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CHIEF SECURITY OFFICER’S LOG (2013.0223): #BATTLESTATIONS!

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[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.
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[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).
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[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
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Pics: February 2013 Artemis Simulations

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Away Team Report: (2012.1129) TNG Season 2 Remastered in Theaters

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July’s theatrical screening of remastered Season 1 episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation had been amazing. After seeing TNG in theaters, we never wanted to watch it another way again. But alas, we knew it was a once in a lifetime event, and we’d never have the joy of viewing the Enterprise-D on a movie theater screen again.

Lucky for us, we were completely wrong.

At the end of November, the crew of the USS Loma Prieta was once again tasked with the joyful mission of beaming down to the Century 9 theaters in San Francisco, this time for a screening of ‘Q Who’, the first dramatic appearance of the dreaded Borg, and a special hour plus extended version of ‘Measure of a Man’.

The Borg on the big screen were terrifying! The medium lent itself well to conveying the truly massive scale of the Borg cube. While ‘Measure of a Man’ in contrast is a more static episode than ‘Q Who’, where the action almost entirely takes place in a single court room setting, the theatrical setting still greatly enhanced the drama.

Since this screening took place almost immediately after the Creation Entertainment San Francisco Star Trek Convention of November 2012, uniforms were deemed optional for the away team. But lo and behold, every single member of the USS Loma Prieta away team showed up in uniform. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, that’s just the kind of top class crew I’ve got.

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

Away Team Crew Manifest:
CAPT Zach Perkins
CMDR Jon Sung
LCDR Tom Hesser
LT JG Jesse MacKinnon
EN Cindy Bee
EN Andy Smith
EN Chef Spencer Scott
EN Shawn Alpay
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Away Team Report, Supplemental (2012.0218) Starfleet Special Ops ADU-008 Debriefing

[THE FOLLOWING REPORT HAS BEEN DECLASSIFIED PER STARFLEET INTELLIGENCE DIRECTIVE AB132. ELEMENTS HAVE BEEN REDACTED PER STARFLEET SPECIAL OPERATIONS OPSEC PROTOCOL]

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On Stardate 2012.0218, the USS Loma Prieta received orders to infiltrate the Creation Con Star Trek Convention on Earth in San Francisco, California. The Convention was taking place mere miles from Starfleet Headquarters and the Academy, so potential security risks required the involvement of SFSO Intelligence assets. Unbeknownst to the convention’s delegates, the members of the USS Loma Prieta’s Starfleet Special Operations team (ADU-008, aka “Section 8”) was tasked with a recon mission the day prior to the crew’s away team beaming down. Unfortunately while the ship’s Chief Engineer, LCDR Tom Hesser, and I were interrogating a high ranking Gorn officer (TOS actor Bobby Clark), a member of the local media captured a picture of our activities. Thankfully at this point, maintaining our cover wasn’t high priority. It was determined that there was little risk to the rest of the Loma Prieta crew, so it was deemed suitable for the away team to beam down in full uniform the following day.

Prior to the convention, ASU-008 discussed the possibility of recruiting new Loma Prieta crew members to our ranks. A challenge was devised and executed.  An intelligence gathering mission in the form of a scavenger hunt was issued and accepted by a good number of the crew.  While many participated, there was only a few that really excelled in searching out all of the listed items. One of the requirements of this hunt was that it was required to get a holo-image or video of the piece of intel in question (see mission orders below):

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By the end of the convention invitations to join ADU-008 were offered to three people. LCDR Tom Hesser accepted and was awarded with an SFSO pin denoting his new status on board the ship.  Other offers went out to LT(JG) Amy Sloan and LT Jesse MacKinnon. Due to her amazing intelligence gathering skills and other great work on board the ship, Commanding Officer (and covert operative of ADU-008) CAPT Zach Perkins promoted her to Chief Science Officer and awarded her the rank of full Lieutenant.  Her and LT MacKinnon decided to defer their acceptance into ADU-008 for now. In light of her new duties, Lt Sloan didn’t want to put her job as Chief of Sciences in jeopardy.  I can appreciate that and have held the offer open both her and MacKinnon. They have both proven themselves worthy of joining SFSO’s ranks.

This report has finally been deemed unclassified for Fleet consumption as all of the information contained herein has been processed and found to be in compliance with standard OPSEC measures.

Currently, as I write this I come from the head office where we are in discussions of upgrading a lot of our systems and am working my way to help set up an excellent tactical training simulator that was created by Artemis systems. The crew of the USS Loma Prieta will be putting on a public demonstration of this new system and details of the even can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/360287100744873/. 

CAPT Erik Roberts
Chief of Security/Tactical
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

Team Leader
ADU-008 “Section 8”
Starfleet Special Operations

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Away Team Report: (2013.0210) The Stanford Savoyards present HMS Pinafore: The Next Generation

Members of the USS Loma Prieta beamed down to Palo Alto on Saturday, February 2nd to see the Stanford Savoyards performance of H.M.S. Pinafore: The Next Generation. H.M.S. Pinafore is a classic Gilbert & Sullivan comedic opera, but the Savoyards turned an old production into something a little new and different by changing the setting from an 1800’s sailing vessel to a 2300’s starship. This was a remarkably easy transition due to the similarities of the settings and there was no problem with suspension of disbelief.

There are no scene changes and so the entire show is set on the bridge of the USS Enterprise. The songs and story itself were true to Gilbert & Sullivan’s piece, with only a few word changes here and there. The show opened with many actors already out on stage laying flat on the floor, waking up disoriented as the lights came up. From there it was quite the delightful romp sitting there wondering who might walk out on stage next from the Star Trek universe. Most of the choices for who the Gilbert & Sullivan characters would mirror in the Trek universe were quite logical, and the acting was great from all the leads. In addition to the main characters you would expect from The Next Generation, featured characters were: Lwaxana Troi, Admiral James T. Kirk, and a contingent of Original Series alien ladies headed up by an Orion Slave Girl. There was even a very fun cameo made by a multitude of tribbles.

The venue was large enough to warrant having at least hanging mics, let alone having the leads individually wearing mics, but unfortunately neither was to be found. Our group was sitting about 5 rows back and we had trouble hearing the actors half the time. I can’t imagine that the people who were in the very back were able to hear much at all. When we could hear, however, it was almost always pleasant. Most of the leads were quite accomplished vocally, with one or two outshining the others, but the chorus as a whole left something to be desired. I realize that this was not a professional performance and the singing shouldn’t be judged as such, but I was nonetheless underwhelmed by their chorus.

The set itself was simply magnificent. A lot of work and attention to detail went into recreating the bridge. The helm stations swung out, and the doors leading onto the bridge opened just the way they do in the television show. They even had a view screen projected onto the wall, which was effective and well-done. We had the opportunity to go on stage afterwards and the set looked just as great close-up. Their costumer made all the costumes the actors wore; nothing was bought pre-packaged, and they all looked great. It was easy to recognize who all the characters were supposed to be, and on that note the makeup was also well done. The production staff as a whole was really what made this show extraordinary and worth seeing.

If you’re interested in learning more about their recreation of the USS Enterprise bridge, or their show in general, you can view their tumblr here: http://starshippinafore.tumblr.com.

Lt. Amy Sloan
Cybernetics Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4