Captain's Liberation, Chapter 2

Space and time, the endless unknown. After centuries of strife and difficulty, humanity overcame its petty differences and started looking towards the stars. The invention of the Hypertransit reactor in 2101 meant we were no longer bound to a single world or limited by finite resources.

For the last 300 years mankind has spread among the stars and brought peace and prosperity.

These are the records of the UESF Liberation, its mission to explore the unknown and seek out the diversity of life in the galaxy.

Captain's Liberation, Chapter 2
By Chaos Doll

Personal log, Stellar Date 2406.21

After an eventful evening I have decided to get a head start on my duties as.. no wait, this is a personal log. I can be a little less diplomatic. I’d love to be able to tell you that I had a peaceful night’s sleep, but it’s just after 0430 shipboard time and I sit here nursing a fresh cup of coffee after a panicked visit from my chief engineer. I’ll get to that in a moment, but first I need to shake off this strange dream I had. I fell asleep easily enough last night, but suddenly I found myself dreaming of sitting on the bridge trying to log into the console next to the captain’s chair, the sort of things one does routinely as part of command duty. Yet no matter how many times I tried to log into the captain’s console I was repeatedly denied access. I can only assume my dreams are trying to tell me something about the stress related to commanding my first starship. I might ask Doctor Fukuhara for her advice if the problem persists. I am still getting to know my chief medical officer, but she has been incredibly supportive.

Now, back to ‘Belly’.. Sorry, my chief engineer, Karen ‘Belly’ Belfast. Brilliant woman, the most Irish person I have ever met. Surprisingly she requested an assignment to the Liberation when she heard I would be taking command, she was apparently a big fan of my publication on Quantum Hypertransit Conversion Matrices along the Z and X Spectrum. A basic academic paper seems like a strange thing to be admired for in this day and age, but hey.. I suppose a captain is allowed to have a fan or two.

Sorry, right… So around 0400, after those fitful dreams, I awoke to someone furiously pressing the buzzer on my door. I probably swore under my breath more than a few times as I quickly grabbed a robe and answered the summons. When the door slid open I found a very disheveled looking chief engineer with a panicked expression on her face as she let herself into my quarters.

After putting on coffee and calming Karen down, she began to explain the situation. Sometime around 0130, after most of the senior staff had gone to bed, she had received several strange signals on her communicator. The voices were indistinct, but no matter how she tried to silence the device the signals kept returning. She decided to wander up to the bridge and recheck the repairs to the communications system that Lieutenant Blake had helped with on our voyage here. She found a few flaws in his patchwork and decided to find a more permanent solution to prevent any future issues with the ships comm’s array. But that’s when things became even more strange.

While Karen was working on the comms array, the signals on her communicator kept flaring up. She tried her best to ignore it, but after catching a few intelligible words from the broadcast, she found herself focusing more on what was being said and completely forgot about the repair work. Much to Karen’s embarrassment, a junior officer found her leaning against the bridge console, fast asleep. Her communicator was silent and she assumed it was just exhaustion. But when she went to check her work on the communications array, she found that none of her repairs were there and worse, because she had undone Lieutenant Blake’s patchwork, the Liberation’s communications system was now entirely offline.

That means no long range communication back to the United Earth Space Force. All internal broadcast systems are apparently down as well, thus leading to her frantic buzzing at my door. Because we currently have no intercom or even local communicator function until the issue is resolved I've ordered all urgent ships communications to be routed between ship’s departments using physical data pads. This will mean assigning a few ensigns to yeoman duty. A demotion I can’t imagine they will be happy about it, but I guess we’ll need to do things the old fashioned way until the internal network is back online. I just heard some static from my own communicator, so perhaps an engineering team is already working on the issue.

Margaret Jane Stanton, Captain.. In search of more coffee.

***

Commanding Officer’s log, Stellar Date 2406.22

The time is now 0955 and I've fully briefed the senior staff on the situation with our communications array. First Officer Clark raised some concerns, asking why Karen was tinkering with the comms array after Lieutenant Blake had already fixed it. His tone was strangely judgmental. I’ve never quite heard him speak that way, but after politely reminding Jacob that the chief engineer is more than capable of determining her own repair priorities I went on to explain the strange communications that Karen had received and the static that had been periodically emitting from my own communicator all morning.

Jacob raised an eyebrow at that and after dismissing the rest of the senior staff back to their posts he and I had a private conversation on the issue. It seems he had received similar reports from a few junior officers. Strange signals and tones. Sometimes speech. Almost certainly from the planet below. He then began to tell me about his own evening.

