@sparklysoldier: The noble houses are more or less an invention of mine. It just made sense to me that, in a pirate/criminal organization like the Orion Syndicate, you would have wealthy families, a la the Mafia, except matriarchal. The backstabbing and intrigue are definitely canon, though (look at how Melani Di'an rose to power). The only thing I wrote that I suspect might really jar with canon is Lynathru having a position of power within his house, given, again, that men are second-class citizens in Orion society.
@cmdrscarlet: Why thank you! Although I would also recommend patrickngo's stories in Ten Forward, as I've discovered that he writes from the Orion perspective very convincingly. Also, I recently found a non-canon Star Trek wiki that I might use as reference for future stories concerning Lynathru.
Anyway, after having read a few more:
fu11ofstars: I loved your story! The twist in it actually reminded me of some the best bits of Deep Space Nine-- of how the happy, humanistic face of the Federation becomes twisted and ugly in the face of war, and how normally good commanders are forced to issue orders they would usually find reprehensible. Your entry has made me curious enough to peruse the rest of your blog for your captain's luckless, drunken tales.
danqueller: As everyone else has already said, the twist at the end was quite awesome, even if it does raise all sorts of interesting questions about Gre'thor (although it will probably make a lot more sense to me once I play the Fek'Ihri arc).
I don't think anybody can, especially with wars on so many fronts.
Glad you liked the story, though. And good cultural literacy, knowing the polite Russian way of referring to him.
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@fu11ofstars - I recall your work when I looked over older LCs. Your theme is pretty entertaining to read and I appreciate links to other LCs as well.
@knighraider6 - Capt Schrodi is fun to read about! the coffe machine was particularly inventive as was the solution to the problem . Man, Drake got put through the ringers in this LC ...
@edinator96 - Like others have said, when you copy from Word into the forum, a lot of punctuation becomes unrecognaizable and then replaced by a question mark. It's a pain and there are few fixes I have not tried myself. Regardless, welcome to the Literary Challenges
@gulberat - I really enjoyed this one, the tension was palpable! But I'm curious: the interdictor reminds me of a similar concept in Star Wars canon. I'm actually glad to read of tragedy in victory. It seems to me there is a lot of near-misses and "just in time" saving in Star Trek, as if to say if there were no Federation Captains flying around, the galaxy would tear itself apart. So to read Alyosha (Alexi) just miss it, was refreshing, if not sad as well.
@gulberat - I really enjoyed this one, the tension was palpable! But I'm curious: the interdictor reminds me of a similar concept in Star Wars canon.
I'm not actually familiar enough with Star Wars to know anything about that.
I'm actually glad to read of tragedy in victory. It seems to me there is a lot of near-misses and "just in time" saving in Star Trek, as if to say if there were no Federation Captains flying around, the galaxy would tear itself apart. So to read Alyosha (Alexi) just miss it, was refreshing, if not sad as well.
I've seen that trend as well, and that was one of the things I liked best about DS9--there were real losses, real consequences
I hated to put Alyosha through this, but I just couldn't see a way to pull out a complete victory with only an escort going up against such terrible odds. They got very lucky with that tac cube in #39. They can't expect that kind of luck all the time, though.
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I'm not actually familiar enough with Star Wars to know anything about that.
In the Star Wars EU, the effect of getting too close to a point-mass like a black hole while in hyperdrive, mentioned but unspecified in the first movie, is that the ship will exit hyperspace rather abruptly. If you're fortunate, it will also happen all at once.
Interdictor-class ships were built in some of the novels, capable of generating an artificial gravity field that could pull other ships out of hyperspace. They weren't singularity-style point-masses, so tended not to destroy the target; however, as long as that field is there, the target ship can't escape normal space either, and is forced to stand and fight. Ideally, you only do this when you know your target is seriously outgunned. And ideally, your target isn't a Q-ship, hiding a more powerful smaller vessel under the skin of something weaker...
This works on a different principle--it's more like folding the end of the conduit or slipstream corridor up on itself, resulting in a terrible impact.
As far as the name, I would say it actually came from EVE--a game I don't play, but I saw the footage of the recent Battle of Asakai and learned about the tactics. There's a class of ship that can prevent a warp jump or pull ships out of warp, kind of like what you describe in Star Wars. So I turned that around on its head and did the opposite--prevent ships from properly exiting superwarp (a term I invented, which I thought would make sense to encompass both forms of faster-than-warp travel in-game).
