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Security Report: (2012.0714) SFSO? – An Intro to Starfleet Special Ops

Posted by Erik Roberts on 2012.0714
Posted in: Report, Security.

What is SFSO? Starfleet Special Operations command is the group for those who have an interest in the Ground Operations/ Combat side of the fleet universe.  Although never actually mentioned in cannon, it is a safe assumption that the military arm of the United Federation of Planets would have combat trained ground forces, should the need arise.  Multiple times throughout the various series and movies, the need has arisen.  The SFSO is the intelligence gathering arm of Starfleet, both Covert and Military Intelligence.  We are sort a cross between the CIA and Military Intelligence.  We have rangers, SEALS, Force Recon, Covert Intel, and MACO.  We are essentially Starfleet Intelligence.  Some of the more notable people in TOS and TNG were most probably SFSO.  Colonel West in VI, Kirk, Sulu, Uhura, Picard, Worf, and Dr. Crusher were Specops Trained for the Cardassian infiltration.  As were the MACO’s in Enterprise.

So what does SFSO do? That is the beauty of SFSO. Sure there is a manual. Sure there are academy courses (one of the bigger colleges at the Academy by the way).SFSO’s academy courses are written by former military members and also have real-world applications and information. They are more than just movie trivia. But there is not much dictating what you *have* to do. The main goal of Starfleet Special Operations is to have fun and give the member a slightly more militaristic way to play without all the hard nosed regulations fru-fru of the Starfleet Marine Corps.  We provide an outlet for those who just want something a little different that the standard vanilla Starfleet experience.

So what are you waiting for? Check us out at www.sfso.sfi.org, or contact me directly at sfso@sfi.org if you have any questions.

~Capt. Erik Roberts
Chief Security Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

Deputy Director
SFSO – Operations

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[Above: The special pin available only to SFSO members]

Joint Science Log: (2012.0502) April Science Report and Departmental Summary

Posted by Amy MacKinnon on 2012.0502
Posted in: Report, Science.

THIS WEEK IN STELLAR CARTOGRAPHY: 
Stellar Cartographer Ensign Shawn Alpay here! Captain Perkins wanted me to provide you some context on a few very exciting stellar occurrences happening this week.

Saturday May 5 at 0835 PDT will yield the largest full moon of the year. The perigree of this “supermoon” will generate the largest tides seen in some time, exerting 42% more tidal force than the apogee two weeks later. To residents in the Loma Prieta’s San Francisco sector, I can happily report that such events harbor no known link to earthquakes.

Also this week is one of the best chances in your lifetime to see Venus with the naked eye. ‘Sol II’ will be best observed about an hour after sunset; it appears in the night sky beneath and to the right of the Moon. It’ll be closest to Earth on June 5th, but by then its phase will be thinner, due to its angle towards the Sun. At that time, however, we’ll be able to observe an eclipse-like Transit of Venus, during which the planet travels over the Sun; get your solar observation equipment handy, because this won’t happen again until 2117!

Speaking of eclipses, our next solar eclipse will occur in November, but you’ll have to be somewhere near the Oceania sector for the best view.

Finally, your moment of Zen: a binary star dubbed Sagittarii 2012 exploded into space last week. Of course, this occurred many years ago, but only now do Earth-dwellers observe such splendor. Google ‘Sagittarii 2012’ at your LCARS terminal to see a video of the nova’s appearance.

~Ensign Shawn Alpay
Stellar Cartographer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

APRIL SCIENCE REPORT:
The Beginnings of a Positronic Brain: Great headway is currently being made by Earth’s cyberneticists and the quest to create a sentient android. The BrainScaleS project has succeeded in launching their first prototype of neuromorphic hardware that emulates parts of the humanoid natural brain. It is an eight inch large wafer equipped with 51 million artificial synapses. In three years, when they are finished with the project, the artificial brain will be able to re-create neurological processes 10,000 times faster than in human brains. No doubt this research will be the building blocks that will lead to Dr. Noonien Soong’s success in creating a positronic brain.

Earth Claims Discovery of Oldest Planets: Recently Earth astronomers came upon the oldest alien planets discovered yet: 2 Jupiter-sized planets that were formed before the Milky Way galaxy was even formed. These 2 planets are estimated to be 12.8 billion years old and are 375 light-years away. No word from the Federation yet on whether a ship is going to be re-routed to explore these ancient planets.

