Star Trek Hunter Episode 10: The Philosopher

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction' started by Robert Bruce Scott, Dec 1, 2021.

  1. Robert Bruce Scott

    Robert Bruce Scott Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2021
    Continued from Episode 9: The Library

    [​IMG]
    Star Trek Hunter
    Episode 10: The Philosopher


    “…why are you out here tweaking the Tribunal’s nose and running your subversive little subspace radio program? If Star Fleet really wanted you in custody - if the Tribunal really wanted you to stand trial, they could easily have tracked you down by now…”

    Dr. Kenny Dolphin, Interview on Subspace Radio Ivonovic.



    Crew of the U.S.S. Hunter: (Ship's Interactive Holographic Avatar - Hunter).

    At-Large Appellate Justice, Captain Minerva Irons.
    Chief Executive Officer - Commander David Pepper.
    Chief Operations Officer - Lieutenant Commander Mlady.

    Medical Director - Lieutenant Commander Tali Shae.

    Asst. Medical Director - 2nd Lieutenant Jazz Sam Sinder.
    Ensign Chrissiana Trei.
    Forensic Specialist - Midshipman Sif.
    Emergency Medical Hologram - Dr. Raj.
    Tactical Medical Hologram - Dr. Kim.

    Director of Flight Operations - Lieutenant Kenneth Dolphin.

    Asst. Flight Dir. - 2nd Lieutenant Gaia Gamor.
    Navigator Johanna Imex.
    Navigator Eli Strahl.
    Ensign Ethan Phillips.
    Chief Flight Specialist Dewayne Guth.
    Flight Specialist Dih Terri.
    Flight Specialist Joey Chin.
    Flight Specialist Winnifreid Salazaar.

    Director of Ground Operations - Lieutenant Tauk.

    Asst. Ground Ops Dir. - 2nd Lieutenant T’Lon.
    Investigator Lynhart Shran.
    Investigator Buttans Ngumbo.
    Ensign Tolon Reeves.
    Tactical Specialist Jarrong.
    Tactical Specialist Belo Rys.
    Tactical Specialist Belo Garr.
    Tactical Specialist Belo Cantys.

    Director of Engineering - Lieutenant Sarekson Carrera.

    Asst. Engineering Dir. - 2nd Lieutenant Moon Sun Salek.
    Midshipman Tammy Brazil.
    Transporter Engineer K'rok.
    Ensign Sun Ho Hui.
    Flight Engineer Yolanda Thomas.
    Flight Engineer Thomas Hobbs.
    Flight Engineer Tomos.
    Flight Engineer Kerry Gibbon.
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2023
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  2. Robert Bruce Scott

    Robert Bruce Scott Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2021
    [​IMG]
    Star Trek Hunter
    Episode 10: The Philosopher
    Scene 1: Pilgrim's Landing

    10.1
    Pilgrim’s Landing

    On arriving at Pilgrim’s Landing, Dr. Kenny Dolphin met with Governor Emory Ivonovic’s representatives, who ushered him into a room and demanded all of his clothing. A suit of clothing, complete with undergarments and a highly polished pair of Wellingtons, was laid out for him. Dolphin was a bit discomfited that the governor’s representatives insisted on watching as he disrobed and then searching him for tracking devices, but they seemed satisfied once he entered the shower and allowed him to don his new wardrobe in relative privacy.

    Dolphin could not help but admire the new clothing he had been given. He had never worn anything so well made – all hand-made clothing, including the socks and undergarments. Made from fabrics with extremely high thread counts. The suit was simple, dark brown with a subtle gold pin striping and a simple white shirt, but flawlessly tailored from extremely high quality wools, silks and cotton and fitted to him so precisely that he wondered where they had gotten his measurements from.

    As Dolphin emerged from the dressing room, one of the governor’s representatives stepped up briskly behind him and administered a fast-acting sedative.


    Dolphin awoke in a darkened room, seated in an overstuffed leather armchair. Another of the governor’s representatives, this time an attractive young woman, ushered him, once the sedative had worn off, to an adjoining room. A simple table supported a small amount of fresh fruit, water and a few slices of homemade breads and cheeses. The two rooms appeared to have only the one door between them. But when Dolphin returned to the interview room, only one other person was in the room – Governor Emory Ivonovic.


    “I apologize for any inconvenience and discomfort, Dr. Dolphin. Your clothing and any items they contained, including your communicator, are safely stored back on New Hope and will be returned to you when you return to Pilgrim’s Landing. I hope that the gift of a tailor-made Gillano suit will serve as sufficient apology for our precautions.”

    “I take it that Gillano is a tailor on New Hope?” Dolphin responded.

    “Gillano and Sons,” Ivonovic replied. “Established shortly after the City of Charity was founded. The shop is still located on the original main street where Philippa Gillano first opened it with her sons more than 200 years ago. Most people are unaware of the many fine goods manufactured by hand on the Colony of New Hope, but the founders of the colony brought that aesthetic with them and we natives are quite proud of the quality of our home industries.”

    Dolphin ran his hands over the fine silk of the brown, pinstriped suit jacket. “I have never worn anything so comfortable or so well-made. It is a fine gift. I had anticipated some fairly intrusive inspection on my arrival. Your representatives were respectful, if quite thorough. My doctor might learn something from how carefully they inspected my loins…”


    Ivonovic laughed, then ushered Dolphin to the overstuffed chair he had awoken in. He took a seat in a similar armchair situated at a 90 degree angle. A small table between them held a carafe of ice water and two glasses. “Let’s talk a little before we begin recording. I want to be sure that you are comfortable with what we are doing here. We should lay out some ground rules – I will start: It is my intention to air this interview in its entirety, unbroken, with no edits except for those you request. If I believe we are getting into something that, for any reason, I would be uncomfortable airing, I will let you know as we are discussing it. Please let me know what areas you would like to avoid.”

    “I want to keep my family out of this,” Dolphin said. “People may be aware that I am divorced, but I don’t want my daughters or my ex-wife to suffer any more exposure than they already have in all of this.”

    “How many daughters do you have?”

