Star Trek: The Quadratic War

[rhoenix]

Just to head this off before it comes up Lys, your captain won't know that Captain Solheim was part of Section 31. His service record and bio are both quite ordinary for a member of Starfleet, as is Doctor Melisande's, not to mention the other Starfleet personnel.

Commander Inzeti's records you would likely know from the Romulan Empire's time. Her records would be notable not just for her repeated successes, but also for her disdain for nepotism, something that got her ship assigned as long patrol.

[Lys]

Yeah, I figured that much rhoenix. Actually the only person who might still be alive and Ishtar suspects, not knows supsects, to be a Section 31 agent is a woman she knows by the alias Mila de Winter. They were friends, even though they were on opposite sides of the intelligence war, and had a quid pro quo arrangement. Miss de Winter denied being a Section 31, saying she was scouted by them but rejected for being such a loose cannon, but Ishtar believes that it's precisely because she's such a loose cannon that she couldn't be Starfleet Intellegince, else they would have stuck her in a safe desk job after the first couple of incidents. The handful other Sect 31 agents Ishtar found are either long diseased or false identities she wouldn't recognize now. It also got harder to find any leads on them as time wore on, to the point she began to think they were starting to actively avoid her. Maybe they just got better at hiding their tracks. It's far more likely for Solheilm to know Charvanek, she definitely wouldn't know him. Like I said, to her Section 31 are ghosts, it's momentous enough she even knows they exist.

Oh, also, forgot a major detail in my post: Enriov Charvanek is speaking perfect Klingon. Need to sleeeeep more, so I don't forget things so much!

[Agent Fisher]

Wow, with all this intrique and spy vs spy stuff, I feel like my little Sammy B. is so boring in comparision.

[Lys]

There's an easy answer to that Agent Fisher: Moar Booorg!!!!

You cannot do any intrigue or cloak and dagger against them, which is what makes it funny we have so many intelligence types around. Charvanek's neither a soldier nor a spy though, she's something baser and more deceptive all the same: a politician. It's just... Romulan politics.

But yeah, clearly we need moar Borg for Sammy B. to shoot at!

[LadyTevar]

Havoc? Did all my torpedos I fired before the Humboldt showed up miss? I set off all my tubes RippleFire, remember?

And I just had them all lock and fire again this time, if it's still moving.

[Josh]

Honestly when I stuck Yhrea on the ship, I didn't even realize how hip-deep we were in Romulan intrigue. I just wanted a cool spook on my ship.

[rhoenix]

Honestly when I stuck Yhrea on the ship, I didn't even realize how hip-deep we were in Romulan intrigue. I just wanted a cool spook on my ship.

Man, even I didn't intend this much in the way of Romulan shenanigans when I made my ship and crew - though I probably should have expected it at some point.

[Lys]

For my part, when I picked the Romulan Commander from the Enterprise Incident as my character's mother, I just wanted a hook I could related to into the universe. As it happens the unamed Commander is one of my favourite characters from Star Trek. Her daughter seemed like a good fit since Romulans are so long lived, and that was the start and end of my thought process.

Then I went and did some research and found that the EU had made the Commander, named Liviana Charvanek, go places, very far places. I mean, she has an aunt who was an Empress on one side of the family, an uncle who was Emperor on the other, became a major figure in Romulan politics, married the Praetor, and became head of Internal Security herself. I just ran with it, because why not?

So my character turned out to be a member of the Romulan elite, which means by default she's up to her eyeballs in Romulan intrigue. I swear, when I first conceptualized her I thought it was Klingon intrigue that I was setting myself up for... and the best part is that may yet still materialize! I just now realize the worst part is she's related to the Imperial family, in a post-apocalyptic situation where most of said family is dead and there's a power vacuum amongst what remains. Gods, Ishtar is really not looking forward to having to sift through the implications of that if there's ever any time to.

I think the lesson to be learned here is that Romulans imply intrigue, you can't ever have one without the other.

