Welcome to the Captain’s Table
Beyond the reference that many people may know from old Errol Flynn movies or Luxury Liners (and believe me Luxury in my house two movies in one weekend) those who are regulars to Star Trek Online (STO) are aware that the first content patch, Season One, has hit the holodeck (what Cryptic calls their servers).
I am sure that more than one “lifer”, anxious to try out the new content, went first to the Cryptic Store to grab the free items that include a title “Career Officer” and access to exclusive officer’s club called “The Captain’s Table.” After applying the title that brought me back to my military days and a sergeant I knew named R.A. “Regular Army” Ware (hi there R.A. if you are reading this) the title at the bottom of the list caught my eye – imperial assault cruiser. Mind you it’s simply window dressing, but the artists that dressed this particular window did a fantastic job. For those of you who wondered what that Imperial Assault Cruiser looked like before you buy, here is what we (and that is the royal “we”) found on the forums posted by one “Farkoid”.
If you are like us (dyed in the wool trekkies) you have been playing STO since the moment it was available to you. As a result, having attained rear admiral you no doubt found that all those wonderful “very rare” anti-polaron weapons are only available in the Gama Sector for marks of exploration you gain searching the B’Tran Cluster. After listening to weeks of outcry on both zone and fleet chat for being able to “respecc” it wasn’t my first stop but it was high on my list. The outcry online was, of course, dimmed into insignificance by the din on the forums at the thought of having to pay for a respecc in the Cryptic Store…only to find out after the “Season One” patch hit that players are given periodic free respeccs and the ability to pay for them with star fleet merits (a type of virtual currency) as well – My, my all that good complaining gone to waste. After looking for a code or logo in my inventory, or the sudden appearance of an active “reset” button on my respecc screen I went searching for the answer…And found it in the person of the Lieutenant Commander Okret who’s duty station was in the middle of the central hub at the Sol Space Station.
Sporting my new title of “career officer”, having carefully completed my first respecc, I went off in search of “The Captains Table”. In fact, I searched all of the Sol Station only to come up empty handed. Then someone in Fleet Chat told me “it’s outside”. I had my transporter chief beam me up and asked my science officer to scan for new structures; curiously I found none. What I did find was a very small nebulae that was simply hanging in space 17.5 km off my port bow. I watched as another ship disappeared into the nebulae and I soon followed. I thought I was about to enter a worm hole and thus forced to abandon my search for The Captain’s Table. Appearing on the other side of the entrance to the nebulae I found a space station amidst the same solar winds that now buffeted my ship.
The entry to The Captain's Table - Sol System.
My first officer immediately asked me if I wanted to return to the Sol system. Thinking I had somehow erred I accepted the request. But like the proverbial cat, curiosity got the better of me and I re-entered the nebulae. On the other side I decided to dock at the station this time and found, that curiosity may have killed the cat, but satisfaction brought her back.
The Captains Table - Exterior
Upon setting foot on the station I was cheerily greeted by the concierge who welcomed me to the Captains Table. It was explained to me that not only was the Captain’s table exclusive to those whom “Cap” (the proprietor) had invited personally, but it was also strictly neutral territory – and thus captains on all side of the current conflicts were welcome there. Not only that, it was told that The Captain’s table was not only separate from space, but also time, and so famous captains of days gone by would be stopping by from time to time.
Stepping through the entry arch down the hall I was greeted by the site of an opulently furnished lounge with a bar tended by none other than “Cap” himself. Exploring further I found another lounge down the hall with a spectacular view of the surrounding space. I bought myself a Saurian Brandy and decided to spend a bit of time hob knobbing with my fellow captains.
As many before me have noted I am sure, it is both enjoyable and immersive to find that the surrounding NPC captains are talking about your exploits, a few of them even being those officers you helped on your way up to rear admiral. Bidding my the other captains goodbye I did a bit of further exploring and found the station was complete with facilities such as a bank and a tailor.
Then it occurred to me that the Season One patch also came with off duty clothes. So it was off to the tailor’s shop to a new set of clothes, free of charge of course. There were many options, and the clothes of my choosing (As you can see below) were of a more formal nature. And so I will end our tour of The Captain’s Table with a quote from Men In Black, uttered by Agent J as portrayed by Will Smith:
I make this look good
