Dammit man, I'm a lawyer, not a mind reader.
CIVILIAN LIFE:
Q1. Name: Paleogymnast (you can call me Paley)
Q2. How did you find out about Elite of the Fleet? I saw your posting on the kirk_mccoy community, and it intrigued me.
Q3. When did you first become interested in Star Trek? I've been a Trekkie or Trekker or some form or another since the time I was, um, one or two? My parents wouldn't let me watch much TV as a kid (unless it was PBS), but one of our local stations ran Star Trek reruns almost daily, and I watched those. My parents approved because they were big Star Trek fans themselves. It wasn't TOS at that point, because this was years before TNG was on the air, and the only other Trek out there were... *scratches head* the animated series and the failed attempt at Star Trek 2 series that evolved into Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Actually come to think of it, I think I am not sure if I saw Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn in the theater before or after I started watching TOS on TV. Anyway, that was it. I was hooked. I've been watching/reading/obsessing over Trek ever since. I love Sci Fi as a genre, but Trek is special because of its longevity, scope, and well-thought-out universe.
Q4. Why have you decided to join Elite of the Fleet? Because it sounded like a cool idea, and personally, I've always liked the idea of Starfleet Academy and wanted to see more about it. A community that starts out set by putting its members through the Academy and then allows them to have careers based on their fanworks, is brilliant, and I didn't want to miss out. Plus, I am not well integrated into online Star Trek fandom, and this seemed like a great way to join in.
Q5. Who is your favourite Star Trek character? Dr. Julian Subatoi Bashir is my absolute favorite Star Trek character of all time. I had other favorites before him (Kyra Nerys, Ben Sisko, Data, Jean-Luc Picard, and James T. Kirk himself all vied for that position at one point or another), there are characters who've come later who are pretty dang cool, and to be honest, I rather hated Julian in Season 1 of DS9. But then I grew to like him based on his friendship with first Miles O'Brien and then Elim Garak and his affinity for darts, tennis, and spy novels. He began to come across as more endearingly naive and idealistic instead of like a clueless prick. However, it was "Doctor Bashir, I presume" and the revelation of Julian's genetically enhanced heritage that transformed my opinion and interpretation of the character and cemented his place as my favorite. He's a character who's more or less invisibly a minority (and a distrusted/hated one at that) and spent a large portion of his life trying to "pass" and then got forcibly outed. When you view his character in that context and through that lens, he's infinitely more complex than he initially appears. Most importantly, he's someone with whom I can very deeply, viscerally identify. (I'm queer; his closeted genetically modified status makes for a very strong analogy.)
Q6. And the least? Dr. Katherine Pulaski *shudders* makes it difficult for me to watch any of Season 2 of TNG (which is a shame, because there are some good episodes in there). Her attitude completely rubs me the wrong way. She's supposed to be a protagonist, but comes across as a patronizing, close-minded stereotype with a very simplistic view of the universe (and life). She treats Data like crap and doesn't have a particularly good working relationship as a CMO. She never fit into the Enterprise D's "family" and just generally sucks the enjoyment out of pretty much any scene in which she is present. She's not someone I trust as a doctor and she's not the kind of person I would want having the authority to overrule the Captain. That's why I dislike her more than badly written villains (like Sybok and Nero), traitors (Michael Eddington), particularly annoying characters the writers never quite figured out how to use (Kes), characters who are just annoying (Vice-Admiral Alynna Nechayev), and truly well-written-but-so-malicious-you-have-to-hate-them-a-little villains (Kai Winn Adami, Dukat, Kahn, et al.).
