EBA Broadcast 3
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Heroic Effort or Haphazard Foolishness
By Chris Garcia

It’s hard to imagine what the members of Star Fleet endure on a day-to-day basis. As an Earthling who rarely leaves the comfort of his own atmosphere, this reporter finds a lifetime of space travel a vocation for a “different breed” of individual. Nothing makes that more clear than the display of bravado recently beheld on board the USS Constitution.

Following a very brief first leg of the Megiddo Regatta, the “Connie’s” first beacon jumped onto viewscreens around the ship. Nestled deep in a decaying orbit of a gas giant, which orbited a little too closely around a massive white star, it taunted the crew of this ancient vessel with flashing lights and a weak signal.

After Command deemed a shuttlecraft mission the most efficient means of procuring the beacon, two officers stepped forward to answer the call of their Captain. Javier Costala and Vince Stryfe left the relative safety of the large Starship and risked everything in a daring attempt to harpoon the slowly falling beacon.

After what appeared to be a collision with said beacon, it broke into two separate pieces. Having already harpooned one part, Costala took an unauthorized space walk in a dangerously irradiated zone of space to retrieve the last part. One wonders whether such an action was worth the risk.

The members of Starfleet represent Earth and the Federation at large to a great number of governments and civilizations across our galaxy. Putting their lives on the line when it really matters is what has brought them legendary status in the past. But is unnecessary risk for the sake of “winning a race” really what we send these individuals deep into space to do? How are such risks viewed by the galactic community at large?

In a time when risk is already such a regular part of life, one wonders at the appropriateness of taking unneeded risks for the sake of machismo. Daredevils and stuntmen have a place, to be sure. But is that place the one and only Starfleet?

The Constitution currently leaves orbit to pursue yet another mission without clear benefit. After today’s events, only our next stop will reveal the lengths to which this crew among many will go to drumming up public support for an agency that has clearly lost its way.

** Originally posted on 5/09/08 by Torrik Nils **


The Megiddo Regatta - Yesteryear

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