WadeFKnight

<This space intentionally left blank>

Wade stood outside of the forcefield the enclosed the Juno’s captain, examining a PADD of data collected from the now destroyed ship. Indeed, the more of the information he digested the more the circumstances surrounding the cargo transport’s untimely destruction the more questions seemed to be unanswered. Interrogations was one thing Wade was not accustomed to. There was a good reason why he had chosen the field he had. EPS grids and isolinear chips didn’t lie, or get smart, or do bad things. But given the circumstances, he was probably the most informed on the Juno’s condition before it’s demise. As such he was inherently the most qualified to be a part of the investigation. Nodding to the security officer stationed next to the brig, Wade waited for the forcefield to be lowered and stepped in after him. “Captain Angstrom, is it?” Wade said, looking down at the captain’s name on the PADD. The freighter captain nodded, eyes downcast, focusing on his hands propped up by elbows on knees. “I’m Wade Knight, I was in charge of the engineering team sent to help with incident on your ship.” The captain looked up, quirking a brow. “Engineering? I would have expected someone from security to be questioning me,” the captain asked, leaving an implied question. “Someone from security will be joining us momentarily, I’m sure. I’m just here to get an idea of the technical situation,” Wade replied, facing the captain and holding his PADD under his arm. “Am I being charged with something?” The captain asked, obviously attempting to conceal his concern with a veil of arrogance. The captain sat upright in his bunk, leaning his back against the wall. “We are not here to prosecute you, captain. The federation’s law is not the supreme law of the galaxy, and I am not a lawyer. We’re just looking for the truth,” Wade replied matter-of-factly. “If I’m not being charged how can you hold me here?” Wade looked over the captain, trying not to let his facial expression change. Looking back down at his PADD, he replied cooly, “As I said, I’m not a lawyer.” Clearing his throat, Wade walked across the small holding cell to stand against the far wall. “The shipment of triceron you took on, who authorized it?” “I thought we were going to discuss the technicalities, Mr. Knight?” The captain asked, looking back down to his hands. Wade recognized the captain’s diversion, and took it as it were. The strategy that he and Shamor had discussed before the interrogation began didn’t really require Wade to get any real answers or solid evidence. At least not initially. It was fairly apparent that captain of the Juno was not keen on being cooperative at this point, and it was going to take a little bit more than simple questioning to get the answers they needed. “You’re absolutely right, I apologize,” Wade answered, tucking his PADD back under his arm. “Why don’t you tell me how your ship fell into such ill repair, captain?” “Lack of resources,” the captain replied curtly, not going into any further detail. “I see. I can understand that. I had a friend who worked on a cargo vessel myself. The Prescott. Have you heard of it?” The captain shook his head again in response and Wade nodded. “Can’t see how you would have. Almost had me mucking around in the underdecks of that scowl. I can understand how difficult it is to maintain such a vessel with limited income.” Wade said with an encouraging tone. “That said, it does seem that your chief engineer was no where to be found when the proverbial crap hit the fan.” Again the captain simply nodded. Wade sat back in his chair, heaving a sigh that was meant to sound forlorn. “I assure you that things are going to be much easier, Captain, if you cooperate and answer my questions in as much detail as possible. Wade turned as the sound of an opening door came from behind him and Shamor entered. “Well, here’s your security officer, now. Now the real questions start,” Wade said, nodding to the security officer stationed inside the brig with him to let Shamor in. The Zemun sent Angstrom a glare in which most cases meant that he would be in the deepest of trouble if things didn’t go as intended. “Trying to be scary, too bad it doesn’t scare me” the captain said snidely. “If I were to scare you, there’d be a mess to clean up off the floor. I’m to assume that you’ve been less than cooperative in this session.” The captain simply scoffed at Shamor. “In the event you’re wondering why you’re detained here rather in a normal room I will tell you. Your ship had the equivalent of a 6000 gigaton warhead with all that Triceron on board. If the cargo went critical and detonated in a populated area the damage would be severe. This brings forth an interesting question,” Shamor paused, slamming a PADD on a bench making Wade jump slightly. “Why the hell would you do something so stupid!?” Angstrom thought for a moment, estimating the seriousness of Shamor’s bravado before fixing his eyes on Jon and speaking through gritted teeth. “If you’re not going to charge me I suggest you let me leave right now.” Taking a deep breath, Jon picked up the PADD, still miraculously working after its earlier treatment, and began reading off the list of charges. “Careful on what you wish for, you just might get it.” Picking up the PADD he begins to read off the list of charges. “Hauling hazardous cargo with an expired license. Evading designated security checkpoints and patrols. Reckless endangerment of ship and crew. Obstruction of a relief operation. Three counts of belligerence towards a Star Fleet Officer. And last but not least, utilizing a ship that was not fit for hazardous transport. These alone can put you away for a good long time.” Standing upright from his perch against the wall, Wade raised an eyebrow. “I thought he only had two counts of belligerence?” Shamor didn’t turn to reply to Wade inquiry, “I added the third one. Suffice it to say that the walls have eyes and ears.” The captain of the Juno sat quietly, apparently contemplating the caliber of the two men sharing his cell. “Now that I have your attention I suggest you make like a stool pigeon and start singing. Otherwise these charges will stick to you like a Ferengi clings to gold pressed latinum.” “Look friend,” Wade finally spoke up, coming to stand nearer to the freighter captain. “I,” he said, pausing to correct himself, “We can make this go a lot smoother for you. But only if you cooperate with us. Either way: you can tell us now, or you could spend the next couple of months with a Federation quorum. Its up to you.”