    “Two.”

    “Do they still talk to you?”

    “Just recently I think things have warmed up a bit with my youngest. The elder daughter hasn’t spoken to me in years,” Dolphin said.

    Ivonovic relaxed back into his overstuffed armchair. “Count yourself fortunate, Dr. Dolphin. I have two ex-wives, three daughters and two step-daughters. None of them are on very good terms with me – we talk, but not often. I get on with my grandchildren better - 3 boys and a girl on the way - but I don’t get to see much of them. I’m afraid my career has been very destructive to my attempts at family. At least you stopped at one marriage.”

    “I have no intention of re-marrying,” Dolphin said.

    “Wise move. If one woman divorces you – maybe it’s her. If two divorce you, you are the problem.”

    “I didn’t need the second marriage to tell me that.”

    Ivonovic laughed again. “Are you ready to begin the interview? I will call my assistants in. There will be two recording specialists here throughout. They will stop us only if there is a problem with the equipment or a security issue.”

    Dolphin relaxed back into the plush leather armchair, rolled his head back, letting his body melt into it and remained motionless for several heartbeats. He leaned forward and stretched, sat up and composed himself, then said, “Let’s go.”

    10.1 (of 14)​
     
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  3. Robert Bruce Scott

    Robert Bruce Scott Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
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    [​IMG]
    Star Trek Hunter
    Episode 10: The Philosopher
    Scene 2: The Procedure

    10.2
    The Procedure

    Lt. Tauk was too weak to assent to the surgery verbally, but was able to communicate using a pad. “Will the treatment alter me genetically?” he wrote.

    Dr. Boles was sitting next to the young ferengi. “No. We will install a number of machines into your lung to generate new tissue, remove damaged tissue and replace it with newly generated tissue. Some of the tissues will be artificial, but none of this material will alter you genetically.”

    Lt. Tauk wrote another question, “How much time will this give me?”

    Boles ran his hand over his blue, hairless scalp, then squeezed the back of his own neck. “Assuming you survive the surgery and assuming it works, maybe one good year and maybe one or two not-so-good years after that. That would be the best outcome I think we could reasonably expect. Still, there is a big difference between a few years and a few days.”


    Tauk started to write on his pad, then turned and noticed 2nd Lt. T’Lon along with both her investigators and Ensign Tolon Reeves with all four members of the tactical squad - Tauk’s entire staff. It took an enormous effort for him to sigh. He removed the breather from his mouth and tried to say something, tears in his eyes from the effort. He finally settled for nodding his head.

    Dr. Tali Shae said, “Let the record show that Lieutenant Tauk has assented to the surgery.”

    Tauk was writing furiously into the pad, handed it to T’Lon. “Not fair, you bringing the entire staff here!”

    Lt. T’Lon stepped forward, caressed Tauk’s forehead. “I apologize, sir. But the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one. I am simply doing my duty by our team.”

    Tauk managed a weak smile, entered another sentence into the pad and handed it back to T’Lon before the doctors ushered the ground operations team out of the small surgery: “I will get payback for this…”

    10.2 (of 14)​
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2022
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  4. Gibraltar

    Gibraltar Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Review 10.1 / 10.2 - Well, Ivonovic knows how to put on a performance, and can be charming when it suits his purposes (pun intended). This interview should prove as enlightening as it will entertaining.

    I'm relieved Tauk as agreed to undergo the procedure. There's no guarantee he'll survive, but doing nothing was an almost immediate death sentence. A poignant moment between he and his fellow crew members.
     
  5. Robert Bruce Scott

    Robert Bruce Scott Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2021
    Clever pun... I am really enjoying how strongly you have responded to the Ivonovic character - who is really Dolphin's polar opposite (the shady politician vs. the man who literally wrote the book on Federation ethics.) STH is as much philosophy as it is action/adventure. Episode 10 is really why I wrote this thing.

    He is in a lot of pain - he was ready to give up. Thanks again for the reviews! rbs
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2021
  6. Robert Bruce Scott

    Robert Bruce Scott Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2021
    [​IMG]
    Star Trek Hunter
    Episode 10: The Philosopher
    Scene 3: The Morality of Hybridizing Intelligent Species

    10.3
    The Morality of Hybridizing Intelligent Species

    “I don’t suppose I need to give a long introduction to my guest. In a civilization of tens of billions of people, his is a household name and a very familiar face – beloved, berated, but impossible to ignore. At Subspace Radio Ivonovic, we have simply been inundated with requests for me to interview Dr. Kenny Dolphin, author of The Morality of Hybridizing Intelligent Species – which has to be the most readable doctoral dissertation in – ever – well, come on, dissertations tend to be rather dry. Dr. Dolphin also authored The Impact of Humanity on Pon Farr, the Vulcan Mating Cycle – which, in addition to the majority of polite Federation society already put off by his dissertation, made Dr. Dolphin especially unpopular in vulcan circles. And he is also the author of Fundamentals of Federation Ethics, which might well have ruined him with our constituency, if anyone had bothered to read it thoroughly. In preparation for this interview, I went back and re-read all three books. And it felt like I was reading this material for the first time, which makes me even more curious, Dr. Dolphin, what got into you that made you want to study and write all this stuff?”

    Dolphin looked up, surprised. “Well, that’s a question I wasn’t expecting. I’d have to say I first got interested in interspecies relations and particularly the status of hybrids in human culture because of all the hate crimes toward non-humans that I worked for the New York City District Attorney’s office. I suppose that interspecies violence in large population centers is kind of inevitable, but it seemed to me that the most virulent hatred was reserved for hybrids – I even saw it on the police force – and there were hybrids in police uniform, out there every day protecting the children and families of the people who just utterly reviled them. So after I left the DA’s office…”

    “I heard you were fired…”

    “After I was fired from the DA’s office…”

    Emory Ivonovic laughed. “Now you have to tell us, in just a few words, why.”


