[Meta] RFC: Aliens! Let's eat 'em!

[classicdrogn]

RE Kenny Barnum: Looks pretty good, but April isn't likely to keep harping something someone is sensitive about even if she thinks it's funny, he's more likely to have her asking how the dancing horses are doing in the martial arts classes or how the record stands for stuffing security officers into a single shuttlecraft.
Espescialy if he has a lieutenant named Bailey. Not that I'm suggesting any such thing, of course, nudge nudge. I'm far too refined in my tastes for that, nudge nudge.
RE Language: ... Okay. That's further ahead than I was thinking, but planning is good.
RE To Serve Squidleigh: So not going there. At all. Even if it was my subject line.
RE Runnig gags: Please... no. Not that kind, anyway.
- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
For the next 72 hours, Itachi intoned, I will slap you with this trout. - Spying no Jutsu, chapter 3
"In the futuristic taco bell of the year 20XX, justice wears an aluminum sombrero!"hemlock-martini
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Kokuten]

---

Stuffing security officers:

---

37. We had to borrow 20 people worth of 'security', and by the way, I deputized the entire Remote Geology and IT departments for the day. Good to hear that April wouldn't play that game - I didn't expect it, but I wanted to get it out there.. since some people might _want_ to play the game.

---

lieutenant named Bailey

---

...oh god.
Elijah Bailey, a professional security officer who is not 'fen at all, but instead, a hardcore 'professional man', who subs as an astronomer's assistant, since he's into 'real science, thank you'.
So he doesn't get it on both levels.. *SNRK*
Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[classicdrogn]

Well, there's joking around abd then there's being mean. April is the captain, she can't afford to jeapordize the working relattionships with her senior staff even if she was feeling mean. As to deputizing an extra 20 security officers, that means you started at 17 - I don't really know anything about pubic safety/security, but that sounds about right for a crew that started a tad over 100, and is expected to be in the 150 vicinity by the end of the five years. That puts you a bit behind the Child Services & Education branch of Medical, but you only have to deal with the parents so that's probably fair.
- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
For the next 72 hours, Itachi intoned, I will slap you with this trout. - Spying no Jutsu, chapter 3
"In the futuristic taco bell of the year 20XX, justice wears an aluminum sombrero!"hemlock-martini
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Kokuten]

---

That puts you a bit behind the Child Services & Education branch of Medical, but you only have to deal with the parents so that's probably fair.

---

And well behind the collective 'Education' department, which contains CS&E, AD-E, and PSE.
(Child Services & Education, Adolescent Education (primarily a department which teaches 'Fleet rugrats how to properly cite and contribute and extract useful info from Fleet DB, and how not to be a freaking spore), and Post Secondary Education, or 'Miranda College'Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[classicdrogn]

Wellif you really get down to it, most of the ship is teaching someone else something or at least practicing together - There's lots of time between stars with anything interesting around them, and five years is a long time to be filling with hobby materials and media brought with you. By six months in, people start looking for something new to pass the time, by year two Liza (the AI) is assisting half a dozen 3D animation projects for creative groups maling their own "TV" shows ala this board with Tatsu no Kanshin or to a lesser extent Macross SEED.
So anyway, the point is, if you count up everyone who has a secondary duty area as part of the Education metadepartment, it's easier to lIst the people who aren't in it. CS&E is different, in that they handle the kids too young to be mentored at a duty station - a kids-in-school model might be nice, but there are only a hundred and change adults - standard practise hearkens back to an older tradition where kids either learn what their parents work at, or arrangements are made for them to learn what another adult does during duty hours, once they hit 12 or so.
As a side note, Medical also includes a liscensced Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, for thearious small animals that were brought along - the exact specification was, "one pet per househould, able to fit in a carry crate or habitat no larger than carry-on luggage, and no venomous beasties, period." There are three big, cute, fluffy tarantulas abaord at launch, and a brood of little tarantulets not long after two of the owners happened to find out about each others'.
Quoth the Captain, on being informed of the happy event: (shudder) "Okay, new general order: Unless they constitute a problem to the ship or other personnel, all pet giant spiders are exempt from the requirement that I be notified of increases in the ship's complement. They don't eat enough to be a problem and I mean oogh like I don't like spiders..."
It's fortunate for her that Squiddies, for all thier exoskeletal physiognomy, don't move the same way and are different enough in general layout not to trigger that reflex.
(there were a couple of REALLY poisonous Australian snakes that ended up aboard by accident, as well, but exact disposition of those has not been determined as of yet...)
- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
For the next 72 hours, Itachi intoned, I will slap you with this trout. - Spying no Jutsu, chapter 3
"In the futuristic taco bell of the year 20XX, justice wears an aluminum sombrero!"hemlock-martini
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[robkelk]

Let's not forget that the Miranda has a five-year limit on its mission, because of the cola-uncola engine. There's only one plae in the universe where you can get 7-Up or Coke, and that's Earth - the ship's designed to return to base every half-decade.
There's not likely to be an Adolescent Education section on the ship... at least, unless Roberts decides to go find the alien homeworld instead of going home (hoping for an engine refit once the Miranda gets there), and is forced to have her staff put one together.
Mind you, if any of the crew brought families along, this doesn't apply. (Basically, are we running this as being staffed by Kirk-era Trekkies or NextGen-era Trekkies?)
Early Childhood Education, certainly... People are human, after all, so there's likely to be a few infants and preschoolers on the ship after a year or two, even if the Miranda Consortium only recruited unmarried people who weren't pregnant at the time.

