Glory Guard Notes Compiled...

MISSION DAY 05

From "Glory to God? (Andrej)"

"...the Glory Guard struggled to maintain their hold on the political power in city. Their rule had become increasingly harsh as the scientific community had begun to gain credible support among certain sections of the populus. To be caught at such a meeting meant death. Scientific enquiry was heresy and to even think of questioning the teachings of the Church was suicide..."

An amusing note on how Dr. Brix's research has impacted his management style from Counselor Lev in "Dr Brix Makes A New Friend...He Thinks"

"The staff were on their best behaviour, and some of them even twitched on Zvi's approach. Brix had clearly read the Riot Act to them .... much in the same way as the local priests would have done to the villagers when notified of the approach of the Glory Guard. The boy was learning from his ownresearch."

Counselor Lev in "Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition"

"According to Dr Brix, the head of the research team studying the inhabitants of the planet Restal, the Restali Glory Guard, has for centuries been depicted as a monstrous tyranny imposed upon Restal by sinister Church and state officials, led by the Patriarch, the ruler of the planet.

Bent on wiping out heresy, the Glory Guard, according to the research team, arbitrarily arrested innocent Restalis accused of heresy and browbeat them during endless and unjust interrogations, often torturing the accused to secure meaningless confessions.

The condemned are then sent to vile prisons, there to await death by burning at the stake. Fundamentalists within the Restal community have claimed that millions have died in this fashion. Bigoted, ignorant, and fanatical Guards are accused of zealously directing this cruel and dark page of Restali history.”

Sadok in "We're All Ears"

"It appears that the church has it's own police force, run by a Preceptor. They have a specialist unit that seeks out subversives and heretics. This is known as the Glory Guard. Dr Brix surmises that any information Max Reinhardt might impart would almost certainly be classed as heresy. He might already have come to the attention of this group."

MISSION DAY 04

Dr. Brix' view from "No Restali for the Wicked (Sadok/Sorien)"

"The Restali live by a very strict code. Everything about them is geared to serving the church that rules them. The Preceptor's Glory Guard would be on us in an instant."

Igneous Intrusive Defined

Intrusive igneous rocks crystallize within the crust interior.

Intrusive igneous rocks (also called plutonic rocks, named after Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld) are formed from magma that cools and hardens within the earth. Surrounded by pre-existing rock (called country rock), the magma cools slowly, and as a result these rocks are coarse grained. The mineral grains in such rocks can generally be identified with the naked eye.

The central cores of major mountain ranges consist of intrusive igneous rocks, usually granite. When exposed by erosion, these cores (called batholiths) may occupy huge areas of the surface.

Coarse grained intrusive igneous rocks which form at depth within the earth are termed as abyssal; intrusive igneous rocks which form near the surface are termed hypabyssal.

(Taken from Wikipedia...)

Geological Instability

(From "Moral Implications (Sadok/Anderson)")

"Indeed." Sadok replied. "You will note that the logs of the mission report show that Reinhardt was at odds with the leader of the cultural observation team. He wanted to advise the local populace of something important, but was refused permission. It seems that the last time the teams there were reprovisioned, they were supplied by the science vessel USS Burke. The commanding officer, Captain
Davenport, had his people run a routine scan of the planet Restal from orbit. They made some disturbing findings."

"The major pollution centres of Restal are sitting directly atop a very geologically unstable region. The orbital scan revealed a very large igneous intrusive build up some 2 miles below the ground. There is no possible way that the local populace will be able to detect the phenomenon, at least that is, until it forces its way to the surface and engulfs many hundreds of kilometres in molten rock."

Mission Update - Day 05

Update for MD: 05

-We are orbiting Restal
- Sadok and Anderson have had their modifications and will be beaming down from Transporter Rm 3
-Zvi has lots of info on the Glory Guard and will be meeting with Dr. Brix to learn more about the Restali culture, Brix' team and their hard work and what underlies Brix' strong objections.
-The XO knows Max Reinhardt from before...a personal connection of
potential use and definite sim value in the near future!
-Dr. Brix is the perturbed Bolian from the Cultural Observation Team on
Restal.

