Newsletter/Fall 2008

Newsletter for the Star Trek: Freedom Wiki, Fall 2008 edition. To obtain a larger view of any of our pictures in this issue left click on the picture you wish to see. To post feedback click on the Discussion tab.

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To see previous editions of the newsletter, visit The Archive

Fleet Update and Missions

• USS Spectre Mission: The Gates of Prometheus
  

  The USS Spectre: A true stealth ship with a cloak

Currently docked at Starbase 621, the USS Spectre has been ordered by Fleet Command to a state of urgent mission readiness. All leave has been duly cancelled pending departure for the Zeta Gellis Cluster (the outermost marker of the subspace river) for a possible encounter with a familiar and deadly foe. Under strict orders not to discuss their mission specifics from Fleet Command itself, rumours are now circulating amongst the crew of a possible Borg involvement to this mission. Consequently, tension is high and understandably so. What will the Spectre crew find upon their arrival? Will it be all that they fear or will it all just prove to be rumour after all? Stay tuned....

• USS Rosenante Mission: Furlough
  File:Rosenante-Alt-3up.jpg

  USS Rosenante carries the new Stealth Drive technology

After the crew's exciting mission deep in Orion Space, the USS Rosenante has returned to dry dock to for repairs and to allow the crew to let their hair down for some R&R to improve morale. During this time the ship received a new but already well known First Officer in Lt. Commander Jennifer Caskie, a new Third Officer and Chief Counselor Lt. Jon Nayati and a new Chief of Operations Lt Tom Jackson. Meanwhile a party is taking place on the holodeck for the lower level officers and enlisted crew. It's a backyard barbecue and pool party. Will the Vulcans unbend enough to dance a little? Can true love be found in a holodeck simulation? No one knows what the future will bring!

• USS Boudicca Mission: The Loudest Silence
  

  USS Boudicca, known as a warrior ship

The USS Boudicca was cruising through space on a routine exploratory patrol. Captain Susan Rivers was quarantined in her quarters, struck by a persistent case of Arcturan Flu, and so the First Officer, Commander Aleksander Stolev, was in temporary command. His first extended foray in the command chair was proving quite uneventful until a mysterious call came in from HQ. A freighter, carrying badly needed and perishable medical supplies, was overdue for delivery at a colony whose population was being decimated by a viral epidemic, and the Boudicca, being the nearest ship to her last known flight path, was ordered to investigate. They quickly located the missing freighter adrift in space, with no obvious signs of damage, and no life signs aboard. Two life boats had been jettisoned, and no trace of the crew could be found. An away team has beamed aboard the freighter to investigate. What will they find? What happened to the crew of the freighter? Will they be able to get the medical supplies to their destination in time? Stay tuned to find out!

• USS Mithrandir Mission:
  

  USS Mithrandir: Nova class

The Mithrandir was currently enroute to New Eden to escort a fleet of refugee ships that were going to colonize a new planet. New Eden was being torn apart by its own moon, whose orbit was decaying. The ship had been ordered to escort the new colonists to Gamma Hygachi Orestes. The system was unpopulated and similar enough to New Eden that colonizing would be easier. The only issue was that it was only two light years from the Romulan Neutral Zone. The crew's only expected issue was the Falengi Expanse, which lay in the most direct path to the colonists' new home. The Mithrandir's sensors would be able to safely navigate the Expanse allowing the fleet to shave off considerable time. But it was still a treacherous journey and it was just beginning. The fleet itself was a collection of older freighters and they would only be able to travel at Warp Four. After three months of training, the Mithrandir and her crew were ready to serve. While they did not expect any serious issues, one could never take for granted the ease that a particular mission presented itself.

• USS Hades Mission:Tribuo Senatus
  

  USS Hades: Tri-vector Prometheus class ship.

The crew is finishing up their mind whirling mission to Romulus. Captain Devon Sash has awakened from his coma and morale among the crew has noticeably improved. Now the USS Hades is about to stop at Geneva and pick up some new crew, notably Ensigns Lo'ren T'Vof, Bolan Tavik, and Eoin Mac Liam. A quick stop at Earth to pick up Eva Straton is in order to help to add another member of the crew. They are all looking forward to getting on board the Hades with great excitement. What will Yeoman Calley McDevish do when she finds herself facing Eoin leaving the station?