[Lys]

Okay, I seriously have no idea if my last post is replete with brilliance, chocking on stupid, or some unholy abomination of both. I'm going back to bed.

[White Haven]

Well, you would know that basically nobody but you (and the dinky D-12 but you wouldn't know that yet...) can cloak in the Badlands without being, er, incinerated due to being shieldless. Even in your case, there being a pocket of not-plasma being shoved about by the fact that you still have shields could be...problematic, even if nobody can see what's doing the displacing. At longer range, of course, there's too much plasma soup to clearly see a bit of not-plasma-soup where soup would be anticipated.

[Lys]

The plasma visibly flowing around the invisible ship's shield bubble is only a problem in the dense parts of the Badlands. Remember that the concentrations of plasma in the storm range from near star-like to near empty-space. That's why Gilgamesh has been able to emergency cloak without frying itself. There are parts where you can do it safely, the problem is that the storm keeps changing unpredictably so a spot that's safe one minute might be engulfed in a tower of raging star matter the next, which would be bad if a ship caught in it happens to have no shield. In order to stay hidden, Khanjar would have to consciously avoid the spots where the plasma is thickest, but as you say those spots themselves obscure anything happening within them, such that nobody can see anything moving trough beyond close range.




The plan here is for the stealthier ship, which must work with passive sensors, to be guided in by the ship that's emitting everything it can into the surroundings. That way the exterminator can be ambushed at close range and wiped out in a single volley before it has time to see and report anything. Charvanek didn't fully explain it to Kadon, but I believe she gave enough information for Kadon to quickly put it together himself, especially since a second later he'd get to watch Khanjar start cloaking and not experience a complete shield drop before the cloak fully engages. She is trying to earn his trust by both revealing her ace in the hole, and volunteering to basically be blindly at his mercy. Any logical protocol involving communications between cloaked ships would require tight beam communications, and for those beams to reach their targets, the cloaked ships need to constantly update their positions. Which means Khanjar is at half shields, with passive sensors, and Riskdah knowing her exact location.

Now to see if all works, because I still don't know if I'm being very smart or very stupid.

[Josh]

My prediction is that we will blow some Borg shit up.

Then there will be more Borg.

Then we will blow some Borg shit up.

Then we'll be out of torpedoes and crew and shit.

Then there will be more Borg.

Then our asses will be assimilated.

I'm having a blast, personally.

[Josh]

I just realized, Havoc has reinvented Space Invaders for our modern day.

[youtube][/youtube]

And yes, I played the shit out of that game when it came out.

[Lys]

Pretty sure Riskdah would detect the frigate well before it can fire on it, even in the badlands, hence the point of Khanjar rushing on ahead.

I did write Charvanek was speaking klingonaase. Though I was unaware there were two Klingon tongues. I take it that one is more upper class and the other more lower class? In that case she'd be fully fluent in the upper class one (klingonaase), and only conversant in the lower class one (tlhIngan Hol). She would also pick the former to talk with Kadon knowing what she knows of his background.

The statement about the prize is declarative, as in, she's informing Kadon that something of great worth hides in the Badlands. She means the Romulan fleet tender. Tone of voice doesn't carry over text, and it was my mistake for not writing clearer.

Still, Kadon's analysis of Ishtar's character is a very good, and I really like it! ^_^

[Cynical Cat]

Well, here's the thing. There are multiple klingon languages. There are, among others, the one we see in the movies and tv and the one in The Final Reflection. My klingons are based on The Final Reflection, which happens to be pure awesome in book form. You said you were speaking klingonase, not klingonaase. The -aase suffix is really important in so, since you didn't spell it with the aase I took it to mean you were speaking another klingon tongue. It's not a class thing, but there are philosophical and worldview assumptions built into the language. It helps explain the difference between screen and book Klingons, which are in part reconcilable because TNG and DS9 writers borrowed stuff from The Final Reflection.

