Personal Log: Ben Versteegt

Two days ago, at the 28th of April, it was two years ago (that would be 2003), I first thought about joining Frontier Fleet. I joined the group at May 1st, so two years ago today. In the time between April 28th and May 1st, I looked at web sites, read the posting guides and finally stumbled upon the web site of Frontier Fleet.

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Categories: Ben's Logs  

I haven't posted a blog in more than a month, I think. How bad of me. It's just that I've been too busy with university work, posts, stories, watching DS9 (weee!! ) and being too lazy to update this blog. I still am busy (and lazy), but I have decided this inactivity cannot go on for much longer.

Okay, what to write... I was thinking about writing a personal log for Velden (either while trapped in the ghost ship or when he is still on DS9 and watches the Odyssey depart the station without him). A personal log for Morabulu would be fun too: he could describe how he just heard that the station is going to be evacuated (although he won't have time for a personal log at that time, I suppose).

A log for Elan might be fun too -- I haven't written any for her yet, so it's about time. It would be a log in which a tired Elan realises she likes to play music again. A journal for Nivas is fun as well... he's been going through a lot too, lately. I want to write a log for Winter one day as well... but all she does is yell at cadets. Maybe I should make her life more interesting...

Oh, that reminds me, Rob and I still need (well, not need, actually. More like 'want') to write an Academy story one day, with Winter, Baine and a few cadets as the main characters. It's going to be fun... I also want to continue with my Odyssey story, which, unfortunately, I haven't been adding much to, I'm afraid. I've been far too busy with new chapters of the Alpha Centauri Mystery (the only story so far for which I have a monthly deadline ) and one new chapter of the first Batavia episode. All in all, I'm busy.

But on the very top of my list is, of course, my studies. I have a Bachelor Thesis to write, and I'm going to spend as many time and attention to it as it needs. And that's a lot. The thesis will be about Gadamer's hermeneutics, (of course, a philosophical topic for a philosophical thesis, duh ) and I have bought Gadamer's book: Truth and Method. it's one of the most influential (and perhaps even *the* most influential) publication in the field of hermeneutics. It's very interesting, actually: how, I will ask in my thesis, can someone interpret and read a text that was written in the past, in the way the author originally meant it? These and other questions arise in my thesis, and I hope to answer them (or answer them in the way Gadamer does and criticize those answers).

In a change of topic, I also occasionally play Elite Force with a bunch of very silly people (aka other Frontier Fleet members). And, coincidentally, that's what I'm going to do now. I could write long blogs about all of the topics mentioned above, and I probably will (muwhahahaha), but now I'm going.

Ah, good. This blog has turned out to be long, too. Very good. After all, I have a reputation to uphold.

Categories: Ben's Logs  

I feel like kicking something. I feel like hitting, kicking, and shouting at whatever gets in my way. There is so many injustice to be revenged, and so much blame to be placed, but I can't place it. I can't point out someone evil who is the bad guy and who needs to be shot. There is no one to hate.

(Warning: Spoilers for Battle Royale ahead)

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Categories: Ben's Logs  

As I already announced, I have reached a milestone today. My Great Odyssey Story (which is not the real title; I still have to think of one) has reached one hundred pages. One hundred! And the Odyssey has only been in the story for only six of those hundred pages. I will write a whole lot more (quite possibly even another hundred pages ), so the story won't be finished for a long, long time. But at least I have something now.

Currently, the Odyssey is heading back to Pabloias Prime, the planet where they have recently finished a mission. The Einstein and the Troy (the two ships that Starfleet sent there after the Odyssey's latest mission) have left orbit to investigate an odd phenomenon: a subspace rift of some sort has appeared, and is emitting a lot of gravimetric distortions. These gravimetric forces have nudged an asteroid off of its original trajectory... And it is now heading straight towards Pabloias Prime!

With the Troy and the Einstein gone, it is up to the Odyssey to stop the asteroid before it hits the surface. Unfortunately, as the Odyssey gets closer, the ship begins to feel the effects of the gravimetric distortions: their warp field collapses. Now on full impulse, the crew will only have seconds to respond to the asteroid threat, before it enters the atmosphere and crashes into the surface, obliterating all life on the planet.

