This new piece of crap, Pope Palpatine II, has in the past described same-sex marriage as a “destructive attack on God’s plan” and that same-sex adoption is a form of discrimination and abuse against children.

In 2010, he fought against the introduction of same-sex marriage and adoption rights in his home country of Argentina saying that the population would “face a situation whose outcome can seriously harm the family. He added: “At stake is the identity and survival of the family: father, mother and children. At stake are the lives of many children who will be discriminated against in advance, and deprived of their human development given by a father and a mother and willed by God. At stake is the total rejection of God’s law engraved in our hearts.”

He went on to describe introducing equality as a move from “the ‘Father of Lies’ who seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God”. In the Gospel of John, ‘the Father of Lies’ is a term for the Devil.

Cristina Kirchner, the President of Argentina, said the Catholic Church under his leadership in the country was reminiscent of "medieval times and the inquisition." The president of his *own* country!

So when you have a loathsome asshole like that, I'm not sure how you could describe my feelings as "conflicted." They are rather clear: He is a disgusting pile of shit that will bring social, economic, and emotional ruination on millions of gay people around the world for years to come. By telling the gullible, illiterate unwashed masses of his religion that the devil is behind equality for gay people, he inspires and encourages behavior that not only leads to oppression, but to violence as well. One only need to look at Africa to see how Christianity has spread like a plague to the terrible detriment and danger to gay people.

Okay I found you but cannot claim a city in Greenwhich. Let me know when you can invite :)

The Pandora’s senior staff all looked at the admiral in shock. Even Oren-De showed a modicum of surprise as he responded.

“Admiral, I assure you that my senior staff is with me right now. You may send someone aboard to perform an identity confirmation, if you’d like.”

The admiral looked at Oren-De in careful thought before replying.

“Captain, hold your yacht at your current position. We will contact the Pandora and reconcile this. Admiral Daniels, out.”

The image blinked off before Oren-De could say anything else. The officers looked at each other in confusion.

“What do you think is going on?” Will asked the room at large.

“I’m not sure. This may simply be a very strange miscommuncation, but it’s unlikely,” Oren-De said as he thought about their next move. “Mr. Lacera, hold position. Mr. Shrel, what is the status of the Pandora?”

Shrel, who was already seated at a console, looked back over his shoulder at Oren-De.

“She is still in drydock, about twenty kilometers from our position.”

Maggie, who had been deep in thought, suddenly spoke up. “This doesn’t make sense. The sensitivity of the Partition and the Borg gate would necessitate identity-testing anyone on board the Pandora. There was going to be a Utopia Planetia security officer waiting for us in the Pandora’s shuttle bay to administer a blood test to each of us.”

A small chirping alarm started sounding from Shrel’s console. “Captain! The Pandora’s turrets just activated and opened fire!”

Oren-De’s head snapped to Shrel. “What was their target?”

“It’s difficult to determine exactly, sir,” Shrel replied with frustration. “There’s a large amount of plasma leaking out of some of the impact areas. Judging from the sources, I would say that the docking clamps holding the Pandora were the main targets... but they weren’t the only areas.”

“Mr. Lacera, take us toward the Pandora at full impulse. Ms. Matoya, give me a magnified view of the docking area.”

“Already on it, Captain. On your screen now.”

The screen next to Oren-De blinked back to life and showed the starboard region of the Panodra, with plasma spewing out of one of the docking clamps that had previously been secured to the ship. Oren-De gestured toward damaged areas of the dock itself on the side of the image.

“This area doesn’t house any structure that secures the Pandora. Mr. Sadda, what is this area of the drydock?”

War looked at the area Oren-De was pointing toward. His eyes suddenly widened. “I’m afraid that’s the command area of the dock. Judging from the damage, it’s likely the command staff, including the admiral, are dead. The area isn’t built to take a direct hit from an energy weapon at that range, sir.”

Before anyone could react though, the Pandora began to move on-screen. The ship, which was rapidly accelerating, quickly sailed off-frame.

“They’re stealing her!” War exclaimed in outrage.