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Kokuten]

good call, Rob, I got carried away on the whole 'Enterprise-D, you brought Families?! on board my starship?!' kick.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[classicdrogn]

Indeed - but the bulk of my reply to that remains, even if there's not a (smirk) boatload of teenagers around. As to the duration question, that never left my mind - there is absolutely no choice for the ship but to turn back, just the two days spent partying and recovering from said party means they can only make it back to Starbase Two at Alpha Centauri rather than Sol - the original calculations gave a bit more of a comfort zone in reserve, but were based mainly on scaling up data from the smaller cola/uncola powerplants built up to that point, which turned out to be a little over-optimistic. Suggestions were of course made to press on, make first contact, and bank on the ability of aliens capable of extrasolar exploration to give them a ride back or an engine upgrade, or if they were unwilling to cut away the emptied fuel tanks to reduce mass, but all such were vetoed in the end - there's no point to any of it if the chances taken didn't pan out, and they never return with the news. The Miranda is turning back, immediately, and will only be doing flybys in the last few stars on their direct course on the way home.
That trip will therefore push the Recreation subdepartment of Medical to new heights to keep everyone occupied, but the best morale booster will remain they they have succeeded - they have found new life, and a new civilization, even if no direct contact was established.
- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
For the next 72 hours, Itachi intoned, I will slap you with this trout. - Spying no Jutsu, chapter 3
"In the futuristic taco bell of the year 20XX, justice wears an aluminum sombrero!"hemlock-martini
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[robkelk]

---

The Miranda is turning back, immediately, and will only be doing flybys in the last few stars on their direct course on the way home.

---

Like this one (unless they stopped there on the way out - it's only 150 light-years from Sol, after all).

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[classicdrogn]

Um... OK. If someone with relevant software and interest wants to figure out an actual course for them to have followed, of the pattern "loong curve out, straight back" so that points on the curve cioncide with a couple of historical novae/supernovae looking back near/past Sol, more pow r to ya. In the meantime... they could quite possibly pass/have passed "closer than Earth" one way and get a much nearer flyby going the other way, so mention can be made of comparing the three sets of observations.
- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
For the next 72 hours, Itachi intoned, I will slap you with this trout. - Spying no Jutsu, chapter 3
"In the futuristic taco bell of the year 20XX, justice wears an aluminum sombrero!"hemlock-martini
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[M Fnord]

Actually, this brings up something that's been bugging me since the Miranda idea first got floated.
As I recall the original spec, the Miranda was put together by the Trekkies and the various SETI programs. Now, the Trekkies might be up for just blindly running off into deep space in a straight line - that sort of thing goes with the Trek mission, but the SETI guys? They're scientists, with a pretty specific area of study - extrasolar intelligence - and to do that, they've got a map.
The HabCat has 17,000 stars in it, each of which is considered a potentially habitable system. If they're looking for intelligent life (which given their involvement makes more sense than the current mission as stated) then they've already got 17,000 targets to choose from.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

The Miranda's stated purpose is "Serious Astronomy" - while looking for habitable planets certainly counts, so does exploring quadruple-star systems with dust rings. I suspect the ship's course will be a compromise effort, stopping at at least one system of interest to each backer...

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[classicdrogn]

Serious Astronomy (and its offshoot, Serious Extrasolar Planetology) was how they got the universities on board with grant money. The ability to get a radiotelescope away from the increasing Fen sky pollution and have dedicated waved and hard computer time analyzing the signals recived got the SETIs in, and the whole "let's go fly out into the Deep Black and look for new planets and life forms, adventure and really wild things!" was how they sold it to the Trekkies to get private donations and make the balance of the requuired budget - not to mention finding a ship's worth of people crazy enough to actually want to go that far from any back up for that long.
As to the "United-Earth Star Ship" moniker, they literally got a contribution of some kind from every nation on the planet, even if they had to send someone there to specifically solicit it, and even if it was completely trivial. They also got a couple from Antarctic science station personnel, so every continent is covered also.
That this means the title should really be "UESS Miranda" is politely ignored for genre convention purposes. The ship is registered to The Miranda Consortium, not Starfleet, but has an honorary Starfleet registry number anyway, and general crew conditions and behavior (the on board culture, so to speak) is TNG movie/DS9/Voyager style, as previously noted.
That the Trekkies also brought a mostly-worked out suite of wavetech to the table, quirk-low and with lots of examples in service, was an additional benefit that should have been obvious but in fact only came up in the meeting after tryingnto recruit them as an organisation wa proposed, when people had had time to do some research on the matter.
- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
For the next 72 hours, Itachi intoned, I will slap you with this trout. - Spying no Jutsu, chapter 3
"In the futuristic taco bell of the year 20XX, justice wears an aluminum sombrero!"hemlock-martini
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[robkelk]

(blows dust off thread)

The Squidleighs are now on the FenWiki, since Mal put a link to them in the Interstellar box.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Rajvik]

RE To Serve Squidleigh: So not going there. At all. Even if it was my subject line.

(there were a couple of REALLY poisonous Australian snakes that ended up aboard by accident, as well, but exact disposition of those has not been determined as of yet...)
  
Sauteed is the best, though fried works as well
and the snakes were tasty