Columbia - Suggestions please...

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction' started by Methos, Sep 1, 2012.

  1. Methos

    Methos Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2012
    Location:
    Hiding under Gaila's bed...
    A few of you know I've been working on writing a NX Columbia fic for a while now, incorporating a few of my favorite characters into a crossover style fic and working along the premise of the NX Columbia's missions...

    Now, I'm just finishing up the 'pilot', so to speak, with the Columbia leaving earth with their compliment of crew... I'll be trying to stick as close to canon as possible with this, so here are the dates i've got so far...

    November 30th, 2154 - Columbia was launched

    December 21st, 2154 - Columbia assists Enterprise in the recovery of Doctor Phlox and helps the Klingons with the Augment virus. Chief Engineer Tucker returns to the Enterprise.

    May 2155 - Columbia is ordered to protect the shipping lines of the Coalition of Planets after attacks by Klingon ships, after defending several attacks, they discover the Klingon ships are being manned by Romulans.

    July 2155 - Columbia defends Alpha Centauri from a 'Vulcan' attack, learning that the Vulcan ships are crewed by Romulans again. During the attack, Columbia takes heavy damage, including their communications array, leading Earth to believe they had been destroyed by the Romulan's until Enterprise is dispatched to investigate the possibility, and finds Columbia heading back to earth on minimal power.

    March 2156 - While escorting a mining convoy from the Onias Sector, the Columbia was attacked by a group of Romulan starships. The Romulans used their telecapture system to take control of the Columbia and use her to destroy the convoy. The crew of the Columbia then faked a self destruct by detonating a photonic torpedo simultaneously with a brief warp jump. The close explosion of the torpedo fractured their warp core, leaving them stuck with only impulse engines. Captain Hernandez ordered the ship to set course for a planet that long-range scans picked up. In order to get to the planet without warp drive the Columbia pushed her impulse engines to the highest possible sub-light speeds, which caused Columbia to experience the effects of relative time dilation, arriving at the planet in 2168 though only 63 days had passed aboard ship.

    March 2156 - Starfleet officially marks Columbia has been destroyed with the loss of all hands.

    So, that covers the canon dates and missions for the Columbia, but leaves quite a bit of time for missions, first contact scenarios, character growth and exploration...

    So, my question is this... I'm sure a few of you out there have some ideas of what sort of missions you'd like the Columbia to undertake... perhaps dealing with the Romulan war, or tying up some loose ends that Enterprise storylines left open... There's always new races and canon species from Enterprise and TOS to explore...

    One I was going to explore was the Caitain, one of my favourite ST species, as we know they were a member of the Federation as early back as 2269, and officially entered the Federation in 2249. So having the Columbia find a Caitain slave under an Orion mission would fit within the 'first contact' scenario, as the Caitain's were introduced to the Federation by the Orion's and Ferengi, according to Starfleet Operations Manual anyway...

    So... Does anyone have any suggestions for story arcs for me to explore with the Columbia crew? Either dealing with canon events / species, or some other ideas you have? I'd love to hear them and incorporate the ideas into my fic :)

    M
     
  2. Kemaiku

    Kemaiku Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 23, 2004
    Location:
    Northern Ireland
    January through May 2155 the proper space trials and shakedown of the ship, the crew getting to know one another, and all temporary crew personnel swapped out for their permanent counterparts.

    Columbia escorting ships and diplomats to Earth for Coalition talks ala Journey to Babel, only less civilised and more crampt.

    July 2155 to March 2156 any number of engagements of the Romulan War, the tension between the Columbia crew and their marine detachment, covert ops to Coalition worlds for support or to the battle front to help defend colonies and stations as Enterprise did, but picking some lesser known areas of space and races to write about.

    All the while building up the unique attributes of the Columbia crew we didn't get to see in Destiny, some attributes of the ship that set her apart from Enterprise, their part in sending back info the Corps of Engineers on the development of the NX-03 and NX-04.
     
  3. Methos

    Methos Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2012
    Location:
    Hiding under Gaila's bed...
    thanks... yeah, character growth and interaction is something i'm definitely going to work on, building up the characters into a real crew and having their own little stories...

    My main characters will be the tactical officer, an 'old' friend of Captain Hernandez, and language / science officer... both of whom i've got storyline's and backstory plotted out already :)

    I like the diplomats idea... could definitely work something like that in

    Romulans vs MACO's... definitely lol :D

    M
     
  4. Kemaiku

    Kemaiku Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 23, 2004
    Location:
    Northern Ireland
    Enterprise already did much of the groundwork for the Babel type storyline and I think it was even in Season 4 that they went there explaning it's continued use in TOS.

    But we didn't see much interaction between the various races after that even in the Enterprise novels, it was always on Earth in the Coalition chambers.

    We never saw say, a group of Andorians and Tellerites assigned to an Earth ship to help install new technology or software in the early months of the war, or taking them not to Earth, but between two of their own colonies when their own ships weren't available etc.

    We know the Vulcans remained out of the war for the longest time but not the average-joe Vulcan's individual responce to that, maybe someone on the Columbia crew was stationed on Vulcan for years and has friends there they correspond with often.

    Trip and Archer were involved in the NX program and the Warp 5 Engine development, but there were a lot more than two people working on them, so people from both are going to be on Columbia keeping an eye on her reactor and engines, some new interesting faces with new anecdotes about the 30 year development process.

    Enterprise visited many worlds and has not had time to go back to each, Columbia will be trailing behind in Enterprise's wake of fame or infamy, living up to the reputation of her sister ship, making their own name in galactic politics. So plenty of pressure on Hernandez there.

    We also hear very little of Earth's nearest Coalition neighbour, Alpha Centarui, so visiting them and their world could be interesting. They are alien but closer to humans than most, stern and unusual people. Cochrane "retired" there for a few years before disappearing, so we can assume they've known humans for decades at this point and the shipyards there are helping build the NX ships.

    I'll stop rambling now. :lol:
     
  5. Methos

    Methos Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2012
    Location:
    Hiding under Gaila's bed...
    lol rambling is good... you're giving me lots of ideas here :D

    M
     
  6. Kemaiku

    Kemaiku Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 23, 2004
    Location:
    Northern Ireland
  7. Methos

    Methos Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2012
    Location:
    Hiding under Gaila's bed...
    i'm using this as a map so far...

    [​IMG]

    And from what i can make out, Enterprise's journey was either extremely erratic, or the helmsman was drunk half the time lol

    M
     
  8. Methos

    Methos Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2012
    Location:
    Hiding under Gaila's bed...
    damn, that's extremely useful :D

    M
     
  9. Kemaiku

    Kemaiku Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 23, 2004
    Location:
    Northern Ireland
  10. Methos

    Methos Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2012
    Location:
    Hiding under Gaila's bed...
    ahh, i like that map better... that map seems to suggest the Enterprise did most of their work in the bottom right hand corner

    M
     
  11. Kemaiku

    Kemaiku Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 23, 2004
    Location:
    Northern Ireland
    Yup, could have Columbia heading out west to the likes of Trill and so on.