LoAmi

This is not necessarily good advice if you want to graduate. If you do intend to add significant plot-driving detail to an academy plot, please PM the GM in charge first.

Arcadia crew and Arcadia's team on the inductor interfere with Sam-Kent's energy grid while Alces tries to keep it busy and distracted. The interference causes instability in Aether's energy grid, disrupting its structure. Arcadia's engineers send in their own crew via neural uplink to hack the computer that Sam-Kent is running on. The holo-Arcadians confront the Aether AIs. ChatLog.090311to090312.txt

Arcadia estimates the stars' lifetimes have been brought down to 16 hrs. "Kent" wants to negotiate. Arcadia attempts to use the negotiations as a delaying tactic until they can find some way to take away her power. On Black, Brak, and Lo'Ami attempt to disrupt the neural net while Alces begins negotiations. Once Alces has had some time to contact the creature, they begin to send random power fluctuations through the net. "Sam Kent" claims that only she can stop the sun from dying. Marx speculates correctly as to why the AI took the form of Sam Kent. Eagle and Kent work out a plan for using Arcadia to attack the AI. ChatLog.090225to090226.txt

The Hubble captures still images -- although a couple of still images of the same region of space taken a few days, months, or years apart could look an awful lot like a video if whatever you're looking at doesn't change much over those periods of time. Not everything in the universe changes significantly at 30 frames per second! As for how to find black holes, Wikipedia has a good summary. (The nutshell: You may not be able to see a black hole directly, but you can see its effects on surrounding objects). They shouldn't cause much of a problem for starships because space is huge, and most of it is empty. Those black holes that do exist could be mapped, just like the stars are mapped, and you would steer a ship around them, just like you wouldn't go in a straight line through a star. The detection methods used in Star Trek would likely be different, because they seem to be able to scan gravitational waves directly with normal sensors.

At the inductor, Brak finds that the Neural Net is down and they can't communicate with the Engineers. Brak, Lo'Ami, Alces, and Black are left to their own devices to try to solve the power flow problems. They communicate with the ship to stay informed about the goings on at Aether proper. They manage to reroute partial power away from Aether. Aether's authorities arrive to the "Bajoran District" that "Kent" created, and, acknowledging their inexperience in hostage situations, hand over the task of negotiations to Starfleet. When "Kent" tries to kidnap the Aetherian marshal, the Aetherian forces blunder a counterattack. "Kent" demands that the officers she kidnapped use the resources she provides to scan the star. They comply. After the power supply is cut, "Kent" expands power demand, accelerating the destruction of Aether's suns. "Kent" demands to speak to Cmdr Alces. Arcadia launches Marine shuttles to take up positions around Aether. Arcadia science confirms the readings about the power supply and solar irregularities that were taken from the inductor. ChatLog.090218to090219.txt

Hi and welcome to STSF. The login you need is the same one you're using to post on these boards. Once you're logged in, the "live chat" button on the top toolbar of the boards will get you into the chat room. You will need to make sure you have the Java plugin installed in order to use the chat room. The schedule will tell you when the games run. Be sure to convert the times to your local time zone.

Arcadia's science team analyzes the probe data, determining independently that Aether's energy harvesting technology is causing the suns to age rapidly. Arcadia launches a security team into Aether to investigate the problem with the away team and the changes in the central district. "Sam Kent" uses generated computer terminals to warn the Arcadian hostages about the effects of Aether's technology on the binary suns, and wants the Arcadians to investigate it. Forcefields lock the security team away from the hostages. The fake-Arcadia crew kills the Caress Center's owners using tendrils of controlled energy. They demand an audience with Arcadia's command staff. Pilot, responding from Arcadia's security team, tries to confuse the fake crew. The energy inductor's crew loses control of its output, as it sends massive amounts of energy to Aether. As word of the happenings at Aether spreads, Brak tries to lead the CO and XO quietly back to Aether. Gravity at the substation goes low, and Brak finds that they can no longer step through walls or call up the tram. ChatLog.090211to090212.txt