Q7. Which television (or film) series is your favourite? Deep Space 9 is my favorite Star Trek series because it takes the often sanitized and simplified Federation and throws in real conflict and complexity. It's also a frighteningly prescient television show, accurately predicting modern day responses to violence, terrorism, etc. with eerily similar scenarios years before they played out in the real world. It's also got the most diverse cast, especially when viewed from the perspective of the characters. Of the show's central characters only Miles O'Brien is a 100% pure, ordinary human, and even he has a very unique perspective, since he's a noncom who actually enlisted in Star Fleet and didn't go through the Academy. Sisko's half Prophet (and Jake, by extension is a quarter-prophet); Kira's bajoran; Dax (Jadzia and Esri both, of course) is a joined Trill; Quark, Rom, and Nog are all Ferengi (and often renegades in Ferengi society at that); Julian's genetically enhanced; Odo's a Founder (and again, a very special, atypical Founder at that); Worf's his good old Klingon-adopted-by-humans self; and Garak's an exiled Cardassian and son of the head of the Obsidian Order. Besides, no other Trek (IMHO anyway) so unabashedly tackles almost every touchy issue in science, religion, politics, ethics, sociology, etc. that they could get their hands on. They could have better addressed homophobia and LGBT rights-issues, but Trek has never been particularly good there (sadly), they did have the infamous Dax kiss, and well it was the 90s, so I am willing to cut them some slack on that front.
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STARFLEET LIFE:
Q8. What do you hope to gain from your service in Starfleet? Fun, friends, community, and some satisfaction for my incredibly competitive personality.
Q9. Is there any occupation in Starfleet you feel you would be particularly unsuited for? Communications officer; my hearing isn't exactly stellar, and I have very little patience and am not the most diplomatic of individuals, qualities that would make me particularly ill-suited for the job.
Q10. The four current Academic Tracks at the Academy are Tactics, Operations, Exploratory Sciences and Medical Sciences. Describe how you could be an asset to each of these departments.
Tactical: I am an excellent, natural contingency planner with an almost-as-good sense of direction--I can visualize maps easily and "sniff" my way around locations based on that mental map. I love to look at every situation from all angles and play the devil's advocate. My back up plans have backup plans, and I can do it all on the fly by reflex if need be; it's just how my personality is wired. I'm also a former gymnast, which means I have great spatial awareness which would aid me in piloting and navigation. I am also good at picking up subtext, reading between the lines, and gleaning extra information from any given situation. I'm great at setting up strategies long in advance and breaking them down into smaller and smaller chunks so that I can tackle problems one step at a time while ultimately moving towards my goal. I'm also a good actor, which can help people in command situations, especially in Starfleet (you never know when you're going to have to go under cover as a Klingon, after all). I love physical exploration, traveling, discovering new places, learning more about the places I already know.
Operations: I have good administrative skills and great attention to detail (I can definitely keep up with paperwork, reports, and scheduling) and like figuring out how things work and developing ways to make them work better (which would be an asset for an engineer). I also don't mind getting my hands dirty and being physical, plus I love martial arts (great for engineering or security).
Exploratory Sciences: My real-life undergraduate degree is in one of the hard sciences, and I love research, be it experimenting in a lab, collecting samples in the field, or pouring over hundreds or thousands of books, journals, websites, etc. I'm also incredibly inquisitive and always want to find out more about what's going on in the universe (this goes hand-in-hand with figuring out how things work). I love acquiring new information and finding out as much I can about a situation or place before I set foot in it.
Medical: I always wanted to be a doctor as a kid, and medicine, health, and psychology fascinate me. I do a lot of informal therapy and arm-chair psychology for myself and my friends, and in real life the type law I work in requires me to analyze and apply medical data and opinions on a daily basis. I'm very empathetic and I'm a writer, so I'm good at putting myself in other people's shoes and figuring out how to solve problems, cope, etc. Plus, I think I'm pretty good at matching symptoms and observations to diagnoses.
Q11. What are your top five strengths?
01. Analysis
02. Contingency Planning
03. Tenacity
04. Dedication
05.Loyalty
Q12. What are your top five weaknesses?
01. Impatience
02. Loquacity
03. Short-temperedness
04. Insecurity
05.Confrontational hyper-independence
Q13. What is your biggest fear? Not living up to my own expectations.
