused expression for what feels like a full minute as Nash shifts uncomfortably, then deflates, "I actually forgot." she points at the bottle energetically enough that she threatens to bat it from Nash's hands. "This is terrible stuff. The best."
Nash empties the last of the Ale into "I know right?" a hand rises up to stifle a giggle, "Those Romulans. Not. All. Bad. There are a lot of good reasons to be open with them." she winks again, the motion more exaggerated as the Ale really starts hitting her system, "Lotta good reasons."
Sam shakes her head in mock disappointment, "To go where no Andorian Zhen has gone before?"
"I didn't do anyone." Nash fails to look innocent, "And I'll never do it again" she laughs, "As many good memories as bad there. Even including Admiral Khev."
"Those speeches though!" Sam sits up tall in her spot, feet slipping slightly as she pushes herself straight holding her glass high in the air, "Another Glorious Romulan Victory. All thanks to the Indomitable Romulan will! And Implacable Romulan disruptors. And Indefatigable Green Romulan hull paint. And maybe a little to Starfleet. But just a little. Mostly it was the Indefatigable green paint"
Nash giggles raising her own glass and clinking it against Sam's, leaning dangerously forward on her own seat, "True! True! Vauthil Rihannsu!"
The Caitian takes a sip of her blue drink, "Actually he wrote all those in English. No translation."
"Really?" Nash raises an eyebrow as her antennae come around to regard her friend, "I never, uh, noticed."
"You were too busy looking at Commander Velim. But I was watching him. It was the most finely tuned friendly insult that I've ever seen." Mrr'Shan relaxes from her ramrod posture. "I talked it over with Mr Wolfe. No one on our senior staff spoke English as a mother tongue. The "standard" Human language. Not even the Humans." She snorts and looks up at the ceiling as she pushes aside some mental haze and goes back a half decade in her memories. "Khev wanted us to know that he was smart enough to fluently speak the most "important" Human language, but that he was too superior to us to actually care about our own individual mother tongues." she shrugs, "There was some other stuff in there about reminding us of our Human subservience, showing appropriate levels of respect, face and some other stuff."
Nash shakes her head, "Romulans!"
"Apparently at his level there is a lot of politics involved in every word spoken." Sam flicks an ear, "Seems like it would be a lot easier to say what you mean," the Caitain's tales swishes behind her, "or say nothing if you can't say it nice."
"Sadly, that short of double speaking is pretty mush a requirement of the job." Ka'Sharren shrugs.
Mrr'Shan bursts into bright yips of laughter, struggling to catch her breath, pointing at Nash, "You've never done that once! Not Once!"
Nash furrows a brow, "Seven times act-tually. Difficult work." she smiles.
"Such a shame. I bet it made you wish that Harriman had told you to run!"
"Run from Enterprise? Never!" Nash pauses, tilting her head to one side, as the name of the Enterprise captain before her trickles into her brain, "I…. Oh!" her eyes fly wide open and she dives across the room to her uniform coat swearing in a number of different languages, "HARRIMAN!"
Samhaya hunches over slightly to track Ka'Sharren, her tail whipping from side to side in fascination. "What's this about Harriman?"
The Enterprise Captain -the Andorian one- rips something from the internal lining of her jacket, "Harriman gave me this!" she holds it out in front of the Enterprise Captain -the Caitian one.
Golden yellow eyes study the worn and faded piece of material, tracing the lines of an ancient NX-class of starship, and the words around the edge that read 'Enterprise' and 'NX-01' the feline eyes widen, "That's… old. Very old"
Nash nods slowly, in great solemnity, "This was Archer's. He gave it to April on the day the Enterprise nil launched. Pike gave it to April, April gave it to Jim Kirk, and Jim Kirk gave it to Harriman on his first day." Nash Ka'Sharren takes a very deep breath, shuddering slightly, as she gently pushes it towards Mrr'Shan, "And now. I'm giving it to you. From Captain to Captain to... Captain."