I'm a doctor, not a symbologist!

I tend to do the opposite in my play, actually. While I've probably seen close to 75% of the Star Trek material out there I haven't exactly been meticulous in storing all of the information gleaned from every episode I watch, or spending long hours scrolling through the pages of memory alpha. However, I do like to think that I have a fairly extensive knowledge of the sciences and I'll admit that I do enjoy showcasing that knowledge in my simming and logging. In fact, I've become pretty well renowned on some of my sims as being one to engage in the notorious activity known as technobabble (much to some of my GM's chagrin). What I fail to realize at times is that technical explanations and entertainment don't generally mix, which causes me to go overboard with my detail. The fact of the matter is most people don't find in depth technical explanations entertaining. Sure, among us geeks it's definitely enjoyable to discuss it, but there's a good reason why the non-fiction section at Borders is located in the back of the store. Science doesn't sell. Take the television show Big Bang Theory for example. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a sitcom about a group of physicists who are stereotypically nerdy. It's a pretty good show, if you want a good laugh, but that's besides the point. Anyway, because they're physicists there is quite a bit of scientific trivia strewn about each episode, most of which any well-to-do geek like myself is pretty household stuff. But for a show about physicists there's very little actual physics involved. The same goes for some other science fiction shows/movies I can name, such as Eureka, Stargate, or the time honored 2001 A Space Odyssey. Anyway, my point is this: There are always going to be inconsistencies between what's written in a science fiction film and what's actually true (or accepted) in reality. Fiction writers aren't physicists (with some few exceptions of course), they're generally at best just enthusiasts. And I highly doubt they have time (or the desire) to go back over every episode and ensure that there's no inconsistencies with what's already been written. However there is one thing that is generally consistent in canon, and that is history or the series of events. If you're going to rely on canon for anything, I say it should be that. The technical stuff you can just handle the way most science fiction TV show writers handle it. Make up something that sounds technical (like the Heisenberg Compensator) and just roll with it.

Go to collegehumor.com and search for "Panda Bully"

I always keep a spare around just in case.

I'd imagine the only real predatorial threat in panda territory is the leopard, which is nocturnal (and probably can only see in black and white anyway). I'd say that's pretty fair evolutionary cause for having black and white fir. It's pretty interesting to note that the black fur is generally located in areas where there is/may be depth (around the eyes, arms, legs, ears). Since it'd be harder to distinguish shadows on these black areas, it'd be that much more difficult to detect differences in depth. Since depth is what helps us to distinguish shapes (i.e. shadows), I'd say "Yeah, black and white makes a pretty good camouflage against nocturnal predators". -Resident biology buff

