LoAmi

In my opinion, cross-sim continuity is a great thing when it helps the plot or character development. When it would prevent me from doing something plotwise because it contradicts some other sim's canon, I'll ignore it. I also don't know and don't keep track of Gregorian dates on Arcadia. That leaves a bit of openness for where we are in the Star Trek timeline (somewhere post-Nemesis). It also means we can play with the timeline if we need to in order to make a plot work. Recently, on Arcadia, we had an episode where we found the Romulans claiming territory that contained an inter-universe wormhole and invading an alternate universe. We had no idea why they were doing it. I learned from N'Dak that in the Talon/Excalibur timeline, the Romulans from an alternate universe raided multiple universes for supplies going into the Romulan Civil War (excuse if I got the plot details wrong). So, it's possible that the newly assertive Romulans in Arcadia's universe are the same as the Romulans who go into the RCW in the Talon/Excal universe. On the other hand, I have no intention of bringing the RCW into Arcadia - I'd rather we continue hopping from planet to planet in search of glorious strife. We've also had occasional references to what was happening at about our time in Agincourt history, and we're open to joint sims with other ships if scheduling allows (like we did with Talon a few years ago), which necessarily means that we can temporarily join our canons for the sake of a storyline.

Hi (and welcome). You can go to as many or as few academies as you want.

After the tours of various facilities, the diplomatic team returns to a hotel room provided by the Axrekravians. Fearing that it too is bugged, Lo'Ami and the others walk down the staircase and out the back door of the hotel to find somewhere to talk where their words won't be recorded. Once the cloaked Marine shuttle exits the atmosphere, it is caught in a tractor beam by the Axrekravian Military Police. After several attempts to free themselves and to contact Arcadia, they are dragged into a small shuttle bay. The shuttle crew finds the shuttle surrounded by uniformed military policemen pointing their weapons at the shuttle and demanding that they surrender for having made an unauthorized landing on the planet and for having conspired to topple the government. Lt Servo realizes that Ken's body in the shuttle is a giveaway. Ens Pilot's attempts to telepathically alter the intentions of the Axrekravians fail as well. Ens Doug T powers up the shuttle's phasers. Ens Swan objects to the plan to fire phasers. On Servo's order, they raise shields and fire phasers, collapsing the whole shuttle bay and destroying the fuel tanks behind it. The Axrekravian ship regains some power and begins to fire on the Marine shuttle, destroying the entire aft section. The crew is beamed to Arcadia before it explodes. Arcadia is soon surrounded by Axrekravian Military Police ships, and the diplomatic team is recalled to the ship. ChatLog.080312to080313.txt

The diplomatic team enters a reception for all the delegates. Captain Lo'Ami tries to get information from [[Rhum]], the Ferengi who seems to know a lot about what is going on. Rhum tries to convince Lo'Ami to hire him to negotiate on the Federation's behalf. Rhum mentions that the recon team is intending to bring back a "rebel leader," and knew everything about what the team talked about on the balcony, leading Lo'Ami to believe that Rhum is a double agent of the government. Meanwhile, Sema'J and Marx discuss the origins of the Axrekravian weapons, while Marx dodges the Romulan delegation, fearing the bounty on his head. Daena is overwhelmed by the number of delegates and the noise level in the room and finds an outside balcony to stand at. Lo'Ami regroups the team on the balcony to tell them what he learned. The recon team continues talking to Ken. Ken leads Eagle and Swan to a rebel holdout, containing computers and a command center. Ken informs the team that the area is booby trapped. Ken eventually gives the team a version of the history of the planet since the war. The others stay outside. Pilot and Doug keep tabs on the inside team telepathically. They continue scanning for evidence of the state the planet's environment. ChatLog.080227to080228.txt