Star Trek Online: The Stuff of Dreams

by Daniel Greene

A ship in flight

You meander around a packed to near-overcrowded career fair. The noise is near deafening as you pass countless booths. Eager recruiters animatedly discuss the countless virtues of the profession they are enthusiastically trying to interest you in. None of it really strikes you as what you really want to do. Sure, you could go into the super awesome field of dental hygiene or welding, but you've pretty much decided that most of the options just aren't striking a particular chord with you. They just aren't exciting. So you politely move away from the booths and towards the exits.

Just as you are about to fold up your portfolio and head out, a small booth draws your attention. Its simple plastic sign attached to the front of the table asking, "Are you ready to boldly go?" A pleasant looking gentleman in a familiar looking uniform beckons you over and begins to fill your ears with tales of embarking upon mission after mission. From the sparkle that fills your eyes, he knows you are hooked.

Oh, if only it were so easy, right? Well, Cryptic Studios wants to make the dream happen. Currently, Cryptic has several games in various stages of production. But you aren't interested in their whole selection, are you? Nope, you're sitting with fingers crossed that they make Star Trek Online (STO) the great game it could be. I know I am at least. This software developer, responsible for the amazing City of Heroes (CoH) and less popular City of Villains (CoV) had acquired STO when Perpetual lost the rights to it.

Possible species to play

I'd tell you the whole scoop behind that but that's not really what you want to read about. Their success with the CoH title made history. They have the graphics engines, the experience and the know-how to make this a truly great game. They picked up the game. What you want to know is there more in line with everything STO?

Unfortunately, the game is still very much in the creation stage, so many of the things that people will want to know aren't being published yet. But there are a few tantalizing clues that would make even the most diehard Klingon warrior drool.

STO will have a progressive timeline. At the start, the game year will be 2409. The game setting is approximately 30 years after the events that took place in Star Trek Nemesis. According to the information available on the Star Trek Online website (www.startrekonline.com) the galaxy is a much more volatile place.

How much more volatile? There will be two factions, Federation and Klingon and six playable races, three for each side. So far they are listed as Human, Klingon, Ferengi, Orion, Andorian and Gorn. An earlier interview indicated that you would be able to make your own race, but in later interviews it wasn't mentioned. Hopefully it's still an option. I have never seen any MMORPG where you could build your own species.

Possible professions aren't completely lined out just yet either, but they have released that there will be at the very least the following: Tactical, Medical, Science, Engineering and Command. And everyone can be the Captain of a ship, regardless of which of the professions you choose.

Like other Cryptic games, character customization is something they are particularly good at providing. You will be able to modify the uniform of your character. The only restriction will be that it will always have the look of a uniform appropriate for your faction.

A potential planet to explore

Will you be able to play with other people? Absolutely. What fun would a massively multiplayer game be without interaction? You will be able to make teams, go on away missions and even run a star ship. The how and such are unfortunately still in production. There will also be an aspect of Player vs Player in the game, however there will not be specific servers dedicated to just that. There will be special zones or areas where you can participate in Player vs Player activity.

Other teasers for the game include such things as being able to alter your crew quarters and cooperative missions between the factions. (These are both things that Cryptic has developed and extensively tested in their CoH/CoV titles. Those same titles are well supported, have regular content updates and are always pushing the limits of what you can do. Adding new power sets, creating character enhancements, earning special badges and completing ever-expanding story arcs are all things we can't help but believe that STO will have all of that and more.

As someone who has been a member of the CoH/CoV Community since Beta testing 5 years ago, I can not complain about the potential that Cryptic brings to the development of such a well known and loved franchise.

The main thing for me that summed up the full potential for the game was this description of the game from their Official website:

"Adventure in the Final Frontier: Explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations in an expanding vast universe. Make contact with alien races, discover resources and uncover mysteries that will change the future of the Star Trek universe."

For more information, screenshots, teaser video and Wallpapers visit the official Star Trek On-line website at http://www.startrekonline.com/archive

I hope to see you out there in the broad universe that is Star Trek.

Live Long and Prosper!

Get to Know Anthony Keen

compiled by herbalsheila

Anthony Keen: The Tough Administrator

What is your favorite color, book, food, drink and movie?

Book: The Belgariad by David Eddings. Film: Alien. Author: Well, I am going for Bill Bryson. Colour: orange (as in the website orange I use on ST:F) Drink: Becks, which is a beer.