The short answer is "No." Our chatroom uses a Javascript, and neither the iPhone nor the iPad support Javascript. Steve Jobs pretty much said that Javascript is completely useless. The slightly longer is answer is "It may be possible." I've heard tell of people hacking their iPads to run Java. The even slightlier longer answer is "Yeah, it could be possible, but why would you want to?" For one, hacking anything made by Apple is usually reserved to the truly devoted, and it's not just because it can be difficult. If you hack your iPhone, and then subsequently brick it, what you have is a $500 shiny paperweight, instead of a $500 shiny paperweight under warranty. Secondly, it may just be because I have chubby baby fingers, but the idea of taking on the task of reading and writing during a sim on such a small platform seems more than daunting--it would probably give me a headache to rival an aneurysm. The only real reason is if you're out on business quite a bit and don't always have access to your desktop. In that case, I say get yourself a netbook. :P

I had this idea this morning to start a facebook event to encourage people to clean their computers, both the dust on the inside, and the viruses and malware on the inside. Help me out by spreading word of this event and inviting all your friends! Together we can save people every where a ton of money and headaches! You can view the event with the link below if you have a Facebook account. Lend a hand! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110193239006511

It seems to me that it could be a lot worse than it is. The captcha and email authorization cuts down on botting, but what we have here is someone who's willing to put forth the effort of going through all of these security checks to post these links. And I can only assume it's because he/they have found some measure of success here. So the best thing we can do is make sure not to click any links someone suggests to you over PM. Perhaps a membership-wide PM explaining the situation? I also notice that the message someone sends you on this board is copied in the email notification it sends you. In my mind this is only doubling the risk of an accidental click, or someone not getting the full context of the message. Perhaps that option can be disabled by the administrators? I've also discussed this with Kent, but haven't gotten a full answer out of her yet, is there a range of IP's used by these spammers? If so, it may be possible to ban that IP range in it's entirety.

As a security minded individual, and one who's tried and tested many an exploit in an attempt to better secure my beloved computer, I think this is pretty good opportunity to post some internet do's and don'ts for those of you who may be gray in some of these areas. A lot of this is common sense, but I usually pass this information along to just about every who I find has viruses/malware of some sort when I'm working on their computers. So here it is Do's 1: Password. I can't tell you how important it is to have a strong password, especially for websites where your personal information is stored, such as Facebook, or your local bank's website. Usually, if someone is attempting to access your personal data that is password protected they will use what's called a brute force attack, which will cycle through random combinations of letters and numbers until it finds the right one. These brute force attacks generally start with lower case words and get more complex as it continues. I forget the exact numbers, but if you have a simple set of words for a password like "thisisapassword" it will only take an attacker a few minutes to succeed in getting your password with a brute force attack. However, if you use something with a mix of lower and upper case letters, numbers, and symbols in a 15 character password it would take a brute force attack several millennia to crack. Remember, passwords are like underwear, you should change them often. 2: Use real time scanning anti-virus protection and a firewall. Contrary to popular belief virus scanners are not perfect protection, and internet security is not all about firewalls, but they do definitely decrease the risk of infection by a very large value. I personally use McAfee, since I got it for free with my ISP, but there are several free anti-virus programs out there like "avast!" and "AVG". They're easy to set up and don't really bother you too much. 3: Keep up to date on current attack strategies! I know this may be boring for some of you, or you might not have to time to keep to date, but it wouldn't hurt to ask one of your geek friends who works in IT and plays WoW religiously what the hackers are doing now adays. For instance, one of the new emerging strategies that's starting to show up is what's called ransomware. It's basically a really well designed program that looks like your average antivirus software. It will basically lock down your computer and won't allow you to use it until you pony up a large some of money to purchase this fake software. These sorts of attacks could be easily avoided with one simple policy: 4. BE CYNICAL! That's right. I know cynicism is usually considered a character flaw, but on the internet a healthy dose of mistrust is an excellent strategy for keeping yourself safe. Basically, if it looks even a tiny bit shady, it probably is. 5. If you think you might have been infected with a virus disconnect your computer from the internet immediately! Viruses have a really mean tendency of inviting their buddies over to your computer for a big 'ol virus party. They also will send information to the attacker, such as sites you've visited, personal setting on your computer, and/or other personal information. So, if you even suspect that something weird is happening and your computer might have a virus or two, turn off your router/modem and seek some help. Dont's: 1: Never, ever, ever download a file that ends in .exe, .bat, .dll, or .sys. There are a number more, but these are the file extensions most commonly used in viruses. If you're in doubt, the best thing you can do is google the filename of the file the internet is telling you to download. If the words virus and "my computer went ballistic" appear in the common results, don't download it. The only addon's you should need for your browser for regular view are java (java.sun.com) and shockwave flash (adobe.com/products/shockwaveplayer/). If something says "you must install such and such in order to view this page" don't believe them! It's lies! 2: Store your passwords in your browser. Just don't, ever. 3: Along the same lines, never, ever store your credit card information on a website. This is a really bad plan. 4: Post an abundance of personal information to your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or otherwise hip social networking/forum site. While this usually isn't a major security risk, since the stalker population isn't really as great as the media would have you think, it's still not a very good idea to post your name, address, phone number, and blood type where everyone can see it. 5: Kent will like this one. Don't use Internet Explorer! Especially 6. One of the hacker community's biggest tools now adays is what's called a cross-site script attack. The details are boring, but basically it's a piece of code written into a website than can be used to access data to your computer and in rare cases grant authorized access to your system. And Internet Explorer just isn't up to par. Get a real browser. 6: Use Peer 2 Peer download software. Examples include Limewire, Bittorrent, Bearshare, or Morpheus. Not only do files downloaded from these services contain many an unwanted program, but it also leaves a hole in your internet connection that hackers can use to gain access to your computer. Plus it's illegal. 7: One last thing, don't use Chat Roulette unless you want to see genitalia. Fair warning. I'm sure I've missed some important rules, but these are the best for minimizing the risk to your little world in a box, as well as the risk to the real world (identity theft, stalkers, being scarred for life (seriously, don't use chat roulette)). If anyone else can think of anything I missed feel free to add to the list. And if you have any questions or computer issues that need fixing, feel free to drop me a message. I love being geeky.

