Marris Krax

MIA 0401.24 It seemed that time off the ship had not broken Marris' habit for wandering aimlessly down corridors when she was deep in thought. Or bored. Considering that the habit had started well before she had even considered joining Star Fleet, this was not overly surprising. Actually, it was a sign of just how far she'd come since her departure months ago...but Marris didn't really want to think about that just now. No, instead, she was content to just let her mind wander as she herself wandered, not really looking where she was going but navigating by instinct, her eyes on her toes. She would dodge ship personnel, walls, random equipment when her feet managed to take her into a cargo bay, all without looking up, all without really noticing they were there. As far as she was concerned, she was alone in her thoughts, and that was fine by her. Well, at least sort of fine. Her thoughts weren't as carefree as her path of travel. They'd started out well enough, when she had been patting herself on the back for being such a helpful interviewee. But the sheer lack of questioning, the abruptness with which the interview had ended...this was troubling her. She couldn't put her finger on it, but that was just odd. She couldn't shake the feeling something was a little more than wrong with that...and maybe that was the point. Maybe they were trying to make the crew feel uneasy for some reason or another. But that didn't make much sense, did it? They were here to figure out whether Kris and Day were responsible for the deaths of...erm, Marris didn't want to think about that, either...for the incident, right? Well, they clearly had evidence, safely littered throughout the computer, that there was more going on, that there had been another party involved that didn't want to be known, although they had done a sloppy job of covering it up. No, there was definitely more going on here, and Marris had made sure she'd told the investigators that. She'd done her duty. Then there was a vague wondering about what Alex had been up to lately. She hadn't seen him at all really since they'd had the spat in Astrometrics, and she knew with a 99% certainty that he was avoiding her. Her thoughts about him didn't really progress much beyond that at the moment, though; she was hurting, too, and didn't want to cause him or herself any more pain by bringing it all up again. If he was avoiding her, fine. She'd wait for him to make a move, now. Her thoughts were transitioning away from Alex and back toward the uneasy feeling she had about the interview when she noticed she was near her quarters. She paused in front of her door, wondering if it was late enough to give Aldo his lunch. She stepped forward and the doors whooshed open for her to walk in. Alex had chided her once about not giving the cat lunch, but back then Aldo really hadn't been her cat. Now, and especially after living on a farm for five months, Aldo was used to three meals a day, and it showed. As the doors whooshed shut, Marris saw that he was napping on one of her sofa cushions, a blob of black and white fur. He wasn't really fat...just sorta chunky. Still, Marris had put him on a diet kitty food, which he seemed to enjoy. At least now he enjoyed it. When she had first put him on the low-fat stuff, she'd had to pick up kitty-kibble for hours. Marris walked over to the couch and gave Aldo a quick scratch behind the ears, then continued onto the replicator for a small bowl of cat food for him and a turkey sandwich for herself. Aldo was immediately awake as Marris put the food down on the floor, and she took his vacant spot as he bolted for the bowl. She watched him eat as she munched on her sandwich, wondering what she should do next. The sandwich plate resting in her lap, she reached over to the end table and grabbed a medium-sized book, bound in red leather. The book was a journal she had started at the recommendation of the counselor she'd seen on DS9 while working on her reinstatement. Marris had thought the woman was bonkers when she had said that getting all the worries and fears and such down on paper was good therapy, but in the long run it had really helped. She'd taken to writing down more than just her problems, though, as reading back over it sometimes was just depressing in its own right if there weren't bright spots to counter the bad ones. She wrote about the interview, what she had said and the things that hadn't been said that troubled her. She wrote about Alex for a while, again wondering what he'd been doing for the last week or so. Then she put the book down and wondered whom else she should be wondering about. She hadn't spoken with her folks in a while, or her brother, Ferk. She'd been in close contact with them when she first came back to the Excalibur, to keep them from worrying too much about her and to keep herself on an even keel. But she'd adjusted back to ship life pretty well, she thought, and quickly if unintentionally weaned herself off of contact with her family. Well, there was no reason she could think of to keep that trend going, so she set her plate of sandwich crumbs and the journal down on the end table and moved over to her desk. She activated the display terminal, typed in some access codes and called up her personal messages. "Whoa," she said as a couple dozen unread messages popped up on the screen. She'd really been out of touch. She started with the most recent ones first: a couple letters from old Academy friends wishing very belated Happy Holidays, an invitation from the NAV department for poker night (she dashed off a quick letter of apology for missing the message, saying she was game for the next one)... ...and a very strange looking message from her parents. Marris frowned and paused as she looked at this next message on her list, dated three days ago. It was a video transmission, no subject. And it was marked high importance. It was clearly from her parents -- the transmission came from Hanolan, and their names were on it -- but the urgency flag and the lack of a subject made Marris' heart sink a bit in apprehension. She opened the message. Her family's living room blinked onto the screen. Her father was at the terminal, his lumpy Ferengi head filling the left half of the screen, a very worried look in his eyes. His ears, beginning to spot with age, seemed to droop while the lines in his face were drawn deeper than normal. Behind him, Marris could see her aunt and uncle consoling a very distraught Mrs. Krax. Her mother wasn't one to cry, and Marris didn't think she was crying as the video played out, but her eyes were wide in shock and her face was pale. Marris immediately wondered where Ferk was. "Marris," her father's recording said, "we're sure you know by now, but," he looked back at his wife, "just...call us as soon as you get this? We need to know you're okay." And that was it. Oh sh--... Marris scrambled through the rest of her messages, ignoring most of them, not knowing what she was looking for, because she hadn't known what was wrong, when her eyes fell upon a transmission titled, Star Fleet Personnel Notification: Lieutenant Krax, Ferdinand. Her hand trembled as she opened it. Lieutenant Commander Krax, it began. We regret to inform you that the USS Ixion has disappeared near the Coal Sack region. The USS Falstaff was sent to investigate, but could not turn up any sign of the Ixion. All crew, including your brother Ferdinand, are now listed as Missing In Action until the ship's fate is determined. We are sorry for your loss and hope that your brother is returned to you safely. Commander Paul Weston Star Fleet Personnel Marris stared blankly at the screen. Her thoughts were dancing numbly around in her head. She vaguely thought of the journal sitting next to the couch, but Marris didn't think that was going to work just now. She needed a face. And she could only think of one face to go to. Marris shut down her terminal and dashed out of her quarters, not realizing that there was another message she should have read. It was titled, No Worries, and it was from one Ferdinand Krax.