Q14. Do you consider yourself to be a leader, or a follower? Leader; I might have just a little problem with authority.
Q15. What do you admire the most in your peers? Honesty.
Q16. You are stranded on a Class M planet that has not been mapped by The Federation. You are only allowed to choose two of the following items to keep with you: a phaser, a tricorder or a communicator. Which two would you choose to have? I would take the phaser and the tricorder. I'm stranded, right? There's not likely to be anyone in communicator range, and any ship coming by to rescue me should be able to find me by my biosigns. I am much more concerned about my survival for however long I'm on this unmapped M-Class planet. The phaser is good for defending me, starting a fire, killing food, cutting things to set up a shelter, etc. The tricorder is going to be absolutely necessary because this planet hasn't been mapped. It will tell me whether I can drink the water, eat a particular plant, or whether I'm likely to be allergic to or poisoned by anything. I can map as I go, and record the prior locations I've been to avoid walking in circles. Plus, the tricorder might even help me find common ground with any locals I encounter (or at least figure out some basic details about their society).
Q17. Please describe your understanding of the Federation’s Prime Directive. Formally, the Prime Directive is the most important law in Starfleet, the law of non-interference (with local affairs and especially with pre-warp civilizations). In practice, the Prime Directive is the biggest pain in the ass of any Star Fleet Captain worth hir salt. The Prime Directive is the cause of most conversations involving the words "I can't understand you; your signal's breaking up" and other ridiculous attempts to formally skirt the wrath and authority of Starfleet. There's a bit of a double-standard in the application of consequences of violating the Prime Directive. If you're clever enough and famous enough and violate the Prime Directive for a good enough reason (especially if doing so saves the Federation or some other important thing/individual), then you're probably not going to get in trouble. If you're not so clever/famous and you don't have a good reason, you probably will get in trouble.
In my opinion, the Prime Directive is necessary rule for a very uncomfortable moral gray area. It's kind of a Hippocratic oath for space exploration. It attempts to balance every individual and civilization's right to self-determination and self-actualization and tries to avoid the Starfleet and its officers from imposing their opinion of best or right or good on everyone else, and in doing so avoids a lot of problems with paternalism and colonialism. It's also a good mechanism to maintain civilian control over societies and keep the military in check. However, sometimes the perceived harm and moral wrong that would result is unacceptable to some. So, those individuals can choose to act, knowing what could happen and making that choice in full understanding of the consequences. When history and hindsight show that the result of one of those calculated, willful, violations of the Prime Directive resulted in a net good, then Starfleet is sometimes willing to excuse, forgive, or mitigate the violation.
Q18. The United Federation of Planets includes more than 150 member planets, and the galaxy has many more besides. Which planet do you most want to visit? I would most like to visit Bajor; they seem to have some really beautiful matte paintings there. *grin* Actually, I'd like to see what the planet's like in person because it sure seems beautiful and almost idyllic, as well as, sadly, war-torn, as it is portrayed in DS9; plus, I'd like to see what's happened with the planet since the end of the Dominion War, now that the Emissary is once again "one with the prophets." I'm interested in their art, geology, and botany, and history (especially since their religion is built around noncorporeal, nonlinear beings whose existence has been proven to be real) and their proximity to the wormhole and Gamma Quadrant. For a society that used to have a strict caste system and has a whole lot more religiosity than most of the Federation, they sure have changed and evolved a lot as a people and planet in just a short amount of time.
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KOBAYASHI MARU:
The following questions describe situations you may commonly find yourself in as a member of Starfleet. You will be read the scenario, and then given two options to choose from. You may expand upon the reasons for your choice, but you must indicate one of the two that you feel best describes your likely response to the situation provided.
Q19. Service in the Fleet can be draining at the best of times, and on one particular day everything seems to have gone wrong. You’re exhausted, but your shift is finally over and it’s time to unwind. Your roommate is already on their bed when you get back to your quarters. Do you:
b. Say hi, then stick in some earphones for music or grab a PADD for some recreational reading. A lie-down sounds pretty good right now, or maybe a bit of time relaxing on the observation deck - it should be pretty quiet by this time, which will give you a chance to sort through the day’s events in your head.