“Apparently. However, they will not succeed,” replied Oren-De as moved toward the rear of the cockpit.

“Mr. Shrel, has the Pandora raised shields yet?”

“No, sir. Only the ship’s weapons and engines have been powered up.”

Oren-De nodded. “Our saboteurs are hoping to escape before reinforcements arrive. We’ll use this to our advantage. Mr. Lacera, send an emergency Priority One transmission to Utopia Planetia command alerting them to the theft of the Pandora. Everyone, take a weapon from this locker,” Oren-De ordered as he opened the cockpit’s weapons locker. “We are going to take the Pandora back.”

The officers quickly hustled to the weapons locker, with Will being the last to grab a phaser after sending the emergency communique and putting the shuttle on autopilot. He secured the phaser to his belt and let out a sigh. “I wish I had brought my collapsible sword with me. We are boarding our ship... to take it back from pirates... and I don’t have my sword.”

“I swear, boys and their toys,” Maggie muttered as she clasped her phaser to her belt and looked at Oren-De. “Captain, where are we beaming to? The bridge?”

Oren-De shook his head as he entered coordinates into the transporter controls. “No, it would put us at a tactical disadvantage. By now, the saboteurs have undoubtedly taken steps to secure the bridge, an area which has been designed to resist beam-in boarding. Instead, we will be starting from a position the saboteurs are unlikely to be in and which we can easily defend while delaying the Pandora as much as possible until Starfleet’s reinforcements arrive.”

“Where is that?” asked Red.

“Why, your Sickbay, Doctor,” Oren-De said with an ever-so-small grin. “Prepare for transport. Energizing!”

With a press of a button, the Starfleet officers disappeared in columns of blue shimmering light. Moments later, they reappeared in the Pandora’s Sickbay. Red was instantly struck by something that seemed very wrong about his domain of the ship and it took him a second to realize what it was.

“Why are the lights flashing green?”

Sure enough, the alarm lights in Sickbay, which normally flashed red during a Red Alert, were now flashing green. Shrel and Will looked equally perplexed, with the latter cocking an eyebrow.

“So... apparently we now have Green Alerts for when the ship is being stolen?”

Maggie glanced at Oren-De before looking at the Red, Shrel, and Will.

“Actually, the green lights mean that the Partition has been activated. Whatever our saboteurs want with the Pandora, the Partition is apparently required.”

“Wait, why does using the Partition require an alert?” asked Red, with no attempt to hide a suspicious tone.

Before Maggie could respond, Oren-De interjected. “We will discuss that at a later time. For now, we should focus on retaking the ship. Computer, how many lifesigns are currently on board the Pandora?”

No response came from the shipboard computer. Frustration began to show on the Pandora’s captain’s face.

“Computer, acknowledge my last command.”

Again, no response. Oren-De quickly looked at War’en. “Mr. Sadda, find out why the computer isn’t responding to my commands. I’m going to transfer all command functions here to Sickbay.”

“Yes, sir,” War quickly responded and set to work at the nearest console as Oren-De walked over to a larger one. Red accompanied Oren-De while the others took up defensive positions facing Sickbay’s only entrance.

“All voice commands have been disabled, Captain,” War reported.

Oren-De’s attempts were met with frequent error beeps from the console. “All ship commands have been locked to the bridge. I cannot transfer them here. Not even my override codes are working.”

Maggie looked at Oren-De in disbelief. “The ability to lock commands to the bridge, disable voice commands, and change your command codes are all functions that only the people in this room can perform. Who could be doing this!?”

As if on cue, a viewscreen in Sickbay suddenly came to life and spoke with a very familiar voice.

“You’ll have to excuse the inconvenience, Captain Oren-De. We’re in a bit of a hurry and we really don’t have time to deal with you and your crew causing trouble, so I took the liberty of changing the locks.”

The Pandora’s crew looked at the monitor in shocked surprise. Staring back at them, with a cocky, satisfied smirk, was another Maggie.

He also would clean the feet and kiss HIV AIDS victims. I dont recall any pope doing this. We aren't going to get the reforms we want but its a step in the right direction.

