When the Guns Fall Silent (A Star Trek quest)

I've assumed we were drifting in deep space from the beginning.

Yet we still took fire that hurt our shields. I want to be able to run away from the shockwave that (I assume) is coming.

Even if there is no metaphorical supernova, I hope that my logic-chain gets us working warp, and that we pull away from this anomaly so that we can figure things out with properly-working brains.

(I think Bairen is involved, but I don't think she can be the whole of it, so warp hopefully pulls her away from whatever she's interfacing with)
 
Fair. There's one fact you should probably remember, and that is you are being graded by three people. (Hence the Whimsy rolls)
 
Eh. As long as I don't get us court-martialed for blowing up a star.

Though, maybe I shouldn't jump straight to sedation. Revised vote:

[X] "Under the sea! Better where it's wetter, etc." (More complex engineering AND science roll)
[X] "Angle the shields to create a ram meant to pierce through any weather, and through the sea." (Science roll)
[X] Could somebody check on Bairen? I just thought of a horrible pun, and it makes me worry she's connected to the heart of all this.

Edit: adding
[X] Dawn write-in: Sedate Bairen and change course away from the sun before submerging.
 
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I'm mostly convinced, but if the dawn is representing the red star, I suggest we change course away from the horizon with the sun. When a QM says something like


I get suspicious.

[X] "Batten down the hatches" (renforce shields, try to move it closer to the ship's new skin.) (Engineering roll)
[X] "Under the sea! Better where it's wetter, etc." (More complex engineering AND science roll)
[X] Dawn write-in: Sedate Bairen and change course away from the sun before submerging.

I hope she's a good sport about it...
 
Sounds good to me.
In case that this actually represent the red star and we go into warp in direction of it....
Yeah let's try to play that safe

[x] "Batten down the hatches" (renforce shields, try to move it closer to the ship's new skin.) (Engineering roll)
[x] "Under the sea! Better where it's wetter, etc." (More complex engineering AND science roll)
[x] Dawn write-in: Sedate Bairen and change course away from the sun before submerging.
 
Now that I've slept, I'm less sure Bairen's issue is involved at all. It's supposed to just be regarding ability to use her abilities intentionally, not that they're transmitting and running amok.
 
Vote closed
Scheduled vote count started by KNakamura on Apr 28, 2024 at 4:39 AM, finished with 13 posts and 4 votes.

  • [X] "Batten down the hatches" (renforce shields, try to move it closer to the ship's new skin.) (Engineering roll)
    [X] "Under the sea! Better where it's wetter, etc." (More complex engineering AND science roll)
    [X] Dawn write-in: Sedate Bairen and change course away from the sun before submerging.
    [X] "Angle the shields to create a ram meant to pierce through any weather, and through the sea." (Science roll)
    [X] Could somebody check on Bairen? I just thought of a horrible pun, and it makes me worry she's connected to the heart of all this.
 
Episode 4.07: You can (not) advance
[Whimsy 10 7 1]
Grading: C, F- (What an amusing idea, but none of this is correct. At least you are thinking outside the box in trying to deal with this.)

[X] "Batten down the hatches" (renforce shields, try to move it closer to the ship's new skin.) (Engineering roll)

[X] "Under the sea! Better where it's wetter, etc." (More complex engineering AND science roll)

[X] Dawn write-in: Sedate Bairen and change course away from the sun before submerging.

(Engineering Roll 5s, 8s: 2d+2d+5d+1d+3d+1d => 10s; both successes)
(Science Roll 6s: 2d+1d+4d+2d+2d+2d => 12s; success)

[Sedating Bairen fails]

You secure the ship, in some cases, using the replicators to just add a meter of armor. There is excited chattering about the new spaces being used, something you understand happened before with oldships, somehow, having an infinite void for turbolifts.

Somehow. You think briefly about changing course, but you are straight outvoted by every other bridge officer, who point out to you that you can't, at present, actually manage your course. Progress is being made, but the most you can do is alter your course about 20-45 degrees. You do turn it 45 degrees away, though.