Happy Birthday, Seiben

Lo'Ami, Alces, Black and Brak Hashmal take the tram, in a tunnel that disconnects from the main city, to the duty station of maintainance crew #1. The inductor turns out to be 2 million km above the surface of one of the binary stars. Black and Lo'Ami begin to attempt to figure out how it works and how the Aether crews are monitoring the star. Arcadia launches the probe, and, with a feigned malfunction, leaves it in the star during the induction cycle. The probe finds the star's internal activity levels high. The probe eventually succumbs to the star's heat. The "Sam Kent" character created by Phoenix materializes herself outside the caress center, while the rest of the crew remains held by their created characters, who move the crew into the Center's lobby, which "Sam Kent" has changed into a hall, as would be seen on a physical planet. Once everyone is in the lobby, "Kent" pulls their the crew's tricorders in and destroys them, demanding tinformation from Daena about solar flares. A small part of Aether begins changing from its normal energy-walled surfaces into a physical planet-surface like area. The character also demonstrates control over Aether's transparent energy walls. ChatLog.090204to090205.txt

Thanks everyone...

Brak's superiors allow Arcadia to send a probe to investigate the binary stars, as long as it's in and out between induction cycles. Arcadia launches the probe. The substation away team is taken by Brak to maintainance crew 1, which handles the first stage in the process. In the Aether Caress Center, the crew is held against their will by the forms their minds created. Quintessa and the Caress Center operators are unable to regain control of their computer. On the bridge, Riley, Kent and Marx discuss ways of getting the probe to stay in longer than it's supposed to -- with plausible deniability. ChatLog.090128to090129.txt

Lt Eagle takes his twins on a trip through Aether. Brak Hashmal shows the crew visiting the energy substation around "maintainance crew 12." Most of the maintainance crew seems to know very little. Brak himself seems to know a lot about how the system works beyond his own duties. In the Aether "Caress Center," the Starfleet officers are split into separate rooms, where they test the technology that brings their images of whoever they want to life. Phoenix is left with an image of Samantha Kent, despite thinking outwardly of Cdr Alces. Torre pictures Archie Phoenix. Daena pictures Tom Servo, but is unable to talk to the construct because she can't get over its fakeness. Quintessa attempts to deactivate "Tom," but fails. Meanwhile, "Samantha" begins to exert pain on Archie.

Cptn Lo'Ami, Cmdr Alces, Lt Black are given a tour of an energy distribution substation facility. The main guide, Quelturana, sounds very un-knowledgeable about the technical operations of the facility and treats the Starfleet crew as he would a class of children visiting the facility. He does reveal that the energy collection apparatus pumps radiation back into the star and reduces its lifetime by orders of magnitude. When questioned about it, he accuses the captain of being a "revelationist" and states that the other "revelationists" were "voluntarily" moved off Aether. Lt Daena, Lt Phoenix, Lt Torre, Ens Swan first find themselves out of control on one of the neurally controlled chairs. Eventually, they make it to an energy designer, Quintessa, who produces life-like beings using Aether's replication and neural scanning technology. ChatLog.090107to090108.txt

Lt Black installs the crystals behind the backs of the SWAT officers. A battle breaks out in the warehouse. When the away team is able to clear the room, they are are transported back to Arcadia. Information is gathered together to give to the New Atlantian SWAT. Meanwhile, the St Enoch and the poacher ship approach the edge of the nebula. When they exit the nebula, the poacher ship moves off to sell the serpent in their hold, while the St Enoch is surrounded by raiders, which jam the St Enoch's communications. When the raiders fire at the St Enoch, Arcadia beams the three SWAT officers off the ship and makes a run to help the St Enoch. They disable the raiders and beam the away team off the ship. One spider comes back with the away team. The poacher's ship and the raiders are left for the New Atlantian Game Authority's SWAT team to clean up. Arcadia moves on to its next mission. ChatLog.081210to081211.txt

Arcadia not run either Dec 24 or Dec 31. Happy Holidays!