ColinXHoward: another spammer. Just a friendly reminder, don't click any links or download files recommended by people you don't know. When in doubt, click X <_<

A very old man is sitting on a park bench and just as another man is passing by he suddenly yells out "4-1-3.. DONE!" The other man looks down at the old man and says "Man, you look tired. What have you been doing?" The old man replies "I just gone done reciting the entire decimal equivalent of pi, backwards"

Ouch

I just felt like sounding smart

An interesting prank you can pull using this is you can use it to put in common words into that list and make them into strange words. Like changing the person's name and replacing it with banana, or replacing their last name with hammock.

You can change auto corrections. If you're using Microsoft Word 2007 the process would be: Click on the Microsoft symbol in the upper left hand corner -> Click on "Word Options" in the lower right corner of the window that pops up-> Click the "Proofing" tab on the left hand column -> Click "Auto-correct options" -> in the window that pops up, in the bottom there will be a list of symbols and words, the column on the left is what it corrects, the column on the right is what it corrects it with. -> scroll down though that list until you find Klingonic/linguini and click on that -> click "delete"

[quote name='KhreRiovtRex' date='Mar 3 2010, 04:32 PM' post='94970' It was sad that Season 7 just had a 'rushed' feeling to it....so much trying to be crammed in before they got to the end...there was so much potential to make it an epic ending...but..I just got the feel..how much can we stuff in this 45 minutes.... Still....3-6 were good. (and a good number of Romulans popping up here and there!) Season 7 started taking a different approach, it seemed to me that they did away with the standard Star Trek formula where there's one story per episode and the story ended after that and had little effect on the preceding episodes and adopted a more "soap operish" sort of approach. It was an interesting experiment, but I agree, it did seem to make the last of the episodes seem crammed.

I just finished watching the whole series myself recently. It takes a little while to pick up, but I have to say once you start getting into the meat of the series it really does the whole political intrigue thing, and the character development is second-to-none in any of the other Star Trek series. Long live Morn!

