STSF LoAmi

Arcadia will meet. We will determine whether to continue with the regular plot or do something else at that time.

Pher, If this were Slashdot, I probably would've modded this one +1 Insightful. But, I'm not sure if I agree with it, at least as far as all of STSF goes. Counter example: How I think of Arcadia, which I think of more in the mode of TNG (and maybe even [ack!] the good parts of Voyager?) than, say, the latter seasons of DS9 or season 3 of Enterprise. We're a bunch of people flying through space, encountering strange things, exploring and trying to get what we do right. Sometimes, it works; sometimes, we cause more trouble than we solve, and sometimes, it backfires really badly. Do we occasionally have moments where we bend the prime directive? Sure! Every Trek series does. It's not like Kirk didn't bend the rules occasionally... But it won't happen without a lively debate on the bridge.

Congratulations to Dana Los, who graduated the Monday Night Academy on 2/20/12 after commanding USS Pioneer into a sector with a sector with mysterious ships!

Arcadia arrives at the mines, finding other freighters and shuttles shuttling miners back and forth from asteroids. A probe is beamed down to the mines, and it shows large quantities of latinum and dilithium that can practically be picked off the ground. An away team is sent to investigate, but the away team finds only rocky caves. After Cmdr Marx leans on a wall, the paper-thin "rock wall" caves in, exposing a heated, dark room. Circuitry is detected nearby.

Using coordinated scans between the away team and Arcadia, it is determined that the freighter the away team beamed to is a figment of their collective imaginations. The away team is recalled to Arcadia, after which the freighter dramatically explodes for no apparent reason. Arcadia continues on to the mines.

Congratulations to STSF's newest ensign, Arizhel, who graduated from the Monday night academy on 11/7/11!

Congratulations to Ensign John Tork, our newest returnee ensign who graduated the Monday Night academy. Welcome back!

After more reports of hallucinations, the Arcadia crew theorizes that the cause of the hallucinations might be found in the mines; meanwhile, they fight the exhaustion that the hallucinations cause. After evacuating the station crew from Arcadia, the ship sets course for the mines. En route, they encounter a distress call from a freighter whose systems, including life support, are failing. An away team is dispatched to the freighter to render engineering and medical assistance. Onboard scanners on Arcadia indicate that the away team does not move at all once beamed aboard.

Congratulations to Ensign Zaphod, who graduated the Monday Night 10PM academy under STSF LoAmi and STSF Nickles.

Congratulations to Ensign Brad Schmidt, who graduated the 10PM STSF Monday academy on Dec 27, 2010. Have fun future adventures in space!

Congratulations to Ens Drayvend T. McKenna who graduated the Monday night academy on 11/29/2010 under Lo'Ami and Kent. Have fun in your adventures in space!

Before choosing a department, I would suggest you watch some of the advanced sims you're interested in joining. Each sim has its own character, and the departments operate differently too. The academy tonight was something of a puzzle (as I've been doing lately in Monday academies), with the general idea that a player should work with team-mates to get evidence from ACTIONs, add evidence through his/her own scans based on what's already been established, theorize, talk to each other, and come to some conclusions. For the record, most of them aren't solved in an hour.

Arcadia is also in the post-TNG/post-DS9 era, although the war and war fallout have very little effect on the plot line.

Congratulations to Ensign Va'yel, who graduated at the 10/19 Monday Night Academy.

Sumo and I would like to congratulate Ens_Hawke on his promotion to Ensign at the June 22, 2009 Monday Night Academy!

A bit late, but, Happy B-day, Moose...

Generally, they are easier to build, because there's very little original coding. Adding content is about the equivalent of typing text. Adding content is not trivial, though, and does take time. If I had more of that, more of the sections would be filled in. As is, I try to keep the plot summaries updated so at least I'll have a way to remember what happened. There's actually quite a bit of the Arcadia encyclopedia that's incomplete and waiting for editors. As for anti-spamming, I do require account sign up (a mostly useless measure -- bots can sign up for accounts), and have a rather simple captcha checking edits with links. It has prevented all spam so far, although I suspect it will be broken (since it's rather easy to break). When it is, I'll switch to something stronger. (Technical background: Arcadia's wiki is self-hosted on a spare machine running Debian GNU/Linux, Apache, MySQL, and MediaWiki. The theme was custom designed by me for the Arc website. The background graphic was klepped from Moose's original static-HTML Arc website from long ago. It is based on MediaWiki's default Monobook layout - the one used for Wikipedia - although you probably wouldn't know it by looking at it. The domain name is from dyndns.org, which I have an account with for other reasons.)

