AT/L99 - Crew Log

[Tyra Crawford]

== Crew Log ==

[Sovar]

First Officer’s Log, Stardate 202608.03
Commander Sovar recording.

The Artemis has finally been given a chance to do that for which she was expressly built: explore. We were assigned a mission to survey Sector 285-Upsilon. The sector had, prior to our arrival, been relatively unexplored with only long-range scans from deep space survey arrays and some preliminary stellar cartographic data to guide us. Our launch went as expected, with the crew showing above average competence. During our transit, we encountered no issues. Captain Crawford has been busy, and we have been taking turns commanding the Bridge. It has left me a great deal of time to sit in… what humans colloquially call ‘the big chair’. It is not an unfamiliar position, with my experience in Tactical being helpful.

My initial excitement to traverse unknown space and seek out strange new worlds has now been tempered, however. There is, perhaps, a reason why this particular area of space was often overlooked for exploration.

The first system we arrived at was… uninspiring. Cataloguing the various planets and phenomena felt routine. While I was intrigued by some orbital dynamics of the system, the mystery was too quickly solved. At least the crew was able to enjoy a short away mission on an M-class moon that was only beginning to show signs of larger fauna. They were also treated to what one crew member described as a ‘dazzling display’ of a phenomenon similar to Earth’s aurora. Stellar winds from the system’s sun had a significant flux in output of charged particles, leading to the lights being particularly dynamic and colourful.

Aside from those moments, there has been little that I have found to pique my curiosity. I hypothesized before leaving Earth that, outside of Command requirements, I would be spending a significant amount of time in astrometrics or shuttlecraft. Instead, I have seen a sizable increase of my time spent at the gym, or meditating in my quarters. It has not been ideal.

It is with some amount of hope, as we prepare to move onto the next system in the sector, that we will find something of more interest. Archival data shows that somewhere outside this system there may be an instability in the interstellar medium. I would be fascinated to encounter a baryonic subspace shear zone.

End log.

[Robin Mayfair]

Chief Medical Officer's Personal Log
Stardate 22608.07

Today's my anniversary as Chief Medical Officer. A couple of years ago I was nothing more than a fresh Midshipman nurse who was scared of her own shadow, and now I'm in charge of three Sickbays on a legendary ship. Honestly I'm surprised I haven't locked up, but maybe the Captain was right when she gave me the job. My brain was made for organization. Literally. It's second nature, which hopefully means the team I've assembled (or been handed) will function well in their jobs when a crisis hits. We'll know when we know.

In the meantime, though, we're finally doing what we this ship was meant to. Explore. I even got to go to an unexplored alien world for a short time. That's what I dreamed about since I first thought about joining Starfleet all those years ago. There wasn't much for a medic to do aside from treat crewman Saydor's twisted ankle, but it was still something. And the auroras on that world were worth the whole trip.

So I'm much more upbeat than I have been in a while. Just a good old exploration mission like Starfleet used to do before the Dominion and the Borg kicked us hard... and repeatedly. No Cardassian schemes. No Klingon prisons filled with the walking dead. Just a beautiful primeval moon and a whole sector where no man has gone before.

End log.

[Aeryn Miller]

Chief Science Officer's Personal Log
Stardate 22608.23

Where do I begin? I'd always imagined what it would be like to explore and do something that the ship was built to do, what every ship has since the legendary tales of the Enterprise under the command of Pike or Kirk. Many more names throughout history have undertaken such missions, and sure, we got a taste of it last time before the discovery of the Klingons and the secret base; there's no denying or hiding the excitement I've felt since we got our orders. Sector 285-Upsilon is a scientist's dream: to expand on what is already known, uncover more of its secrets, and, well, it seems rather apt to quote the famous line: to seek out new worlds and civilisations, to boldly go where no one has gone before. I don't know what we'll find, but the data is keeping me and my department busy and happy, and I, for one, can't wait to see what else we come across. If the first system was any indication, I won't be disappointed.

Not only did we catalogue the various plants and phenomena, but I was also lucky to be part of the team that beamed down to an M-Class moon, where it was just starting to show signs of larger fauna, so you can imagine how I felt thanks to my Botany background. Truly fascinating, and humbling to know we were likely the first people to set foot on that moon. I've never felt so alive, so thankful we got the opportunity to visit, to learn and imagine what it's going to look like once its transformation is complete.

If that wasn't humbling enough, then the phenomenon similar to an aurora was something else entirely, and that image will forever be etched in my memory.

Despite my bubbling effervescence over what's been discovered so far, I'm also not completely naïve, as we know these things can change in an instant, for now, as we head for the next system, I shall remain optimistic because I've earned the right to feel that way, especially after everything we've endured to get to this point and my little scientist heart is the happiest it's been for some time.

End Log