What is website orange as opposed to any other orange?

Burnt orange if you like. The boxes around the wiki are orange; that's the colour I mean. I also put it in as the orange colour of the wormhole image and the orange colour of the font of the forums.

What do you do for a living?

I am the computer manager for a large secondary college called Melbourne Girls' College in Melbourne, Australia. We're one of the biggest schools in the State of Victoria. We have 1251 girls, 350 computers, 35 printers, about 100 laptops and 16 servers. It's my job to make them all work all the time. Dealing with printer jams and supporting the staff in using ITC is always my main job. ITC is the acronym for Information Technology and Communication. I am one of the administrators, an SSO or School Service Officer. There are 20 or so of us. The rest are teachers. Our total staff including teachers numbers over 60.

Do your students take good care of the equipment or are you always having to take them apart and replace stuff or what have you?

My girls are not into damage of a physical nature. The computers aren't broken or intentionally damaged.

Wendy and Anthony Keen

The computers themselves are under an expensive 4 year warranty. I call and someone else fixes them when they have a hardware problem. The servers are my problem and I have them in bits quite often when the email stops or the internet gets too slow.

Where do you live?

We're about 50 kms or 35 miles from Melbourne. Our little area is called Sandhurst. We built a house about a year ago; a nice place in a new area. We have exciting features such as recycled water and a swimming pool around the corner.

Other than writing posts in Star Trek Freedom, do you have any hobbies that you do in your spare time?

I swim a lot, got back into that recently. We also recently bought some bicycles. Where we live there is 50kms of walking tracks. I do a lot of computer work for other schools, websites and so on, and that includes of course the work and updates on the STF site.

Apart from that, we also get stuck into the garden, and I don't overly hate gardening! At the back of our house, we have pebbles and rocks as ground cover. We have some grass at the front. I plant stuff the wife hands me. I have no idea what the plants are. Wendy would know. I know they are green and don't require a lot of watering!

What do you feel is the best most rewarding thing you have ever done in your life?

I'd say it would be moving to Australia from the UK when I met Wendy through the FGN and then married. Moving to Australia about 12 years ago has opened doors and a lifestyle I wouldn't have ever enjoyed in the UK.

What got you involved with Star Trek Freedom and writing for characters in a Play by EMail game?

Okay, that takes a bit of explaining; in Dec 1997 I just got the internet after resisting it for ages. I saw a newsgroup advert for the Federation Gaming Network. It mentioned giving the Borg a hard time and so on. A friend of mine and I joined up together. He didn't make it on the shuttle to the Academy but I stayed in.

I bypassed the Academy and went directly as Counsellor of the Spectre. When the crew got together, I started talking to a few of them via ICQ. The ACMO was Wendy and she joined at the same time. It turned out she went for Counsellor too!

Much later on after a lot of events, FGN Freedom became Star Trek Freedom and Jeremy and I decided to take the game off on its own and it was agreed by the entire game to do so.

Sunset near Sandhurst, Australia

My main character was a Bajoran called Remae Ktell, an anti-religion Bajoran. I played him for many many years. He was CO of many ships and had a habit of crashing most of them into any planets he could find.

At the end, the Spectre crew were quite adept at making launch ramps for the Spectre to get it off any planets she crashed into.

Was Remae Ktell your first character?

Yes indeed. I believe he was the first Counselor to make CO.

Have you anything in your background that may have helped you with writing adventures on a PBEM game?

Oh no, not at all! I never wrote before PBeMing. Reading was also rare. I wasn't into RPGing or any D&D or anything like that, so I had no idea what I was getting into. It helped me get spelling under control and I enjoyed creative writing, although I still don't think I am much of a writer. My posting was always average and I am always blown away when I read the work of people like Liz and Jeremy can come up with. I'll never be that good.

What, in your opinion, is the hardest part about Star Trek Freedom and why?

Generally, in running a game, the hardest part will always be anticipating and adapting to the needs of the members, which should come first anyway. As a non-CO and someone who just administrates the game, the hardest part for me personally at the moment is making sure we have enough support from members to go beyond posting their characters and getting involved into things such as using the Forums, and the Wiki and reading the Newsletter, and even making personal logs. That shows anyone coming in from the outside that we're an active game, something worth joining and committing to.

