[Report This]Date: 22 Jan 2021 18:54 Title: Part II - The Never-Ending War: 4
Superb mood piece. Gives a real feel to a side of Star Fleet rarely written about. What if you have a captain who is a nasty piece of work? Under normal circumstances, they would be RIFed out. But in this depopulated SF, no one is getting RIFed.
Newheiser promises to be as entertaining as Katanga, in a very different way. Creepy doctors make for great stories.
Thanks!! rbs
Author's Response: Thanks for the kind words and glad I've been able to set the mood appropriately here which is obviously very different to what we've seen on Eagle where officers will apparently break out in spontaneous song on occasion.
Date: 06 Nov 2014 19:14 Title: Part II - The Never-Ending War: 4
I think this look on Leva was a very real representation. Often in Star Trek, we see the wonder crews, and little to no thought is placed on new crew members arriving (save Worf from DS9, and Seven, but the biases against her are a completely different story). You’d expect the crew to be apprehensive around a new ranking officer, even if there’s no one aboard who was gunning for that spot. A change of that nature ordinarily heralds a lot of other changes too. It is a rather telling fact that short of Alendra, no one really tries to meet his eye, strike up conversation, or brown-nose. This is a crew that is so devoid of hope that they don’t even want to attempt to curry favor with the new first officer.
I think Alendra is right, though. The Captain sets the tone for most things aboard his vessel, and it’s pretty obvious that Mahoney’s cloister, alcoholic ways are setting an extremely poor standard for the entire crew.
Leva has a huge amount of work ahead of him trying to get this ship’s crew in any sort of positive mindset, but I hope he succeeds.
Author's Response: I would think, and hope, that Sacajawea is not the norm as far as Starfleet crews go. Yeah, she's a small vessel but one would almost expect this to mean that there is an even greater camaraderie among the crew than on a larger ship like Eagle or the Enterprise. That's not the case here and while Mahoney is mostly responsible for this, I don't believe that war time attrition has helped the situation any. Then again this was never a stellar crew. If you are curious about the ship's history, Sacajawea also appeared in the novella Star Crossed, available right here on Ad Astra or at StarEagleAdventrues.com
Date: 06 Nov 2014 14:57 Title: Part II - The Never-Ending War: 4
Most crewmembers seem too young to be irrevocably affected by the captain’s sulk. I don’t think that it would be that difficult for Leva to squeeze some enthusiasm from them but Alendra simply wants to leave instead of delving into it. Newheiser is dangerous and everyone senses it. He might be the grey cardinal behind Mahoney who is nothing but a dummy.
It is good that you present the attitude of the ordinary ensigns and junior officers who serve on insignificant vessels but still try to do their job to the best of their abilities.
Author's Response: I think there is a palpable sense of lack of leadership which has infested Sacajawea and that starts at the top, with the captain setting the tone. Alendra was a reluctant and probably out of her depth first officer who had been given little support. Can Leva do better without a buy-in from his captain? We'll have to see.
Date: 06 Nov 2014 06:37 Title: Part II - The Never-Ending War: 4
Leva's making inroads where he can, but the cards seem stacked against him. This is one of those posts people can't seem to get away from fast enough, and during wartime nobody up the chain of command really gives a damn about morale on a single frigate. I hope that Leva can turn things around here, but short of staging a mutiny, I'm not sure what he can do...
Great stuff!
Author's Response: Hey, let's not use the m-word just yet. But yeah, Leva's in a pickle, do doubt. Thanks for the review.