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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)

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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest) Starfleet Ship Design Bureau, Refit ("To Boldly Go...")
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AKuz said:
We would see the Cardassian fleet coming for literal months, and then the Cardassian fleet would be stuck in a cauldron, surrounded by hostile territory or open space on all sides, trying to garrison a resisting force on the end of a months long logistics chain that goes through hostile space. I can think of no better way for the Cardassian fleet to destroy itself.
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Them trying to do the same thing except to Earth? :p
 
Simon_Jester said:
Whereas it seems fairly likely that at least SOME Bajorans invited the Cardassians in because it seemed better than the risk of the Federation subverting the sacred caste system.
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I actually suspect that "Modernizing" Bajorans called in the Cardassians. They may have feared that we would Tolerate the Caste system too much for any reforms to happen. And if you wanted to end a repressive caste system, who are your best allies: A moderately secular but aggressively tolerant society with a drive to preserve cultures? Or an intolerant, but aggressively secular force with a fetishization of modernization?

I suspect the Cardassians picked their puppets with care, and picked puppets with at least a large enough minority voice to be viewed as legitimate sometimes.
 
AKuz said:
I actually suspect that "Modernizing" Bajorans called in the Cardassians. They may have feared that we would Tolerate the Caste system too much for any reforms to happen. And if you wanted to end a repressive caste system, who are your best allies: A moderately secular but aggressively tolerant society with a drive to preserve cultures? Or an intolerant, but aggressively secular force with a fetishization of modernization?

I suspect the Cardassians picked their puppets with care, and picked puppets with at least a large enough minority voice to be viewed as legitimate sometimes.
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They could easily have done both, playing ultrasecular and ultraspiritual factions against each other and their own allies. It seems a perfectly Cardassian thing to do.
 
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Omake - Matryoshka Pt 2 - Simon_Jester
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    • Matryoshka, Ch. 2​

    USS Endurance, Earth Orbit
    Warp Core Auxiliary Monitoring Station 2
    0147 Hours, August 30, 2311*

    Night shift was boring. Night shift in orbit was even more boring. The warp core was quiet, of course. Everything was quiet. But Crewman Sergey would do his job properly! He hadn't joined Starfleet to do anything less than work for a living.

    Something stopped being quiet.

    The door slid open.

    It was the captain!

    Captain Chekov turned briskly to the right, which placed him face to face with Sergey. The spacer, now even more surprised than he'd been a half-second before, now braced to attention.

    It was the captain... but something was strange.

    "At ease, spacer. I'm here to enter a sequence of test parameters, for later analysis in the warp core control computers, to match against simulated parameters... you seem troubled."

    "N- no, sir."

    "Relax, it will be fine. Hm... I don't quite recognize you."

    "Rozhenko, sir. Sergey Rozhenko." The young crewman gulped.

    Here he was, straight to an Excelsior out of training! Here was the captain, a hero of the Federation, a man who'd fought with Kirk. Who with him, had saved the very Earth itself- and more than once. Sergey did not want to express his confusion.

    Captain Chekov seemed to sense his unease. "Ahhh, Rozhenko, now that is a name I recognize! It's fine, crewman, you are a good spacer and your reports have always been favorable. I give you my word of honor, nothing will go on report, and tomorrow it will be as if you never said a word to me. But nonetheless, I am curious. What is the matter?"

    The captain smiled, as he slid the program card into the warp core computers, which accepted it with the usual happy mechanical clatter.

    Sergey paused for a moment, then decided to trust his captain. "It's nothing, sir... really nothing. Only... you always used to turn left when you step out of the turbolift headed for the warp core, sir. Reflex, you said, from your last ship. Never change, you said."

    Chekov frowned, looking... almost alarmed. "Oh, is that it?" The captain smiled, though it looked forced, and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Ah... well, that was some time ago. Maybe even an old dog like me can learn his lesson about the Excelsiors after all. Anyhow, it is good to know we have such a perceptive man watching our antimatter. Don't worry about it, you're not in trouble for spotting something new. Carry on, Crewman Rozhenko." The captain nodded briskly and headed back for the turbolift.

