Col. C.E. Harper

Thank you all for the lovely warm wishes!

You know, I've completely ceased to feel any surprise when you get into a bar brawl. Just make sure the proper reports are filed and if they're suing for damages please try to concoct a better reason to put on the requisition forms than "he needed hitting." Thanks.

See, the Kobayashi Maru was one of the things that bugged me most about the new movie. Kirk's cheating on the test is canon, but it always seemed to be played as something he'd done very slyly, introducing just enough of a chance that he could pull off one of the close-shave wins for which he later became famous. Hence the commendation for original thinking. Blatantly reprogramming it such that the whole sim blinks off and back on and then having the enemy weapons mysteriously stop working? Pathetic, and he ought to have been thrown out of the Academy for it.

An Away Team beams over to begin investigations at the Romulan shipyard. Ag120909.txt

Does that mean Einstein doesn't get geek points?

And I hated the new BSG, so maybe that's not the best argument... :P

As long as it carries the Stargate name, comparison is inevitable, just as we would (and have) compare any new Trek series to previous incarnations. And when a franchise starts off as well as SG1 did, following series really need to live up to their press. I saw the pilot, and I think I'm done. Two hours of cliches and plotholes is about all I can take.

Well, if there are apples, who needs the jelly?

Harper sat down at her desk and waited for the blue and silver UFP logo to be replaced by her contact. The face, when it appeared on the viewscreen, was tired, the room behind it dimmed to night-shift lighting. Station 215 must have been keeping local planetary time rather than Fleet-standard. "Admiral Mkory," she said carefully, "I apologize for the hour." The craggy face of the Admiral didn't lighten any, but he did wave a hand. "Hazards of the pips," he said. "Which means, this is important, if my people sent the comm through." "I have a report on the situation at Corianis, sir," she answered, with a slight nod. She'd had plenty of late-night calls as well, after all. "I'm afraid it's not good news." Rubbing sleep out of his deep, brown eyes, Mkory exhaled deeply. "Should I get something to drink bad?" She tucked a stray bit of hair behind her ear, aware that her uniform was probably still dusty and smoke-stained. "The negotiations were bombed bad." "Good thing I keep a flask in my desk," he said dryly. "Any idea by who?" "We're not certain," she admitted. "The good news is that no one was killed in the bombing. The bad news is that while we were doing crowd control afterwards, someone -- probably the same someone -- touched off a riot." Mkory nodded and leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers on the desk. "So, let me make sure I have this right. There was a bombing during the negotiations, and then a riot broke out. I have everything right, so far?" "So far," Harper agreed, nodding slowly. "There was a protest during the negotiations, but that was peaceful. The bomb and the riot started in another part of the crowd." "Right, and if I understood you properly, you don't have any leads, despite having two Federation starships assigned to the system, both with veteran crews, one with a ground-pounder as a CO, correct?" "Not yet." She reached for a PADD on the desk, put it down again. "I've got teams on the surface working on that now, but we've only just contained the riot." A frown touched her lips at that. "Captain Calestorm's techniques leave something to be desired." "Save it for your report, Colonel," he said with a slight edge to his voice. Marines. Softening only slightly, Mkory exhaled again and wiped his eyes again. "Very well. Planetary authorities should be able to carry out the investigation with your help." "Presuming you mean the written report, sir," she replied, matching his tone. "I shall make certain it includes the use of tear gas on bystanders and fellow officers." Part of him started to remind her that it was a non-lethal measure, but he decided that is was far too early in the morning for such a debate. "I look forward to your report, I am sure it will be interesting reading. However, Colonel, talking about it does very little to alleviate the situation that you were sent there to deal with in the first place, which is, that those dlithium mines need to be up and working." "Can't be done," Harper answered flatly, resisting the urge to slump in her chair. "No one down there is interested in working together, and no one has any control whatsoever, even over their own people." "Well, then, Colonel. What do you plan to do about it?" She bit back a few suggestions that would have required even more inappropriate uses of force than Calestorm's stunt. "Kick it upstairs, sir," she said instead. The bulk of his body moved forward and his head shook. "Not an option." Continuing, Mkory's hid his own annoyance with the entire situation, and the directive he'd been given from Command that he deal with it. "Command has made their... feelings... on this very clear, Harper. We need to come to some sort of resolution on this." "Admiral," she replied, trying for patience, "even with the Jackrabbit's help, there is no way we're going to be able to restore order on Corianis with the forces we have, short of martial law." He tipped his head for a moment. "Well, then." She sat, waiting for him to say more, until a dawning realization made her jaw drop. "You can't be serious." "It's not even 0300 here, I don't joke till after at least 0600, Colonel." "Well, it's 1500 here, and I do and was, sir!" "Listen, I understand your objections, really I do; but from everything you've said, I think you've hit the nail on the head. If that's the only way to get them that mine working again, then that's the way it is going down." Mkory's cragged face seemed even harder than it had been at the beginning of the conversation as he leaned backwards and straightened in his seat. "If this were peacetime, such a suggestion would be, as you said, a joke; but I think you know better than most commanders, it's not peace time. We're at war here and those blue sons of bitches are hitting us hard. We need that damned dilthium and we need it quickly. If the price we have to pay is our moral fortitude... Command has made it clear they have the checkbook out." Harper wasn't rendered speechless often, but this was doing it. All she could manage, weakly, finally, was "The Agincourt can't stay here indefinitely." If he had moral objections, they were clearly being pushed behind the sheer rock-face that Mkory had put on. Once it was clear that Harper wasn't going to argue much further, he softened somewhat. "Agreed, I am not going to tie up one of our few warships with a crew that's actually survived one of those attacks with this, however, it will take me a little bit of time to get a marine battalion sent out your way." "Just to be very clear, sir. Are you actually ordering me to... to...." He nodded. "I'll get you a hard copy of orders sent out before I go back to bed, but yes, Colonel. Under the Wartime Powers Act, I am granting you the authority to end this strike using whatever measures you deem required. If we don't have that dilithim, those miners won't have much of a Federation to file their complaints with." Harper swallowed hard. "I understand, sir," she said quietly. "I know it's going to put you a little short-handed, but would you agree that perhaps Captain Calestrom and crew should be on their way to pick up the Marines before you are required to carry out my orders?" Harper rubbed her temples briefly. "If they leave us some of their ground force," she said. "They know the planet better." "Understood, I'll include that in my orders, which you'll want to read fully."