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From you story gulberat, I had the impression the interdictor would close the slipstream corridor as the target ship was exiting, not closing the corridor completely.
I guess I'm imagining if the corridor were closed then the resulting explosion would be contained in the tunnel. As I type this I'm thinking that is false - that the explosion and debris would be at warp speed as well. Which would be further destroyed without a warp containment field as the debris would instantly stop traveling faster than light, yet be traveling at just under the speed of light ...
While you'd think it would be contained, the Hobus nova does suggest the possibility of the explosion propagating through subspace. So while much smaller, what happens in the tunnel--had the interdictor worked properly would have created pretty wide blast radius.
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As far as the name, I would say it actually came from EVE--a game I don't play, but I saw the footage of the recent Battle of Asakai and learned about the tactics. There's a class of ship that can prevent a warp jump or pull ships out of warp, kind of like what you describe in Star Wars. So I turned that around on its head and did the opposite--prevent ships from properly exiting superwarp (a term I invented, which I thought would make sense to encompass both forms of faster-than-warp travel in-game).
Oddly enough, EVE modelled their Interdictors on the ships in Star Wars, so we go full circle
@gulberat - Beautifully written as always. Kapitan Strannik's anguish at the loss of the Indomitable and his own crew was so palpable.
I also really enjoyed your battle scene. It's great to see a Starfleet officer using science to defeat the enemy (rather than just unleashing massive firepower as Admiral LaRoca tends to do. One of these days I'll have to see how he'd respond when completely outmatched by superior forces in a battle he can't escape.)
Thank you also for taking the opportunity to explore the character N'Vek, and showing how he reacts when confronting fellow Romulans. I sense his strong bond with Alexei Ivanovich will be a recurring theme in future LCs.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
Very nice! I love the way you pulled in so many different elements from the game and TNG into your story. I also really liked "Robby the Robot"
Sad day for Admiral Lee and the crew of the Lord English but as several other officers have recently discovered, you can't win 'em all.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
@ gulberat: That was an excellent entry, and a sobering reminder that the good guys don't always win... :-\
Thanks. Even as the author it's hard for me to tell if it was a worse crisis averted, or a horrible tragedy caused by everyone's failings, Alyosha's included.
@gulberat - Beautifully written as always. Kapitan Strannik's anguish at the loss of the Indomitable and his own crew was so palpable.
I also really enjoyed your battle scene. It's great to see a Starfleet officer using science to defeat the enemy (rather than just unleashing massive firepower as Admiral LaRoca tends to do. One of these days I'll have to see how he'd respond when completely outmatched by superior forces in a battle he can't escape.)
Could be interesting given his seeming overconfidence...
As far as Alyosha using science...he's a science officer by training but was assigned to command an escort. This sometimes leads to confusion by the enemy, as they don't expect a science ship's tactics on an escort.
Glad you liked it.
Thank you also for taking the opportunity to explore the character N'Vek, and showing how he reacts when confronting fellow Romulans. I sense his strong bond with Alexei Ivanovich will be a recurring theme in future LCs.
I can't remember if you are one of the ones who read "The Truth in the Illusion," but it definitely put those two in an interesting position towards each other. I suspect I will be exploring that too at some point, as well.
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Could be interesting given his seeming overconfidence...
LaRoca is definitely overconfident and more than a little self-deluded. Even I can't tell if he's a pirate who thinks he's a diplomat or a diplomat who thinks he's a pirate. Trouble is, he's always been able to blast his way out of trouble, often in spite of overwhelming odds, so his confidence feels justified and his delusions are unchallenged. I'll have to do something about that...
I can't remember if you are one of the ones who read "The Truth in the Illusion," but it definitely put those two in an interesting position towards each other. I suspect I will be exploring that too at some point, as well.
That was actually my introduction to Alyosha. From there I went back and read your past LCs. I continue to be utterly fascinated by the way you craft his emotions and your skillful use of his Devidian physiology as an ongoing plot device.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
Thanks. Even as the author it's hard for me to tell if it was a worse crisis averted, or a horrible tragedy caused by everyone's failings, Alyosha's included.
A pleasure, as always From my perspective as a reader, personally, I would have said the former... Despite the Romulan presence, it was definitely Captain Sengupta's haste which ultimately caused the loss of the Indomitable. The crew of the Chin'toka may have been unable to prevent the tragedy, but they at least did the best they could to try to prevent it, so I would not have said failings on their parts at all...