Honestly this one is going to depend on my mood. Often I want nothing more than to recharge with some music and a good book or some nice, solitary peace and tranquility. That is actually what I do when I come home from work (minus the observation deck). But if I like my roommate enough that they'd be someone happy to put up with my bitching and I'm happy to put up with theirs, then I'd probably try to take advantage of that as much as possible. I'm an introvert, but I value close relationships with real connection. (Plus, in the true spirit of the Kobayashi Maru and Star Trek, I reject the idea of finite answers and solutions, although in more of an IDIC sense than a Jim Kirk reprogramming the test sense. I don't fit well into boxes, and I'm not particularly fond of them.)
Q20. You’ve intercepted what sounds like a pretty important transmission - you feel like the Captain needs to know. When you report, do you:
b. Give them the facts, but your interpretation and the way it fits into context is more important. The Captain wasn’t there, after all - the way you explain it could make all the difference.
If I am a Starfleet officer, and I thought the transmission was important enough to relay to the Captain, then I am going to explain why I thought that. What was it that gave me that impression? Why do I think this message needs to come to the Captain's attention? It is often the context and reason behind something, more than the words or strict data content, that makes all the difference. If you ask me a question, I may ask you why because the answer is likely complex and nuanced and depends on your needs and purpose. The same is true if I need to tell you something. Facts do not exist in a vaccuum; sometime subjective observations are key. After all, that is one thing that separates sentient life (be it carbon-based, silicon-based, android, or noncorporial) from machines.
Q21. There are many decisions to be made in Starfleet, and some are harder than others. Faced with a decision where things could go wrong in any number of ways, do you:
a. Stay impersonal and objective. Weigh up the pros and cons, think out all the possibilities, and focus on the basic truths. A careful analysis of the situation will reveal the best possible choice, even though some may not approve of it.
A law school classmate once told me that my problem was "I cared more about being right than about being liked," and there's an element of truth in that. I always try to stay objective and analytical. I'm not really as cold and standoffish as I seem, but sometimes the right decision and conclusion is going to ruffle feathers. I'd rather come to the best outcome in objective terms than make sure everyone's happy. You can always make an effort to smooth things over later, and well, some people are just wrong. Plus yay! Contingency planning is my strong suit. I've probably already anticipated who's going to have a problem, and taken steps to try to mitigate bad reactions.
Q22. The day-to-day life of Starfleet can be quite arduous at times, and quite exciting at others. Everyone has their own way of approaching everyday work, but would others see your approach as:
a. Planned and orderly. You seem to prefer to have decisions made and matters settled, rather than hanging over your head. You appear comfortable when in control over such matters. You seem to be task-oriented, and plan ahead.
This is the toughest question for me to answer, because I am truly in between. If we're talking day-to-day work, I think "a" is the correct answer. I do try to plan ahead and I like figuring out what I'm doing, and I definitely don't appear spontaneous. But that being said, and especially if we're talking about stuff beyond the mundane day-to-day, I appear more like "b" because I like to acquire as much information as possible ahead of time, and don't make snap judgments without enough information (I'll probably have an initial gut instinct and then try to acquire as much information as quickly as possible to try to verify or disprove its veracity). I also have a tendency to procrastinate (or at least appear like that's what I'm doing). With bigger projects, I like deadlines. Deadlines are my friend for anything that takes longer than a few days to complete. They give me an arbitrary cut-off point for my perfectionism around which I can back-plan and structure my schedule. Deadlines also provide help in prioritization. I know how much I can procrastinate on any given project and can then figure out when my crunch-time is for really focusing and getting it done. I'm focused, but I like deadlines to give me that extra push to hyper focus and do my best work.
