Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️

Showrunner/Executive Producer/Writer - Dark Matter, Stargates SG-1, Atlantis, Universe, Oops I'm in Love with My Boss's Daughter, Amalgaverse.

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

You have deduced that the soft-spoken Milo is the real Harven Zax, and that the flamboyant man claiming the name is a decoy meant to misdirect would-be kidnappers or assassins.  But you still can’t prove who the mole is, so you decide not to arrest anyone.

All four guests beam down to the planet with Kirk, Daniel, Data, and Teal’c, while Carter assumes command of the Enterprise.

They materialize in a grassy clearing beside the Stargate.  A five-person Starfleet security team is already waiting, and the gate behind them is active.

Their leader steps forward, polite and brisk.  They’re here for Harven Zax.

“In a hurry?”Daniel asks, nodding towards the active gate.

“Long trip home,” replies the leader, without a flicker.

Zax marches up the steps towards the shimmering puddle, then turns and throws his arms wide, addressing the crew: “Farewell, you magnificent fopdoodles.  I shall speak of you fondly.  Occasionally.”

Robespierre sidles up to Kirk and lowers his voice.  The sealed pouch he’s been carrying contains the identification passcode for this exchange.  The receiving team was supposed to give it on arrival.  They didn’t.

What do you do?

A) Take the gate.  Draw weapons and seize the Stargate before anyone goes through.  But it means a potential firefight beside an open wormhole with four civilians in the line of fire.

B) Give them Milo. If they are Starfleet and your deduction is correct, he’s the one they’re really after.  But if this team isn’t Starfleet, you’ve handed the real Harven Zax to the wrong people.

C) Give them “Harven Zax”.  Hand over the decoy and let them figure it out on their own.  But if they’re genuine, you’ve lied to Starfleet.  If they’re not, they leave with the wrong guy.

D) Demand the passcode.  Ask them to identify themselves before you hand anyone over.  But if they can’t, they’ll know you’re onto them.

Choose!

New to the mission? Catch up with our Previously On in the replies below.

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

Second Mission: The Delivery (Part 4.5 - Moment of Truth) #Amalgaverse

The Enterprise drops out of warp and takes up orbit around P3X-461.  Kirk, Data, Daniel, and Teal'c are gearing up in the transporter room when Starfleet Command finally answers Kirk’s request for background checks on all four guests.

Councilor Robespierre is a career politician with a reputation for duplicity.  He has faced corruption charges more than once and beaten every one of them.  None ever made it onto his record.  “Never convicted is a skill set,”says Maybourne.  “Trust me.”

Harven Zax is a notorious information broker with vast underworld connections. By most accounts, he has grown tired of the life and is looking to cut a deal with Starfleet: his storehouse of secrets in exchange for protection and a new life.  He is famously publicity-shy and has never had his image taken in public.  Few people have ever seen his face.  Your crew is among them.

His bodyguard, Lucinda Shockley, served in the Terran Defense Force until she was dishonorably discharged.  Since then, she has worked for several organized crime outfits.

As for Milo, Starfleet has no record of him at all.  It’s as if he doesn’t exist.  “Okay, never convicted IS a skill set,”says Maybourne.  “But not existing is an art form.”

You now have all the clues you need to identify the mole.  If you’re going to make an arrest, now is the time, before anyone beams down to the surface.

Do you arrest anyone?  If so, who, and why?

A) Zax
B) Lucinda
C) Robespierre
D) Milo
E) No one

Choose!

[END OF ACT FOUR]

New to the mission? Catch up with our Previously On in the replies below.

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

@StoryBeats He's just bringing it up

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

You have deduced that the soft-spoken Milo is the real Harven Zax, and that the flamboyant man claiming the name is a decoy meant to misdirect would-be kidnappers or assassins.  But you still can’t prove who the mole is, so you decide not to arrest anyone.

All four guests beam down to the planet with Kirk, Daniel, Data, and Teal’c, while Carter assumes command of the Enterprise.

They materialize in a grassy clearing beside the Stargate.  A five-person Starfleet security team is already waiting, and the gate behind them is active.

Their leader steps forward, polite and brisk.  They’re here for Harven Zax.

“In a hurry?”Daniel asks, nodding towards the active gate.

“Long trip home,” replies the leader, without a flicker.

