Cptn Moose

Some people get it, some people don't. You could always try something like romance novels and work up to Sci Fi. ;-)

Happy Birthday my friend. And many, many more.

Ok, before the villagers arrive with forks and torches, let's clear this up ... Everything said publically in one of the three chat rooms (Lobby, Holodeck, Ready Room) is automatically recorded into a log file. In order to provide a sim log, the specific room has to be extracted from the log, then the specific sim has to be extracted from the room. Private Messages do not appear in this log. There is a clipboard feature of the chat room so that you can record your own log sessions. If you do that, any message you participate in will be recorded. This includes PMs and chat room text. However, please keep in mind that the person you're sending the PM to may be logging their chat, and if they do, you have to trust them to keep your confidentiality. This is always true of any online information, just ask Martha Stewart. Now, back to proding us to extract the sim logs more frequently. ;-) Moose

Happy Birthday Rhiannsu, Happy Birthday t'Oo, You look like a Remus, And you spell like one too. Congratulations on 10 excellent years. m'Oose

You waited up until midnight to post that? I couldn't even do that on New Year's Eve. Happy anniversary. Moosethusela

I must confess that out of all the series, cat suit aside, Voyager was my least favorite. I feel that the concept was flawed in three ways: a. It was a very neat idea, force the Federation and the Maquis to work together. However, that in itself couldn't last for seven seasons. They vitually wrote it out after the first couple of years. But once it was no longer an issue, there was no reason to keep them in the Delta quadrant. Being stranded worked against them. b. They're heading home, always travelling in one direction. So how do they establish a credible, re-occuring villian? Or a cast of guest-stars that we come to love (ala Barkley, Lwaxanna Troi, Dark Kira, etc.) Any guest star who was reasonably interesting overstayed their welcome after four weeks or they danced with credibility. The first season cliff-hanger, where they had their final conflict with Sessca and the Kazon, was absolutely ridiculous. If Voyager was a year into it's journey at that point, we're supposed to believe that the Kazon followed them a year away from home just to one-up them? We were supposed to belive that Nelix could find another Talaxian at a point in space that was a 40 year journey from where he first met Voyager? And all of the worm holes, Borg trans-warp conduits and other ways to shorten the journey only served to pull the bite out of the "stranded in space" story. There were too many shortcuts across the galaxy. It was just a matter of time... c. They wussed. They fought using the "stranded in space" idea to populate Voyager with odd alien cultures and hitchhikers they met through the years (like Kes and Nelix started out being). Instead, they kept contriving ways to bring the Voyager crew back to familiar Trek environments. Q, temporal ships, lost Federation ships, abducted or assimilated humans (sorry 7), alternate time-lines, aliens reproducing Starfleet Academy, holoprojecting the doctor, etc. Some worked, some didn't. But the point is they chose to take the ship out of the Federation galaxy, then tried every gimick they could think of to insert people and things familiar to the viewers, without actually bringing them home. Embrace your concept or throw it away. Don't do it half way. That being said, there were some pretty cool things about it too: The Vedians stealing body organs ... wonderful. The Ocampas only living seven years ... pretty neat, but we should have been able to see all seven of them. The Temporal Police. Tuvok satisfying his Poon Far urge in the holodeck (Quark would have been proud). A working kitchen and replicator rations. Astrometrics. Tom Paris getting demoted. Seven not being able to construct a Borg conduit. The female Q. These are just the easy ones. Sometimes, the show was very clever. But after the first few seasons, I just felt like they were just treading water, waiting for it to end. And on a final note ... who's idea was it to let Tuvok and Seven do scenes together? Future screen writers take note, make sure at least one character on screen shows an emotion ... any emotion. :: throws his two cents into the jar and ducks :: Moose the Drama Critic (isn't everyone?)

The Challenger will be simming on January 2nd, so make sure you show up in the proper uniform Sieben. ;-)

I'll bet you haven't gone as far as these people in my neighborhood ... Happy New Year everyone. Moose the Suburbanite

I recall hearing somewhere that the original script called for a big fight scene there, but Harrison Ford had caught some flu bug or something and was sicker than a dog. He improvised that bit on the spot in an attempt to finish work early and it turned into a keeper.