LaRoca is definitely overconfident and more than a little self-deluded. Even I can't tell if he's a pirate who thinks he's a diplomat or a diplomat who thinks he's a pirate. Trouble is, he's always been able to blast his way out of trouble, often in spite of overwhelming odds, so his confidence feels justified and his delusions are unchallenged. I'll have to do something about that...
Could be interesting. Such individuals can be surprisingly fragile when put under real pressure...
That was actually my introduction to Alyosha. From there I went back and read your past LCs. I continue to be utterly fascinated by the way you craft his emotions and your skillful use of his Devidian physiology as an ongoing plot device.
Thanks. I just hope I manage not to turn his physiology into a sort of "Seven's nanoprobes" thing that solves every problem. It's there--and occasionally it does help because it's different--but mainly it's just a fact of life for him. Not something to make a show of, on oh so many levels.
A pleasure, as always From my perspective as a reader, personally, I would have said the former... Despite the Romulan presence, it was definitely Captain Sengupta's haste which ultimately caused the loss of the Indomitable. The crew of the Chin'toka may have been unable to prevent the tragedy, but they at least did the best they could to try to prevent it, so I would not have said failings on their parts at all...
Sengupta's haste was certainly a part of it, though I don't think he was a bad guy. It just didn't occur to him that something like this could possibly exist. Alyosha is definitely going to feel a lot of guilt, though, over making the assumption Sengupta was cleared for the information on the interdictor when he was not, and therefore failing to say something in time.
I'm not sure whether I am just experiencing his guilt, or whether--objectively--that's actually correct.
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Could be interesting. Such individuals can be surprisingly fragile when put under real pressure...
Yeah, I don't think I want to break him yet though. I'm rather enjoying him as an arrogant SoB.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
Sengupta's haste was certainly a part of it, though I don't think he was a bad guy. It just didn't occur to him that something like this could possibly exist. Alyosha is definitely going to feel a lot of guilt, though, over making the assumption Sengupta was cleared for the information on the interdictor when he was not, and therefore failing to say something in time.
I'm not sure whether I am just experiencing his guilt, or whether--objectively--that's actually correct.
He really shouldn't, after all, not all captains are cleared to know the same information, and the notion of 'privileged information' Alyosha should understand better than most... I think if I had to identify a flaw in Alyosha, it is that he worries too much about what others may or may not know, and takes more upon himself than he need to... My understanding is that transwarp is something requiring clearance and procedures to engage, not just the individual captain wanting to 'kick it up a notch', so again, that's not something that he should feel guilty about on Captain Sengupta's behalf...
@gulberat: A surprisingly dark ending there. I like it. The odd downer ending here and there is a nice change of pace from the usual "captain and crew pull out ingenious/brave solution to save the day" type of ending, and it's a refreshing to see what happens when things go wrong. As jonsills pointed out, even the main character can't win them all.
@zidanetribal: You know, I always thought that the Husnock would have made interesting recurring villains if Kevin Uxbridge hadn't deux ex machina'd them into extinction. The fact that you decided to bring them back as some sort of parisitic techno-undead was rather interesting. I look forward to seeing more about them, particularly of how and why they are coming back.
@knightraider6: (Rolls on floor laughing at the end). At this point, I think the alternate title of this Literary Challenge should be "It Sucks to be Franklin Drake."
@edinator96: You are discovering, like everyone else, that stuff written on Word doesn't transfer over very well. Use Notepad instead: that way, at least the quotations marks, etc, won't show up as question marks instead.
He really shouldn't, after all, not all captains are cleared to know the same information, and the notion of 'privileged information' Alyosha should understand better than most... I think if I had to identify a flaw in Alyosha, it is that he worries too much about what others may or may not know, and takes more upon himself than he need to... My understanding is that transwarp is something requiring clearance and procedures to engage, not just the individual captain wanting to 'kick it up a notch', so again, that's not something that he should feel guilty about on Captain Sengupta's behalf...
In the game, transwarp and quantum slipstream are actually treated as routine forms of travel for high-ranking starship commanders--much, much more so than in the 24th century. It's the fact that Starfleet was working on an interdictor that was classified.
As for Alyosha's flaw...yeah, he probably does take more on himself than he needs to. But I think some of that may be because he practically began life guilty of involuntary manslaughter. As you may remember, when he was a few weeks old (though developmentally ahead of a human newborn of a few weeks' age), he killed his first caretaker out of starvation, being too young to understand his actions and realize that she would die. It then took eight years before he was placed into the home of the Azarovs, and he knows this was because the scientists felt the had to be sure he was old enough--had enough self-control--not to kill again.