Q23. You can earn 5 points for your future Track by promoting the community in your Journal. Please link the post here if you wish to do so:
http://paleogymnast.livejournal.com/25997.html
Q1. Name: Paleogymnast (you can call me Paley)
Q2. How did you find out about Elite of the Fleet? I saw your posting on the kirk_mccoy community, and it intrigued me.
Q3. When did you first become interested in Star Trek? I've been a Trekkie or Trekker or some form or another since the time I was, um, one or two? My parents wouldn't let me watch much TV as a kid (unless it was PBS), but one of our local stations ran Star Trek reruns almost daily, and I watched those. My parents approved because they were big Star Trek fans themselves. It wasn't TOS at that point, because this was years before TNG was on the air, and the only other Trek out there were... *scratches head* the animated series and the failed attempt at Star Trek 2 series that evolved into Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Actually come to think of it, I think I am not sure if I saw Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn in the theater before or after I started watching TOS on TV. Anyway, that was it. I was hooked. I've been watching/reading/obsessing over Trek ever since. I love Sci Fi as a genre, but Trek is special because of its longevity, scope, and well-thought-out universe.
Q4. Why have you decided to join Elite of the Fleet? Because it sounded like a cool idea, and personally, I've always liked the idea of Starfleet Academy and wanted to see more about it. A community that starts out set by putting its members through the Academy and then allows them to have careers based on their fanworks, is brilliant, and I didn't want to miss out. Plus, I am not well integrated into online Star Trek fandom, and this seemed like a great way to join in.
Q5. Who is your favourite Star Trek character? Dr. Julian Subatoi Bashir is my absolute favorite Star Trek character of all time. I had other favorites before him (Kyra Nerys, Ben Sisko, Data, Jean-Luc Picard, and James T. Kirk himself all vied for that position at one point or another), there are characters who've come later who are pretty dang cool, and to be honest, I rather hated Julian in Season 1 of DS9. But then I grew to like him based on his friendship with first Miles O'Brien and then Elim Garak and his affinity for darts, tennis, and spy novels. He began to come across as more endearingly naive and idealistic instead of like a clueless prick. However, it was "Doctor Bashir, I presume" and the revelation of Julian's genetically enhanced heritage that transformed my opinion and interpretation of the character and cemented his place as my favorite. He's a character who's more or less invisibly a minority (and a distrusted/hated one at that) and spent a large portion of his life trying to "pass" and then got forcibly outed. When you view his character in that context and through that lens, he's infinitely more complex than he initially appears. Most importantly, he's someone with whom I can very deeply, viscerally identify. (I'm queer; his closeted genetically modified status makes for a very strong analogy.)
Q6. And the least? Dr. Katherine Pulaski *shudders* makes it difficult for me to watch any of Season 2 of TNG (which is a shame, because there are some good episodes in there). Her attitude completely rubs me the wrong way. She's supposed to be a protagonist, but comes across as a patronizing, close-minded stereotype with a very simplistic view of the universe (and life). She treats Data like crap and doesn't have a particularly good working relationship as a CMO. She never fit into the Enterprise D's "family" and just generally sucks the enjoyment out of pretty much any scene in which she is present. She's not someone I trust as a doctor and she's not the kind of person I would want having the authority to overrule the Captain. That's why I dislike her more than badly written villains (like Sybok and Nero), traitors (Michael Eddington), particularly annoying characters the writers never quite figured out how to use (Kes), characters who are just annoying (Vice-Admiral Alynna Nechayev), and truly well-written-but-so-malicious-you-have-to-hate-them-a-little villains (Kai Winn Adami, Dukat, Kahn, et al.).
