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A display in the Imperial Klingon Space Flight Museum
logandarklighter
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Not 100% sure if this is the right place for it, but I'll take a chance.
Inspired by events of the day (RIP Neil Armstrong) I was reminded of a tidbit from another forum. "Undocumented Features" is an ongoing (for near two decades now! :O ) Fanfic series that is not so much "cross-over" as "throw EVERYTHING in, we'll make it fit somehow". Amazingly enough, they do make it work most of the time with things as diverse as anime and Star Trek.
Not everything the creators think of makes it into a story, so they sometimes drop fun tidbits in the forums.
One of which was the following:
Inspired by events of the day (RIP Neil Armstrong) I was reminded of a tidbit from another forum. "Undocumented Features" is an ongoing (for near two decades now! :O ) Fanfic series that is not so much "cross-over" as "throw EVERYTHING in, we'll make it fit somehow". Amazingly enough, they do make it work most of the time with things as diverse as anime and Star Trek.
Not everything the creators think of makes it into a story, so they sometimes drop fun tidbits in the forums.
One of which was the following:
OV-099 Challenger Destroyed in flight: 1986.01.28. Interestingly, there is a replica of OV-099 in the Imperial Klingon Space Flight Museum on Klinzhai Prime, in the wing whose title is usually translated, The Conquest of Space Must Be Paid For in the Blood of Heroes.
"One further imagines that nearby are models or images with placards for Soyuz 11 and Apollo 1."
"Now I've sort of got this minds-eye image of what such a place would look like, all dressed up in the amber and dark red hues we're familiar with. Above the entrance, below the welcome sign in Klingonese, resides the only words written in an Earth language: Ad Astra Per Aspera. All the other displays are, in contrast to what outside cultures would expect, impeccably translated from the original Earth documents into clear & concise Klingonese, a show of the dedication by the nerds running the place.
Large replicas of Apollo 1, Soyuz 1 & 11, and Challenger dominate the room, with pictures and placards around extolling the honor and glory of the Earthmen who died flying them. Another wall dedicated to the Earthmen like Gagarin, who died honorably training for other spaceflights.
A smaller section to those "near misses," most famously Apollo 13, where Earth warriors fought valiantly to push their vessels in ways the designers hadn't anticipated in order to return safely. Their efforts, though honorable, did not see them die in glory and thus are not as studied amongst Klingon space nerds.
And finally a small kiosk dedicated to the "Lost Cosmonauts," the mysterious stories of Soviet Earthmen who died in the pursuit of glory, only to be erased from history by dishonorable bureaucrats."
"Indeed - and there's a special corner for Soyuz 1, because to the Klingons - at least those who are exo-space-exploration nerd enough to know about any of them - the greatest of Earth's pre-Contact spaceflight heroes is Colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, the first Earthman to perish during an actual space mission.
Komarov may have been the bravest man who ever lived. Like almost everyone else involved with the Soyuz program, he knew the spacecraft wasn't ready, that the launch date imposed by the Party bosses for Soyuz 1 was a pointless piece of symbolism, and that the mission was a death sentence. At one point one of his colleagues found him off by himself quietly weeping for his fate. Asked why he didn't refuse the mission, he replied, "If I refuse, they'll send Gagarin."
And so he went, and as he knew it would, Soyuz killed him - but not easily. He fought like a tiger all the way, overcoming potentially fatal glitch after glitch until finally the flawed parachute system got him - cursing the spacecraft, the program, and the venal, petty bureaucrats who condemned him to his hideous fate all the way to the ground.
Now that, the space nerds of Klinzhai Prime assert, was a warrior."
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Neil Armstrong was not only an American hero, but also a hero of the human race. Something special should be done in game in his honor. Afterall, this is Star Trek, and he did trek in space, quite historically.
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But devoting an exhibit in an "Imperial Klingon Space Flight Museum" to something some human did more than a century before humans and Klingons ever ran into one another?
Thats not making even the tiniest shred of sense.
This is not suggested to be a major part of the museum. Most of such a museum would in fact be extolling Klingon achievements in spaceflight. But in aerospace museums I have been to (and I've been to quite a few, being something of an aerospace nerd), I've often noticed displays acknowledging the Soviet spaceflight achievements. If only to contrast against ours. (I'm speaking as an American, of course.)
I've noticed that Klingons have a tendency to admire and respect courageous acts even if it's directed AT THEM. The more impressive the enemy, the more impressive the victory against them! An honorable enemy is to be respected.
Think of the attitude we in the west have towards General Rommel or Baron Richthofen (The Red Baron) They were fighting for the wrong side, but we recognized noble spirits nonetheless. When the Red Baron was shot down finally, The Allies held a full military funeral for him!
I like to think of the Klingons, when they are at their best, of being more than capable of such acts of respect.
I think if Star Trek Online were to give Armstrong a tribute - I agree that the PRIMARY tributes should be on the Fed side. A site visitable on the Moon. A statue on the Academy grounds.
And remember, by that time, the other astronauts will also have long passed on. Such a monument should also honor Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins as well as Neil Armstrong.
The plaque on the leg of the Apollo 11 LM lower stage on the moon reads, in part -
HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON JULY 1969, A.D. WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND.
"Men" not "Man".
Honor them all.