Mission Brief, Stardate 10412.22 The Arcadia begins its expedition to follow the Science vessel USS Hunley into the Kandoru sector, a remote section of the galaxy that remains mostly unexplored. Although only one Trill has ever returned alive from that area, half remembered events from his past have convinced Cptn Moose that the Hunley, which was constructed from the former saucer section of the Arcadia-D, must be found. Cptn Moose USS Arcadia, NCC-1742-E

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the Arc, The ship was quite busy as it slid through the dark. The warp engines hummed full of power and might, Under the watchful care of the young Trichon Light. Engineer Meara-Callum was quite at a loss, The shift supervisor was in love with her boss. Knlwtchr can't give them advice by the ton, She has her own crush on tac's John Anderson. Will Marx is surrounded with warmth through the day, Two wives and two daughters and twins on the way. But though love's been generous from some it has fled, Cap Duncan's been fighting the dreams in his head. Dacotah's been victim to those who are mean, Starting with Romulans through to Borg Queen. And N'Dak keeps serving as one giant pawn, For the damage his mental abilities spawn. My mental defenses have too grown quite loose, Invaded by thoughts from Ambassador Moose. Yet there are those who still keep us afloat, Lo'Ami deduces what's wrong with our boat. And when anti-matter containment does slide, On Vecta, on Peyton, on Fitz save our hide. Marines Black and Smootock the bad guys will beat, Docs Westler and Porter get us back on our feet. Jaruq and Ren left us, Sieben cooked his goose, But it's holiday time, so Merry ... Chris Moose Wishing everyone and their families a wonderful holiday season (what's left of it - mazel tov).

You didn't lose it, it just got caught. Now ... find a moose in a starfleet uniform other than the picture my avitar came from. : )

Mission Brief, Stardate 10410.13 The crew of the Arcadia has finally arrived on the planet Risa in an alternate universe, where John Anderson has been mistaken for the prison's Grand Inquisitor. The "party animal" Klingons can choose to remain behind, jailed for drunkenness, or accompany the Arcadians on their quest for a former crew member, rumored to be held in solitary confinement. Meanwhile, the Engineering and Science teams work with Dr. Virax to find a way home ... Cptn Moose USS Arcadia, NCC-1742-E

Mission Brief, Stardate 10410.06 The plan is simple ... get the Klingons drunk, pretend to be drunk ourselves, get arrested and locked up on the prison planet Risa. One there, Dr. Porter's new drug will restore the Klingons to "sound mind" and they can use their knowledge of the prison to lead the Arcadians to the three Solitary Confinement areas of the prison. If Brianna Sullivan's information is correct, there they will find a former Arcadian previously lost in this dimension. It's a simple plan. What could possibly go wrong? Cptn Moose USS Arcadia, NCC-1742-E

Just for grins, go to www.google.com and check out the X-prize tribute on their logo. : )

Mission Brief, Stardate 10409.29 The woman who appears to be the Arcadia's former first officer, Brianna Sullivan, has appeared in a duplicate dimension onboard the Q'ob, a pink Klingon ship filled with party animals. She had left the Arcadia months ago in search of her friend and former CMO, Dr. Khiaara, who was left behind in a mirror universe when the Arcadia D first visited Paktar and Coalition space. She has told Cptn Moose that she believes Khiaara is being held in one of the two solitary confinement areas on the prison planet Risa. And although molecular scans have not confirmed or refuted her identity, the chance to recover a lost crew member can not be overlooked. However, only the Klingons have ever been on Risa, and without them as guides, any chance of finding the solitary confinement areas are nil. The crew must find a way to integrate these Klingons into their teams, so that the assault on Risa can succeed. Cptn Moose USS Arcadia, NCC-1742-E

believe it or not. ;-) arc091504.txt

Mission Brief, Stardate 10409.15 The Arcadia emerged from the two-dimensional void and found themselves still in the Axaian system, with one small difference. Axaia was totally devoid of life. The only hint of intelligent life is a decaying Federation warp trail, leading off in the direction of Risa. P.S. Watch out for guest stars. Cptn Moose USS Arcadia, NCC-1742-E

