Storyline suggestions!

[Zania Jaarda]

Do you have an idea for a major storyline for the Zealous? Share it here!

Whether you have a full blown concept, or just the basic ideas, don't be afraid to post them or get a discussion going! The more ideas that everyone comes up with, the more that everyone on board will be able to do!

[Jake Sjet]

I'm here to propose two ideas.
ONE- We go back in time to stop the ozone layer from being depleted by aliens or what ever, either way it results in a lot of us being placed on earth in 1999. I chosse 1999 because we all lived troiugh it, and it would seem, survied it as well!

TWO- is dark and sinister! Our future selfs steal a ship, go back in time to save the Zealous from some kind of misfortune.

I am working on the rough edges for these two so hopefully more are on the way!

[Zania Jaarda]

You've got some interesting ideas there! I'm going to add a few of my own later on today.

[Jacob Verne]

OFF: I came up with this after reading a mission proposal by Sjet

ON:
The USS Zealous is used as a test bed or the new Fluidic Drive system. After an appearently sucsessful test, the USS Zealous returns to Starbase 277 in the Amadose sector. The ship docks while the senior officers beam on board the ship of Admiral Stanson, who is in charge of the Fluidic Drive System design. While stanson's ship cricles around the Starbase, the Fluid Drive on the Zealous is going bad. It starts leaking undetectable raiation, that causes an eplosion that destroys the Zealous as well as the Starbase.

Skip a head a few monthes.

The Amadose sector has been attacked and taken over by a new race of aliens. Without a command center to organize a defense, the secter quickly falls to the aliens.

Skip a head a year

The Amadose sector has proven to be a great assit to the new race. They have used it to gain a foot hold in Federation Space and used it as a staging area to launch attacks against the Federation, Klignons, and Romulans. As well as the other Alpha Quadrent governments. Even with all of the races working together, they are barley able hold them off.

Ten Years later

The war has finaly ended, with the Federation/Klignons/Romulans winning, but just barley. For with billions upon billions of lives lost and entire sectors ravenged there is little for them to celebrate. But a daring plan has been broght to what is left of the ruling bodies of the once powerful governments. The Starfleet Core of engineers has invented a time ship. They propose to the Romulan Senate, Klignon High COuncil, and Federation Council, now stationed on Bajor after the desturction of Earth, Romulas, and Qu'nos, that they use the time ship to go back in time and stop the test of the Fluidic Drive System and thus preventing the destruction of Starbase 277 and giving the Amadose sector a chance to defend tehmselves from the alien race. All of the governments refuse, saying there is no way to calculate how that will effect history. But several people are unhappy about this, mainly the senior staff of the Zealous. They hatch a plan to steal the timeship, go back and prevent the test.

OFF: This could lead to a multi-mission war. Say the Starbase is saved and the race doesn't take over the sector, so they try a different approach and leads to another war.

[Ensign Vaskel]

Well I have already sent an outline of my story to Lt Dillard after it started which was long before the Ferengi mission the thing is it involved a power alien force that had transwarped from the Gamma Quadrant into the Alpha Quadrant who are currently hiding in the Neutral zone and the badlands, I devised a way to destroy them and they are about to start attacking so I wondered if that would start soon?

Also Lt Dillard were you not working on perfecting Voyagers Holo emitters that would create ship with energy and life signatures when you were the ACEO and CEO what happened to that?

I think that Ensign Sjets second idea and Lt Dillards are out of this galaxy since world doesn't mean that much anymore.

[Jake Sjet]

Zane, great idea you got there. And it can be done after this opne, after we get back to dry dockl to have the holes, tears, and gaps in the Zealous put back together this admiral can come up and tell us he'd like this time to fit us with the Fluiic Drive system. It would connect this storyline we're on know with the one we want to do.

[Zania Jaarda]

If you have an idea, Lt. Vaskel, please post it here! Although I have a couple of species in mind for us to use, I'm interested in seeing what you were proposing. Perhaps there will be a way for us to work it in.

