Inspired by Star Trek

LOTLOF said:

The Captain's place in on the bridge of his vessel. He would not be part of the initial survey team / exploration. That would be what the marines and scientists on board are for. I agree that one thing the original series was bad at was always having Kirk and members of the senior staff in the dangerous position of scout. On several occasions Captain Kirk was cut off from the Enterprise. While it is never addressed, the fact is this is utterly irresponsible on his part. The Captain's job is to make decisions based on the information his people uncover for him. Not to go out and get the information himself, that would be a lietenant's or a sergeant's responsibility.

Your story could simply have different characters in different roles, which is how real world militaries behave. A three star general is not going to go out and scout the enemy lines himself. Likewise a ship's Captain should not leave his bridge to do a job a lieutenant would be perfectly qualified for.

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The way I had it was The Captain went AFTER the contact/exploration/science teams just to look around for himself before they left.

So I've done some thinking... and I've come to a conclusion.

What would the 'Pilot' be about?

I think that the Pilot should include the characters, the setting, and the mission. Explore new worlds, find new tech and uncover the mysterious of the universe while trying not to be killed by the next Space Amoeba.

So... maybe have an Earth research outpost call for help and The Ship, because its relatively close, is diverted from its mission to investigate?

Something I cobbled together.


2047:

• Invention of the Artificial Intelligence.

2062:

• A number of armed conflicts rip through South America as collapsing governments, various independence groups and criminal organizations clash over ideological differences. Within a few years these conflicts incite additional conflicts all over the planet.

2069:

• Mars is colonized.

2078:

• Researchers announce the development of the Phase Jump Engine, a practical means of propelling spacecraft at superluminal speeds across vast interstellar distances. This new engine punches a temporary hole into “the Phase” (also called “Phase Space”). Phase Space allows for faster-than-light travel without relativistic side effects.

2091:

• Launch of the EX-21.

2093:

• The Bonaventure is launched, beginning Earth’s interstellar era. Bonaventure is the first Phase Space-capable vehicle built for interstellar expeditions. Her sister ship, Columbia, undergoes testing one month later and is launched three months after Bonaventure.

2110:

• The Heart of the Storm is launched. The first of twelve colony vessels that are currently under construction, Heart of the Storm spearheads the colonization of a new world in the Toliman system. Its sister ship, Pacific Storm, is launched four months later.

2113:

• The United Earth Accords is signed. One of the first acts of the nascent United Earth Government is to unify the planet’s individual space navies into the Interstellar Fleet. The Colonial Authority is also established to help the UEG govern Earth’s colonies.

2118:

• Humans make first contact with the Epsilon Indi Star Empire.

2124:

• The ECS Marco Polo under Captain Lucio Diaz has the distinct misfortune of making first contact with the remnants of the mysterious Orion Tyranny. The ship is destroyed.

2130:

• Construction of Reliant begins.

2132:

• Reliant is launched.

1. The Phase Jump Engine is taken from Sins of a Solar Empire. Its just too cool of a name not to use. Re-use.
2. Bonaventure is from Star Trek. I stumbled on it, read it, and liked it.
3. The United Earth Accords is also from Star Trek.

thothguard51 said:

So you're writing fan fiction...

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Eh. I needed something to write the basis. Names are names, titles are titles. I don't like doing anything without a basic foundation of sorts.

Or the whole thread in general?

WriterTrek said:

Looks good but... I'd personally change the name of the Reliant. That's a fairly well known ship in the Star Trek universe.

Granted if you've differentiated yourself from Star Trek enough by the time it comes up it doesn't matter, but I kept thinking "Star Trek!" when I saw you mention it in your post.

Edit: I know you took some other ideas from Star Trek as well but they didn't jump out at me quite like that one did, which is why I mentioned it specifically. Looks like a fun story! I'd give it a try.

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Yeah, I needed a hero name and that was the second name that came to mind. I'm still plotting the, ah, 'episodes' so everything is still up in the air.

2050-2056:

• World War III is fought between Augments/Superiors and Humans/Normals. Lots of stuff is blown up and terrible things happen. Civilization ends. The Augments lose in the end because they don't have clear leadership and they sort of shot themselves in the foot.