I am sure that had an impact on how he sees the possibility of being responsible for the deaths of others. I don't think it's crippling, but it's definitely one of his greatest challenges as a Starfleet captain.
If Branflakes ever does the legal-proceeding challenge...the court-martial/board of inquiry challenge...I now definitely have material for that. I expect there would be a classified board of inquiry regarding the loss of the Indomitable, and that the officers of the Chin'toka, the Chalcedon, and the survivors of DS11 would be required to testify, in addition to the remaining few Indomitable personnel. I cannot imagine that would be easy for Alyosha.
@gulberat: A surprisingly dark ending there. I like it. The odd downer ending here and there is a nice change of pace from the usual "captain and crew pull out ingenious/brave solution to save the day" type of ending, and it's a refreshing to see what happens when things go wrong. As jonsills pointed out, even the main character can't win them all.
I don't like writing too many downers, but for some reason this time it just felt wrong--too implausible--for Alyosha to be able to pull off a full victory. Sometimes, the laws of physics and tactics just cannot be overridden, no matter how you try.
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In the game, transwarp and quantum slipstream are actually treated as routine forms of travel for high-ranking starship commanders--much, much more so than in the 24th century. It's the fact that Starfleet was working on an interdictor that was classified.
Ahh, I hadn't realized that... I'd guessed that larger ships like the Enterprise-F would have a transwarp drive, where the Valkyrie wouldn't, but I'd got the impression that it was more a case of where they needed clearance from Command to use transwarp :-\
As for Alyosha's flaw...yeah, he probably does take more on himself than he needs to. But I think some of that may be because he practically began life guilty of involuntary manslaughter. As you may remember, when he was a few weeks old (though developmentally ahead of a human newborn of a few weeks' age), he killed his first caretaker out of starvation, being too young to understand his actions and realize that she would die. It then took eight years before he was placed into the home of the Azarovs, and he knows this was because the scientists felt the had to be sure he was old enough--had enough self-control--not to kill again.
Yes, I recall the incident, and I can only imagine how traumatic is was for him to realize that he'd taken a life Of course, all great characters need their Persian Flaw, I just feel Ayosha deserves an easier time of things
I am sure that had an impact on how he sees the possibility of being responsible for the deaths of others. I don't think it's crippling, but it's definitely one of his greatest challenges as a Starfleet captain.
I would imagine that he found the Bridge Commander's exam a hard one to pass :-\
If Branflakes ever does the legal-proceeding challenge...the court-martial/board of inquiry challenge...I now definitely have material for that. I expect there would be a classified board of inquiry regarding the loss of the Indomitable, and that the officers of the Chin'toka, the Chalcedon, and the survivors of DS11 would be required to testify, in addition to the remaining few Indomitable personnel. I cannot imagine that would be easy for Alyosha.
It would certainly be an interesting scenario to read, and I hope that it is an LC which gets posted at some point, it would be great to see the challenges our resident crews would have to encounter and overcome
If Branflakes ever does the legal-proceeding challenge...the court-martial/board of inquiry challenge...I now definitely have material for that. I expect there would be a classified board of inquiry regarding the loss of the Indomitable, and that the officers of the Chin'toka, the Chalcedon, and the survivors of DS11 would be required to testify, in addition to the remaining few Indomitable personnel. I cannot imagine that would be easy for Alyosha.
(
That would definitely be an interesting challenge, and I can see it turning ugly if Alyosha's alien nature were brought into question. At this rate, I think either a court-martial, fleet action, or officer exchange would make for a great LC.
Incidentally, this may have been mentioned before, but...what class of ship is the Chin'toka?
@sander233: Ha, I'd almost forgotten about Rain Robinson! So, so many Star Wars references, and though the story's long, it moves just as quickly as your last one. The pacing really captures the feel like a Trek episode (especially the prologue of the station being captured), the new characters are fleshed out very well, and the final battle gives a whole new meaning to "rip your arm off and beat you to death with it."
@gulberat: This was a very thoughtful, poetic entry: you really do an amazing job of exploring Alyosha's very human emotions, and how sensitive and compassionate a character he is. It's so easy for "hundreds" to be a statistic, and in this case to assign the blame to where it properly belongs at Starfleet Command, that it says volumes about him that he blames himself and feels the loss of the Indomitable so deeply...
