Joseph Orlando

Chapter 53 - What is parade rest?

When Picard sat down I stood up and stood to the right of the President’s lectern at parade rest. Right now, billions upon billions of people throughout the Federation and beyond were watching me. I had considered, for a time, not participating in the awards ceremony, as it would make any kind of clandestine mission near impossible in the future, but the First Minister of Bajor had practicall...

Chapter 53 - The Lauren Poll!

I'm not 100% sold on the looks of Lauren as played by the actress on DS9. And since she's now going to play a much larger role in my story, I am willing to consider an alternative look if my captain and admiral patrons support the change.

What should Lauren look like? If you think she should be changed, but you're not keen on Karen Gilan, suggest another actress in the comments.

Chapter 53 - Who is Lauren the augment?

She only appeared in a couple of DS9 episodes, but as I often do, I plucked her from Star Trek obscurity and made her a main player in my story.

Chapter 53 - What is the Federation Council Medal of Honor (part 2)

Little bit more history of the medal in Star Trek canon.

Chapter 53 - What is the Federation Council Medal of Honor (part 1)

“Today, I will be presenting the Federation Council Medal of Honor to two men who have done a great service for the Federation. This award is given for conduct which distinguishes him or herself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the Federation. It is the highest&nb...

AAG - Chapter 53!

Lots of world building and set ups for future chapters in this one, but as I really enjoy reading chapters like that in my own reading, I hope you do too.

Thank you so much for supporting my writing! :-) As always, let's discuss in the comments.

Chapter 53 - Teaser!

Still working on Chapter 53 which is turning out to be a world building chapter, trying to figure out where to cut it off. Really hoping for the finished chapter to drop Sunday night.

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1 Day Earlier. Federation Awards Ceremony. Arc de Triomphe. Paris. Earth. United Federation of Planets

The Arc de Triomphe was an interesting, but poignant choice for th...

Chapter 52 - Brief reminder on the deadliness of a Predator hunter

Haven't seen this movie, but I think I probably should.

Chapter 52 - Who was President Jaresh-Inyo?

The current President and leader of the Council, a man called Jaresh-Inyo, had made a speech to the Federation Council offering an end to the debates that had until very recently been consuming the leaders of the Federation. Many of the citizens of the Federation had been frightened by recent events and desperately wanted increased security, with many member worlds calling for an expansion of S...

Chapter 52 - Space Marines killing the xenos

The space marines were constantly cutting enemies to pieces with their chainswords and shooting their bolt weapons causing horrific mini explosions in flesh. Some were even taking advantage of their great strength and literally throwing Hur'q bodies into the remaining lethal force fields, or using the Hur'q's own weapons on them, all while the auto turrets that hadn't been destroyed were firing...

Chapter 52 - Earth Spacedocks throughout the series

The subject keeps getting reinvented series to seriesl

Chapter 50 - What is the infinite monkey theorem?

It strikes me that I never explained this back in Chapter 50, so here I am now.

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The looks of incomprehension suggested that maybe that idea didn’t exist in this dimension.

“It goes like this, if you put an infinite number of monkeys in a room with infinite typewriters, given infinite time, the monkeys will eventually recreate the entire works of Shakespeare,” I e...

Chapter 52 - What was the Breen attack on Earth and its aftermath?

It, arguably, snapped the Federation out of its complacency. What other effects do you think it had on the Federation and the way they fought the war after?

Chapter 52 - The Price of Wisdom

They say the price of wisdom is pain. Gothic spared the Federation a lot of pain, so he' s going to have some mixed feelings about what he did. On the one hand, yeah, he's going to massively benefit from it in terms of goodwill and influence, but on the other, he denied them a valuable lesson that they could have learned from.

What do you guys think? Did he do the Federation more good ...

Chapter 52 - Inspiration for the Save of Earth

For those of you who haven't seen Stargate SG-1 (you heathens), this scene inspired the solution used in Chapter 52.

Chapter 52 - What is neutronium and why is it important?

“Father, sensor readings indicate that the Collector boarding torpedoes have a neutronium coating on the penetrating tip, allowing them to bypass the secondary shield,” Hermione reported. “It’s a relatively small amount, but it be would enough to penetrate the shield and hull.

“Neutronium? Where the fuck did they acquire that?” I asked, not expecting an answer. Not even the Fe...

AAG - Chapter 52!