Nash settles back onto her seat, tears in her eyes, as Samhaya Mrr'Shan gingerly takes the patch, "There. Now you are truly part of the tradition Sam. Part of the fraternity… sorority? Of Enterprise Captains." Nash smiles at her old friend and former XO, "Take good care of her Sam."
I recall it did fairly well aginst pirates. Granted that was because the recent military game changer was such that a merchant ship with a giant cargo hold was well suited to take advantage of it. Still, being able to kill an escort with the element of surprise isn't too high a bar.
Though it would encourage further commerce raiding to involve destroying merchant ships at range rather than trying to spare the crew. Assuming that the crew are being spared, maybe Q ships are not such a good idea.
From memory, those Honorverse Q-ships had the following:
Superdreadnought sized grasers (gamma-ray lasers) - not in SD numbers, but still far bigger than any other Q-ship style vessel mounted.
The first version of the pod launcher for the missiles - instead of firing missiles out of dedicated launchers in the ship, drop dozens of pods out the back, each of which mounts a dozen missiles and a cheap somewhat disposable launcher. Would lead to super dreadnought hulls that are basically missile colliers, dropping thousands of missiles out the back for mass wave attacks.
Docking for 4(8? been a while since I read the book) LACs (light attack craft, small (only jumbo jet sized) non-ftl attack craft). Would lead to the LAC Carrier concept with DN/SD sized carriers launching 100+ LACs for both offense and anti-missile duty to try to counter those POD waves.
They could absolutely murder anything up to and including heavy cruisers - if they could get the first attacks out without return fire.
Being a converted merchant hull, there was no hull armour, the shields (sidewalls in that universe) were only civilian grade, the power plants didn't have their own dedicated armour belts etc. Severe lack in damage control equipment with poor redundancy etc.
When the main characters ship found itself in actual combat, the pod launcher was knocked out by the first cruiser to catch it, while the second scored a mutual kill in energy range.
Nash was supposed to hand over the NX Enterprise badge that Harriman gave her when she took command. Oh well. I guess I either add that later or write another one > : V
EDIT: Time to write Part 2 while I work Graveyard tonight I guess
Convoying would probably work, but we'd really, really need to commit enough escorts and cruisers to the Sydraxian Border Zone and the adjacent sectors to ensure the plan worked. I'm not sure I'm qualified to judge how many would be enough.
It is just about exactly the kind of thing we could use Miranda-As for, outside the context of an actual pitched naval battle. They're not fast, but they don't need to be for convoy escort. They're reasonably powerful and well-shielded by escort standards, so they can stand up to an enemy raider in a fight. And they're cheap enough that we can afford to easily repair or replace them if we lose a few on escort duty.
Alternatively, we can just focus on the detection coverage part of the problem. In combination with member fleet ships at the borders, we should already have sufficient ships to match the incoming raiders - we're just not necessarily detecting them all in time. Starbases and outposts would help, and our starbase at Vega is just about completing this quarter. Of course that's assuming starbases actually help with Sydraxian event responses, which is a reasonable assumption.
"I fear we may be unable to meet again next year," says Vice Admiral Valentina Sousa. With one hand she holds a piece of cloth to staunch the bleeding from her scalp.
Vice Admiral Rinias ch'Vohlet reaches across the cramped confines of the runabout and claps a hand on her shoulder. "I thought I was the pessimist here. We'll pull through."
Head buried deep in the half-disassembled console that houses the ship's subspace communicator, Vice Admiral Heidi Eriksson sticks out a hand to give a thumbs-up.
Sousa blinks, then half-smiles. "Oh, not what I meant at all. I was actually thinking of the proposals sitting on Admiral Kahurangi's desk to open up another vice admiral slot. It's been hard enough finding a common time for all four of us to get together. With five it will be positively undoable. Look at what we had to resort to this year."