[Lys]

I see, and I'm sorry for causing confusion. I don't know as much about Klingons as you and haven't read The Final Reflection, though I have heard of it. I have been taking my cues on Klingon behaviour primarily from the TOS and you, actually, which is why none of mine act in a brutish, rash, or Viking-like fashion either. It's also why it's General Denkara and not a General Denkar. Heck the only character I've described preferring melee weapons is a Romulan, though her reasons for not using guns mostly boil down to, "Not my job."

If there's a particular philosophy and world-view associated with each Klingon tongue, then Ishtar would be drawn to most political of them, which from your and Kadon's comments I imagine to be klingonaase. That would be the one she spoke with total and complete fluency, and also the one her officers would speak. I modelled Denkara after Kadon's kind of Klingon, albeit with more swagger and panache, and her officers are be cut from similar stone. It's important to note that the General's decision to seek death in battle had far more to do with her psyche collapsing in on itself, than any honest belief there was honour to be had in it. Her officers not opposing was more due to her sheer charisma than cultural expectations. That's part of why Ishtar feels so guilty about killing Denkara; she believes it was her duty to safeguard her friend's mental well being and failed. There's other reasons, but later.

If tlhIngan Hol is most common tongue among Klingons, then Charvanek would probably be at least conversant in it for convenience. She wouldn't have used it to talk to Kadon though, because what Mirai told her about him would be enough to conclude that the one she knew best was better suited. Also, even if there wasn't a class difference between the two, it's probable that most Rihannsu do see one, since social rank is very important to their society, and the socially superior Great Families are inextricably linked to their politics (using this guide, among other things). So the sophisticated warrior-philosophers who play the great game of empire would seem to them of an inherently higher class than the brutish berserker raiders.

[Cynical Cat]

The brutish berserker bit relates to the Klingon sense of humour, specifically mocking other species' stereotypes of them. A comparison might be made to Latin and Greek in the Western Roman Empire. Latin was more widely spoken, but Greek had more "intellectual" cred.

[Lys]

Right and a Persian noble who was like Ishtar would on those grounds be more inclined to be fluent in Greek and settle for only the basics of Latin. (There would also be geography at play, but ignoring that part.)

[LadyTevar]

Amusingly, you may have used the lesser tongue to throw him off and make him underestimate you, Lys. Then you can surprised him later with your knowledge of Klingonaase

[Lys]

I suppose so, but it wasn't really what I was trying to do. It would be pretty clever to first communicate in the less sophisticated tongue she speaks less well, then later use the more sophisticated one she's perfectly fluent in, but don't know what that would accomplish except be clever.

[rhoenix]

I suppose so, but it wasn't really what I was trying to do. It would be pretty clever to first communicate in the less sophisticated tongue she speaks less well, then later use the more sophisticated one she's perfectly fluent in, but don't know what that would accomplish except be Romulan.

There - fixed that typo for you.

[LadyTevar]

DUH... it means when they try to talk "Over Your Head" in Klingonaase, you can just smile and reply in that language.

Think the movie "Braveheart", where the advisor speaks to the Princess in Latin, and Wallace shows he speaks not only Latin, but French.

[LadyTevar]

BTW: I do wish to apologize for any harm done to the Humboldt should it once again decide to position itself between my previously launched missiles and where my target was at that time. As I recall, that was how it got hurt the LAST TIME.

In short, CT, Keep Your Vessel Out Of My Way.

PS: WHY did you think I needed help, anyway?

[Josh]

[youtube][/youtube]

Thematically-appropriate musical bump.

[Lys]

There - fixed that typo for you.

DUH... it means when they try to talk "Over Your Head" in Klingonaase, you can just smile and reply in that language. Think the movie "Braveheart", where the advisor speaks to the Princess in Latin, and Wallace shows he speaks not only Latin, but French.

You two make valid points, I should have thought of that. ^_^;