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Star Trek Online: Unofficial Literary Challenge (Season 11.5) was the fourth season of the Star Trek Online: Unofficial Literary Challenge that took place in Season 11.5 of Star Trek Online.

Overview[]

The Star Trek Online: Unofficial Literary Challenge, was a forum-based game managed by forum users, where story topics for Star Trek Online gamers would be posted every month. Forum users would respond with entries based on those topics, using their Star Trek Online characters.

Guide[]

Title Month Synopsis
Unofficial Literary Challenge #22 The Company You Keep [1] April 2016 In which one of your officers (or even the Captain!) must stand trial for their actions.
Your ship has been called to a research outpost, where a group of scientists are observing a pre-warp culture in strict adherence to the Prime Directive. The lead scientists show you surveillance footage of an exact duplicate of yourself living amongst the populace. Is this an Undine plot, temporal event, dimensional hiccup, or the weirdest coincidence in history? How do you get to the bottom of this without violating Starfleet General Order 1?
You encounter an old acquaintance, but something has happened which has significantly changed them. Detail how you deal with your friend's change, how it affects your friendship, and if your friendship survives!
Write about your captain's pet.
Unofficial Literary Challenge #23 Battle Scars [2] May 2016 Your captain's been picked for one of those uglier details - post battle analysis.
Something keeps breaking down, over and over and over...
After being severely wounded on an away mission, you will never be the same, you lost use of your right arm, a deep gash in your forehead stares at you in the mirror every day. Sometime afterword on a first contact mission you encounter a race with remarkable healing abilities which could heal your wounds fully.
Let's see what happens when your captain gets embroiled in Tholian matters.
Unofficial Literary Challenge #24 Mirror Wars [3] June 2016 During an encounter with the Mirror Universe, you meet the Mirror Counterpart of an old love interest, one who, in your universe, has died (either a long time ago or fairly recently).
Due to the nature of Noye's behavior and subsequent betrayal of the Alliance powers, you are being investigated by your respective faction's Temporal Investigative Officer for potentially being the cause of Noye's erratic behavior, leading up to what's been classified as the 'Butterfly Incident' by the Alliance's respective Temporal Investigation Departments.
Your crew begins an archaeological dig, investigating ruins of a long-departed people.
The temporary stability of the Klingon Empire has relied on a succession of external enemies ever since the Iconians took out most of the High Council. In the wake of the Iconian war, and without an obvious external enemy, it's time for the Klingons to debate their future as only Klingons would: with disruptors, blades, explosives, starships, and harsh words. How does your captain deal with a simmering Klingon civil war, knowing what you know is out there?
Unofficial Literary Challenge #25 Agents of Yesterday [4] July 2016 Temporal agents have delivered you a very important mission. An unknown captain of a 23rd century ship has been pulled forward through time to the 25th century. Your mission is to meet with them and acclimate them to your timeline.
When Spock tried to save Romulus with red matter to create an artificial black hole, the black hole swallowed both him and the Romulan known as Nero, seemingly killing them both. But Temporal Investigations claims that they actually traveled back in time and created a splinter timeline called the Kelvin Timeline. There, things are still somewhat the same, yet slightly different. Since it's creation, Temporal Investigations has tried to keep both timelines separate. But they have discovered that Spock, the Prime Spock, is still alive for now. But his health is failing and time is running out. You have been tasked to bring Spock home or, if the worst has come, bring back his remains.
Write a log about how your captain spent a century in the Nexus.
Unofficial Literary Challenge #26 Love and Loss [5] August 2016 Your captain, or one of your officers, is starting to see things. As much as your captain insists at the existence of these apparitions, no one else can see them.
Four years ago, you stepped foot aboard your vessel as it's Captain. You've battled the Borg, Dominion, Undine, Voth, Romulans and the KDF/Federation. You've traveled through time, met your Terran counterpart, explored the Delta Quadrant and met many new friends and enemies. Write a log entry about how you and your crew celebrate this day.
One thing that's true of most relationships, your love interest usually has relatives. It's trouble enough for humans to meet the in-laws, but what do you do when your Betazoid girlfriend's mom starts reading your mind looking for an excuse to break you up? Does your Klingon brother-in-law demand you undertake various hilariously painful warrior rites? How about a reactionary Bajoran grandfather who doesn't want his grandson marrying outside faith and caste? Or maybe they just have an annoying younger cousin whom both of you would rather avoid. You decide!
Unofficial Literary Challenge #27 Extra Lives [6] September 2016 It seems that something or someone has ousted the entire Continuum from their realm and into ours.
You wake up in another time and another life. Though everything seems 'normal' you begin to realize it's not where you belong.