@zidanetribal - Heck yes this was a good one! It reminded me of the Reavers from Firefly To know it's from real ST canon makes the piece even better. Poor crew, I was liking Dlal and "Robby" was brilliant
@gulberat: I think "The Interdictor" was an excellent story which adds a layer of fallibility to Strannik. Out of the involved parties, though, I think Strannik is the least culpable in the endeavor, if mainly because Sengupta was too eager to jump the gun. Of course, this is from my point of view.
@sander233: Admiral Lee calls the android Robby because his designation is R-66Y and Admiral Lee is a bit too informal. If you read my Gateway page, you can see his full name is Prometheus R-66Y, Prometheus being his model. （￣ー￣）
@ambassadormolari: With any luck, a future LC will allow me to revisit the Husnock angle, especially since I didn't have enough time to explore it as much as I wanted. You do give me a more interesting idea than the mundane one I had, although it'll probably be stripped of the supernatural.
@cmdrscarlet: Scarlet has found out the secret! I'll have to cover my tracks better by evolving the story differently next LC.
@sander233: Ha, I'd almost forgotten about Rain Robinson! So, so many Star Wars references, and though the story's long, it moves just as quickly as your last one. The pacing really captures the feel like a Trek episode (especially the prologue of the station being captured), the new characters are fleshed out very well, and the final battle gives a whole new meaning to "rip your arm off and beat you to death with it."
I'm glad you liked it!
I like writing in various DOffs into my crews and when I picked up Rain from one of those temporal beacon assignments a few weeks ago I knew I had to write a "That's No Moon" bit for her.
@sander233: Admiral Lee calls the android Robby because his designation is R-66Y and Admiral Lee is a bit too informal. If you read my Gateway page, you can see his full name is Prometheus R-66Y, Prometheus being his model. （￣ー￣）
I picked up on the Robby = R-66Y thing, but are you sure there isn't a Forbidden Planet reference in there somewhere?
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
I like writing in various DOffs into my crews and when I picked up Rain from one of those temporal beacon assignments a few weeks ago I knew I had to write a "That's No Moon" bit for her.
I picked up on the Robby = R-66Y thing, but are you sure there isn't a Forbidden Planet reference in there somewhere?
I'm a bit too young for Forbidden Planet, although I've heard of Robby the Robot before. The reference, though, is actually from the Squaresoft game Chrono Trigger. :P
@gulberat: This was a very thoughtful, poetic entry: you really do an amazing job of exploring Alyosha's very human emotions, and how sensitive and compassionate a character he is. It's so easy for "hundreds" to be a statistic, and in this case to assign the blame to where it properly belongs at Starfleet Command, that it says volumes about him that he blames himself and feels the loss of the Indomitable so deeply...
I'm not really 100% sure that all of the fault lies with Starfleet Command...it probably depends on the level at which a distress-call response was expected to be organized (whether at the admiral level, or the captain level). Still, Starfleet Command could've helped by putting in some kind of protocol to at least warn a ship that was actually attempting to lay in a quantum slipstream or transwarp course to that station that it was prohibited.
I think Alyosha will always feel that he bears some responsibility for what happened, though, and feel that he should've spoken sooner and not assumed.
@gulberat: I think "The Interdictor" was an excellent story which adds a layer of fallibility to Strannik. Out of the involved parties, though, I think Strannik is the least culpable in the endeavor, if mainly because Sengupta was too eager to jump the gun. Of course, this is from my point of view.
Sengupta did make a huge error in that he closed the channel without confirming his arrival time or discussing strategy with Strannik. Sadly, I suspect Sengupta was overconfident (he was a cruiser commander, after all, probably thought--to put it in game terms--that he could tank anything, in comparison to Strannik in the little glass cannon). So I would definitely say part of it was Sengupta's error, too.
Ahh, I hadn't realized that... I'd guessed that larger ships like the Enterprise-F would have a transwarp drive, where the Valkyrie wouldn't, but I'd got the impression that it was more a case of where they needed clearance from Command to use transwarp :-\
Quantum slipstream seems to be a routine thing. Transwarp is mainly done by transwarp gates to certain set destinations, though you can purchase (at a significant expense in-game) a consumable device that expands your list of destinations significantly.
I would imagine that he found the Bridge Commander's exam a hard one to pass :-\
I expect it was, too, though to him there is a difference between a senseless death or a murder, and a death by someone who swore to do his duty, and gave his life for something truly meaningful. But I am sure that was a difficult understanding for him to come to. The command track was not really open to science officers when he was at the Academy after all, and he chose science.