[Zania Jaarda]

Here's some ideas that we might be able to use for future plotlines. This is broken down by planet:

Acamar III

1) Sovereign Marouk wants Acamar III to join the Federation, and is eager to curry whatever favor she can to ease admission. But her repeated requests for Federation assistance anger some members of the Ruling Council, who may find themselves tempted to take violent action just as the Zealous responds to one of the Sovereign's requests. If the Zealous does not handle the situation properly, a new clan war could errupt - and even if they handle it correctly, they risk becoming embroiled in local politics.

2) The Acamarians have decided to market their mineral resources aggressively, and are willing to discuss exclusive interstellar trade contracts. The Zealous ferries Federation negotiators to Acamar III; Zealous members might be called upon to take an active role in the negotiations. Their opponents: a group of wily Ferengi who are willing to resort to unconventional means to win the contract.

3) The Zealous arrives at Acamar III to help calm local unrest. Tension between the Acamarians and returned Gatherers have reached the breaking point. The Gatherers claim they have been railroaded into poverty and second-class status by the ruling elite, while the Acamarians decry the violent raids which the Gatherers have resorted to. The younger generation hopes to air its grievances to the galaxy, and claim that the ruling regime constrains its civil rights. All sides blame the Federation for their difficulties. What will Starfleet - and specifically the Zealous - do to help?

[Jacob Verne]

Also Lt Dillard were you not working on perfecting Voyagers Holo emitters that would create ship with energy and life signatures when you were the ACEO and CEO what happened to that?

I believe the last time I mentioned it, it was still in the research and development stage. The system was almost ready to be built, but then everyone stopped posting. And then when we started up agian, I was the XO and just let the idea drop. But if you want to pick the idea up, your more than welcome to.

[Zania Jaarda]

Aldea

1) The Aldeans continue to struggle over the issue of Federation membership, and matters come to a head. The First Appointee invites Federation diplomats to make their case before the Aldean people. Starfleet sends the Zealous to transport the diplomats and assist as necessary (or simply sends the Zealous to advance the Federation's case). On the planet's surface, a Romulan diplomat, also invited to participate in the debates, surprises the Zealous.

Meanwhile, the Custodian, long responsible for the planet's well-being, has its own ideas on the matter of Aldea's future and makes them known in a variety of ways, from violent storms to repulsor beam attacks. The Aldeans ask the Zealous to deal with the computer, either negotiating with it, or deactivating it so that the Aldeans can make the decision themselves.

2) Federation scientists make a breakthrough discovery in the matter of Aldean sterility. Developing a treatment to combat years of radiation exposure, the doctors are ready to try limited tests. Starfleet sends the Zealous to supervise the humanoid tests. Unfortunately, the cure causes unintended consequences - anything from rapid aging to the manifestation of psionic powers. Some Aldeans see the mishap as proof of their political position - either in support of Romulan alliance, neutrality, or isolation. The Aldeans might call for the expulsion of all Federation personnel, or the Zealous may have to convince the Aldeans of the benefits of continued contact with the UFP.

[Jacob Verne]

Well I have already sent an outline of my story to Lt Dillard after it started which was long before the Ferengi mission the thing is it involved a power alien force that had transwarped from the Gamma Quadrant into the Alpha Quadrant who are currently hiding in the Neutral zone and the badlands, I devised a way to destroy them and they are about to start attacking so I wondered if that would start soon?

I sent you an email, asking you if you could send either me or the Captain with a kind of summery of the alien race and thier ships. But, you were still on Vacation so it probobly got lost. I know you've had them in previous posts, but niether the CO nor have those and the archives don't have them because we switched severs in late June and lost all of those posts. And as soon as we get that info we can see about missions involving them. I think, but am not for sure, that the Captain is looking for a race to use in several different missions. So it is possible that your race will be used in multiple missions instead of just the one.

[Zania Jaarda]

Alpha Centauri

1) A Borg scout ship enters Centauran space while the Zealous crew is on shore leave touring the U.S.S. Asimov. Taking Starfleet by surprise, the Borg cripples numerous Federation vessels and prepares to assimilate Alpha Centauri. The Zealous must delay the Borg long enough for reinforcements from Earth to arrive by taking command of the only other working Starfleet vessel in the system, the Constitution-class U.S.S. Asimov.