Q7. Which television (or film) series is your favourite? Deep Space 9 is my favorite Star Trek series because it takes the often sanitized and simplified Federation and throws in real conflict and complexity. It's also a frighteningly prescient television show, accurately predicting modern day responses to violence, terrorism, etc. with eerily similar scenarios years before they played out in the real world. It's also got the most diverse cast, especially when viewed from the perspective of the characters. Of the show's central characters only Miles O'Brien is a 100% pure, ordinary human, and even he has a very unique perspective, since he's a noncom who actually enlisted in Star Fleet and didn't go through the Academy. Sisko's half Prophet (and Jake, by extension is a quarter-prophet); Kira's bajoran; Dax (Jadzia and Esri both, of course) is a joined Trill; Quark, Rom, and Nog are all Ferengi (and often renegades in Ferengi society at that); Julian's genetically enhanced; Odo's a Founder (and again, a very special, atypical Founder at that); Worf's his good old Klingon-adopted-by-humans self; and Garak's an exiled Cardassian and son of the head of the Obsidian Order. Besides, no other Trek (IMHO anyway) so unabashedly tackles almost every touchy issue in science, religion, politics, ethics, sociology, etc. that they could get their hands on. They could have better addressed homophobia and LGBT rights-issues, but Trek has never been particularly good there (sadly), they did have the infamous Dax kiss, and well it was the 90s, so I am willing to cut them some slack on that front.
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STARFLEET LIFE:
Q8. What do you hope to gain from your service in Starfleet? Fun, friends, community, and some satisfaction for my incredibly competitive personality.
Q9. Is there any occupation in Starfleet you feel you would be particularly unsuited for? Communications officer; my hearing isn't exactly stellar, and I have very little patience and am not the most diplomatic of individuals, qualities that would make me particularly ill-suited for the job.
Q10. The four current Academic Tracks at the Academy are Tactics, Operations, Exploratory Sciences and Medical Sciences. Describe how you could be an asset to each of these departments.
Tactical: I am an excellent, natural contingency planner with an almost-as-good sense of direction--I can visualize maps easily and "sniff" my way around locations based on that mental map. I love to look at every situation from all angles and play the devil's advocate. My back up plans have backup plans, and I can do it all on the fly by reflex if need be; it's just how my personality is wired. I'm also a former gymnast, which means I have great spatial awareness which would aid me in piloting and navigation. I am also good at picking up subtext, reading between the lines, and gleaning extra information from any given situation. I'm great at setting up strategies long in advance and breaking them down into smaller and smaller chunks so that I can tackle problems one step at a time while ultimately moving towards my goal. I'm also a good actor, which can help people in command situations, especially in Starfleet (you never know when you're going to have to go under cover as a Klingon, after all). I love physical exploration, traveling, discovering new places, learning more about the places I already know.
Operations: I have good administrative skills and great attention to detail (I can definitely keep up with paperwork, reports, and scheduling) and like figuring out how things work and developing ways to make them work better (which would be an asset for an engineer). I also don't mind getting my hands dirty and being physical, plus I love martial arts (great for engineering or security).
Exploratory Sciences: My real-life undergraduate degree is in one of the hard sciences, and I love research, be it experimenting in a lab, collecting samples in the field, or pouring over hundreds or thousands of books, journals, websites, etc. I'm also incredibly inquisitive and always want to find out more about what's going on in the universe (this goes hand-in-hand with figuring out how things work). I love acquiring new information and finding out as much I can about a situation or place before I set foot in it.
Medical: I always wanted to be a doctor as a kid, and medicine, health, and psychology fascinate me. I do a lot of informal therapy and arm-chair psychology for myself and my friends, and in real life the type law I work in requires me to analyze and apply medical data and opinions on a daily basis. I'm very empathetic and I'm a writer, so I'm good at putting myself in other people's shoes and figuring out how to solve problems, cope, etc. Plus, I think I'm pretty good at matching symptoms and observations to diagnoses.
Q11. What are your top five strengths?
01. Analysis
02. Contingency Planning
03. Tenacity
04. Dedication
05.Loyalty
Q12. What are your top five weaknesses?
01. Impatience
02. Loquacity
03. Short-temperedness
04. Insecurity
05.Confrontational hyper-independence
Q13. What is your biggest fear? Not living up to my own expectations.
Q14. Do you consider yourself to be a leader, or a follower? Leader; I might have just a little problem with authority.