Ch'Vohlet doesn't quite roll his eyes, as that would be undignified for someone of his high rank. He does however look up at the ceiling of the runabout's small cabin. In a carefully neutral tone he comments, "Forget scheduling. After this disaster we'll likely all be forbidden from being in the same place at the same time."
Eriksson backs out of the console, and begins closing it up. She says, "It seems unlikely that many people will hear about it, Rinias. We'll have to slap an eyes-only classification on it since it's a temporal event. Still, we'll have to think of something to tell Vitalia when she asks why exactly her four vice admirals got trapped 800 years in the past and then had their runabout nearly destroyed by an early Yrillian explorer."
Vice Admiral Hikaru Sulu's warm chuckle floats out of the runabout's cockpit where he sits at the helm. "We'll just tell her we wanted to keep our hand in. Can't let the Explorers have all the fun."
4 HOURS EARLIER / 800 YEARS IN THE FUTURE (time travel is confusing)
It was perfect logic that even a Vulcan couldn't dispute.
Sousa had realized that this year their usual busy schedules simply wouldn't allow all four Vice Admirals to be free on the same night in the same city. She did, however, notice one opportunity in their schedule. All four of them would be traveling to Mars at about the same time, though they would swiftly split off in different directions upon arrival. Given traffic regulations and the position of Mars, there would be nearly two hours of transit time. Enough for a very short get-together.
But of course, the sanctity of the vice-admiral meeting would be disrupted if they had any outsiders present. A quick round of communications later and they all agreed to leave their aides on other transports and take the runabout Usain to Mars together. Who was to know that temporal shenanigans would intervene?
An excerpt from Vice Admiral Heidi Eriksson's report on the Usain Incident.
Only 15 minutes into our projected path to Mars, the runabout shuddered violently and a blinding flash of light filled the cabin. Vice Admiral ch'Vohlet later claimed he saw an inordinate amount of clocks running backwards in those few seconds, but I note he only came forward with this claim after we had determined the Usain and ourselves had been flung approximately 800 years into the past. I include it only for the sake of completeness.
Working together and checking the runabout's sensor logs, it took us a little over an hour to develop a working theory of what had happened. Our orbital path had intercepted a boosted subspace transmission tightbeam. Ordinarily this would have caused no particular problems other than some mild fluctuations in our impulse engine efficiency, but it appears that we had also intercepted a hithero unsuspected space-time fracture likely left by another incident of time traveling that has occurred or will occur in the same spacial coordinates relative to Sol. The fracture, the output from our impulse engines, and the subspace tightbeam combined to force us through a temporal rift into the past.
An excerpt from Vice Admiral Rinias ch'Vohlet's report on the Usain Incident.
I did too see the clocks, and I stand by that report. In any case, we had hardly begun to take stock of our situation when we found ourselves unexpectedly hailed. It was a Yrillian explorer. Sousa told us that it was suspected they had explored as far as Sol that far back, but she was the only one pleased by the confirmation. Historians! Temporal regulations being what they are the last thing we wanted to do was talk to the Yrillians or interact with them in any way, but they wanted to interact with us. Seems they mistook us for an Orion shuttle, and they started demanding that we pull to and surrender, as well as identify where our mothership was. Apparently Orion/Yrillian relations were none too warm in that era.
Sousa got on the comms and talked to them in some very passable ancient Orion, trying to bluff them off while the rest of us came up with a plan. I recognized some weaknesses in Yrillian design that they haven't corrected in 800 years. A powerful enough burst of ionizing radiation from our impulse drive could fry half their systems if set off at extreme close range. I guessed it would take them a day to safely boot everything up again, but not actually cause any permanent damage and risk altering the timestream. I also want to state for the record that we discussed other options and couldn't find any likely to cause less harm to the timestream. Runabouts aren't equipped with self-destructs, or at least nothing we could rig in the time before they would have rolled us up. So Vice Admiral Sulu turned our ship about, evaded their weapons fire, and set us on a ramming course.