Thank goodness for young'uns, who get us old folks rambling for hours about the good 'ole days. Whoever said that the Arcadia is approaching its 12th anniversary is correct. I've only been there for ten of them though. Ironicaly, the night we launched Challenger was exactly 10 years to the night from when I first attended the Starfleet Academy on AOL. When I was in college learning computer programming on punch cards, the only mainframe computer games you could find had some Star Trek theme to them, so when I got my first AOL account the first thing I did was look for a Star Trek game. I couldn't imagine what else AOL was good for. This was AOL Ver 2.0 btw, the first windows version. But when I was posted to the Arcadia, I discovered that I really preferred running AOL Ver 1.3 on my DOS 286 machine, so I used that. We paid by the hour back then, so most communication took place via email that you sent using a "flash session". This wasn't my first role-playing experience. I had played Dungeons and Dragons in college with a group called the "Society for Creative Anacronisms". But these were folks who would knit chain-mail armour in their spare time, and they failed to see the humor in my character "Valium the Elf". If a "Trekkies" type movie had ever been made about D & D fans, it would have starred that group. So I was thrilled to find a role-playing group that was fun without taking themselves too, too seriously. And I found that I really enjoyed writting logs. I had never done any creative writting before joining this club, and it became something I really loved. So, the history of Moose (in chronological order): USS Arcadia - (STSF / SFOL) - Still crazy after all those years USS Bismark - (Internet Newsgroup PBM) USS Renegade - (IND) - Captained by LtCol Dana Quest btw USS Regayov - (SFOL) - formerly the USS Voyager, but AOL made us change the name when the TV series started USS Ranger - (SFOL) Challenger, NX-05 - (STSF) Plus more shifts at the Starfleet Academy than I can count. One more historical note, before I stop rambling and take my meds. The Bismark, mentioned above, was the first game I was in where they published a roster on a website. It was all text, with no graphics, and I remember thinking, "Ok, so I can look this up from anywhere. Who's gonna bother with that?" Gotta go. Time for shuffleboard. Moosethusela

"Ahoy, Sailor" - Stardate 10408.25 It had been a long time since Yasmine Bleeth had last walked the corridors of a Federation starship. So long, in fact, that her memories seemed as if from another era or another life. The people were the same, scurrying here and there on some vital task, but the corridors were odd. She was used to the soft, gentle slopeS of the galaxy class Arcadia-D. The sharp contours of the sovereign class E did not appeal to her. But then, soft and gentle had always been her style. She could feel the stares from the crew as she headed towards the Science Labs. Women instantly loathed her and men wanted her. That much was still the same, and she took great pride in it. Yasmine went to a lot of trouble to solicit those looks. Even in the 24th century, no one expected a pretty girl to have a brain. The first moment she was self aware enough to understand that people feared savants, she checked herself into a gym and learned how to camouflage herself. It suited her to be under-estimated. She got a lot more done that way. She had boarded the Arcadia-E with Ambassador Moose when it finally arrived in orbit around Axaia. Dr. Telano was attempting to fix the Ambassador's molecular instability by grafting parts of Captain Moose's atomic pattern onto him. It was an experimental procedure at its least, and an improvised one at best. But Telano was as qualified as anyone to attempt it. Satisfied that the Ambassador was in no danger, she had moved onto another task. "What's a pretty girl like you doing unescorted on a ship like this?" said a male voice quickly approaching from behind her. Coming from anyone else, the line would have made her cringe. But she recognized the voice only a split second after she recognized the panting sound he made when over-exerted. "It's about time you came to rescue helpless little 'ole me," she said, affecting a southern accent and turning to bat her eyelashes at her stalker. Sam Bailey gave her a great big bear hug. "I'm not sure I'm allowed to hug an Ambassador's attaché, but I'll risk the violation of protocol." "You'd better," she said, hugging her old friend back. Yasmine and Sam had met back when she was a Yeoman Communications Officer on the Arcadia-D, and he was a new Ensign, fresh from the Academy. The had helped each other through the "new person" awkwardness. "Are those Lt. Senior Grade pips you're wearing?" "Yep," he said, beaming. "Captain Moose recently awarded them to me," he explained. "I was finally able to piece together the transmission you sent from the Axain ship. That's how we found the Borg transwarp conduit that brought us here." "I always knew you'd do well, Sam," she said fondly as she took his hand and made him walk her to the Science Lab. "And I want to hear every detail. But first, I need to find Lt. Cdr Lo'Ami." "I haven't seen him," said Sam. "I'm not even sure if he's on board yet. Can I help with anything?" "Only if you can allocate personnel and equipment. We've got a big problem, Sam." She paused, collecting her thoughts so that she could explain without burying him in quantum physics. "The Arcadia's former counselor, Dr. Virax, has been living with us on Paktar since we first established the Embassy. Coalition forces had decided that they needed the Ambassador's ward, David Quest, for some telepathic experiments. Before they could seize him, Virax and your Dr. Alces appeared in a Coalition Research Pod, and supposedly took the boy to safety. But now they're missing. We believe the Pod was damaged and should have left a trans-dimensional energy trail, which would be degrading as we speak. So our only hope of finding them is to identify the unique trans-dimensional signature and follow it to its ultimate destination. Until the Arcadia arrived, our only source of equipment was from the Coalition, and since they think we have David, Ambassador Moose didn't want to ask them for anything. But now the Arcadia is here and we need Lt. Cdr Lo'Ami to begin the search. Would you be a dear and give him that message?" "I'll help you find him," said a shell-shocked Sr. Lt. Bailey.