Q15. What do you admire the most in your peers? Honesty.
Q16. You are stranded on a Class M planet that has not been mapped by The Federation. You are only allowed to choose two of the following items to keep with you: a phaser, a tricorder or a communicator. Which two would you choose to have? I would take the phaser and the tricorder. I'm stranded, right? There's not likely to be anyone in communicator range, and any ship coming by to rescue me should be able to find me by my biosigns. I am much more concerned about my survival for however long I'm on this unmapped M-Class planet. The phaser is good for defending me, starting a fire, killing food, cutting things to set up a shelter, etc. The tricorder is going to be absolutely necessary because this planet hasn't been mapped. It will tell me whether I can drink the water, eat a particular plant, or whether I'm likely to be allergic to or poisoned by anything. I can map as I go, and record the prior locations I've been to avoid walking in circles. Plus, the tricorder might even help me find common ground with any locals I encounter (or at least figure out some basic details about their society).
Q17. Please describe your understanding of the Federation’s Prime Directive. Formally, the Prime Directive is the most important law in Starfleet, the law of non-interference (with local affairs and especially with pre-warp civilizations). In practice, the Prime Directive is the biggest pain in the ass of any Star Fleet Captain worth hir salt. The Prime Directive is the cause of most conversations involving the words "I can't understand you; your signal's breaking up" and other ridiculous attempts to formally skirt the wrath and authority of Starfleet. There's a bit of a double-standard in the application of consequences of violating the Prime Directive. If you're clever enough and famous enough and violate the Prime Directive for a good enough reason (especially if doing so saves the Federation or some other important thing/individual), then you're probably not going to get in trouble. If you're not so clever/famous and you don't have a good reason, you probably will get in trouble.
In my opinion, the Prime Directive is necessary rule for a very uncomfortable moral gray area. It's kind of a Hippocratic oath for space exploration. It attempts to balance every individual and civilization's right to self-determination and self-actualization and tries to avoid the Starfleet and its officers from imposing their opinion of best or right or good on everyone else, and in doing so avoids a lot of problems with paternalism and colonialism. It's also a good mechanism to maintain civilian control over societies and keep the military in check. However, sometimes the perceived harm and moral wrong that would result is unacceptable to some. So, those individuals can choose to act, knowing what could happen and making that choice in full understanding of the consequences. When history and hindsight show that the result of one of those calculated, willful, violations of the Prime Directive resulted in a net good, then Starfleet is sometimes willing to excuse, forgive, or mitigate the violation.
Q18. The United Federation of Planets includes more than 150 member planets, and the galaxy has many more besides. Which planet do you most want to visit? I would most like to visit Bajor; they seem to have some really beautiful matte paintings there. *grin* Actually, I'd like to see what the planet's like in person because it sure seems beautiful and almost idyllic, as well as, sadly, war-torn, as it is portrayed in DS9; plus, I'd like to see what's happened with the planet since the end of the Dominion War, now that the Emissary is once again "one with the prophets." I'm interested in their art, geology, and botany, and history (especially since their religion is built around noncorporeal, nonlinear beings whose existence has been proven to be real) and their proximity to the wormhole and Gamma Quadrant. For a society that used to have a strict caste system and has a whole lot more religiosity than most of the Federation, they sure have changed and evolved a lot as a people and planet in just a short amount of time.
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KOBAYASHI MARU:
The following questions describe situations you may commonly find yourself in as a member of Starfleet. You will be read the scenario, and then given two options to choose from. You may expand upon the reasons for your choice, but you must indicate one of the two that you feel best describes your likely response to the situation provided.
Q19. Service in the Fleet can be draining at the best of times, and on one particular day everything seems to have gone wrong. You’re exhausted, but your shift is finally over and it’s time to unwind. Your roommate is already on their bed when you get back to your quarters. Do you:
b. Say hi, then stick in some earphones for music or grab a PADD for some recreational reading. A lie-down sounds pretty good right now, or maybe a bit of time relaxing on the observation deck - it should be pretty quiet by this time, which will give you a chance to sort through the day’s events in your head.
