The Christmas Special

[Modem]

How about ‘the squire of Gothos’? Some say he’s or par with the prophets and Q, and no one has said how his species grows/‘ages’ (I’ve heard stories where ‘the Squire’s a nephew of Q, and still another where they’re just ‘friendly rivals’).

And I don’t know; I think the prophets could be used for a ‘Christmas Carol’-type story…and the non-linear time thing could work too. Think of it as Tarantino’s take on the concept: we get a snippet of the start (or past if you will), smidgen of the end (future), smattering of the middle (present), back to the end, then start, end to middle. Hmmm…more of an “All Good Things…” thing…hmmm, how about “All Good Tidings…”?

‘nother thought about the ‘Christmas Carol’ story; where does it say ‘it must do with time’? Look what DS9 did with this kind of story with Bashir (his thirtieth birthday episode). Instead of parts of his past, present, and future being shown, he dealt with parts of his ‘persona’. (Come to think of it; this is closer to ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, except Julian didn’t ‘ask for it’ )

[ghosty]

Originally posted by Dan Stack
The Vulcan Holy Man actually can tie in with Q...

Let me go into a tangent... It's related, so bear with me. Several years ago I read a short story about a minor league baseball player who got called to the big leagues. It wound up he went on a hitting streak, so much so that he was on the verge of breaking DiMaggio's hitting streak. At the same time, these aliens arrived on Earth, first contact. And the two plots combined at the end - the whole reason the aliens arrived was to see DiMaggio's hitting streak get broken. The reason? Because the odds against it were so significant that to them it was a miraculous event.

By the same token, perhaps this child has been born with a one in a trillion psionic ability. The Vulcans can sense that power. The Bajoran Vedek can foresee the good the child will do with the power. I would suggest the power be a very subtle one - like if the child (as he or she grows) speaks truthfully, his or her words will be believed by all who hear him or her. Perhaps this child will lead a peaceful revolution, one which will bring the Romulan Star Empire to its knees (eventually, perhaps a century or two later, much like Christianity eventually changed the Roman Empire or Ghandi brought the British Empire to its knees without a word or action of anger). Without this child, a revolution will still take place, but one which will result in the destruction of the world as the Romulans crush it.

Why does Q care? Does he care about empires? Probably not. But probabilities, those strike me as something that would be of interest to an alien being like the Q. "Do you know my dear captain how many people in the lifetime of an entire planet are born with the gift this child has? And of those people, how many of them have the strength of character to actually use it the right way? You could visit a million worlds over a million years - and believe me I have - and find such an event on less worlds than you can count with your crude primate fingers. And the audacity of the Romulans to interfere with such an unlikely event. This is one of those lives which alters the structure of the universe. Let me show it to you in a way your limited mind can comprehend."

Damn...that was good. I like it Dan and this is going to be part of the story. Thanks.

[ghosty]

BTW Dan that was a wonderful Q line...I'll have to steal it.

I've gone through the whole story in my head and I think it'll work out. I'll keep you all posted on how it comes out. And incidentally, if you have any more ideas, keep 'em coming because until next Saturday, changes can be made.

[Balok]

Originally posted by ghosty
BTW Dan that was a wonderful Q line...I'll have to steal it.

Indeed. I could hear DeLancie's supercillious "Q" voice uttering those words as I read them.

The only connection between Q and Trelane that I am aware of came in the book "Q-Squared", written by Peter David. It started out kind of interesting, but then (IMO) disintegrated into a muddle. I think it's probably better if there's no relationship between the two races.

We don't know how adult "Trelanians" functioned, but it seemed clear from "Squire" that young Trelane depended on instrumentation to do at least some of his tricks. That would make him considerably less powerful than Q. Even less powerful than Qunior, in his rare appearances on Voyager...

Did Q describe the Continuum as having a "watchdog" role in "Encounter at Farpoint". It's been so long, I can't remember, but I don't think he ever said anything like that again. However, there is a leaderships structure there, which at least implies members cannot *really* do whatever they want -- which might mean they're operating according to some plan, and might provide some motivation for Q ensuring that certain events turn out the way they are "supposed to". Then again, Q doesn't have to have understandable motives, either.

The sort of power Dan describes could be used for great good, or horrible evil, depending on who teaches the child morals. That could be a good Christmas-y theme.

I'd better stop babbling, now...