Also, where do they drive it normally? City driving vs. highway driving does more than alter your gas mileage. Your car likes to go 60 MPH without stoping for long periods of time ^.^ This is probably why my car isn't falling apart at the seams now, all that mileage is highway driving.

A word in the defense of the Ford: I own a Focus. Fire engine red. It is the only car I've ever owned, and I love it. I also know nothing about cars, so take this all with a grain of salt. However... I have put about 25,000 miles on this thing in the last six months, including a 10,000 mile road trip this summer that took us from the midwest to the east cost to Texas to the west coast and back again. The only time I've had any troubles where I've taken my car in was when we hit Utah and the engine light came on for no reason. Bad sensor. Things I have yet to repair or had diagnosed are: One time, I couldn't get the gas pedal to work at a stop sign. Press it, the engine would go, but the car wouldn't, like it was out of gear or something. However, Ford is about to release a recall that sounds like it'll fix this, so no worries, especially since it only happened that one time and I've put another 15,000 miles on my car since then. Some bad alignment in the back end. I heard other people complaining about this in the Focus while I was getting my oil changed. Tore the hell out of my tires, let me tell you. Just, I keep forgetting to have my future-mother-in-law's mechanic look at the danged thing when I'm visiting ^.^ So yeah, my car hasn't blown up. It runs. It gets me to my fiance's house and back in a weekend (900 miles). I'm happy.

Hmm...school plays. Well, two come to mind. First was in first grade, I think. Christmas pagent. I was Penguin Number 6, and I got the part without ever seeing the script a day before the play :P Thank goodness it was a small part. Second play that comes to mind was in high school, but I wasn't a member of the cast or the crew. I was the critic, and I called it how I saw it. Got my first piece of hate mail for that review :)

We're quite serious? Hey Kris! Break out the pie guns and seltzer bottles! We're too serious! ::pies TarMok:: Mwuahahahaha!

... Either the universe has a HUGE sense of irony, or they picked that ranking in honor of TNG's greatest conspiracy.

Methinks my family has gone a bit loopy. They gave me a really nice, giant buckskin purse....but it's a giant buckskin purse. They said it was for my laptop, which is still to big to fit in there anyway, but...a giant buckskin purse? To their credit, we did manage to sneak several pounds of Christmas candy into the theater with that thing, only carrying it around was a mild embarassment. Oh well, they tried. I ended up having lots of fun with my fiance's family, and not because of the gifts. No, rousing rounds of "Fleas on My Dog" and poker marked this holiday as one to remember ;)

Methinks that is the only explaination within the framework of Nemesis and believability that could possibly work. But it's just so much easier to disregard the movie entirely when simming, considering how much of a departure it was from what had been established by canon and non-canon sources alike. And I also think that I should stop posting in this thread, because I keep rambling about something I really know nothing about ;)

Yeah, and a lack of sunlight would make it hard to grow plants in a biodome, too. This is why one uses artificial lighting. And tanning beds. ;) Edit: Lack of light does not, however, account for claws and giant heads and a general monster-like appearance. If that were the case, nerds who spend all of their time indoors, in basements, in front of their computers would garner a heck of a lot more respect out of being scary and intimidating instead of pale, pasty, and pencil-necked :( No offense to nerds or anything, as I am your sister dork with nerd tendencies.

