Class in Session

Posted on Saturday July 15th, 2023 @ 1:05am by Lieutenant Commander Steven Ryan & Cadet Senior Grade Piper Hill & Captain Franklin Johnson & Crewman Eradaar Ezazzan

1,327 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Grand Tour: Part One
Location: USS Poseidon; Deck 6 - Classroom #3
Timeline: During the events of "The Grand Tour: Part One"
Tags: 2395, The Grand Tour, Character Development

[ON]

Jason stood at the lectern, he'd keyed in the days' lesson. He'd decided to do an abridged version of historical and tactical studies one and two, most of the students enrolled had either incomplete or didn't have the history requirement to graduate, and he was the only historian on board. He'd taught a few smaller one off sessions, and lectured on Klingon tactics more than once. Now he had to teach students, many of whom had shown a disregard for aspects of discipline and duty.

He looked down at his notes, lecture one; evolution of tactics the Earth Romulan war. He hated the comparative listing plus he'd discovered a massive hole in the original material, and several inaccuracies. But he also decided to include an interactive portion too keep everyone interested, he looked up as the door hissed, he found himself amazed that a seven foot plus tall Gorn walked in.

Eradaar Ezazzan wasn't exactly seven feet, about five inches too short, but when she stood straight up she could be perceived as such. Gorn were naturally taller than most humanoid species and despite her younger age, Eradaar was little exception. The only reason she typically appeared shorter was because she liked to hunch over, as if trying to hide herself, mainly when in a nervous situation. This was no exception, as when she entered, she hunched slightly, observing the classroom with a shy and timid gaze.

"E-E-...ehm...Cadet Ezazzan, reporting for classroom," she managed as she held tightly to her datapad and looked between the class and teacher nervously.

"Take a seat Cadet, we seem to have quite a variety of students joining us, and a unique perspective should spur some much needed discussion to an otherwise boring subject." Jason said making a gesture towards the desks.

Seconds later he saw Cadet Hill walk in the classroom, she almost sunk as she saw the Commander, she was almost scared as she saw the tall gorn taking a seat, Jason looked over to her and made a subtle gesture for her to take a seat near the front of the class. she found a seat in the second row, close to Ezazzan.

A group of seven of the students who had been involved in the massive food fight in the galley arrived, Jason just glared as they walked in taking a random assortment of desks. Jason waited a few more seconds as the last of the students trickled in then, "Welcome to Historical and Tactical studies one and two, We'll be splitting our time between historical events such as the founding of the federation, the Kitomher accords, through the end of the Dominion war, both the societal changes to the the quadrant and the changes to the tactics used by all sides in any conflicts and critical event studies, you will get bored, since this class is in fact a two part introduction to historical tactic study and a general history class."

Stepping away from the lectern "When it comes to history, the events that have taken place are written by the victor, but they are also written by the witnesses, so the question should always be what's the other side too the story? What was the chain of events that lead to that moment? What was the plausible reasoning behind the decisions made? and most of all was this outcome as big of a change as its written or was it just another page in the history books." Jason said looking around the room.

"So with that being said, Part one, The United Earth-Romulan war." Jason called out as the screen came on "Now earth's ships were by most standards today primitive, the fastest ships was capable of warp five, not the most extravagantly well armed and quite arguably at best as the war progressed might have let earth fight to a stalemate, it's most commonly argued that had he Vulcans and Andorians not come to the aid of earth when they did would the war ended in stalemate anyways, would it have ended sooner or later?" Jason opened the door to the first discussion.

Eradaar ignored the comment concerning different perspectives. She had been grown as a Federation citizen and had seen the perspective of events through that lens. That wasn't true...she did have a family. It's just it was extremely traumatic to think about. She didn't react as the mention of Dominion War came through, but it triggered memories of her family dying in the shuttle accident. She used her datapad to take notes as she observed the students coming in, recognizing a few of them as antagonists for the food fight much earlier. She shook her head, snorting silently as she focused on the lesson. She had to admit this teacher was actually very good at conveying his lessons.

When prompted for the first question, she was the first to answer.

"With the level of subversion, infiltration, and clandestine operations already undertaken by the Romulan Empire during the years prior to the start of the Earth-Romulus War, I would deduce that without the help of allied empires, a victory would have been severely unlikely," stated the Gorn.

Jason was intrigued "Your I'd say about ninety percent right, the decades old rivalries between the Vulcans', Andorians, and Tellarites in all likely cases would have been Earth's down fall, but as earth and it's allies turned the Romulan advances back, is the final battle at Algeron actually the end of the war or could it be interpreted as another form of stalemate similar too the Korean peninsula during earths nineteen fifties?"

Eradaar thought on the question. "I am of the opinion that anything after the original Romulan war was a stalemate. The Empire effectively went into hiding and left the Federation alone, but didn't signify any manner of surrender besides the establishment of the neutral zone. In this manner, I believe a state of war could have persisted until relations were formalized in later centuries."

Jason looked across the room, many of the students were either dumfounded or caught off guard, "Now here we are in twenty-three ninety-five, relations with the Romulan people have started to thaw, is the federation ready for the baggage that comes with such an embedded history of distrust with the federation?"

"It is the responsibility of the Federation to seek this dialogue, especially after its efforts to help the Romulan Empire after the tragic events of the Hobus Supernova," Eradaar replied, ignoring the other students.

Jason spun around "Those actions to help the Romulan people are a stronger gesture than any armed conflict, I think is a stronger answer, but you're correct Cadet."

Piper leaned over and whispered "you've impressed him."

Eradaar smirked and smiled at Piper, hiding what constituted a blush for a Gorn. She felt the need to crawl into herself from the sudden attention as she realized all the cadets were staring at her. She whimpered softly.

David continued the lecture for another few minutes, "Okay, to sum up session one, if our relations with the Romulans can change from confrontation to the current uneasy peace, can other things change? I think we can agree yes, but this chapter in history still isn't written fully." Looking from left to right "Dismissed!"

As a number of students stood "For next session, we'll be in holodeck two, I have a little surprise."

As most of the students, left Jason looked at the last of students left he cleared the display, he wasn't sure how the students' felt about his lecture, but a few students did seem slightly interested.

Eradaar was smiling as she left, feeling quite educated today. The fact she was able to get involved - and impress her peers! - meant a lot for her development.

[OFF]

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Crewman Recruit Eradaar Ezazzan
Cadet Learning Program Trainee
USS Poseidon

&

Lt Cmdr Jason Elliot
Intelligence/Historical studies
USS Poseidon

&

Cadet 4th yr Piper Hill
USS Poseidon

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