When the team arrives back on Arcadia, Lt Black finds that the dilithium crystal the team had obtained is missing from her pocket. The team is scanned for contraband by a New Atlantian SWAT officer and none is found. They are allowed to proceed on their way. Cpt Lo'Ami feigns a minor engineering problem so he can secretly ask Lt Black to obtain the dilithium crystals, which were beamed to the exterior hull of the ship. Lt Sema'J's team is led into a warehouse, where they are reunited with Lt Eagle, who had earlier been captured by them. In the office, they find Hesini, who controls the operation and offer their services to him in an attempt to get a confession from him. He considers their offer while he holds them at disruptor point. In the nebula, Cmdr Alces finally convinces Petrov and crew to allow the St Enoch to tow them out of the nebula, in exchange for information about the "Federation" poachers. They send back limited data showing pictures of Federation raiders near a serpent processor. Lts Kent and Phoenix make some progress communicating with the spiders. ChatLog.081203to081204.txt

Lt Riley's team heads to the Black Dagger pub, sans Riley. Their contact, Gilligilixil, a large Tunobulan, meets them. They exchange money for a Cardassian data rod. After they leave the bar, they find that the rod has coordinates on it. In the nebula, the crew of the second sailing vessel prepares to fire a charged harpoon at the St Epoch. In a cat and mouse game, the crew on the sailing ship strategizes about how to end the standoff with the other crew, who they realize may be the poachers. Lt Phoenix prepares an impromptu mine out of the ship's spare fuel pods. The other ship sends a retrieval team on EVA to the serpent to haul it into their ship and to remove the St Epoch's harpoon. ChatLog.081112to081113.txt

Happy Birthday, A9!

Lt Eagle threatens Valera to give up the information, eventually stunning her by phaser. Eagle and Riley tussle over Eagle's choice. They leave, carrying Valera wrapped in a trench coat. When Valera awakes, they remake a deal. Valera sends them to a contact at The Black Dagger pub. Valera takes Riley by amplified transporter. In the underground of Western City, the Barber leads the crew to a black-market dilithium dealer, Cyclops. He eventually sells them a set of high quality dilithium crystals that resemble Arcadia's without the markings. The Barber takes payment from them and leads them out of the city a different way, claiming that if they went the same way, they'd be caught with stolen goods. As the sailing ship crew moves to evade the oncoming serpent, then gets a narcotic-laced harpoon into it; the crew realizes that another ship is also following the serpent, which also has a .harpoon in it. Both ships are dragged behind the same serpent. Communications between the ships begin. ChatLog.081105to081106.txt

<< This log takes place just before the Thanksgiving sim, after our current plot ends -- assuming Arcadia doesn't blow up in the mean time. ;-) >> Captain Lo'Ami took in the view -- all three dimensions of it. Nearest to him were the four "walls" of the tube, demarcated only by four thin, bright strips of light on at any corner. He stood at the outer borders of the city. Just beyond to the left was the vastness of space. He could not too far left and up because of the light of the binary star about which the city orbitted. Below the brightness of the binary stars could be seen the background starfield. Within that starfield was one bright white object reflecting the light from the nearby stars -- Arcadia, looking small in the distance. Tubes of the thin light strips extended from the city to Arcadia, forming a retractable docking port. The right, and most of up and down was bustling city of Aether. Tubes of light in all directions, forming corridors, houses, businesses, laboratories, and everything else a thriving, independent commonwealth could ever need. Everything, that is, except floors, walls, or even common directions defined as "up" or "down." Aether orbits in binary star floating in space, and is entirely constructed of the plentiful energy derived directly from its stars. Everything in the city was replicated on demand. When the replicated objects went out of use, they're dematerialized back into energy. The entire city was composed of the energy tubes, produced and deconstructed on demand according to the needs of its citizens. Most of the walls were transparent, with the citizens preferring the natural light from the binary stars and the ability to see "out" into space, even if it meant looking through half the city. On the rare occasions when privacy was desired, the energy-walls could be dimmed to any color in the spectrum. Just ahead, the city manager approached the captain, walking along what looked to Lo'Ami like the left side wall of the tube. The Commonwealth of Aether invited Arcadia's crew in for shore leave, scientific and cultural exchange. And it all began with Thanksgiving dinner...