[StyroFoam Man]

This message has been removed on request by the
poster

[ghosty]

We played out about 3/4 of the Christmas special yesterday (Saturday) and hope to finish it today. Its going great but to prevent another multi-part post I'll save it until we've played out the whole game.

[ghosty]

Originally posted by StyroFoam Man
http://216.40.212.6/forum/showthread...&threadid=3087

Styro I've always doubted your sanity, but now I'm pretty sure.

[ghosty]

Unlike many of you I don't have a website of my own to post this stuff so I share through the forum, hope you all don't mind but I just don't have the time to maintain a website...maybe someday...yeah when pigs fly and the moon turns blue (no jokes please Styro ).

Okay, but seriously folks lets have a look at the Christmas Special.

You'll have to read up the backstory in the "A Funny thing happened on Risa" thread http://forum.lotrrpg.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=751 but the episode opens just after CO-Prime learns about what the Mirror-XO has done and orders the security chief to toss him into the brig until they can hand him over to Starfleet Intelligence but she is ordered to take the Wayfarer which is on its shakedown cruise to the Romulan Neutral Zone to pick up two Federation and one Bajoran citizens who have been declared Persona Non-grata by the Romulans and are being expelled. The Wayfarer is ordered to rendevous with Admiral Tomalak to take possession of the expelled citizens.

Enroute to the RNZ the Mirror-XO manages to break out of the brig and takes the CO and her baby girl hostage sparking off a hostage crisis just as the Wayfarer prepares to enter Romulan space.

With the security chief and ship's counselor working on the hostage crisis, the acting XO is left in charge of negotiating with the prickly Romulans who are not thrilled about dealing with a mere subordinate.

Well the CO manages to talk the Mirror-XO into giving himself up and manages to get back on the bridge before a major diplomatic incident can occur. Tomalak hands over the three "guests" but is cryptic about why they are being expelled from Romulan space only that they had been caught in a area usually forbidden to foreigners.

After Tomalak leaves, the CO orders the ship back to Federation space to drop off the passengers at the nearest Starbase. But she agrees to speak to them first.

The three turn out to be a Bajoran Vedek, a human Priest and a Vulcan Kholinarr Master. They had met on Starbase 117 apparently heading in the same direction all drawn towards a sector of Romulan space which is relatively unknown to the Federation.

During the interview, the three are rather vague about the purpose of their visit just that they are called to see something but can't say what. The CO is surprised by a Vulcan acting the way the Kholinarr Master is acting, which is completely illogical. But he disagrees. Anyway the CO has other things on her mind and when the request that she take them to their destination, she flatly refuses not only because it'd be a treaty violation but because she has to deal with a new ship, a possible mirror universe invasion and worry about her lover and not forgetting the Alternate XO who she still has some feelings for.

Anyway after she hands the guests off to the acting XO, the CO gets back to work only to be surprised by the appearance of Q who tells her that he is not surprised that she is turning her back on the greatest revelation she could witness all because of some human limitation.

What is this revelation she asks. Q tells her that a child is about to be born and it is important that the three holy men she has on board witness the birth. Why she asks.

Q sneers saying that it is a question of faith and that she should not ask so many questions. I expect it from Picard, but then he has little faith in me.

No wonder. the Captain quips.

Q explains that the child is destined to save or destroy the universe and the choices the CO and the holy men make may make a difference. The child is to be born on a world occupied by the Romulans and the populace are in revolt against the Empire. A prophecy says that a saviour would be born to throw off the yoke of Romulan domination. The Romulans know about the prophecy and are determined to stop it.

Q then lays the line that Dan suggested but the CO is not convinced. So Q decides to show her and with his usual aplomb teleports her into a future where the Romulans having harnessed the power of the "messiah" and has used it to extend their power through out the galaxy. The Klingons, Federation, Breen, Cardassians everyone lives under the yoke of the Romulans but Q also shows the CO that the child has become the true power in the Empire corrupted by the upbringing that he had undergone all because the CO refused to violate some rules and turn back.

The CO calls for her staff and the holy men and tells them that she has decided to take the ship into Romulan space. The acting XO objects but she overrules him and tells him that its her decision and her responsibility. Later she tells the XO what Q had shown her and he agrees to turn around although he still has reservations.

The manage to elude the Romulan patrols using information that the Federation had acquired during the Dominion War and gets deep into Romulan space before the Romulan Navy can react and begin hunting them.

