First officer Bella has temporarily been reassigned to the USS Martinez. That ship, commanded by Captain Vanessa, is undertaking an archeological study of the Mugato at SanFrans4. The crew has already published some preliminary findings which are challenging the Daystrom Institution’s previous assessment that the Mugato are always hostile to humanoids.
Given that my first officer isn’t here, I’ve had more time to reflect back on the past. During my time as a cadet in Starfleet Academy (school), I had a lot of difficulty connecting with other cadets. I used to look jealously at various groups and long for the sort of joviality and closeness that seemed to come so naturally for them yet eluded me. I use to hold out hope that one day, once I graduated from academy, that I’d somehow find a group that I belonged to. At the very least, I hoped to command my own ship and have my own crew to do things with. Sure enough, I was granted command of the USS Zamora over 13 years ago with the birth of Commander Tino and it’s turned out better than expected. Still, my issues connecting with peers have persisted.
I’ve had a number of run-ins recently with several other captains. My renewed vigor to take on forces hostile to Federation values has resulted in some strained relations even with allies. Additionally, Captain Eric and I haven’t been on good terms. The Whiskian opened fired on my ship without provocation and I fired back; temporarily disabling his disruptors and communication array (blocked his calls). Eric is under a high degree of stress but that still didn’t justify his attacks. He subsequently apologized but next time he is in communication range, I will approach his ship under yellow alert. If I see him diverting power to his disruptors again, I will bring the bare the full force of the USS Zamora down on his ship. Thus far, I haven’t allocated weapons to max. Time will tell.
One surprising development that happened recently was that I was re-invited to the United Commerce Coalition (a star trek chat room). Last time, I left the UCC in protest because I disagreed with the admittance of a specific civilization into the coalition. Also, I had some private disagreements with Ambassador Ray which, haven’t really been resolved per se but his pleasant disposition makes it easy to ignore. Aside from that, I do enjoy the group dynamics in general. We had some fruitful and entertaining conversations over voice chat. That, and my growing connection with Captain Scrappy and more broadly with Trek Twitter, has made me feel heartened and hopeful for the future.
BlogTrek: The Next TRANSformation 