An excerpt from Vice Admiral Hikaru Sulu's report on the Usian Incident.
Evading the Yrillian fire wasn't that difficult, though they did graze us badly enough that Valentina took a knock to the head when the runabout shook from the impact. Whatever passed for their weapons officer must have gotten a case of the nerves when he realized we were about to ram them. Of course, that wasn't actually our intention. Vice Admiral Eriksson got ready to overclock our runabout's own small subspace transmitter. Just after we got close enough to ionize their systems but before impact, a good three second window, she set off a burst that agitated the chronoton particles we were irradiated with and jumped the Usain a few minutes into the future. Worked like a charm. From their perspective we approached, their ship mysteriously suffered massive systems failures, and then we disappeared like a ghost. I hope that's how they wrote us up in their logs. Another mystery of the spaceways.
That only left how to go home. Fortunately, I have some experience in piloting temporal warps in the Sol system. I was able to duplicate and reverse the headings from that previous incident from memory, assuming that the time travel would have left its own space-time fracture. With that space time fracture and Heidi's readiness to cause another subspace burst we had all the tools we needed to effect further time travel… if not necessarily to be sure exactly when we would come out the other side.
An excerpt from Vice Admiral Valentina Sousa's report on the Usain Incident.
The vessel identified itself only as a temporal patrol ship. I have suspicions and deductions beyond that, but in the interests of respecting the integrity of the time stream I decline to include any of them in this report. In any case, the ship departed without leaving a trace and 'towed' us exactly back to the time-space coordinates from which our harrowing journey had begun. In that order, and no I'm still uncertain how that worked, and I was there. In time travel, cause before effect is the first structural support member of reality to be broken.
What the Vice Admirals have to say on the remainder of their journey to Mars.
No one feels like having their usual debates about the great issues facing the Federation. Not after what they have just been through. Still, the silence stretches uncomfortably.
"I didn't think I'd ever experience that level of personal... excitement again," says Sulu out loud. "I believed the Battle of Kadesh was the last time I… well, the last time."
"Hah! You and me both, Hikaru," says ch'Vohlet. He cracks his knuckles, a release of tension.
"It was a reminder of what Starfleet is all about," says Eriksson in a quiet voice. "Not every day, of course, not even for the Explorer Corp much less every ensign manning a spaceyard dock, but… some days, space can be wondrous and terrible."
"We are Starfleet's leaders. Our obligation to the fleet is to build a strong foundation from which those under our command can see the wonder and shelter from the terror," says Sousa.
"To anticipate and disarm threats before they can harm us," says ch'Vohlet.
"To find a use for every talent, and a talent for every need," says Eriksson.
"To do whatever it takes to bring them back home," says Sulu.
There's another silence.
"It was a fascinating confirmation that Yrillian explorers might actually be the giants recorded in certain Earth mythologies," says Sousa.
"That interaction between between subspace transmissions and space-time fractures was purely theoretical before now. We banked some solid data," says ch'Vohlet.
"If chronoton particles could reliably cause small temporal displacements, I could think of a dozen research applications," says Eriksson.
"Even just a look at that temporal patrol vessel's hull suggests implications at how you might design a vessel primarily meant for temporal warp," says Sulu.
Two birds with one stone: have the gaeni design a decoy merchant ship that somehow manages to retroactively disintegrate not only any Sydraxian boarders, but their extended families and pets as well.
Honestly can't make myself feel bad about that death. Because saying "but it's impossible!" to Gaeni is more or less suicide-by-Gaeni if things go Murphy. Which with Gaeni is quite probable for things that involve "BUT IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" from somebody.
Honestly can't make myself feel bad about that death. Because saying "but it's impossible!" to Gaeni is more or less suicide-by-Gaeni if things go Murphy.
To be fair, blasch Cheg has a history of saying "you can't possibly be right" to people with a habit of proving themselves right via destructive devices.