Captain's Log, Stardate 50806.18. It's been almost a week since we left Axrekrav. Between the events recorded on Arcadia itself, the reports from the away team, and the transmissions we've received from the surface, and a bit of conjecture, we're beginning to get a clearer picture of the Axrekravians' motives in bringing us to their planet. Indeed, the initial Federation reports were correct. The planet crept out of a nasty civil war 50 years ago, and was united under the totalitarian rule of General Li Dyse. At some point during that half century, the planet developed warp travel and happened upon the closest system to their own, MKor DSamim. There, they found the chewana root. At this point, it is still unclear how they found the root under the deep oceans, because even now, obtaining it and transporting it stretches their technological abilities. Whatever happened, they discovered its properties and how to differentiate between the active and inactive forms of the root, enabling them to choose more carefully how much to transport back to their planet. From the start, they seemed to have limited its use internally on the planet, possibly indicating that they knew its potential power. The government began trading quietly with the Romulans and the Ferengi, using the root as their currency, and possibly concealing its source from the more technologically advanced societies. Their society had a natural bond with the Ferengi, because of their shared cultural inclinations toward thinking about all problems from an economic perspective. With the root supply, they were able to cement their hold on power, building a massive and rapidly progressing military apparatus and a surveillance-based society to control the population. While there was discontentment among the Axrekravians, its public expression was curtailed, limited to underground cells which were constantly under the watchful eye of the General's men. Their intense loyalty to his personality cult helped bring together a society that would naturally split into disparate states, tribes and cultures. Keeping the chewana root away from the general population proved an impossible task, and an internal black market developed for the chewana-derived cigarettes and cigars that were being used to buy foreign technology. The government took advantage of that as well, looking the other way when favored individuals in high positions, such as the guards. They also realized that the root could be used to control the dissidents and petty criminals they put away into labor camps. In turn, the labor camps kept the average Axrekravian away from menial labors and added to the fear of opposing the government. When they figured out that the root, in combination with another chemical, could be used to enhance the power of suggestion, they hatched a plot to expand their influence and their technological know-how by inviting all of the spacefaring powers to trade negotiations. Perhaps they knew that their root supply was running low, and they were trying to get a final cut-rate deal out of the aliens. When our away team fired on their ship, they took it as an opportunity to use Arcadia's advanced technological platform to obtain more root. The plan all along had been to incapacitate the alien crews, make them susceptible to suggestion and addict them to the root. They would now have an even greater opportunity. On the planet, with military equipment running low, and insufficient root supplies to buy more, the government could no longer maintain control of their population by sheer force. Some indications are that the rebellion may have started in the name of our away team, who the opposition viewed as "Freedom Fighters" for having attacked a government vessel. This has serious Prime Directive implications for what our presence has done here in their societal development. The Axrekravian government fell under the rebellion and all the root that we had in our stores has been destroyed by Lt Daena's enzyme. According to her projections, there will not be a large supply of active root on MKor DSamim for years, neutralizing the threat for now. The Federation Council is now debating whether to open relations with the new government the rebels established on Axrekrav. Our departmental reports will doubtless impact their decision. To my great surprise, the Federation is leaving the actions of our away team as an internal matter on this ship. Arcadia is now en route to Nevuluz III, a planet that has had limited, but friendly relations with the Federation since first contact 47 years ago. A small civilian archaeological team sent by the Federation Archaeological Society has been digging on the planet and claims to have made a great find toward proving a maverick professor's theory that this sector of space was once controlled by an ancient spacefaring empire. Arcadia will be providing scientific backup and equipment to help them in their increasingly complex excavations.

Six hours have passed since the previous sim. During that time, the testing of the root in the cargo bay completed, and only 10% was found to contain the drug. Arcadia crew begins experiencing various withdrawal symptoms from the root. Some are cold (the captain), some feel hungry, most snap at each other on a short fuse. The crew who had adverse reactions to the drug begin to recover. The discussion about what to do with the root continues in sickbay. Lts Phoenix and Black come up with a plan to use shuttles and probes to find more active root. Dr Tynte countermands Lo'Ami's order to obtain more, citing his medical authority and pronouncing the captain unfit for command. After a short crisis, and a semi-persuasive argument, Lo'Ami (who has shown signs of drug addiction) is given 24 hrs in command before being declared unfit. Lt Sema'J leaves sickbay to purge the inactive root from the cargo bay, after Lo'Ami rejected his suggestion that there might be a reason the Axrekravians want the inactive root too. While in the control room, he releases additional root into the ventilation system, drugging everyone again. On Axrekrav, the work detail continued, with only one guard guarding the whole detail, who appears to be "chummy" with Lt Eagle. Later, Eagle debriefs the rest of the crew about the mines he was in, and about the heavy drugs (cigars) they used to keep the workers working. While the crew is unguarded, Ens Riley walks off from the rest of the crew in the direction that the gunfire sounds came from earlier. ChatLog.080521to080522.txt

