The third and fourth episodes of Star Trek: Discovery’s second season revisit threads from last season while continuing the overall return to more traditional Trek storytelling.
Rahman Reviews: Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 – “Brother” & “New Eden”
The first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery’s second season show a new direction for the series.
Federation News Service Briefing: Stardate 239511
The Federation News Service is a spinoff of UFOP: StarBase 118 Star Trek PBEM RPG, reporting news headlines from across the United Federation of Planets to Federation citizens, along with other reader-submitted stories from other RPGs and fan works. Here are the latest stories published by the FNS:
Starfleet relaunches USS Columbia after major refit – Stardate 239510.04
STARBASE 118 — After an extensive retrofit, the venerable starship USS Columbia was reactivated under the command of newly promoted Captain Theo Whittaker.
Reconstruction within Cardassian Union surges ahead of expected timetable – Stardate 239510.08
CARDASSIA IV — A recent report compiled by a variety of Federation scientists and xenocultural experts found that the Cardassian Union is rebuilding its architecture and infrastructure with surprising speed.
Tellarite Debate Championship Final enters fourth week – Stardate 239510.10
TELLAR PRIME — Following three months of quarter-finals and semi-finals, two teams in the Tellarite Debate Championship remain.
Hopes mounting as Starfleet responds to commercial quantum slipstream liner disappearance – Stardate 239510.16
SAN FRANCISCO, EARTH — With the quantum slipstream liner Red Star still missing, a press conference was called at Starfleet headquarters spearheaded by Starfleet officials alongside Red Carrier, the owner of the commercial passenger liner at the center of the media storm.
Federation Council announces sanctions against Romulan Star Empire for failed Duronis invasion – Stardate 239510.18
PARIS, EARTH — The Federation Council voted today to impose sanctions against the Romulan Star Empire for its invasion attempt of Duronis II earlier this year.
Colonization efforts halted by outbreak of Anchilles fever – Stardate 239510.22
VURAL IX — Federation efforts to establish a colony on Vural III have suffered a major setback as the construction team slowly recovers from an outbreak of Anchilles fever.
Romulan Star Empire withdraws support from Astrofori One in response to Federation sanctions – Stardate 239510.24
RATOR III — The Imperial Senate of the Romulan Star Empire declared it was withdrawing all Romulan support immediately from the joint operations of the interstellar station Astrofori One in the Menthar Corridor.
Original Nanpart Malor artwork sells for two thousand bricks of latinum – Stardate 239510.27
VOLCHOK PRIME — A small art auction held by a Ferengi trader quickly became a bidding war after bidders learned that an ink brush drawing by famed Cardassian artist Nanpart Malor was available.
Interested in keeping the public updated on the latest developments across the Federation? The Federation News Service welcomes both one-time and regular story submissions.
Enjoy a creative avenue for simmers, role players, and fan fiction writers to develop the larger prime Trek universe. What’s going on in the entertainment world of the Federation? What’s happening back home on Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, and beyond? You can help shape life in the 24th century! Learn more at fns.news.
Federation News Service Briefing: Stardate 239510
The Federation News Service is a spinoff of UFOP: StarBase 118 Star Trek PBEM RPG, reporting news headlines from across the United Federation of Planets to Federation citizens, along with other reader-submitted stories from other RPGs and fan works. Here are the latest stories published by the FNS:
Decommissioned Excelsior-class starship becomes a museum – Stardate 239509.07
PSI EPSILON III — The recently decommissioned USS Melroy has been restored to its original state and turned into a museum that documents a previous era in Starfleet history.
Merger in the Ferengi beverage industry surprises market experts – Stardate 239509.12
FERENGINAR – Executives of the Slug-o-Cola company announced this morning a surprise merger agreement with upstart competitor Lappa IV Beverages.
Starfleet ranger missing in action near Tholian border – Stardate 239509.13
THE SHOALS — After weeks of no contact, Lieutenant Kehive na-Soldim has been declared missing in action as search parties find no trace of the Starfleet ranger or his runabout.