    Dolphin sighed. “Performance. I took too long investigating cases, had a low conviction rate. I got interested in cases that weren’t assigned to me… I really wasn’t cut out for the job. But I took what I learned back to Harvard with me and just kept bringing in every line of inquiry to try to get at where all this anger was coming from. I tried bringing this topic to several different departments – law, criminal justice, sociology, statistics, history, biology… Ultimately, it seemed to me to fundamentally be an ethical problem that encompassed all of those disciplines, which brought me to the Philosophy department. What I found - and this is primarily what my work is known for - was there is some justification for all this anger about hybrids. It isn’t their fault or the fault of their parents - or even the doctors who provide the genetic engineering that makes these children possible. It is incumbent within the rules that those doctors have to operate by.”


    “I have quoted your summation of those rules many times on this program,” Ivonovic said. “The doctors are required to ‘preserve the genetic distinctiveness of each parent species to the greatest extent possible’.”


    “That language actually comes directly from Federation law. And it can so easily be taken as a directive to give hybrid children what are thought to be the best attributes of each species,” Dolphin replied. “So a hybrid human/vulcan child might be given not intelligence in the average range of vulcans, but deliberately given the highest intelligence possible for vulcans, the longest lifespan possible for vulcans, the best in human adaptability and emotional stability, the human reproductive cycle – all of these characteristics enhanced to the greatest extent possible. Parents of, if you will, naturalborn children, have a legitimate concern that their children may not have a reasonable expectation of competing against genetically engineered hybrids. Hybrids are still a very small minority of the population, but those kinds of demographics have a way of changing in a surprisingly short amount of time.”

    “And I have also seen what this policy can do at its extremes,” Dolphin continued. “We recently encountered a serial killer who was hybrid betazoid and vulcan - and had the telepathic abilities of both. Not just what might be average for either a betazoid or a vulcan - she had the telepathic abilities of the strongest betazoid and the strongest vulcan - abilities that would occur in less than one in one billion of either species if she had gotten a natural throw of the dice.”


    Ivonovic leaned forward. “But those observations weren’t what estranged you from polite society throughout the Federation, were they? It was the eugenic implications that really stirred up the hornet’s nest.”

    Dolphin took a deep breath. “This is where the understanding of what I was doing went horribly off course. I offered a few thought experiments and even some of the most disciplined philosophers I knew mistook them for reasoned arguments against allowing hybrid children to be conceived at all. That wasn’t anywhere near my point.”


    “What was your point? What is your point?” Ivonovic queried. “Pull this together for us.”


    “The biggest problem in ethics is a failure to think things through,” Dolphin said. “A failure to consider all the implications, all the potential consequences of our actions, our policies, our institutions. People want to glom onto simple rules. Simple answers. And they are always inadequate. People who had a gut dislike for hybrids have mined my writings for everything that supports their position and they take things out of context. Just so they can say ‘I’m right’ and try to impose their own selfish, homespun rules on society.”

    “What I’ve been pleading for, really all my life, is for people to just slow down and think everything through rather than standing on their prejudices,” Dolphin continued. “The prevailing prejudice in the Federation – or so it seemed to me at the time – was that the advent of hybrids was a wonderful thing to be encouraged and supported without introspection. The policies that came from this attitude are just not a product of careful thinking. I illustrated this with a thought experiment that has probably become the most notorious thing I have ever written.”


    “Take us through that thought experiment,” Ivonovic said.


    “Let me preface that by saying I did not exhaustively research this hypothesis and it should be taken as an example of things we need to think about, not settled science,” said Dolphin. “Okay, we know that the descendants of hybrids also need genetic manipulation – for several generations – often several interventions to maintain equilibrium among their genetic heritage from different species – often throughout their lifetimes. What happens when, perhaps a few thousand years from now, the vast majority of humanity has this requirement? Could we be setting our species up for complete dependence on a lifetime of genetic intervention for the majority of individuals?”

    “Another consideration is that with all this engineering, not enough of their genetic heritage is left to chance. Doctors are not gods, yet this requirement for doctors to provide genetic engineering puts them in the driver’s seat – selecting genetic traits and leaving little or nothing to chance. We know that it was chance – the mindless, brutal experimentation of nature – that made each of our species possible and successful. Are we really ready to replace that natural filter with our own under-informed prejudices?”


    “That sounds like an argument against allowing the human species – or for that matter the vulcan, the bajoran, the andorian – any of these species to become hybridized…” Ivonovic said.

    “But that is not what I was arguing. I was only offering these as things we need to think about – and only as examples, not an exhaustive list.” Dolphin was quite animated, speaking passionately, emphasizing his words with his hands. “I didn’t spend as much time listing the many benefits of hybridization because at the time the audience I thought I was addressing were touting those benefits at the top of their lungs. But it is worth saying to everyone else – by adding the unique genetic material of vulcans into the human species, we benefit from the potential improvements in human intelligence, lifespan and physical strength. And that’s just vulcans. Each species that has born or sired partially human children has added potentials to the human genome that might never arise within humanity otherwise. And that’s just the genetic contributions – not to mention the broader cultural benefits of bringing our diverse peoples closer together into tight-knit families.”

    “I never said, ‘do not allow non-humans to mate with humans’,” Dolphin continued. “Nor did I ever advocate any sort of moratorium. Ethically, that would be unsupportable – to tell an interspecies couple who have the real potential for children that they are not allowed to have children just because it is inconvenient for the state of the science? What I was pleading for, what I am pleading for is careful study – what are the implications? What are the potential consequences? What policies could we introduce to improve the potential outcomes and avoid potential negative consequences both near- and long-term? I just want people to think all these issues through.” Dolphin raised his hands, then dropped them with a thump onto the arms of his chair in frustration.

    “What we got instead is a lot of people wanting to stop hybridization altogether and others wanting to open the floodgates and never think about the issue again. Even vulcans, andorians, trills – they all seem to succumb to extremism rather than just stopping and thinking things through for themselves. As a result, we see not only humans, but vulcans, andorians, trills, bajorans and every other species lining up on both sides of the issue and none of them with any better justification for their hardened opinions than the most transparently half-baked rationalizations. Even the vulcans seemed unwilling to think these things through rigorously, logically – instead of fixating on illogical assumptions, traditions and prejudices. Even the vulcans. I found that particularly astonishing – and frustrating.”