First Officer Jacob Clark then informed me that he spent several hours reviewing the constant stream of footage we’ve received from the surface of Darling VII, up until the communications array went down last night. Jacob explained that in between the news broadcasts, variety programming and something called ‘sit-coms’ he would often hear a strange static buzz as well. I pressed him on the issue, but he quickly changed the topic to the politics of Darling VII and spent several minutes describing the current government system in the nation-state of Greater America, comparing it to a ‘modern day Roman Empire’ despite the fact that the people seemed firmly rooted in the culture of the 1950s.

While listening to him prattle on like an overly eager history student I found myself wondering if I’d rather be running through the woods, chased by a bear than be a party to his overly verbose explanation of regressive forms of government. I have no idea where that thought came from, I’ve never even seen a bear in the wild, but I’ll blame a lack of sleep. I didn’t let the momentary distraction show on my face and after several more minutes of my first officer breaking down the intricacies of a constitutional monarchy we finally made our way out to the bridge.

***

Commanding Officer’s log, supplemental.

It’s been a tiring day for most of the staff, though perhaps my own lack of sleep is coloring my perception. Around lunch time I wandered down to sickbay to have a word with Doctor Yumi Fukuhara. I didn’t go into detail about the strange dreams, but a friendly conversation with Yumi over a cup of Japanese tea was enough to perk me up until the end of shift.

I assigned Chief Engineer Belfast and Lieutenant Blake to once again repair the communications array. I noticed Jacob hovering around them as they worked on the console, I considered advising him not to hover over them, but I’m sure he’s just trying to be a dutiful first officer.

In a further surprise, It wasn’t until I returned from tea with the doctor that I realized Emily Austen, my tactical officer and long time friend had changed into the classic mini-skirted uniform that was popular back in the early days of the Space Force, when United Earth society was going through it’s own very brief ‘retro’ fad. When I casually commented on the practicality of the uniform she said “It’s alright, Mark likes this better on me” in reference to her apparent fiance Ensign Jones.

Speaking of which, Emily informed me that she would begin showing Ensign Jones the ins and outs of starship security and tactical systems. She argued that having a sole bridge officer fulfilling that role would be a liability “In case someone else needed to do her job for her.” she added. It was certainly a valid point to make, though unusual since UESF starships rarely ever see combat, even when taking into account humanity’s few instances of contact with powers outside of United Earth control. It certainly wasn’t an illogical point to make however, so I granted Emily permission to teach her fiancé how to do the job. I just hope this doesn’t mean my tough as nails tactical officer is going soft on me.

I’ve just been handed a data pad from the science lab on deck 8, Chief Science Officer Anastasia Volkova is requesting to speak to me. I haven’t spent much time with the woman, but the stoic science officer of Russian descent came highly recommended when I was picking out my senior staff. Her specialty is geology and planetary formation, so I’m wondering if she’ll have some insight into the earth-like nature of Darling VII.

Captain Margaret Jane Stanton, signing off.

***

Commanding Officer’s log, Stellar Date 2406.23

Today is off to a much better start. The team I assigned to repair the communications array worked through the night to restore at least some functionality to the ship’s comms. They were up so late that my first officer almost had to force Chief Engineer Belfast to go to her quarters and sleep. Apparently she’d become irritable and began complaining every time one of the men attempted to aid her in making repairs. Communications Officer Andrew Drake managed to finish up the job to the best of his ability. On the bright side, we now have a working intercom system and internal data network again. Externally, we are once again capable of receiving transmissions, however there still seems to be some issue getting power to the ship’s long range transmitter.

Personal communicators are still not functioning properly, with nearly half of the crew reporting signal interference and static from the planet below. First officer Jacob Clark continues to show interest in the television and radio broadcasts from the surface. He seems fascinated by the societal workings of Darling VII and has begun frequently tuning into their nightly news broadcasts and something called ‘talk radio’. Additionally, he’s roped Lieutenant Blake and Ensign Jones into partaking in some of the broadcasts as they attempt to better understand the planet’s social structure and system of government.

That brings me to my recent meeting with Science Officer Volkova. She has sequestered herself in the science lab ever since our arrival, using every free moment of sensor time available to run scans and analyze Darling VII. She reports that the lush and verdant forests and grasslands we see on the planet below are in no way native to the biome, in fact the greenery on the surface appears to have been entirely grown from Earthborn seeds. This raises more than a few questions among the ship's scientists as such advanced terraforming is only now taking shape on planets such as Mars and Alpha Centauri III. There is no conceivable way that the original founders of Darling VII could have possessed the ability to nurture and grow so much lush greenery on a rocky alien planet back in the early 2100s.

Curiously, one of the ship’s biologists has also noted that the population of Darling VII is much higher than would be expected for a colony founded in the early 2100s. Assuming John Darling left earth with nearly 1000 followers, we would expect to see a population of anywhere from 800,000 to 1.6 million at growth rates observed on other colony worlds. However, sensors seem to indicate that Darling VII has a population of just under 18 million inhabitants. While certainly not outside the realm of human possibility, that only raises more questions.