2) For the first time in history, Klingon athletes have received invitations to participate in the Centauran Championships in Caladia. Starfleet has been asked to escort the athletes to Alpha Centauri and then return them to the empire. The Zealous crew must do their best to accomodate the demanding Klingons on the voyage to Alpha Centauri. Then, after their arrival and the beginning of the games, one of the althetes is murdered! Could the Romulans or Cardassians have agents trying to escalate tensions between the UFP and the Klingons? Or did a rival among the Klingon delegation itself perform the deed?

3) Federation scientist discover an unusual artifact at Denius III, the ruins of Nafir, or the Skaethan burial mounds on Calder II, and sends them to Dr. Jascar on Alpha Centauri. Jascar can be found at the Nyrian Pyramids excavations, where the away team discovers similarities between the artifact and glyphs at the site. What is the link between this mysterious relic and the Centaurians? Perhaps the site is linked to Sargon's people, the Preservers, or the Iconians. The doctor decides to investigate and asks the Zealous to come along....

[Zania Jaarda]

Andoria

1) As part of their Starfleet training, the Zealous is sent to Andoria for an intensive two-week course in armed and unarmed combat at the Andorian Military Institute. While there a group of young Andorians takes a dislike to one of the crew, who is (mutually) attracted to another student who is Andorian. The Andorian bravos manipulate events so that the Zealous crew member insults one of them. Demanding satisfaction for being wronged, the young Andorian challenges the Zealous crew member to ritual combat. The Zealous crew member has to resolve the conflicts between his personal honor, Starfleet oaths, and the rest of the Zealous crew's varying opinions abuot what he should do, and the feelings of his newfound love (who may or may not approve of a duel) - all while keeping his skin in one piece!

2) While gathering data on a recent stellar phenomena in Alpha Quadrant, the Zealous discovers a cosmic string. Though it's not currently a threat to any Federation member worlds or installations, the Zealous must plot its course, allowing Starfleet to monitor its progress through this part of the galaxy. The Andoria VII Observatory is the only facility within range capable of predicting the string's course accurately. Unfortunately, Romulan spies have infiltrated the Observatory and are very interested in finding out more so that they can use the string as a weapon.

[Zania Jaarda]

Ba'ku planet

1) While many of the Son'a who decided to return to their planet did so because they wished to rejoin their relatives, some have a more nefarious plan in mind. A small group carefully works to feed the younger generation images of the wonders of technology, in the hope of ultimately overthrowing the simple Ba'ku way of life. Upon discovering this corrupting influence in their midst, but not determining its source, the council asks the Federation for its help.

Alternatively, the council could know exactly who is responsible for the discord and confront the faction. Now they need a Federation diplomatic team to mediate so that history does not repeat itself

2) Word of the Ba'ku planet spreads through the galaxy and an ancient species comes forth, claiming to have owned the planet long before the Ba'ku arrived. Is their claim sincere, or is the evidence presented a ruse? Either way, they are prepared to fight for what they claim is rightfully theirs, and the council calls on the Federation for assistance.

3) The planet begins to experience strange fluctuations in atmospheric conditions, the likes of which the Ba'ku have not seen in their centuries on the planet. The Zealous is sent to investigate. The cause is a group of Romulan or Klingon science vessels hiding in the Briar Patch with cloaking technology. They perform experiments whose goal is to extract metaphasic particles without being detected. The intruders could be acting on their own or under the direction of their respective empires' leadership. How will the Zealous deal with this violation of the Federation's protective quarantine? How will they react when the intruders offer to share valuable information they've discovered?

[Zania Jaarda]

Betazed

1) A son of the Second House of Betazed stows away on the Zealous to be with his imzadi. His mother, a member of the Ruling Council, has reported his disappearance to Starfleet and demands that he be found and returned home so that he may marry his genetically bonded partner. To make matters more complicated, the imzadi may be a Zealous crew member. If the stowaway is not returned, the Zealous may be responsible for an interstellar incident. If he is returned, he will be forced to marry against his will.

