I find it interesting to have the dynamic of former-subordinate-promoted-above-you. That doesn't often happen in modern militaries to the best of my knowledge, partly because so much of promotion is based on time-in-grade. You have to have been at a certain rank for a certain period in order to get promoted, and at most ranks you get automatically considered for promotion on a regular basis after a certain time in that rank, and if you are in that rank for long enough and don't get promoted, it's a sign that there is Something Wrong With You, and you get encouraged to retire. So most people will be within a rank or two of the people they started out with, and will always be of higher rank than people who started out below them on the totem pole. Now, obviously that does not happen in Starfleet (Riker and poor Ensign Kim being the most egregious examples, but everyone really to a greater or lesser degree.) It's just interesting to see the result.
Trujillo has a point about the colonization plans. "Oh, we know there's Something Scary in the area, but it's Scary, so we didn't want to disturb it, so we'll just tiptoe away and abandon any plans to do anything in that region." They wouldn't have said that if Enterprise had been the one doing the investigating! TOS or TNG, Enterprise would hang around until they figured it out. Wonder why they're so much more timid with a warship than with the flagship of the fleet? Prejudice against warships as violent warmongers? But Jiemba served with Trujillo!
The problem with trying to equip a probe against unknown cloaking or scan-blocking technology is that it is unknown (insert something about known unknowns and unknown unknowns :D) There's a lot of bonkers stuff out there in the Trekiverse. "The Klingons and Romulans would have trouble with it" is not very comforting, under the circumstances ...
Does the Reykjavik have stronger shields than the Esau? It would make sense if it did, being a warship instead of an exploration vessel. Esau would be expected to run from danger, not meet it head-on.
Glad to see Garrett continues to be a great officer.
I like the humor with the team, that was good.
I do wonder why this particular situation is one where Trujillo is going to be on the away team, if it's not her habit. I mean, I get it on a Doylistic level, she's your main character, of course you want her to have the adventure. But I wonder about the Watsonian reasons.
Some people in para-military organizations rise faster than others. Riker could have made captain before TNG even started, but didn't end up getting his forth pip for almost another two decades. Commodore Jiemba was a full captain only briefly before ascending to the admiralty.
As for Jiemba's reticence to allow Trujillo to confront whatever killed Esau, he's trying to avoid sparking a conflict with a possible as-yet-to-be discovered xenophobic species. However, Reykjavik, like Enterprise before her, is a ship that acknowledges that, 'risk is our business.'
Trujillo's trying her hand at being an explorer. That's rare for her, and if she's going to go against type, she wants to share the potential danger of that decision. Brave? Yes. Foolish? Quite possibly.
As always, thank you for the well-considered feedback!
Comment on Warnings Unheeded in Darkest Night
Beatrice_Otter on Chapter 4 Wed 25 Oct 2023 08:37AM UTC
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Gibraltar on Chapter 4 Thu 26 Oct 2023 03:31AM UTC
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