    Sergey waited for the doors to close before breathing a sigh of relief. He was glad the captain hadn't decided to make a mountain out of a molehill.
    _______________________

    *Official shipboard clock set to Paris time​
     
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    • Thebigpieman said:
    Ok the Cardassians are stepping up their conquest game in the galaxy. Not an especially good thing all possibilities considered.
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    They're probably stepping it down if anything. The Occupation takes up men and ships and resources that can't be used elsewhere. One of the reasons they let Bajor go OTL was that the Occupation was becoming a serious detriment to their ability to fight the Federation if there was a second war. Repressing planetary populations is hard.
     
    I'm not sure if this is Occupation Proper yet. The cardassians may be letting the puppet government run the show for a year or three before transitioning to direct control.

    Anyway, we definitely push the Dawiar this snakepit. We want the cardies stretched as thin as possible (and if they're stupid enough to try to retake the Dawiar by force, we'll get to reduce their fleet a bit).

    I don't think the cardassians will try that, though. They'll attack the apiata long before the Dawiar regardless of whether we push them.
     
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    Their next actions probably depend on just how much of their fleet is tied down keeping 'SERFDOM and the Cardassian Way' in Bajor.
     
    15pp, no rp the entire quarter. We did have some first contacts, at least one of which seems a likely future affiliate, but with yearly pp income being hit hard by syndicate cost we need pp from events and we need about 60rp over the next three quarters to be able to keep all teams running.
     
    In defence of the people who voted for diplomatic pushing Bajorans this might very well have happened anyways. Even if our actions did cause or accelerated this event let's not play the I told you so game please. I greatly enjoy this thread an am very pleased to not only see it back in action but so much content pushed out for it so fast after it break makes me even happier. So let please keep it civil both out of respect for each other and @OneirosTheWriter.
     
    Omake - Matryoshka Pt 3 - Simon_Jester
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    • Matryoshka, Ch. 3​


    USS Endurance, Earth Orbit
    Captain's Quarters
    0802 Hours, August 30, 2311

    The buzzing of the alarm woke Pavel Chekov, very much against his will. He felt like he'd outdrunk six space marines and a demolition crew, then fallen off the roof of a two-story building. Except that was over forty years ago, so...

    He groaned, forcing himself out of bed and over to the viewscreen in his quarters. Flipping on audio, he made himself sound calm and relatively free of pain. "Captain to bridge. Inform Commander T'Mela I will be reporting to sickbay before taking the bridge." Chekov pulled on his uniform jacket, made sure he was presentable, he made his way down to Medical.

    The change of watch had Endurance's corridors busy. He passed any number of crewmen. Young crewman Rozhenko of the night engineering watch seemed almost to jump out of his skin at the sight of Chekov, but the old veteran was too preoccupied by his headache to give it more than a moment's thought.

    Doctor th'Halzak wasn't in sickbay, but he trusted the old Andorian's second, Yancey. She looked at her captain with an air of concern, probably concerned about whether Chekov was about to keel over of old age any moment now, then began running scans.

    "Sir, there's some biochemical byproducts that are most likely causing your symptoms; I have a broad-spectrum that should ameliorate them."

    "In a moment, lieutenant commander, but first I must know- biochemical byproducts of what?"

    "These substances are consistent with sleepwalking. Or possibly an advanced form of sleepwalking. An altered state of consciousness, in which the patient might behave with exceptional lucidity. Do you have a history of sleepwalking, sir?"

    "No." Chekov shook his head.

    "Then this is very surprising, I must say. I've never heard of a case like this appearing suddenly."

    "...I'd better go through the whole physical, hadn't I?"

    Chekov, in poor spirits, surrendered to being poked, prodded, scanned, swept, and otherwise analyzed half to death. It could be worse. It could be Gamma Hydra IV.

    Finally, Doctor Yancey was prepared to give her report.

