Edward Spears

Edward is skirting the line between formal and sophisticated casual this year with this ethically-sourced, bespoke offering from Starbase 104’s master tailor. Sources close to the Constitution’s First Officer anecdotally mentioned that this was quite a fashion step-up for the Lieutenant Commander, but we’re unwilling to go on the record for a direct quote.

Can we all take a moment to appreciate how wholesome and incredibly uplifting this line was? Not sure about the rest of you, but it brought a huge, youthful smile to my face!

Tasty travesties are the best kind of Travesties!

"You see those two weevils, doctor?" "I do." "Which would you choose?" "There is not a scrap of difference. Arcades ambo. They are the same species of curculio, and there is nothing to choose between them." "But suppose you had to choose?" "Then I should choose the right-hand weevil; it has a perceptible advantage in both length and breadth." "There I have you," cried Jack. "You are bit - you are completely dished. Don't you know that in the Navy you must always choose the lesser of two weevils? Oh ha, ha, ha, ha!”

Safety first everyone! 😂

The Nova class gets my vote, hands down. A little biased, as I used to sim on one in a different Trek game but there's something intimate about a small survey ship. I feel like you can get a really compelling story going since the crew compliment is so small. I mean, you could put a name and face to every member of the crew quite easily! And that adds to the peril of something happening to any of them! Defiant is choice number two because that thing hits way above its size, and the nose art potential (as mentioned earlier) is just fantastic. Also, it had the best concept patch ever.

Congratulations to all the crews for putting together some really unique submissions!

Most likely to... compose the music that Lazarus turns up too loud 😏

Fantastic job to all of this year’s award recipients! Keep being awesome!

This is what I get for having made my own avatar a few years ago, using a stock photo rather than a well known public personality... I can never find any new images to use! One day I might need to find a new Ed Spears... Graphically at least.

To Valhalla!

Congratulations on finishing the academy!

I’m going to go a little toward the unexpected here with a choice of “diplomat”, and let me explain why. Choices like “security” and “marines” elicit that knee jerk reaction when thinking of risk. The risk to their personal safety is great in most circumstances. But they are also trained to anticipate and mitigate the risk to themselves and their teams no matter how grave. It’s what they do. Diplomats can incur a whole other level of risk. There is still personal risk, which is harder to mitigate through their typical skill set. They are also considered valuable targets for kidnapping as they can be leveraged. But diplomats also incur risk on a galactic scale. A poorly chosen word. A careless gesture. The wrong offering. Wars can start over these, and can cost countless ships and lives in their course.

Doctor Spears recently learned why even medical officers must undertake the famous test. He was faced by a practical no win scenario on his own operating table and it resulted in him losing a patient. The kind of personal characteristics that are assessed in a training setting by tests like the Maru can give an excellent window into the character of any officer. That said the idea of the test being more disguised in the current era makes sense, and also fits how my back story is written. I imagined medical officers would be tested with something catastrophic where none of their skills or resources would help them save the people they needed to. In Ed’s case it had been a simulated colony that was suffering from an unidentified disease. It would have been manageable, but part of the scenario had included the ship arriving a week later than planned due to warp drive malfunctions. End result: a terminal colony where only a handful could be saved, and a lot of shaken medical cadets.

Congratulations to everyone. Indeed, the citations show just how incredible this group of writers is. And there is more than just creative spirit and written expertise; there’s that core sense of community service that binds us all together. I cant wait to see what the next year brings!