Zax marches up the steps towards the shimmering puddle, then turns and throws his arms wide, addressing the crew: “Farewell, you magnificent fopdoodles.  I shall speak of you fondly.  Occasionally.”

Robespierre sidles up to Kirk and lowers his voice.  The sealed pouch he’s been carrying contains the identification passcode for this exchange.  The receiving team was supposed to give it on arrival.  They didn’t.

What do you do?

A) Take the gate.  Draw weapons and seize the Stargate before anyone goes through.  But it means a potential firefight beside an open wormhole with four civilians in the line of fire.

B) Give them Milo. If they are Starfleet and your deduction is correct, he’s the one they’re really after.  But if this team isn’t Starfleet, you’ve handed the real Harven Zax to the wrong people.

C) Give them “Harven Zax”.  Hand over the decoy and let them figure it out on their own.  But if they’re genuine, you’ve lied to Starfleet.  If they’re not, they leave with the wrong guy.

D) Demand the passcode.  Ask them to identify themselves before you hand anyone over.  But if they can’t, they’ll know you’re onto them.

Choose!

New to the mission? Catch up with our Previously On in the replies below.

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

Second Mission: The Delivery (Part 4.5 - Moment of Truth) #Amalgaverse

The Enterprise drops out of warp and takes up orbit around P3X-461.  Kirk, Data, Daniel, and Teal'c are gearing up in the transporter room when Starfleet Command finally answers Kirk’s request for background checks on all four guests.

Councilor Robespierre is a career politician with a reputation for duplicity.  He has faced corruption charges more than once and beaten every one of them.  None ever made it onto his record.  “Never convicted is a skill set,”says Maybourne.  “Trust me.”

Harven Zax is a notorious information broker with vast underworld connections. By most accounts, he has grown tired of the life and is looking to cut a deal with Starfleet: his storehouse of secrets in exchange for protection and a new life.  He is famously publicity-shy and has never had his image taken in public.  Few people have ever seen his face.  Your crew is among them.

His bodyguard, Lucinda Shockley, served in the Terran Defense Force until she was dishonorably discharged.  Since then, she has worked for several organized crime outfits.

As for Milo, Starfleet has no record of him at all.  It’s as if he doesn’t exist.  “Okay, never convicted IS a skill set,”says Maybourne.  “But not existing is an art form.”

You now have all the clues you need to identify the mole.  If you’re going to make an arrest, now is the time, before anyone beams down to the surface.

Do you arrest anyone?  If so, who, and why?

A) Zax
B) Lucinda
C) Robespierre
D) Milo
E) No one

Choose!

[END OF ACT FOUR]

New to the mission? Catch up with our Previously On in the replies below.

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

Previously On #Amalgaverse…

You and 19 others have been stranded in an amalgam universe of myriad SF realities. All 19 are sci-fi’s Best of the Best. And then there’s you, uniquely qualified given your encyclopedic knowledge garnered from your world where these characters, their technologies, and their stories are fiction, beloved t.v. shows you have watched time and again. Together, all 20 of you have set off on the Enterprise-D, tasked with finding a way home.

On its first mission, the crew answered a distress call from a dead ship and found it was far from empty.  Aboard, the away team awoke an android named Maia, discovered a “survivor” named Rhea who turned out to be something else entirely, and fought their way off as scavengers closed in.  They came home to the Enterprise with two things: a new crewmember in Maia, and a fragment of the signature an entity left behind when it crossed into this reality.  Colonel Carter believes it’s one piece of a much larger puzzle, and that the rest of it is still out there waiting.

For your second mission, you have elected to follow a Starfleet directive, traveling to pick up and transport Harven Zax, a dangerous intelligence broker, to a rendezvous point at the edge of the Expanse.  Upon arrival, you discover his cruiser inoperable, drifting towards a black hole, the ship’s automated defense systems preventing Scotty from using the Enterprise’s transporter to simply beam them aboard.

O’Neill and Data take the jumper to the cruiser where they encounter four stranded passengers: the annoyingly flamboyant Harven Zax, his silent bodyguard Lucinda Shockley, his mild-mannered protege Milo, a Starfleet official named Robespierre, and the ship’s utility bot, Dunsel.  Everyone piles into the jumper and launch, only to be caught by the black hole’s gravitational pull.  The Enterprise uses its tractor in an attempt to reel in the jumper while, on the bridge, the crew must decide what to do about the two life signs in the mercenary shuttle headed for the event horizon.