Cestus III gains new baseball team, possible league title contender – Stardate 239509.17
CESTUS III — The thriving baseball league on the Federation world of Cestus III has seen a new team, the Traerston Tigers, join its ranks.
First holographic student accepted to Aldebaran Music Academy – Stardate 239509.20
ALDEBARAN III — Despite protests from some faculty members, the Aldebaran Music Academy has decided to accept the application of a holographic student for the first time in the school’s history.
Interested in keeping the public updated on the latest developments across the Federation? The Federation News Service welcomes both one-time and regular story submissions.
Enjoy a creative avenue for simmers, role players, and fan fiction writers to develop the larger prime Trek universe. What’s going on in the entertainment world of the Federation? What’s happening back home on Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, and beyond? You can help shape life in the 24th century! Learn more at fns.news.
Federation News Service Briefing: Stardate 239508
The Federation News Service is a spinoff of UFOP: StarBase 118 Star Trek PBEM RPG, reporting news headlines from across the United Federation of Planets to Federation citizens, along with other reader-submitted stories from other RPGs and fan works. Here are the latest stories published by the FNS:
Pre-warp species resettled after 22nd-century Starfleet crew rescued – Stardate 239507.17
PLANET TE-965-2035 — While rescuing officers from the 22nd-century Starfleet vessel Columbia, the crew of the USS Thor helped a pre-warp species find a new home in the Typhon Expanse.
Targ numbers dwindle as concern for species grows – Stardate 239507.18
QO’NOS — The Qo’nos Wildlife Organisation has officially declared the targ an “at risk” species.
Wedding party denied boarding at Lunaport after binging on Romulan Ale – Stardate 239507.28
LUNAR ONE COLONY — A wedding party was denied boarding onto a transport from Lunaport space station after reportedly drinking four cases of Romulan Ale in fifteen minutes in response to being informed that they could not take thirty-five cases of the substance as hand luggage.
Risa-bound starliner disappears carrying 2,400 passengers – Stardate 239508.13
BAJOR – The Red Star, the flagship quantum slipstream starliner of Red Carrier, has disappeared during a routine transport to Risa.
Court martial set to begin in aftermath of USS Astraeus disaster – Stardate 239508.23
STARBASE 74 – The court-martial proceedings against Commander Victor Yaeger, previously the commanding officer of the USS Astraeus, are scheduled to begin today.
Tellarite mythology undergoes a reawakening in contemporary art culture – Stardate 239508.28
BETAZED – Rich and intriguing fables and myths passed down through generations for thousands of years have now found a new home in the contemporary art scene of the Federation.
Interested in keeping the public updated on the latest developments across the Federation? The Federation News Service welcomes both one-time and regular story submissions.
Enjoy a creative avenue for simmers, role players, and fan fiction writers to develop the larger prime Trek universe. What’s going on in the entertainment world of the Federation? What’s happening back home on Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, and beyond? You can help shape life in the 24th century! Learn more at fns.news.
Ship Closeup: USS Veritas
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” – Veritas motto
I recently sat down with the crew of the USS Veritas, NCC-95035, in order to better understand one of the more unique vessels that compose our great fleet. The Veritas is not your typical vessel for a variety of reasons. For one, its location in the Shoals is quite unique: Tetryon emissions extending throughout the area make for some intriguing challenges from the very beginning!
“(Y)ou cannot go higher than warp 5 in certain areas, and can by no means use slipstream drive or get communications out swiftly – subspace and letters are crackled or delayed at best” – Deliera, who plays LtCmdr. Sky Blake, the Ranger aboard the Veritas
These kinds of restrictions, not applicable to any other post in the fleet, has some intriguing side effects, which, according to Deliera, was precisely the goal. By cutting down contact with the outside universe, and the bigger picture as a whole, the crew is able to concentrate on the smaller, yet equally meaningful parts of the region they inhabit, which fosters further creativity.