Arcadia begins testing the root in containment chambers set up in the hydroponics bay. Cptn LoAmi continues to hold a worn piece of root from the first trial in his hand, and sniffs it occasionally. When the second sample comes out, Lo'Ami states that it doesn't have the distinctive smell of the first, even though it seems to pass the scientific tests proposed by the Axrekravians. New engineer Ens Archie Phoenix seems awfully curious about the captain's experiences with death. On Axrekrav, the trial begins. The defendants are brought in and find Al Wyer standing with them. He tries to find what evidence they have to defend themselves with, even though the preliminary evidence he was sent seems "rock solid." Three judges preside over the trial. A prosecutor states the charges. The defense begins the uphill battle by challenging the kidnap and murder charges for Ken. The judges ask questions of both the advocate and the defendants, and accuse the crew of lying. ChatLog.080430to080501.txt

Arcadia made the slow, controlled descent down into the atmosphere of MKor DSamim 2, and beamed up a large supply of chewana root. The shuttle pointed out the root and acted as a transport repeater. On Axrekrav, the prisoners braved the cold and continued doing forced labor. Commandant Krankie and his officers pay them a visit to take their pleading sheet (which states how they intend to plea on all charges in court). He gives the a half hour to appear for transport. The team discusses how they intend to hold up the process. After a half hour, they are retrieved and put in hovercraft for transport to court. Ens Doug T continues to suffer from balance problems from his injection with Axrekravian poison. ChatLog.080423to080424.txt

Logs are not required of academy cadets. Occasionally, academy cadets who want to practice or post logs do so to this folder ("STSF Academy").

Captain Lo'Ami takes a report from the AT about what happened, and tries to stall the Axrekravians, as they read off the charges, which include 33 counts of murder, destruction of property, and conspiracy to topple the government. The Axrekravians demand that the personnel who went on the AT be turned over. In the ready room, the captain convinces the Axrekravians that the officers were acting outside the orders of Starfleet, and that he wants them back to file his own charges against them (thus protecting the Federation from full responsibility). He and Cmdr Alces find that the punishment involves doing enough physical labor to pay for the assessed value of the crimes, and that they could pay money to get the away team out of jail. Arcadia receives a transmission containing the Axrekravian laws and the "values" associated with the charges. They agree to turn over the away team members. In sickbay, Swan digs a transmitter of Romulan or Ferengi origin out of the body of Ken. While trying to figure out how the team was found, an unauthorized transmission to Arcadia from the surface was found to have been made by Ens Doug T. Engineering tries to piece together what components of the Marine shuttle were vaporized and which ones were in the hands of the Axrekravians. They find that the Axrekravians may have the cloaking device. ChatLog.080319to080320.txt

Mr Roghers, a lower level officer of the Axrekravian military takes the diplomatic team on a tour of some of their recently constructed facilities, including a manufacturing facility and a hospital. They proceed to ask the guide questions, trying to find out what the Axrekravians are selling, and what money they use, but the answers are not forthcoming. The guide's supersensitive hearing is a clue that he's got an electronic recording device keeping tabs on the team. The recon team starts out split between those with Ken and those outside. The ones outside try to find the hidden door to the inside. Riley attempts to modify a tricorder to scan through whatever dampening they're using to block the scans. They are reunited when Ken leads the inside team out. Eagle introduces Ken to the team, and offers Ken a chance to be transported back to Arcadia to tell his story. While leading Ken to the shuttle, they are interrupted by the sound of hovercraft and sirens. The team reaches the shuttle, but Ken panics and runs, eventually caught between the hovercraft. The shuttle crew tries to beam Ken into the shuttle, while an energy disruption weapon fires at him. He arrives in the shuttle dead. The shuttle cloaks and heads upwards to Arcadia. ChatLog.080305to080306.txt

Hmmm.... if only all computers were like the M5 battle computer...