Began Monday March 15, 2021 Finished Thursday June 17 2021. 351 pp. (C) 2019
"Known as Section Thirty-One, the group consists overseen by civilian Federation officials as well as Starfleet offices all working beneath the notice of the normal chair of command. Supposedly formed more than two hundred years ago with a mission to defend Earth and later the Federation--from internal as well as external threats, this group repeatedly carried out missions and actions of varying scopes many of which would be considered against Federation citizens or acts of aggression against sovereign government both friendly and otherwise. The information purports that nearly every Federation citizen for the past two centuries has been under continuous active surveillance, their every action and communication monitored by an advanced artificial intelligence that calls through this collected information, ostensibly searching for other patterns or indications of threats. Section Thirty-One agents then acted on that information, to include murdering anyone deemed a danger then Federation or StarFleet interests. Again, all of these actions were undertaking without any form of due process or accountability to higher Federation or StarFleet authority."
Available Light
Dayton Ward pp. 1-2
"Was it (Section 31) susceptible to corruption? Left unchecked and unaccountable, any group of individuals ran the chance of falling prey to darker impulses. While it could not be argued that it had on numerous occasions noted far outside the boundaries of Federation law, the results were indisputable."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 5
Ozla Granic was journaling about Section 31.
"Instead attentions and energies would be focused on the heart of the matter: Section 31 could function with such unchecked abandon for so long and with such horrifying degree of success."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 22
"Urelei, the artificial intelligence program at the heart of section 31's operation, had been active since before the Federation founding. Not everyone with ties to the group knew of Urelei's existence, a fact that few would serve to heighten the feeling of deception, betrayal, and helplessness sure to grip any sensible Federation citizen. No one will feel inclined to trust anyone, about anything."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 22
Data and Lal created and implemented a cure for the disease that was the Urael program.
"We make our own choices and take action based on what we believe is the best course, using logic and reason, but also emotion and even a moral code of some sort."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 30
"Urael didn't make any of us join StarFleet. Now that it's gone it's up to us all to prove we determine the course of our own lives, rather than some machine."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 31
Picard and his crew were in the presence of a living ship that looked like Deep Space Nine.
Worf and the away team were on an alien vessel and just made contact.
The lights suddenly came on as the away team engaged the alien species in battle.
The away team was stuck aboard the alien vessel while another alien vessel was attacking the Enterprise.
They lost Lieutenant Chen and think she was beamed away. Chen awoke in a room, she made first contact with the Nejami. They communicated to her that they need help.
"Long ago, we perfected the science of converting matter into energy. Your transporter is similar in many ways, but rather limited when compared to our technology and is fraught with many risks that we have surmounted. For as, converting our bodies into components for data storage is just one part of a larger, sophisticated process that enables transference of our consciousness into the Haven, where we live as though we still inhabit our physical forms. Meanwhile our bodies are stored safely within the Osijemal's data matrix, just as they were upon conservation."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 173
"It was a common misunderstanding among those unfamiliar with such matters that Vulcans did not poses emotions. On the other hand beginning in early childhood and learning overtime to surpass and disallow them from governing so much of their lives was expected of every Vulcan citizen. Indeed achieving as much distancing as possible or even elimination of such impulses was a goal of many Vulcans. Some devoted their entire lives to that pursuit, facing formidable challenges and emotions and focus their minds to their reception of pure logic. The Kolinar ritual was the pinochle of this rigorous undertaking. So difficult was it attainment that very few mastered the discipline and those who did were widely regarded as the most respected of all Vulcans."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 181
"Whenever we try to figure out a way to marry up normally incompatible technologies, I get a little nervous. We can get a little creative around here sometimes and there's always a risk whenever you try to make a piece of equipment do something it's not designed to do."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 201
"If your consciousness exists within the computer matrix, why not communicate with one another, without all of this?" Chen asked.
Alehugust replied "You are still thinking of Haven as a simple computer program in which information is transferred from point to point, and that can be deactivated and stored for later use. While this is true to an extent, you and I are very much more than that. We cannot simply be stored. Our minds are a far more sophisticated piece of software. They cannot be held in limbo or paused, at least not for any significant period of time, before becoming susceptible to irreversible damage."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 206
The deflector array was down so the Enterprise couldn't go to warp and defenses were down.
The Osijemal's weapons were coming online.
Chen and 4 others materialized to ask for assistance.
"In a way Haven is a holodeck, but it's so much more. The Nejami exist, work and play, love and hope and dream, living out their lives just as they would as they were back on their planet. Only the computer keeps them from acknowledging the true passage of time, and their lives keep them occupied to the extent that it's easy to forget it's not real. But it is real."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 247
"The most difficult part of this entire affair is having to acknowledge just how much influence on all our lives that Artificial Intelligence (Section 31) has exerted."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 259
"I refuse to believe that everything we've done for more than 200 years was solely due to some computer pulling our strings. I reject the notion that our values--the things that define us as individuals and a society--were given to us by a collection of ones and zeroes cobbled together by some engineer before there even was a Federation...My behavior wasn't dictated to me by a computer. I am responsible for the choices for the choices I've made and the actions I've taken for better or worse."