2) A psychotic Betazoid youth with incredibly powerful telepathic abilities has escaped from the hospital at the University of Betazed. Betazed has requested Starfleet's help to find him, and sends a doctor from the Betazed University to assist the Zealous. Although he is a young man, the escapee possesses the ability to project his thoughts into the minds of others and force them to do his bidding. If he escapes from the planet, he may well become a danger to the citizens of the UFP. When the Zealous arrives they may find evidence of Romulan or Ferengi involvement in the escape as well.

3) While the Zealous crew members are on shore leave (on, say, Risa) an alien offers to sell them an ancient map, which he claims he took from the body of a Betazoid who was killed in a shuttle accident. The map shows the location of the Staff of Khrysaros, the mythical hero of Betazed. The Staff is an object of great religious significance to the Betazoids; it would be sacrilege for such an important artifact to fall into non-Betazoid hands.

After they report the unique contents of the map to their captain, the Zealous crew members learn that the alien has sold several copies of the map over the last several weeks. They must race to Betazed to prevent this ancient relic from being removed from Betazoid soil and from falling into unfriendly hands.

[Zania Jaarda]

Bolarus IX

1) The Zealous is assigned to a diplomatic mission on Bolarus IX. The newly elected leader of one of the nations is strongly against continued Bolian membership in the Federation. Although he is not a rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth fanatic, he clearly has very strong convictions and wouldn't hesitate to back up his beliefs with action. The Zealous must serve as escorts and bodyguards for Federation diplomats who are hoping to resolve the situation. If they do their jobs well, the Zealous just might discover that it's Ferengi money which supported the new leader's rise to power....

2) An accident at the warp research facility on Bolarus XIII requires the assistance of the Zealous. The Zealous investigates and discovers a dimensional rift. The rift tarps the Zealous and transports it to an alternate reality. In this other timestream, the Zealous crew find themselves in the midst of a Bolian world war, with the three nations fighting to control the planet and sector. The Zealous crew must keep the ship intact and themselves alive until a way home can be devised - and they must keep their advanced technology out of the hands of the warring factions who covet it.

[Jake Sjet]

Okay, I'm going to combine mine and Zanias ideas, so people shield your eyes, thier could be an explosion.

Temporal Back Lash

The Zealous is 'rented' out by Starfleet Command as a test bed for a new form of warp drive, Vaskal I'll let you work up a name for it. The tech is give to us by a advance race who have just joined the Federation, Zania we could use a few of your new races. The drive is a complete success, until they drop out of warp. They find them self in the middle of a bloody confict between the Federation, aka the Terran Confederacy, and the evil empire we all love the Alliance.
we then come face to face with or alternative selfs.
They try to steel the technology for the Dimesion Drive but only succed in destroying half the ship, but only after we make the leap back to our home dimension.
Fast Forward ten years, all is well. The Borg Alliance, the free Borg of Unimatrix Zero our now federation protectorates and have help us immensly. But the crew of the Zealous aren;t happy with the way its gone. Most of us have done well for our selfs, Zania might have made it to Presisdent or what ever of Betazed, Vaskal is now head enginner for a new class of star ship, MurDock is a test pilot or what ever, you get the idea. One of us, chossen at random or by vote, will not be content with what life has handed him. He'll steel a ship, go and round us all up. Then we recreate the tech used to travel through the dimension coupes with some sort of time travel device, again add name here. We go back, make sure the firing of the D-Drive never happens or it never cost the lifes of most of the Zealous's crew.
Either way it'll have intrege, death, romace and all the other thing that can make a stroy line work, no, live!
Well, what do you think?

[Ensign Vaskel]

Well Ensign Sjet you have a remarkble talent for thinking up plots I can see that it was a good thing that you came to the Zealous. I was thinking along the lines of something that used some of the aspects of the Quantum slipstream but not as fast as that or Transwarp, how about the Quantum Regulated Warp Core stay at maximum warp for an extra eighteen hours with a 47% efficiency increase. Also Lt Dillard I shall e-mail you on the Gamma Quadrant species but they are really intent on war and I deviesed a way to destroy them with the Tyscodesium enhanced torpedoes and the Hydrogen cloud to creat a Photonic Hydrogen Bomb. The only way to keep them in would be through we signed a treaty and had them as a powerful allie, a treaty with renegade forces or destroy them but get more visits from them but not as big as an entire fleet.

