USS Vincennes, Captain's log entries

Holodeck Short Stories
1
Stardate:
99438.0
Filed By:
CAPT Meadows, Rebecca
Clearance:

USS VINCENNES, CAPTAIN’S LOG

Captain’s log, stardate 99438.0.

One month. Well, one month and a day. That’s how long it’s been since I was discharged from sickbay and placed on medical leave aboard Deep Space 13.

No commanding officer ever wants to leave their ship and crew for such a prolonged period of time, particularly when their ship and crew are hurting. But despite my protestations and attempts at negotiations with Doctor Kahuk, that is how long I actually needed.

In fact, it may not have been long enough. I wouldn’t say this to anybody, but… this past month has been… difficult, and not just because I was away from the ship.

[Ruffling sounds obscure the audio]

Anyway. Command, I’d like to recommend Doctor Kahuk, Vincennes’ Chief Medical Officer, for a commendation. By all accounts, my physical condition after the Betreka Nebula incident was… unpleasant. Not only did he save my life under tremendously difficult circumstances where other doctors may have failed, but he subsequently resisted my impassioned protestations and negotiations, and ensured I endured a proper recovery period too. I’ll give him a pass for threatening a superior officer to a bat’leth duel, given the circumstances. I’m reasonably sure he was joking. He would, of course, have won either way.

I’d also like to recommend Commander Kelly Bastion, Vincennes’ XO, for a commendation. With no solo command experience whatsoever beforehand, the instant I was incapacitated she took command of Vincennes and led both ship and crew to safety, demonstrated bravery and calm, used innovative means to maintain contact with the rest of the fleet during a time of crisis, and has since kept both ship and crew functioning smoothly without any outside support. I think this experience has been an important stage in Commander Bastion’s professional development. With a little more experience and self-confidence, one day she will grow to become one of the finest captains in the fleet.

Command, once I’m caught-up on log entries, I’m sure more recommendations will follow.

Anyway. I’m pleased to be back aboard Vincennes. It’s like wearing a comfortable shoe. Deep Space 13 is a massive, marvellous, well-run installation, but it lacks… character. And it’s not home.

Most of Vincennes’ crew is back aboard and in good spirits, which is lovely to see. Vincennes isn’t a young ship, and certain ‘memes’ have been passed down by subsequent crews over the decades - “Queen V survived yet again!” is the current catchphrase according to scuttlebutt. Some enlisted crew are apparently even trying to work me into that meme - as if I’m somehow going to outlive a starship designed to operate for a century or more, just because I have an artificial liver now. I suspect they’ll be disappointed, but I’m flattered all the same.

I’m now faced with a difficult task, however: determining why Vincennes remains in drydock, a month and a week after being berthed, when there appears to be nothing wrong with her.

I shall be putting in a meeting request with Commander Carter [@siskofan1991] shortly. If I don’t like the answers, I’m thinking we break the umbilicals and leave drydock without authorisation.

//SIGNED//
Captain Rebecca Meadows,
Commanding Officer,
USS Vincennes

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2
Stardate:
99544.8
Filed By:
CAPT Meadows, Rebecca
Clearance:

USS VINCENNES, CAPTAIN’S LOG

Captain’s log, stardate 99544.8.

After so much waiting, I took particular pleasure today in ordering one-quarter impulse power and watching that cage of a drydock that has trapped Vincennes for so long swoop away behind us on the viewscreen. There’s not a soul aboard this venerable starship that is sorry to see the back of that view.

Queen V is back in action; back where she belongs, back in space, unencumbered and ready to explore the final frontier.

Commander Fodd cheered.

But as we head back out into that final frontier, I find myself wondering about my past failure. Intellectually, I know that I did nothing wrong, and the only person who paid the price was me. In my gut, though, I find myself experiencing trepidation.

I earned this command, but was it just through luck? What if those rogue Klingon ships had also mined those asteroids I used to save Vincennes back when I was still her first officer? Would I have known then? Could I have known then? Sensed it, somehow, like some kind of commanding officer’s intuition? Should I have? The parallels between how I was granted command of this ship, and my own recent troubles, are difficult not to acknowledge. At least to me.

I didn’t see that catastrophic explosion in the Betreka Nebula coming. Nobody did. But… should I have?