ROFL!! Okay, in a google search for what class planet Remus is, I stumbled upon this lovely little parody. In case you aren't interested in reading the whole thing (I haven't), then here is the bit I found particularly funny... ------ This went on for quite a while, with the two continuing to zoom in and still not finding the third Romulan homeworld. Finally, after yet another request to zoom in, the computer responded. Unable to comply. Map is at maximum magnification. Braxton squinted at the map some more, and then pointed at a particular spot. "Wait! What's this little dot right here?" Ducane looked at where Braxton was pointing. "There's something there, but it's too small to read." Braxton whipped out a magnifying glass and examined the dot. "You've got to be kidding me..." Ducane took a turn. "You mean the three Romulan homeworlds are Romulus, Remus... and Fred?" Picard nodded. "Yes, and the Fredians have taken over the Romulan government. The leader of the coup wants to open a dialogue with the Federation. Specifically, he wants to talk to you. Therefore, he must be either insane or an evil clone who wants to drain your blood. Either way, I'm sending you on the off chance that this mystery person will be successful in killing you. Dismissed!"

If it were so radically different as that, then they probably wouldn't have been able to live there in the first place without some sort of environmental alterations, like a biodome or terraforming. And considering we at least have biodomes, I do believe the Romulans/Remans would have been able to alter their environment that much. Out of curiosity, does anyone happen to know from any encyclopedic source what class planet Remus is? Like, is it listed as class-M or class-L or class-Whatever?

Well, xenophobia doesn't really come into play if you're talking about a single political entity, which is what I think most of the pre-Nemesis sources of Reman info were pointing at. Remans *are* Romulans, as far as those authorities are concerned; they're just living on another rock. Like, Reman:Romulan::Californian:American; you have to be the latter in order to be the former. This is just pure speculation on my part of course, since I know next to nothing about Romulans except for what I've heard from several Rommie simmers, including our esteemed t'Rex ::remembers a particularly passionate rant at SL 24 about the upcoming movie Nemesis::

::Scratches head:: <rant> Yanno, this is something that has bugged me greatly. How the heck could a race of people split off so dramatically in such a short period of time into a seperate sub-species? I mean, for crying out loud, the Romulans aren't that different than Vulcans. Yet the Remans, over the course of 2,000 years have suddenly turned into ugly space monsters? How much have we changed physically over 2,000 years? Or, how different are people in China from people in Africa or Europe or America? And please don't pull the fact that the environment is so different as to warrant that kind of rapid evolution. If the Romulans/Remans were so advanced that they could launch themselves to an entirely different planetary system, they would have had sufficient technology to create suitable habitats or change the environment to the point where it would be suitable to them in their present state. For example, I don't think we would, if we were to set up a colony on Mars, suddenly find our colonist breatheren several generations down the road to be space monsters. Possibly with a slightly different bone structure, given the difference in gravity, but not fundamentally different, as the environment they would have to create for themselves to live there in the first place would be a reasonable re-creation of environmental conditions on Earth. </rant>

::Scratches head:: Well, I haven't heard of just opting out of finals. Some of my classes in high school didn't have finals, like orchestra. Well, take that back...our "final" in orchestra was to randomly shout out answers to extremely easy questions about scales and composers. The weird thing about my high school is that we had *four* rounds of finals/midterms. Yeah, gotta love those quarter schedules. College...well, usually how it works here is that you either have a big end-of-semester project or the final. As a result, this semester I only took one real final. And I have a quiz tomorrow, which should have been a final except the professor got sick and had to push our last quiz back. They were all given equal weight anyway. Hmm...actually, I suppose I did opt out of a test. In econ, the professor offers four tests, including the final, with each given equal weight. Since she also drops the lowest grade, if you're happy with what you have by the end of the third test, you don't have to do anything else for the rest of the semester. I haven't even been to class in a month. Thank goodness, too. I hated that class.

