From FEInfobase

Latest revision as of 21:38, 12 September 2011

STAR TREK FICTION
Star Trek: Perseus
Author(s):	Cath
Setting:	2405
Website:	Pending

Premise

The USS Thunderchild-A was a celebrated vessel of the latter half of the Borg War, made famous by its daring captain and tenacious crew. Often considered to 'out class' their own ship, when the conflict ended Captain Robert Callahan and his crew were promised the first new ship out of the Fleet Yards that could be spared. It took several years, but in 2403 the USS Perseus, a Sovereign-class vessel, was commissioned and the crew relocated.

Now with some of Starfleet's finest technology at their fingertips, the Perseus' crew find themselves as the First Fleet's 'long patrol'. The furthest reaches of Federation territory is their most common stomping ground, in an age when border patrol might mean months of silence, fending off pirates, handling incoming refugees, or some the nightmare scenario of the first whispers of a Borg return.

However, the Perseus' troubles do not solely lie at the outskirts. From their earliest missions, the crew fell afoul of the Federation's insidious law enforcement department, Starfleet Special Investigations, and that organisation has since kept a close eye on the ship. Such tensions are made worse by the fact that their own captain is the son of SSI's Director Logan Callahan, in a universe where familial relations and professional conflict never mix well.

The galaxy is also an unknown entity within and without. Although the crew are veterans of the war and long allies, the war is over. The lifestyle that brought them so close together does not exist any more, and even as threats come to them from the darkest recesses of space and the brightest beacons of the Federation, men and women scarred by conflict must learn how to exist in the half-peace that is the world of FE, and hope to emerge with their morality, friendships, and lives intact.

Characters

Primary Characters

Command Staff of the USS Perseus

• Captain Robert Callahan (Commanding Officer, Human Male from Taurus VI)
• Lieutenant Commander Natalia Del Vecchio (Executive Officer, Human Female from Earth)
• Lieutenant Commander Claire Tauvits (Chief of Operations, Human/Andorian Female from Earth)
• Lieutenant Matthew Grayson (Chief Engineer, Human Male from Earth)
• Lieutenant Dalival Braeden (Chief Flight Control Officer, Betazoid Male from Betazed)
• Lieutenant Lucas Van Roden (Chief of Security, Human Male from Darek III)

Starfleet Personnel

• Rear Admiral Logan Callahan (Director of SSI, Human Male from Taurus VI)
• Lieutenant Colonel Hurgh (FMI Battalion Commander, Klingon Male)

Secondary Characters

Crew of the USS Perseus

• Lieutenant Junior Grade Evelyn Bennett (Chief Science Officer, Human Male from Lunar)
• Lieutenant Junior Grade Gabriela Zielinski (Chief Communications Officer, Human Female from Earth)
• Master Chief Petty Officer Zauritz Norr (Chief of the Boat, Angosian Male from Angosia III)
• Lieutenant Richard West (Chief Medical Officer, Human Male from Alpha Centauri)

Starfleet Personnel

• Lieutenant Commander William Thorne (Intelligence Liaison Officer, Human Male from Earth)
• Lieutenant Commander Jeric (SSI Field Investigator, Andorian Male from Andoria)

Out of Character Overview

The crew of the Perseus were originally conceived as NPC flavour characters to man the USS Thunderchild when that vessel was attached to the Star Trek: The Angry Apes game. During the short-lived foray into making the Thunderchild a playable ship, the crew were transferred off the vessel. As Cath Stinton had derived most of the crew together from either aged characters, PC or NPC, in mainstream continuity or the offspring as such, they had come with their own background and personality when put together on the Thunderchild, leaving Cath thinking it would be a waste to abandon such a cast just because a game didn't need them any more.

The initial short stories relating to the Perseus were devised around the original concept for the crew as the focus of fiction: to be used for snap-shot tales of your everyday crew coping with events in FE. The very first story, for example, showed how the death of Fleet Admiral Picard shattered through the ship's normal life. At a time in Futility's End where 'normal' ships that were not devoted to deep exploration did not exist as playable sims, Star Trek: Perseus was meant to offer those everyday insights.

Major novella Defiance was initially penned to change all of that. The plotline was originally conceived as a springboard for a larger story, where Cath had idealised the crew of the Perseus leaving their vessel and Starfleet and going rogue to combat corruption within the Federation. Intended to put the crew on the legendary SS Redemption, they would then sink into the darkest midsts of the Futility's End world. Thematically inspired by the TV Show "Firefly", this idea was abandoned as the writing of Defiance took longer and longer to finish. Two-thirds through, Cath changed her mind, deciding that the original concept of using the Perseus to showcase the Federation was a more fruitful plan. This was compounded by the debut of the game Star Trek: SS Starlight which encapsulated the themes and ideas of the rogue ship already.

As such, Defiance's ending was altered to keep the crew in Starfleet. The concept returned to that of keeping them an everyday crew, facing the challenges of any starship in 2405. Beyond the physical threats of a dangerous universe, the crew are also confronted with old Starfleet mentalities and powers battling the new, with the dire option laid at the feet of those people used to war trying to cope in a new, strange, uneasy peace: adapt or die.

Star Trek: Perseus was also where SSI made their debut beyond off-hand references in FE, and Defiance is where the majority of the ground was laid to establish them as an organisation, in both physical presence and in defining their reputation, motivations, and nature. SSI's continued interference with the Perseus, running parallel to the father/son conflict between Logan and Robert Callahan, is one of the major themes of the story.

Episodes

Episode 0: Three-Ring Circus

The crew of the USS Perseus settle down for the end of their shakedown cruise, just as the news of Fleet Admiral Picard's death arrives to rock the boat even more.

Episode 1: Defiance

A standard request from SSI to help one of their operatives hunt down a rogue Starfleet officer goes horribly wrong when the renegade is murdered before he can be brought to justice. Why did Director Callahan not want him to go to trial? What information hides behind the encoded PADD he stole? And to what lengths will SSI go in trying to keep these secrets?