The Wayfarer arrives at the coordinates provided by the Holy men to find a phenomenon that could not be natural. Two black holes in close proximity to each other (relatively speaking) with a planetary system sitting just where the event horizons of the two black holes meet and the gravity fields are neutralized by each other. The science officer, an expert in astrophysics goes ballistic trying to explain how something like this could happen.

The Romulans move to intercept the Wayfarer and demands to know why they are here without proper authorization. The CO refuses to tell the Romulans why she had come because she suspects that the Romulans are waiting for this moment to find out who the "messiah" is. So she insists that she is here to study the black hole phenomenon and she bluffs that she has authorization. Thanks to some fancy electronics work by Scotty she jams outgoing signals so that the Romulans cannot confirm whether she has authorization or not. She uses the confusion to launch a shuttle carrying the holy men and an away team down to the planet under the cover of Scotty's jamming.

THe Romulan commander is furious that he can't get a signal out but he can't leave as he has to keep a lid on the revolution and if he pulls out the whole planet could go up in flames so he sends a warp shuttle which would take two days to clear the interference.

The away team finds the child in a small peasants village, drawn by powerful forces that only the three holy men can understand. They arrive just as a force of Romulan troops arrive. A tense stand-off ensues. THe Romulans are determined to have the child for themselves but the holy men refuse saying that the child cannot fall into the wrong hands.

Meanwhile the science officer figures out that the black holes are not kept apart naturally but by a superior piece of technology far beyond anything that any Alpha Quadrant power possessed.

Q shows up at this point and quips that this is an interesting situation, the CO has now to make a decision, if she makes the wrong one, it could end the galaxy. The CO decides and orders the XO to fire on the alien machine keeping the black holes apart, she could not avoid starting a war but if she destroys the child she can prevent a war and the child falling into Romulan hands. Q applauds and tells her that she may have yet saved the universe just as he dissapears and photon torpedoes impact on the alien machine. THere is a massive gravatic feedback and we fade to black...

Well that's it MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY and the story will continue next year in Infinite Realities.

[Robbert Raets]

AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

Not another Cliffhanger!!

DAMN damn damn!

[ghosty]

Originally posted by Robbert Raets
AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

Not another Cliffhanger!!

DAMN damn damn!

Why does everyone swear whenever I end with a cliffhanger? Its a storytelling art form which leaves you begging for more. but as I've mentioned the whole Christmas Special was to be a prelude to the greater Infinite Realities story arc which would resolve most of the multiple XO problems.

[Captain Zymmer]

Interesting...very interesting

I reserve judegement until I see where this is going, but I like so far

[ghosty]

Just between you me and the bulkhead, one of the parallel dimensions the PCs are going to visit is one where the CO found another way out of the standoff with the Romulans and well things went badly as well. The Holy Men took possession of the child but the curve ball is that the child was evil to begin with so it didn't need the Romulans to corrupt it, it was already corrupt so it easily dominated the three Wise Men and started a religious cult which spread death terror and destruction throughout the galaxy.

Hence Q's remark after the CO ordered the Wayfarer to fire. I didn't really expect her to do it because I doubted she'd be crazy enough to do something like that. But something Q said during their "Wonderful Life" trip must have clued her in on what to do. She asked Q if the future would happen if she didn't do anything. Q replied even if she did something another equally dark future would fall on the galaxy, it would depend on the choices she would make.

Truth is if she did not Q would have destroyed the alien satellite and caused the gravatic rift...and the trip to the parallel future was just a plot device to show that Q wasn't the utter bastard that we thought he was.

When I asked her why she did it, she said she remembered reading a similar story in my Judge Dreed collection a few months ago. The "Judge Child" storyline where Dreed slew the "saviour" of Megacity One when it proved to be evil. So she just went with her gut instinct and fired from the hip. No reasoning just "women's intuition" .

(I actually typed a PMS joke here but deleted it to prevent the firestorm that would have inevitably followed ).

[Captain Zymmer]

LOL!

Wow...women's intuition, is mandatory reading at the Academy

Neat twist, I suspected you weren't going to make it too easy on them.

More please.

[ghosty]

Originally posted by Captain Zymmer
LOL!

Wow...women's intuition, is mandatory reading at the Academy

Neat twist, I suspected you weren't going to make it too easy on them.

More please.

Damn right.

[Captain Zymmer]

So what's the big danger waiting them? Or is this going to turn into another War of the Gods where I curse and praise you all at the same time?