Available Light
Dayton Ward Aaker p. 260
"Ultimately, most people will realize they believe stated it, Admiral; we remain free thinking beings driven by the fundamental right of self-determination. However, there can be no denying the preference of the Ureal program, and its impacts on many if not all the major touchstones of Federation history. Later, historians, scientist and unaccounted people across many different walks of life will spend years if not decades trying to put this entire affair into some kind of understandable context. Our very way of life demands that accounting, if for no other other reason then for taking such a painful look inwards at ourselves is the best strategy for reaffirming the values that we claim to cherish. That is how we move forward from this stain on our history and our legacy."
Available Light
Dayton Ward zh'Tarash p. 260
"The "Crelin Guild" in actuality is a rather loose association of salvage and other specialists. It has a leadership and a structure as well as a very long list of rules and its own regulations it makes genuine efforts to enforce, and we are pledged to abide by the various laws governing salvage work. However, it also employs a large number of contactors always represents the guild's best interests. Ultimately, the guild's main priority is receiving its share of whatever profits its ships garners after a salvage claim."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 266
LaForge got injured repairing the ship and was beamed to sickbay.
Geordie just fractured his humorous.
They are sending Chen back into Haven.
"Could it just be her (Chen's) imagination ,or was there a fleeting yet still perceptible moment where she existed in a realm that was neither physical nor virtual? Was she alive yet untethered? A roaming consciousness? A free spirit?"
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 283
"Working from a theory postulating the existence of other universes, the Sidrac designed and constructed a massive complex to test their hypothesis and attempt a bridge to another dimension. The scientist lost control of their experiment, and only with the assistance of the Enterprise--along with a version of the Enterprise-D from another dimension and time period as well as the crew of a Romulan warship pulled from yet another reality and era--were Ushealon and the Sedoc returned to their own universe."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 287
Chen could read and understand the alien language because she was aboard Haven before.
"Humans in particular seemed to thrive in situations defying logic and even reason in order to fight their way to a desired goal. While it was intriguing to observe, it took on an even greater degree of fascination while he found himself participating in the pursuit of such a quest. Though his Vulcan instructors might admonish him for holding such a stance, he had grown to admire that stance in humans, and especially those he called shipmates and friends."
Available Light
Dayton Ward Taurik p. 300
"Growing more comfortable with every passing second as Chen emerged herself within this astonishing interface to the Osijemel's computer, she was seeing greater detail and even subconsciously things that would have been alien to her moments earlier. Was it an effect of her brain's direct connection to the machine as this bizarre noncoporeal state?"
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 308
"Before panic could take hold, brilliant white, light exploded in Chen's vision, almost blinding her before shapes and colors materialized around her. Chen watched as the village courtyard and surrounding buildings solidified and stretched away from her in all directions, returning to forms she remembered from her first visit to Haven. Sunlight bathed the buildings as well as the vibrant trees and foliage filling the parks and undeveloped courtyards at the outskirts of the settlement."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 314
"All around, far more Najami than she saw the first time she was here surrounded her. They crowded the parks as well as the roadways and walking paths weaving through the village. Unlike her initial visit, when everyone appeared to be going about for whatever passed for everyone lives now everyone--adults and children alike--seemed to be taking in the world around them with a sense of wonder. Many looked up towards the beautiful green sky and even it seemed brighter and more full of life than Chen remembered. So clear was her view for kilometers in every direction; she know thought she could see hints of other villages, mountains and even sprawling cities in the distance. None of it was there before, was it?"
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 314
Chen felt an empathetic sense of gratitude as she observed the scenery
"Letting the media pundit's and conspiracy theorist have their say is one way to remind the public that the government doesn't seek to curtail their liberties."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 325
"I believe staying the course we have set will allow us to weather this crises, and perhaps even come away from it wiser and proactive of the values we cherish and have sworn to uphold. If there are those who see this as an opportunity to format disruption on dissent, we will deal with them as appropriate, but not at the expense of the truth. Indeed, I believe when historians write about this tumultuous period, it is precisely how we conduct our search for the truth which will define our legacy."
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 330
Chancellor Martok sent them a message of goodwill as well as assistance without the authorization of the full council.
"There are those within the Empire who do not see things as I do just as I am sure you have your dissenters. I believe they operate from positions of ignorance and perhaps even cowardice as they seek to reap personal benefits from this chaos. Whatever their motivation they are detrimental to be for the greater good. For the Empire beyond the uncertainty of this affair has wrought, so to must the Federation. Let us work together to accomplish that goal. I await the opportunity to meet with you, Zha President, and discuss how we best serve both our peoples."
Martok
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 331
Picard, LaForge and Crusher went to Haven.
"The universe is vast, with room for all of us, and we believe it is the right of all beings to live without fear of enemies. However, the reality is that enemies do exist, but by coming together we are stronger than if we faced adversity alone. In time, after you find your new home, it is my hope that we might welcome you into our Federation, which represents hundreds of worlds and billions of people. We stand ready to greet you with open arms, and add your voice to ours. Until that day I wish you a safe and prosperous journey."
Picard
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 337
"The trouble with immortality, or as close to that state of being as technology will allow, is that it stifles any real incentive to make the most out of one's otherwise temporary existence. Within the Haven, we lived secure in the knowledge that, barring extreme circumstances, there would always be a tomorrow and as many tomorrows as we needed to achieve our ultimate goal. It was uncertain, but perhaps ultimately detrimental."
Alehuguet
Available Light
Dayton Ward pp. 340-341
"Someone once told me that time is like a predator that stalks us all of our lives. I'd rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again."
Picard
Available Light
Dayton Ward p. 341