A strange encounter: you meet a character claiming to be your child. Is he or she a product of a brief liaison many years ago, or could they be something far stranger: a time traveler, or perhaps a trick of the enemy or one of Q's little pranks.
Unofficial Literary Challenge #28 Death and Taxes [7] October 2016 Your Captain is forced to make a life or death decision for someone else. Explore the moral quandaries and complications that this decision could lead to.
On a diplomatic mission to another world, your captain or a member of your crew offends a local noble and is challenged to a duel! Their leaders demand you respect their cultural heritage by taking part, or else they will break off diplomatic relations.
Your ship and its crew have been on a super-secret extended mission in dangerous space far from friendly territory; however, your mission contact has been relieved of duty due to reasons good or bad. As a result, your ship is alone surrounded by unfriendlies and nobody in your faction knows of your plight.
One of your crew members has come to you in a state of extreme excitement about a "foolproof business deal" that will get your ship some exotic and extremely advanced technology upgrades that you desperately want/need. A Ferengi trader who the crewman is acquainted with claims to have found the technology that you want in a derelict ship in hostile space, along with other possibly illegal shinies, and is willing to let you have the loot you want "at a slight discount" if you help xir with the salvage operation.
Unofficial Literary Challenge #29 Temporal Intrigue [8] November 2016 Q is knocking on your door again. At least you assume so, when you find yourself in the Sol System, just in orbit around Luna. You're quite surprised however, when a Q unlike any you've ever seen before appears before you, wearing the same robes all Q have seemed to wear, though with one difference: This one bears the insignia of the Terran Empire's predecessor. He's also come to you with a game. Solve the oldest question in the Terran History books, or 24 hours risk exposing yourself to the Vulcan ship that will pass through this system, discover your ship adrift, and pollute both the Vulcan's and Terran Empire's respective future.
A pest has snuck aboard your ship somehow. Maybe some mice or saurian rats or Rigelian lice. Either way they are annoying and you need to get rid of them. How would you go about doing this?
While exploring in the Azure Nebula, you come across a temporal anomaly. As you are scanning it, the anomaly ruptures and you discover a ship coming through it. The captain opens a hail to you and reveals that they are from the 26th century and that their ship is your ship's successor! Write a log about the experience. What was the future crew like? What has changed aboard the new vessel? What is the same? Are you still aboard it?
What if I told you, that everything you've seen, everything you've done since taking command of your first ship, has been a simulation?" Whether you are plugged into a Dominion mind scanner or lost in a Section 31 holodeck or someplace even more sinister is not known. But your mysterious guide shows you how you can do things you know to be impossible in the real world. Is he telling you the truth? Are you living someone else's fantasy? Or is your guide misleading you for some terrible purpose? "Have you ever had a dream, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?
Unofficial Literary Challenge #30 Redux, Reuse, Re-Gift [9] December 2016 Pick a prompt from a previous challenge, whether one you missed or one you want to redo, and write a story from it.
The ancient tradition of Terran Winter Celebrations is such a festive and playful time in STO! Q is back and he brings us more Winter fun this year, with new snowmen, new weapons, new ships and more.
After a long day on the bridge, you hop into bed. When you awake, however, you find yourself no longer the captain of the ship! In fact, you've never been born at all!
You can send letters by subspace or even talk face to face by video messaging, but sending packages to a starship still requires physical transport. It's mail day on the USS Your Name Here, and the crew is eagerly cracking open their care packages from home.
Unofficial Literary Challenge #31 There are 31! [10] January 2017 While your ship is undergoing a routine tune up at a starbase, you are informed that the starbase has a large selection of entertainment options including a large holodeck. You have decided to partake of the starbase's holodeck with one of your own personal programs.
A new crewman has arrived aboard your vessel. They are attractive, unnaturally likable, and seem to have their heart set on wooing or being wooed by the ship's captain! Write a story about how your captain fends off the increasingly unnerving advances of this new crewman and discovers the dark secret of this would-be Mary Sue.
It's the 26th Century, a hundred years after the events of Star Trek Online. Write a report from the perspective of a present-day cadet or student detailing how history remembers the endeavors of your captain, including their flaws, failures, successes, etc.
Your pal and mine, Franklin Drake, has come and gone in the middle of the night, leaving you with a cryptic warning. 'Beware the Albino, he has set his eyes on you'. You didn't think anything of it until you were contacted via subspace and left with a set of dates and coordinates matching the deaths of certain persons of interest to your superiors, both enemies and allies. And the last set is meant for you.

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