Dear Sixteen-Year-Old Me

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Dear Sixteen-Year-Old Me is the ninth episode in the Star Trek: False Vacuum series, launched on July 30th, 2015.

Summary

After patrolling the Lyran border for five days, False Vacuum Squadron entered a vortex they couldn't evade. At the other end of it, they realize the other end led them to the Institut de Marquain, mere days prior to a major American football championship game held at Zhukovsky Stadium against the Sovetsk Direction Senior High. Several squadron members were unsettled by the sheer importance of athletics to the high school students; Ariane Binks was unfazed however. Then, upon arriving in St. Petersburg, the squadron enters the Porcelaine's locker room for a motivational speech about high school being the end of their playing days for most players. Belgium wins the game 26-20 thanks to a long rush made by Catherine after sacking Yang Poitras like a quarterback.

Shortly after that game, the USS Neman entered the vortex once again. Sensing something is fishy, Dunames has the runabout scan for chroniton radiation sources. In addition, Janielle Potvin discovers that the squadron landed shortly before the first of two EuroBasket Women High School final played by Dunames (and by the Porcelaine) and was dispatched to deal with the source of the chroniton radiation. It was found that a device called the Teenage Device, designed by Rakata, a classmate of Catherine, was responsible for the vortices leading the squadron to the 16-year-old selves of two of its pilots. They also deliver a speech in the locker room prior to the basketball semi-final against Spain just as with the football game. After Belgium's victory over Spain, the squadron returns to its home time.

Quotes

"Dear sixteen-year-old me, please, do not let football in the way of your academics! You can’t keep playing football forever! You need a backup plan outside of sports!"

— Catherine Mouranger to her younger self, prior to the game against Sovetsk Direction Senior High

"Athletic glory in general and high school athletic glory in particular, is fleeting. That said, go out there and play the best game you’ve ever played! Down with the Большая Красная Машина! Down with the Big Red Machine!"

"The Большая Красная Машина is just a gang of jerks! Neutralize their special units and they’re done!"

— Dunames Lopez and Catherine Mouranger, facing the Belgian football team

"Dear sixteen-year-old me, don’t seek short-term glory at the expense of long-term operations!"

— Dunames Lopez to her younger self, prior to the semi-final game against Spain

"Department of Temporal Investigations here. We have received reports of people being pulled into vortices that brought them face-to-face with their sixteen-year-old selves. "

— Janielle Potvin, revealing that she is a DTI agent

"I had a 3.95 unweighted GPA, and, because I loaded the entire deal with eight AP courses, I graduated summa cum laude."

"That is super interesting. Tell me about how hard you worked and how little you slept."

"I never thought I’d have this conversation in my lifetime, much less with the very UChicago staffer that tried to convince me God-knows-how-many times to de-commit from North Carolina. Clearly the trust UChicago then placed in me wasn’t misplaced."

— Ariane Binks and a University of Chicago recruiter

Star Trek: False Vacuum episodes
First season: Asteroid Dusting - Thesis Dilemma - Structural Unemployment - Black Tornado - Pothole Omnium - Wagon Train to the Stars
Second season: Arthur Porter and the Corpse of Azkapanama - Murder Grove - Dear Sixteen-Year-Old Me - Pledge of the Protester - Scrap Yard Vegas

Production notes

This episode is drawn from the opening line in a video shot by the University of Calgary Law school.

External link

• Dear Sixteen-Year-Old Me on the False Vacuum boards 
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