The diplomatic party hears the General's short speech. Marx and Sema'J think that the voice in the speech sounded like it was manipulated. It is followed by a military parade and flyover. Much of their technology is identified as of foreign origin. The electronic bug is replaced by a (military) member of the waitstaff. The crew continues on to the reception. Marx has an altercation with a Klingon delegate. A Ferengi delegate begins working Captain Lo'Ami. The recon team finds what looks like a ghost town. Kent registers a signal behind a wall. Swan enters a room and finds a sleeping old man present. They wake him up and begin talking to the man (who later identified himself as "Ken"). They quiz him about his political feelings and find that he dislikes the government intensely. He warns the team that the government will be want to take their technology. While Eagle and Swan continue talking, Riley and Kent find a room that looks like it's been turned over in a fight. ChatLog.080220to080221.txt

The Federation delegation arrives on the planet. They arrive in a city that looks new and still under construction. They find their way to a balcony displaying the Federation flag. A balcony on a tower facing them displays a large picture of General Li. They find that the balcony is being bugged and attempt to block the bug with a tricorder pulse. The Axrekrav government delegation appears on the high balcony, to much fanfare. The recon team leaves in a shuttle and lands on the planet. They find evidence of previous use of biological and radiological weapons. ChatLog.080213to080214.txt

The senior officers meet in the observation lounge to discuss how to handle the spin on Axrekrav. It is decided that two away teams will go down to the planet. One, consisting of the senior officers, will go to the official diplomatic ceremonies. The second will go down in a cloaked Marine Shuttle to reconnoiter the planet to find out the real story of how they advanced so quickly and whether the population is enjoying the advancements as much as the government would like everyone to believe. Other delegations arrive to the planet. The Romulans, two Ferengi delegations, the Cardassians, the Klingons, and the Breen are included among them. ChatLog.080206to080207.txt

The general ascended to the balcony which faced all the delegations. The camera that recorded the picture that displayed on the large screen captured the old man's every movement and broadcasted it to the screen and on all of the planet's primary public communications channels. The announcer announced "Presenting, General Li Dyse." Applause could be heard. After it subsided, and the general waved in all directions, his voice was amplified and boomed throughout the square, as if coming from all directions: "Forty five revolutions ago, our planet was engulfed in tumultuous conflict. The forces of tribalism and parochialism challenged our species until to its near destruction. In the end, the forces of unity and peace prevailed. Many nations became a nation. Many misdirected goals turned to a single path. The remnants of our people set out on a program to rebuild and re-form. Forty five revolutions ago, we were alone and dying. But, we refused to lay down and go quietly. We populated our cities. Out of the ruins, we grew them anew. The change swept the rural areas too. They returned to agriculture, mining, and industry. Together, we did more than produce what we needed to sustain ourselves. In only a small matter of time, our resources were sufficient to return to the sciences and innovation. It was then that we learned that, not only were we living - but we were not alone. Out in the stars that dot our sky nightly are many diverse species. Their delegations are here, with us, today." The speech continued as the camera panned across the smaller and lower balconies where the delegations sat, then back to the general. "To all of you who traveled far across the stars, we welcome you. Your presence here is a testament to the sheer force of will that brought us to this moment. While you have more experience out there, in space, there is much we can share. Surely, there is much benefit that you can provide to us; but, just as assuredly, we have much to offer to you. Let us talk together. Let us trade together. Let us discover together. Let us build together. May the gods show favor to their children. May the gods show favor to Axrekrav. May the gods show favor to all who grace us with their presence." The general waved, and the canned applause continued until after he left the balcony.

Captain Lo'Ami takes over as commanding officer. Cmdr. Alces takes over as executive officer. Arcadia picks up new officers Ens Samnatha Kent (science), Ens Brian T Riley (helm), and Ens Malik Pilot (security). Arcadia heads to Axrekrav for a diplomatic mission to establish relations. The planet has progressed from the brink of self-destruction to warp capability in the past 50 years, under the leadership of General Li Dyse, who led one of its nations to domination over all the others. Rumors exist that biogenic weapons were used in the war. The planet is located in an area of space that makes it the gateway to the backside of the Romulan Empire, and is thus strategically located. The planet's government has invited all spacefaring powers to open relations. Arcadia arrives in the system and is given coordinates to an orbital pattern, and a schedule of diplomatic events beginning one day later. It is discovered that the planet's population dropped from a few billion 50 years earlier to a half billion now. Lt Cmdr Marx's security department evaluates their response to the exploding androids used against them by the Romulans and tries to find a defense. Lt Eagle learns from Starfleet that his wife died in the line of duty. ChatLog.080130to080131.txt

