Manticoran
News Bureau
“All the News That’s
Fit to Transmit!”
PO3
Kathy Rau and FSMCPO Michael Garcia are “so evil.”
Halfway
Home
2014.10.08 CE / 346.06.35 AL (MNB) – South
of San Francisco, near the crowded and often fogged-in airport, the sci-fi fans
of the Bay Area were offered a chance to investigate our vision of the future
and where we are today. Unfortunately,
some of those visions involved ball pits, Texas Hold-‘Em,
and Big Cats… which only goes to show that wherever in space and time we find
ourselves, we’re only human.
Tenth Fleet converged on Convolution
2014, held at the Hyatt Regency SFO in Burlingame, California, on the weekend
of September 24th-26th. HMS Artemis, HMS Roland, HMS Wolf, and the Muir Point
Bivouac soon docked and began to occupy the F Squared concourse (Fan-to-Fan).
As they set up their fan table, they soon dazzled the locals with their
descriptions of life with the Fleet. They also had a donation box for Big Cat
Rescue and managed to raise $65.
As always, where HMS Artemis goes, the
Artemis Spaceship Combat Simulator is sure to follow. Corporal Scott Taggart,
commanding Muir Point Bivouac, admired their skills greatly and publicly. PO3
Kathy Rau “is credited with six kills in the Artemis simulator by talking those
ships into flying into a black hole by taunting them. No shots, six kills.”
However, Fleet Senior Master Chief Michael Garcia was now slouch
either. “[He] is a decidedly wicked captain whose coordinated efforts clobbered
a level 14 difficulty scenario. Don't let the black beret fool you. It should
be white.”
Erik
Roberts being returned to the Tenth Fleet recruitment table after being
captured by USS Loma Prieta.
Unfortunately, all those many fan
groups lead to bad blood. Right after CAPT (SG) Sir Thomas Marrone,
HMS Artemis, promoted Shon Elliott to Communications Mate 3rd Class (PO3), two
of Artemis’ shipmates were beamed aboard and captured by USS Loma Prieta, the Federation vessel cruising in the area. S3/C
Jon Sung and PFC Erik Roberts may have been forced to wear Starfleet uniforms,
but they refused to take off their berets. When the signal came through from
their captors, the first response was more amusement than shock. “He really
should be wearing a Red shirt if he's truly a RMMC,” SGT David Moser quipped,
only to be corrected by S3/C Edward O'Connor.
“24th Century security wears gold—so he's wearing the right TNG unit for
an RMMC.”
Once the appropriate amount of Swedish Fish were paid, their crewmen were
returned, and they went off to see the panels. Michael A Stackpole
was the guest of honor, the author of I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron, as well as
Author Tanya Huff (Valor/Conference series) and science adviser (Big Bang
Theory, Defiance, Falling Skies) Dr. Kevin Grazier.
PFC Roberts and Chief Garcia attended his "Hollyweird
Science" panel where he held a 90 minute discussion on the compromise of
science versus storytelling. Also, Pern author Todd McCaffrey commanded an Artemis bridge
several times while the RMN spacers were in there playing, though he was
handling the ship on the other side of the room from them with his
friends/entourage. Guest Carrie Sessarego, allowed
for an interesting take as she dished on her favorite trashy books. As the
reviewer of Geek Girl In Love and Smart Bitches,
Trashy Books, she’s a fascinating person to dissect the romance genre. Of course, they were sure to sit down for the
Silicon Valley Science Fiction Short Film Festival, and the Mother Writers
panel cleverly titled, “If this is a room of my own, then why is it covered in
Lego?”
The
ball pit has caused a great disturbance in the Force
However, after the Imperial Guard
jumped in the ball pit, and everyone felt a disturbance in the Force, it was
time to disembark. CPL Taggart put it best when he took a look at the group
photo. “Crews of Artemis, Wolf, and Roland... Oh, and one lone, terribly
contrasting green guy. Trust the army to crash the party. I look like I'm in
front going "Yes, I'm here to make sure they all behave..." when in
reality, that's Kathy Rau's job.”
So although Convolution investigated
the future, there was no true vision shared at the end. Regardless of whatever
the future holds for humanity, men and women will still need to come together
and celebrate their shared loves.
Tenth
Fleet at the con: (In back) Erik Roberts, Chris Shoff,
Jeremy Henry, Joe Cahill, James Jones, Michael Garcia, Kathy Rau. (In front) Scott Taggart and Shon Elliott.
Article
Copyright © 2014, Bureau of Communications, The Royal Manticoran Navy: The
Official Honor Harrington Fan Association, Inc.
CPO Caitlyn Miller, Manager, Manticoran News Bureau, BuComm.
All pictures used with permission or used in a way that qualifies as fair use
under US copyright law.