The Academy is rough on new people. We don't let just anyone in. You have to complete the Academy and we lose 90% of all applications that way. Since March 2003, we've had 2300 applications to the game, and we have 60 members. That's the kind of ratio we have to deal with.

Computer servers at Melbourne Girls College in Melbourne, 'Down Under'. This particular section shows only seven servers.

I guess I should feel privileged. I had no idea how elite ST:F was/is.

The big example is Bravofleet. There is no Academy and everyone has a ship. They have 200 ships and most of them have 2 PCs on them, a CO and an FO. That's not for us. A long time ago we made the choice; you have to earn it. In the long term its sucky for those who want to be a CO. It can take years.

It's not so elite. We just take out the 13 year old boys who just want to kill Borg. Our average age of members is a lot older than most PBeMs.

What is the best part about ST:F and why?

The best to me means rewarding; seeing someone get through the Academy, begin posting and being truly proud to be on their ship, and posting, that's a big one for me. I see it a lot. Undiscovered talent is another one. Someone who never thought they could write or join a group and get something out of it, that's another one. I've seen that. I think every CO has and that's a big reason for being a CO, given the job isn't a fun one. I've never heard a CO ever say, I love being a CO... its a hard job! Overall, the best part is to see everyone have fun playing. If the posts are flying along and everyone is engaged, making friends on and off the lists; that's the best part.

If there was one thing on ST:F you wanted to change, what would it be and why?

For me, seeing the website go unused, that's a real killer for me personally. These resources just sit there and members do their part and post, which is great but there's no debate or interaction beyond. That's a real shame. A really active forum would make me very happy.

If there was any one thing in the world you could change, what would it be?

It may be the flavour of the decade to say so but poverty seems to be something we can do without. I think it's required to define what this actually means. From Wikipedia: Poverty is the deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.

I think it can be easy to forget or ignore hundreds of millions of people in the word living without these basics that can be taken for granted.

So what are all the things you currently do on ST:F?

Anthony's adventures in gardening

Not a lot at the moment to be honest, currently I am CO of the Fleet, which means I am in charge of the Council, but it's not what you think, we don't tell everyone what to do we just try to solve big problems, and fill in the gaps of the overall direction of the game, such as what kind of aliens will the ships meet? What are subspace tunnels? and so on.

I maintain the website. I am the Academy CO, which means I allocate graduates to their ships.

I found time to also player a character, a Cardassian on the Mithrandir. He's a doctor, just a Medical Officer. I've no plans to rise in the ranks again.

What, no CO-ing again?

I seriously doubt it. Being a CO means you dedicate yourself totally to your ship. I've done that for years, 7 years or more. Patrick (FO of the Spectre) said once its frustrating for people coming up the ranks to see 'old' members just walking into CO roles. I agree with that; I want to give as many people as I can a chance to be a CO.

When and how did you first hear about Star Trek in general?

Basically, in 1987 when the new Enterprise launched as TNG is when I got hooked. I'd always seen TOS on re-runs on BBC2 (UK TV Station) and I watched a little but when the new one came out, and I was already 15 or so, all my friends got together for a viewing of Encounter at Farpoint. From that point on, I bought every VHS of all the series. By time I was 26 I had all the TNG, DS9 and VOY videos that were out. I had to ship them to Australia in a container!

I am still not a TOS fan but I will purchase the remastered TOS when they come out in December.

Here might be a tough question for you. Which character from all the Star Trek series and films is your all time favorite and why?

That's easy actually. It's going to be Miles O'Brien, for the main reason of the depth of the character, shown a little in TNG but in DS9 you get to see this person. He's a real battler as the Aussies would say! shiver He is someone who worked his way up, had strong family values, and a strong moral centre. If anyone is looking for someone to emulate, you can't go wrong with Miles O' Brian.

Mikes O'Brien: A real battler!

O Brien was played by Colm Meaney. Have you gotten to meet any of the actors from Star Trek?

Not personally, but my few claims to fame is that Will Wheaton and I have exchanged a few emails over the years. He's a very nice person and happy to talk to fans. The other person no one probably knows of, is the person who designed the Enterprise, Andy Probert. He was happy to answer my questions about his designs on the Enterprise and some of his Battlestar Galactica work. And finally, I've spoken to Rich Sternback a few times. He was the technical adviser to Star Trek. His technical books are required reading for anyone wanting to know how the warp drive works.