    Ivonovic relaxed back into his chair, steepled his fingers. “Let’s talk about those vulcans…”

    10.3 (of 14)​
     
  7. Robert Bruce Scott

    Robert Bruce Scott Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2021
    [​IMG]
    Star Trek Hunter
    Episode 10: The Philosopher
    Scene 4: Navigating Romulan Space

    10.4
    Navigating Romulan Space

    2nd Lt. Gaia Gamor was at the front of the executive conference room, standing next to a holographic chart displaying a proposed route from what was essentially the middle of federation space, through the remnants of the Romulan Star Empire to get to the mysterious Dead Zone in the Beta Quadrant. Very little was known about this area – it was not readily available to federation research vessels and the romulans were not forthcoming about the region. The most relevant information came from the Klingon Empire and mostly consisted of a long list of missing ships that had ventured there, never to return.

    Crossing romulan space was probably more dangerous now than it had been before the destruction of Romulus in the Hobus event. The largest part of the Imperial Romulan Fleet had escaped the event, along with most colonial romulan populations. Additionally, nearly 2 billion romulans had been successfully evacuated from the planet before its destruction, including the Romulan Senate.

    While the loss of 16 billion romulans – more than half their population – along with their homeworld and primary shipyards and manufacturing resources had devastated the empire, the romulan military was more on alert than ever, readier to destroy any unidentified intruder. The tendency of klingon and nausicaan pirates to raid deep into romulan space only made things worse. Star Fleet had become embroiled in endless skirmishes on the Federation side of the Neutral Zone to stop pirates at the border. Romulan warbirds had been spotted waiting inside the Neutral Zone during some of these skirmishes. Pirates interdicted on the Federation side had the option to surrender to Star Fleet. Those who made it into the Neutral Zone could expect no such mercy from the romulans.



    “We are operating with a large number of assumptions,” said Gamor. “First, we assume the romulans are watching the Neutral Zone more diligently than ever. Second, we assume the romulans have managed to break the warp 10 barrier and are unconcerned about the damage that high speed warp travel causes to local spacetime. Third, we anticipate the romulans will respond to incursions into their territory with deadly force and will not negotiate. Finally, there is no reason to think that the romulans wouldn’t follow us into the Dead Zone.”

    “Taking all these into account, in my opinion, our best course of action, given we have little choice but to cross romulan space to get to the Dead Zone, is to avoid contact with the romulans, which will require us to move very fast and to take an unpredictable course. It is impossible to enter romulan space without them knowing about us. It is vital that they do not figure out where we are going,” Gamor concluded.

    Dr. Carrera took up part of the presentation. “Using recursive warp, we will not leave a traditional warp trail. That does not mean our trail will be undetectable. If the romulans look for any anomaly they can trace from a point in space through which they know we have traveled, they may well find evidence of the zip drive in eddies of reduced entropy in the fabric of spacetime. So our recommendation is that whenever we cross through any space in which we anticipate the romulans have sensors, that we do so at high warp using traditional warp mode. Once we are clear of sensor range, and only after checking for evidence of pursuit, we can switch to recursive mode. Our recommendation is to then double-back on our trail to cover the trail of reduced entropy caused by the zip drive.”

    Gamor gestured to the star map. “Our plan is to enter the Neutral Zone at warp 9 and alter our course so that when we pass the second set of sensors on the romulan side of the Neutral Zone, we appear to be making a beeline for the remnants of the Romulus system.”

    Lt. Tauk, propped up in a hover-chair, said, very quietly, his voice still weak from recovery, “Our klingon sources have told us the romulans have been very protective of that region of space. We suspect they have located significant infrastructure in that area. They might have found resources that could be salvaged from the destruction of their homeworld.”

    “Once we have crossed into romulan space,” Gamor continued, “we switch to recursive warp mode, double back to cover our trail, then alter our course by 0x:0y:-90z, diving straight down out of the galactic plane. We will then adjust course to take us toward the Dead Zone. Because the majority of star systems and assets within the Romulan Empire are within a standard deviation of the galactic plane, and the outliers are primarily located above the galactic plane, the romulans should have fewer assets and sensors below the plane. Also, since there has been less warp activity in this area, the eddies of reduced entropy left by our zip drive should be more difficult to trace. We will adjust our course so that our nadir below the galactic plane coincides with our estimate of the border between the area patrolled by the romulans and the Dead Zone.”

    “The klingons tell us the romulans do not enter the Dead Zone unless they need to,” Tauk said. He took a drink, then continued, “Apparently the romulans have not had much better luck than the klingons with ships returning from that region of space.”



    Commander David Pepper took a deep breath. “It is a desperate gamble, Min. But if we were to try to use klingon space to flank the romulans it would add at least three weeks to our journey and would probably have less chance of success. The romulans are really watching their border with the Klingon Empire.”

    Justice Minerva Irons leaned forward. “What are the chances the romulans know where this library is and are watching that area?”

    Lt. Tauk took a slow, difficult breath. “We should plan for it. They may not have a ship stationed in that area, but we should expect some intelligence assets – a sensor of some sort.”

    “I am recommending we come out of warp in quiet mode and stay dark for at least thirty minutes just listening,” said Dr. Carrera. “If we do trip a wire on our arrival, we should pick up its transmission and that should give us information we need to choose our next course of action – flee, fight, or continue the mission.”


    Irons thought for a few moments, looking around the table. “Lieutenant Gamor, at warp 9.998, how long would it take a romulan warbird traveling from romulan space to the coordinates we derived from Fleet Admiral Scumuk’s notes?”


    Gamor did not hesitate. “Just under seven hours.”


    Irons looked around the room again. “The plan is approved, but once we arrive at our destination, our dark time will be three minutes, not thirty minutes. Sarekson, work with Hunter and automate the signal search and the search for the tripwire device. Once we are in the Dead Zone, the time for caution and strategy is over. We go straight to our mission. Surgical. In: out. Gaia – do we have an exit strategy?”

