Captain's Log - Supplemental [MISSION END]

Posted on 09 Dec 2023 @ 8:38pm by Captain Bane Plase

1,214 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Outbreak

ON
Captain's Ready Room
USS Cygnus


Captain Bane sat down in his chair behind his desk and sighed a heavy sigh. This mission had really taken it out of him.

He swiveled around a bit to face the window and out into space, and watched the stars streak by. Of course, they weren't really stars, not all of them. But the sentiment was the same; it was calming, and a bit hypnotic. He watched it for several minutes before pulling himself, reluctantly, out of his reverie.

Turning back to his desk, he tapped the small control button. His computer image blinked into existence in front of him. Tapping at the holographic controls that was his computer, it chirped to life. "Begin recording when ready," the female voice of the computer stated.

Bane breathed in through his nose, then let it out, and began.

"Captain's Log, supplemental.

The U.S.S. Cygnus has completed its mission at Antioch III in failure and is headed back to Deep Space 9 for crew transfers and a short shoreleave.

The mission was to make First Contact with the people of Antioch III. For the first several days after first contact, things were going extremely well. The leader of the Antiocians, their Tashi, was welcoming and curious about us. The ruling council, the Council of Elders, were also welcoming and curious about us. Several of them, including the Tashi, visited the Cygnus and were amazed at our technology. Similarly, many of the people aboard the ship visited the planet and marveled at their technology and how antiquated it was from our perspective, but incredibly useful and fully functional in their stage of development. It was an amazing lesson in anthropology on how our ancestors advanced when ours were at the stage of the Antiocians. We found out pretty quickly the Tashi and the Council of Elders knew about intelligent life beyond their world - they had picked up a transmission from the Borg. Lieutenant Bast surmised it was a transmission from roughly 20 light years away, and thus, something that originated 20 years ago and was no threat. We chose not to divulge the horrors that are the Borg to these people at their present stage.

Several days into First Contact, the Council of Elders and the Tashi agreed to inform the rest of the population of their world about intelligent life making contact. We were met with great fanfare and curiosity, and were even broadcast on their communications systems throughout the world. Everyone took it in stride, and before long, our people were visiting places far and wide and mingling with the local population. It was during this time the Tashi and I started getting information that an illness was starting to spread among the Antiocians. It quickly mutated and began killing them in incredible numbers before Doctors Elodin and Winters were able to come up with a treatment and vaccine.

As it turned out, we were responsible for the sickness. We were able to trace it back to Lieutenant Spangler and his bout with the human disease known as the common cold, a rather inconvenient and mild sickness for Terrans, but clearly exceedingly deadly to the Antiocians. To make matters worse, it was not treated properly by the medical staff when it was discovered. I asked Doctor Elodin who the treating physician was, but he claimed there was no way to tell. We also had a technological failure in several key systems which allowed the virus to not be eliminated during beam-down. It was several layers of failure which has caused this terrible epidemic to strike their planet. Corrective actions have been made, and repairs to affected systems are ongoing.

We attempted to try and bring more ships to the Antioch system to help, but the Tashi and her Council asked us to leave the planet, with underlying feelings that we could be there to invade their world without ever firing a shot. She said that more ships would only deepen that feeling. She acknowledged that I was personally not at fault, but the fault was ours, and in the interest of appeasing the population, evicted us from the planet and star system for no less than 100 years. We have placed a quarantine on the star system that will expire in 2503.

Taking stock of the damage done, Lieutenant Spangler estimated seven million people died from the disease in the few short months we were there. As for the ships crew, we lost twelve members, all security and operations personnel, most notably Ensign Jin'Tok, and had several more seriously injured in the line of duty, such as Dr. Ravi Winters, in the ensuing riots and civil disobedient events. Our dead have been beamed back and are in the ships morgue. The rest have been, or are currently undergoing, medical treatment.

An added distraction during virus killing all those innocent people was the unexpected news that my Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Erik Larsen, is scheduled to be reassigned. When he told me this news, I was surprised, to say the least, and have submitted a formal complaint about reassigning my key officers without my prior notification, or approval. I doubt the complaint will go far, but at least it is in. I will be selecting my new Executive Officer on the recommendation of Commander Larsen, and will enact that change later today.

I have placed Dr. Elodin Devan on temporary reassignment to Antioch III for an indeterminant amount of time. He has much work to do there, and his presence will hopefully help show the Antiocians that we mean the absolute best for them. He requested the temporary reassignment due to his personal beliefs and convictions, and a vision from the Prophets, all outstanding reasons I could not ignore. I hope to see my friend again someday, but if not, he is doing the work and the will of the Prophets, and will secure a place for himself in the Celestial Temple, and maybe even a medal to two from Starfleet Command. I personally have put in for him to receive a promotion for his actions during this mission. I am waiting to hear back on approval from Starfleet Command.

The Cygnus command staff will change dramatically. I will be sure to put in all the changes later today and record it into the ships log. When I came aboard a little more than a year ago, I didn't know a single person aboard. I've quickly come to admire, respect, and even love many of the people on this ship. I will miss Erik Larsen and Elodin Devan greatly, but I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to know them.

We should arrive back at Deep Space 9 in three days. This will give me time to make the necessary changes I need before the crew rotation begins. Shoreleave will be granted when we return. I already have a debriefing with an Ambassador Kilvin, and undoubtedly at least one debriefing with Starfleet Command.

End Captain's Log."

Captain Bane hit the save command, swiveled his chair around again and went back to watching the streaks of lights pass by his viewport to the galaxy.



END OF MISSION

Bane Plase, Captain
USS Cygnus, Commanding

 

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