U.S.S. Dragon - Captain's Personal Log

Holodeck Short Stories
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Stardate:
100535.7
Filed By:
CAPT Tungsten, Drake



Stardate 100535.7 Personal Log - Romulan War Aftermath

Everyone aboard is relieved that this war is over. The taste is a bit bitter, however, with the destruction wrought by the Star Empire on Beta Reticuli and Chaltok. So much so, that members of the Empire couldn’t even stomach it. In a twisted way, I suppose those horrors… those war crimes… helped bring an end to the war. I was still heartened that while the Tal Shiar seemed to conform to a mustache-twirling caricature with their ruthless disregard for life, other members of the Empire stood against it. Their patriotism not really aligned with the Republic, but for some of them, their morals were. We saw it in several different conflicts in the war, and while I still have questions around why they even wanted to drag us into this war so eagerly, witnessing a noble spirit in some of our enemy gives me hope.

I’m not sure how much comfort that brings to those with more personal connections to the aforementioned war crimes, though.

“We did what we could” doesn’t seem to make it all better, no matter how true it is. Still, we did help stop the Romulan Star Empire from bullying its neighbor, and our ally, into submission. We became the good neighbor and ally we claim to be, and we kept our word. We did not let apathy give pause to anyone invited to shake our hand in friendship.

Our own people have suffered casualties, and battle damage. From severely damaged starships, to the intangible tolls taken on our people. I am therefore thankful that we have received orders for mandatory shoreleave. The Dragon needs some maintenance done after this latest conflict, some of it will require at least being stationary for a bit, so we have parked at DS13. I’m currently having crews do rotations so everyone gets to enjoy some time on Risa while the Lohlunat Festival is still happening.

I let Commander LaSalle take the first shuttle there. I can hold down the ship a little bit, and besides, her girlfriend was already on Risa, with her fleet’s leave beginning with the festival. I’ve been able to sneak some time here and there with Serah on one of our ships or the other, so it seemed like Evette deserved to head out first. She’s put in a lot of work, and it showed in the exemplary performance of our whole crew.

I’ll be heading there shortly though. Most of the reports are filed, repairs are under way, leave rotations set, and a skeleton crew about to relieve me. We’re in good shape, on paper. Hopefully, relaxing on a paradise planet will restore our souls a bit after the ugliness of war.

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2
Stardate:
100574.3
Filed By:
CAPT Tungsten, Drake



Stardate 100574.3 Personal Log - End of Shoreleave on Risa

As the Lohlunat festival ends, so does our regularly scheduled shoreleave on Risa this year, as in years past. It’s a shame our time also started so late this year, but with interstellar war preceding it, perhaps it’s a bigger surprise we had an opportunity to stop on Risa during the festival at all.

I was obviously grateful to spend a nice, lazy, vacation on the planet, though we had less planned activities with the fleet this year, and I thus really only saw Serah. I know my first officer was far more social, however, since we talked over a few points of business last night.

The Dragon currently has a skeleton crew aboard, those who have already been to Risa or other shoreleave and rotated back aboard, and with repairs complete, I ordered them to come to Risa and pick us up, rather than relying on more shuttle traffic. Lieutenant Shrott, being the officer of the watch currently with most of our senior staff still on Risa and preparing to leave, was very, very excited. I think I remember that same stupid grin on my own face the first time I got to take a ship out around the block without the Captain looking over my shoulder.

I think it’s good to give junior officers some opportunities like this, especially in a scenario where they will be surrounded by other Starfleet ships going back and forth, should anything go wrong. We train the crew hard, and I trust in their abilities. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t the least bit nervous though. As I’m sure they are aboard. This must have been what parents felt like when their teenaged children first took the family car for a spin. Back when people had cars.

Evette had asked for another day or two on the planet, and the woman certainly has the shoreleave time banked for it. She’s apparently helping her friend, Admiral Freemist of the 18th fleet do a bit of tinkering on a personal ship. Faulty parts fried the computer core, and put her behind schedule, so Evette wanted to help out, even though she’s no engineer. She also said her girlfriend Kaiya had some sort of emergency aboard the Formidable last night, and she wants to have time to make sure that’s ok, and say proper goodbyes.

Honestly, it works out pretty well to let the ship come get us, and make a relaxed, but not too relaxed departure for around a thousand people on this ship.

I was quite happy to hear that maintenance on the phaser lance cannon, power systems, and deflector have been completed to our usual standards, and on-time. No remaining signs of metal fatigue, all systems operating at prior or better levels. I did authorize a few more robust replacement parts to be replicated, so that is expected, but nonetheless very welcome. I find we are constantly adding more robust replacement parts to this ship though. We probably wouldn’t have completed our last mission successfully if we didn’t. I sometimes wonder if the designers down on Utopia Planetia or wherever got the memo that we are in a post-scarcity economy. We don’t have to worry about budgets, and certainly don’t have to worry about the supply of metal or other materials except maybe dilithium. Anyway, as the Chief puts it in analogy, we’re using thicker wires to handle the current, not just a bigger fuse. Because the latter of course would eventually end in tears. And explosions. I know it is more complex with EPS power grids, but I appreciated the explanation.

Time to get back in the saddle.

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3
Stardate:
100741.4
Filed By:
CAPT Tungsten, Drake



Stardate 100741.4 Personal Log - Piracy Patrols

Since the end of the Romulan War, things have been relatively quiet lately. Not counting the incident rescuing the Ontagwa Sun, anyway. But overall, fairly quiet.

We have been patrolling on shifting routes through the Doza, Kelterre, and Alpha-7190 sectors, making stops back at DS13, and even DS9 on occasion for a change of scenery. Many of our crew have friends that frequent DS9 as well, having served together on former postings, or even having met there, so it is good for crew morale when possible, especially if we end a loop up in the Alpha-7190 Sector. I have a feeling we will be spending more time in the northern reaches of the Itrin Sector soon, both for anti-piracy patrols, and freedom of navigation exercises.

I am of course referring to the current planning around our response to the newly independent worlds of the Confederacy of Azed. It is my hope that we can strike the right balance to engage them as friendly neighbors, without making things get a whole lot less quiet with Viggo trying to re-assert dominance. But also, I’d hate for a lot of pirates to be setting up shop there and getting cozy because none of them have the resources for proper patrols at the moment.

It feels strange to call an area where so many different people have lived for time immemorial the frontier, but in a lot of ways, it feels like that to us, and probably looks ripe for homesteading among pirates, as much as you can call them holing up in a secret base to strike from homesteading.

So far, we’ve been a fairly effective deterrent flying our patrols, only occasionally seeing a retreating blip on long-range sensors that appears to be pirate vessels, but I somehow doubt they will lack the courage to strike civillian traffic for long. I’d like to be wrong there.

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