October
Cromwell wishes to express their gratitude for allowing us to play on Devu while the DFA was upgrading the ship, We had some interesting encounters with the Mounties and camping, and Coffee shop Bob and even a 'runabout' runabout, where our helmsman Red, help apprehend a smuggler making a run from Devu II. We are still working on where this Emergency Engineering Hologram came from that appeared to help Red...Is he a plant from the Dakkus shipyards? It may not be a question as the program was lost on the shuttle Red used to shut down the smuggler.
Science Labs are up and running (minus any players to run them) on Cromwell, and the crew sets off from Dakkus shipyards on their first adventure. We are to escort a space migratory species through the DFA territories, which makes us space cowboys I guess. But like any good western (Or Delta as the case may be) unexpected and expected bad guys will be showing up. Commander MarQ's evil brother, bent on killing his older brother for a sickness that is being brought under control has a rendezvous with Cromwell, soon.
And like all westerns, there are the lovable ladies of the saloon; in this case Dejah's infatuation with a princess, living on Devu II. And to Dejah's credit, she is slowly convinving Commander Sesgaard "They need to make a humanitarian run to d'Alex (The princess' planet) to win hearts and minds." And perhaps overthrow the current goverment and place the princess back on the throne.
Unfortunately Lt. Maris and Lt Jinx manage to shut down all holographic console interfaces and shut down the EMHs as well, which delays the start of the trip somewhat. Their quick action may have saved the ship.... or doomed it. Only time will tell. And why were the holodeck computers overloaded with holographic characters? Slippery devils they were, first framing Jinx as unstable, then attempting a combine threat/plea to the captain and JAG to save them from erasure. Martis' counter cyber-attack was unexpected and shut them down. The systems are slowly being rebuilt while our newest adventure gets underway.
The cromwell crew has just been upgraded from DFAMC, who thought it wise, considering both Col Dejah and Captain Reynolds recieved recent promotions, to provide them with a new company of Marines. In this case, a Band of brothers....With instruments.
Just as we were getting acclimated to our new ship, holographic shipmates, and stations (and our new Barrista Bob who Cromwell crew practically kidnapped from Devu II to make coffee for them under the guise of winning a holiday with his wife) a Visitor shows up on the Bridge, just to put that sweetener in the coffee (or Hholaer as more and more of the crew are falling for the Romulan concoction). Welcome Q to our little adventure.
What are Q's motives? He hasn't let slip yet, or has he? Next month more will be revealed, part'ner.
November
Cromwell encounters giant space jellyfish, and Q shows up to challenge the Cromwell crew. After baiting and insulting the captain and crew, he poses the question to them "Why are humans out here in the Delta Quadrant?", and "Are the crew really willing to follow the (new) captain down with the ship?". Q decides to test them.
For Q, time has no meaning, and without waiting for answers, whisks the command and crew of Cromwell off to a luxury passenger liner. The Captain and crew slowly begin to realize they have been placed aboard Titanic, and the date is April 14th, 1912. Each of the crew has been placed into a role of a passenger or crew of the original Titanic.
As the crew scrambles to unravel why Q is really testing them, each have to deal with their own trials, which are beginning to eerily resemble those of the the Titanic roles they have taken on. Pregnancy, technology, honor, protection, survival; the crew face difficulties as they come to grips with the realization the entire crew of Cromwell is now on Titanic, and unless they change history, 2/3 of them will die.
The crew adapts, but finds at each turn, history has reasserted itself. A coarse change leads them into a different ice field. Messages sent and received are still disregarded because of local command structure. The Cromwell crew even inadvertently duplicates those actions of the roles they have taken on that turn out to be counter productive. Michael's sending the ship south (into a different icefield that had been present) and Jinx pushing the engines (Which his role character on the Titanic also did) come to mind.
The clock is winding down, Ice has just been spotted, and despite the lack of any significant collision, water is already filling the bilges of Titanic's hull. History tells them they should have another hour and forty minutes before the collision. Is it destiny or is it fate?
Next month may find a significantly reduced crew on Cromwell.
Additional Background: Lots of really good ideas about how to prevent the Titanic from sinking with Cromwell Crew aboard from the crew. Both back channel and posted ideas have been floated (no pun intended), and quite a few of them are being implemented. The crew has done their research into Titanic and found most of the proposed causes of the sinking and moved to prevent them. Other actions as simple as changing coarse, or even trying to return to France have been considered...Even more outlandish conspiracy theories were investigated. As we close in on the appointed hour, changes are truely starting to creep in, perhaps they can change destiny after all. The wrinkle, as always, is what is Q up to with this?
Devon Alexander
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