It's funny how soaps have slipped back into the "daytime drama" definition. And much as I loved DS9's never-ending story line, a continuing story doesn't make it a soap. My three favorites soap opera's of all time (and none of them were daytime): Gone With The Wind - don't let the buring of Atlanta fool you. It's a soap. The Forsythe Saga - Masterpiece Theatre just remade this one. It was wonderfull ... filled with all sorts of demented secrets and love triangles. Dynasty - The second syllable of that word was "nasty" for a reason. Joan Collins redefined the archtypical soap queen. It was gloriously decadent and fun.

What about your cousin Seabass? Or his Bajoran wife, Bassoon?

IF AUG. 18 IS YOUR BIRTHDAY: Actor Edward Norton (1969) shares your birthday. You're philosophical and deep. Your patience is your greatest friend. Challenges do not deter you. You savor life and value your experiences. You'll always pursue your personal vision of things. You're a natural leader and easily gain the respect of others. Major changes await you this year. (Changes for the better.) Horoscope courtesy of Georgia Nichols at www.chicagosuntimes.com Happy birthday Doctor.

The Two Doctors - Stardate 10408.17 Zar Alces was remarkably patient while he waited for the Vulcan woman to speak with Dana Quest. She made him unusually anxious, for reasons he could not quite identify. Yet he felt compelled to speak with her. He had heard so much about this Dr. Virax since joining the Arcadia, mostly since she reportedly died just as he came onboard. But although the crew was initially surprised by her re-appearance in Coalition space, those who knew her had put it out of mind. They hadn't really liked her, and the Revelation Device had given them all something else to focus on. But in spite of the oppressive task of finding the device, she was the mystery that consumed him most. Virax concluded her business with Dana and left the rooms that had been assigned as the Federation Embassy's home on Axaia. Rather than exit at street level, she instead headed towards the roof of the building. A rooftop garden flourished, providing an unparalleled view of the city beyond. The Paktaran security force assigned to protect Ambassador Moose respectfully stepped aside as Virax went by, and they did nothing to stop Alces as he followed. Perhaps the Federation man would push her off the roof, one of them wondered? They didn't like her either. "Are you finally going to speak to me?" she asked Alces over her shoulder, without looking at him. "What ever do you mean?" he asked, taken aback by the question. "You've been following me for days," she said turning towards him. "If you were terran, I'd have thought you were flossing with me." "Flossing?" he asked incredulously. "Do I look like a dental hygienist?" "No, you don't. I meant subtly attracting someone's attention in a playful attempt to instigate a romantic liaison." "Flirting," he said. "Ah, yes. Flirting," she repeated. "I stand corrected. I have such trouble with English. It is so ... imprecise." "I'm not trying to flirt with you," he said. "Or floss with you for that matter. I just wanted to talk." "Isn't that what happens in flirting when you finally attract the attention of your target?" "How did you get here?" he blurted out loudly. She exasperated him, and it leapt out more as a demand then a question. "You mean to Axaia?" "Let's start on a broader scale. How did you get to Coalition space? You were left for dead in the Devil's Nebula. We had no way to go back for you. How the hell did you get out?" "Who are you?" asked Virax with a calm but puzzled look on her face. "Zar Alces," he exclaimed. "Well, that explains it," she said. "It does?" "Yes. I've seen your dossier. You're an accomplished scientist, on probation with the Trill Symbiosis Commission, headed a research project in the Devil's Nebula ..." "It wasn't a research project. We were stranded on that rock for ten years!" "From where you conducted research for the Federation which could not have been conducted otherwise. The fact that you were mauved at the time ..." "Marooned." "I stand corrected," said Virax. "My point is that you left the Devil's Nebula as did I. That common experience should be the basis for a collaborative relationship. Instead it has driven you into an emotional frenzy. I'm afraid that I do not understand." Alces moved to the rail overlooking the city. