Romulan/UFP spy ship crew

[Nathan]

I thought I might take a stab at some Fan Fiction, the premise is the ship is a border cutter/intelligence gathering ship.

The ship itself is disguised as a cargo ship, but has shields/weapons etc. The crew is made up of about 24 people and another dozen of a Vulcan Special Ops team.

Mission to patrol/intel gathering along Federation/Romulan border and also some incursions across the border as well. Possible extractions of personal (think a post "Face of the Enemy" episode where Troi was kidnapped and played the part of a Romulan)

Hence the usage of the Vulcan Spec Ops team. the team also can pull ship duties in a pinch as the ship crew has 24 hr duties (a day and night shift), but the Ops team fills in when not on an actual mission when crew members are on an away team or unavailable..

The main characters I had in mind were...

Captain: Rank of Cmdr, a "Elizabeth Shelby" type character, but instead of specializing in the Borg, the specialty is in Romulan culture

XO: Nicholas Locarno (doesn't hold a rank but is a civilian attached to Starfleet Intl) and does come into conflict with the Cmdr

Helmsman: LCDR Sam Lavelle

Science/Intellgence Gathering Section:
Female Andorian
Male Zakorn
Romulan defector (the Romulan is vetted, but still not 100% trusted by crew

Medical: Simon Tarses
Engineer: Tellarite

Vulcan Spec Ops Team Lead: Interacts with the crew and tends to align with Locarno.


Just wanted to see what people thought if there is no way hell people would read it and basically it just "fanboy fiction"

I tend to side on Fanboy fiction, but hey, it is for my own fun.
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[CeJay]

Sounds like a fun idea, I'd go for it.

Premise is only part of it though. You manage to write a great story and make your characters engaging, and this could be a terrific piece, fanboy fiction or not.

 

[Nathan]

Hey thanks for validating the idea

I'm in my mid 40s, but thought it would be fun to write a story, I think it'll be more along the lines of Fanboy Fiction, it'll be months before I have it done, Between a wife and 3 kids I pretty busy, but always wanted to write something.

I read a lot fan fic -- some incredibly good and some down right shitty. So I just know I will fall somewhere in between...probably closer to down right shitty, but half the fun will be writing the story.

I thought Locarno could be edgy (since he was shit-canned from the Academy, but still had a passion to serve the UFP to counter with Lavelle (ie. Riker 2.0) who is eager to please (with a difficulites serving aboard a ship with someone who is demanding/driven like the "Shelby" character.

 

[mirandafave]

All fanfiction is fanboy fiction because you are technically a fan writing it for yourself. So don't allow any trepidation to put you off Nathan. Run with the idea. Firstly, anything to do with Border Patrol expanded activities I am all for reading. It's a corner of the market I love to write in and read about. This premise is interesting.

Initially, I was put off by the Vulcan special ops team when I read that and then I realised exactly what their purpose was going to be. That would be cool. However, I'd be inclined to curtail the size of the team. Think along the lines of special ops teams that are small in number - larger by dent of the support staff but those staff do not need to be Vulcan.

You could technically argue that none of the team have to be Vulcan and that the technology exists to augment Romulan features on any humanoid Border Patrol officer. This would also allow for core staff to be on assignment too if you so wanted for story telling purposes. Yet I could see advantages to Vulcan members for sure, telepathic touch and the idea of fomenting some sort of rebellion and/or unification between Romulus and Vulcan ala Spock's movement. Again, I'd keep the number smaller so that you can actually make characters out of these members rather than generic Vulcan #1, generic Vulcan #2, etc. Especially, as I imagine that the special ops team will be doing lots of undercover work, exploring some Romulan culture stuff and getting into close scrapes. That would give a novel perspective and story telling approach to this all.