    “Two of them,” Gamor responded. “If we think we were not followed, we return along a course similar to our path to the Library. If we are followed or discovered, best speed to klingon space.”

    “That would be a very desperate gambit,” Irons said. “We cannot count on the klingons to come to our aid, nor can we count on the romulans ending pursuit at the klingon border. And that is very probably where the romulans have placed the greatest concentration of their resources.”

    “That is what we are counting on, your honor,” came Tauk’s feeble voice. “Pep got a message through to the klingons. They have agreed to put some pressure on that border. Hopefully, it will draw romulan resources away from our path.”

    “And the romulans will be less inclined to draw resources away to chase us if they’re seeing a buildup on the klingon side,” Pep concluded.

    “You are right, David. This entire mission plan is a desperate gamble. But one we must take,” Irons said.

    “Star Fleet is assigning us to this mission?” asked Lt. Cmdr. Mlady.

    “No. This assignment comes from a little further up the chain. I cannot say more about that for the moment,” Irons said. “Okay David, take us to the Library.”

    10.4 (of 15)​
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2022
  8. Gibraltar

    Gibraltar Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Review 10.3 - A fantastic summary of Dolphin's work from his own lips, and a plea to give that work the consideration it merits. I have to admit, that's much more latitude than I'd anticipated Ivonovic giving Dolphin. He's certainly trying to exploit Dolphin's work and popularity for his own ends, but he's being rather sneaky about it.
     
  9. Gibraltar

    Gibraltar Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Review 10.4 - The crew is placing a lot of eggs in one especially fragile basket. Deep into Romulan territory without significant backup available and a tenuous pair of exit gambits. The ship isn't built for combat, so a hostile encounter with the Romulans will be particularly unfortunate. I guess this is why they pay Hunter's crew the big bucks, eh?
     
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  10. Robert Bruce Scott

    Robert Bruce Scott Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2021
    Ivonovic is in a very sticky situation. And he sees Dolphin as his best hope to get out of it... Glad you're enjoying Dolphin's philosophy!

    The Hunter would not last very long in a battle. It's built for speed and stealth - not combat. Yeah - the crew will definitely be sweating this mission.

    Thanks!! rbs
     
  11. Robert Bruce Scott

    Robert Bruce Scott Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2021
    [​IMG]
    Star Trek Hunter
    Episode 10: The Philosopher
    Scene 5: The Impact of Humanity on Pon Farr

    10.5
    The Impact of Humanity on Pon Farr

    “So you wrote an entire book about the impact of humans on the vulcan mating cycle. Were you really surprised when you ended up with a few planets full of honked-off vulcans?” Ivonovic asked.

    Dolphin made a grimly amused noise. “Well, their famous emotional self-control aside, I kind of expected more logical analysis and fewer attempts to sweep embarrassing facts under the carpet. There were a few vulcans who argued against my evidence – all of it straight from Federation demographics. Which, by the way, are getting harder to come by these days. I’m really glad I didn’t decide on civic planning for my next career.”

    “Why on earth did you want to write about the vulcan mating cycle?” Ivonovic asked. “There is no shortage of literature on it. We humans do seem quite fascinated by it.”

    “Someone very close to me just recently told me that I had accused humans of causing the eventual extinction of vulcans,” Dolphin replied. “It wasn’t the first time I was accused of saying that – there was a line in my dissertation about humans hastening vulcan extinction. That offhand comment really upset a lot of very powerful people and cost me my tenure – very nearly cost me my professorship. It would have if my notoriety had not been drawing record numbers of new students to the Philosophy department.”

    “So I wanted to set the record straight,” Dolphin continued. “Humans are not causing vulcan extinction – in fact we are their best hope if anything is to survive of the vulcans’ unique genetics and culture. Vulcan/human breeding continues at a breakneck pace with vulcan/human hybrids outnumbering all other human hybrids combined and more vulcan/human births each year than births of undiluted vulcans.”


    Ivonovic’s eyes widened. “That is an astonishing statistic.”


    Dolphin nodded. “To my knowledge, vulcans and humans were the first two truly distinct intelligent species in the Alpha quadrant to willingly interbreed. There are species we are more biologically compatible with and species the vulcans have more biological compatibility with. But somehow there is a powerful emotional and cultural bond between humans and vulcans. In some way, we each represent the other’s most heartfelt aspirations. And I have known many human/vulcan hybrids. I think everyone who knew the late T’Lok Smith would say she was the best of us. It almost seems inevitable that our species are merging. And if the result is more people like her, we will all be the better for it.”

    “Now it’s sounding like you completely approve of hybridization,” Ivonovic mused, his fingers again steepled.

    “That is the whole thing in a nutshell.” Dolphin gestured with his fingertips tight against the tip of his thumb, creating a circle. “It isn’t my place to approve or disapprove of people of different species falling in love, wanting children. Or even wanting to interbreed and have children without being in love. It isn’t my place, it is not your place, not the place of the Federation Tribunal, nor of the Naturalborn. It is not and should not be up to us - which gets into my third book - because individual sovereignty must be at the base of our ethical system.”

    Dolphin gestured again, speaking more forcefully. “Yet people who are otherwise egalitarian and individualistic to a fault want to have an opinion and think themselves entitled to legislate other people’s lives when it comes to whom they love, whom they sleep with, whom they marry, whom they have children with - the most intimate aspects of our neighbors’ lives.”


    Ivonovic held up his hand, fingers together, palm toward Dolphin. “It almost sounds like you are talking out of both sides of your mouth, Dr. Dolphin. At one point you said people have a legitimate grievance about hybrids and with the next breath you say it is none of their business what kind of or how many hybrids are created.”


    “You have it surrounded, Governor. That is it exactly. It is what I have been saying this entire time. We cannot say ‘STOP.’ We cannot say ‘GO.’ We cannot and should not try to control the most intimate of individual family decisions. What we can do is influence and shape the institutions, societal norms, policies and culture in which individuals live and breed,” Dolphin said passionately.

