U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901

/||\ ----------------------------------------------
/ || \ UCIP Starfleet Command, Eighth Fleet
/ || \ U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901
.-/ || \-. Fleet Captain Tebrun Lora Kor, Commanding
./ || \. ----------------------------------------------
.-_-. || .-_-. Simulation Teaser
-_ \||/ _-. -[ SD 240201.28 ]-

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/ Simulation Teaser |
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<<The story of this teaser begins with...

http://www.jestertrek.com/coro2400/simtrans/reports/coro417c-t.html

...and will be continued in future teasers. Foreshadowing: a valid literary
technique. ;) Enjoy.>>

=/.= June 4, 2431 -- Reunion Square, Churchill Downs, Reorsa =/.=

The boys wandered back as Joe Fisher finished telling his granddaughters the
story about Reunion Day and the people that had been involved in it. Fisher
looked over at the statue again, a ghostly half smile on his face.
Commander T'Lara and the others -- his own image included -- did not smile
back. They never did.

Fisher's reverie was interrupted by the younger of his two grandsons, Baker.
"Grandpa Joe?" he asked. "One of those men over there said that you were a
Destiny plackholder," the boy said, pointing at Fisher's lapel pin. Baker
was nine, and reaching that stage when children become fascinated with adult
rituals... right before they begin developing rituals of their own. "What's
a plackholder?" Baker asked. Fisher's other grandson, Joe Warren Fisher --
called "Little Joe" by everyone except his grandfather -- was also clearly
curious, though he would have died before admitting it. Little Joe was
thirteen, with all that implied.

"Plankholder," Joe corrected, pronouncing the word carefully. "I'm a
Destiny plankholder," he said, squatting down near Baker and holding the
lapel pin where he could see it. Little Joe also looked, while trying to
look disinterested and mostly failing. "Hundreds of years ago, on Earth,
the people there built sailing ships -- like sailboats on Meyer IV, but much
bigger -- out of wood," Joe said. The boys were suitably impressed by this.
Fisher continued. "When they launched these ships, the first crew of the
ship were called plankholders. Each of them received a plaque with a little
piece of wood from what was left over after the ship was finished, as a
momento." Joe, warming to the subject, started to continue but was
interrupted.

"Grandpa? What's Earth?" Baker asked.

Liselle, the eldest of Fisher's grandchildren at nineteen, fielded this one.
Liselle was Little Joe's older sister, and was studying to be a teacher.
"Earth is a place, Baker," she said, voice somewhat patient. "The planet
where your Daddy goes sometimes."

"Yeah, don't you know anything, stup?" Annie said, Fisher's 12-year-old
granddaughter asked in a somewhat condescending tone. Annie was Baker's
older sister. "It's on the other side of the Jjaro's catapult!" Annie
added. She was constantly trying to prove her superiority to her brother.
This might have set off an argument between Baker and Annie -- the two were
always sniping at each other about something, but Fisher headed it off.

"Lots of places are on the other side of the Xanadu Catapult, honey," he
said to Annie, grinning at Baker, who smiled back, argument forgotten for
the moment. "Anyway, how do you know about the Jjaro?" he asked her.

The girl turned a somewhat smug look on her brother. "We're learning about
them in class," Annie said. Baker stuck his tongue out at her, which she
ignored with a sweet smile. "A S'pht even came to our school!"

Fisher nodded, but he had to struggle to keep his expression neutral, even
approving. Once upon a time, the S'pht had been a horror inflicted on his
people, on their braid allies, on their technology... and now they were
visiting Reorsan schools? Times were definitely changing. If he'd been
alone, he might have laughed at the fossil he was becoming. Instead, he
nodded and continued the story.

"Anyway," Fisher said, "the first crew of a ship nearly always were part of
the team that actually built the ship. That's why a piece of wood from the
ship's construction was a good momento for them." The children's parents
nodded. Momentos of important occasions were important on Reorsa and her
colonies, where tradition was held in higher esteem than power or material
wealth. "As humans advanced, they stopped building ships out of wood, of
course, but they kept the tradition, and the first crew of a brand new ship
are still called the ship's plankholders... and they still receive momentos
for the occasion," Fisher finished.

Little Joe, uncharacteristically quiet, suddenly piped up. "What was it
like when Destiny was launched, grandpa?" he asked. That Fisher had been
part of Destiny's launching crew was of course family legend... but it was
rare that Joe actually talked about it.

Fisher considered the question for a long time before answering. "Well,
I'll tell you, Joseph... what strikes me the most now is how desperate we
were at the time -- how scared," he said finally. Fisher's daughter,
Lorene, swung her head up to look at her father with a kind of shock. The
expression wasn't lost on Fisher, who nodded. "Yes, even me." He paused,
remembering, and when he continued, his voice was lost in thought. "Pfhor
attacks were coming in thick and fast that winter, and a lot of us were
starting to wonder if we'd be alive to see the summer..."

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Crew Roster:
Commanding Officer: FCapt. Tebrun Lora Kor (Jester)
Executive Officer: Cmdr. William Daren (Daren)
Marine Commandant: Col. Jeremy Ironside (Fraser)
Command Liaison Interface: Cmdr. Savant (Savant)
Chief of Operations: Cmdr. Olme Tlaloco (Tlaloco)
Chief Tactical Officer: LCdr. Sieven Drexler (Brad)
Assistant Tactical: Lt. Kyle Marcy (Marcy)
Chief Flight Operations: Lt. JG Ananda Wilk (Baralu)
Intelligence Officer: Lt. Kariasa Ma'Aru (Kari)
Chief Science Officer: Lt. JG Kathleen Hammond (Kath)
Company Commander: 1Lt. Jacob Prescot (Shadow-FjP)
Squadron Leader: LCol. Thomas Wayne (Masters)
Wing Leader: 1Lt. Craig Serrold (Aggie)
Chief Engineer: Cmdr. Zunite Oswald (Sonya)
Assistant Engineer: LCdr. Jack C. Farley (CCC)
Assistant Engineer: Lt. Aramis Skylooker (Skylooker)
Systems Specialist: Lt. JG Caring-Thoughts (Alffred)
Chief Medical Officer: Lt. JG Jason Thompson (Thompson)
Civilian: Alados ha-Soron (McC)

On Extended Leave of Absense:
Wing Leader: 2Lt. Andrew Stylus (JadeFalcon)

Positions Available:
None!

----------
Ross Glenn aka Jester
Fleet Captain Tebrun Lora Kor, U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901
http://www.jestertrek.com/coro2400/