Do they ever have Star Trek conventions of any kind in Australia?

They have a few, usually in Sydney and way too expensive for us to attend. There was a BABCON conference in Melbourne but no one really went to that apart from us!! Although, while we were in Canada, Katherine (ex CO of the Boudicca), took us to Vulcan and we dressed up in front of a cardboard set! No one gets to see that picture.

I haven't gotten much of the lowdown on this trip around the world you and Wendy took. Tell me about this trip.

We went to the UK again to see my parents a few years back and it was cheaper to go around the world rather than go direct so we went to Hawaii, Canada, the UK, Germany, Prague, Hong Kong and then Melbourne. On the way, we tried to see as many members as we could.

Wendy and I ended up going around the world on this trip and it was a pleasure meeting such types as Kaweo, Adrie, Liz, Kat and others that have long since left the game.

Thank you Anthony and we hope that you will eventually be able to do another trip to see other players again.

Star Trek XI Update

by herbalsheila

New release date

Questions abound on many Star Trek fan forums about how things will be handled in the forthcoming Star Trek XI movie due to be in theatres May 2009. For instance Chekov is not in season 1 of TOS. Will he be there when Kirk takes command of the Enterprise in the upcoming film? How will the issue of Captain Pike be handled?

Comic Con Poster released by Paramount

Will Pike already be there and then will be sorely incapacitated and injured by rescuing people from the deadly gas that nearly kills him? What about the idea of Spock and Kirk having been classmates at the Academy together when Spock is already many years older due to his half Vulcan heritage?

Fans are awaiting the movie impatiently, some with dread and some with anticipation, others with both. Many feel that without Shatner and the original cast, it just won't be as good and have the same close knit familiarity that has been cherished through the years.

In the meantime, many are thrilled to hear that Paramount, in connection with Dreamworks, will be releasing a real trailer, not a teaser, but a real trailer with footage from the film, to

Screen shot of Enterprise being built from Star Trek XI

advertise the movie being released in 2009. Edits are still being made, but it is expected to show the Enterprise exterior and the Enterprise Bridge as well as dialog from the movie.

TrekMovie has confirmed with sources that the trailer will come out in November 2008, but that a specific film for it to be attached to has not yet been chosen so an actual date for the trailer release has not been set. So be sure to watch for it. In addition, sources say that November 2008 will mark the beginning of Paramount's marketing push for the film.

JJ Abrams will not be able to sit for long on pictures of the Enterprise architecture so it is suspected that more detailed pictures or shots of the ship will be released as well. Studio sources also say that the general veil of secrecy around Star Trek will begin to be lifted in November 2008 as the beginning of a buildup for the movie release date set for May 2009. Additional interviews with the cast, directors, and writers will be used in a large promotional campaign, including articles in major magazines.

The new Star Trek movie trailer can be viewed at [[1]].

StarFleet Chef's Galley

Qagh, very fresh, is generally eaten when still alive

Qagh (Gagh)

submitted by herbalsheila

Ingredients

• At least 1 pound of fresh hungry serpent worms of any type
• 1 cup of 'Iw puj (weak or diluted blood)
• 3 Tablespoons of finely minced Serpent herb, either fresh or dried
• 3 finely chopped smoked jalapeno peppers (optional)
• 1 teaspoon powdered cumin (Optional)

Four servings of different varieties of fresh Qagh, ready to eat

Directions

Just before being served, the qagh are placed in a bowl of ghevi' or sauce, made using the weak blood and the flavorful herb that the worms eat greedily, despite the fact that it is toxic to them. For extra flavor, sprinkle chopped smoked jalapeno peppers and powdered cumin on top to taste.

Serve immediately. The worms must be consumed in minutes, or else they will die, for "qagh is always best when served live."

There are at least 51 different types of qagh, each with its distinct taste and texture, including Bithool qagh, which has feet, Filden qagh, which squirms, Meshta qagh, which jumps, Torgud qagh, which wiggles, and Wistan qagh, which is packed in targ blood. It is not clear, however, as to the exact difference between a serpent worm that wiggles and a serpent worm that squirms.

The type of serpent worm chosen is based on the unique sensation of its death throes in the mouth and stomach of those that eat them.

Makes 2 to 3 servings

When Planets Collide

compiled by herbalsheila

Artistic rendering of an Earth-like planet colliding with another with its binary star nearby.