Daena fights for her life in sickbay. Arcadia fails to raise shields in time to block TripleA's scans. The suspicious TripleA hails Arcadia, telling them they're transporting the wounded to a starbase medical facility. Instead, they head for Benoni. Cmdr Alces suggests drawing the Romulan warships by heading for mirror-Romulan space. Lt Eagle suggests technology transfers to mirror-Starfleet to help them defend themselves. Lo'Ami suggests finding a way to permanently close the Void, and drawing the Romulans back to their native universe before it's closed. Tactical and engineering begin simulations to see if they could find a way to destabilize the opening of the void. Eagle suggests a warp core explosion or other disturbance in subspace. Lo'Ami goes back to the tactical console and brings up the specs of the graviton bomb. ChatLog.080116to080117.txt

A priority coded Starfleet communication came in less than a day after Starfleet received Arcadia's report about the Romulans' claims in the neutral zone and their activities in the alternate universe. Acting Captain Lo'Ami took the call in the ready room. He was still getting used to sitting on the other side of the desk. Admiral Cristophe was on the other side. "Captain, we read your report. Intelligence has been watching activity in the Empire, but, Starfleet wasn't expecting that level of activity the far side of the Romulan Neutral Zone." Lo'Ami continued listening. It was obvious that the Admiral wasn't just calling to congratulate Arcadia on intelligence gathering. The Admiral continued. "The Federation has received a communication inviting us to establish relations with planet Axrekrav. It's in neutral territory near your sector." Lo'Ami reminded himself about the planet. "When we came into this sector, Axrekrav was on record as an off-limits pre-warp society." The Admiral corrected. "The last reports were from a long-range survey mission over a half century ago. The planet was at a low level of development. It was divided into hundreds of nations, constantly on the brink of war, and with it distance from the Federation core, it wasn't considered a priority for observation." "What changed?" "The planet has made considerable political and technological progress. Their wars ended, and they developed warp drive. They tested their first warp engines only a decade ago. Now, their newest ships are breaking warp 3." Lo'Ami sensed that there was more to it. "That's extraordinarily fast progress. Most planets take at least half a century just on development of practical long range ships after the first warp flight. What's the catch?" "The way they did it. From what we could piece together, one of the nations developed a technological advantage over the others and won the war. We don't have any reliable intelligence on how they did it. There are rumors that they even developed biogenic weapons. One lone, and unconfirmed, report indicated that they used them in the war." The Admiral paused, letting the captain absorb the information, then the briefing continued. "The planet's leader, Li Dyse, the general who won the war, invited us and just about every other spacefaring power to open up relations. It's a pretty bold move for what would otherwise be a backward planet, but with its position as neutral territory in the borderlands, it could become a pivotal back channel into and out of the Romulan Empire should everything go sour. It's likely that the Romulans will be making an appearance. Under the terms of our treaty with them, we're escorting a ship from a Klingon house through our territory. I wouldn't be surprised if the Ferengi show up to try to take advantage of it as a smuggling route. You've got the closest ship. We need you to take Arcadia over to Axrekrav and represent the Federation." Lo'Ami inserted. "It doesn't sound like the kind of people or place with whom we would ordinarily establish friendly relations." "True, but with the political situation as it is, we can't always choose our friends. And, there's nothing that projects Federation power quite like a Sovereign class starship. This isn't just about a small planet, it's also about the new militarism taking over the Romulan Empire and the coming changes in the balance of power all along the neutral zone." Lo'Ami faced the screen. "Understood, Admiral." "Starfleet out." The screen turned to the familiar blue and white-on-black UFP seal. Lo'Ami wondered if Arcadia could come out of this mission respecting the values that the seal represents.