Possibilities:
-The initial away mission will be brief - a quick in and out thing with
some more info on the culture, AND a surprise which they will return
with ... which I won't spell out so as not to jinx it. :)

-Discussing possibilities with Stewart for whether he wants Zvi on an
away mission, would require much love from Dr. Meriwether's surgical
abilites/team to pass him off to be sure....but we shall see....and/or
Zvi can go and chat with the lovely Dr. Brix as well...

-Without too much ado there will be another larger away mission to the
surface where most if not all of us can go down and play a role...

Mission 005 "Arrest at Resta"

Beginning October 3rd, 2005 (Stardate 25.1003) - the USS Asimov will embark on a new mission to which they are called while en route from the Tipaga Sector and its diplomatic quandries back to Azeri Base. En route they will also acquire a new CMO and possibly other senior staff positions that are currently unfilled (CSO, FCO). Their returning CNS, Zvi bar Lev, will also be joining their ranks as they set out for Sector AZ-A-005 and the planet Resta.

Interesting Tidbits from Earth's historical documents

OPAGA

• Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPAGA). "Follow-up Report on the Review of Correctional Privatization." Report No. 97-06. The Florida Legislature. September 1997. Cited here.
• Online Project Assessment, Guidance and Arrangement (a project from the Asia Pacific Institute for Information Technology in Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and Australia...)
  
• Opaga'arum = Thank you (in Malayalam - language of the Southern Indian state, Kerala)
• Passionflower as an herbal remedy for cleansing the system.
• Not to be confused with the city of Opava! :D (OOC: As if we did...)
  

TIAS:

• An online antique/collectible shop
• A Business school in the Netherlands
• transient ischemic attacks (TIAs)
• "The Integrated Assessment Society (TIAS) is a not-for-profit-entity created to promote the community of inter-disciplinary and disciplinary scientists, analysts and practitioners who develop and use integrated assessment." link
• (OOC: No clue what IA is - but it is defined there... :) Justin - sounds like smth you'd be interested in? )
• Treaties and other International Acts Series of the United States Department of State - everytime an official of the US Government signed a treaty or other int'l act - it was published as a pamphlet included in this series.
  

Dalhousie's Communique Speech Day 14

Captain, if we are to assume that this recent behaviour, as displayed by these people is indeed indicative of the larger whole, then it would seem that we will be at greater odds with our negotiations than previously thought. But then again, we could simply ignore that transmission as it's not something that I'd imagine was sanctioned by the official governmental body of Opaga, namely the State-Supremes' leader – Electorate Kenja. If she believes the Tiasian demands are too much, or `too infuriating', and as a result wishes us to leave, then the Prime Directive clearly dictates that we must leave. Until then, Captain, I recommend that we keep this card in our hand and don't play it right away. We might not even have to play it at all, as this would appear to be an internal matter needing to be dealt with by the Opagan people.

An Opagan Minister of Health

Kel-Gaia Ritrel - Minister of Health for Alta Reza (one of the main states of Opaga Prime) - no clear idea of what she/he looks like as they used some kind of cycling image overlay to mask their real appearance. Paranoia does appear to be a crucial component at least of the Opagan psyche in this situation. Initial contact at 0912hrs MD: 14 - request privacy (not granted though the lack of was not revealed either).