You do submerge, and spot the astral squall-line, with seas getting rougher. You are eventually forced to submerge a bit deeper to avoid what you suspect strongly is an astral typhoon. But, really, you spend most of the next day moving forward. Making efforts to clear up the warp drive. Repairs. Etc.

How do you handle the next night? It's still storming, so you can't surface, but you can't really get your bearings. The "fish" are beautiful though. There's that.

Nadeshiko has spent the day building models while she keeps the tactical systems up. Wentian and her are *deep* in an argument about anime, and you.. note, idly, and suspiciously, that nothing from that conversation appears.

But when Delarnious starts talking with a note of longing to the dragons of his youth, those *do* appear. You can't find Janeway or Dr. Nana, but some areas are effectively a cat people party, and you're forced to conclude they're in there. This is helped by the fact that sickbay is one of those areas. Your chiefs have set up a secondary infirmary, though. And you have to admit, the DJ's got a good selection of music, as you can hear it all over the ship.

Although, every fifty-seven minutes on the dot, you hear..
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9mhsW5aWJM

The ship is not sinking.

[] Write in plan for the next night.
 
And welcome to the lightning round. Vote ends in 24 hours.
Hint One: Janeway, Bairen, and Nana just rolled really badly.
 
Well so much for my pun-based epiphany.

Fictional anime doesn't appear. Dragons from youth do appear. Still fish. Still catgirls. What happens if you feed a fish to a catgirl? Is there numerological significance to the number 57?

Looks like we dodged a storm, at least.

No real ideas. Gonna throw out a plan so we have something ready if the timer runs out; will happily switch my vote if someone else has even half of an idea.

[X] Plan idunno
-[X] try to adapt the deflector dish to send sonar pulses.
-[X] try feeding a fish to a catgirl?
-[X] double-check the boiler room (warp core?) for leaks, just to be safe.
-[X] try visualizing the warp engine as an easier-to-clean geometry. Perhaps a magnetohydrodynamic drive?
-[X] try visualizing the warp engine clean directly. Maybe try reminiscing fondly about when it was fully functional and not tangled with kelp.
 
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Okay. I have a few questions:

1. I'm.. not sure I'm keeping people's interest. Is this due to plotline, my writing, or just very short posts? I'm trying to lengthen them, but I'm running into the problem of not wanting to just give the plot away (This time, I'll go for a less subtle "antagonist" next turn.) If it's the writing, I'd like to know now so I can spend some time trying to work out where it's going wrong - as always, feedback and suggestions are welcome.

2. The current pacing is slow, admittedly due to school, but also because I'm not sure the level of input questors want. I'm more or less operating on the "stop at a breakpoint where players can influence the next actions". Is this working for people, or should I add more?

3. ... on note #1: I feel, on thinking about it on the drive into work today, that I'm being *too subtle* and not giving out good enough hints. I can work on that - matter of fact, I will be today, on today's post - but I would like opinions.

Thank you for reading this! And I hope you're enjoying this episode.
 
I say I bad at write in so when a write in comes in I let others talk it out and build a plan of action, I like your quest btw and don't mind the pacing
 
Pacing's fine, I'm just bad at puzzles.

[X] Reminisce about the days when everything made sense, your ship had no issues with kelp entanglement or structural problems, there was no space-weather to deal with, and your crew were... not catgirls unless they wanted to be or had been born a cat-like species.
 
[X] Reminisce about the days when everything made sense, your ship had no issues with kelp entanglement or structural problems, there was no space-weather to deal with, and your crew were... not catgirls unless they wanted to be or had been born a cat-like species.

[X] Plan idunno
 
Voting end for 4 May 2024

Scheduled vote count started by KNakamura on May 3, 2024 at 3:21 AM, finished with 8 posts and 3 votes.

