general life frustrations

[edenfalling]

What I did today: slept a lot. I also tried to reorder checks, but ran into two problems. First, my bank removed an extraneous zero from every account number last year, so the number that deluxe.com has on record for me is not actually my account number anymore, and I'm not sure how long my bank will continue supporting the old numbering system. Second, deluxe.com only has my old address on file, and I would need to call a special phone line to change that information. (As a security measure, you cannot change things like that online, which is both comforting and extremely annoying.)

In other news, I wrote about 500 words of "Intervention," the Red Cross-and-space-pirates Star Trek: AOS fic I started a bit over two years ago and stalled out on, bringing the rough draft to 13,500 words. I have now written every scene up to the actual space battle, which I am leery of writing (hence the stalling out). But I do have an outline, and maybe I can get that done sometime before the next movie is released. *sigh*

It's hard to write while in a blue funk. It's even more like pulling teeth than normal. But writing also helps make me feel less empty, so. *deeper sigh*

I should try working on my Narnia Big Bang, but I don't know, I just am not feeling either of those stories right now. Maybe I can make some progress on something else instead.

Comments

[vehrec.livejournal.com]

What exactly is it about this space battle that has you so intimidated? Are you afraid of falling into the Pit of Exposition or the Star Wars trap where all battles take place so close that a thrown rock is a meaningful measure of distance and possibly a viable weapon? Or is this just a part of the generalized funk?

Anyways, if you need to brainstorm or something, I guess I'm offering.

[edenfalling]

Some generalized meh about writing in general. Some freezing up over my lack of technical knowledge about how space really works (let alone how space works in Star Trek's particular fictional universe). Some logistical worries about exactly where to start the scene, because there's some talking that goes on before anyone starts shooting.

Hmm. Background situation: the Amber Lotus is a cargo ship with two shuttlecraft, the Jade Lily and the Sapphire Rose. The Lily is currently stashed down on Simplicity (the colony planet), hopefully to remain undiscovered because of *handwave* sensor-obstructing mineral salt deposits *handwave*. None of these ships have weapons beyond maybe some weak phasers on the Lotus for collision avoidance and stuff. But! There is also an old and slightly run-down shuttlecraft from the colonists' original starship, which still has six photon torpedos though its phasers are long since drained and unrepairable in the relevant timeframe. Also, the Lotus is currently orbiting pretty damn close to Simplicity's planetary ring.

Most of the Red Cross crew are now down on Simplicity, either because they were already there or because Hegev nich Tal, the engineer, beamed them down without advance warning. Hegev is now alone on the Lotus. Jayavanti Chatterjee (nurse, also a decent pilot) and Adam Fisher (colonist who has just received a crash training course in how to arm, aim and shoot photon torpedos) are in the dilapidated shuttlecraft which Jayavanti has just named the Shiva Dances because Adam is superstitious about being in an unnamed ship. They are also orbiting pretty damn close to the planetary ring, for camouflage purposes.

So our resources are one unarmed cargo ship (which does have a working tractor beam and transporters, and Hegev knows how to break the safety protocols on both of them), one unoccupied and unarmed shuttlecraft that can be programmed or remotely piloted on a collision course with something if necessary, and one old and slow shuttlecraft with six photon torpedos and a gunner of uncertain skill. Also a planetary ring full of various sized solid objects, and some generalized sensor distortion emmanating from the planet below.

In opposition, there are six Orion starships which, according to Hegev, look like armed cargo ships about the size of Federation heavy cruisers.

The Enterprise is, so far as anyone knows, at least four hours away at maximum warp. That is assuming they got Hegev's distress call, or were already at maximum warp on account of the plague despite what that tends to do to starship engines.

You are Jayavanti and Hegev. (And Adam, I suppose.) Hegev has some crisis experience from previous work on the Klingon border, but she's not Starfleet and never has been. Jayavanti is only one year out of nursing school; this Red Cross duty tour is her first real time in space. What would you do?

[vehrec.livejournal.com]

It might help to look at this from the perspective of the Orions too, surely some of them are able to think, but first things first. So, we have one torpedoboat, which is slow for it's job and will need to strike from ambush and at close range. Tractor beams and transporters are actually pretty dangerous, so I'll rate the lotus as a Q-ship, a transport with hidden weapons. Again, an ambush type, not something that starts a fight with a battleship. Fortunately, 'armed cargo ship' is about as far from battleship as you can get. Ship hulls are built for specific things, and one of the things that civilian and even military cargo haulers are not built for is damage control. Those six torpedoes might not do much against a Klingon bird-of-prey, but modified civilian vessels will be much more vulnerable. Absolute size is less important here than compartmentalization and armored bulkheads reinforced with force-fields. Unless they were torn down to the keel and rebuilt as cruisers, then they aren't going to have the punch, the speed, or the durability of them. Still, they have numbers. And possibly military grade weapons, but that's up in the air at the moment, they just might have a lot of civilian grade ones instead.