    He took a breath, then plowed on: “It is all about culture and what I am advocating is a culture of thoughtfulness, curiosity, inquiry, responsibility. A culture that does not tell people how to arrange their private lives, but encourages them to think things through carefully, consider and take responsibility for the consequences of their actions and take precautions and actions to try to create the best possible outcomes for their children and the culture those children will grow up in. And a culture that makes resources available to facilitate that level of thought and the potential decisions that result. This is why I focused so tightly on the rules governing the genetic interventions that make hybrid children possible. Those rules are up to us and they must be just, reasonable, and responsible – and I don’t think that they are any of those things as they stand at this moment.”


    “I think I need a moment to just think that through,” said Ivonovic

    “I think we all need that moment,” Dolphin agreed.

    10.5 (of 14)​
     
  12. Robert Bruce Scott

    Robert Bruce Scott Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2021
    [​IMG]
    Star Trek Hunter
    Episode 10: The Philosopher
    Scene 6: Prognosis

    10.6
    Prognosis

    “Looking at the case history, it’s fairly clear we need to restrict Dr. Tauk to shipboard duty.” Dr. Napoleon Boles was seated in the medical office with Dr. Tali Shae and Dr. Jazz Sam Sinder. Still officially assigned to Star Fleet Medical, Dr. Boles was still wearing the blue uniform, unlike the Hunter’s crew who wore JAG black.


    A recent redesign of the Space Command uniform had led to a dramatic improvement over the jumpsuits of previous decades. This new uniform consisted of a long-sleeved, black undershirt tucked into black trousers with a color coded jacket fastened tightly about the waist with lapels that were generally worn open, but could be closed for protection. Thin piping around the cuffs and collar of the shirt matched the color code of the jacket - red for command, yellow for operations, blue for sciences.

    The communicator badge, finished in silver thread, was incorporated into the fabric of the shirt with an identical badge incorporated into the fabric of the jacket. Officers accustomed to the old communicator pins tended to touch these badges to activate them, but this was no longer necessary as these new fabric-micro-sandwich communicators were designed to learn and adapt to the wearer; they would activate based on tone of voice, context and subtle cues from the wearer’s body language.

    Improvements in material design provided superior thermal regulation and even some minimal protection against radiation, electric shock and energy weapons.


    Star Fleet Medical uniforms were similar with the exception that the undershirt, trousers and jackets were sciences blue with the operational color code (red, yellow or blue) established only by the thin piping around the cuffs and collars of the undershirt. Star Fleet JAG uniforms also shared this design with the exception that the undershirt, trousers and jackets were black and the incorporated communicator badges were finished in black thread.


    Boles rubbed his blue neck with a blue hand. “He should not go on away missions unless absolutely necessary and in those cases, he should at minimum use a breather exclusively if not an entire EVA suit. We need to explore the possibility of building a breather directly into his sinus cavity.”

    “That would be really intrusive,” Dr. Jazz said.

    “Look at the case history again.” Boles tapped the reader on the desk between them. “Every episode appears to have been aggravated by breathing non-shipboard air. His immune system is always attacking his lung tissue, but it goes into overdrive when he breathes in any contaminants. I don’t think we can obtain compliance with a breather at all times shipboard, but we can control the atmosphere in his sleeping/escape pod. I want to increase his sleep time – in the pod – to no less than 11 hours daily with an enriched atmosphere mix. He can sleep a standard 8 hours during his off duty hours. The remainder should be 30 minute naps distributed throughout his day, including during his duty shift.”


    “Six 30-minute naps?” asked Dr. Tali Shae.


    “The controlled atmosphere and breathing will greatly improve his survivability. From what I can tell, Tauk is extremely disciplined. If he approaches his health with the same discipline he applies to solving problems, he should see dramatic improvements in both areas.” Dr. Boles squeezed the back of his neck, took a drink of something rather steamy. The steam rising from his drink was reddish and managed to appear heavy, cascading over the side of his cup.

    “Four more surgeries?” asked Dr. Jazz.

    “The lung tissue factories we installed are grown from Tauk’s stem cells,” Boles responded. “They will age and degrade like any organ. We need to chart their growth and death and install new factories over a period of time. These four are the first of a long series of surgeries. Eventually, his immune system will attack the factories themselves, at which time we will be into a downward spiral. We will also need to refresh the nanites that remove the dead tissue and install the new tissue inside his lung. Fortunately, this can be done with a monthly injection. Unfortunately, we will have to inject the nanites directly into his lung.”


    “I find it hard to believe that you are not a medical doctor – not even a veterinarian,” said Dr. Jazz. “I have never heard of any procedure like this.”

    “Probably because ferengi are among the only people who might ever need it,” said Boles. “I invented the procedure to treat a prize bullgrox that had a similar genetic defect that caused its immune system to attack its own stomach linings. We could have easily corrected the problem with the animal’s genome, but any genetic editing would have disqualified the animal as a breeder – making it worthless to the rancher I was working for.”


    “Wait,” Dr. Jazz objected, “you’re telling me that not only had you never before done surgery on any intelligent species, you extrapolated the procedure for Lieutenant Tauk’s lung from a procedure you invented for the multiple stomachs of a ruminant?”

    Dr. Boles rubbed his neck again. “Yep.” He yawned widely.


    Dr. Jazz shook his head slowly, his bajoran family earring jingling quietly. “There is a fine line between genius and madness… I’m not really certain which side of it you are on…”

    10.6 (of 14)​
     
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  13. Galen4

    Galen4 Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2007
    Location:
    Sol III, within the universe of United Trek
    Wow, there's a lot of unpacking to do.

    Dr. Dolphin's dissertations on inter-species mating and the challenges that hybrids face (from prejudice to the need for ongoing genetic maintenance throughout their lives) is fascinating. I don't think I've read a fan fic that does such a deep dive into the subject. Usually, the narrative approach to hybrids starts and stops with the old "torn between two worlds" theme. But you've explored much more than that, so Kudos. A lot of food for thought.

    And speaking of detailed writing, poor Dr. Tauk and his prognosis. But you know, this is the sort of medical condition that we'd really see in the Trek universe. If for no other reason that constant exposure to alien biospheres.