With a stack of data PADDs in hand, Wade stepped out of main engineering and headed down the hall towards the small conference room where Captain Spock waited for him. He noticed a blue-shirted science officer headed down the corridor with her back towards him and shook his head. Undoubtedly everyone wanted a piece of the Vulcan while he was here, and while he couldn't say he blamed them it was still a source of anxiety for him. Predestination or not, any more interaction with their guests than necessary could be a problem. Temporal Investigations was going to have a field day with this little adventure, no matter how many people interacted with their guests. Wade shrugged and carried his burden into the conference room and set it on the table next to Spock, then took a seat across from him. Spock did not look up to see the young Lieutenant settle himself into the seat. "Welcome back, Mr. Knight," he said calmly, reaching across to take one of the PADDs and quickly scan through its contents. It took every bit of the half-Vulcan captain's self-control not to allow himself to become preoccupied with the intricacies of the futuristic interface which was laid out before him; it responded to his touch in ways which were unfamiliar to him and would, in any situation other than this, have borne close analysis. Instead, he found himself in the somewhat surreal position of having to learn as little as he could from his surroundings; the potential temporal implications of the presence of this ship within his sphere of knowledge were not inconsiderable. Instead, he focused on the numbers; comforting equations in their familiarity. He had seen most of them -- written some of them himself, in a moment of great need for his own crew not so long ago. "You have been quite thorough in your approach given the resources at your disposal; you are to be commended, Lieutenant," he said after a moment, glancing up to meet Knight's eyes. Sitting across the table from one of the twenty-second century's greatest minds was one thing, but being complimented by Spock was quite another. Wade wasn't really sure whether to sing or leave the room before anything else could be said. He settled for a courteous nod. "Thank you, Captain." he said shortly, looking down at a PADD of his own. He wasn't really sure what else to say, so caught up in his mind about what he could say and what he couldn't. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered how he could've ever thought of himself as the man for this job. Spock's eyebrow arched up slightly but he made no other response, merely set down the PADD and steepled his fingers thoughtfully. "As you said earlier, the difficulty seems to arise from a lack of power in your ship's propulsions systems to make established equations practical under these circumstances. Given the variables in play, it seems logical therefore that your approach vector should be our point of adjustment -- it is the only variable which is not dependent upon the ship's capabilities and can be considered a relatively fluid quantity." Wade's eyes bounced back and forth between his own PADD and Spock's unflinching gaze before finally settling on the Vulcan. Wade nodded thoughtfully and set the PADD down on the table, scratching his chin. "Of course. Though altering the approach vector would invariably mean altering variables in other parts of the... grand equation." The eyebrow arched higher and Spock's voice took on a somewhat dry quality. "Such is mathematics. But I believe it to be the simplest method of approach." His fingers began to tap lightly across the console, testing a few simple adjustments to the equations as he looked up to catch Knight's eye again and added, "And I'm sure you would agree that in engineering, as in hard science, the principle known as Occam's Razor is often applicable -- and useful in preventing...headache." Wade found himself grinning in spite of himself and almost made a joke that would have ultimately ended up convincing Mr. Spock that everyone in the future had headaches, but closed his mouth before the words could escape his lips. As his features returned to their pragmatic and stoic norm, Wade nodded in agreement. "Of course. Let's start with the approach vector."

I should be there all three days this year, considering it's only a 30 minute drive for me. <_<