In the 29th century, Captain Darren faces a threat far greater than an incoming asteroid. She and the rest of the crew of the badly damaged timeship Aevum must locate an escaped and dangerous criminal, who, if not captured in time, may radically alter history.

This is, without a doubt, my longest and most ambitious project so far. It is also my first large-scaled "fanfic": while no characters from the Star Trek series make an appearance, this story is (for me) unique because it uses the crew and characters of the USS Odyssey. It is a challenge for me to keep them in character, but I believe I am succeeding. Nonetheless, my story (at least the Odyssey part of it) may focus more on my own characters: Velden and Elan. There will of course be sentences of which people will say, "my character would never say this!". And that's fine, of course. The story I am writing is by no means the final version; I can adjust certain sentences later.

The story, as it is right now, isn't a draft, either. Certain elements of the story are fixed and are not subject to change (I can hardly change the main plot just because it makes some character look bad). What if, say, it is necessary for the plot to get Nerell injured, and Rob (Nerell's player) disagrees with that? I cannot change the story based on what everyone wants, but I will try to make adjustments where necessary.

I already foresee a problem: somewhere in the story (in about ten to twenty pages, I guess), an alien 'hypnotises' the crew with her voice. What would the players of the Odyssey crew say if I make them submissive, or something like that? Will they demand that their character can resist such an hypnosis? I don't know, but in any case, I'll probably write it mostly from Elan's perspective, and not, or barely, mention how it affects the rest of the crew.

But I'll just see how it goes. The story is coming along nicely, although very, very slowly. With my studies, I barely have time to post, let anlone write such a story. And I also have other stories I'm working on, so I personally think I'm not doing badly with 100 pages and almost 50.000 words after a year and a half...

That just leaves me with one problem: where am I going to put it when the story finally is finished? I don't think many people would notice if I put it on a fanfiction site. It's way too long to put in on the FF fanfic forums, and it may be too long also to put it on Bram's site. Maybe I'll just get my own website by that time.

But I can't see my story being finished any time soon. With the rate I'm working on it, it will be finished in two years... I hope you all are still here then, so you can read it.

Maybe it's nice to end with a little exerpt from the story so far. On the Aevum, the Bridge crew is locked out of virtually all systems, while the criminal they are after has been pulled into a temporal anomaly. They find, however, that this criminal has left them a little surprise...

Bear in mind that this is still a prelimenary version... Much can still change.

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"Darren to engineering," the Captain said as she tapped her comm badge. "What's going on down there?"

=/\= Something was beamed aboard, Ma'am, =/\= came the distressed voice of Ensign Patrelli. =/\= We've placed a containment field around it just to be sure. We're having trouble scanning it, but it seems to be a long, cilindrical device of some sort. There is a pulsating light coming from it... Wait... something's happening... =/\=

Through the comm channel, a high pitched sound was heard that grew in pitch and intensity. =/\= Oh... my... God! =/\= shouted Patrelli, his voice even more distressed than it had been.

Darren barely had a chance to exhange a glance with Limin. Both of them knew exactly what was going on. "Get out of there!" yelled Darren. "Get out now!"

As the pitch of the sound grew, Darren could hear hell break loose in Engineering. People started to run, while others stayed at their posts to secure their consoles and the essential systems. =/\= My God! =/\= she could hear Patrelli say in between short pants. =/\= It's a torpedo! They've beamed a torpedo in he- =/\=

At precisely that moment, the ship lurched violently around them, and those who had nothing to support them, fell onto the ground by the heavy shakes that tortured the ship. The communications channel relayed only static. "Engineering?" Darren demanded even before getting up from the floor. "Engineering, respond!" Darren didn't want to acknowledge what really happened, but she knew damn well what was going on. Her eyes recognised the fear in those of Chief Engineer Au, who looked at her, hoping against all odds that there would still be someone alive in Engineering.

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Hope you like it...

Regs,
Ben.

Categories: Ben's Logs