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. Axaia was beautiful. The skies were clear and the air smelled fresh. It was high summer and they were just south of the equator, yet the temperature was moderate and comfortable without the telltale "weather control" stuffiness. It seemed like paradise to him. "I never thought I'd experience a planet like this again," he said wistfully. "It is so different from life in the Devil's Nebula. We were trapped with few supplies, the soil was dead, water was near impossible to extract. Too many of my friends and crewmates died dimply trying to survive. We had given up hope of ever being rescued, and when the Arcadia-D finally arrived, they were trapped like we were. It was a one-in-a-million chance that got us out, and not even in one piece. Only the saucer section made it out. And if we had paused to look for you, we would have lost that opportunity forever." "You made the correct choice. My life was not worth the risk you and the crew would have taken to find me. Not many emotionally-based beings would be able to make the proper choice in that situation as you had." There was no sarcasm in her voice. She fully believed what she was saying. "I'm not questioning our leaving. I'm questioning yours. It took me ten years to find a way out. How did you find yours?" "I didn't," she replied frankly. "I was given a ride." "By whom?" "By the Coalition research team assigned to monitor the Devil's Nebula. They found me, injured and unconscious, and brought me to the Coalition for treatment." Alces reeled as if he'd been slapped. How could a Coalition team have been inside the Nebula? It was impossible to navigate safely. "The Coalition knows how to penetrate the nebula?" he finally croaked out. "Not exactly," replied Virax. "They don't penetrate the nebula. They fold space around it. Come." She turned her back on the cityscape and walked to the far side of the rooftop. There sat a dull, metalic-grey sphere about 16 meters in diameter. It looked like a standard communications array or other common satellite transmitter. "This is a Coalition research pod," she said. "These are used to transport small project teams all over the galaxy." Alces stopped for a moment and studied the strange object. His anxiety, for the present, was muted by the mysterious craft in front of him. "You're not going to tell me that something this small is capable of folding space?" he asked. "Of course not," she said as if talking to a child. "It doesn't have sufficient energy for that. Instead, it rips space." "I don't understand," said Alces. "Folding space is a much more delicate operation," she explained. "You have to bend the universe so that point A is next to point C. Then you have to step across the boundary and let the universe's elasticity return it to its natural shape. That is not an energy-effient form of travel. This device on the other hand, requires little power. It punches through existing space into an alternate dimension where linear space does not exist. It then emerges out the other side of that dimension into whatever point you want. This causes little damage to the spatial continuum as long as you allow the rend time to seal naturally." "Fascinating," he murmured. "So a Coalition research team just randomly popped into the location you had collapsed at and rescued you at the 11th hour?" "It was hardly random," she protested. "Their research pattern was well executed, and they examined that area every three months." "Then why didn't they help us?" he asked as the nausea and anxiety suddenly returned. "The must have known we were there. Why did they stand by and let so many of us die?" "They have their own set of rules, just like the Federation. They never would have interfered with another Doctor's research." "It wasn't a research mission! We were stranded!" "This was an unfortunate side effect to be sure. But you must have known that was a possibility before undertaking the mission. 'We all knew the risks when we signed up,’ is a common Federation refrain. You volunteered to penetrate the nebula and learn its secrets, and you did that. It took longer than you planned, and some of your people died, a fact that was as unfortunate as it was foreseeable. And now you stand here, struggling with grief and guilt over your inability to prevent events you had anticipated from the start. You need to let go of the past, Doctor Alces." Alces wanted to be ill. The Coalition could have saved them. They could have saved them years of suffering and prevented useless deaths, including that of his prior host. Now this woman stood before him telling him to get over it. Her words were as unbelievable galling as they were accurate, which made this a bitter pill to swallow. "They interfered with you," he finally managed to squeak out. "Why you? Why you and not us?" "They were able to confirm my identity," she