Assuming direct control.

Assigned the USS Kevin II, I am the acting Captain. Don’t look at me: it wasn’t my decision: I was simply the second highest ranking offer after Captain Jek. My requests upon departure from the USS Pier for the crisis was two-fold. The first: to have with me the officers Lieutenant-Commander Cami and Commander Tabakk; the latter as my commanding officer, my number one. The second: to shut down the holo decks unless a senior officer granted said user permission of use in advance.

Surprisingly, both terms came across as approved.

And thus, there we were here: the USS Kevin II, holding position just outside the Katamara system: a small, but vital solar system for the war.

I hate war. Or “strongly dislike the prospect of armored conflict”, as if that’s any better.

You only reside to physical violence when you’re out of words.

Lieutenant Nydark is the one I asked to cover for the “night shift” of the ship, but I keep my officers rotating to get a feel for the chain of command – under the impression that I’m watching their every move from afar.

That’s wrong, of course: I have to sleep sometime.

With six shuttlecrafts filled with combat troops awaiting to drop into my position at the nearest sign of trouble, understandable it made me lacking sleep. They keep to themselves, being a different kind of breed than Starfleet. Yet Starfleet they all are.

Lieutenant Cr’risss is acting chief engineer, and practically out of the academy: a few years back and he’d be a happily serving under the chief engineer. Instead, he IS my chief engineer.

So, where you have it: the USS Kevin II, acting Captain Nomi - my second command ever -  with the first officer Tabakk  - I put Lieutenant-Commander Cami (I still tease her about the slip stream episode) as the ship’s chief science officer – the rest of the ship remains as it was.

I’m fully expected to receive complaints. The only one indirectly to reach me is the lack of a good security officer (but that one existed aboard even before I was assigned command). Somehow, that doesn’t unnerve me one bit. Not worrying about it worries me.

I can’t shake the feeling that this is an elaborate and unexpected Kobayashi Maru.

Just breathe and listen to Op. 37, No. 2 in G major. Andante (not in a bad way).

A while back I came across this article. Sadly, it describes an all too relevant problem. One that, in time, I hope will no longer be taught. The human condition - it certainly is a struggle, yes?

[If] you don’t show the darkness, you don’t appreciate the light.

True, but that's not the case here.

Have some Choplin.

Disjointed.

Tonight I dreamt I was a vampire, and that I was being hunted for it. By dream logic, it was rather straight forward: run and hide, keep away from the sun, don't let your fangs and white skin reveal you. There was also a large and grand gathering: much like one of Hogwarts' many celebrations, and they set fire to the floor underneath our seats to flush us out. It worked. We had to run. Being able to masquerade myself before, that frail disguise was now gone. Flushed into something akin to a ghetto, a group of other bloodsuckers, all dressed in Gothic black, that came after me in fellow flight debated the resting place for the day - sunlight remained fatal. One of them followed me when our present location turned out to be sun baked come morning. She had long hair, pale complexion and red eyes. Moving further into the abandoned district, we came upon a decaying house. Mowing through not the main door, but squeaky, we entered the building. A lingering sense of light unease and a small hope of us keeping undiscovered mixed with my already existing emotions. Around that time I woke up. It had been a good dream, despite everything.

Multidimensional witch.

You fold time like a napkin in your lap; you ride gravity waves like a ripple in a pond. ‘Where’ and ‘when’ have little meaning to you because you curated a rare skill of anchoring yourself to whatever you define as your present. Boundaries and commitments disgust you — what does a time witch need with lines and rules when all the breath of time and space is at their fingertips? You like freedom and adventure, and though it gets a little lonely, you somehow find plenty of souls to dance with as you go along your way.

The human touch is not sacrosanct just yet.

That moment when you spend most of the evening and night with your roommate and find yourself in platonic love/in friends with her, as well as introducing her to the line "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" for the very first time. And you're happy about letting the time having passed you both by in swift delight.

I'm grateful that such moments of random joy still exists.

Saturation.