And they said Pascal was dead. (The language, not Blaise. We know he's dead)

Hello and welcome to STSF. It is not necessary to make all of the academies (few if any cadets do that); just read the "getting started" instructions, come to the academies that fit into your schedule, and have fun simming with us.

Arcadia recalls its away team, beaming them directly to sickbay. Arcadia is hailed by USS TripleA. Captain Bhuster informs them that the TripleA scanned what looked like an energy transfer gone-bad from Starbase 113, but that the damage looks like the energy beams were aimed -- he had figure out that the destruction was willful. Cmdr Lo'Ami tried to convince them not to send over an away team, knowing that there are booby traps there, but unwilling to let them in on the booby trap technology. Lt Westler identifies the explosive used in the booby traps. Arcadia beams the survivors from the starbase to TripleA, filtering the transports for the explosive identified in the exploding androids. Alces and Lt Eagle spar over how much information should be given to TripleA, and whether Arcadia should allow limited transfers of technology to them in order to save them from the Romulans native to Arcadia's universe. Cmdr Alces points out that the TripleA crew is getting suspicious of Arcadia. ChatLog.080109to080110.txt

Yes, we're very influenced by Voyager, DS9, and the TNG movies in addition to the TNG series. And, we're influenced by the general trends in contemporary sci-fi toward realism, see, for example, Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. The Federation doesn't always represent the good guys, our crews sometimes come up with the wrong solutions and mess things up. Is that what you mean by "darker?" That could, but doesn't necessarily mean that we're universally "more militaristic," though. One repeated theme on the shows and in STSF plots is the decision between following the idealist's solution and following the militarist's solution, or trying to find a happy medium where you don't throw your ideals completely out the window. In some cases, what you should do from the ideals "on paper" is not even entirely clear (we're having one of those plots on Arcadia now).

r Porter and Swan begin treatment on Lt Sema'J. Porter and Swan also discuss the theory that Cmdr Lo'Ami's second brainwave originated from the Romulans. Arcadia arrives at Starbase 113 and find it in orbit around a different planet from the one it would have been in the native universe, and destroyed, with radiation levels similar to those found on Benoni. Arcadia prepares, raising its shields and going to yellow condition. Some lifesigns are scanned on the starbase. Fearing a trap, Lts Daena and Servo are sent (wearing blast suits) to the station, because Daena had previously shown the ability to hear an otherwise inaudible hum from the Romulans' exploding androids. Daena and Servo arrive on the station, finding some real, seriously injured officers in the station's operations center. Daena hears the hum, but Arcadia can't lock on early enough. An android explodes. An alternate-universe native Federation starship, USS TripleA is scanned approaching the station. ChatLog.080102to080103.txt

Cmdr. Lo'Ami returns to the bridge. Security (Lt. Thoros) is ordered to do whatever sickbay tells them to, in case he goes into the Romulan program again. Meanwhile, sickbay monitors Lo'Ami's vitals, finding only an increased adrenaline level, but no second brainwave. Arcadia approaches the small Romulan scout ship. Contradictory readings are found, some indicating a small ship, others a full warbird. When Arcadia gets close, something begins to power up, and the ship explodes in a large fireball. Rapid evasive maneuvers save Arcadia, but the explosion still takes down Arcadia's warp engines. Later, Lt. Eagle identifies the trap ship as the ship that was "painted" by Arcadia earlier. Lt Sema'J is injured when the ship is buffeted, and is brought to sickbay, with help from Lt Daena. When Sema'J slips into unconciousness, Daena decides to keep him awake by biting him. Starbase 113 sends out a cut-off distress signal. After the warp engines are brought back online, Arcadia sets course for the starbase. Acting Ensign Swan schedules the first part of her medical exams. ChatLog.071226to071227.txt

Hi and welcome. Hope to see you around in an academy. Advanced players are generally expected to attend every sim. It's OK if you can't attend every now and then - real-life takes precedence - but if you're going to be get involved in developing some part of a plot, it's best that you be there to continue it and not just leave the other players hanging. If you know that you won't be able to attend often, you should talk to your intended sim's GMs *before* joining and tell them about how often you can attend so they can decide if you would be able to fit into their sim and where you could best fit in given your constraints. I don't know of any ships with an "equipment officer" position. I'm not even sure what an equipment officer does.