Hehehe...my future hubby gave me one of those last year for Christmas. It now sits proudly above my computer next to the speakers :) Umm...hmm...tops on my list this year are a kitchen knife set and an electric screwdriver. Oh the things you figure out you need when you're on your own. Especially when you can't put up those lovely curtains you bought back in July. Or cut raw chicken. Ever try cutting raw chicken with a table knife? Not fun.

Wow. I so completely agree with you, it's scary. Except for people jumping at the idea of another TNG style show...I do believe that's why we ended up with ENT to begin with; people recognized, as you just did, that such a thing wouldn't fly too well for very long. And I love your miniseries idea. It would be a good chance to do some fanservice and do that Excelsior thing everyone was so jazzed about for a while before ENT. But first, wait until ENT is off the air for at least five years. Let the franchise breathe, man, let it breathe! Oh, and the fans have always been a better source for ideas that B&B. Especially since there have been rumors circulating that certain plotlines from a certain sim ended up being plots on a certain Trek show several months later.

Miss it? Like...as in not have Star Trek stories to look forward to once a week, with Rommies and Klingons and strange new races? And, and things blowing up and people fighting and cute little romantic side stories and an overly annoying cat? ::looks around here:: You *do* know what we do here, right? B) Seriously though, I honestly don't think I'd miss the franchise that much if they stopped making new shows. Heck, I don't even miss it now, since I both refuse to and cannot watch Enterprise (no UPN here for some bizarre reason). I've still got my Spike TV TNG reruns (the Golden Age of Star Trek, and let no one tell ya different B)), and I'm afraid to admit I sometimes enjoy the intricate stories we come up with for our sims more than any of the TV shows. But, that's just me.

For me and my alter ego(s): Dork :) :)

Name: Marris Krax Rank: Lieutenant Commander Race: Ferengi/Human Sex: Female Place of Birth: Hanolan Colony Date of Birth: Stardate 7905.03 Hair Color: Brown Skin Color: Caucasian, olive complexion Eye Color: Brown Height: 1.55 meters Weight: 49 kg Other Physical Characteristics: Typical Ferengi ears and cranial structure, though slightly less pronounced than normal. Marital Status: Single Father: Krax Mother: Geraldine Prestholt Krax Siblings: Lieutenant Ferdinand "Ferk" Krax (Diplomatic Corps) Ship: USS Excalibur-B Current Position: Navigation/Helm Officer Service Record: First post as Ensign on the U.S.S. Excalibur-B, Stardate 0107.31 Promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade 0110.07 Promoted to Lieutenant 0201.20 Promoted to Lieutenant Commander 0209.17 Resigned Commission 0305.12 Reinstated in Starfleet, reassigned to USS Excalibur-B as Navigation/Helm Officer 0310.19 Education: Graduated from Hanolan High School, class of 2374 Enrolled in the Academy, Stardate 9709.05 Entered Science Officer’s Program, Stardate 9812.07 Graduated from Academy, Stardate 0106.14, with a BS in Physics and a BS in General Sciences Completed Pilot’s Certification, Stardate 0310.13 Skills: Specialization in Theoretical Physics. Certified pilot. Talents in mathematics and strategy. Exceptional hearing. Hobbies: Studying 20th Century Earth. Creating “fractal art.” Playing the violin. Biographical Information: Marris was born and raised on Hanolan, a Federation colony near Bajor. Her parents -- her mother Geraldine, a botanist, and her father Krax, an exile from Ferenginar -- provided her and her twin brother, Ferdinand, with a stable and loving (if somewhat a-typical) upbringing on the family’s farm. Unlike most Ferengi, Krax did not approve of the opportunistic greed of his people, and as a result, Krax made sure that his children were raised primarily in the Terran culture of his wife and the colony where he had found a home. Marris developed an early interest in science, primarily physics, and mathematics through the encouragement of both her mother and father. Throughout her school years, those proved to be her best subjects, though she was a good student overall. The same was true for her brother, though he preferred the social sciences. Most of Marris’ childhood was marked by her close relationship with her brother. The two were nearly inseparable in school and participated in many of the same activities. It was only inevitable, then, that when Ferdinand began to consider joining Starfleet, Marris was not far behind. The two entered the Academy together and spent their first year much as they had back home. However, they began to grow apart during their second year when Marris entered the Science Officer’s Program and Ferdinand began working toward the Diplomatic Corps. Though they were still close, they were no longer moving in the same circles and consequently drifted. Upon graduation from the Academy, Marris was assigned to the USS Excalibur-B as a science officer and worked through the ranks to become a Lieutenant Commander. She served aboard the Excalibur for nearly two years, until an away team mission where Marris was stranded for several months with the Excalibur’s CO Captain Vixis and two other officers. On that mission, Marris witnessed the rather violent death of Vixis and one of the other officers. Afterward, she suffered from a moderate form of posttraumatic stress disorder and resigned her commission to return home and recover from her experiences. Though her first month back home was, in her words, "really rough," Marris’ mental health improved rapidly after taking up an interest in piloting. Eventually, she sought reinstatement in Starfleet. After passing both her piloting certification and her mental examination (under the condition that she meet regularly with a counselor), Marris was returned to duty on Excalibur as the Navigation/Helm officer.

