[ABOVE: The view from the Main Bridge]
Per Starfleet regulations, the USS Loma Prieta has long since conducted shipboard tactical drills with great regularity. Finding current systems somewhat lacking, the crew sought out a third-party provider for our simulations, and not too long ago happened across a promising holodeck program called “ARTEMIS”. This wasn’t our first go around with a major ARTEMIS based tactical simulation, but it was by far our most ambitious, involving many other ships and crews. The fleet-wide drills were headed up by our First Officer, CMDR Jon Sung, and the ship’s Tactical Officer, LT(jg) Michael Owens. Accompanying them were Chief Engineer LCDR Tom Hesser and myself.
Utilizing co-working spaces in Starfleet Headquarters San Francisco (a location code named: WeWork), we set up two mock bridges and began running the simulations. As part of an unofficial recruiting effort for Starfleet, the decision was made to bring in civilians so they could see the amazing opportunities that existed in the high-stakes, fast-paced life of a starship bridge. The simulation was a bigger success than was originally planned, and ended up being attended by over 120 people. We even had the pleasure of having the commanding officer of the USS Golden Gate, Admiral David Nottage, in attendance along with several of his Marines from the 49th MSG and 13th MEU, as well as a civilian scientist Brian Johnson representing the creators of the ARTEMIS system.
[ABOVE: CAPT Perkins tackles the Gorn and the crowd goes wild]
There was only a slight security breach: a Gorn prisoner broke loose from his shackles, overpowered me and the Marines from the USS Golden Gate, and attacked our commanding officer, CAPT Zach Perkins. Thankfully the Captain, being an honors graduate of the “James T Kirk School of Hand to Hand Combat”, swiftly took down the Gorn in a matter of seconds. It didn’t take me long to recover, and I quickly took the Gorn back into custody for immediate evac. The rest of the evening went off without a hitch (save for a few technical difficulties that were quickly tended to by LCDR Hesser).
[ABOVE: LT(jg) Nicole Lippman, EN Tiffany Bukowski, LT(jg) Ben Roodman]
I must make mention of the incredible Ten-Forward staff we had on
hand, headed up by EN Tiffany Bukowski, EN Kelly Jensen, and LT(jg) Nicole Lippman. Manning the airlock/front of house was LT(jg) Casey Koon, EN Jessie Philipp, EN Andrew Rogge and LT(jg) Ben Roodman. At some point in the evening, there might have been a slight malfunction with the synthahol replicators, because they neither tasted like nor had the same effect (or lack there of) as true synthehol. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that some people might have been … intoxicated. Strangely enough, it didn’t seem to grossly affect the quality of the various bridge crews — in fact, it made the simulations almost infinitely more fun. If only I could have gotten away with that in my Academy days!
Due to the event’s overwhelming success, Starfleet has asked us hold yet another ARTEMIS tactical simulation. After some system upgrades, we’ll definitely be doing this again in the near foreseeable future. Look for us under the code name: #BATTLESTATIONS.
Until then,
Roberts out.
=/= CAPT Erik Roberts
Chief Security Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4
Team Leader
ADU-008 “Section 8”
Starfleet Special Operations