Log Matsiyan 22417-2237

[Matsiyan]

Personal Log, Lieutenant-Senior Conrad Matsiyan, XO TSN Hunter, 4th L.D.
Stardate: 22417-2237

I spent this shift in a warm fuzzy haze. Numb really with Hunter gone. I can’t process what my third Purple Heart means.

I was dreading responsibility. Wasn’t sure I could handle command or a strange ship or other crews’ resentment or worse, pity. I’d been having nightmares about arriving at Promethean Command eventually and having to talk to Angie Martine, one of Chief Kaplan’s DamCon crew.

See, Bobby Tomlinson didn’t make it off Hunter. He was a promising kid that Polano took a shine to. Had a natural aptitude for tech and a real clear head on his shoulders. With the right kind of nudges he was studying and getting the kind of grades that pretty much screamed “bridge crew”. Polano persuaded him to apply to the Academy. With his existing crew background and tech skills, especially the Primary Beam systems, he wouldn’t have to take much more than the minimum training modules to qualify for his Ensign’s exam.

Now Bobby met Angie last year and Chief Kaplan was already grooming her for the Academy. When Bobby found that out it was the tipping point to get him to study for the entrance exams. The were both going to be in the same intake. In fact they planned to marry before they left for the Academy. Said they wanted a real front-line Captain to tie the knot for them. Angie can’t know yet that Bobby never made it to a pod after he went to check coolant pressure levels at the starboard Beam emitter.

In the end nothing really unusual happened during the shift. Lots of officers were tied up with the relocation logistics, so main shift was a bit short of bridge crew. The worst moment was when they decided to fold Hunter’s crew into Phoenix and that is where we reported aboard. The two ships have very different atmospheres. The awkwardness was amplified by the fact that van Leigh was absent leaving Hunter’s skipper as the ranking officer over Phoenix’s XO, Zelreich. There was one too many of us for available posts and I was glad just for once to be assigned away to Raven, which is where I served my previous tour as her XO and Science officer and where I’ve served as her engineer a few times before.

In company of Aramond, Mundy, Assassino and Quinn I was immediately at home and this was born out by the smoothness and efficiency of our teamwork in the warm up sims where we concentrated on practicing the revised fleet formations and manoeuvres.

Our mission was to patrol and defend the heavily populated sector to galactic west of Krisenda Command. There were a number of Ximni incursions which we repulsed while I was soothed by the familiar faceful of sliders distributing the wealth of our treasury where it would do most good.I pushed the envelope a bit more than usual and frequently warmed up her systems, relying on pauses between engagements to cool them off. Somehow I was much more observant than usual and made good use of a secondary input from the captain’s map to keep aware of the external situation.

It wasn’t enough. Too many stations and Ximni. Not enough division ships. We lost a refinery. Then we followed orders to move on to Cerberus Command.

In the post mission sim, the brass decided to switch things up leaving Division command in Mr. Quinn’s tender hands and giving me a turn at Helm, where I am pleased to say I acquitted myself passably. It was quite a shock to hear Nhaima’s clear musical tones coming over the inter-ship as she had command of Phoenix.

Now computer, I need a drink. Have the bar set up a very large whisky for me. I have some DC crew to fraternize with.
[End log]

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