Water Decks

(Austen) I proposed this on another SIM, seeing if this strikes a fancy or is too much too soon?

First off some pictures of Aquatic Ops to set the mood:

https://forgottentrek.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/Enterprise-D-Cetacean-Ops-deck-plan.jpg

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/startrek/images/5/5d/Cetacean_navigation,_deck_13.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130106134045

https://forgottentrek.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/Enterprise-D-Cetacean-Ops-concept-art.jpg

https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/2fe9d9b3-f608-4598-b5c1-417ffbd02952/ddrku31-342fb62a-1f17-4d93-9a2b-c62c6f3a746b.jpg/v1/fill/w_1280,h_907,q_75,strp/cetacean_ops_aboard_the_uss_ross_by_o2cp_ddrku31-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3siaGVpZ2h0IjoiPD05MDciLCJwYXRoIjoiXC9mXC8yZmU5ZDliMy1mNjA4LTQ1OTgtYjVjMS00MTdmZmJkMDI5NTJcL2Rkcmt1MzEtMzQyZmI2MmEtMWYxNy00ZDkzLTlhMmItYzYyYzZmM2E3NDZiLmpwZyIsIndpZHRoIjoiPD0xMjgwIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmltYWdlLm9wZXJhdGlvbnMiXX0.2gvZreHLPMTDr27xS-JAJWAk-iRoZVGz11rz8XRrln0

(S) The forgotten trek ones don't work, but I get the idea anyway. I added Jenny in, because she's sort of the authority on canon we can use, or how much we can add to canon.

(Austen) The proposal is: We have an Aquatic crew presence and dedicated crew decks that interact with aquatic crew, its in blueprints but never on screen. There could just be "Aqua Decks" where Ensign Squid and Commander Dolphin perform miracles of science and medicine, and lets us focus on non humanoid species living in aquatic biomes. Also lets us visit more places and interesting locales if we have Aquatic characters who interact with or understand, there's lots of ground to cover here.

(Susan) You mean on off-base missions? Or on some of the ships like Second Star?

(Austen) Aquatic crew need special function Transporters which SB109 has tons of already. The UT and a hologram can create an avatar for us to interact with. I've got a squid officer in mind already. There are multiple species, with sections for fresh and salt water, methane, high pressure gas, as well as any other special aquatic environment. Their conference lounge could have a wall facing water, and the main arterial corridors around their sections have water running down them along the walls not at all like SeaQuest DSV.*

Species mentioned or seen on screen that live in or near Aquatic worlds.

Antedean
Selkie
Xindi-Aquatic
Legaran
Meskeen
Kelpien
Ferengi
Ba'ul
Redheri
Bwujan
Sigma fishman
Farrezzi
Tirek VIII native
Wwafida
Xawe
Lanatosian and Skriiti
Delphine
Dai-ai
Khwopa

OOC (C): Yes, I remember the aqua decks proposal. I like the idea; it would be a neat addition to the sim.

(Susan) VERY long sample post - I see splitting it in two. =)

Since we have made heavy gravity decks for the BESM, I see no reason we couldn't have aquatic decks. I don't think we should mix too many kinds of aquatics, but I think we could probably find a few people willing to play one or another of them. They could be new transfers to the base, something Starfleet feels we need to have, and there could be construction discussions to set the crew up for understanding what's going on. That would require some of our engineering folk, which would be a good thing. I do have an engineering NPC, and Christina has wanted something more to write. This could provide that.

I need to know how we are separating missions from SB109 and what kind of on-base missions the aquatics would run. They could be members of any regular department with either portable environments or virtual access to the department. Muffet Langston is a spider person, and there are other species which are aboard, like Yucholl. This would simply require more thought to how the aquatics would interact, physically how.

I still want Jenny's input, though.

(C) Her input would be good to have, as she had Commander Bowditch, a dolphin, on the Samurai, I think.

