This story started out as a Star Trek fanfiction, detailing the adventures of a crew and ship that were essentially the Anti-Voyager: That is, they were actually written as kooky neurotics who nevertheless did save the day when given the chance to pull themselves together but never got the credit. USS Sojourner was the black sheep of a Starfleet that rewarded people like Janeway for their crimes.
But that was then. The story's evolved considerably, from fanfiction to it's own universe. So, let's cover the basics.
IN THE DISTANT FUTURE... MANKIND HAS REACHED THE STARS, BUT THE GALAXY IS TROUBLED...
It is the twenty-fourth century. Humanity is one of the major players in a loose Coalition of alien powers spread out across over a hundred lightyears with dozens of worlds.
And we are between a rock and a hard place.
The two local superpowers have an interest in us. On one side is the Neela Symphonic-A race of blue, feline-like aliens that suppress all emotions not beneficial to the whole. They seek to conquer and bring enlightenment to emotional beings, and tried to do this to the Coalition. We fought back, valiantly, but the Symphonic is composed of a thousand worlds and we were nearing defeat...
Until we discovered a better form of Faster than Light travel.
The standard FTL drive, the Tachyon Drive, allows a starship to jump in and out of a tachyon state at a point of relative gravimetric stability between two masses, better known as Lagrange points. At faster than light speeds, gravity is the only means of navigation and the only means of exit.
But the Coalition's new drive allows a starship to jump out anywhere. And despite inferior numbers and technology, the Coalition fought back hard enough to drive the Neelaa back into their space to a standstill.
This is when the other superpower became involved. The Tur-Han, a cyborg like species that fused the organic with the mechanical, intervened and brokered a fragile peace. It used its power, equal to that of the Neelaa, to make the Cats back off and try to conquer via less direct means.
The Tur-Han, however, are not in the habit of providing a free lunch. They want the Uprated Tachyon drive as well. Their practice has been to slowly absorb alien races into their empire as protectorates, and the Coalition is full of resources, material and immaterial, that they seek to add to their own.
In the middle of this is former Earth Commander Nuori Cupertino, an orphan of a colony that tore itself apart due to some unknown force that drove everyone but her insane. Put on "extended leave" for the last two years to keep her quiet after an incident involving the destruction of a Neelaa colony after the war, she's wandered the Fringe of Coalition space aimlessly.
One day, some of her old friends track her down with a sweet opportunity: The experimental starship Sojourner, a prototype vessel built for the war but never put into action due to difficulties with it's temperamental AI and experimental technology, has gone missing.
But they might know where it is. It's the chance to redeem herself and get back everything she lost, and she takes it eagerly.
But Sojourner herself, and it's Synthetic liaison T'Kal, aren't going to go back quietly. And in the end, neither will Nuori...
- - - - - -
That's the basic summary of the plot. There's a hell of a lot of backstory to the setting but we can get through that a piece at a time.
So TFF, willing to give this prodigal son a shot and some help?
But that was then. The story's evolved considerably, from fanfiction to it's own universe. So, let's cover the basics.
IN THE DISTANT FUTURE... MANKIND HAS REACHED THE STARS, BUT THE GALAXY IS TROUBLED...
It is the twenty-fourth century. Humanity is one of the major players in a loose Coalition of alien powers spread out across over a hundred lightyears with dozens of worlds.
And we are between a rock and a hard place.
The two local superpowers have an interest in us. On one side is the Neela Symphonic-A race of blue, feline-like aliens that suppress all emotions not beneficial to the whole. They seek to conquer and bring enlightenment to emotional beings, and tried to do this to the Coalition. We fought back, valiantly, but the Symphonic is composed of a thousand worlds and we were nearing defeat...
Until we discovered a better form of Faster than Light travel.
The standard FTL drive, the Tachyon Drive, allows a starship to jump in and out of a tachyon state at a point of relative gravimetric stability between two masses, better known as Lagrange points. At faster than light speeds, gravity is the only means of navigation and the only means of exit.
But the Coalition's new drive allows a starship to jump out anywhere. And despite inferior numbers and technology, the Coalition fought back hard enough to drive the Neelaa back into their space to a standstill.
This is when the other superpower became involved. The Tur-Han, a cyborg like species that fused the organic with the mechanical, intervened and brokered a fragile peace. It used its power, equal to that of the Neelaa, to make the Cats back off and try to conquer via less direct means.
The Tur-Han, however, are not in the habit of providing a free lunch. They want the Uprated Tachyon drive as well. Their practice has been to slowly absorb alien races into their empire as protectorates, and the Coalition is full of resources, material and immaterial, that they seek to add to their own.
In the middle of this is former Earth Commander Nuori Cupertino, an orphan of a colony that tore itself apart due to some unknown force that drove everyone but her insane. Put on "extended leave" for the last two years to keep her quiet after an incident involving the destruction of a Neelaa colony after the war, she's wandered the Fringe of Coalition space aimlessly.
One day, some of her old friends track her down with a sweet opportunity: The experimental starship Sojourner, a prototype vessel built for the war but never put into action due to difficulties with it's temperamental AI and experimental technology, has gone missing.
But they might know where it is. It's the chance to redeem herself and get back everything she lost, and she takes it eagerly.
But Sojourner herself, and it's Synthetic liaison T'Kal, aren't going to go back quietly. And in the end, neither will Nuori...
- - - - - -
That's the basic summary of the plot. There's a hell of a lot of backstory to the setting but we can get through that a piece at a time.
So TFF, willing to give this prodigal son a shot and some help?