I've concluded that we need to return to the surface and ascertain the exact level of scientific development on the planet below. While outwardly the society seems to have regressed to a bygone era, the signs of advanced terraforming and fertility enhancement are just too obvious to ignore. What other developments could this society have achieved after being separated from the homeworld for so long?

***

Personal log, supplemental.

I’m happy to be back in my quarters. Somewhere around midday I developed this splitting headache that made it hard to focus on delegating repair tasks and organizing the pending mission to the surface. Jacob stepped in to help when he noticed the uncomfortable expression on my face. Well, his exact words were “you know your face could freeze like that.” I’m still not exactly sure what he meant by it, but it made me laugh. I excused myself and decided to take a walk around the ship to clear my head. He can be a surprisingly thoughtful first officer, it seems.

I’ve noticed that Emily’s recent decision to switch to the old fashioned skirt uniform has caught on among some of the junior officers, I counted at least a dozen women on the crew now sporting the retro style as they moved through the halls. One ensign, whose name I’ve forgotten even though I just assigned her to yeoman duty the other day, was sporting an elaborate updo instead of her usually relaxed ponytail. It was surprising to say the least, but oddly enough it suited her perfectly.

After walking around most of the lower decks I stopped in to have afternoon tea with Doctor Fukuhara, whatever green tea blend she brought on board is quickly becoming a new favorite. It seemed to cure my headache and gave me a fairly decent boost of energy. Yumi seemed particularly proud of it today, she went out of her way to present the tea in a traditional pot this time around instead of using the usual food synthesizers to brew the cups.

I returned to the bridge to find Jacob sitting in my chair, watching something on the Captain’s console. It appeared to be another one of those ‘sit-coms’ I keep hearing about. More and more of the crew seem to be tuning into the broadcasts from the planet below. I stood behind Jacob watching him chuckle to a program apparently called ‘I Love Betty’ until the broadcast was interrupted by some sort of advertisement. Jacob nearly jumped out of the chair when I cleared my throat. I suppose he does make me laugh. The rest of the shift was quiet but the headache started to come back the longer I was on the bridge, so I headed for my quarters the moment the shift change began.

I tried to read for a bit, but that hasn’t helped the headache. I think I’ll put one of the broadcasts from Darling VII on my room display screen and lay down. After all, I do have a surface team to organize tomorrow, it can’t hurt to get a feel for who these people are.

Captain Margaret Jane Stanton, signing off.

***

Commanding Officer’s Log, Stellar Date 2406.30

This week has not progressed towards an acceptable outcome. Translation, this week has been an unmitigated disaster. 

Nearly a week ago I sent a science team down to the surface of Darling VII. All carefully disguised in vintage attire picked out by the ship’s quartermaster and First Officer Jacob Clark. They certainly looked the part this time. Chief Science Officer Anastasia Volkova was joined by the ship’s biologist as well as Ensign Mark Jones and Lieutenant Commander Emily Austen to provide security. Though I’m not sure how much security work Emily was going to do while wearing a skirt that… voluminous.

Due to ongoing issues with the ship’s communications array we were able to listen to the team’s transmissions as they traveled around the surface but were not able to reply to them in any fashion. The scientists began their mission by inquiring about scientific developments at one of the local universities in New Palm Springs. They were unable to acquire much in the way of usable data, the staff at the university scoffing at the idea of “mere women” wanting to learn about the sciences.

The entire team decided to turn to commercial sources of information and within a couple days Lieutenant Commander Volkova was successful in contacting one of the local agricultural companies, posing as a farmer’s daughter… since apparently the title ‘farmer’ only applies to men. The company was more than happy to provide several samples of locally produced fertilizers as well as chemical plant sprays. The salesman was apparently also quite smitten with Anastasia’s appearance as she arrived to pick up the samples.

After covertly transporting the samples up to the ship, Doctor Fukuhara began analyzing the products. Her investigation is still ongoing, but she has detected several compounds which she theorizes could stimulate rapid growth and perhaps even genetic transformation in plant-based lifeforms.

Events on the surface took a turn for the worse just a day later, when the ship’s biologist began looking into the fertility practices and medical technology of Darling VII. It turns out that almost all of the planet’s medical clinics and hospitals are overseen by the official religious organization of the planet, “Our Lady of Sacred Birth”. The organization, or “church” as it is known, seems to be an offshoot of historical Christianity, a religion that has not been practiced on Earth in nearly 200 years. It just so happened that the team’s inquiry into the church occurred on the planet’s ‘sabbath’ day in which all work is stopped, with church attendance seemingly being mandatory.

We then lost contact with the team for three days.

To Be Continued…