Today's update is the promised notes on NPC semi-regulars' dynamics with the core crew. Have a look, and if I seem to be reading any of your characters wrong, let me know.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">"Lieutenant Bremen"</div><div class="spoiler_body">Angel is thriving under <strong>Capt. Chandra's</strong> light-handed management style and by a month into voyaging has been particularly disarmed by the Captain's friendly and relatively informal off-duty persona; Jaya is already someone she likes, trusts and wants to impress. <br/><br/>She is perhaps a bit overawed by <strong>Commander Talya</strong>, whose incongruous youth and magnetic attractiveness draws her on a fundamental level at the same time as the Deltan's quiet reserve -- and the steely core plain under her surface affability -- warns her away from familiarity. <br/><br/>She's amused by <strong>Lieutenant Cortez</strong> and finds him likeable, funny and pleasant to work with; she has no particular thoughts about him outside the professional context, at least not yet, but certainly gets a kick out of subtly teasing and flirting with him – within the bounds of professionalism – when the occasional opportunity arises. <br/><br/>She hasn't yet had much exposure to <strong>Dr. Tren</strong> beyond a routine physical, but will like her professionalism and the absence of sugar-coating in her style.<br/><br/>She's had even less exposure to <strong>Chief Engineer Adams</strong>, but their mutually habitual bluntness and strong dedication to their jobs should make for a smooth working relationship.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">"Chief Parata"</div><div class="spoiler_body">Moko has warmed to <strong>Capt. Chandra</strong> more than he expected to, especially given that her command style is the precise opposite of what he's used to, and is grateful that she's willing to make use of his expertise without any power-struggles or, so to speak, dick-measuring contests. So far, the experience of “breaking in” a new Captain has been smoother than he'd dared to hope possible, and he's determined to deliver the goods when it counts.<br/><br/>He's already known <strong>Commander Talya</strong> for several years at this point, and having watched her grow as an officer and come through fire and death to be where she is, he has a grave respect for her despite her youth – in fact he doesn't really think of her as youthful at all. He also has some slightly superstitious beliefs about the powers of Deltans to “bewitch” people that motivate him to carefully keep the appropriate boundaries with her.<br/><br/>He can't help but be charmed by the ebullience of <strong>Lieutenant Cortez</strong>, whose obvious excitement at embarking on his first starship assignment is infectious... and perhaps reminds him a bit of when he first set out on a career in space travel. He may have already had one or two chances to have a drink and spin a yarn with Cortez – there's no unbridgeable social gulf between enlisted and officers on a Star Fleet ship – and will manifest an undercurrent of gruff friendliness toward him in the normal course of duty.<br/><br/><strong>Dr. Tren</strong> seems very capable and not the sort to take guff from anyone, which he likes and respects. Sick bay is already very much her domain and the CMO's word on whether you should make it on time for your physical is already unquestioned, and as far as Moko's concerned, that's just how it should be.<br/><br/><strong>Chief Engineer Adams</strong> is someone who – as being tasked with making the ship go, and sustain everyone, and not blow up – has a great deal of Moko's attention. The COB would find most officers his age worryingly young for the job, but finds Adams' obvious single-minded devotion to be greatly reassuring. Besides, he and Cortez obviously get on, so he outside of Engineering he can't be all bad.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">"Nomi Harper"</div><div class="spoiler_body">This is Lieutenant Harper's first voyage on a star cruiser – her previous experience has been on sub-light space ships and in training simulators – and she's exhilarated and terrified and mostly concerned at this point with just getting her job done without offending anyone. The Captain and the XO are, well, the Captain and the XO, and she's there to follow orders... but if you put a phaser to her head, she'd have to tell you that she does find <strong>Jaya</strong> likeable and easy to work for thus far, and she's compelled and fascinated by the alien <strong>Talya</strong>, who seems friendly and likeable but very mysterious under the skin.<br/><br/><strong>Lieutenant Cortez</strong> will have charmed her quite effortlessly by this point if he wants to: they'll have plenty in common what both discovering the feeling of being Out There for the first time, and Harper will have little in the way of defensive shielding against his other charms. At the very least she'll be very friendly toward him.<br/><br/><strong>Dr. Tren</strong> kind of intimidates her, but seems to know what she's doing. <br/><br/>She hasn't had much exposure to <strong>Adams</strong> yet, but from what she's seen he seems like a sweet guy and really dedicated to his job.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">"Ensign Eriksen"</div><div class="spoiler_body">Unless he's working directly with them, other people don't register too much on Ensign Eriksen's radar so long as they're getting their jobs done and leaving him more or less alone to do his. So he won't have much of impression of most of the crew yet.<br/><br/>The exception is <strong>Talya</strong> with whom he does work directly – and whose evident brilliance, coupled with her kind and friendly manner, quite brings him out of his shell around her. He already thinks of her as kind of like the big sister he never had (okay, an alien version of the big sister he never had, but still) and we are certainly counting down to the time when an “I love you, man” moment will come bursting through the thick crust of his introversion.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">"Yeoman Burke"</div><div class="spoiler_body">The current Captain's Yeoman is Jim Burke (played by John Saxon whom you see at the bottom right of the set of “Team Yeoman” pics). For a man well over six feet he's surprisingly unobtrusive, carrying out his duties with a quiet and pleasant efficiency, and though he does seem rather... martial for a personal assistant, he's perfectly convincing in his job. He's courteous toward everyone as professionalism requires, but his work and his attention is mainly focused on the Captain, and toward <strong>Jaya</strong> he shows a genuine and unforced friendliness. Strictly within the bounds of his duties, of course.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">"Nurse Woodward"</div><div class="spoiler_body">Nurse Woodward has limited interest in anything that is not the direct business of sick bay or related to the crew's health. So far she likes that the Captain stays out of the way and lets the medical team do its job. She'll have had brief exposure to the others, but not enough to form any very strong opinions about them, although they seem nice enough and it seems to be impossible not to crack at least a bit of a smile when that <strong>Cortez</strong> fellow is around.<br/><br/>The person she <em>does</em> have strong opinions about is <strong>Dr. Tren</strong>, who besides being exactly the kind of no-nonsense, to-the-job CMO she likes to work for, also make her feel rather... giddy on other grounds. Mostly she's trying to suppress these feelings, since of course it's silly to hope that Tren could feel the same way about her (do the Andorians even <em>have</em> lesbianism?), so they come through subtly, in an extra measure of effusive support, attention to detail and alacrity to leap to a task whenever Marah is around.</div></div><br/>There's now a brief capsule history of the<em>Vanguard</em>and a short chronology of Trek history as it applies to us -- including those life events of the current crew I was able to pin down with (hopefully) some accuracy -- on the Resource thread.