The safety of this ship and her crew are my paramount priority. This ship only exists to keep her crew safe; Vincennes did her job, and it’s my job to guide her in that role. I can’t second-guess my own decisions.

A part of me hopes that our next assignment will be to continue to deal with the rogue Cardassian faction using the Betreka Nebula. I have some… ideas. Not necessarily the kind that would normally be sanctioned by Starfleet, but ideas that I think would work. But part of me hopes that we will be assigned anywhere but there. Because I’m concerned now that I’d be trying to prove myself, and that I’d be too worried about making another mistake that I’d make another mistake. Or push my luck too far.

Here’s hoping for a milk run.

//SIGNED//
Captain Rebecca Meadows,
Commanding Officer,
USS Vincennes

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3
Stardate:
99550.8
Filed By:
CAPT Meadows, Rebecca
Clearance:

USS VINCENNES, CAPTAIN’S LOG

Captain’s log, stardate 99550.8

“Mandatory shore leave”. I call it cruel and unusual punishment, personally. But after a couple of months staring at walls, I can see how Risa might be a good thing for Vincennes’ crew.

For me? Not so much. I don’t particularly… like, being planet-side.

I was quite happy, then, to bump into Captain Serah and Nethas, on the promenade at our resort.

While I was on my way to the nearest bar, I spotted the pair of them standing near a Ferengi… I want to call him a ‘monkey dealer’, but I’m sure his excuse for operating a sentient-trading business on a Federation world is more nuanced than that. Lunya - someone I’ve never met before - arrived soon afterwards. She seems… interesting.

The conversation I experienced was illuminating. Apparently, Risa is home to a league of impulse-propelled surfboarders. And this league of fusion-powered surfboarders was facing some trouble after sabotage had caused a board to explode and threatened to cancel an important tournament.

Captain Serah showed me some evidence of potential foul-play - her tricorder showed traces of rapid nadions, reminiscent of phaser fire, had destroyed a competitor’s board. Give me a choice between sitting on a pleasure-planet for a week, or investigating an explosive, fusion-powered surfboard, and I’ll choose the surfboard. So far as distractions go, you can’t get much better than explosive, fusion-powered surfboards!

As I’m currently on mandatory leave, of course, I won’t be including any details of what followed in this log.

A Ferengi fell over (through no fault of my own), a Gorn was placated, excellent acting was performed, tricorders were thrown at heads, and a group of people tried to outrun a wide-beam phaser.

I do hope that Nethas’ shoulder recovers.

I’ve been on worse holidays.

//SIGNED//
Captain Rebecca Meadows,
Commanding Officer,
USS Vincennes

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4
Stardate:
100537.1
Filed By:
CAPT Meadows, Rebecca
Clearance:

USS VINCENNES, CAPTAIN’S LOG

Captain’s log, stardate 100537.1

We lost two crewmembers during the recent battle against the Romulan Star Empire. I remember their names. I made a point of mentioning their names when submitting our damage report to the brass.

Over a hundred more of our crewmates were injured. I’m fairly certain I was counted as one of the injured. I didn’t lose an organ this time - just a gash to the head, which a dermal regenerator should take care of. I’d argue against including that in the records, but I’m sure Kahuk would disagree.

We’ve scheduled a memorial for our lost crewmates at 09:00 hours on Wednesday, but today I thought it would be prudent to assemble the crew and give a motivational speech ahead of that, while announcing they’re getting shore leave to Risa. We’ve all been through a lot, and this was just the latest in a long line of catastrophes.

When I walked out to address the crew, though, I was absolutely astounded by their reaction.

“Queen V lives! Queen V lives! She protects us, Queen V lives!” they chanted in unison, even as a brown-out caused the lights to flicker. I’ve lived and served on a number of starships since being born on one, and I’ve never seen anything like the degree of loyalty this crew displays towards a starship - a starship which is, for all intents and purposes, merely an inanimate product of nuts and stembolts.

So-called ‘Queen V’ is experiencing a significant number of technical problems at the moment, largely due to her overloaded EPS grid. Outside of the understandably-frustrated damage control parties, the crew is ignoring these brown-outs and computer errors and shrugging them off - not because they’re not inconvenient, but because they feel like they owe something to the ship, somehow.

I hope Commander Fodd’s team can figure out the EPS problems soon.

//SIGNED//
Captain Rebecca Meadows,
Commanding Officer,
USS Vincennes

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