    "No other evidence of illness or chemical imbalances. There's also some slight hearing damage in your right ear. We must not have caught last month. Have you been exposed to any unusual sonic fields?"

    "Not that I know of. Can you fix it?" Chekov reached up, nervously, to brush his left ear. Not that the cochlear implant would have been affected, but... his mind shied away.

    Yancey seemed confident. "I believe so, sir, though I'd like some time to check possible treatments against your case history."

    "Of course. Now, about this headache..."

    Fifteen minutes later, the captain was headed to the bridge, with a greatly improved disposition. This lasted about ninety seconds after he reached the bridge.

    Commander T'Mela rose from the command chair. She crossed the few meters to meet Chekov, handing him a PADD.

    "The logs, sir." She always said it, with exactly that intonation. She'd probably decided on the logical way to say something everyone already knew, and just kept repeating it perfectly. Go figure.

    Chekov scrolled through the list of events and tasks carried out during the night. That is a lot of warp core diagnostics. "Just how much of the computer core did we have to use to run all of these?"

    "Eighty-two point four seven percent, sir."

    Chekov blinked. That was almost absurdly strenuous for a set of simulations and analysis. He might have done something like that, as a favor to Commodore Leslie, or to prepare for some expected emergency. But Leslie would have told him ahead of time, and he expected no emergencies. "Who ordered this series of tests?"

    T'Mela looked levelly at her captain. "You did, sir."

    For a moment Chekov expected her to raise an eyebrow, as old Spock would have done, as it sometimes seemed every Vulcan in the blasted galaxy did! But she didn't. She didn't have to. The eyebrow was there. Waiting.

    With the air of a man who knew exactly how to proceed, despite or perhaps even because the world was mad and he was at a complete loss, Chekov took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. "Commander T'Mela? With me, please." He led the way into the ready room.
    ​

    Captain's Ready Room
    USS Endurance

    T'Mela nodded, a learned gesture for her but one she used readily enough. "I have heard of the 'sleepwalk' phenomenon before in humans. There are several documented anomalies of similar nature among Vulcans."

    "Good. Now, that's what Yancey thinks happened... but I've never been a sleepwalker in my life. I think I'd like to get to the bottom of all this. Computer, give an accounting of my own activities from the time I went to bed last night until the time I exited my quarters at eight o'clock."

    "Exited quarters at 2308 hours. Activated Transporter Room Four at 2316 hours. Transported off the ship at 2318 hours, destination San Francisco. Transported aboard, Room One, at 0034 hours, origin San Francisco. Performed software configuration work in computer lab forward on Deck Seven from 0038 to 0141 hours. Uploaded software and data in auxiliary reactor control, 0148 hours. Returned to quarters, 0157 hours."

    T'Mela tilted her head slightly. "As noted in the logs, sir, it would appear that you authorized the simulation program."

    "I see. Commander, can you think of any way that these simulations or diagnostics could have harmed the ship?"

    "No, nor has there been any sign of computer subversion. Perhaps Security could scan the files you uploaded, and run diagnostics of our information systems."

    Chekov bit off an urge to reply that he had uploaded no such thing. Vulcans always thought humans a little bit mad at the best of times. "Have them do that. I want to be absolutely sure the ship is safe from any intrusion or viruses."

    "I will order it done as soon as possible."

    "Thank you, Ms. T'Mela. Now, I have a few more questions for the computer, if you please." The Vulcan sat back slightly. "Computer, is there now any person aboard who is not identified in standard databases, or has there been such a person in the last twelve hours?"

    The mechanical voice's answer was quick. "Negative." Chekov frowned. How to make the question he wanted to ask as broad as possible?

    "In the past forty-eight hours, has any entity, creature, living thing, or pseudo-living thing been detected aboard the Endurance that possesses any exceptional ability to impersonate, control, or otherwise manipulate members of the crew?"

    "Affirmative."

    Chekov grinned. Now we're getting somewhere! "Computer, state the whereabouts of all entities identified in the previous query."