Just a few thoughts from a historian and medievalist.

I am aware that quite a lot of us have mixed feelings about the Roman Catholic Church, but if you will allow me I will do my best to try to put into perspective the signal the cardinals are sending the world with the election of Cardinal Bergoglio as Francis I.

The Church Perspective

It is not far from the minds of the Princes of the Church that the Roman Catholic religion is rapidly losing relevancy in the modern world. Two conservative popes who terribly mishandled the various pedophilia scandals and a strongly rising Opus Dei meant that none of the changes the Church needed to make would be made.

There was a practical reason to elect a South American pope, obviously the strength of the Church now resides in South America, 42% of the congregation are Latino and older Western Europe is on the wane.

Age: Bergoglio is already an old man, 76 years old. It is doubtful he will reign more than a decade, this could be seen as bow to the older conservatives who were strongly rejected in this Conclave for a cardinal doctrinally similar to Joseph Ratzinger.

This election is high theater and a strategic public relations decision. This pope's job will to be clean up the mess Ratzinger left behind. Bergoglio is doctrinally left of Ratzinger.

Symbology is everything

1. South American or New World Pope, a first.

2. Bergoglio is a Jesuit, no Jesuit had been elected Pope previously because the Jesuit order has been under interdiction twice for 100 years each. The Jesuits are one of the more liberal major orders.

3. No Pope has ever taken the name Francis (as in Francis of Assissi), a subtle signal that this Pope sees the value of humility, not the doctrinally certain mantra that Benedict sermonized, wrote and lectured about. Bergoglio took and oath of poverty and can be viewed as a return to a simpler philosophy of ruling the Church.

4. Bergoglio has often stated publicly that the Church should RESPECT (not merely tolerate), gay people. A stunningly liberal position for a cardinal and certainly for a Pope.

It bears watching if any of thia will make a difference, the Church rarely changes quickly...but this seems to be a signal to the world at large that the Church knows it needs to make some changes.

I don't view my post as prescient, but as a conversation starter. I would value other people's opinions, just keep it cool and respectful. You would be helping me out if you come to this topic with some well thought out opinions.

~JC

I had thought of that but when I tried creating a new uniform last night on an empty slot it still didn't work. When I get home I'll do the costume unlock rep mission. That's most likely the problem.

The kinship is called Knights of the White Lady. I was a member for awhile, but I keep losing interest in playing LOTRO...which is a shame, because that kinship is a really good one to join.

I will be trying to get the game on the 22nd if there is still space available I would love to be part of the community.

The dropdown being grayed out might also indicate that you're using your first costume slot, which I believe is locked to "Uniform" only.

Quote by Twinkleboy

Hey Nick I have connected to this region now so you should be able to invite me

Invite sent!

Thanks Milmar! That's what I was missing, duh :pinch:

Have you done the reputation project to unlock the tailor options?

Once again I must call upon your collective expertise Fleetie Darlings as I am in a bit of a pickle.

After much grinding and more Omega marks and neural processors than you can shake a pain stick at, I finally completed my Mk XII Omega Force ground gear set on my KDF main. When all 3 items are equipped I am able to enable the visuals so I appear head-to-toe in the grenade and ammo-encrusted combat suit.

However when I go to the Tailor on Qonos and try to create a more customized version it does not give me the option. The tab in the upper right hand corner of the tailor screen where you choose "off duty," "formal" and "armored" is grayed out and won't drop down. The options don't appear in the general uniform customization screen either. Am I missing something or is there something else I've yet to unlock?

I was able to customize the appearance of my Starfleet main's MACO armor set without incident so I'm not sure why my KDF is being so obstinate.

Hey Nick I have connected to this region now so you should be able to invite me

Low priority web issue -- I appear to be unable to upload attachments for forum posts from Firefox. If I click on the blank or "Add File," the file browser appears as normal, but when I select a file, it just closes. There's no update to the posting page (normally the blank fills with a path and "remove" and "insert" buttons appear) and the file never uploads.