[Zania Jaarda]

Calder II

1) The fate of the original proto-Romulan colonists remains a mystery. Did they really die out, or did some of them somehow survive? Perhaps they found a way to make the transition to a completely psionic form of existence, abandoning their physical bodies forever. Or maybe they cast their minds forward in time, to possess the bodies of the modern researchers.

2) Ancient psionic artifacts might turn out to be incredibly powerful. A member of the research staff could find a psionic amplifier device giving him godlike powers. Or a Ferengi con man could set up shop somewhere selling bogus Calderian artifacts.

3) On a more mundane note, an isolated research station is a good place for a murder mystery. A dozen suspects on an otherwise uninhabited world would make for a great whodunit plot. The ancient ruins could be the key to the mystery or a misleading red herring.

[Zania Jaarda]

Caldos Colony

1) Another anaphasic lifeform leaves Caldos while symbiotically joined with a Caldosian actress touring the sector. The Zealous transports the actress and some brand-new Caldosian holoprograms (all Scottish and Caldosian ghost-story adventures) from Caldos to her next stop. As the Zealous crew experience these holoprograms, anaphasic lifeforms begin "haunting" the ship, recreating these ghost stories and blurring the line between fantasy and reality with potentially tragic results.

2) A Federation terraforming analysis team lands on Caldos IV to study the weather-control grid and to make sure the Townsend geysers remain stable. The Zealous is assigned to keep these stereotypical absent-minded scientists and technology-absorbed engineers out of trouble with the expressive, romantic, and occasionally violent Caldosian colonists. For an extra challenge, divide the terraforming team evenly between quarrelsome Tellarites, who openly scoff at "primitive human foolishness," and superior Vulcans, who seem unable and unwilling to understand the prickly requirements of Caldosian romantic honor.

[Zania Jaarda]

Cestus III

1) Rumors of a Cardassian-Gorn alliance have reached Starfleet Intelligence. The Zealous must check out the Cestus system for any signs of strategic threats on the border. Any Gorn attack will be planned over a long period, but launched suddenly and overwhelmingly. Alternatively, the Zealous may be assigned to carry out wargames in the Cestus system to dissuade the Gorn from any such revanchism, and face Cardassian (or Gorn) saboteurs. In either case, a potential meeting with, and thus possible greater understanding of, the Gorn military is a distinct - and dangerous - possibility.

2) For decades, the Gorn have remained inside their own, self-defined territory, interacting with the Federation infrequently (that is to say, not at all). The only contact with the Federation has had is with the Gorn who live on Cestus III, and Federation xenologists remain unsure how representative of the Gorn these settlers may be. Suddenly, the Gorn government requests a meeting with Federation representatives at the Institute for Human-Gorn Relations. Gorn experts on Cestus III hope their neighbors finally want to negotiate a trade agreement or arrange for an exchange of ambassadors, but this seems unlikely. Why have the Gorn abruptly dropped their aloofness? What danger has prompted them to seek the assistance of the Federation? Starfleet sends the Zealous to find out (and perhaps even to solve the problem).

3) Prospectors deep in the Henson desert find a vein of dilithium crystals and a crystal rush is on! Offworlders flood the Cestus system, including Ferengi claimjumpers, Orion smugglers, and even suspiciously disciplined Cardassian "mining parties." A similar strike in the Cestine Belt could open up even more tangled situations if the Breen, for example, simply settle Cestus I and defy the Federation to evict them.

[Zania Jaarda]

Denocet V

1) The situation on Denocet presents a real test of the Prime Directive. That the crew of the Manila Clipper violated the Prime Directive, and interfered with the planet's natural development, is clear. Without phasers, the Tezian Empire might never have become as powerful as it has. Without the scientific know-how from the 23rd century, Pusaris might not have acquried electricity. Millions depend on the advanced healing knowledge of the Sages. The question becomes, "Is it all right to interfere with a planet's development in order to correct previous interference?" The Zealous must wrestle with this question for themselves.

