Personal Log: Ben Versteegt

This blog serves two purposes: to inform you about the stories I plan to write in the near and distant future, but also to remind me of those stories. I might forget, you know.

My Great Odyssey Story
I have been planning and writing this from time to time for the past year or so. It still lacks a name, but it counts 94 pages already, and I haven't even introduced the Odyssey to the story yet... This is one of my "main" stories, aka the stories I am currently (reasonably) actively working on. This particular story features the Odyssey and its crew, just after the mission at Pabloias Prime. The ship and crew get thrown into the middle of a temporal crisis and have to work together with a crew from the future to save the past...

One update before I even post this message: I have sort of closed off one part, so now I'm ready to begin working on the Odyssey part. The crew has gone through some changes after the Pabloias Prime mission -- some have been promoted, others have joined the ship, and again others have left. Memories and traumas of previous missions haunt some of the crew, as friends say goodbye and those who don't want to see each other are forced to meet face to face. On top of that, something other than a civil war threatens life on Pabloias Prime. It is up to the crew of the Odyssey to put a stop to whatever is going on -- but that is only the beginning of their adventures.

Star Trek: Batavia: "The Test"
A number of years ago, the idea of creating a ship and crew of my own popped up in my head. I wrote a number of stories (in Dutch and in scriptform) about this USS Batavia. Recently, I have begun to re-write the first episode, called "The Test", in the STFF posting format and in English. While I'm at it, I'm adding a lot of character building, descriptions and details. The first few "chapters" of this story can already be read at the FF fanfic forums.

The Alpha Centauri Mystery
You may have read this story (or a few chapters of it anyway) in the newspaper or at Bram's website, where Bram has graciously put the chapters so far. I was planning on finishing the story by chapter 20, but I'm not sure I will be able to do that. It takes more space than I had originally planned (not that I've planned much about this story), and a chapter/part of 8 or more pages may be possible, but not really practical to put in a newspaper... The story, then, may contain more chapters, but the chapters won't be ridiculously long.

The Jalando and Velden story
This is of course not the name of the story, but we haven't thought of a name yet. This is actually a story that Rob (who plays Jalando) and I are going to write together, so it should be fun. Velden (who is most likely already FO of the Atlantis in the time the story will play) has been granted shore leave and returns to the Alpha Quadrant to go to a science/engineering conference on a recently discovered planet. The rulers of that planet say they have made a discovery that will make warp travel obselete. Starfleet's brightest are invited (but Velden will go anyway). Meanwhile, Jeff Jalando leaves Pandora Station and its current troubles with a radical group of anti-Starfleet civilians, to attend the conference as well; The aliens have agreed to modify the Solstice with this revolutionary new means of travel. Additionally, Velden arrives on the Solstice to travel to the conference as well. But will the Solstice really be modified, or will the ship be a pawn in the hands of those who mean harm to Starfleet and the Federation? And will Velden and Jalando be able to stop these hypothetical evildoers?

These are all relatively solid plans, with an already worked out plotline. The first three I'm already working on, the fourth is a bit on hold for the moment. The following plans and/or storylines are more ideas than actual worked out plots.

An Academy Story: a Winter Tale
I'm planning on doing a story about Lieutenant Winter, instructor at Starfleet Academy, who is on a training mission with a bunch of cadets when something goes horribly wrong, and the cadets need to act like Starfleet Officers to solve it. Maybe something about Winter getting hurt... I don't quite know yet. Rumour has it that Rob's character, admiral Baine, will play a part in this story too.

Velden's youth
I'd like to do a story about how Paul Velden grew up on Vulcan. As only human in a class of full Vulcans, he was unable to live up to the standards and expectations that the Vulcans held for him. This would be mostly a character development story. It would be nice to develop his character a bit more.

Holograms
This is still pretty much in the idea fase, but the idea is that a Starfleet officer creates a holographic environment, and makes a holographic friend to talk to. She turns out to be irresistable, just as he programmed her, and they fall in love. Eventually, the Starfleet officer thinks about her girlfriend's existence -- while she may not exist, his love for her does. Also nice would be the reverse: the story from a hologram's point of view. When she is told that she is nothing more than a hologram, she refuses to believe it.