The Enterprise escapes the black hole’s gravitational pull by using the deflector array to project a counter-field ahead of the ship and then jumping to warp.

You set off for the rendezvous point and your guests settle in: no-nonsense Lucinda, meek Milo, officious Robespierre and, of course, the bombastic Harven Zax.

While Data works on repairing Dunsel the robot, you check in on the mercenaries you beamed off the doomed shuttle headed towards the black hole’s event horizon.  They offer to talk in exchange for their freedom.  Instead, you  have Garak chat with the alien mercenary, Algernon.  In his own incomparable fashion, the simple Cardassian tailor convinces the merc to talk and reveal he and his partner were in the employ of a Klingon Great House who want Harven Zax for a secret he carries.  Algernon also reveals that he and Mira were given coordinates to the damaged cruiser transporting Zax.  But Garak finds this mysterious.  The cruisers engines failed without warning.  So how did anyone know where to find it?

Suddenly, the Enterprise shudders and slows.  Data reveals the ship’s nacelles are encrusted with glittering green growth that turns out to be a subspace organism that feeds on warp fields.  Everyone retreats to a shielded section of the ship as a baryon sweep clears the organisms, then the crew directs focus to their passengers, engaging them in conversation to learn more about their mission.  Harven Zax simply talks about himself while Robespierre laments the fact he has been passed over for promotion three times.  Milo demonstrates impressive understanding of the Ancients in his conversation with Daniel Jackson, and Aeryn Sun identifies Lucinda as a fellow ex-military.  But the most notable piece of information comes from Dunsel who, it turns out, had his memory stores deleted after discovering that someone had sabotaged the cruiser, forcing the ship out of warp and into the hands of the waiting mercs.  One of their passengers is a mole, and the crew must decide how to proceed.

The crew attempts to lure the mole into a trap by revealing they will successfully restore Dunsel’s memory stores by morning.  But, rather than taking the bait, the mole springs their own trap.  The Enterprise drops out of warp and goes dark.  A beacon onboard the ship is broadcasting their position and a mysterious vessel fast-approaches dropping out of warp and hovering over the Enterprise.

Armored strike teams are beamed down the Enterprise.  The crew is split into four person teams to meet them.

Kirk leads a team to Engineering where they discover an automated device that was used to disrupt the Enterprise.  Once turned off, power is restored.  As Kirk and co. head out, they are pinned down by enemy fire.  Things look grim until – rescue comes from an unexpected source: Maia the android, Algernon and Mira the mercs, and little Dunsel.

Data and Rommie hack into the strike teams’ comms and direct them to the guest deck where they expect to find Harven Zax.  Instead, they find Odo impersonating Zax – and then a horrific alien creature.  Before they can react, our crew turns the tables on them and ends their threat.  Their transport cruiser, meanwhile, attempts to make good its escape – only to be destroyed by a Klingon Bird-of-Prey that then redirects its weapons to the Enterprise.  It’s commander, Kordath, demands the Enterprise hand over Harven Zax.

Councilor Robespierre is enlisted to argue jurisprudence with the Kordath who grudgingly offers up a warrant for Zax’s arrest.  Robespierre informs him it may take a full day to run this by Starfleet Command.  Kordath gives him four hours.

With time to kill, focus shifts to the mole in their midst.  Kirk gathers the four suspect passengers and informs them that one of them was responsible for sabotaging their cruiser.  Four suspects – four different reactions.  Harven Zax is indignant and makes himself the victim.  Robespierre is outraged by the accusation.  Milo seems visibly distressed while Lucinda is as inscrutable as ever.  They each offer up their whereabouts on the night the cruiser was sabotaged.  Harven Zax says he was with Lucinda, and his trusty bodyguard corroborates his account.  Robespierre was in his room, working on “none of your business” while Milo was also alone in his room and apologizes for not being able to provide an alibi.

Just then, Data reports that the High Council never approved a warrant for Harven Zax’s arrest.  The forgery Kordath provided was a forgery.  Kirk contacts Kordath and makes him aware that he knows the warrant was a forgery, leading the Klingon to back off for fear that word of this dishonorable conduct will be revealed.