    Now let's hope Hunter's mission into the Neutral Zone isn't a one-way trip!
     
  14. Robert Bruce Scott

    Robert Bruce Scott Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2021
    Thanks for the kind words! This story is as much philosophy as science-fiction and Dolphin's philosophy underlies the rest of the story.

    Thanks again! I do try to put some science in my science-fiction. Thanks!! rbs
     
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  15. Robert Bruce Scott

    Robert Bruce Scott Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2021
    [​IMG]
    Star Trek Hunter
    Episode 10: The Philosopher
    Scene 7: Fundamentals of Federation Ethics

    10.7
    Fundamentals of Federation Ethics

    “So I think it is worth going to the heart of your philosophy and after giving Fundamentals of Federation Ethics a second read – well, truthfully, I had not really paid much attention to this book and it was by far the shortest book that you wrote.” Ivonovic laced his fingers, put his hands behind his head, leaned back. “The book is remarkably short on scholarly references. Short, to the point, and more of a philosophical construct than a historical study.” Ivonovic sat forward, placed his hands on his knees, leaned toward Dolphin. “So what gives you the right to invent an ethical system for the Federation out of the whole cloth?”

    Dolphin raised his eyebrows, smiled, looked down and made an amused noise. “I didn’t cite scholarly works or historical works. I cited Federation law, and some of the human, vulcan and andorian legal precedents directly. Federation law exhaustively annotates the precedents from which it is drawn and also exhaustively explains the moral purposes for each statute. In many ways, Fundamentals was a book that any decent lawyer should be able to write without a great deal of new scholarly work. I suppose at this point I should remind you that I was a lawyer before I became an academic – and it was precisely the intersection of law and morality that brought me to the field of ethics.”

    Ivonovic chuckled. “I thought, for a moment there, you were about to say that you were a lawyer before you became a scholar, which could be taken as a bit of a dig against lawyers.”

    “You cannot have a utopia without the rule of law. Paradise is not possible without lawyers,” Dolphin said. “Besides, it was the family business…”


    “Law was the family business?” Ivonovic asked.


    “The Dolphins of New England were lawyers before they became Dolphins. The Second World War that dominated the middle of the 20th Century made German names very unpopular in North America – especially the name Adolph. So when my distant ancestor, Hans Adolph, fresh out of Harvard with a law degree just after the war, found himself unwelcome in Providence, he changed his name to John Dolphin. He eventually became a partner at a large firm which still bears the name and generations of my family have worked there. Typically after first serving for a number of years in a prosecutor’s office – a kind of combined public service and training ground.”

    “I grew up wanting to be a pilot,” Dolphin continued, “and only started to live that dream after failing at law and making such a mess of my academic career that I very nearly got the entire university incinerated – I could fairly say all the ruckus over my work has given the word ‘philosopher’ a black eye.”


    “Am I detecting a regret about the course of your career?”


    “Only inasmuch as it seemed at the time that I had made things worse. But I am not so convinced now as I was when ‘polite society’ as you put it was berating me for enabling hatred and bigotry against hybrids. At the time, I thought I had really fanned the flames as I was accused of doing. Now, I’m not so certain. I feel now that my work brought a lot of smoldering resentments out into the open, which is the only way that those resentments can be addressed and, hopefully, healed.”

    Ivonovic raised his eyebrows again. “So you think your work has provided some positive public service?”

    “Well, I was far less the surgeon re-breaking your nose in order to set it properly and far more the proverbial bull in the china shop…”


    Ivonovic laughed. “We keep wandering away from the thesis of your ‘Fundamentals’…”


    Dolphin ticked off points on his fingers. “Self Determination, Egalitarianism, Self Control, Consequentialism. If individual sovereignty means anything – and I think that it does to every individual at least from the human, vulcan, bajoran, andorian, bolian, denobulan, ferengi, klingon, cardassian, romulan and nearly every other species I can think of offhand... At least for themselves if not for everyone else… If it means anything, it can only be supported by corporate responsibility. Which requires individual responsibility. It’s easier to lay it out in charts than to describe it verbally.”

    “I was more interested in the way you characterized the Prime Directive,” said Ivonovic. “And linked it to genetic engineering as well as individual sovereignty issues. Probably the pithiest line in all of your writings. Care to sum it up for us?”

    Dolphin laughed. He then assumed a mock serious expression and slowly raised both his hands – arms outstretched. His voice took on a mock stentorian tone – his head shaking slightly side to side to add dramatic vibrato:


    “THOU SHALT NOT PLAY GOD!!!”


    It took a few moments for Ivonovic to stop laughing. “That has to be my favorite sentence in any book I have ever read.”

    “It should be the first commandment in any moral code,” Dolphin said.

    10.7 (of 14)​
     
  16. Robert Bruce Scott

    Robert Bruce Scott Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2021
    [​IMG]
    Star Trek Hunter
    Episode 10: The Philosopher
    Scene 8: Gamma Gun Galaxy

    10.8
    Gamma Gun Galaxy

    About the time that Kenny Dolphin was enjoying a two-day layover at Deep Space 9 with Birlaura, prior to catching another freighter to the Colony of New Hope where he would meet with Governor Ivonovic for his interview, the U.S.S. Hunter had passed deep into romulan territory and was traveling at warp 13 well below the galactic plane. This was a very rarely used tactic simply because of the astronomical distances involved – the outer disc of the Milky Way is about 1,000 light years deep. The Hunter’s viewscreen and windows revealed far fewer stars than usual and most of those remained distant – the parallax changing only slightly despite the boat’s unprecedented velocity.


    “It appears to be another spiral galaxy, much smaller than ours, and apparently rotating in the opposite direction.”

    2nd Lt. Gaia Gamor had become accustomed to providing navigational and astronomical presentations in the executive conference room. Both of her navigators, Johanna Imex and Eli Strahl, were generally present for these and occasionally chimed in. Gamor had turned this presentation over to Navigator Imex as this galaxy was her discovery. Imex’s African and vulcan ancestors were both very dark skinned – Johanna Imex was nearly as dark as Gaia Gamor.