Astronomers at UCLA, Tennessee State University, and the California Institute of Technology are reporting about a new space phenomena; two planets in a mature solar system named BD+20 307 have recently collided some 300 light years from Earth.

"It's as if Earth and Venus collided with each other," says Dr. Benjamin Zuckerman. Astronomers have never seen anything like this before. Apparently, major catastrophic collisions can take place in a fully mature planetary system."

"If any life was present on either planet, the massive collision would have wiped out everything in a matter of minutes; the ultimate extinction event," said astronomer Gregory Henry. "A massive disk of infrared-emitting dust circling the star provides silent testimony to this sad fate."

Benjamin Zuckerman, a professor of physics and astronomy, Gregory Henry, an astronomer at Tennessee State University and Michael Muno, an astronomer at Caltech have all been studying this solar system. What they found was startling.

The star itself is in the constellation of Aries, and referred to as BD+20 307. It is surrounded by 1 million times more dust than is orbiting our own sun. The astronomers gathered X-ray data using the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory and brightness data from one of TSU's automated telescopes in southern Arizona, hoping to measure the age of the star.

Artist's rendition. Could this have been the way Earth's moon was formed?

Expecting to find that BD+20 307 was relatively young, perhaps only a few hundred million years old due to its dust ring signaling what they thought would be the final stages in the formation of the planetary system, they were shocked to find that the system is a close binary star as found by astronomer Alycia Weinberger of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

A binary star is two stars that closely orbit each other around their common center of mass.

This discovery changed everything they had previously conjectured based on their observations. More data compiled using TSUA's automated telescope in Arizona was used to analyze this binary system. The new data showed that BD+20 307 is two stars similar in mass temperature and size to our own sun, with an orbit about their common mass of every 3.42 days. Its age is now thought to be comparable to our own system, several billion years, and more stable and mature than previously thought.

"The planetary collision in BD+20 307 was not observed directly but rather was inferred from the extraordinary quantity of dust particles that orbit the binary pair at about the same distance as Earth and Venus are from our sun," Henry said.

Original book cover published 1932 by Frederick A. Stokes

"If this dust does indeed point to the presence of terrestrial planets, then this represents the first known example of planets of any mass in orbit around a close binary star."

This dust surrounding this particular binary star orbits the system very closely where dust cannot survive very long. Large pieces of debris are reduced to dust and smaller pieces are then pushed away by stellar radiation emitted by the stars they obit. Therefore the dust forming collision had to have taken place more recently.

Francis Fenkel, another astronomer who assisted in gathering the newer data, says that this poses two very interesting questions. How do planetary orbits become destabilized in such an old mature system and could such a collision happen in our own solar system?

In the 1932 novel, "When Worlds Collide," by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer, twin planetary bodies orbiting each other crash into Earth, causing massive destruction to the human race and was the first in a long line of novels and films about various asteroids and other space debris causing an apocalypse on Earth.

Zuckerman says there is no such evidence of any passing planetary body of any kind. However there is evidence that such an occurrence may have happened within our own solar system.

The escape rocket being built from the 1951 film 'When Worlds Collide' directed by Rudolph Mato

Many astronomers believe our moon was formed from the grazing collision of two planetary embryos; the young Earth and a body about the size of Mars, a crash that created tremendous debris, some of which condensed to form the moon and some of which went into orbit around the young sun," says Zuckerman. "By contrast with the massive crash in the BD+20 307 system, the collision of an asteroid with Earth 65 million years ago, the most favored explanation for the final demise of the dinosaurs, was a mere pipsqueak."

Gregory Henry further notes that, "The stability of planetary orbits in our own solar system has been considered for nearly two decades by astronomer Jacques Laskar in France and, more recently, by Konstantin Batygin and Greg Laughlin in the U.S.A. Their computer models predict planetary motions into the distant future and they find a small probability for collisions of Mercury with Earth or Venus sometime in the next billion years or more. The small probability of this happening may be related to the rarity of very dusty planetary systems like BD+20 307."

Ironically, no one mentioned our nearest planetary neighbor Mars.

It is doubtful that there is cause for alarm for us, thankfully. We won't have to evacuate our homes for any rocket ships leaving Earth's orbit. Though you certainly may continue to carry any emergency kits with you, it may be advisable to leave your astronaut suits at home.