Kirk is then summoned to the science lab where Carter and Data have recovered some video more Diunsel’s memory stories, a snippet of surveillance video from the night of the cruiser’s sabotage that shows Lucinda visiting Milo in the dead of night, proving she lied when she claimed she’d been in Harven Zax’s room that night.  Rather than reveal this information to their guests, the crew elects to keep it under wraps and prepare an away team to escort them to their rendezvous point: a Stargate on P3X-461.

As your prepare to beam down to the planet, a late-arriving background check on your guests arrives from Starfleet.  You learn that Robespierre’s record with Starfleet is spotty, Harven Dax is famously publicity-shy and no one has ever captured his image, Lucinda is ex-military with underworld connections, while Starlet was unable to find any information on Milo.  It’s as if he doesn’t exist.

Get caught up on our series, crew, and past missions at the AMALGAVERSE site: https://t.co/QZl910JXQk created by
@ugorur

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

@iDonato As a creator, I prefer the one episode a week to build anticipation and foster discussion. As a viewer, I prefer by bingeworthy productions.

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

@bigo93 I would so not watch this show

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

Haven't watched TNG but this character just appeared on DS9 and I'm wondering if you're supposed to hate him?

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

@InWyoVeritas But we didn't search their baggage so any of them could have smuggled in the beacon.

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

Second Mission: The Delivery (Part 4.5 - Moment of Truth) #Amalgaverse

The Enterprise drops out of warp and takes up orbit around P3X-461.  Kirk, Data, Daniel, and Teal'c are gearing up in the transporter room when Starfleet Command finally answers Kirk’s request for background checks on all four guests.

Councilor Robespierre is a career politician with a reputation for duplicity.  He has faced corruption charges more than once and beaten every one of them.  None ever made it onto his record.  “Never convicted is a skill set,”says Maybourne.  “Trust me.”

Harven Zax is a notorious information broker with vast underworld connections. By most accounts, he has grown tired of the life and is looking to cut a deal with Starfleet: his storehouse of secrets in exchange for protection and a new life.  He is famously publicity-shy and has never had his image taken in public.  Few people have ever seen his face.  Your crew is among them.

His bodyguard, Lucinda Shockley, served in the Terran Defense Force until she was dishonorably discharged.  Since then, she has worked for several organized crime outfits.

As for Milo, Starfleet has no record of him at all.  It’s as if he doesn’t exist.  “Okay, never convicted IS a skill set,”says Maybourne.  “But not existing is an art form.”

You now have all the clues you need to identify the mole.  If you’re going to make an arrest, now is the time, before anyone beams down to the surface.

Do you arrest anyone?  If so, who, and why?

A) Zax
B) Lucinda
C) Robespierre
D) Milo
E) No one

Choose!

[END OF ACT FOUR]

New to the mission? Catch up with our Previously On in the replies below.

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

Second Mission: The Delivery (Part 4.4 - The Escort) #Amalgaverse

You decide to keep Dunsel’s footage to yourselves and simply monitor your four suspects.

Robespierre retires to his quarters, and the comm logs show another round of encrypted traffic going out under his diplomatic seal.

In Ten Forward, Zax holds court, regaling everyone within earshot with the tale of how he once sold a Ferengi DaiMon the registry code to his own ship. Lucinda sits at his table, looking bored, but her eyes keep drifting to Milo, who sits alone by the viewport.

McCoy sits down across from Milo with two glasses of Saurian brandy.

“Medicinal,”says McCoy.  “It looks like you haven’t slept in weeks.”

“I’ve slept exactly four hours and twelve minutes since we left that cruiser,”Milo tells him.  Then, catching himself: “More or less.”

“I could give you something for that,”offers McCoy.

“It’s not my body that needs the rest,”Milo admits.  “It’s my mind.”

“I’m a doctor, not a psychiatrist.”

“Aren’t psychiatrists doctors?”asks Milo.

“So are chiropractors.  What’s your point?  Now drink your medicine.”

You are approaching your destination, P3X-461.  The rendezvous point is the planet’s stargate, where you will deliver your guests to a Starfleet security team that will take custody of all four.  Once the handoff is made, your mission will be complete.

Choose the four-person team that will beam down to escort your guests.  A, B, or C?

New to the mission? Catch up with our Previously On in the replies below.

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

Today, I am recommending four essential works by M.A. Foster, a master of intricate alien cultures, elaborate social structures, and unsettling transformations.

