History Lesson I

Posted on Tue May 29th, 2018 @ 12:11am by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Commander Fiona McCray
Edited on on Tue May 29th, 2018 @ 12:13am

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Past Tense
Location: Starfleet Academy, History Wing, year 2285
Timeline: 2285
Tags: BonneChanceTrio

Cadet Stone closed his PDD and put up his hand, and the professor fought back a rather weary sigh- why did it always have to be Stone? "Yes, Cadet Stone, what pearls of brilliance are you bringing to bear to dazzle the class with this time?"

"Has there ever been an instance in Starfleet history of a fleet Captain taking his ship and going on a personal vendetta with it?" the youngster asked eagerly. "I mean, what's to stop them, right?"

The class murmured, some in agreement, some groaning at the stalling tactic Stone was famous for using to get Professor Wallace talking on a tangent which would often lead to no homework. But in this case the history professor smiled and brought up an image on the viewscreen behind him .

"NCC 1247... the USS BaenSidhe," He pronounced the name 'Banshee'. "Captained by one Commander Bonnie McCray, who returned to active duty from retirement after her daughter and two other members of the USS Bonne Chance crew were murdered by Orion Syndicate hitmen in the year 2265."

More hands shot up. Interesting, he thought... this one they are interested in learning more about... who says I can't lead a class and let them think they are distracting me? Ah, the classics- murder and revenge, gets 'em every time. He called on a cadet from the middle of the room whose name he couldn't remember.

Cadet Stone settled back in his chair with a grin and began doing searches on the names. "No homework today," he whispered to his seatmate, who offered him a fingertap which he returned in kind.

Cadet Jerins slumped into his seat, dreading the attention he was now receiving from Professor Wallace. He grimaced, internally guessing that once again his name had been forgotten.
"I ummm... I'm not really sure Professor... was that before or after the Rav'Kjerim incident of 2265?"

There was a groan from the rest of the class. This was probably going to show up on the next test now. Jerins had poked the professor in his favorite hobby horse by invoking Rav'Kjerim.

Wallace gestured for quiet, and put forth, "Actually no, that's a very good question, and it draws interesting parallels... excellent point cadet. As we all know, the Rav'Kjerim was a border dispute between the Klingon Empire and the Andorians over territory which was being overlooked until one bloody incident... who can tell me what that was called?"

More hands shot up. "Cadet Querl?"

"What about the Ban-shee, Sir?" Querl tried valiantly to steer them back into safer waters and back on topic. The professor cleared his throat and bit at the redirection. "Fine..." he muttered under his breath.

"The Banshee was a ship of the line which was crewed by the remains of a larger vessel, the USS Armstrong which had been decommissioned a year and a half before when her commander retired. However, the crew still held considerable loyalty to their former commander, and when the incident known as "The Bonne Chance Three" came to light, she made a personal plea to the commander and crew of the Benevolence, and with her commission reactivated through favors and leveraging within Starfleet Command, and indeed at the very highest levels of the Federation, she assumed command of the vessel."

The history professor paused for effect, then intoned quietly, "This began a forty-two day reign of terror for the Orion Syndicate operations on Risa, warfare on a scale that they had never previously encountered, nor has it been recorded that they have withstood since."

A young Andorian near the back of the class hesitantly raised his hand. "Excuse me... sir... what kind of favors could have possibly warranted that sort of action by Command? It seems kind of odd to be handed an entire ship for personal use so easily."

"Oh, she did not express that it would be for personal use, Cadet Vreen. No, this was official Starfleet business... at least onscreen. And while we may all imagine that in this fleet there is no such thing as calling in favors and markers to get things done, history teaches us that military traditions throughout the centuries come and go, but calling in markers never goes out of vogue it seems."

Stone leaned over and muttered to Jenkins, "She probably had pictures of someone up high doing something awful with a goat!" and there was a small eruption of snickering from that section of the classroom.

Telak, the Vulcan Science Academy transfer student seated behind Stone arched his eyebrow quizzically before leaning forward slightly and asking Stone, far too loudly, "What could they possibly have done to a quadri-pedal farm animal that would lead to such leverages?"

There was a burst of laughter from that section of the classroom and Stone hissed, "Shhhh, I'll explain it after class!"

"So now that Cadet Stone's goat jokes are finished... a nice five hundred word essay on that topic should be gracing my desk tomorrow, Mister Stone... would you perhaps like to know the rest of the story?" the history teacher asked with the smile of one who has taught too many unilling pupils for too long. "Or would you rather just 'wing it' for the test on friday, cadets?"

There was a smattering of groans and grumbles of "Nice move, Stone"

Most of the class settled down and put on expressions of rapt interest, "We'd like to know the story," ventured one fresh-faced future medical student.