2062-2070:

• Tyag Castillo tries to take control of anarchy-ridden South America. His campaign ends when the reestablished United Nations steps in. The political remnants of various governments begin exerting their influence and peacekeepers are sent around the world to restore order. Things get a little better.

2078:

• The first translight ship is launched. It blows up on its return trip but its still hailed as a success. The pilot is regarded as a hero.

2079:

• A brief nuclear exchange.

2080:

• Mars is properly colonized. Originally the rich and somewhat disillusioned fancy folk built "luxurious" private habitats on the Red Planet. Now the "common folk" are setting up their own homes.

2082-2090:

• The last of the "Wars of Antiquity" are fought.

2103:

• The last of Castillo's Warlords is captured on Mars after trying to foment a rebellion with the Mars colonists and exiled Augment population.

2108-2125:

• The Lunar Wars/Crisis starts a campaign against the overly zealous Church of Second Light. The anti-Augment and fanatical members are driven off Earth, Luna and Mars. Some seek refugee in the asteroid belt. Their leadership buys a planet in the Pollux (Is there any cooler name for a star? Yes. There is.) system. Ironically they have become a independent entity from Earth and her colonies.

2110:

• The first colonial expeditions are launched. Each expedition is made up a few cyrogenic ships and seed ships of embryos.

2113:

• The International Colonial Administration is formed. It looks over the construction of colony ships and colony management.
• The Interplanetary Services is formed. Funded by Earth's most powerful spacefaring nations, it protects their interests in the solar system.
• The Explorers Corp is formed. To explore strange new worlds and find new races.

2115:

• The protagonist is born.

2130:

• The Sculptures of Wolf 359 (and later Procyon) are found. They depict strange and alien creatures, none of which have been found.

2134:

• Sigma Draconis is explorered. Its a gold mine of alien ruins and technology stretching back millions of years, to a few thousand years ago. The worlds in the system are irradiated or riddled with craters. The hulks of dozens of ships and space stations float here and there. It doesn't seem these Draconians had faster-than-light travel.

2138:

• The United Nations Space Administration/Authority is formed, expanding the UN's capabilities with a space fleet and colonial security forces in the aftermath of the Lunar Wars and the conflicting interests of the Interplanetary Services. The IPS is folded into the UNSA. The UNSA’s military forces are eventually called “Peacekeepers” by the public and the name is adopted.

2143:

• A Explorer ship contacts the mid 20th century-era inhabitants of 11 Leonis Minoris.

2145:

• One of the protagonists of this idea accidentally causes a nuclear war on the Leo's planet. While the reason is not revealed the protagonist is booted out of the Corps. This is the death knell for the Explorers Corp as their duties are taken over by other agencies.

2147:

• The NAUS Atlas answers its own distress beacon.

2149:

• Ramona Garcia discovers the extinct Garci civilization in the Procyon system. They were a pre-industrial civilization. Only skeletons are found.
• A project to build a next-generation warship begins.

2150:

• The Explorers Corps closes shop.

2152:

• First contact with the Tauri/Taurus Empire. It does not go well. A Cold War begins.

2155:

• Three prototypes for the next-generation warship are built. While impressive and larger than the average ship, they are riddled with design flaws. One is scrapped, another is destined for the junkyard and the last is bought by the ICA for use as a cargo hauler. A smaller but equally lethal ship emerges from this failure.

2158:

• For a decade (or two) an alien defense system around Achird and Mu cassiopeiae have deterred explorers and privateers. The starship Monarch manages to survive one attack thanks to advancements in technology. A few of these attack drones are brought home and taken apart. It is later discovered that these drones are protecting a planet covered by the decaying ruins of a massive city. There don't appear to be any inhabitants.

2162:

• The ICA refurbishes their warship-turned-hauler into a oversized explorer. Its named the Audacity. Why? Because who knows!

I am in a happy mood today. I lost my flash drive in the computer lab, and found it again a few hours later! Thankfully someone turned in to the front.


So. Is this better?