Counselor's Corner

Our Klingon Counselor is played by Frank Truelove

Counselor qeSwI' qaybe'

Counselor qeSwI' qaybe'

I am a Yeoman assigned to Space Station Geneva. Some have referred to me as the Devil due to my sarcastic wit, although my sister used to say that my wit is sharp enough to sometimes bite.

I am struggling with finding myself liking a handsome young man that I do not wish to like after being cruelly used, betrayed, and then tossed aside like so much trash by a former lover who turned out to be a spy. I lost my father during one of the battles for Earth and my sister who was a scientist based on Andoria that disappeared in one of the prisoner camps. I have no other family.

After so much loss and such terrible betrayal, I find it difficult to trust or love again. I want to move on with my life, but I don't want to be hurt again. There are still days when I find myself swamped by grief and pain. How do I move on?

There are those that say I should just 'get over it' and that is an easy thing to say, but a hard thing to do and I am not sure how. But I don't want to give up either. Working my shifts has been the only way for me to cope so far.

What should I do about my infatuation with this young Engineer?

Yelling Yeoman

Yelling Yeoman,

Devil? Would that be veqlargh (for Fek'lhr) or Qatlh (as in DenIbya' Qatlh for Denebian slime devil)?

Your sarcastic wit is sharp enough to bite? Why waste time with wit when you could actually bite?

You like a handsome young man but hold your forces in reserve because you were betrayed by a spy. Is the handsome young man the spy? If so, deal with him as you would any dishonorable person. If not, why let the past dictate your future? If you have no other family, you owe it to your ancestors to ensure they have some legacy.

To refrain from action because you fear to be hurt again is indefinitely paralyzing. Life, sometimes on a daily basis, brings pain. The only way to avoid all pain is to do nothing. How do you move on, you ask -- by accepting that pain is weakness leaving the body!

So, what should you do about this young Engineer? I return to my own earlier questions: Your sarcastic wit is sharp enough to bite? Why waste time with wit when you could actually bite?

Bite! That is what you should do about the Engineer. Biting is at the beginning of all of the best rituals!

Counselor qeSwI' qaybe

Star Trek Book Review

submitted by herbalsheila

Doctor's Orders by Diane Duane

ISBN 0-671-66189-2

Published by Simon and Schuster 1990, 291 pages

Back Cover: When Dr. McCoy grumbles once too often about the way the USS Enterprise ought to be run, Captain Kirk decides to leave the doctor in command while he oversees a routine diplomatic mission. Kirk beams down to a strange planet nicknamed Flyspeck to negotiate its admission into the Federation, leaving Dr. McCoy to enjoy his new authority.

However, the doctor soon learns that command is a double edged sword when Kirk disappears without a trace. Desperately trying to locate his captain, McCoy comes under pressure from Starfleet to resolve the situation immediately. Matters go from bad to worse when the Klingons arrive and stake their own claim on Flyspeck.

Then another more deadly power threatens them all, and suddenly Dr. McCoy and the Starship Enterprise find themselves pitted against an alien fleet in a battle they have no hope of winning.

With a plot that is brilliantly written and expertly woven by Diane Duane, this often humorous and entertaining work is enchanting with its engaging new contact species and its viewpoint of dour dry witted Dr. Leonard McCoy. At various points he surprises all of the Bridge crew with some of his own ideas of command and how to handle potentially hostile Klingons. Using a little psychology and his quick wits, he manages to stumble around enough, with plenty of help and support from the crew, to figure out how to outsmart a terrible foe though he is untried in the center seat.

The three species, indigenous to the planet, are won over by Dr. McCoy's actions and Captain Kirk's honest and open diplomacy.

Though this book is out of print, it can be purchased inexpensively as an immediate download from Simon and Schuster or purchased and shipped as a used book from various online book sources such as Barnes and Noble and Amazon. Follow the ISBN link and shop around or check with your local used book store.

Words of Wisdom

Life is too precious and short to wait to live. Don't wait; seize the day while you have it before it slips away. Live life to the fullest while you can and live in joy, even with the most mundane of details, being grateful for every moment. In tribute to my friend, Jeff Melton, who passed away Oct 14, 2008 - herbalsheila

The Klingon who kills without showing his face has no honor. quv Hutlh HoHbog tlhIngan ach qabDaj angbe both. - Frank Truelove

What is justice when the officials who make the laws are above the laws? Jim McCrary