    Imex had taken Gaia’s place next to the holographic display at the front of the conference room. The executive and senior staff were present. Lt. Tauk no longer required a hover chair, although he was still moving very slowly. A breather was attached just under his nose and intruded into his nostrils.

    Dr. Carrera had brought his junior officers, Moon and Sun, as this presentation was also of interest to them. Dr. Boles was also present by invitation although he had not yet received a specific assignment and was still wearing the blue uniform of Star Fleet Medical. At the moment his commanding officer was Dr. Tali Shae, but he had not been formally attached to the medical department. While he had demonstrated an acerbic humor and a somewhat irascible personality, he had become widely admired for saving Tauk’s life.


    “We have estimated the distance, based on telemetry of its parallax, to be in the range of 2 billion light years,” said Imex. “This is a previously undiscovered galaxy – at least from Federation star charts. It is not surprising – as dim and distant as it is, it might have been obscured by any number of local phenomena within the Milky Way. We are only able to find this now because of how far we are traveling below the galactic plane.”

    “Fascinating,” said Pep. “So why, of all the objects that you can now detect given our location, why is this galaxy significant?”

    “We were looking for anything that could line up with the Dead Zone,” Imex replied. “Approximately 1.8 billion years ago, the center of that galaxy lined up almost exactly with the Dead Zone. Instead of a single a black hole at the center of that galaxy, its center is a cluster of black holes. We were only able to find this galaxy because of its extreme density - it consists largely of black holes, but because of its density, it creates significant gravitational lensing which is much easier to observe traveling at our speed. And Dr. Scumuk went on about gamma radiation…”

    Dr. Moon’s eyes lit up. “And theoretically black hole clusters at the heart of small, dense galaxies emit gamma bursts…”

    Dr. Boles followed the thought: “Which are deadly to any form of life…”

    Dr. Moon picked up the thought again: “So if, 1.8 billion years ago, that galaxy entered an emission phase and assuming its axis aligns with our galaxy…”

    Imex continued, “Which is a reasonable assumption, given that its galactic disc is almost exactly parallel to ours...”


    Dr. Tali Shae finished the thought: “That galaxy could have caused the Dead Zone.”


    “Is there a way to determine when the next gamma wave front might have come from it?” Justice Minerva Irons asked.

    Imex nodded. “As deadly as gamma radiation is, it only travels at the speed of light…”

    Commander David Pepper shook his head: “Coulomb’s Law?”

    “The Davis-May Prediction,” Gamor responded. “The force does not dissipate because technically, it is not traveling at the speed of light. It’s traveling at warp, as predicted by Davis and May. This is actually the theoretical structure that led Dr. Cochrane to develop the first warp engine.”

    “Sorry - Warp 1,” Imex corrected.

    “I still don't get it,” Pep responded. “Without the time dilation effect, wouldn't the energy dissipate even faster?”


    Gamor smiled. “Remember the disasterous soliton wave experiment about 30 years ago? It was before I was born, but I’ve studied it. The Davis-May Prediction is similar, if not quite as dramatic. The gamma waves aren't just traveling at warp, they're feeding off the potential energy of spacetime. Those gamma waves wouldn't blow a planet apart, but they might cook off part of its atmosphere and certainly kill everything living on it. They would blow through our shields like they weren't even there.”


    Imex nodded. “We are currently about 500 light years below the galactic plane and will reach 1,000 light years below by the time we cross out of romulan space into the Dead Zone. I recommend we send a few probes toward the Dead Zone on trajectories designed to test for evidence of a gamma burst within the galactic plane and one, two and three standard deviations below.”

    “There is a problem with that plan,” Dr. Carrera interjected. “It would reduce the Hunter’s mass significantly and there is not much in the way of space debris – not even trace gasses down here to replace that mass with. Without that mass, we will not be able to maintain warp 13. We would have to drop out of recursive warp mode. Warp 9.7 is the fastest we can safely travel in standard warp configuration – which in this neighborhood would be similar to going from a leisurely stroll to a dead crawl.”

    Johanna Imex nodded. “That is why we are recommending a course deviation - it will add about a day to our travel time. There is a small solar system nearby. It’s a brown dwarf. There should be plenty of material in that area not only to replace the missing mass, but to provide the minerals you would need to replicate replacement drones, complete with fuel.” Next to the junior navigator, the holographic display shifted from displaying a remote galaxy to a brown dwarf solar system that included four planets – one of them a gas giant almost half the mass of the sun around which it revolved.

    “I want long range telemetry – every sensor pointed at that system,” Pep said. “Let’s make sure we’re not warping into a secret romulan military installation.”

    10.8 (of 14)​
     
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  17. Gibraltar

    Gibraltar Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2005
    Location:
    US Pacific Northwest
    Review 10.5 - Dolphin gives us a lot to think about here, while undermining the idea that the Vulcans must have considered all the ramifications of interbreeding with Humans, because... because they're the Vulcans, of course!
     
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  18. Robert Bruce Scott

    Robert Bruce Scott Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2021
    Thanks for the continuing comments!! It seems clear you're enjoying this strange little series. (Okay - massive trilogy...)

    Oh that vaunted vulcan logic... Here's a link to a blog entry I put up about the fly in that ointment...

    THE SPOCK PARADOX

    [​IMG] Thanks!! rbs
     
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2021
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  19. Gibraltar

    Gibraltar Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2005
    Location:
    US Pacific Northwest
    Review 10.6 - Well, Boles' treatment regimen for Tauk is unique, but I'd expected nothing less given its provenance. Sometimes you have to think outside the box, the box full of nanites that you've implanted into someone's lungs. I hope this procedure buys Tauk as much time as they estimate.
     
  20. Gibraltar

    Gibraltar Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2005
    Location:
    US Pacific Northwest
    Review 10.7 - I love the greater breadth and depth we see here of Dolphin's work, and I'm even enjoying his interaction with Ivonovic, a character I loathe. Truly, Dolphin is a 24th century Renaissance man.
     
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