I am still not sure what happened to prompt him to seek command once that track opened to science officers, but at some point it did happen.
It would certainly be an interesting scenario to read, and I hope that it is an LC which gets posted at some point, it would be great to see the challenges our resident crews would have to encounter and overcome
Indeed! There are a LOT of court-martial offenses out there, not to mention other things that could trigger a board of inquiry.
And it would also be interesting to see what would cause the Klingons to open a legal proceeding rather than just solving it by a duel...
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Comments
@cmdrscarlet: Why thank you! Although I would also recommend patrickngo's stories in Ten Forward, as I've discovered that he writes from the Orion perspective very convincingly. Also, I recently found a non-canon Star Trek wiki that I might use as reference for future stories concerning Lynathru.
Anyway, after having read a few more:
fu11ofstars: I loved your story! The twist in it actually reminded me of some the best bits of Deep Space Nine-- of how the happy, humanistic face of the Federation becomes twisted and ugly in the face of war, and how normally good commanders are forced to issue orders they would usually find reprehensible. Your entry has made me curious enough to peruse the rest of your blog for your captain's luckless, drunken tales.
danqueller: As everyone else has already said, the twist at the end was quite awesome, even if it does raise all sorts of interesting questions about Gre'thor (although it will probably make a lot more sense to me once I play the Fek'Ihri arc).
I don't think anybody can, especially with wars on so many fronts.
Glad you liked the story, though. And good cultural literacy, knowing the polite Russian way of referring to him.
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@knighraider6 - Capt Schrodi is fun to read about! the coffe machine was particularly inventive as was the solution to the problem
@edinator96 - Like others have said, when you copy from Word into the forum, a lot of punctuation becomes unrecognaizable and then replaced by a question mark. It's a pain and there are few fixes I have not tried myself. Regardless, welcome to the Literary Challenges
@gulberat - I really enjoyed this one, the tension was palpable! But I'm curious: the interdictor reminds me of a similar concept in Star Wars canon. I'm actually glad to read of tragedy in victory. It seems to me there is a lot of near-misses and "just in time" saving in Star Trek, as if to say if there were no Federation Captains flying around, the galaxy would tear itself apart. So to read Alyosha (Alexi) just miss it, was refreshing, if not sad as well.
I'm not actually familiar enough with Star Wars to know anything about that.
I've seen that trend as well, and that was one of the things I liked best about DS9--there were real losses, real consequences
I hated to put Alyosha through this, but I just couldn't see a way to pull out a complete victory with only an escort going up against such terrible odds. They got very lucky with that tac cube in #39. They can't expect that kind of luck all the time, though.
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Interdictor-class ships were built in some of the novels, capable of generating an artificial gravity field that could pull other ships out of hyperspace. They weren't singularity-style point-masses, so tended not to destroy the target; however, as long as that field is there, the target ship can't escape normal space either, and is forced to stand and fight. Ideally, you only do this when you know your target is seriously outgunned. And ideally, your target isn't a Q-ship, hiding a more powerful smaller vessel under the skin of something weaker...
This works on a different principle--it's more like folding the end of the conduit or slipstream corridor up on itself, resulting in a terrible impact.
As far as the name, I would say it actually came from EVE--a game I don't play, but I saw the footage of the recent Battle of Asakai and learned about the tactics. There's a class of ship that can prevent a warp jump or pull ships out of warp, kind of like what you describe in Star Wars. So I turned that around on its head and did the opposite--prevent ships from properly exiting superwarp (a term I invented, which I thought would make sense to encompass both forms of faster-than-warp travel in-game).
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From you story gulberat, I had the impression the interdictor would close the slipstream corridor as the target ship was exiting, not closing the corridor completely.
I guess I'm imagining if the corridor were closed then the resulting explosion would be contained in the tunnel. As I type this I'm thinking that is false - that the explosion and debris would be at warp speed as well. Which would be further destroyed without a warp containment field as the debris would instantly stop traveling faster than light, yet be traveling at just under the speed of light ...
Eeww. Messy.
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Oddly enough, EVE modelled their Interdictors on the ships in Star Wars, so we go full circle
@ edinator96: Fantastic entry, welecome to the LCs
@ gulberat: That was an excellent entry, and a sobering reminder that the good guys don't always win... :-\
I also really enjoyed your battle scene. It's great to see a Starfleet officer using science to defeat the enemy (rather than just unleashing massive firepower as Admiral LaRoca tends to do. One of these days I'll have to see how he'd respond when completely outmatched by superior forces in a battle he can't escape.)