"As I said, the 'Bonne Chance Three' had interfered with the Syndicate through a series of mishaps which resulted in them being implicated in the rather spectacular theft of... anyone?" Professor Wallace paused for a moment, sighed and continued, "The Multicultural Crown Jewels. These were returned, a galactic incident was averted, but the Syndicate's operations on Risa were brought to light, and the thief, the notorious Grey Panther, was poised to turn state's evidence. All of this attention made the Syndicate rather uncomfortable... and rather angry."

The viewscreen showed an image of two men standing side by side. "Caesar and Brutus... aka Milton deBergerac and Nikolai Ivanovitch, the leaders of the Syndicate operations on Risa, who patterned themselves after the leaders of ancient Rome... choose to set themselves up in the Rome arcology. Once there, they build a mighty fortress to house their operation, which was referred to as Palazzia Caesar."

A hand waved urgently at the back of the class. Now he really had their interest.

Vreen's blue hand shot up urgently, waving incessantly as he coughed a few times to emphasize the importance of his question.

Professor Wallace smiled bemusedly. Not even to the good part yet... he pointed and called, "Yes, Cadet Vreen?"

"Sir, the Orion Syndicate was notorious for grand shows of power and prowess... why didn't they simply destroy the entire ship? Using assassins seems far too subtle and leaves loose ends." Vreen crossed his arms smirking at what he thought was a show of tactical superiority.

The other cadet added bouncing to her hand waving. Either she had to go to the bathroom or there was a question burning its way through her mind. Wallace pointed and called upon her next. "Perhaps here's your answer... Cadet Gordon?"

"Um... um... was that the SAME Gray Panther as in the Holo-vid series?" she asked excitedly.

The historian rolled his eyes. "Yes, he did serialize his career as a holo-vid series, though much of it afterward is romanticized retellings of his exploits and should not be viewed as historically accurate. Now do you have an answer for Mister Vreen's question as to why the Syndicate did not simply destroy the USS Bonne Chance?"

She chewed on her fingernail a moment before replying carefully, " That would have brought too much attention down on them?" she made it a question. "I guess they were trying to be subtle... guess it didn't work out for them?"

Vreen slammed a hand onto his desk before turning aggressively in his seat to face his 'opponent'. "We're talking about a large criminal entity who ran their entire organization around fear and intimidation... why would they lean towards subtlety over dramatic and violent actions?"

The girl refused to be intimidated. "Well... DUH... kill a few people and you might get away with it... kill a whole Federation Starship and you have to deal with the whole Federation."

The blue-skinned cadet's antennae twitched in aggravation as he sputtered for a reasonable argument. Realizing he had none he was forced to turn back around and face the front of the class, grumbling as he did so.

His young opponent waited until his back was turned and stuck out her tongue while wiggling her fingers alongside her forehead at him.

"In truth, there are elements to consider here. Even the original Constitution class starships were the top of the line of their day, and to destroy one might have been possible... but highly unlikely to succeed, even given the resources of the Syndicate. Besides, the Syndicate was vendetta driven- they were not angry with the Federation, nor the entire vessel."

They were angry with these four," the image behind him shifted to a holonews photo of four female Starfleet officers wearing the miniskirted uniforms of the era. A diminutive redheaded lieutenant with a large curly mane clad in crimson and smiling broadly, a completely white-furred Caitan JG in command gold hiding her eyes behind her silvery bangs, a grinning curvaceous Vulcan lieutenant commander in powder blue who was winking while flashing the Vulcan salute, and a slender, athletic unsmiling short-haired Trill lieutenant in red.

A burst of chatter erupted across the classroom as the images flashed up.

"That Vulcan's smiling," someone stated the obvious without being called upon. "And winking...?"

"So she is," the history teacher replied. Rare enough occurrence, you might think they'd recognize them just from that.

"Vulcans don't smile!" someone declared counter to the obvious evidence on the screen.

Telak's arched brows turned downward so drastically they they threatened to separate his pointed nose from the rest of his grave face. "Sir..." he said with as much disgust as his lineage would allow him to muster without actually showing an emotion, "that Vulcan is SMILING."

"Your grasp of the obvious is stunning, Mister Telak. That being the case and her relative importance as a rallying point in history, I assume that means that you know exactly who she is," Professor Wallace replied, "as well as the reason why she is grinning ear to ear and mugging for the camera?"
"Five merits for anyone who can name the Bonne Chance Three, ten if you can name all four in this image." Nothing like a little incentive to get young minds working, Wallace thought to himself.

There was a massive amount of clattering as people grabbed their PDDs.

 

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