Honestly this one is going to depend on my mood. Often I want nothing more than to recharge with some music and a good book or some nice, solitary peace and tranquility. That is actually what I do when I come home from work (minus the observation deck). But if I like my roommate enough that they'd be someone happy to put up with my bitching and I'm happy to put up with theirs, then I'd probably try to take advantage of that as much as possible. I'm an introvert, but I value close relationships with real connection. (Plus, in the true spirit of the Kobayashi Maru and Star Trek, I reject the idea of finite answers and solutions, although in more of an IDIC sense than a Jim Kirk reprogramming the test sense. I don't fit well into boxes, and I'm not particularly fond of them.)
Q20. You’ve intercepted what sounds like a pretty important transmission - you feel like the Captain needs to know. When you report, do you:
b. Give them the facts, but your interpretation and the way it fits into context is more important. The Captain wasn’t there, after all - the way you explain it could make all the difference.
If I am a Starfleet officer, and I thought the transmission was important enough to relay to the Captain, then I am going to explain why I thought that. What was it that gave me that impression? Why do I think this message needs to come to the Captain's attention? It is often the context and reason behind something, more than the words or strict data content, that makes all the difference. If you ask me a question, I may ask you why because the answer is likely complex and nuanced and depends on your needs and purpose. The same is true if I need to tell you something. Facts do not exist in a vaccuum; sometime subjective observations are key. After all, that is one thing that separates sentient life (be it carbon-based, silicon-based, android, or noncorporial) from machines.
Q21. There are many decisions to be made in Starfleet, and some are harder than others. Faced with a decision where things could go wrong in any number of ways, do you:
a. Stay impersonal and objective. Weigh up the pros and cons, think out all the possibilities, and focus on the basic truths. A careful analysis of the situation will reveal the best possible choice, even though some may not approve of it.
A law school classmate once told me that my problem was "I cared more about being right than about being liked," and there's an element of truth in that. I always try to stay objective and analytical. I'm not really as cold and standoffish as I seem, but sometimes the right decision and conclusion is going to ruffle feathers. I'd rather come to the best outcome in objective terms than make sure everyone's happy. You can always make an effort to smooth things over later, and well, some people are just wrong. Plus yay! Contingency planning is my strong suit. I've probably already anticipated who's going to have a problem, and taken steps to try to mitigate bad reactions.
Q22. The day-to-day life of Starfleet can be quite arduous at times, and quite exciting at others. Everyone has their own way of approaching everyday work, but would others see your approach as:
a. Planned and orderly. You seem to prefer to have decisions made and matters settled, rather than hanging over your head. You appear comfortable when in control over such matters. You seem to be task-oriented, and plan ahead.
This is the toughest question for me to answer, because I am truly in between. If we're talking day-to-day work, I think "a" is the correct answer. I do try to plan ahead and I like figuring out what I'm doing, and I definitely don't appear spontaneous. But that being said, and especially if we're talking about stuff beyond the mundane day-to-day, I appear more like "b" because I like to acquire as much information as possible ahead of time, and don't make snap judgments without enough information (I'll probably have an initial gut instinct and then try to acquire as much information as quickly as possible to try to verify or disprove its veracity). I also have a tendency to procrastinate (or at least appear like that's what I'm doing). With bigger projects, I like deadlines. Deadlines are my friend for anything that takes longer than a few days to complete. They give me an arbitrary cut-off point for my perfectionism around which I can back-plan and structure my schedule. Deadlines also provide help in prioritization. I know how much I can procrastinate on any given project and can then figure out when my crunch-time is for really focusing and getting it done. I'm focused, but I like deadlines to give me that extra push to hyper focus and do my best work.
Q23. You can earn 5 points for your future Track by promoting the community in your Journal. Please link the post here if you wish to do so:
http://paleogymnast.livejournal.com/25997.html