Thank you also for taking the opportunity to explore the character N'Vek, and showing how he reacts when confronting fellow Romulans. I sense his strong bond with Alexei Ivanovich will be a recurring theme in future LCs.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
Literary Challenges Entries- Star Trek Online: Lord English
Dramatis Personae of Star Trek Online: Lord English
I am going to unstick this as I prepare to post the 42nd challenge, but please feel free to continue discussing.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
Very nice! I love the way you pulled in so many different elements from the game and TNG into your story. I also really liked "Robby the Robot"
Sad day for Admiral Lee and the crew of the Lord English but as several other officers have recently discovered, you can't win 'em all.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
Thanks. Even as the author it's hard for me to tell if it was a worse crisis averted, or a horrible tragedy caused by everyone's failings, Alyosha's included.
Could be interesting given his seeming overconfidence...
As far as Alyosha using science...he's a science officer by training but was assigned to command an escort. This sometimes leads to confusion by the enemy, as they don't expect a science ship's tactics on an escort.
Glad you liked it.
I can't remember if you are one of the ones who read "The Truth in the Illusion," but it definitely put those two in an interesting position towards each other. I suspect I will be exploring that too at some point, as well.
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That was actually my introduction to Alyosha. From there I went back and read your past LCs. I continue to be utterly fascinated by the way you craft his emotions and your skillful use of his Devidian physiology as an ongoing plot device.
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
Could be interesting. Such individuals can be surprisingly fragile when put under real pressure...
Thanks.
Sengupta's haste was certainly a part of it, though I don't think he was a bad guy. It just didn't occur to him that something like this could possibly exist. Alyosha is definitely going to feel a lot of guilt, though, over making the assumption Sengupta was cleared for the information on the interdictor when he was not, and therefore failing to say something in time.
I'm not sure whether I am just experiencing his guilt, or whether--objectively--that's actually correct.
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...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
He really shouldn't, after all, not all captains are cleared to know the same information, and the notion of 'privileged information' Alyosha should understand better than most... I think if I had to identify a flaw in Alyosha, it is that he worries too much about what others may or may not know, and takes more upon himself than he need to... My understanding is that transwarp is something requiring clearance and procedures to engage, not just the individual captain wanting to 'kick it up a notch', so again, that's not something that he should feel guilty about on Captain Sengupta's behalf...
@gulberat: A surprisingly dark ending there. I like it. The odd downer ending here and there is a nice change of pace from the usual "captain and crew pull out ingenious/brave solution to save the day" type of ending, and it's a refreshing to see what happens when things go wrong. As jonsills pointed out, even the main character can't win them all.
@zidanetribal: You know, I always thought that the Husnock would have made interesting recurring villains if Kevin Uxbridge hadn't deux ex machina'd them into extinction. The fact that you decided to bring them back as some sort of parisitic techno-undead was rather interesting. I look forward to seeing more about them, particularly of how and why they are coming back.
@knightraider6: (Rolls on floor laughing at the end). At this point, I think the alternate title of this Literary Challenge should be "It Sucks to be Franklin Drake."
@edinator96: You are discovering, like everyone else, that stuff written on Word doesn't transfer over very well. Use Notepad instead: that way, at least the quotations marks, etc, won't show up as question marks instead.
In the game, transwarp and quantum slipstream are actually treated as routine forms of travel for high-ranking starship commanders--much, much more so than in the 24th century. It's the fact that Starfleet was working on an interdictor that was classified.
As for Alyosha's flaw...yeah, he probably does take more on himself than he needs to. But I think some of that may be because he practically began life guilty of involuntary manslaughter. As you may remember, when he was a few weeks old (though developmentally ahead of a human newborn of a few weeks' age), he killed his first caretaker out of starvation, being too young to understand his actions and realize that she would die. It then took eight years before he was placed into the home of the Azarovs, and he knows this was because the scientists felt the had to be sure he was old enough--had enough self-control--not to kill again.
I am sure that had an impact on how he sees the possibility of being responsible for the deaths of others. I don't think it's crippling, but it's definitely one of his greatest challenges as a Starfleet captain.
If Branflakes ever does the legal-proceeding challenge...the court-martial/board of inquiry challenge...I now definitely have material for that. I expect there would be a classified board of inquiry regarding the loss of the Indomitable, and that the officers of the Chin'toka, the Chalcedon, and the survivors of DS11 would be required to testify, in addition to the remaining few Indomitable personnel. I cannot imagine that would be easy for Alyosha.