So, there needs to be an ambush. Possibly a pursuit. The rings and low orbit are the obvious place, the time would depend. Are the Orion going to divide their forces, or keep them all in one block until they've secured the orbitals? If they divide, then the time to strike would be when they drop shields to beam to the surface. If they attack, then it could be best to run. There's a lot of playing it by ear here-but the objective is to spend time. Time is the fundamental currency, and destroying orion ships is at best a tertiary thing after saving lives and buying time. Perhaps, if they can be sufficiently angered, the best thing to do would be to lead them on a wild goose chase through the Oort cloud and the other sights of the outer system. A stern-chase is a time honored way of wasting time. No way of telling with what I know if it would work or not. Other than that, ducking in and out of the ring is viable for the shuttles, but not so much for the Lotus. Anyways, the point is that you should ignore my icon, running is the right choice here.

As for the Orions, do they know about the distress call? If they do, they're now on a timetable, and every second they are not putting slaves or precious materials in their holds is wasted. More wasted is every second they do not have their sterns pointed at this planet and are making tracks away from it They might even be inclined to bail if taking slaves will take too long compared to the four hours they might/might not 'know' they have. Or, if insufficiently angered, they might detach one ship to deal with the Lotus and let the other five go about their business with the colony. Remember, the Orion's objective is to capture things of value and take prizes and...oh. Actually, how much is the Lotus worth as an additional ship in their fleet? It might be significantly more than anything else they could reasonably expect to take away from here. That does shift the dynamic somewhat, if the Red Cross ship is the most easily portable and convertible thing to steal.

[edenfalling]

Yeah, that was pretty much my general plan. :-) First there is some negotiation to buy time -- dire talk of infectious plague and so on -- which eats up, oh, half an hour. Then the Orions essentially say, screw this, we have pressure suits and we're here for the mineral deposits as much as we're here for slaves (and revenge for a lost ship from about nineteen years ago, which is why they know about the distorting mineral deposits in the first place), so plague schmague. Which is when the fighting starts.

Your thoughts are pretty much in line with what I have planned -- distractions, chases, and above all buying time -- but I hadn't thought much about how the Orions would be dividing their forces, so thank you for reminding me to pay attention to that. Also, while the Orions don't know about the distress call, somebody may let slip that the Enterprise is expected in-system sometime within the next twenty-four hours on account of the plague situation.

The Amber Lotus is not worth a huge amount as a ship qua ship. But it's carrying a LOT of medical and disaster-relief supplies as part of its Red Cross patrol mission, and its computers have a bunch of potentially useful information. I do actually plan for a group of Orions to board and capture it (and Hegev) at some point... which does not turn out as beneficially as they might at first expect.

Mostly I am not sure where to start the scene. With the Orions contacting Hegev and her patching Jayavanti and Captain Castaño in on the call? With negotiations breaking down and Hegev telling Jayavanti the fight is going to start? With Jayavanti setting the Sapphire Rose up to play torpedo ship? I don't want to write the whole sequence out -- it would take far too long -- but I'm not sure what balance of backstory and skimming the slow bits will work best.

Ah well. This is what rough drafts and alternate scene files are for.

[vehrec.livejournal.com]

Dividing forces is traditionally a military invitation to defeat by degree-but Sun Tzu says that when you outnumber five to one, you may divide and attack. There's little reason not to seperate their fleet, unless internal politics prevents it. Which is also a valid method of attack, gods save us from the politicians.

Well, yes capturing it may be a long term gain. But in the short term, the computers will likely be shut down, locking the helm and sending it off on a ballistic or autopiloted course with your boarding party until they can bring it under manual control. Still, it has the advantage of being easy to take with you if you need to run. However, these are starting to sound more like privateers, who might be a bit wiser to political concerns regarding making off with a hospital ship and the lack of subsequent mercy that they might receive for that.

I would suggest the breakdown of negotiations as a natural starting point, since the battle of maneuver will probably begin then, even if the actual fighting hasn't. Still, I agree that the whole fight would be much too long compared to what you already have. Brevity is the objective and details can be counter productive. I know a poor fool who wrote 25k words from the POV of a character that he then killed off to establish that War is Hell. A serious waste of verbiage.