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-Personal Log-
Lt. Jr. Matthew Vaj, Engineer
TSN Phoenix, 2nd Flt, 4th LDThis past shift was psycologically and physically exhausting. We’d gone through a few simulations, lost all of our DamCon teams and maneouvering thrusters in one of them. But then we got around to the mission.
It started out so simple. Our orders were to explore sectors 4, 5, and 10. Well, we explored them all right. I think it was sector 10 that had all of the Caltrons and Hegemony fleets. We entered the sector, and the long-range sensors showed a sea of red. We fought, and fought hard, to defend ourselves. At some point, the Hegemony and TSN agreed to a cease-fire to defend civilians against the Caltrons. I think I’ve encountered Caltrons only once myself, but I’ve read the briefings and heard plenty of stories from those who’ve met them in battle many times. Of course, I didn’t really see them myself. I was focused on my station, keeping systems at peak efficiency as best I could and keeping the DamCon teams from getting caught in areas taking damage.
We’d taken a lot of damage at one point, and lost several DamCon members , and we’d been given permission to dock with a Kralien station to resupply, fill our energy reserves, and regain DamCon team members. I remember thinking as the tractor beam grabbed us how relieved I was, and that it might yet be possible to hold the ship together, not realizing that DamCon crews from a Kralien station would be… Kralien.
I met them as they came in the airlock. I have no fear of Kraliens, but I was very surprised to see their bulbuous, ugly heads, since for some reason I’d been expecting humans, and maybe the odd Anat or Volkh. It took me a minute to realize what they were on board to do, and another to convince myself to trust them enough to allow them near my engines.
It really took some effort. Raised Unukalhai, I was taught to hate all non-humans. Of course, given time and circumstance, I made a concious decision to accept other species for who they are, but my exposure to alien races has been limited. Seeing a Kralien face firsthand for the first time was somewhat shocking. And then there’s the whole deal with Kraliens being our enemies for years and years – it’s not easy to put years of mistrust and death at one another’s hands aside. To trust these aliens with repairing our technology, technology that they could potentially be stolen and used against us – it would go against anyone’s grain. I doubt they would’ve wanted humans on their ships, if the circumstances were different.
But then I thought about why I left the Unukalhai and joined the TSN. People needed help. Not humans, sure, but people nonetheless. These Kraliens probably didn’t want to take orders from a human, but they wanted to give their civilian fellow Kraliens a better chance of finding safety. For the time being, we had a common purpose: keep this ship going as long as possible, to save as many lives as possible.Having finally reconciled myself (mostly) with the idea that Kraliens would be working on my ship, I assigned two Kraliens to each of the three DamCon teams, and spread my own crew among them. Two reasons: One, that my crew could keep an eye on the Kraliens and make sure they weren’t doing anything that might compromise the safety of the ship or the TSN’s advanced technology. Two, to help both my crew and the Kraliens to learn to work with people very different from each other.
In the end, the teams did extraordinarily well as they worked to repair the ship time and again. Slate and Reynolds did a pretty good job keeping us from taking too much damage, but I’ve no idea what kind of damage we did to the Caltrons. Not enough, I assume, given that only one of the transports survived. I think there were at least five, all filled with civilians.So many lives…
//Kralien DamCon. Very nice log. Indeed, very nice. I had multiple questions for you, but you answered them all. Bravo.
This is great! It never occurred to me, but of course the personnel and even the ordnance coming to us from a Italian station would be kralien! Do we assume that we sent them on their way when we left the transport? I know there were several life pods that never got transferred, perhaps we have to set up some sort of exchange next shift? The possibilities!
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