(S) I have taken the sample post and divided it into four parts, proofing it, and saved it to Renato and Jade. I'm thinking we are going through with the water decks, but waiting for confirmation from Jenny. I think these four posts would be a great mission along the way after we've established how all of this will work on 109 and ships will interact with the base. At the time we use them, we can add character NPCs to cover all the characters in the posts, if people want to participate on a continual basis. I put dibs on I-a, though I'd really like Fiejago, but I think he may rightly belong to Austen. =)

I think Chantal and Jenny have access to everyone's unposted jps for reading, in case you want to see what I did. Austen, you'll see them anyway, but do you want to see if you have that access?

(J) Sorry; for whatever reason, I didn't get notification of this post until Susan poked me about it.

I'm fine with aquatic decks -- in the past, I have played with the idea of Terran cetaceans on starships, and have written Bowditch -- an Atlantic Bottle-nose Dolphin -- as an actual Starfleet officer, not just a navigational consultant. In the earliest of those, Bowditch lived in a converted fresh water tank aboard a Miranda class starship; in the last, Samurai, we had dedicated cetacean decks aboard. Likewise, Bowditch had assistive technologies such as a skinsuit designed to keep her skin wet while keeping everything around her dry, antigrav lifters which let her 'swim' through the air, and assitive waldos to let her interface with systems designed for dry-land colleagues. Bowditch was XO on Samurai, since we were never able to satisfactorily fill that post with a player, and was last seen assuming command of that starship after Suzuki transferred to command SB109.

All of which is a rather long-winded way of saying, "yes, I'm familiar with the concepts involved, and no, I have no problem with the inclusion of such an area at SB109." I would simply prefer that it be something which has always been there, and is just showing up 'on screen' for the first time, rather than something being added as new construction. If you want to make it something that's always been there but is being renovated / updated, that's jake by me.

(S) I like the updating idea - maybe adding more aquatic crew? But I also don't want to see it become a hodge podge of many varieties. I think that just as there are fewer Klingons or some other species, there would probably be fewer aquatic officers who were willing to go through the hardships of living in a basically dry world environment, with few of their own kind, to serve in Starfleet. Even with aqua decks. I do want to show them with the respect of land species which shows in Austen's sample post.

So, where shall we start, Austen?

(A) Removing this section to add to the part 2 in progress, sorry.

A: So happy you all are on board I've been wanting to do this for years!

-As far as the topic of it having always been there, can we imply the capacity is pre-installed so there is no need to refit or add stuff, it just means certain decks and a dedicated turbolift. There have been no aquatic crew maybe till now but Starfleet is all about inclusion so there would be redundancy and "Cetacean Ops" in the blue prints from the jump. Just seal a few bulkheads and add water so to speak. There can be a whole set of specialized versions of tech to work there, underwater or water proof transporter pads, tricorder etc...

(S) I added this to my master copy of 109 decks. If it's approved by all of you, I'll add it to the copy on the sim deck listing. Are ten decks enough? We can PM the exact requirements, and I'll need you to create an LCARs page in a new category for Water Decks.

(Deck 875-885) Water Decks – Living and working areas for aquatic species (pre-built and installed, not always in use)

-An idea for keeping it SB109 centric- Another character on that SIM would have a Xindi Aquatic over three hundred years old doing mad research. He had a small detachment of dolphins and a squid as other workers like lab techs, plus their families maybe. He's ancient, and fragile, so he doesn't want to leave anywhere, he works with Starfleet as a civilian consultant to do missions and collect samples etc... but could set up a lab on 109. That keeps it small, and only a handful of species with similar fluid medium tolerance.

(S) Good side story to add to other ideas!

-The flying antigrav suit is brilliant. I had gone the route of "hologram avatar" but perhaps both in play as needed by plot demands. Other interactions could include a conference room with one wall as an aquarium style floor to ceiling window, and open river style channels along various surfaces, perhaps the parks in the various garden districts are linked as well.

(S) Sounds good. I think the river area we have is too shallow for the larger characters, but some small dolphins and others might play there and give folks a thrill now and then. Your conference room reminds me of the one in Star Trek Xindi shows on Enterprise, and it worked well there. I see no reason why all the water decks can't be connected by some kind of waterways and skip lifts in that area, but perhaps we need a site-to-site transporter for areas where the aquatics would need to go.