Arcadia will be running an optional sim (the annual Arcadia Thanksgiving dinner). It won't advance the current plot; The brief is explaining the IC circumstances is here

During negotiations for information, Valera attempts to control Lt Riley using her strong Orion pherimones, while Riley attempts to resist. Outside, Lt Eagle watches they assembly of an assault team and vibrates Riley's wrist comm to warn him. The warning comes too late, and the thugs rush the room with Red team (except Eagle). Eagle opens fire on them, but can't hold them all back. He activates a fire alarm as a distraction, turning on the sprinklers inside. The close-range firefight turns to hand-to-hand combat. Eagle enters the room behind the last of the thugs. Valera lowers her price to exclude Starfleet secrets, and offers to help them find the poachers -- as long as Riley remains with her. In an elevator to the underground of Western City, The Barber stops the elevator and accuses the team of lying to him about their origins. He eventually leaves the team alone (at their request) on the fourth level, a dark, gassy place, leaving them only with his contact information. Just before getting mugged and after finding that none of their phasers work, the team contacts the Barber, promising to tell him the "truth" so he would guide them to a dilithium supplier. Lt Black tells The Barber that they come from a salvage vessel and need the dilithium to run a large ship they recovered. They disavow all knowledge of Arcadia, saying only that they were passengers on it. The Barber gives them "Eyelids" so they can see in the dark, and continues leading them. The Barber offers a discount on his price if they help him contact the (fictitious) captain of their transport vessel. On the sailing ship, the wounded Lt Phoenix apologizes to the mechanical spiders for trying to break their door, and they run off. The rest of the crew tries to stop the bleeding, then they float him back to the bridge. Daena goes off to try to talk to the spiders, while the crew attempts to figure out where they are. The spiders scan Daena. Meanwhile, a sensor alert goes off; short range sensors (the only kind that work in the nebula) pick up a serpent coming toward them head-on. ChatLog.081029to081030.txt

Red team enters a room and is introduced to Green Orion Woman Valera, Riley's former boss. The Orion woman puts on the pherimones while the team tries to buy information about the real poachers. Lt Eagle waits outside to bust in and rescue the team if necessary. The Barber leads gold team past a group of New Atlantian Constables, who simply take notes and otherwise leave them alone. He takes them down in an old-style elevator to the 5th lower level of Western City. On the way, he stops the elevator and accuses the team of lying to him about their origins. He eventually leaves the team alone (at their request) on the fourth level, a dark, gassy place, leaving them only with his contact information. Just before getting mugged, the team contacts the Barber, promising to tell him the "truth" so he would guide them to a dilithium supplier. On the sailing ship, Lt Phoenix discovers that one of the spiders autonomously repaired one of the ship's sails, and that they are not controlled by the computer core. He captures one of the devices and exposes its insides, while Alces creates some damage in the ship in order to give it a repair signal, which he traces. Whne he tries to break into the area where the signal originated, he sets off an alarm on the ship. The devices react violently to his attempt to break a lock on the ship, attacking him. When Alces picks up a spider, they move to attack him too. ChatLog.081022to081023.txt

"Hi. Can't talk now, I'm in a bit of a bind."

This one's the one I disagree with. (As long as, by "PC," you mean "Windows." By any other definition I can think of, a Mac is also a PC). My argument is that at least one third option that is usable by the average person already exists, and is being held back by lack of glitzy marketing, fear ('too hard to use'/'only for geeks'), and inertia ('not enough market share to...').