Category: Report

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Away Team Report: (2011.0804) Kennedy Space Center – Trek Exhibit

Broken shuttlecraft rides, fake Vulcans, and so much Trek memorabilia. 

While on shore leave in the Florida sector, I received word from Starfleet that the Kennedy Space Center had not one, but two Trek related points of interest. I immediately plotted an away mission. The Space Center had been running an educational live-action show, called ‘Mad Science presents Star Trek Live’, for some time. This performance, aimed at introducing young cadets to basic scientific principles, was also joined by the traveling museum of ‘Star Trek: The Exhibition’, which together made for the Kennedy Space Center’s ‘Sci-Fi Summer’.

Star Trek: The Exhibition seemed to focus most heavily on TNG memorabilia, which had it’s own, large area right at the entrance. TOS, on the other hand, was relegated to hiding in the IMAX theater. They had a Trek themed ride on site, but alas, it was broken. Since it was a motion simulator that traveled with the Exhibition and not a permanent installation, I can’t help but wonder what I missed.

While wandering the grounds of the Space Center, you could see some ‘Vulcans’ hanging out in their 21st century Earth street clothes, presumably waiting for own their scheduled performance of the Star Trek Live science show.

If either of these exhibits ever come (or in the case of Star Trek: The Exhibition; returns), a full scale USS Loma Prieta away mission is certainly in order.

~En. Nicole Lippman
Operations Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

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Captain’s Blog … Stardate 2011.0920

Captain’s Blog, Stardate 2011.0920…

September is shaping up to be an exciting month for the intrepid crew of the USS Loma Prieta.  In addition to expanding our usual monthly meetings to a bigger venue to accommodate our growing numbers, we’re also scheduled to conduct our most large scale Away Mission to date, and will begin our first community involvement project and hands-on training course.

Lately, the bridge of the USS Loma Prieta has felt a little cramped. But lucky for us, Ensign Andy Smith has volunteered his residence at Houseku Station for our next meeting. Equipped with a projector screen for ARTEMIS tactical simulations, a ready-room style table for staff meetings, and even a vintage Next Generation pinball machine, tomorrow’s meeting is going to take things to a whole new level.

Next up is our away mission to the Darkroom on Mission St to see the final performance of Star Trek Live: The Way to Eden. Initial scans conducted by Yeoman Cindy Bee indicate that the performance is as absurd and entertaining as it sounds. Because this away mission involves temporal displacement, the crew is under strict orders to don 23rd century (TOS) style Starfleet uniforms, and to interfere with the timeline AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!!!

Last week, several senior staff members began training with the San Francisco Fire Department in disaster response skills, with the end-goal of becoming certified NERT (Neighborhood Emergency Response Team) volunteer disaster workers. The 2nd class (of 6) is scheduled to convene Thursday (9/22) evening, and it’s not to late to join up for the remainder of the classes.

Let’s also not forget that September 30th is the three month anniversary of the launching of the USS Loma Prieta and marks us one third of the way through shakedown as a full fledged Starfleet chapter. We have a solid core group of senior staff members and some great activities under our belts; now is the time to focus on recruiting new members to Starfleet.

See you tomorrow evening at the staff meeting.  Perkins out.

~Cmdr. Zach Perkins
Commanding Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

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Away Team Report: (2011.0723) Apollo 11 Day – USS Hornet

Apollo 11 Day: Shelby Cobras, F-14 Tomcats, and Astronaut Ice Cream.

On Stardate 2011.0723, a small away team from the USS Loma Prieta ventured out to the USS Hornet memorial and Apollo 11 splashdown anniversary on Alameda Prime. The crew (Cmdr. Zach Perkins, Lt(jg) Tom Hesser, Lt(jg) Brian Schroeder and Yeoman Cindy Bee) boarded the Runabout Outback and headed toward the Alameda system by means of the Bay Bridge warp conduit.