So I'm sort of stuck on the reason WHY you'd send a ship out to explore. The "Golden Age" ended in 2150's because there too many dangers and mistakes. The Achird drones blowing stuff up. The Leo's getting nuked because of Protagonist's Folly. Sigma Draconis being a dead system. The first contact with an alien races leads to hostilities. No one wants to explore. Maybe the last gasp of the EC?

I do have some 'plot' ideas if anyone's interested.

thothguard51 said:

Your time lines are way too early for most of what you are plotting. Just establishing a small colony on Mars is going to take hundreds of years, and more money than the gross national revenue of most countries.

There was a reason Star Trek Voyager ships were downsized from the larger Enterprise class type of ships. Cost and materials...

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Well tis timeline is a mush mash of several background files I had.

Before 2080 there maybe a half dozen 'colonies' on Mars. The few that survived the decades of isolation weren't doing so well. There were
Maybe one or two serious attempts to colonize Mars. They didn't pan out. After the wars Augments were transported to Mars as Popsicles. My thinking is that they are dropped In a old habitat. They can be kept an eye on far from Earth and Normal people.

The 2080s saw people wanting get off Earth. Maybe a few hundred or a thousand in total before people realized, hey, why try and live on a world where we can't breathe when we can live on a new world just like home. So Mars gets passed over. It's cheaper to get to mars and 2103 saw the Terraforming Project but no one really expects it to have any lasting impact.

Yeah. I don't think this answers anything. Hmmm. I'll get back to this.

FTL:
This has gone numerous revisions. FTL allows for ships to travel from one star to another in a matter of weeks to months. Its an instantaneous jump. But each jump erodes the engine and they can't be repaired, only replaced. So there is a maximum number of jumps before you're stranded.

FTL is also dangerous.

1) The ship arrives at its destination a derelict. There is no one aboard. Everyone is just gone.

2) The ship arrives at its destination. Everyone aboard is dead. There are signs of battle but no hostiles. This lends credence to "jump-space monster" movies and thrillers. "There be Dragons" and that sort of things.

3) The ship arrives at its destination... but not at the proper time. The ship is a derelict, floating some time in the past. This is rare but there several documented cases. The UN has several agencies considering this. Too much knowledge can alter the balance of power. So one department to keep track/record all Accidents. Class, name, year of departure and arrival. Another would look into their tech and cultural impact if any. Payment to ships who report Accidents. This leads to attempts to fake Accidents or cause them on purpose. If a man does this to himself and his past self hauls his ship back, does he get arrested?

This might lead to conspiracy theories:

• Possibility of alternate realities and changed histories. What are the implications? What is real? Suspicion that this agency is keeping secrets from the public?

• Consequences: Time War? Future Man and Alien will use these Accidents to help their own futures. Wars can be avoided or pre-empted. Decisive First Strike. Investors/wealth folks can send ships back with financial news. Leaders can alter decisions or policies with private vessels. Key stopping point is that Accidents can't be caused or forced. They're called Accidents for a reason. Its random.

• Though humanity doesn't know it, the reason the Tauri/Taurus don't like humans, is because their entire civilization was nearly wiped out by a Human ship from an alternate timeline. A bio-weapon killed billions.

Accidents aren't common. But they do happen.


As for communication, its done via courier ships, ships whose sole purpose is to transmit messages at FTL speeds. Some ships use courier drones that are sent to the nearest space/repair station.

The "Protagonist Ship/Audacity" has the first built-in FTL communication... dish. Beacon. System.

lpetrich said:

Looking in Wikipedia, I found some lists of notable ships used by explorers in past centuries. Some possibilities:

Adventure, Atlantis, Apollo, Aurora, Beagle, Challenger, Discovery, Dolphin, Endeavor, Endurance, Enterprise, Nelson, Odyssey, Resolute, Resolution, Santa Maria, Victoria, Vostok

Or one can name ships after notable explorers:

Pytheas, Cheng Ho / Zheng He, Vasco da Gama, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, Captain James Cook, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, ...

Category:Exploration ships - Wikipedia
List of explorers - Wikipedia

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Huh. I actually google'd this and got a bunch of links to the same website. I never once got the wikipedia page. Rather obvious to look at wikipedia.

Thank you very much!