So the head start for those of us who pre-ordered the game kicked off today at 1:00, and I waited eagerly for the servers to come up. After about half an hour of waiting in line while all the other eager trekkies tried to log on, I finally got myself into the game and made a character. I ended up making a rather redneck looking Trill, with a handlebar mustache and spiky greased up hair, and was immediately thrown into a heated battle with the Borg. I'll have to cover a few points here, in order to keep this somewhat organized, and so I'll start with one of the most important to me: canon. I was a bit concerned while I sat, downloading the game, pondering how much Cryptic Studios had managed to slaughter the canon. Of course, some of you had heard that there was an ongoing war with the Klingons, but aside from that not much of the story was laid out to those who hadn't played the game. I found myself imagining the entire state of the galaxy being completely skewed, such as Ferengi's being vicious warriors while the Nausicans served Mai-Tai's on Risa. I was quite pleased to find that this wasn't the case. Ferengi are weasley traders, roaming the galaxy selling guns and such, Orion's are green and can often be found pirating mining stations or freighters, and the world is pretty much as it should be. What kind of did bother me was the major.. "additions" they made to the story, such as the Romulan home world being annihilated in some massive supernova, and the Klingons deciding to wage all out war on the Gorn and there-soon-after the Federation. I mean, I know they had to create some huge conflict to make PvP justifiable, but come on! Did you have to kill the Romulans? I wanted to fly a d'Deridex! Which leads me to my next topic, commanding your ship. Well, technically I'm going to talk about gameplay, but commanding your ship is the real meat of this game. The combat is intuitive and challenging, and you'll find yourself redirecting power to shields and weapons and engines all through the fight as you battle Klingon Birds of Prey and Orion pirate ships. Now when I say combat is challenging, I mean it has one hell of a learning curve. There are about a thousand different variables that go into your battles that can seem almost overwhelming, even to a hardcore gamer such as myself. You have to position your ship so that your strongest shields are towards the enemy while also baring down on your opponent's weaker side, all while mashing buttons and keeping on eye on your power levels and shield stability. And if you bite off more than you can chew? Nope, you can't just warp yourself out of harms way, you take the beating and then you respawn. Luckily, the game's death system is rather forgiving, and you can get yourself right back into the fight just ten seconds after the matter/antimatter containment in your warp core fails and your ship is reduced to celestial flotsam. Once you get the hang of piloting your ship, however, combat is extremely interesting and quite fun, especially when you and about twenty other friendly star ships take on Klingon fleet of 100 warships. But sitting on your bridge ordering phaser fire and shield power redirection isn't all there is to it. Every once and awhile you'll get yourself a mission that involves assembling an away team and beaming down to the surface of a planet. This is where things start getting a little more tedious. Ground combat feels more or less like an afterthought than a real gameplay mechanic. Planet/Starbase environments are rather bland, and combat is really just a matter of click and press the 1 and 2 keys on your keyboard repeatedly until your foe meets his untimely disintegration. A little bit of strategy is added by the flanking bonus, which allows you sneak behind your opponents and shoot them in the back to deal bonus damage, a tactic the Klingons probably find quite revolting. Occasionally, however you'll find yourself beaming down to a planet to investigate some strange readings, or missing scientists who probably just forgot to mention in their logs that they were headed for Risa for some R&R. These were the types of missions that I was really looking forward to, and subsequently the missions by which I was most disappointed. Scanning is just a matter of walking up to some sparkly thing and pressing a button, and the information you receive is usually something generic, or results in you getting some random artifact that up to this point I haven't found any use for. On top of that, the game doesn't really give you any sort of indication of what you're looking for, so you end up running around in circles in some featureless cave with an abundance of bio-luminescent fungi until you finally stumble upon what you're looking for. But really, it all comes down to one thing: value. A video game is an investment, just like buying a car, a house, or t-shirts bearing humorous science stuff from ThinkGeek.com. When you open your wallet, you want to make sure that what you're shelling out your hard earned greenbacks for is going to bring you lots of long-lived happiness and joy. While Star Trek: Online is a fun game that lets to fly around and shoot phasers at things whilst playing as your favorite Roddenberry race, I honestly have to say STO is not worth the 75 greenbacks your going to take out of your gas budget or your kid's college fund. That's 75 dollars, for the game and two months of delicious photon torpedo spreads. But if you're really feeling like a bit of a splurge, you can buy the lifetime membership package for $239. Now some of you may remember an old MMORPG before the days of World of Warcraft called Earth and Beyond. E&B was much the same game as STO, without the major Franchise rights. After about a year and a half of the servers being up, the game was canceled and many die-hard Earth and Beyond fans went away cold and alone back into the real world. Now some of you who know me know that I have a bit of a cynical approach towards things, but what you might mistake for cynicism is actually realism. And my realistic projection of Star Trek: Online's future is that it is destined to fail, much like Earth and Beyond, and the Dune MMO, and just about any other MMO that isn't Everquest or World of Warcraft. So, my final verdict as of now is that while STO is fun (and possibly very addicting) it's not a sound investment, especially for those of you starting the new semester and who haven't purchased your text books yet. But, I will say this, if you have the extra money to throw around by all means, go pick it up and try out the free trial. If you find you don't like it, you can always sell it to the kid next door who never does his homework. And let me just say Star Trek: Online is no match for the immersiveness of STSF, and is a very poor substitute. If any of you out there are already playing the game, or do plan on getting it, come find me! I'll start up a fleet, and we can go find ourselves some smelly Klingons to wipe out. My in game name is Turris@UNSanctionedHero.

Apparently there's been some messages going around that says something along the lines of "I've found you", and provides you with a link to a video asking if it's "really you" in the video. These messages are fake, and the video at the end of the link leads to an .exe file which is undoubtedly some sort of malware. Do not click on it. Most of you probably know enough already to know about what you should click on and what you shouldn't, but I just want to remind you not to download anything from anyone or anywhere you do not trust, especially if that file ends with .exe, .bat, .reg, .com, .cmd, or .dll. Be safe!

