Captain's Log: QSD and The Icarus Factor
Posted on Thursday, 23 July 2020 - 2:00pm by Captain Barret Stillwater
Captain’s Log
Stardate: 71379.06202435306
Commander Barret Stillwater recording:
My return Starfleet was not one of my own doing; however, it was a choice that I made in order to bring some light back into the dark corners of the Federation and its swift hand of Starfleet. I never thought that I would be so attached to this new command of the standing bear to feel the sensations that I am currently feeling worried, attached, and longing for being back in a familiar chair on the bridge. The USS monarch is a fine Starship, put the standing bear she is not. Aside from the basic cosmetics, the monarch lacks the weapon tree and of course to speed and maneuverability understanding bear. Goes without saying well the monarch does not have the quantum slipstream drive that the standing there has either. I find it amusing that only a few months into the standing bear service and the recent developments in quantum slipstream technology, that starships such as the Astraea are following in our footsteps. I recently saw that she was lost, fortunately not with all hands, and the Captain back on her feet and granted an Odyssey class starship. Though we were not the only QSD equipped starship in the 11th Fleet, it seems we will soon be joined by others. Perhaps, some captains in the fleet are jealous or envious of the work that we have done so far, or they are simply having midlife crises.
My one and only hope are that the young up and coming Commanding Officers who receive their new toys equipped with Slipstream technology understand how their ‘supped-up explorers’ actually work. There is no easy way to put it and I see no reason to sugar coat it. I am a man who will always call a spade a spade. You can put a QSD on a starship and call it an explorer, but the men and women aboard them, especially those in command will make use of their QSD, pushing it to its limits and exploiting the tactical advantages that it may have. I would not want to be an engineer nor scientist aboard those starships with the inexperienced at the helm, trying to explain to them why you cannot simply snap your fingers as though you were Q and suddenly be wherever it is you want to go. It is a fool’s errand to hand QSD on a silver platter so some of these mad hatters. The Captains of today remind me of politicians, not generals.
Pakelds in some ways. Yes, these individuals with their commands do indeed remind me of Pakleds. We are in a world of hurt if they start trying to put QSD on starships more often, especially when it is not ready for mass production and implementation on the final frontier. I am not the most technical minded man nor scientific by any means, but I understand the limitations of power and resources, the unknown factors, and how science and technology though mystifying to some, is a sophisticated parlor trick, but it is not magic. Cloaking technology does not make one invisible. It simply fools the eye and or fools’ technological eyes in the form of sensors, but for every cloaking device designed, there are advancements in detection, and unmasking the phantom is part of the fun. Should we abuse QSD, we will find ourselves flying too close to the sun and our wings will be scorched and we come crashing down to Earth, flightless forevermore.
END CAPTAIN’S LOG
Authors Note:
Stardate Calculator used for log