Distilling Alcohol in Space: Long space missions can be very difficult to endure, so it is important to keep the ship’s inhabitants in good spirits—to that end NanoRacks LLC, with the assistance of Ardbeg distillery, is conducting a two-year experiment to create better alcohol for our comrades exploring the far reaches of the galaxy. Unmatured malt has been sent to the International Space Station orbiting Earth, where they will see how it develops without gravity. Everyone is very excited about the experiment and what will be learned about the chemical building blocks for new flavors.

~Ensign Amy Sloan
Cyberneticist
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

Away Team Report: (2011.1117) Academy of Sciences – ‘Into Space’

Posted by Chief Engineer on 2012.0123
Posted in: Away Missions, Report, Science.

Chief Engineer’s Log: Having successfully traveled back into the early 21st century, we arrived at the California Academy of Sciences, and the crew of the USS Loma Prieta split into teams to examine various aspects of this historic building which. By the mid 22nd century, this bastion of scientific wonder was relocated to make way for the construction of Starfleet Headquarters and Starfleet Academy.

Leading the Engineering team, and accompanied by Ensign Cindy Bee, we proceeded to examine future engineering technology as it applied to space travel during the early 21st century.  Our attention was drawn to the NASA table containing the Kepler project. The Kepler project, or just “Kepler”, is NASA’s first attempt to find class M planets outside our own solar system.  At this point in Earth history, the only manned space exploration has been to the Earth’s moon.

Using a specially designed, very sensitive, wide-field telescope called a photometer, Kepler seeks to detect planets that can support life, by detecting light from nearby stars that is periodically blocked by orbiting planetoids.  Kepler was launched into orbit around the Earth’s sun (Sol) on March 6, 2009  and functions as a very precise light meter. Data from at least three transits of a planetoid must be collected in order to ensure that it is indeed a planet orbiting the given star. Transits occur when the orbit of a planet is along our line of sight to a star. These transits can last from a few hours to about half a day and happen once per orbit.

Once enough data has been collected, scientists can determine both the planet’s size and its orbit from the transits. The planet’s size determines if you could have a life-sustaining atmosphere. Knowing the orbit and type of a star, scientists can determine if the planet is in the “HZ” of that star. The HZ refers to the “habitable zone” and is the range of distance from a star where liquid water can exist on a planet’s surface.  With the current understanding of carbon-based life, water is required for the chance for life to develop on a planet outside our solar system, at least life similar to our own. Of course, finding such a planet does not guarantee that it will support life, but this is the first step that NASA has taken to determine this without resorting to further manned missions within the galaxy.

Kepler is pointed at a rich star field in the Cygnus and Lyra regions of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and continuously monitors more than 100,000 stars to look for planets.  In the early 21st century, the world was still using a system called the Internet to communicate and store information. By current Starfleet standards, the system was laughably inadequate. Using this medium, information regarding the project could be found at the internet address of http://kepler.nasa.gov. It is amusing to note that Starfleet crews have visited thousands of class M planets in its history, and one has to wonder if the Kepler project had detected any of those beforehand. Upon completing our research, myself and Ensign Cindy Bee concluded our reports and went in search of synth ale, however it hasn’t been invented yet so we had to drink a regional version of beer instead. I have to say, programmers for the replicators and manufacturers of synth ale should really come back in time and get some samples of beer so that they can more closely duplicate the flavors. If only the Academy had been dispensing whiskey, now that would’ve been a wonderful history lesson.

~Lt. Tom Hesser
Chief Engineer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

Away Team Report: (2011.1113) Rendezvous at Comic Con Austin

Posted by Zach Perkins on 2011.1121
Posted in: Away Missions, Conventions, Report.

The past few months on assignment in the Texas Nebula have been quiet and lonely. Much to my enjoyment, I was notified that the USS Navras and other Starfleet vessels of Region 3, would be rendezvousing in Austin for Wizard World Comic Con 2011!  I immediately grabbed my communicator and contacted Crewman Natalie Raff to ask her to join me for what was to be an interesting away mission.

Not having the foresight to don 21st century attire, we were immediately spotted before even entering the building and made to pose for pictures.  Upon entering we were amazed at the amount of people and creatures that had traveled from distant star systems to congregate at Wizard World (kind of a small world btw).  Apparently some had even traveled through time, as we were told by a pair of “Storm Troopers” that they had come from a distant galaxy long, long ago.  Their technology wasn’t quite as advanced though as they could only travel at “light speed” instead of warp.  There was even a fellow who claimed to be a god named Thor, but when faced with a phaser to his head he admitted to his mortality.  There must have been some major disturbances in our timeline because there was even a picture of a Captain Jean Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise set up at one of the booths.