This is consistent both on my home and work computers. Everything appears to work correctly in Chrome and IE, but it's a bit of an inconvenience to have to switch browsers to do my RP updates.

Thanks!

[attachment=1271]mirror_3.jpg[/attachment]

Part Three
The regular sensor sweeps set up to monitor the surface of Hadriepsis D didn't take long to pay off. When a dimensional breach occurred, the Sally Ride crew were ready and beamed quickly to the area. With assistance from Starfleet personnel stationed locally, they began a search for the epicenter of the spatial distortion they had detected.

The search seemed fruitless at first, leading them to an area where clearly nothing was amiss, but Captain Orenn noted a computer error related to the orbital research facility. First officer Seven investigated, and discovered that the station was broadcasting skewed navigational information.

Lieutenant Benton contacted the Sally Ride, which created its own orbital maps. With these, the away team quickly located the real source of the dimensional breach.

When they arrived, they were shocked to find Night, somehow free from his captivity, in a room full of corpses and one nearly catatonic alien survivor. He immediately launched into a rant filled with threats and gloating about the inevitable victory of some "empire."

He overplayed his hand, though, when he physically attacked Orenn. To do so, he had to turn his back to Lieutenant Benton, who had spent the entire standoff slowly moving laterally to set up a flank attack. The Lieutenant saw his opportunity and felled the rogue officer with a stun beam to the back.

Some quick transporter work saw Night returned to the brig and the unidentified alien relocated to sickbay. At this point, Lt. Commander Zoril felt that it was time to reveal her origin in the mirror universe's equivalent of MACO to the rest of the bridge crew. She and Orenn briefed their colleagues on the situation, finally putting most of the ship's officers on the same page.

Once that conference had concluded, Orenn, Seven, and Zoril went to interrogate Night. It became quite clear -- if it hadn't already -- that he was an agent of the Terran Empire. He alluded to a Starfleet admiral who helped him escape the brig previously, but his attempts to seduce his way out of Orenn's custody weren't exactly an unalloyed success.

More information was gained in sickbay by Benton and Lieutenant Cor. The alien, a girl named T'Soni, belonged to a species with innate dimensional sensitivity. She had been forcibly augmented by agents from the mirror universe to create natural bridges between the two realities, allowing communication and even small-scale transport, but only by exacting an extreme physical and mental toll from her.

In particular, it became clear that these agents, and the ones responsible for the Hadriepsis raid, were not loyal to the Terran Empire, but another faction entirely. Night had killed them because that was his mission: to stymie their efforts on behalf of the Terrans.

This new faction is the mirror equivalent of MACO. They are locked in conflict with the Terrans over how to deal with the Borg threat in their universe. The Empire, recognizing a superior military force, is convinced that only evacuation to newly invaded territory in this universe is a viable option. MACO is an unsanctioned resistance, not unlike this universe's Maquis, who refuse to flee and are desperately seeking any advantage over the Borg.

This leaves the Sally Ride in a difficult position. If they allow mirror MACO to succeed, they will compromise the security of the Federation on behalf of an organization that has proven willing to abuse and enslave people in this universe. If they defeat this alternate MACO, they will remove the last reasonable alternative for people in the mirror universe, and their only hope will be the Terran Empire's invasion of the Federation.

Awesome!!!

C'mon fleeties share with us your setups!

Quote by Sinner68

I dunno if any of u picked up on 2 things 1. the camera began and zoomed in on the name of the pub Clara was working "The Rose & Crown" and 2 the girl Clara was with at the end in the cementary was Melody Pond pre River I ran that scene 4 times to be sure

So, I hate to be the bubble-burster on this cool theory, but Clara's friend is not Mels. I just watched the episode with my roommate (who was watching it for the first time) and paid special attention. Not only does it not look like Mels, but Clara's friend is played by a different actress. Mels was played by Nina Toussaint-White while Clara's friend was played by Sophie Miller-Sheen.

I suppose they could have gotten a different actress, but that just seems weird for such a throwaway appearance if it's supposed to mean something.

ZOMG! I want to go!

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