While the crew fully expected to see an aircraft carrier, an Apollo command module, NASA-era space suits, and a wide variety of fighter jets and helicopters; they were surprised to be greeted on their arrival by a fleet of two dozen vintage Shelby Cobras. After spending several hours exploring the halls of the old ship, riding the ancient hydraulic aircraft lifts to the flight deck, sampling barbaric forms of cuisine (that offered no vegetarian options), the crew culminated their mission by riding in a pre-warp prototype of a shuttlecraft they Hornet docents called a “flight simulator”.

All in all, a highly successful away mission.  Perkins out.

~Cmdr. Zach Perkins
Commanding Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

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Away Team Report: (2011.07xx) Comic Con – San Diego

San Diego Comic Con 2011: Rule of Acquisition #3 Embodied

San Diego Comic Con is the vacation you need a vacation from, if you do it the way I do it. Which is to say: you have three entirely disparate crowds of friends who all gather there for a five-day span, and all want to hang out with you. The end result is that there’s a lot of drinking, and while you spend a lot of time on the con floor, you don’t really retain a lot of it.

I did see some Star Trek-related stuff, though: A buddy of mine and I have been looking for a classy model of the Enterprise-C or D for a while, and it’s becoming apparent to us that it’s not going to happen. You can find toy versions that make noises and light up, but what we want is a metal one suitable for display in, say, a shipboard conference room. There’s one company that appears to be prototyping just such a model, but it’s of the Enterprise from the JJ Abrams reboot, which is fine, but it’s no Ambassador or Galaxy-class. I talked to a guy at the booth who said they’d probably make one if the demand was there, though.

There was another booth whose name I forget [Anovos], that was responsible for quality replicas of TNG and reboot-era uniforms. They were, in fact, so high-quality that they completely priced themselves out of any of our range — $500 being the low starting point. Yeesh. Rule of Acquisition #3: Never pay more for an acquisition than you have to! This booth was also handing out Lance Armstrong-style rubber bracelets, but they were gold, blue, and red, with the mottos TO BOLDLY GO, LIVE LONG AND PROSPER, and EXPENDABLE on them, respectively. Three gold and one blue are in my possession, and will no doubt go to the worthy. I should’ve looked around for a booth that sold replica Klingon pain sticks; there’s always enough science fiction weaponry at SDCC to outfit an entire army.

Next time, I’ll have Star Trek-related stories from Comic Cons past to tell you!

~Lt(jg). Jon Sung
Helm Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

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Personnel Report (2011.0729)

Greetings crew! Welcome to the USS Loma Prieta’s first personell report. First up, we’ll cover promotions and Academy graduations, followed by crew strength and then a breakdown of the roster by crew position.

Congratulations to the following officers who recently passed Starfleet Academy’s Officer Training School (OTS) and received promotions to Lt (jg).
-Lt (jg) Tom Hesser
-Lt (jg) Brian Schroeder (with Honors)
-Lt (jg) Jon Sung

The USS Loma Prieta presently has a crew strength of 10 officers registered with Starfleet, in addition to 4 unregistered crewman. Of our 14 crew members, 2 are correspondant members (non-local).

The ship’s crew structure is as follow, with positions being grouped by division. There are several new positions here which will be included and further defined in the upcoming edition of the chapter handbook.

CO – Cmdr. Zach Perkins
XO – Lt. Samantha Dolgoff (acting)
Yeoman – En. Cindy Bee

Helm Officer – Lt(jg) Jon Sung
Navigation Officer – En. Andy Smith

Chief Science Officer – Lt. Samantha Dolgoff
Xenoathropology Specialist – Crw. Jenny Wilson

Engineering Officer – Lt(jg) Tom Hesser
Warp Propulsion Officer – Lt(jg) Brian Schroeder
Replicator Systems Specialist – Crw. Pete Hottelet

Operations Officer – En. Nicole Lippman
Quartermaster – En. Tria Connell

Tactical Officer – En. Ben Roodman
Security Crewman – Crw. Steve Band
Security Crewman – Crw. Micah Jolly

Medical Officer – vacant

~Cmdr. Zach Perkins
Commanding Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4