Saying goodbye to Anna and expressing how much fun dinner had been, Wade waved to Caroline and Tobias over her shoulder and headed down the corridor towards his room carrying a PADD and the last remaining Xintao beer. It wasn’t all that big of a hit, but the wine certainly served it’s purpose as a ‘social lubricant’. Strolling along the corridor, his head just a bit fuzzy from what was consumed and a late night eating and conversing, he read the contents of the PADD, not really paying attention to where he was going. It was quite the wonder he didn’t bump into any walls, but if he had the halls were empty at this hour anyway – aside from the occasional late shifter, early riser, or midnight wonderer like himself. The briefing still needed some work, and the plan laid out by it was certainly not complete, but in his mind it was the surest way of getting back to their time period. Mystical beings and fantastical gateways were just that: mystical and fantastical. He put little credence into these things, especially if they were not well studied or documented. “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” He wasn’t all that keen on Eastern philosophy either, but that particular Buddhist teaching rang true to him in every aspect. Continuing on he read over the briefing he had prepared again. General 1. Even with our advanced technology and limited experience with temporal manipulation and ‘travel’, theories concerning the nature of time still remain mostly speculative. Concerning the fears of ‘corruption’ of the timeline I have laid out in short in this briefing the theories which pertain to the possible alteration of events in the timeline, or the lack thereof. 2.Given the evidence of these theories, and following the well documented and most scientifically plausible theories pertaining to time ‘travel’ I have devised a possible means of returning to our proper time. These theories will thus be explained and the ‘plan’ revealed. “You may want to watch where you’re going, sir,” came a voice from ahead of him, pricking his thought bubble. “Lieutenant?” Looking up from his PADD, he found that he was almost inches from bumping into a middle-aged lieutenant. She grinned at him widely though it masked a look of worry, probably noticing his slight inebriation. “She probably thinks I need mothering,” Wade thought to himself, managing a sleepy smile. “Sorry about that, just engrossed in this,” he explained, holding up the PADD and tapping it against his fist. “Thanks for the warning,” he said with a wink, before sidling past her. “Or maybe she’s in security.” He resisted the urge to look behind him, continuing on towards his quarters, and after a few steps he had forgotten about her entirely and had his nose pressed up against the briefing again. Skipping past the boring sections, he found the part he was looking for – the ‘plan’. It was well thought out, he admitted, but there were a few dangers involved. Nothing that could be surmounted, of course, given proper preparation and time. Warp travel has allowed us to travel greater distances using non-conventional propulsion through “real” space, allowing us to circumvent the effects of time dilation, however the same does not hold true for Impulse. Impulse drive has been restricted to no greater than one-third the speed of light except in the gravest of situations. All impulse drives on federation star ships are only rated to provide enough propulsion to reach one-quarter of the speed of light, given their structural integrity, design, and power consumption. However, it is possible to reach speeds approaching the speed of light using Impulse through a series of “jumps”. In order to do so, energy must be stored in some fashion, usually in the form of plasma, to be expended all at once. However, as you approach .99% the speed of light, each jump requires exponentially greater amounts of power to perform the next jump. Given the mass of the ship, and the capabilities of our impulse engines as well as our storage capacity for retaining plasma, I believe our maximum velocity will be approximately .999995 times C. Given this velocity it will be possible to return to our place in time in about nine days. There are however some concerns that come with traveling at such high velocities. Each jump will bring about exponentially greater gravitational forces on the ship. During a jump we may experience some forces which the inertial dampeners may not be able to fully dissipate. Also, given the sheer amount of energies at force here, structural integrity may be compromised, and there is a possibility that any system could fail at any point. Sensors will be inaccurate as well, the closer we get to our desired velocity, experiencing what might be described as similar to a “red shift”. Wade looked up from his PADD and at the number on the quarters door he had just passed. With a sigh, he hung his head and turned around, passing ten other doors before arriving at his quarters. Kicking off his shoes, he sprawled out on the bed, not bothering to get undressed. Uncertainty was not something he was accustomed to, but he still remained somewhat concerned that no amount of planning or magical entities on distant planets would ever get them home, no matter what a fortune cookie said.

Motorcycle insurance costs got you down? We keep you legal, for less!! ::plays the SafeAuto theme::