If then-Captain Leslie'd had a Gaeni's sense of safety regulations, blasch Cheg would have been in serious danger of winding up with hamburger for lungs, from inhaling a cloud of microscopic tritanium shards back in These Old Bones.
So I suppose I accidentally foreshadowed the poor fellow's death.
To be fair, blasch Cheg has a history of saying "you can't possibly be right" to people with a habit of proving themselves right via destructive devices.
If then-Captain Leslie'd had a Gaeni's sense of safety regulations, blasch Cheg would have been in serious danger of winding up with hamburger for lungs, from inhaling a cloud of microscopic tritanium shards back in These Old Bones.
So I suppose I accidentally foreshadowed the poor fellow's death.
That was probably my last Vice Admiral omake, as I think five of them might be a bit much to juggle. So I wanted to send them out with a bang and an actual adventure rather than all talky-talky. It's been a lot of fun trying to give them all distinct personalities and philosophies and capabilities. (Of course Sousa can speak passable Ancient Orion.)
Next up, probably either something about Jackie's first semester at Starfleet Academy or a piece about the captain of United Earth's new Excelsior. (@OneirosTheWriter did you have a name in mind for the UE Excelsior?)
That was probably my last Vice Admiral omake, as I think five of them might be a bit much to juggle. So I wanted to send them out with a bang and an actual adventure rather than all talky-talky. It's been a lot of fun trying to give them all distinct personalities and philosophies and capabilities. (Of course Sousa can speak passable Ancient Orion.)
Next up, probably either something about Jackie's first semester at Starfleet Academy or a piece about the captain of United Earth's new Excelsior. (@OneirosTheWriter did you have a name in mind for the UE Excelsior?)
Star Trek: To Boldly Go
Five Years in Review, Part Three
SEASON FOUR: THE SPATIAL COLD WAR
Season Four began with the happy resolution of the Enterprise's battle. In a plot reminiscent of a space-operatic Groundhog Day, Captain Ka'Sharren found herself repeatedly time-warped back to the beginning of the battle, improving her tactics through grim determination, trial, and error until she was finally able to triumph. The Enterprise command team was played masterfully throughout, under a variety of challenging circumstances, though Park joked that Zhang got more camera time as a dead body in Saves Nine than she usually did as a living one in a more normal episode.
Subsequent episodes made it clear that the many-times-repeated fight against the Cardassians had taken a grave psychological toll on Ka'Sharren, a fact which was explored in cooperation with the Betazoids. This telepathic species, well known from previous Star Trek series, was shown joining the Federation in Season Four thanks to the masterful diplomatic efforts of Captain Thuir, who saved a Betazoid ambassador from a horrible fate in the episode Now You See Me....
Shortly afterwards, however, Polaris signaled what would become the dominant plot arc of Season Four: the shift of Cardassian policy from one of open confrontation to a Cold War format in the wake of their failed battle with the Enterprise. A Federation ship sent to broker peace between the Caitians and the then-obscure Dawiar, who had not previously appeared since early in Season Two, found itself ambushed and destroyed by the Dawiar in an incident that escalated to war between the Dawiar and the Caitians.
Interspersed with the backbone of episodes involving the Caitian-Dawiar conflict were a steady stream of examples of "the continuing mission" in action, with the Explorer Corps continuing to do its duty. Most of these episodes were well received, even if a few exceptions such as The Isolationists' portrayal of the aloof, technologically advanced Tulpari left fans scratching their heads.
The middle of the fourth season saw the return of the character Saavik from the Star Trek movies of the 1980s, albeit with yet another recasting. Saavik's memorable flight from a surprisingly artful CGI dinosaur in No Win Scenario, her first role as a lead character, set the tone. The reintroduced captain faced the monster with dauntless courage, resourcefulness, and dry wit, forming the basis of Saavik's 21st- or is it 24th?- century persona.
