from the desk of Rian Kael
acting Chief Intelligence Officer, U.S.S. Ameade
Commander, Starfleet Intelligence
Alright, a few basics out of the way first.
People ask what I do, and I've never found an answer that survives more than one follow-up question.
"Ship's counselor" is true and also almost entirely beside the point.
"Ranjen on extended loan to Starfleet" is also true, and tends to end the conversation at parties, which I don't mind.
At the moment I'm assigned to the USS Ameade, perfunctorily as its acting Cheif Intelligence Officer but ostensibly to study the Fleet's expanding use of holographic crew, holo-emitters, and ship-wide holo-infrastructure "under field conditions" ...which is a phrase someone in a windowless office in San Fransisco was very pleased with themselves for writing.
In practice it means I spend a great deal of time talking to people who may or may not be real, in rooms that may or may not exist, forming opinions about whether that distinction matters as much as everyone assumes. It is, I'll admit, closer to theology than engineering.
I try not to say that out loud during briefings.
As a matter of record I was born on Bajor during the Occupation, which is a sentence that does a great deal of quiet work and that I generally leave standing on its own. I trained, later, as clergy - partly because I meant it, partly because I needed somewhere to put the parts of myself that the Cardassians had left with nowhere to go.
Some of that worked. Some of it I'm still doing.
Along the way I picked up a wife (since departed, amicably, no regrets I'd admit to a stranger), a taste for Aldebaran whiskey taken exactly one glass at a time, a working fluency in Romulan splinter-state politics that nobody asks for at dinner parties, and a persistent, faintly embarrassing skill in archaic Earth-style swing dancing that I will deny under formal questioning.
I write here, mostly, because I've found that saying a thing plainly to strangers is sometimes the only way I manage to say it to myself. Expect essays on faith, intelligence work described just carefully enough to remain unclassified, holography and what it does to the idea of a person, and the occasional stray thought that doesn't fit anywhere more dignified. I keep the good whiskey for the good days and write about the rest.
Also, I have a niece I'm rather fond of and an extended family I mostly just tolerate; I'll probably write about them now and again as well.
-RK
from Peter Simon, the actual real-world author of this blog...
2403
Two years after the Frontier Day crisis nearly destroyed everything, the Federation is rediscovering what it means to be optimistic.I 'm exploring that all through the eyes of Commander Rian Kael, a veteran Bajoran Starfleet Intelligence officer aboard the USS Ameade—a Constitution III-class ship on exploration duty pushing the boundaries of holographic integration. He writes letters to his niece on Bajor, journals about life aboard, and occasionally pulls back the curtain on what makes Trek tick in this era.
The Ameade (ah-me-AH-day) is a ship built to honor exploration, named after Kihala Ameade, a Betazoid pioneer who believed in seeking out the unfamiliar with grace. It's also a floating laboratory for holographic crew integration, with emitters throughout and one of Starfleet's first series of fully commissioned holographic officers and crew. Rian's intelligence detachment is posted on Ameade to figure out if this future is brilliant or dangerous, and what it means when your shipmate can be switched off with a power failure.
Aldebaran & Pagh
Two things that shaped Rian Kael and give this blog its name: the draw of fine whiskey and the Bajoran concept of life-force, of spiritual journey. One grounds him in the physical world—the burn of good spirits, the ritual of appreciating what's been carefully crafted. The other connects him to something larger—the path the Prophets laid out, the meaning he found as a Ranjen looking to heal from the Occupation before Starfleet Intelligence called him. Both anchor him, remind him that life is meant to be savored and examined, not just survived.
This is a blog about exploring strange new worlds from the inside out.
Building those strange new worlds
There's writing here that extrapolates canon and fills in the gaps left behind: what's happening with the Romulan Diaspora, how Starfleet rebuilds trust post-Frontier Day, what it's like serving on a ship where the walls can become anything. You'll also find Star Trek Adventures resources: mechanics for intelligence operations, holographic complications, character builds, setting guides, and tools for running games in the Picard era. This is for GMs who care about the moral dilemmas as much as the dice rolls, and players who want to understand the world their characters inhabit.
I'm writing this all because I love Star Trek and STA; I've been TTRPG-ing since those strange dice first showed up on the floor of a crowded and musty Boy Scout tent decades ago, and I've dabbled professionally for Traveller and Cepheus Engine RPGs. I feel like the Picard era speaks to something we need right now - hope that doesn't ignore complexity, optimism that's been tested and earned. I want more of that in my life right now, and I want to explore it at the table and on the page.
But I'm also writing this because my head is too full of ideas that need somewhere to go. This blog is how I work off that excess imaginative energy; getting the ships, characters, missions, and mechanics out of my skull and into pixels where they can breathe. Where I can actually see what I've been building in the dark.
No actual play recaps here, but plenty of the lessons learned running and playing STA. Think of it as intelligence reports from the frontier: useful, flawed, and always wondering what the Prophets have planned for beings made of light.
Welcome aboard the Ameade. Let's see what's out there.