The hypospray's been around for a while, guys: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_injector

You are both destined for the time-out booth.

I don't know where you get your delusions, laser brain.

They seemed to be trying to get away from the "every planet looks the same" thing by introducing the big mega-enemy arcs which involve a lot of space battles and so forth. Atlantis even more so than the later seasons of SG-1. But for me, I think the series lost a lot of its charm and interest when it shifted from exploration to explosions. A "dark and edgy" new spinoff sounds likely to follow the same pattern of blowing things up, which disappoints me. Honestly, I think the same problem has plagued Trek. It's as though no one understands, or wants to write (dares to write?), a show that doesn't have to be about Beating Up the Big Bad. And part of the problem with this is that every time you beat one Big Bad, the next Big Bad has to be a Bigger Badder Bad. Which of course you then have to beat.... The end result of this spiral is ludicrous, and results in things like Voyager kicking the butts of an entire Borg city ten years after a single cube devastated the best defense Starfleet could muster.

Happy Birthday Kitteh!!

Pussycat. Right. Pussycat.

That'd be funny except the recession started under the last guy's watch. :P Personally, I think it's neat to have a Trek fan (however casual) in the White House.

Would you settle for Australia? Yes, Sydney Harbor is a fair bit.... rounder... than it used to be. ::eyes a cat:: And the Presidio is pretty much gone, we slagged the Eiffel Tower -- actually, most of Paris, I think large sections of Beijing...