    "Petty Officer Vivenna is in the mess hall on Deck Twelve." Wait for it... nothing more. Ah, right. Vivenna, down in shuttle operations. She was an Orion. Never mind that then. He was pretty sure this didn't have anything to do with Orion pheromones!

    He was getting desperate. Commander T'Mela's browline remained defiantly level, judging him. But one last brilliant inspiration struck him!

    "Computer, please state the location of Captain Pavel Chekov."

    A voice that to him would sound to him, always and forever, like Nurse Chapel pretending to be a robot in amateur theatrics replied. "Captain Chekov is in the ready room."

    "Aside from myself, is there any other entity aboard the Endurance, that you would identify as Captain Chekov?"

    "Negative, Captain Chekov. The only Captain Chekov aboard the Endurance is Captain Chekov, the Captain Chekov in the ready room."

    Perhaps his inspiration had not been so brilliant after all. And still, Commander T'Mela's eyebrows remained so very, very still.

    "End query." Chekov sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Ask a foolish question, get a foolish answer."

    "Sir, I would not characterize your query as-"

    "Of course not, you are too polite!"

    The Vulcan paused. "...Thank you, sir." She tilted her head slightly. "May I inquire as to the purpose of your queries, sir?"

    "Trying to track down a mystery."

    "The mystery of your activities during the three hours in question?"

    "Yes, commander."

    "Doctor Yancey's theory seems straightforward, sir. Could you explain your logic?"

    "Commander T'Mela... How many times have you had your captain experience a transporter mishap, resulting in him being replaced by his own evil opposite?"

    "Sir, if you are concerned about such mental displacement, might I refer you to the ship's counselor?"

    Chekov sighed. The commander did not believe him. But that was only because the commander was young. Ah, the innocence of youth... Of course, T'Mela was two years older than he was, but that was something like thirty-five in Vulcan years, wasn't it? No matter!

    Chekov scowled. "No, commander. I am serious. It happened to me in the '60s. Three times. Captain Kirk beamed aboard the ship. At first, nothing seemed to be wrong. But the Kirk we got was not our Kirk. He was cruel, insane, evil! We got the captain back properly, each time. But nevertheless! Three times, in three different ways! Within a span of little more than two years. And if it happened to him, it can happen to me." Chekov shook his head. "We must be watchful! I will be reviewing Starfleet authentication protocols ready. We must ensure that all crew are who we believe them to be!"

    T'Mela paused one more time. "There is, perhaps, the threat of Lecarre infiltrators or Syndicate agents."

    "The galaxy is wide, commander. Not only wider than we imagine, wider than we can imagine. We should start by worrying about such things. Then we'll have practice, to worry about real troubles..." Chekov shuddered, his hand brushing his ear. The painful reverie was interrupted by a chime from his desk viewscreen. He pressed 'Receive.'

    A slim officer appeared, Her face, framed by short brown hair, was if anything more severe than Commander T'Mela's.

    Chekov nodded. "Yes, Lieutenant Chatsworth?" If his communications officer was interrrupting him, it must be important.

    "Sir, I think you should hear this. There's been a coup on Bajor, and the Cardassians appear to be involved."

    "Understood, lieutenant. Transfer the report, we'll hear it." They listened.

    Chekov's face grew grim. Even T'Mela's face settled a bit. At the end of the report, the captain spoke. "That... sounds important. Perhaps we shall delay the authentication drills until later."

    "Are you certain of your health, sir?"

    "I'll take precautions. Perhaps the doctor is right, and I've been sleep-working."

    T'Mela nodded. "There appears to be no evidence to contradict it."

    Chekov sighed, and returned to the bridge, resolving to find some way to relax. Perhaps to sit back and play the balalaika. And go to the counselor. Or maybe he should forget the whole incident- and, perhaps, tie his foot to the bedside so he couldn't walk out of the room without being jolted awake. Or something.

