Wrong Frontier

I have never been a huge MMO fan. As much as I love gaming I don't want to feel chained to a virtual world full of exspensive wants.I already exist in a world where all the pretty shiny items are out of my grasp, unless I toil for them endlessly. If you derive pleasure from virtual economies and jobs I won't knock your fun, but, personally, I just don't see the appeal.

However, no matter how much I am disinterested in unending virtual grinds for imaginary wealth I am a giant Trekker nerd. I grew up with Next Gen and stayed with it through Enterprise. I read every book and magazine I could find. I bought figues.

All of this was exciting, however the aspect of Trek merchandise I was most drawn to was the video games. Anything that let me pretend I was a space Captain was fine with me.

Hoping to recapture the inner child who reouted plasmadyne relays and inverted tachyon beams I decided Star Trek Online was worth a shot. Honestly, I have to admit I enjoyed it. Yes, there is the dilutium and faction mark grind. Still, there are these rare moments where I'm controlling a battered ship fighting impossible odds that every thing in the Trek world feels exactly right.

It is that attention to detail and mood that casts my find in such stark contrast. I was rushing to attend the weekly fleet meeting (A Trek Online Fleet is the same thing as a WOW Guild). In the turbolift of our starbase I accidently slid through the wall.

Impressively, the world outside of where you should be able to access is richly detailed. There were landing pads, outer starbase hulls, and a vast twinkling universe. At first, it was one of the more spectacular glitches I had ever seen. I quickly screencapped as much as I could as I tried my best to explain why I was running late to the meeting.

We spent a few minutes experimenting, trying to see if anyone could see me. No one could see my avatar, though one fleet member did say he saw my phaser rifle dangling in the turbolift. During ths time I slipped, but was saved by an invisible floor.

From the floor I could look up and see through the floor where everyone else was. From this vantage point I had the perfect view of the starfield and the thing that was lurking there. It was darkly fluid and serpatine, yet it's form was ever changing. Ripples gently flowed through it's body as it moved, almost like some single cell lifeform. It had no face or permanent appenage. It was simply the shape it needed to be at a given moment.

From where I was in the glichted hollow cavern inside the starbase, I was unable to approach or flee. For just a moment, it looked like it was on a set patrol loop. then I made the mistake of mousing my cursor over it. Suddenly, it turned what I assumed was a head in my direction and changed it's course. Growing larger by the second it sped in my direction.

I tried the command for getting unstuck, but it wasn't working. Eventually I just logged out. When I logged back in I was in the Sol Sector, which is the starting federation location. I was several screen away from the fleet and the meeting. As fast as I could I warped to the station, apologized for my tardiness, and tried to put the experience behind me.

I am fairly fluent in Trek lore, but I have never heard of anything like that. Perhaps there is something in the expanded universe that explains it that I am unaware of, however, I doubt that is the case. While it was somewhat like Gomtuu, a massive living ship encountered by the Next Gen crew, it didn't feel right for Trek.

It didn't really feel right for optimistic space operas. Optimistic is not a word I'd use to describe that thing. Whatever the programmers intended it to be, I doubt it's going to be pleasant.

My only guess, and it is nothing more than that, is that it is there for a future release. Perhaps, it's there for the final season of the game. When the deciper Trek card game wrapped up, it released a final set entitled "All Good Things ..." to wrap up all loose ends, just as Next Gen ended with an episode of the same name. I would not be surprised it the programers have some final challenge to greet their players when it is time to sign off, in much the same fashion.

Until that time, the ribbon-like entity is just beyond the imposed walls. If you find yourself lost in one of the limbo spaces of the game, you might be able to see it. And if you if do, please document it and tell me about it. I want to know that I am not the only one.