If it's not one thing, it's another

Posted on 01 Mar 2022 @ 6:43pm by Commander Marisa Wyatt

618 words; about a 3 minute read

It was quiet for once, without the continual chaos that seemed to emanate from the acting captain. She replicated a mug of cinnamon tea and sat on the couch. "Computer, start log."

She took a sip of her tea while the computer chimed its response. "It's been four days since we left Regula I so precipitously. A lot has happened in the past week and I would like to make a record of it here."

She took another sip of her tea. "The day after we arrived, Luke asked if we could have lunch together. I expected it to be a final goodbye. But I was surprised—and pleased—to be mistaken. He'd regained some of his memories and asked if we could start over. I'm still in love with the man he was, and hope that I can love the man he's become. We had dinner that night, and spent most of the next day together. And then leave was cancelled and I was recalled to the ship. Fortunately, I sent Luke a message. I believed the chance that the ship would be leaving right away was high. I'm glad I did, as I would not have been able to tell him anything. We are still under communications silence."

She took another sip of her tea, unconcerned if there was a pause in the log. "While we were at the station, I met with the counselor. It was a routine appointment after the six-month mission. She informed me that my counseling license had been reinstated. I'm happy in science, but it's good to know I can again work in my other field if I so choose."

There was another long pause as Marisa thought over how she wanted to say this last part. "Captain Saalm was called away, and we are now under the command of Morgan Tarin. I do not know the woman personally. At this point, I don't care to get to know her. It is my personal opinion that she feels that she has something to prove and is therefore determined to reshape what she considers a lax and unprofessional crew into model officers. She doesn't care that we'd just come back from a six-month mission where we lost a number of personnel and watched the destruction of two former colonies. Only 1500 colonists survived. We were tired, stressed, and in need of the two-week shore leave we'd been promised. But early on day four, we were summarily recalled."

There was another pause for tea. "One of the bridge crew dozed off at her post. While she should have recused herself because her species requires more sleep than most and she hadn't slept in 20 hours, the acting captain should have taken into consideration the fact that it was the middle of the night and the crew was on shore leave. Instead, she's decided that the crew as a whole lacks discipline. We now have a mandatory PT every morning at 0530, regardless of our duty shift. She is clearly overcompensating for something, but it is not my place to find out what, or to call her on it. I do believe that if she continues on her present course, she will lose any respect she still has and it will negatively impact her future chances of getting a command of her own."

She paused for another sip of tea. "At the same time, there is a very good chance this task we've been given will help her see that this is, indeed, a fine crew—even if many of us are more science than soldier."

She took a final sip and sighed. "Computer, end log."

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Lieutenant Commander Marisa Sandoval
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

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