Various Batavia Stories
Besides the four or five scripts I have already written for Batavia (in Dutch) and which I plan to re-write them to real stories, I have some other ideas for Batavia stories as well. The most prominent is a story about the Batavia travelling back in time to stop a criminal from changing Earth's history by killing an important person in the hystory of that planet. The shock comes when it turns out that the person he is trying to kill is... Hitler. The moral implications (saving Hitler? Are you out of your mind?) make for great story material.

Another time travel story for the Batavia I had in mind is that the Borg go to Wolf 359 again; from the future, they send reinforcements to the past to assist the cube. The Batavia goes after them, but is forced to destroy the original Borg cube in the process, thus changing history; then, in the future, where the Federation is less prepared for threats like the Borg, the Dominion have overrun the Federation. The Batavia must again go back in time to correct things -- but does that mean shooting down their own ship?

A Voyager / M*A*S*H crossover story
Don't laugh, it's a serious idea. Okay, not so very serious, but it would make for some nice writing. For those of you who don't know MASH, it's a tv show about a bunch of doctors in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital near the front line of the Korean War. This would be a chance to simply have fun and have Voyager characters interact with MASH characters, as well as a test for me of how accurately I can portrait established characters that aren't my own (might help a hypothetical professional writing career if I found out how well I can portrait canon characters).

A Dragonball Z/GT crossover story
Yes, you can laugh now. It's supposed to be funny. This would (hopefully) be a hilarious story about the Dragonball Z characters teaming up with the Enterprise D crew in a (totally unrealistic) fight against the Borg. ("Holy crap, the Borg adapted to my Kamehameha wave!")

Edit: Oops, I forgot a very important story I'm not really working on, but I'm having an idea of. Sort of. Here it is:

Tin'rala
Tin'rala is a Kotarrani: a race of highly spiritual aliens who, by accident, witnessed two Borg scout ships crashing on their planet. They have mixed this event with their ancient religion, and now believe that the Borg are the "Holified Ones"; their gods. Assimilation is their ultimate goal in life, for they think it will get them to their form of heaven: the Blessed Togetherness. Tin'rala is one of the Kotarrani who were on a mission to find the Borg, so that they could all be joined in the Blessed Togetherness. But then they arrived at Pandora Station. This mission was roleplayed, and I found it one of the more interesting missions; great plot, wonderful moral implications. I enjoyed playing Tin'rala (she was my character), and I think it would be great to write a story about the repercussions of their encounter with the Pandora crew. The Kotarrani are going home now, back to Kotarra, but strongly devided. Some still think that the Borg are the Holified Ones, but others, like Tin'rala, know that this belief is not only untrue, it is also very dangerous. If the Borg come to Kotarra, they will assimilate the entire population. She cannot let this happen, so she plans to fight the religion that will bring doom to Kotarra. I want to write about the civil war that ensues on the planet, and about the sacrifices Tin'rala is willing to make to prove her right and save her people -- but does she realise that by fighting this vehemently for what she believes in, she is, in a way, becoming just like those she is fighting?

Edit: I forgot to add another story I was thinking about. Here it is.
The Odyssey Begins
A while ago, I got the idea of writing a story about the Odyssey's "previous life", before she was found by the Calhoun. None of the current Odyssey crew would be on the ship -- it would be the same ship with a different crew, but with the same mission. The Captain might still be Captain Uderzo, who (if I recall correctly) was the Captain on the Odyssey when it was found by the Calhoun. The story (or stories) would probably be set during the Dominion War or just after it, when the Odyssey was first launched. It would also be interesting to have some of the current Ody crew return to that ship in the past via time travel, but I'm doing enough time travel stories as it is.

These are all ideas/stories which I am working on or thinking about so far. I have my work cut out for me... I'll add more when I come up with any more ideas for Star Trek stories. I am also thinking about non-Star Trek stories, but that is another matter entirely. I respectfully ask that no one takes my idea(s) and uses them for their own stories, because I am very exited about a few of them, and I'd hate to look like I am stealing someone else's ideas, while they were actually mind. So all ideas here are (c) Ben Versteegt, 2004. And not only 2004, but all future years as well as all past years, all time in between and all alternate realities. Just so you know.

Categories: Ben's Logs