Captains Log, Supplemental.
Stardate 18.1.2023:
The shore leave on Risa didn’t quite go as planned. There was an outbreak of the Tarkenian flu. Our medical team worked with the planetary doctors to get it under control but not before most of our bridge crew contracted it. We have now got it back under control, infected individuals are in quarantine while inoculations are underway.
I would like to commend Dr. Amari Jal on her swift handling of the situation. I get that she’s a joined Trill with half a dozen lifetimes under her belt but she truly performed incredibly under the circumstances, including taking temporary command of the Lilith with I and Lieutenant Colonel Amara both fell ill.
All of the crew performed admirably during this crisis and we still managed to get plenty of R&R in.
We’ve just finished returning to the Lilith and will be heading back underway to or regular mission now that our VIP has arrived. I say VIP but really she’s a high-ranking operative from Starfleet Intelligence.
We talked briefly, something of a terse individual this Captain Nightbird. I wasn’t terribly keen on an operative coming aboard but she says that she is here to observe and offer advice as needed, nothing more. I feel like this is because of my being both Orion and an Ex-Borg. Command must think I am an Intelligence risk. I’ve no real idea why, my devotion to Starfleet and the Federation has never really shaken. True, I did leave it once. True I did run black ops for the Klingon Empire…That has to be it. They must think that my return to Starfleet is related to those black ops. I’ll tell anyone and everyone who asks that this isn’t the case, but we are talking about intelligence here. Those people have made literal careers out of being paranoid. All I can do is perform my duties as I always have. I’m a damned good captain, and my crew appreciates my leadership. I trust any of them to do their jobs no matter the circumstances. I nearly had to beat Lieutenant Colonel Amara off the bridge with a stick when she showed up with symptoms of the Tarkenian flu. “I can walk, I can stand, I can give and take orders. Skipper, let me do my job” She’d said. I had to politely decline. I admire her sense of duty but I can’t risk spreading a mutation of the virus around the crew until everyone has been inoculated and tested negative for infection. I’ll make it up to her next time we are in the vicinity of Klingon space. Been to long since we and the rest of the formerly Imperial crew sat down around a barrel of blood wine and relaxed over song.
Something I wasn’t expecting from our friendly resident spook was the revelation that she is also direct assistant to the newly appointed Admiral for 17th fleet. So Nightbird will be reporting directly to my new superior officer. Great. This is just what I needed. Not that I don’t tend to mind my p’s and q’s anyway but this is extra stress I just didn’t need. We are setting a course for the Farasa sector to continue our mapping of the region. We’re expecting a nice uneventful voyage there. The two nearest non-federation civilizations that we know of are the Breen and the former Romulan empire, but those are both still quite far off.
I’m more worried about being on the very edge of known and explored space, truth be told. If something goes wrong, we are a long way from help. And it would take help some time to reach us if we needed it.
Still, it’s exciting. We’ll be exploring territory never explored before. We might even get a first contact in for good measure. A captain can only hope, right? I know better than to hope for excitement. Excitement for Starfleet tends to mean a crisis. Warp core breach, battle with unknown aliens, major system malfunctions, holodeck malfunctions…excitement means people can and likely will lose their lives. Something I’d like to avoid. We won’t turn tail and run from challenges but that doesn’t mean I should be hoping for them either. Still, the drive to learn more and more, and then more again is there.
As we left Risa, and I did make sure the crew knew where we were actually going, I told helm “Set course. Second star to the right. And straight on till morning.” This seemed to set many of the human bridge crew to chuckling. Good. They were calm. Relaxed. Good. A relaxed crew is a crew not apt to mistakes, so long as they are not so relaxed that their mind wanders. In any case, we should be approaching our destination before long. It will be interesting to see what new sights await us beyond the horizon. Look at me, I sound like a human…They must have rubbed off on me at some point. Never mind. For this job, we could all stand to be a little more human-like. Computer? End Log.
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<<<OPERATIVE NIGHTBIRD, I ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT. OPERATION EMERALD OWL IS UNDERWAY. THE FEDERATION THANKS YOU FOR AGREEING TO THIS MISSION. STAY ON TARGET. KEEP YOUR COVER AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. EXFIL AS NEEDED IF YOUR POSITION BECOMES COMPROMISED. YOU KNOW THE DRILL. GOOD HUNTING! 1931DIR1138 OUT>>>
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