The combined investigative efforts of the Explorer Corps allowed the Federation to gradually defuse the tensions between the two species, contacting the Dawiar by way of the sophisticated, mysterious Qloath and the snakelike Seyek. It was eventually revealed that the war had started over a major cultural misunderstanding on the part of the Dawiar.
Happily, a negotiated end to the conflict was still possible, the writers reaffirming Star Trek's optimistic vision of peace and diversity. Peace negotiations began under the capable direction of Ambassador Spock in Olive Branch, and culminating in Place At The Table. This pair of episodes marked Leonard Nimoy's second return to the series in more than a cameo role.
Unfortunately, Season Four lacked a finale as impressive as Requiem or A Stitch in Time. Place At The Table was an adequate episode, but many feel that the opportunity to put Nimoy aboard a new Enterprise and interact with its command team were used less fully than it might have been.* Some fans criticized the premise that the Dawiar expected a duel between their flagship and Enterprise as an attempt to reuse the plot of Warm Welcome. In mitigation, many critics gave a tentative thumbs-up to the creative team's effort to allowing the crude but effective Dawiar cruiser to put up a valiant (if unsuccessful) effort against the more advanced Starfleet ship and its elite crew.
SEASON FIVE: OLD FRIENDS, NEW ENEMIES
In the fifth season, focus has shifted from the external conflict with Cardassia, and the writers began building up the Orion Syndicate as an internal opponent for the growing Federation. Furthermore, it appears as if the writers have resolved to make up for the weak conclusion of Season Four with a significant increase in the dramatic tension of the show.
This began as early as the second episode, Curious Felines. The episode began with a decoy side-plot involving Caitian politics, and Maryam Ajam's USS Courageous on a secret mission in Syndicate space to investigate rumors of a Cardassian secret weapon project. While the Caitian plot was resolved quickly, Ajam's ship was attacked during its mission, and utterly crippled in what reviewers have listead as one of the top five gut-wrenching scenes depicting the loss of a Starfleet vessel.
By the time an Amarki battlecruiser arrived to rescue the embattled explorer Courageous, Captain Ajam and half of her ship's crew were dead or missing in action.
The Syndicate, previously portrayed as little more than mere criminals, had escalated to wrecking one of Starfleet's finest ships. This heralded a shift in focus, and five of the next nine episodes featured conflict with the Syndicate, or the aftermath of the attack on Courageous, as either the 'A' or 'B' plot. However, the writers then switched gears back to Cardassia with the widely praised two-part episode Kadak-Tor, which had many viewers on the edge of their seats.
A storm of speculation swept cyberspace as to whether there was a plan to bring the Federation into war with Cardassia, paralleling Deep Space Nine's conflict with the Dominion. The flames were fanned during the first half by subtle classic movie references, leaving viewers uncertain whether to compare the crisis to something out of Tom Clancy- or Stanley Kubrick.
The surprise reappearance of widely liked character Maryam Ajam, thought to have been killed by the Syndicate, brought an unexpected and heartwarming end to the mid-season two-parter. Furthermore, Kadak-Tor's aftermath showed the Cardassian Union pulling in its horns. With this event, To Boldly Go appears to have concluded the "Borderland arc" that spanned the third and fourth seasons.
This was followed by a string of episodes fully establishing the sinister Orion Syndicate as antagonists, with cyberpunk elements and a focus on infiltration and terror tactics, features seldom seen before in Star Trek. The producers neither confirmed nor denied speculation that the recent emphasis on the Syndicate is a commentary on the War on Terror, encouraging fans to draw their own conclusions.
They made similar comments regarding the fanbase-splitting character of Scott Linderley, played by Zachary Quinto. The zealous, secretive head of Starfleet Intelligence made his controversial debut in the fifth season's third episode, The Buck Stops Here, in the aftermath of Ajam's presumed death. Fans seem torn about the character. Some see him as an antagonist within Starfleet, while others view him as a determined figure prepared to do what is necessary to protect the Federation he loves.