The Gameplayers of Zan (1977): On an overcrowded Earth, the genetically engineered Ler live on a closely monitored reservation, struggling to preserve their distinctive culture. When a Ler girl disappears outside the reservation, two members of her community investigate a mystery that threatens to shatter the fragile coexistence between humans and Ler.

The Morphodite (1981): In the totalitarian state of Oerlikon, a secretive organization creates an extraordinary assassin capable of changing sex, identity, and even genetic code.  Designed to identify and eliminate threats to the status quo, this ultimate weapon escapes its creators’ control and becomes a revolutionary force against the very system it was built to protect.

Waves (1980): Fraesch arrives on the remote planet Mulcahen to replace a missing scientist at an isolated laboratory run by Speculations, Inc.  Shadowed by the planet’s mysterious owners, he gradually discovers that the station’s purpose - and the strange world surrounding it - is far more disturbing than he imagined.

The Warriors of Dawn (1975): When reports emerge of raiders of Ler ancestry attacking the remote planet Chalcedon, a young human trader and a Ler woman are dispatched to investigate.  Their uneasy partnership takes them across strange worlds and into the heart of a mystery that challenges everything they understand about their own people.
Check out the quoted thread for the recommended works of Theodore Sturgeon, Alfred Bester, Bob Shaw, Clifford D. Simak, Algis Budrys, A.E. van Vogt, C.L. Moore, Cordwainer Smith, C.M. Kornbluth, D.G. Compton, Thomas M. Disch, Alice Bradley Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr.), John Brunner, Judith Merril, Hal Clement, James Blish, Jack Williamson, Katherine MacLean, Fred Saberhagen, Jack Vance, Leigh Brackett, Edgar Pangborn, R.A. Lafferty, William Tenn, Kate Wilhelm, Avram Davidson, James H. Schmitz, Eric Frank Russell, Brian W. Aldiss, Carol Emshwiller, Wilson Tucker, Chad Oliver, Zenna Henderson, Pauline Ashwell, Frederik Pohl, Henry Kuttner, Barrington J. Bayley, James P. Hogan, C.J. Cherryh, Margaret St. Clair, Keith Laumer, Charles L. Harness, Howard Waldrop, Rosel George Brown, Gordon R. Dickson, Robert Sheckley, Fredric Brown, Kit Reed, Joanna Russ, H. Beam Piper, Daniel F. Galouye, Sydney J. Van Scyoc, Tom Godwin, Andre Norton, Harry Harrison, Vonda N. McIntyre, John Christopher, John Wyndham, Michael Bishop, Doris Piserchia, Bob Buckley, George Alec Effinger, Olaf Stapledon, John Varley, Miriam Allen deFord, Raymond F. Jones, Suzette Haden Elgin, Richard Cowper, Bruce Sterling, Josephine Saxton, Mack Reynolds, Phyllis Gotlieb, E.E. “Doc” Smith, Sterling E. Lanier, L. Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber, George Turner, Octavia E. Butler, Philip José Farmer, Somtow Sucharitkul, Charles Sheffield, Sonya Dorman, Clark Ashton Smith, Norman Spinrad, Naomi Mitchison, Suzy McKee Charnas, Barry N. Malzberg, Paul Preuss, Lloyd Biggle, Jr., George S. Schuyler, Damon Knight, Nancy Kress, E.C. Tubb, John Sladek, Joan D. Vinge, Ward Moore, Marta Randall, Robert L. Forward, Ian Watson, Brian Stableford, Keith Roberts, David R. Bunch, Michael G. Coney, Frank M. Robinson, Christopher Priest, Vernor Vinge, Lee Hoffman, Wilmar H. Shiras, Lucius Shepard, David I. Masson, Mildred Clingerman, Leigh Kennedy, Ernest Hogan, Jack Womack, Kenneth Bulmer, Mark Clifton, Kage Baker, Murray Leinster, Evelyn E. Smith, Kris Neville, Edmond Hamilton, James White, Wyman Guin, Emil Petaja, John Boyd, Christopher Anvil, Alan E. Nourse, T.J. Bass, Colin Kapp, Edmund Cooper, Rog Phillips, Mark S. Geston, James E. Gunn, Walter Tevis, Maureen F. McHugh, John Crowley, George O. Smith, Cherry Wilder, F.L. Wallace, G.C. Edmondson, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Pamela Sargent, Robert F. Young, Fred Hoyle, Eleanor Arnason, A. Bertram Chandler, Charles Eric Maine, Tanith Lee, Kathleen Ann Goonan, J.T. McIntosh, Philip Wylie, Tom Purdom, Richard McKenna, Donald Wandrei, Nelson S. Bond, William Hope Hodgson, A. Merritt, Raymond Z. Gallun, John Taine, Clare Winger Harris, Stanislaw Lem, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Angélica Gorodischer, Kir Bulychev, Gérard Klein, Sakyo Komatsu, Herbert W. Franke, and Richard Paul Russo.