If you have a monitor that was made in the past few years, you probably have a power-saving monitor. In that case, it's probably better to turn the power saving mode on after a few minutes of inactivity (I think it's in the display settings in Windows, in the same box as the screen saver setting) instead of using a screen saver. Screen savers operate the monitor at full power, even though it's not in use.

Lt. Marx assumes command of the bridge. Arcadia's crew looks at the last recorded viewscreen logs of the alternate Arcadia; they find that it shows a Romulan warbird, nearly confirming that the Romulans had a role in its destruction. A debate ensues on the bridge as to whether they should pursue a plasma trail that may have come from a damaged Romulan ship running away, or leave this universe to its own devices. Marx decides to pursue. They set course following the trail at warp 5. Dr. Porter goes to the bridge to find out what they knew about what happened to Captain Dacotah. The current theory that she was taken by Baran is revealed. Cmdr. Lo'Ami is released from sickbay. A small device is placed under his ear to alert sickbay if his second brainwave reemerges. ChatLog.071219to071220.txt

Dyslexia for cure found.

Lo'Ami explains that the Romulans beat him and that a Romulan mind-melded with him, making him think that Captain Dacotah is in danger. When he finds out from the sickbay staff that the captain is missing, he assumes that he killed the captain. The sickbay staff gives him another dose of the drug to remove the second pattern, and sedates him. Eagle and Westler identify the destroyed Arcadia-like ship's identifier code as Arcadia's. Only a small variance in the signal distinguishes it from Arcadia's own. Daena tried to identify the spatial distortion from the captain's quarters, in an attempt to verify where she went. Arcadia rushes to its own distress signal at high speed. They find the destroyed ship, and a planet that once had life with no lifesigns, and severely bombarded, its atmosphere filled with toxic radiation. Arcadia downloads what could be retrieved of alternate-Arcadia's logs and navigational charts. It is found that the ship is grossly underpowered. Eagle and Marx surmise that they may not have expected an attack of this magnitude. The scarring on the alternate-Arcadia is found to be consistent with Romulan weapons -- from Arcadia's native universe. Servo detects a warp signature leaving the system consistent with what might be left behind by a damaged, cloaked ship. The bridge crew then thinks that the Romulans from our universe may be preying on this unprepared alternate universe. Now, they must decide whether to intervene, if they can at all. ChatLog.071212to071213.txt

Happy Birthday, Blu...

Just read the docs to get a feel for how to play and jump in to an academy. For the academy, just play a generic human who believes in the ideals of Starfleet. After you graduate and join an advanced sim, you will get a chance to create a character.

The bridge crew is informed by Lt. Daena that Captain Dacotah probably left the ship in with [[baran Arvid]], in accordance with Lt. Cmdr. Marx's theory of the event. Ens. Servo's investigation of the previous explosion in Stellar Cartography reveals that it was probably known about by the Romulans, but he could not find an explosive nor a cause. He also implies that Baran may have known about or been involved in it. Lt. Westler removes himself from sickbay and goes to the bridge. Cmdr. Alces orders Arcadia out of the void. Propulsion systems go completely back on line. Starbase 113 tells Arcadia that the nearest ship to help them is a week away. They also ask why Arcadia is off course from their diplomatic mission on Benoni and why Arcadia's emergency transponders and lifepods are activated. Cmdr. Alces, unfamiliar with the existence of Benoni, let alone a mission there, or that their lifepods being active, orders Arcadia to go "dark". Long range sensors indicate a heavily damaged Arcadia-like ship in orbit of a planet that does not exist on maps. Arcadia begins warping in its direction. Cmdr. Lo'Ami, in restraint in sickbay, regains conciousness. The second brainwave pattern is low and very suppressed. He appears to be fearful of something and asks to speak to Captain Dacotah, whom he claims is in danger. ChatLog.071205to071206.txt