FORWARD THE FEDERATION
While UPN's upcoming closure in September is a given, The CW, a joint CBS-Warner Brothers Entertainment venture, has picked up the show for a sixth season. The success of the rotating-cast paradigm, combined with a select number of fan favorites as anchors of the ensemble, has served admirably to keep the show's formula from growing stale over time. Viewers can seldom predict from week to week what sort of Star Trek they will be seeing, but ratings and popular interest remain overall high, even in the face of anticipated shakeups to the show's cast.
There is considerable ambiguity about whether Maryam Ajam will feature in the sixth season. And alarmed fans concerned that Captain ka'Sharren's promotion off the bridge of the Enterprise heralds her disappearance from the show were further disturbed by a trio of April 1 Myspace postings by Megan Gale, though she has since maintained that these were a practical joke.
On a more positive note, To Boldly Go has been able to bring in a growing number of appearances by members of the original Star Trek cast. Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, and George Takei have all appeared on several occasions, along with a recent appearance by Walter Koenig. Nimoy plays a diplomat rather than a science officer, and Uhura and Takei have left the captain's chair behind in their roles as admirals, but all four old fan favorites manage to steal the show whenever they appear.
Sadly, Nimoy has declared that while he is open to future guest appearances as the famous Spock, he will not be returning to the show as a regular.
By contrast, rumors abound that despite his advanced age, Takei has agreed to take on a frequent role as the head of Starfleet Command in the sixth season. If so, we look forward to seeing him fill Admiral Kahurangi's shoes. Furthermore, Ms. Nichols has confirmed in a recent interview that the warm, wise, and tough-minded Admiral Uhura will play a pivotal role in Starfleet's struggle with the Syndicate.
We expect Uhura's command team to be a tough combination for the high-tech criminals of the Syndicate to resist. Jolene Blalock's tenacious and resourceful Commodore T'Lorel, whose appearances in the fourth and fifth seasons had been greatly reduced, will now be taking on a surprising transition to groundside duty against Orion terrorists. And Emma Thompson has confirmed that with her recent film project concluded, she will be returning to To Boldly Go as the formidable Victoria Eaton, helping Uhura fight battles against the Syndicate in deep space.
Other questions revolve around how much of the series will continue to deal with matters other than the Syndicate. Will we see more activity from the Q Continuum, one of the Q having appeared early in the fifth season aboard Thuir's Miracht to caution the Federation against excessive violence? Will the warlike Sydraxians, longtime thorns in the Federation's side, make themselves into a more dangerous threat? Will the Cardassians take advantage of the Federation's preoccupation with the Syndicate?
What is certain is that To Boldly Go, despite its controversies and quirks, is very far from being done pleasing viewers- and surprising them.
*Author's Note: I know that in-game we had Sarek to handle these negotiations. But Mark Lenard died in 1996. Rather than recast Sarek, they plotted the episodes for the son, rather than the father. Incidentally, this is part of why the episodes Olive Branch and Place At The Table wound up getting bad reviews. They were originally written for Sarek by someone who'd expected them to recast Sarek.
Then someone had what could have been the brilliant idea to cast Spock instead. Nimoy agreed, but the episodes weren't replotted heavily enough to take advantage of having Spock present on the Enterprise-B. So it wound up disappointing the fans somewhat.
Slight correction: it was Sarek, not Spock, who negotiated the Caitian/Dawiar peace. Missed the author's note.
I'm guessing Nash's actress didn't want to continue as a regular after season 5. Its the only reason I can think of that the writers would replace her as captain.
I actually had a reason for that. (Also other people made similar jokes during proofreading)
Zhang is inexperienced enough that she often dies first when the Enterprise gets stuck in, but she is brave enough to always stick around. So she is pretty much the first of the senior staff to die each time.