You know what really sucks, it's a burst of inspiration when you're doing the final revision of the last chapter on a Wednesday night, on July 3, while you're on vacation, sitting uncomfortably in the dark on a hotel bed, typing away on your laptop and failing repeatedly to find a comfortable position, while your wife and kids have been soundly sleeping for 2 hours already. It sucks because yo...

Chapter 52 - Teaser!

The chapter is coming along nicely, but the revision process needs some prime early morning hours to really dial it in to where it needs to be. When I write at night (and thus am tired) quality tends to drift a bit. About to leave on vacation so some of the final revisions might need to be done from a hotel room. In the meantime, enjoy this teaser!

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"Using our dimensional ...

Chapter 51 - The Pawnshop

This a real pawnshop in Georgia, United States that is available for sale

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Spotting a pawn shop with a ‘We Buy Gold!’ sign in the window, I turned off the sidewalk and walked into the pawn shop, hoping to obtain some of the local currency. The inside of the shop looked like the inside of any pawn shop I’d ever seen before. On the left were two large floor to ceiling 6-f...

Chapter 51 - Do you need ID to sell gold in the US

The problem came when the negotiation ended. Who knew you needed to provide a government issued ID when only selling your gold? As I had literally no history in this world until an hour ago, that was going to be a problem.

‘Jarvis, we’ve got a problem here,’ I mentally projected to my personal assistant, pretending to be checking out a Rolex Datejust. ‘Are you capabl...

Chapter 51 - How much is a 14k gold necklace in a pawnshop worth?

I paid close attention to their conversation, but pretended to be examining the many pieces of jewelry for sale in the display cases. Eventually it was determined the gold chain was real, 18k, and quite heavy at 5 ounces and they had negotiated a price that was roughly 70% of the current market price for gold which was actually pretty good considering 55 to 75% of total value was common for gol...

Chapter 51 - How I came up with the the future value of gold in 2035

“I’ll give you $3,500 apiece.”

I scoffed lightly, but shook my head with a mocking smile. When was the last time I had negotiated with a human like this? It was refreshing.

“That’s a great price!” the man defended. “Spot price on gold right now is $4,887.79. That’s 71% of value for a 1-ounce coin.”

“Yeah, if you were going to melt them like th...

Chapter 51 - Why I, Robot?

I admit, I, Robot is not a dimension that offers a ton of value to someone like Gothic, at least in terms of obvious value. Getting access to the data, continuing access even, to a future Earth, is a gold mine for someone like him who can monetize games and movies and books and turn them into pure profit in the Star Trek dimension, a dimension that is lacking a bit in good entertainment.

Chapter 51 - Spooner Destroys VIKI

Admittedly, this isn't the best showing here of the NS-5's prowess, but I genuinely think the NS-5 is a badass robot and the closest thing to HK-47 we see in popular entertainment. Even the Terminator, barring the more exotic variants, is not as fast or agile or smart. Add in a link by which they can share combat data and learn from their experiences and you've got a disposable soldier that c...

Chapter 51 - The Freeway Ambush - Part 2

Again, there has to be an easier and better way to kill Spooner. The NS-5 could have just picked up a rock and whipped it at Spooner so fast no human is going to be able to react in time. Why even throw him? Why not grab his neck and squeeze and break his neck like they did to Robertson? OR, maybe VIKI learned from her encounter with Spooner and realized that simpler was better and thus she...

Chapter 51 - The Freeway Ambush Scene

Of course this is a movie, this scene had to be dramatized, and VIKI was truthfully interested in protecting humanity, but you've got to think that there was an easier way to kill Detective Spooner than this. Seriously, an NS-5 would probably make a hell of a sniper. Just set up outside Spooner's building, quick headshot when he leaves in the morning, and the NS-5 assassin is a mile away from...

Chapter 51 - Envisioning the NS-5

Definitely one of the coolest looking robots out there in popular fiction, though Gothic is definitely going to need to add some armor and to protect some of these vital parts without sacrificing the agility, speed, and strength.

Chapter 51 - The I, Robot trailers

I definitely did not remember how the studio marketed this movie 20 years ago, so I found this interesting when I was writing this chapter.

Chapter 51 - The Nestor Class 5 Robot Specifications

I took the specifications the studio created and advertised back in 2004 and then doubled them to bring them more in line with modern standards. I also added some little facts here and there and gave it a price tag. Does $100k seem right for a price? I'm open to revising some of these numbers prior to publishing to the world.

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“Hello, sir. I am a Nestor Class Five automa...

Chapter 51 - I, Robot with photo timeline