The Zealous learns of the inhabitants of Denocet V through a routine survey of the system. The ship's computer lists this system as the last known position of the Manila Clipper, a Federation freighter lost in space decades ago. Perhaps searching for survivors, or picking up the Clipper's escape pods on Denocet's surface, when the Zealous crew beams down they slowly uncover the terrible truth. How do they limit the damage done by the crew of the Manila Clipper? Should they? Naturally, the descendants of the stranded crew learn about their 24th-century visitors and react in their own way.

The precise story details depend largely on where the Zealous crew lands. In Ulimar, Overlord Vask IV doesn't believe the wild stories of travelers from space; he only wants more phasers. In Lastia, the Brotherhood is torn between returning to the Federation and continuing their work among the Denoceti. At the Citadel of Purity, the Sages have a hard time believing the "Star People" they have awaited for generations are mere mortals.

2) While the Zealous crew passes through the system in a shuttlecraft - on their way to a meeting at a near-by starbase - their craft experiences mechanical difficulty and must land on Denocet V. Once on the planet, the crew faces the same dilemma as the survivors of the Manila Clipper - find a way to contact their ship or prepare for the lengthy wait. They attract the attention of the various factions of the Clipper's descendants. How would Vask IV react to new and fully charged phasers? Would the Sages of Purity believe the crew? What would the Brotherhood want?

[Jake Sjet]

I like the second plot line Zania. It would make sure we're in a confind space, we wouldn't have to make something up as to how or characters got to the planet, just simply bad driving.

[Zania Jaarda]

I'm just posting all of the ideas from a book that details the various planets in the UFP. There's some pretty interesting ones in there, and it could give us some material to work with if everyone gets stumped and can't come up with their own.

Of course, we could always do a holodeck adventure or two, but that would definitely need some discussion to figure out what genre we'd want to go with, what the adventure would entail, the personas in the storyline our characters would assume the identity of for the story, etc.

As for the Temporal Backlash idea, Mr. Dillard actually deserves a LOT of credit for combining the ideas (as presented in post #4 on this thread).

Something I proposed to Mr. Dillard would definitely result in someone being unhappy with the events surrounding and following the accident that destroyed the Starbase and the Zealous. It would involve a character "dying" in the explosion, and a former Zealous crew member realizing, sometime in the future, that they had feelings for that character who perished.

Add in there the prolonged war with the new race, which would have devastated the Federation and other species, and it would be the perfect catalyst. It would facilitate the selected character getting the remaining Zealous crew together, and defying direct orders from Starfleet in order to go back in time and prevent the accident from taking place.

The new races that I have in mind, the write up for one of which is 90% complete, would both be enemies of the Federation. We would start with the one, and eventually work in the second one over the course of several storylines. Depending on what everyone else comes up with in the way of new species, we could even add in a few more.

Just like in TNG, we could do a couple of storylines which would deal with these races, and then take a break for a storyline that might be fun . . . or something totally unrelated. After that, we could always go back to dealing with those races.

[Zania Jaarda]

Dytallix B

1) The Zealous intercepts a repeatd alert signal from an apparent malfunction of the orbiting probe around Dytallix B. As the ship arrives at Dytallix B, the crew discovers it to be not as lifeless and abandoned as their computer records suggest it should be. Sensors detect anomalous energy readings along the orbit of the probe.

Unknown to the Zealous crew, their ship has arrived just after a Romulan scout ship. The scout remains cloaked in orbit, awaiting pick-up of stolen Federation supplies from the Ferengi. Can the Zealous crew discover what's really going on and stop the Ferengi?

2) The Zealous is assigned to track down the source of counterfeit merchandise uncovered by Starfleet Intelligence. The Zealous follows a trail of smugglers and criminals across the sector. Eventually the trail leads to a Ferengi merchant involved in the operations on Dytallix B. Can the crew discover the extent of the Ferengi's operations and put an end to it?

3) A Ferengi patrol discovers a series of elaborate cave dwellings several hundred miles north of their base. Recognizing the potential profit inherent in such a discovery, they immediately contact several "collectors" of rare antiquities, including members of the Orion Syndicate. Interested bidders are invited to a very special - and extra-legal - auction. A Starfleet Intelligence agent observing the Orions gets wind of the set-up and Starfleet Command dispatches the Zealous to investigate. Why the sudden interest in Dytallix B? The Zealous is ordered to report on any unusual activity in the area.