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

Today, I am recommending four essential works by Richard Paul Russo, a two-time Philip K. Dick Award winner and master of dark, atmospheric science fiction.

Ship of Fools (2001): After centuries of aimless wandering, the generation ship Argonos follows a mysterious transmission to a planet holding the grisly remains of a human colony. A second signal draws its divided crew to an enormous alien spacecraft, where their search for answers becomes a confrontation with the nature of evil.

Subterranean Gallery (1989): In a violent near-future San Francisco, sculptor Rheinhardt struggles to keep working as his artists’ colony deteriorates and his best friend is drafted to fight in South America. Then a mysterious Vietnam veteran named Justinian abducts him and leads him into a strange underground world.

Destroying Angel (1992): When a serial killer resurfaces in a crumbling future San Francisco, former narcotics cop Louis Tanner recognizes the signature: victims welded together in pairs and dumped in water. Haunted by an old case, he reunites with his former colleague Frank Carlucci, and their hunt leads into the city’s lawless red-light district.

Terminal Visions (2000): This collection of fourteen stories, eleven set on Earth, explores alien encounters, dystopian futures and dreams of escape that carry a devastating price. From the drifting lifeboat of “The Open Boat” to the plague-shadowed world of “Cities in Dust”, Russo finds intimate human losses beneath the machinery of science fiction.

Check out the quoted thread for the recommended works of Theodore Sturgeon, Alfred Bester, Bob Shaw, Clifford D. Simak, Algis Budrys, A.E. van Vogt, C.L. Moore, Cordwainer Smith, C.M. Kornbluth, D.G. Compton, Thomas M. Disch, Alice Bradley Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr.), John Brunner, Judith Merril, Hal Clement, James Blish, Jack Williamson, Katherine MacLean, Fred Saberhagen, Jack Vance, Leigh Brackett, Edgar Pangborn, R.A. Lafferty, William Tenn, Kate Wilhelm, Avram Davidson, James H. Schmitz, Eric Frank Russell, Brian W. Aldiss, Carol Emshwiller, Wilson Tucker, Chad Oliver, Zenna Henderson, Pauline Ashwell, Frederik Pohl, Henry Kuttner, Barrington J. Bayley, James P. Hogan, C.J. Cherryh, Margaret St. Clair, Keith Laumer, Charles L. Harness, Howard Waldrop, Rosel George Brown, Gordon R. Dickson, Robert Sheckley, Fredric Brown, Kit Reed, Joanna Russ, H. Beam Piper, Daniel F. Galouye, Sydney J. Van Scyoc, Tom Godwin, Andre Norton, Harry Harrison, Vonda N. McIntyre, John Christopher, John Wyndham, Michael Bishop, Doris Piserchia, Bob Buckley, George Alec Effinger, Olaf Stapledon, John Varley, Miriam Allen deFord, Raymond F. Jones, Suzette Haden Elgin, Richard Cowper, Bruce Sterling, Josephine Saxton, Mack Reynolds, Phyllis Gotlieb, E.E. “Doc” Smith, Sterling E. Lanier, L. Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber, George Turner, Octavia E. Butler, Philip José Farmer, Somtow Sucharitkul, Charles Sheffield, Sonya Dorman, Clark Ashton Smith, Norman Spinrad, Naomi Mitchison, Suzy McKee Charnas, Barry N. Malzberg, Paul Preuss, Lloyd Biggle, Jr., George S. Schuyler, Damon Knight, Nancy Kress, E.C. Tubb, John Sladek, Joan D. Vinge, Ward Moore, Marta Randall, Robert L. Forward, Ian Watson, Brian Stableford, Keith Roberts, David R. Bunch, Michael G. Coney, Frank M. Robinson, Christopher Priest, Vernor Vinge, Lee Hoffman, Wilmar H. Shiras, Lucius Shepard, David I. Masson, Mildred Clingerman, Leigh Kennedy, Ernest Hogan, Jack Womack, Kenneth Bulmer, Mark Clifton, Kage Baker, Murray Leinster, Evelyn E. Smith, Kris Neville, Edmond Hamilton, James White, Wyman Guin, Emil Petaja, John Boyd, Christopher Anvil, Alan E. Nourse, T.J. Bass, Colin Kapp, Edmund Cooper, Rog Phillips, Mark S. Geston, James E. Gunn, Walter Tevis, Maureen F. McHugh, John Crowley, George O. Smith, Cherry Wilder, F.L. Wallace, G.C. Edmondson, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Pamela Sargent, Robert F. Young, Fred Hoyle, Eleanor Arnason, A. Bertram Chandler, Charles Eric Maine, Tanith Lee, Kathleen Ann Goonan, J.T. McIntosh, Philip Wylie, Tom Purdom, Richard McKenna, Donald Wandrei, Nelson S. Bond, William Hope Hodgson, A. Merritt, Raymond Z. Gallun, John Taine, Clare Winger Harris, Stanislaw Lem, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Angélica Gorodischer, Kir Bulychev, Gérard Klein, Sakyo Komatsu, and Herbert W. Franke.