As CeJay says, the premise has a good enough hook the trick will be making the characters engaging and giving them a good story to work within. There are examples today in TVland to use as models for writing the story - from The Americans, Agents of SHIELD, Homeland,etc - in terms of spy adventures and action stuff. What will stand out are the characters - especially if they have to do undercover you want someone engaging enough in their own terms and to see them become a different person.

Another factor is to consider whether the ship needs to be disguised or whether it houses smaller craft of a civilian nature that the special ops use to camouflage and secretly enter places. But the disguised ship angle brings its own problems and story telling opportunities too. Just throwing different ideas at you because this intrigues in its own way.

Regardless, good luck with the writing.

 

[Sgt_G]

You don't say what time period this is set in, but check out the little ship in the thread: The Trek BBS > Star Trek Fandom > Fan Art > Archer-class Scout for Lightwave. That looks like the perfect ship for your stories. Another option is to "borrow" a ship from the Star Fleet Battles universe, that being either the civilian merchant ships Free Trader or the faster Armed Priority Transport, both of which were commonly modified for military use.

If you read the thread "Creating a realistic crew manifest for a Starship" in this Fan Fiction section, you'll see that I get a little A.R. about defining crew rosters. Considering how small your ship / crew is, I would strongly encourage you to work up a full manifest with name, rank, and job title / duty position for every member of the crew.

I look forward to see where you go with this project.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

^ Well with Sam Lavelle being a Lt. Commander I'd think it'd be post-Dominion War.

The Archer-Class could still work, maybe a newly built ship that followed the blueprints though with upgraded systems. There is also the Raven-Type (commonly referred to as the Aerie-Class) or maybe a Ju'day-Class (they worked well for the Maquis). Or then there is the same type of ship as the Xhosa, that's if you want a proper, non-descript cargo ship.

This proposal sounds interesting and I'd like to see what you do with it.

 

[Nathan]

Thanks all for the comments.....I already started working on it a bit, and just working on the crew manifest and "series bible", I use "series bible" loosely for lack of a better word.

I always wondered how the Federation conducts spy missions in non-UFP territories without a cloaking device. The plot device of "hiding in nebulae nearby" I think has been milked. So that is why I come up with the non-descript cargo ship that is specially fitted with "upgrades".

I suppose a parallel is how the US spies on North Korea but can't been anywhere near with a US Navy ship, so it uses a commercial ship that is retrofitted for spy stuff/surveillance equip/Navy Seal team for extractions or insertions etc.

I horrible with specific star dates, but probably 10 years after the TNG episode "First Duty" so it gives Locarno some "street cred" if he is working for Starfleet Intelligence, plus should be enough time for Lavelle to get promoted to LCDR and has a little more confidence.

 

[Sgt_G]

I had forgotten the name Sam Lavelle, but once I looked it up, I do so remember the episode. I had an idea to write a story in that his friend Sito Jaxa wasn't actually killed in the escape pod but rather her death was faked so she could go under-cover with Section 31.

As to the ship, in the SFB universe there is a variant of the Free Trader called a Prime Trader that is used to transport Prime Teams, SFB's version of covert operatives, so your idea of a converted civilian ship is spot-on.

There are deck plans published for the Free Trader in the GURPS: Prime Directive rulebook. In game terms, it has a pair of point-defense phasers and an option mount that can be another phaser or a missile or anti-missile launcher. The Prime Trader gives up some cargo space for labs and what-nots, and gains a second option mount.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

You could always borrow from the game Star Trek: Away Team, where the U.S.S. Incursion was fitted with a holographic masking device, allowing it to appear as any vessel.

 

[YJAGG]

good idea, depending on your timeline, you could have some Vulcan Humans hybrids, who play romulan as they have emotions

 

[Sgt_G]

Vulcan's have emotions. They simply choose to not display them.

 

[YJAGG]

Vulcan's have emotions. They simply choose to not display them.

potato potahto I would hope that most folks get the point of my statement with playing semantics, yes Vulcan's suppress their emotions however, altered humans or half vulcans half humans might not find expressing emotions so repugnant.