Duty Log: Ens. (Act) Matsiyan, TSN Phoenix (CL-262), 4th LD

Stardate: 12915-2237

No luck with the last couple of replicator espresso builds. Can’t recover whatever it was I set up in 2288. We’ve been running sims all day. Command officers terminated the last one in a hurry, gave us a serious break and were all seen heading into Senior Officers’ territory. Scuttlebut has it that a real mission is in the offing so I am firing up the real espresso machine while I dive into a shower.
***
That’s better. I know this isn’t what great-grandfather had in mind when he took over the Earth Company, but I’m happy to take the perks, even if I’m living up to them in a way he never imagined. Drinking the real thing before a real mission is becoming a personal tradition. Here’s to the day when heading for a bridge doesn’t feel like life or death.

No sign of the call up yet so while I sip this brew, lets track the day. No one is wasting time while ONI come up with mission scenarios. The sims are unrelenting. As part of standard Prometheus Command rotation for new junior officers, I am still getting varied assignments. Today all three were with TSN Phoenix under commander Expree. He has an interesting style. He is decisive and cool but has a levity in his tone as if any mission is just another exercise. It is quite calming. He keeps the crew on their toes however. When there is a moment he will ask each how they are doing. It seems like a joke and some answers come back as jokes but you can still hear the underlying tension or excitement or disconnectedness in the response and it pulls the team back together. The rest of the crew were Lt Zelreich | Sci XO, Lt Zargon SciCom, Ens Matsiyan | Eng, Cdt DuKane | Wea, Cdt Quinn |Hlm@Com.

Standard sector defense exercises against fairly heavy incursions. I was scrambling a bit to adapt to a light cruiser after several tours on a scout. I lost track of overall energy levels to start with but got back on track. By the third run I had my console configured to meet the skipper’s expectations and with an auxiliary tac screen, I was interpreting the bridge chatter to deliver energy where it was needed before it was explicitly requested and keep overall energy usage contained so our endurance was longer between station calls. It feels anticlimactic down in Engineering because if you do a great job no-one should need to notice anything and there are hardly any occasions to call directly on Engineering. Even so, I was kind of bowled over when I received a commendation during debrief for “exceptional performance”.

Oh crap, scramble alert.
Pause log.
***
Personal log, continued.

Dog tired. Had to strike into enemy occupied territory and catch a key transport convoy without getting close to our occupied stations. We don’t want the enemy taking out on captured populations. Mission objectives achieved though it got hairy when two of them broke for the cover of nearby fleets and we had to dig them out.
The Hydra didn’t make it. After her couple of recent scrapes I guess something just couldn’t be repaired like new. Something gave and she is drifting wreckage and plasma.

I thought that was sobering but when we returned to base, I sent the injured Damage Control casualties off to the base medical bay and then helped with the ceremonials to deliver the shiny black coffins of those who did not make it. The base is so crowded with all the transfers underway that they had our DC replacements assigned and in the docking bay before I left after the honours for the coffins.
0The first one was Crewman Polano, short, broad, ex-marine with too much tech aptitude for his own good. He had been injured aboard the Phoenix before the last tour and was cleared to come back aboard. The next one was a pale young woman with haunted eyes; Crewman Kaplan. Her last berth had been aboard the Hydra. She had been out for a long time after being put in a coma the last time the Hydra got caught in a firefight before she raised her shields.

Not sure how well I’ll sleep tonight.

End personal log.