We couldn’t allow ourselves to be distracted by any of this as our primary mission was to make contact with the USS Navras crew.  We searched high and low and were about to contact the Loma Prieta to report a failed mission, when I spotted Fleet Captain Reed Bates, the Region 3 Coordinator!  We were both very happy to run into each other in such a strange place. Fleet Captain Reed informed me that the Navras crew had ended their away mission early and headed back to Dallas for debriefing.  She also wanted me to let the Loma Prieta know that if they’re interested in conducting some war games that they would like to engage in a round of ARTEMIS!

Having verified the whereabouts of the USS Navras we decided to explore the other cultural aspects of Austin.  We found ourselves wandering the streets of the East Austin Studio Tour where artists, painters, sculptors, and other craftsmen were showcasing their work.  We even ran into a gentleman with the same last name as me who had a painting that looked strangely similard We discovered a most interesting piece that displayed a cutaway of an internal combustion engine with moving piston and rockers. Such a quaint mode of vintage transportation.

After the art tour we were asked by some of the locals to join them at their favorite watering hole.  The bartenders welcomed us with open arms and even invited me behind the bar to act as guest bartender!  We ran into a couple of young ladies who apparently had been in contact with the Vulcans as they greeted us with the Vulcan sign for prosperity. After a night of heavy celebration it was time to call the mission a success and end the night with something called an “Irish Car Bomb.”  This may have led to climbing things and making silly faces, but I honestly don’t remember.

In conclusion, Ensign Jolly would like to highly recommend that the USS Loma Prieta embark on a away mission for next year’s Wizard World Comic Con in Austin.

~ En. Micah Jolly
Security Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

Away Team Report: (2011.1105) …The Search for Sonic

Posted by Chief Engineer on 2011.1116
Posted in: Away Missions, Report.

In recent months, Starfleet has been receiving reports that there has been an increase in traffic to the Gamma quadrant, an area to the galatic east of San Francisco. Upon further investigation, Starfleet agents were able to find references to a place called “Sonic” among leaflets being distributed by the Ferengi. Concerned, Starfleet asked the USS Loma Prieta to send in a covert operation of specially trained crew into the Gamma quadrant to find the answer.

Unfortunately, Cmdr. Perkins was occupied at a Starfleet Security conference, and couldn’t attend the mission. Instead, Lt. Jon Sung was given command of the Runabout Egon to lead an away team consisting of myself (Lt. Hesser) and En. Andy Smith. Lt (jg) Ben Roodman, having visited Quark’s the night before, was indisposed and could not make the mission. (Personal log: remember to look up Starfleet disciplinary policy for crew members missing away missions due to overindulging in synth-ale)

Following the directions we received from Starfleet Intelligence’s Google branch, we eventually came upon the trail of starships leading us to the fabled Sonic in the region of “Hayward”. It was then that we made the most shocking discovery of the mission that will shake the foundations of Federation archeology for decades to come; the mythical planet of “Sonic” was in fact not a planet at all …but a space station run by some rather entrepreneurial Ferengi.

Interestingly, Sonic does not require you to transport on to the location itself, but allows you to pull up your vessel and request replicator uploads directly to your craft. You can also have a representative from the Sonic deliver non-replicated food directly to your craft with a helpful smile. Oddly, these representatives traveled using footwear with wheels attached. Later research into Starfleet’s databases revealed these items to be called “rollerskates” and were used frequently in the mid to late 20th century.

Among the faire sampled were “hot dogs”, “bacon cheeseburgers”, “tots”, “onion rings”, and “mozzarella sticks”. Tricorder scans showed the food items to be very low in nutritional value, yet they were surprisingly delicious. There was also a drink sampled by myself and Ensign Smith which left their tongues surprisingly numb. Scans collected on the beverage will be forwarded to Starfleet Medical to find out if there’s any danger posed to the group. The crew concluded that the mission was a great success and no threat to Starfleet, although there were indications that there would be a strong Ferengi foothold in the Gamma quadrant if the success continued.

~Lt. Tom Hesser
Chief Engineer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4