I don't like writing too many downers, but for some reason this time it just felt wrong--too implausible--for Alyosha to be able to pull off a full victory. Sometimes, the laws of physics and tactics just cannot be overridden, no matter how you try.
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Yes, I recall the incident, and I can only imagine how traumatic is was for him to realize that he'd taken a life
I would imagine that he found the Bridge Commander's exam a hard one to pass :-\
It would certainly be an interesting scenario to read, and I hope that it is an LC which gets posted at some point, it would be great to see the challenges our resident crews would have to encounter and overcome
That would definitely be an interesting challenge, and I can see it turning ugly if Alyosha's alien nature were brought into question. At this rate, I think either a court-martial, fleet action, or officer exchange would make for a great LC.
Incidentally, this may have been mentioned before, but...what class of ship is the Chin'toka?
@sander233: Ha, I'd almost forgotten about Rain Robinson! So, so many Star Wars references, and though the story's long, it moves just as quickly as your last one. The pacing really captures the feel like a Trek episode (especially the prologue of the station being captured), the new characters are fleshed out very well, and the final battle gives a whole new meaning to "rip your arm off and beat you to death with it."
@gulberat: This was a very thoughtful, poetic entry: you really do an amazing job of exploring Alyosha's very human emotions, and how sensitive and compassionate a character he is. It's so easy for "hundreds" to be a statistic, and in this case to assign the blame to where it properly belongs at Starfleet Command, that it says volumes about him that he blames himself and feels the loss of the Indomitable so deeply...
@sander233: Admiral Lee calls the android Robby because his designation is R-66Y and Admiral Lee is a bit too informal. If you read my Gateway page, you can see his full name is Prometheus R-66Y, Prometheus being his model. （￣ー￣）
@ambassadormolari: With any luck, a future LC will allow me to revisit the Husnock angle, especially since I didn't have enough time to explore it as much as I wanted. You do give me a more interesting idea than the mundane one I had, although it'll probably be stripped of the supernatural.
@cmdrscarlet: Scarlet has found out the secret! I'll have to cover my tracks better by evolving the story differently next LC.
Literary Challenges Entries- Star Trek Online: Lord English
Dramatis Personae of Star Trek Online: Lord English
I'm glad you liked it!
I like writing in various DOffs into my crews and when I picked up Rain from one of those temporal beacon assignments a few weeks ago I knew I had to write a "That's No Moon" bit for her.
I picked up on the Robby = R-66Y thing, but are you sure there isn't a Forbidden Planet reference in there somewhere?
...Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you / Oh, I can hear it callin 'me / I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?...
- Anne Bredon
I'm a bit too young for Forbidden Planet, although I've heard of Robby the Robot before. The reference, though, is actually from the Squaresoft game Chrono Trigger. :P
Literary Challenges Entries- Star Trek Online: Lord English
Dramatis Personae of Star Trek Online: Lord English
I'm not really 100% sure that all of the fault lies with Starfleet Command...it probably depends on the level at which a distress-call response was expected to be organized (whether at the admiral level, or the captain level). Still, Starfleet Command could've helped by putting in some kind of protocol to at least warn a ship that was actually attempting to lay in a quantum slipstream or transwarp course to that station that it was prohibited.
I think Alyosha will always feel that he bears some responsibility for what happened, though, and feel that he should've spoken sooner and not assumed.
Sengupta did make a huge error in that he closed the channel without confirming his arrival time or discussing strategy with Strannik. Sadly, I suspect Sengupta was overconfident (he was a cruiser commander, after all, probably thought--to put it in game terms--that he could tank anything, in comparison to Strannik in the little glass cannon). So I would definitely say part of it was Sengupta's error, too.
Quantum slipstream seems to be a routine thing. Transwarp is mainly done by transwarp gates to certain set destinations, though you can purchase (at a significant expense in-game) a consumable device that expands your list of destinations significantly.
I expect it was, too, though to him there is a difference between a senseless death or a murder, and a death by someone who swore to do his duty, and gave his life for something truly meaningful. But I am sure that was a difficult understanding for him to come to. The command track was not really open to science officers when he was at the Academy after all, and he chose science.
I am still not sure what happened to prompt him to seek command once that track opened to science officers, but at some point it did happen.
Indeed! There are a LOT of court-martial offenses out there, not to mention other things that could trigger a board of inquiry.
And it would also be interesting to see what would cause the Klingons to open a legal proceeding rather than just solving it by a duel...
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