said. "They learned I had served on the Arcadia with the man now known as Ambassador Moose. They were establishing the Federation Embassy on Paktar at the time and thought I could be useful." "As what, a spy? With all your talk of ethics, you allowed them to treat you so you could betray your former associates?" "I haven't betrayed anyone. I have not shared confidential Federation data with the Coalition or visa versa. I simply serve as a liaison, a cultural bridge translating the perspectives of each side for the other." "A liaison in the employ of the Coalition. How could you abandon the Federation for these people?" "How could I not?" she asked. "I am a doctor and a scientist, and the Coalition is a society devoted to the support of research initiatives. The Federation only encourages research within a narrow range of agendas, mostly centered on space travel. There are unparalleled opportunities for research here, all fully supported by their government. This society has much to offer you and me, Doctor." "That's absurd," he shouted, lashing out at her verbally. "You can't have science without ethics. Look at what they've done ..." Alces did not get the opportunity to finish as he was interrupted by Virax's tricorder. She flipped open the portable sensor and muted the sound. After studying the reading for several seconds she handed the device to Alces. "Good news," she said. "I have detected a large build-up of protomatter radiation. The Revelation Device has been activated." "Good news? You're insane! How can the destruction of Axaia be considered good?" "They have no intention of destroying Axaia," she said calmly. "They don't yet have the boy, David Quest. They would never destroy Axaia while there is a chance he is here. He is unique in all the galaxy, being the only known telepath to ever survive an unshielded journey through folded space. They will preserve that asset until they can learn his secret." "Then what is the protomatter you detected?" "What else can it be but a bluff?" she asked calmly. "They are showing off for a Federation audience, attempting to subdue your growth through an overwhelming display of power." "And this is the utopia you choose to support, Doctor?" The title dripped with sarcasm and disdain. "You can not judge an entire 'utopia' based on the actions of one group of insurgents," said Virax calmly. "Should the Federation be judged solely on the actions of its Section 38?" She opened her tricorder and checked the readings again. "This time I do not stand corrected. The protomatter has already dissipated. The Revelation Device has been shut down." Her hand spread flat against the surface of the sphere, and a non-descript panel slid open. "Come. We must now work quickly." "Where are you going?" he demanded. "Dana Quest has gone to the power station, believing her cousin to be there. We must find him before the Benai." "Why should I help you?" he asked, his body still tremoring with anger. "Because it is the right thing to do, Doctor. Based on its beginnings, any relationship can be extrapolated to its logical conclusion. The relationship between the Federation and the Coalition is no different. Their 'cold war' will progress for decades possibly, with each side striving to thwart the other until some unforeseen catastrophe causes one side to fall and the other to adapt for survival. We must find the boy first in order to guarantee that is not that event. Come," she said, climbing into the pod. "I don't think I will ever understand you, Doctor," said Alces. "No," she answered from within. "It is obvious that you will not." "Just how did you get one of these things anyway?" he asked as he crawled inside. "Are they standard issue." "They are actually quite rare," she replied. "I borrowed this one from the maintenance department. They were about to write it off." "Do you mean that you stole a defective research pod?" he asked panicking. "How can you be certain that it works." The door on the outside of the sphere slid shut. There was a crackle of energy and a short lived breeze, and suddenly the Coalition Research Pod was elsewhere. Cptn Moose USS Arcadia, NCC-1742-E

The thing I look forward to during the Summer Olympics every time is watching the women's volleyball teams. (Yeah, go ahead, laugh). What no one believes is that I like to watch it because it's an exciting example of grace, strategy and teamwork. I have no interest in beach volleyball of any sort, and the men's volleyball teams just pound the ball at each other. The women's game is more of a head game and I find it unusually facinating. The Olympics seem to be the only time they broadcast the sport.