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

On This Day in Supervillain History
61 years ago, Strange Tales #141 marked the double debut of Mentallo, a mutant telepath working for SHIELD's Psi Division, and Fixer, a criminal with the ability to fix anything, even that old Apple MacBook butterfly keyboard!

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

On This Day in Supervillain History
61 years ago, Fantastic Four #47 marked the debut of Maximus (here the Magnificent, later the Mad), usurper king of the Inhumans who later relinquishes the throne to rightful ruler Black Bolt and claims he was just keeping it warm for him.

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

@JBLOODonly1 I also need this game

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

The Enterprise-D arrives at P3X-461 where Kirk, Data, Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c prepare to beam down to planet's Stargate...

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

Second Mission: The Delivery (Part 4.5 - Moment of Truth) #Amalgaverse

The Enterprise drops out of warp and takes up orbit around P3X-461.  Kirk, Data, Daniel, and Teal'c are gearing up in the transporter room when Starfleet Command finally answers Kirk’s request for background checks on all four guests.

Councilor Robespierre is a career politician with a reputation for duplicity.  He has faced corruption charges more than once and beaten every one of them.  None ever made it onto his record.  “Never convicted is a skill set,”says Maybourne.  “Trust me.”

Harven Zax is a notorious information broker with vast underworld connections. By most accounts, he has grown tired of the life and is looking to cut a deal with Starfleet: his storehouse of secrets in exchange for protection and a new life.  He is famously publicity-shy and has never had his image taken in public.  Few people have ever seen his face.  Your crew is among them.

His bodyguard, Lucinda Shockley, served in the Terran Defense Force until she was dishonorably discharged.  Since then, she has worked for several organized crime outfits.

As for Milo, Starfleet has no record of him at all.  It’s as if he doesn’t exist.  “Okay, never convicted IS a skill set,”says Maybourne.  “But not existing is an art form.”

You now have all the clues you need to identify the mole.  If you’re going to make an arrest, now is the time, before anyone beams down to the surface.

Do you arrest anyone?  If so, who, and why?

A) Zax
B) Lucinda
C) Robespierre
D) Milo
E) No one

Choose!

[END OF ACT FOUR]

New to the mission? Catch up with our Previously On in the replies below.

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

@theblaze Con...gratulations?

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

@Hadsil13 Arrest Milo on what grounds?

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

@JamesRHannibal Why would Milo try to get him nabbed up?

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

@TempleProps Awesome!

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

Stargate concept art - ZPM

[Eyewitness News @ewnupdates]

Councillors who lost their seats in municipal councils will receive a once-off payment from government to adjust to life outside public office. https://t.co/BzWemp9ORn

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

@michaelfaries Love Sheppard's hair

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

@Thawolf_1 @Nina7Infinity So I have heard

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

@KrakenUnbound I pronounce it zee pee em

[Joseph Mallozzi 🏴‍☠️ @BaronDestructo]

@EFB58072321 Maybe something we would have explored had the show been picked up for a sixth season