  • [X] Plan idunno
    -[X] try to adapt the deflector dish to send sonar pulses.
    -[X] try feeding a fish to a catgirl?
    -[X] double-check the boiler room (warp core?) for leaks, just to be safe.
    -[X] try visualizing the warp engine as an easier-to-clean geometry. Perhaps a magnetohydrodynamic drive?
    -[X] try visualizing the warp engine clean directly. Maybe try reminiscing fondly about when it was fully functional and not tangled with kelp.
    [X] Reminisce about the days when everything made sense, your ship had no issues with kelp entanglement or structural problems, there was no space-weather to deal with, and your crew were... not catgirls unless they wanted to be or had been born a cat-like species.
 
Episode 4.07: You can (not) advance.
[Whimsy 10 7 1]
[Loop Persistence: 8, 9]

Grading: C, F- (What an amusing idea, but none of this is correct. At least you are thinking outside the box in trying to deal with this.)

[X] "Batten down the hatches" (reinforce shields, try to move it closer to the ship's new skin.) (Engineering roll)
[X] "Under the sea! Better where it's wetter, etc." (More complex engineering AND science roll)
[X] Dawn write-in: Sedate Bairen and change course away from the sun before submerging.

[X] Plan idunno
-[X] try to adapt the deflector dish to send sonar pulses.
-[X] try feeding a fish to a catgirl?
-[X] double-check the boiler room (warp core?) for leaks, just to be safe.
-[X] try visualizing the warp engine as an easier-to-clean geometry. Perhaps a magnetohydrodynamic drive?
-[X] try visualizing the warp engine clean directly. Maybe try reminiscing fondly about when it was fully functional and not tangled with kelp.

[X] Reminisce about the days when everything made sense, your ship had no issues with kelp entanglement or structural problems, there was no space-weather to deal with, and your crew were... not catgirls unless they wanted to be or had been born a cat-like species.

(Engineering Roll 5s, 8s: 2d+2d+5d+1d+3d+1d => 10s; both successes)
(Science Roll 6s: 2d+1d+4d+2d+2d+2d => 12s; success)

[Sedating Bairen fails]

You secure the ship, in some cases, using the replicators to just add a meter of armor. There is excited chattering about the new spaces being used, something you understand happened before with oldships, somehow, having an infinite void for turbolifts.

Somehow. You think briefly about changing course, but you are straight outvoted by every other bridge officer, who point out to you that you can't, at present, actually manage your course. Progress is being made, but the most you can do is alter your course about 20-45 degrees. You do turn it 45 degrees away, though, leaning starboard.

You do submerge, and spot the astral squall-line, with seas getting rougher. You are eventually forced to submerge a bit deeper to avoid what you suspect strongly is an astral typhoon. But, really, you spend most of the next day moving forward. Making efforts to clear up the warp drive. Repairs. Etc. You're not sure exactly how deep you really are, of course, positions are extremely relative in astral seas. You find visualizing the warp core clean and a different drive severely helps with your speed - .. you think, the underwater reefs and valleys are moving much faster.. - but you still don't truly have warp.

You can't figure out why though. Nothing, at this point, should be stopping you.

[Deflector Dish Adaptation, difficulty: 6s Engineering. Wentian + 1/2 Ship+Crew + 1/2 Captain => 11s, 4 Critical Successes]

Adapting the deflector dish to act similar to a sonar reveals this sea is full of reefs, underwater passages, and needs to be charted to allow for safe transit across. Minovsky and Nadeshiko, the two trained in charting astral pheonomnea, get to it.

You think briefly about the time there was no space-weather..

[Attempted Roll at highest pool, 5s required: 2s; Failure]
... but you've never known such a thing. You do think of when there were no catgirls, but that also fails. Minovsky seems busy running yet another survey, though.

How do you handle the next night? It's still storming, so you can't surface, but you can't really get your bearings. The "fish" are beautiful though. There's that. You can't catch them, but you do spend some time observing them, and you're not sure if they're astrofauna, projections of energy, figments of your imagination, or some omnipotent being's prank. You do not think it safe to try and catch or feed to anyone.

Nadeshiko has spent the day building models while she keeps the tactical systems up. Wentian and her are *deep* in an argument about anime, and you.. note, idly, and suspiciously, that nothing from that conversation appears.