Odd Jobs of Starfleet: Commander Kelrod is a SAR Team Leader
Hello and today we have the pleasure of speaking to Commander Kelrod, the SAR team leader aboard the USS Veritas.
JANN: Your character is a SAR team leader, could you tell our readers what a day looks like for you?
KELROD: That depends on the day. When we’re not in a mission, on an away team, the day for Kelrod starts early, doing some light breakfast, stretching exercises and then reading the last reports from the ship. Then he checks the crew rotations and check with the enlisted personnel that are the base of the SAR team, programming equipment checks and performing training exercises of different kinds. We have different officers that perform specific training as their duties allow and I attend to all of them, if he’s not in sick bay. He doesn’t usually spend a shift on the bridge, unless there’s a situation that requires it, so when not training or on the bridge, he studies, analyze and work with different departments to improve the team and the equipment.
Technobabble: The Universal Translator
In Star Trek we have been made familiar with a fictional device called the Universal translator, which allows for instant translation between different species without those species needing to learn Federation Standard. This was first mentioned and used in Star Trek: Enterprise where an Ensign called Hoshi Sato improved on the translation tech currently available and the improvements allowed for a portable unit to be used, thus making communication easier. Initially, the new language was compared to other Terran dialects and friendly species to make strange words sound like Federation Standard to the humans in Star Trek; the same was done for all the different languages among the people.
In Captain Archer’s time, the universal translators were blocky and small enough to be hidden when on missions. Eventually, the universal translators were merged with the personal communications devices, so when away teams during Archer’s time visited a planet the communicators automatically translated. This only worked if the foreign language was already known, otherwise, away teams during the 2150s used a proper universal translator to collect data on the new language. This continued until the creation of the United Federation of Planets.
Before 2161, the collection of languages was at best rudimentary, but collecting scientific data was more refined and Starfleet had more foreign languages to compare new ones too. Over the decades, the universal translators improved and ended up as a feature of comm badges we see in later Star Trek series. In today’s world a form of these devices exist, but they operate in a limited way: You speak a phrase in English, and it will spit back what that phrase would be in another language. One drawback is that they only work with predetermined words we know about, but the underlying technology does exist in today’s world.
Want to know more about the technology available in the Star Trek universe? Check out UFOP: Starbase 118 Star Trek PBEM RPG’s very own Starfleet Equipment & Devices page.
New journal article: “Operation Overclocking: Computational Retrofitting To Galaxy-Class Vessel”
Freshly promoted Lieutenant (JG) Choi Ji-hu needed a confidence booster. The challenge of writing a character with general anxiety and low self-esteem is answering the question: what would get them to take up a position of command or authority? In Ji-hu’s case, he had the mantle of provisional office head of the Engineering Systems Programming Office (ESPO) thrust upon him by veteran Constitution engineer Lieutenant Dag Sindri.
I envisioned the ESPO as a team of eccentric, forgotten misfits, computer nerds–think The IT Crowd–relegated to the bowels of the Constitution, wedged between an Engineering support office and the Main Impulse engine. I dreamed up Operation Overclocking as a means of having them wreak havoc on the ship, which includes, but is not limited to, titling Jalana Rajel “Captain Cactus,” frightening an Emergency Medical Hologram, giving two shipboard holographic beings unimagined raw power and increasing computational efficiency aboard the Constitution by an astounding 0.015%.
Read it now: “Operation Overclocking: Computational Retrofitting To Galaxy-Class Vessel”
The Science in Science Fiction: The Baryon Sweep
After strangely located seismic activity, you probably would like a shore-leave. Why not request a baryon sweep, so you can not only relax, but also return to a perfectly clean ship? Sounds too good to be true? Probably. The question you need to ask yourself is: clean of what?
What does it do?
This question is easily answered by reading the Memory Alpha page on the baryon sweep. Therefore, I quote: “A baryon sweep was a procedure used to eliminate baryon particles from a starship.” So if I read this correctly, the sweep removes either certain – or all – baryons, which emit radiation, which is harmful in large quantities.