    He felt badly outwitted, somehow, and hoped he one day got to meet the bastard responsible.​
     
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    • Okay so looking at it the Lion was a Miranda class which if we had to lose a ship that is the one we could lose the most. Also another new race and this one at 80/100 starting which is great news (one or two pushes to affiliate, or one good event). The cost with the syndicate not such great news. Though I think we are doing major damage to their assets overall, and they should have a hard time replacing them. Early occupation... well I am not sure we have the grounds to intervene quite yet as it appears to be one group of bajorans versus another group. Still we can keep a close watch and once they start going heavy handed I hope to hit them hard. Also we are going 4 diplo pushes again, we want as many races to be neutral in our favor as possible. In addition it would make it harder for the Cardassians to try this on one of our affiliates. Indorians are also getting close to membership level, 454/500 now with that event so two more years (less if they get another event booster).

    I say stay the course on the Syndicate and hopefully intel briefings will give us a better idea of what is going on there. Also we need to run more intel vs the cardassians, we let their passivity lull us into a false sense of security.
     
    UbeOne said:
    :lol
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    T'Mela is logical about these things. Lecarre are a known and plausible threat. The Syndicate is a known and plausible threat. Either or both of them could plausibly get a spy aboard the Enterprise, and it isn't even totally out of the question that they could somehow impersonate or suborn the captain.

    Of course, T'Mela may be very intelligent and competent, but she hasn't known weird. Pavel Chekov has seen the galaxy's weird.

    No, seriously, Captain Kirk actually DID beam back to the ship 'evil' three times during TOS. At least.
     
    I maintain that no Lecarre could truly mimic Pavel Chekov's unique combination of accent and hapless misfortune.

    But then, so far the Lecarre we've encountered are pretty unlucky, so maybe Chekov-level bad luck is normal for them.
     
    2311.Q3.M3 - Master of Orion
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    • New Rigel Daily News

    The potentially explosive case against Starfleet Lieutenant James Robert Holman was thrown out of court today in dramatic fashion after the presiding judge was dismissed for corruption and the evidence connecting Lieutenant Holman to the crime was revealed as complete fabrications. An agent from Betazed, Chief Detective Dearre Nixa, was able to successfully prove both that the Chief Judge was corrupt, and that Syndicate agents had planted the evidence used in the arrest of the Starfleet officer.

    This has led to a number of arrests of other Syndicate agents...

    [+2 Impact, +1 Cost]

    -

    Amepa Tribune

    Dozens of security personnel have been killed as Syndicate forces launched a daring assault on the prison in Amepa to retrieve a high-ranking member of the Syndicate. The Orion Union government is currently scrambling for answers after losing possession of the important agent. A planet-wide manhunt is underway, and reinforcements have been called in from nearby Andorian and United Earth task forces to help lock down all traffic in and out of the system.

    [+3 Cost]

    -

    Anti-Slavery Task Force Progress Report

    With our base on New Rigel operational, we have been putting people on the ground to assess the local strength of the Syndicate, and to start to apply networking analysis to their set-up here. Office 8 and the Rixx Scrutineers have taken the lead at this stage, backing up the local CFP. It appears that the Syndicate has spent much of this time attempting to subvert members of the local judiciary system, and in fact was managing this rather well, until the Scrutineers stepped in. We are currently purging the affected judges as quickly as they are subverted, and are now bringing in Frontier Justices to help carry the burden. [+2 Impact]

    This also helped us spring an attempted publicity trap from the Syndicate, where one of our security officers was arrested for murder, with very well-fabricated evidence. Dearre Nixa played a crucial role in upending that attack.

    On Alukk the Orion Union is searching high and low for the moles that led to the attempted ambush of the ISSU unit last month. Once they do, they have the new combat effective Aerocommandos and another ISSU Heavy unit ready to storm any implicated hypercorps. In positive news from Amepa, the SSD forces exploiting the lack of local organisation (the attack that freed the Alasho was believed to have originated off-world) to further remove the Syndicate from the community fabric. [+3 Imapct, Amepa reduced to Low Corruption]

    -

    [Total 4 Cost, 7 Impact, Amepa now Low Corruption]
     
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