But when Delarnious starts talking with a note of longing to the dragons of his youth, those *do* appear. You can't find Janeway or Dr. Nana, but some areas are effectively a cat people party, and you're forced to conclude they're in there. This is helped by the fact that sickbay is one of those areas. Your chiefs have set up a secondary infirmary, though. And you have to admit, the DJ's got a good selection of music, as you can hear it all over the ship.

Although, every hundred-thirty minutes on the dot, you hear..
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUmNFD5UiD4

[Minovsky Science + (1/2 Crew+Ship) => 4s 5s (May 4th Bonus); Junk Data removed from chart.]
Minovsky presents to you a report. She notes that observed changes that were not entirely retro-casual were you, who gained a sister, after being estranged from her family, Nadeshiko, who gained a sister after being estranged from her family, and between the two of you, more able to protect each other in Starfleet. Bairen lost her family in the Cardassian Wars, and a commonality is emerging in reports about the catgirls. The first group were in the process of formalizing gender reassignment, the second group occurred after them, and were universally happy being the other gender, and the third group, the partiers, were just curious.

The changes to the ship were driven by imaging it, but the procedures were familiar to technology of their era. The only possible commonality is an anomaly, sure, but one that cannot form naturally, and would require power beyond that of any current civilization.

The ship is not sinking.

[] Write in plan for the next night.
 
I got really confused when I loaded the new update and it looked just the old update. Took me a second to be sure I wasn't in the wrong place.

So, looks like our votes are piling up ontop of our old votes? We see what we saw before, with only the music changing in the repeat segments (that I could spot). And we got new data interspersed. Feels like a tiny timeloop or slightly diverged timeline or something.

New data:
- retrocausally, people without family support/connection gained family.
- catgirls: one part insta-transition / already wanted it, one part didn't know they wanted it, one part curious.
- anomaly using HEAP TONS of power.
- can't catch fish, can't eat fish, maybe not actually fish?

Progress:
- better drives/propulsion
- warp core cleared
- sonar good, proceeding with mapping

---

Forgot to mention it last time, but I both caught and appreciated the infinite turbolift void joke.

...and actually, trans catgirls are a twenty-first century meme.

And the turbolift joke actually breaks the fourth wall, referencing Star Trek movies from our reality.

@KNakamura, are you actually a Q?

[X] Break the fourth wall in the other direction.
-[X] Knakamura, let my people go!
(I may come up with a less meta vote later? But the only thing I can think of right now is to try to talk to the fish)
[X] Try talking to the fish
 
I got really confused when I loaded the new update and it looked just the old update. Took me a second to be sure I wasn't in the wrong place.

So, looks like our votes are piling up ontop of our old votes? We see what we saw before, with only the music changing in the repeat segments (that I could spot). And we got new data interspersed. Feels like a tiny timeloop or slightly diverged timeline or something.

New data:
- retrocausally, people without family support/connection gained family.
- catgirls: one part insta-transition / already wanted it, one part didn't know they wanted it, one part curious.
- anomaly using HEAP TONS of power.
- can't catch fish, can't eat fish, maybe not actually fish?

Progress:
- better drives/propulsion
- warp core cleared
- sonar good, proceeding with mapping

---

Forgot to mention it last time, but I both caught and appreciated the infinite turbolift void joke.

...and actually, trans catgirls are a twenty-first century meme.

And the turbolift joke actually breaks the fourth wall, referencing Star Trek movies from our reality.

@KNakamura, are you actually a Q?

[X] Break the fourth wall in the other direction.
-[X] Knakamura, let my people go!
(I may come up with a less meta vote later? But the only thing I can think of right now is to try to talk to the fish)
[X] Try talking to the fish




As you wish, mon capitan.

End of lightning round, full update and end of mission will come out either late tomorrow or sometime Monday.
Scheduled vote count started by KNakamura on May 4, 2024 at 1:03 PM, finished with 2 posts and 1 votes.

  • [X] Break the fourth wall in the other direction.
    -[X] Knakamura, let my people go!
    [X] Try talking to the fish
 
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