I don't agree with Abrams about that -- but that's a whole other thread. I do think the reboot-ness of the film is clear, meaning that attempting to integrate it smoothly with 40 years of canon is rather like time travel -- it'll give you nosebleeds.

Odd/even was broken by Insurrection and First Contact. I think it just doesn't apply to non-TOS.

Re: Torpedoes, I would think they were equipped with an 'abort/destruct' mechanism, so that when the battle was over a tactical officer could send out a signal to destoy any strays that might be hanging around. This would also be useful in big fleet battles, if someone's evasive took it into the path of your fire.

Rate of spin varies, as does material collection. It has to do with how fast things were moving and how close they were when the black hole formed. It's not a hole in space the way there's a hole in paper; it's more like a tornado but a ball-shaped tornado, if you can picture that. You can't come up under the 'tip' of the tornado - gravity operates in all directions. Size, again, varies. The event horizon is what you're really talking about when you talk about the "size" of a black hole; the hole itself (that is, the mass creating the phenomenon) is teeeny tiny, theoretically only a point. The event horizon is determined by the mass of the black hole. The smallest known is about 24 km/15 miles. That's smallest among stellar-mass black holes, by the way -- there's a theory about micro black holes but it makes my head hurt. I suspect it makes all but a few specialists' heads hurt.

Hmm. New theory. "Quality of Star Trek plot is inversely proportional to size of budget."

Agincourt will not run Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve. Happy holidays!