Notes

- Opagan virus is called "Uphamenics disease" by the Tiasans. Note: This _may_ not be what the Opagans call it.
- ETCONC - what the heck is it? And what were Phases One and Two?
- impulse drive - has it been repaired?
- the anomaly was nothing...just screwed up our impulse drive for no good reason. :)
- security team in shape? does what's-his-name (an NPC char) still need his ass kicked?
- what do we think about the Tiasans assessment of the virus as incurable? reassess our own knowledge of Tias as having the vaccine - where did that info come from? several possibilities:

• the Tiasans have the vaccine
• and it is the cure for the virus
• but not the only possible cure
• a rare vaccine that is hard to synthesize
• and it may be the cure but no one knows for sure
• it is not the cure for the virus
• a fake/lie/ploy (for what purpose?)
• unknown to the one or the other or both parties
• Tiasans don't have the vaccine
• never did
• destroyed it
• virus mutated so the vaccine they had doesn't work anymore.

Waiting to see if Saunders, Dyrlik, Kovak , et al have any other ideas.

"Eradication of Opagan Uphamenics Disease" - Tiasan report

-------------------------------------------------------------------
EXCERPT FROM TIASAN MINISTRY OF HEALTH
FILE: J9427-A [Security Level: Medium]
TITLE: ERADICATION OF OPAGAN UPHAMENICS DISEASE
AUTHOR: DR. GUS NAPHORAI
-------------------------------------------------------------------

…Clearly to ascertain the exact cause of the Uphamenics Disease would be a time consuming and fruitless effort, given my already previously established dissertation. Thus it is the recommendation of this medical professional that we simply don't try to cure the incurable.

Our economy cannot sustain such a prolonged effort to save the lives of those affected in a destitute world. We also cannot guarantee that a said vaccine would make it to the people of this oppressive regime.

Therefore, with much deliberation, I respectfully recommend that we transfer all infected Opagan's to be incorporated into project ETCONC. We have already entered into Phase Three, and will be ready for trials shortly. Only with ETCONC can we guarantee an absolute cure, and prevent infection into the Tiasan population.

---
END EXCERPT
---

Opaga Prime: Climate Zones

• The flat/hilly zone is mostly coastal area, with a range of dry heat (26°C) to wetter cooler temperatures (18°C). This region is frequented by plentiful rainstorms.

• The sub-mountainous zone(~800m average elevation) Important region for agricultural reasons. Similar but colder temperatures on average with some frequent frost conditions.

• The mountainous zone (800m and above) has substantial precipitation and some forests. While this region is quite wet, the temperatures easily reach lows of –25C.

MD:01 Time:1330-1430

1330 hrs Mission launched
1330 hrs Anderson sends subspace transmission to Opaga Prime and Tias governments to alert them to our departure for Sector A-007 with slightly exaggerated ETA.
1415 hrs CEO orders come in - Ensign Sean Mackenzie

XO's Mission Assignments

(with some creative spin by CO)

Caparzo---------> set course for Sector A-007 (accounting for intervening spatial anomaly)
Kovak and Lev-> convert ship cargo bay into large conference room; play an active role in negotiations (1 per)
Cap'n and No. 1-> meet with special envoys from each government
Anderson--------> guest quarters for delegates
Cole--------------> security; sensitive areas off-limits; ship-wide security drills
Dyrlik------------> analyze quadrant of space on the way to Grandma's house/Sector A-007; disturbance; do we avoid or can we navigate safely through?
Saunders-----------> vaccine synthesis

Mission Briefing Notes - Tias and Opaga Profiles

	TIAS	OPAGA PRIME
People	Tiasans	Opagans
Inhabitance Patterns	Predominantly water-dwelling	Separate land and water dwelling groups/states
Grouping(s)	State-sized tribes	States
Government	Confederacy with frequent upheavals from lack of unity	state-supreme military-industrial society
Geography	Seas and lakes, water predominates	closer to Earth; plenty of water and land; mountainous
Temperature	Warm/temperate 25C avg 32C highs – rainy seasons	three climate zones (flat/hilly, sub-mountainous and mountainous)
Technology	No updated info here/was presumed to be similar to Opaga	under used warp technology with the exception of heavily weaponized space programs; orbital and lunar defense systems capable of penetrating Federation standard shields with sustained exposure.
Advantage/Disadvantage	Possession of vaccine	Virus-infected population without access to rare vaccine