Let's think about adaptation of one of the promenades, too. There's a lower smaller promenade somewhere between decks 790 and 875, so that's probably where. Also, the antigrav wet suit or hologram avatars may eliminate some of the issues with shopping and entertainment, and diplomacy and meetings, but I'm just brainstorming here. I don't want aquatics to have to be the only ones who have to make adjustments for everything. Air breathers should, too, and the conference room may help with that.

-The Research I had in mind, and please add ideas as you see fit, is: Particle physics, wormhole creation, dimensional drive technology, fluidic space, other stuff centered on traveling to very distant locations. We'd have ships come to the base to be refit for experimentation and oversee the trials. Shenanigans may occur. I also kind of vision a refit Flyer type vehicle for the research team to get around in on their own.

(S) We do know there are some totally water worlds, and some with only small islands or continents - nothing the size of Australia, but with New Zealand or Japan size, plus smaller ones, maybe? Sadly, our nearby planet is a rock, but who knows what lurks under the surface, as we've only had one exploratory mission in our tenure on 109.

This is an exciting addition to SB109, and I thank you for suggesting it, Austen. I DO want to have that series of rescue posts on the sim at some point, so be sure to include such rescue missions! =) We'uns likes shenanigans around here!

(J) There are no inhabitable planets in the system with the base. There's a hydrogen giant, and we'd discussed the idea of having "whale-like" intelligence living in its atmosphere, but that idea got eaten in the rush to have the survey ship break down. Which, if you ask me, was a dumber plotline than "hey, we found a completely different kind of intelligence living in this gas giant!" but no one asked me. Anyway, there's nothing in this star system that would contest the territory for the Starbase; that's the whole point of the location.

(S) We could still discover that intelligence, since the science ship didn't complete its mission to Nāmaka. I was thinking water worlds in other systems. LCARs article about Nāmaka

(C) Now you all are tempting me to create a science officer character. :) Name is Olu.

(A) Please do! I anticipate a team which travels on behalf of the Xindi Aquatic for away missions.

(A) I just got caught up on all the reading. I am beside myself at the monumental efforts here, I truly appreciate it!

-We can have the exo comps and the engineers on the station do a post about fitting it for aquatics as well!
-If we want in on the first aquatic NPC's, I can take on Fiejago and the Xindi Aquatic if anyone else wants to create a character. I'll add your main characters for now to a new mission post.
-I also think Nāmaka should definitely have the whale like or gas jellyfish like creatures in it. A story of finding it out could get very interesting and involve our new characters?
-I can post the rescue post as an intro to the first few characters, then we follow up on them with a conversation about setting up the aquatic lab on the base, then posts about them coming and it getting built. Olumorron was the Xindi aquatic's name.

Adding on:
Step one is to post rescue post and intro of the research team. Step 1.5 is a wiki page for reference to keep the rules and canonical stuff straight.
Step two is the intro post of the research team coming to the station, it takes a week or so maybe so they gotta hustle. Deck 875-885 are preset.
Step Three is the arrival of the team and announcement of open season for Aquatic NPC's from an approved list.

Are we ready to post the Rescue post and start it up?

(S) The posts are ready, but I don't think we are quite ready to start them. Let's finish hashing out how we're going to get things on 109, introduce the characters who are living on those decks, and then post Rescue during the next mission, which I think should start in November. Also, we need to finish some of the arcs that are going on, like Milli-Cochran. It's almost there!

(A) OMG the Milli-Cochrane Caper Lol. Mannn, can we just write that one to a conclusion you me and chantal. Just knock it out?

(S) Yes, we can! Let's leave this hanging momentarily and go do that. I'm hopefully doing that with the Klingon Dinner, too. How I got involved in that diplomacy, I've never known! =)

(A) Agreed. I'll hold off on other development stuff til we can resolve the million irons in the fire. Out with old in with new. We can give all our characters new arcs soon!