Crewman Mace Pharon, one of the Security officers from Team Jackal who was putting in some training time on the main bridge Tactical console, turned and nodded to the Colonel and the Commander once a secure signal had been established with the Klingon patrol ship the IKS VaKang. "Sirs, communication transmission on view screen now." The formidable visage of Captain B'Qar appeared in all his silver haired Klingon glory on the main view screen of the Agincourt’s control center, with his First Officer, Azet, standing next to his command chair in a relaxed parade rest. B'Qars deep resonating voice came over the ship to ship wireless signal, "Colonel Harper, welcome back to Vorana Six space. We kept a candle in the window for you so to speak." "Thank you, Captain," Harper said, nodding slightly to him. "All quiet in our absence?" The Klingon commander nodded his affirmation. "Yes. We have had two teams down on the surface of the planet, but so far have not turned up any new evidence or any data to shed some more light on what has been found previously. And, of course, the sector itself has been quiet." "Good," she said, allowing a slight smile to cross her face. "We can all use some quiet. No evidence, though? Will you send your results to my science team?" "As soon as my science officers have the data properly encrypted, they will transfer the information to your sciences team." "Thank you, Captain." She thought for a moment. "We have several options for our next stop," she said at last. B'Qar quirked a swarthy silver brow and gave a half smile. "We are more then willing to continue to "tag along" with you for the next patrol cycle." Commander Azet chose that moment to dive into the conversation with her own opinion on the matter. "Yes. You need experience to counter balance the younger warriors and members of your crew who are less experienced." Her smile was teasing, but on a Klingon warrior, it looked downright feral; her gaze was directed at the feline. JoNs, who had been standing quietly - thank you very much - and merely observing the conversation, gave an annoyed little growl at the conversational jab and took a step forward. "Commander Azet. It's a wonder that you are not a diplomat. Oh wait - that explains it." Harper's eyes met B'Qar's and they shared an understanding look. "In any event," Harper said over the bickering execs, "I see the primary choice before us as being Melkas III or..." She glanced down at some notes on the arm of her command chair. "Tervan Four. The largest or the most recent attack." The elder Klingon commander appreciated that the younger Human marine officer had a tactical grasp of the post Soltan attack investigative options. It was always much easier to work with someone who had an understanding of the proper investigative procedures. "I say let us make haste for Tervan. As the largest compromised site of within the Soltan attack vectors, we are sure to find exactly what we are looking for evidence wise." Kansas had moved back toward the tactical console, and entered a few commands into the main control board. "Grid overlay of Tervan on main viewer, the shared tactical signal is between the two ships, so we can all see the real time image." A lilting voice carried over the wireless communications feed. "The Cat can work the console. Impressive." A low answering growl of displeasure carried across the Agincourt’s bridge, but Kansas made no further comment. In the meantime, the tactical grid overlay showing the specifications of the Tervan site showed on the main viewer next to the image coming from the VaKang. "Our primary scan area should be the southern continent, it looks like," Harper said, studying the image. "Did we get any records or the Soltan's entry point or approach vector?" JoNs, easily falling into tactical techno babble speak - and oddly feeling a pang of homesickness at not being able to just be a security or tactical officer anymore - pounced the conversation ball and ran with it at that point. "The details are a bit sketchy, but for right now we can confirm that the approach vector was from the southern continent side. I'm sure if the tactical officers on the VaKang ran an extrapolation program as well, they could confirm that theory." Commander Azet spoke up as well, adding her input to the impromptu command planning session. "Aye, our tactical sources and programs can confirm Commander JoNs's report as well." She spoke to both Harper and B'Qar with that statement, treating both of the ships commanders as her two commanding officers. "All right," Harper said decisively, "then after we finish at Vorana we'll head to Tervan. Ground teams will explore the southern damage sites, while the ships retrace the Soltan vector." Kansas quirked an ear back and glanced at Harper, making sure that her CO was done before speaking. The golden feline turned her attention back to the two commanding Klingons across the data feed. "Our ground teams will consist of Security and Marines for protection, and Sciences and Engineering to help with blanketing the target areas for information. Medical teams will also be on standby." Azet likewise glanced to her commanding officer before replying. "Indeed; I will draw up a landing party roster as well, along the same parameters." JoNs was thankful that Azet was at least being civil, but her tail was still switching behind her with some animosity toward the Klingon executive officer. Captain B'Qar shot another knowing look over the communications feed at Colonel Harper. Harper repressed a smile. "It's agreed then. I don't think finishing at Vorana will take very long, if you haven't uncovered anything." B'Qar shook his head in a negatory gesture. "If we were meant to find anything more, other then the data we do already have along with the common knowledge regarding the kidnapping of Doctor Senok and the ransacking of his subspace research within the planetary lab, then it would have, uh, popped out by now? I believe that is how you Humans say this? We will need to turn our attention to the other Soltan attack sites to further gather what evidence and data that we need." "Very well, we'll do a quick wrap-up here and push on." B'Qar laughed, and the sound was boisterous, full of pride, and energizing. "I look forward to working with you Colonel Harper. But, I do have some advice. That is, if you do not mind advice from an old Targ such as myself?" "Not at all, Captain." She smiled somewhat wryly. "The Agincourt, you, your young furred Commander over there, and your crew and department leads are very much in the center of a maelstrom. You survived the Perseus Arm. You are the leading tactical source and witnesses regarding the Soltan threat. Unfortunately, you will also attract the wrong type of attention during this time of rebuilding and sector wide backlash - such as the saboteur you recently dealt with. Know that the VaKang crew has your back, we honor you, and we are pleased to fight by your side during this time of uncertainty." Taken aback slightly, she just nodded cautiously. "Ah -- thank you, Captain." I think. Kansas merely looked back and forth from the two commanding Klingons and her own commander with a happy smile on her muzzle and her animated tail swishing happily rather then out of annoyance. Azet, thanks to a bit more experience, was able to school her executive officer features into a more mature look of anticipation. Captain B'Qar nodded once, a decisive gesture. "Very well Colonel Harper. We will start making our tactical preparations immediately, and open any and all information lines between the two crews. In addition, if you need any engineering expertise or that sort to help with your continued repairs, do not hesitate to contact our chief engineer." "Thank you, Captain B'Qar," Harper replied. "We'll see you shortly, then. Agincourt out.”

I hate trackpads, and use them only under protest.