Okey doke folks ::cracks knuckles:: time to get down and dirty about academy sims... The question is, are they worth it? And the answer is...it depends. Depends on the forum, depends on the people playing. Take the example of ::prepares to be stoned:: Spacefleet. Now, Spacefleet is set up very much like STSF. In fact, the systems are pretty much identical as far as what it takes for a cadet to become an ensign (at least last I checked). You attend an academy, you attend another, and so on and so forth, participating and following orders and generally not making an idiot of yourself until the GM/Host thinks you've got the right stuff and graduates you. But, while it works for STSF (and did for Spacefleet...I was introduced to simming through the academies there, and so were just about all of the veterans around here), it is no longer working for Spacefleet. Why is that, you ask? They don't have the support base from AOL anymore that STSF currently enjoys via ST.com. For them, academies are definitely not worth it (in my opinion) because cadets are so rare (due to a lack of exposure) that when they do get one, they lose the cadet because of a perceived barier to entry (the academy). As Fred pointed out, a lot of folks say, "Why the heck do I need to do this? I see what you're doing, I've got it." And when a veteran and/or GM insists that they in fact *do* need to do this, they say screw it and go blow something up on their XBox. Consider: how many potential players does STSF weed out through the academies? My guess is that it's a larger percent than those who graduate. Look at that fellow who posted on the boards a week or so ago wondering about the game. My guess is he's gone, never to return. In a small forum like Spacefleet, this sort of screening process kills the forum. However, in a forum like STSF, it serves as a quality control. And STSF can afford to do it because, hey, you guys have got some of the best exposure a Trek Simming forum can have. Now, what Spacefleet should do, and what STSF might want to consider for supplimenting academies (if you don't already) is a sort of mentoring program. Have all those advanced players hanging out in the academies take the cadets under their wing, invite them to watch an advanced sim, talk to them about bios and logs and such, give them examples...all that fun stuff. We just got a fresh newbie on Excalibur who didn't even have a character for his first sim. I know I wasn't exactly prepared for my first advanced sim (though coming in right at the end of a plot didn't help much either). And my first log...yuck. Someone should have shot me for that one. If I'd had a mentor, I think I would have integrated a whole heck of a lot faster than I did. And a mentor program might keep a hold of those cadets who just don't think it's worth the effort...they don't know what a blast it is until they've seen it through the eyes of us insane, rabbid people :) So are academies worth it? Here they are. But there is always room for improvement :)

::looks at that:: Oh man, do I feel old. Lursa, if you even read these boards any more, now I know what you were talking about oh those many years ago :)

10 for me. I think most of the arguments for the existance of intelligent life have already been made, so I shan't add any more. Statistically, even including the fact that you have to get a planet of *just* the right chemical composition in *just* the right place with *just* the right evolutionary conditions to produce intelligence, I think chances are pretty darn good that there are other beings out there who can bang two rocks together to get a spark. Whether we'll ever meet is another matter entirely, so I shall leave that one alone. This is all assuming that the universe as we perceive it is actually how it is, though. Erm...and as that will open up a completely different can of worms, I shall leave that one alone as well ^.^

Hola. Minor problem. I can't seem to see my own avitar on my own computer. I could see it fine at school, but here at home is another matter. Thanks!

Because English is screwy like that. You also have a pair of pants, which is a singular entity (in my opinion), but you put each leg into a pant leg. Hmm...one could also assume that underwear is too general a word for what you're thinking of. After all, a bra is considered underwear. So are boxers, briefs, panties...and you'll note that those three are all referred to in the plural. A pair of panties. A pair of briefs. ::looks at what she just wrote:: Can someone tell me what is wrong with me please? :ph34r: And to stay on topic: No! Please, come back! Simming rocks!

::sits on hands:: Must....not....let....copy editor....out...! GAAAH! You've got it backwards a bit. It's one die, two dice. Why we call it a pair of dice, not a pair of die :ph34r: Actually, if you consider the etymology, if you say "dies" it can easily turn into "dice." Okay, time for me to crawl back into my hole now ^.^ Oh, and hey to the new guy, just to stay on topic. Edit: LOL! I just realized this is my first post! Well, on this name anyway...