Captain Cindy's Personal Logs

[Amanda Rose]

Cindy took in a deep breath. Her first day as Captain was done and she could hardly contain her excitement of the day. Intellectually, she realized that today was just her first day on the ship and for the next five years she would be giving orders just as she did today; yet, she always thrilled at the excitement of anything new. She knew that she had to find a way to settle herself down to sleep.

She changed into a teddy and slipped under the covers but sleep was not coming so she called out, "Computer, Personal Log, Stardate 2261.5."

The computer, in a soothing female voice replied, "Personal Log ready."

Cindy wondered why the engineers always made the computers sound female. She decided that one of her tasks would be to see if the ship's computer voice could be changed to a male one. After all, she was quite sure that Legacy was a "he" not a "she."

Cindy gathered her thoughts and began, "Today was my first day as the true Captain of the Legacy. Sure, I was the Captain before today but today I actually got to fly! There's nothing like being in space and I cannot believe the adventure we're about to undertake. I just wish that I knew what our mission was going to be. I find it rather unusual that we did not have a set mission given to us. Honestly, the ship should have a direction - some guidance and none was given."

She paused for a moment before continuing. "Of course, I'm not going to let that get me down. Today was a marvelous day. First, I got to meet a rather enterprising engineer, Ensign Navkiran Khangura. She really seems to love Legacy and she has hardly been on the ship. She was covered in grease when I met her. I wonder if she would mind if I called her Nav or would prefer Khangura or something else. I would have loved to have talked to her more but Phil dragged me away and you know how he is...."

That statement gave way to Cindy laughing before she continued, "Phil, you know, Commander Wilson, has not changed much. He's still a bit of a stick in the mud - all serious and Mr. Starfleet, following the letter of the rules. I think I gave him a bit of a heart attack when I informed him that I want the crew to call me 'Cindy' rather than 'Sir,' 'Ma'am' or 'Captain.' I will get back to that in a minute. However, I think I'm finally getting to Phil. He lets me call him Phil in private and I know I caught him smiling at me today. It was so cute! Of course, he's also cute in a curmudgeonly way when he gets all bent out of shape, when I tell him I'm going to do something original. Hopefully, in five years, I can get him to loosen up more."

Cindy laughed again, "Oh, my! That sounded awfully bad, didn't it? Well, anyways, I tried to teasingly get even with Phil when I took him to meet our Huanni science officer, Ensign Keth Soban. I brought him on board because I thought that he would add diversity. He seems like a rather sweet fellow but I have to say that I am now having some doubts about him. I don't think I was fully prepared for the mood swings or irrational rationalizations. I am going to have to find a way to get to him even though other Captains have failed. He definitely seems to have a certain zeal that we will have to find a way to contain.

"Then, we headed to the bridge and I got to sit in THE CHAIR! Little did I know that I was being spied upon by our new PR officer, Lieutenant Marian Norquay. Phil says that I should trust her and not be so hard on her but I have a great deal of suspicion about this woman and she clearly does not approve of me. I mean, really, who doesn't like me? It is so rare! But I trust Phil, so I will see if I can find a way to get to know her better.

"Then again, my tactical officer, Lieutenant Terrance Williams would probably get along wonderfully with our PR officer. He has the personality of a porcupine. His record seems to indicate that he is a hot head and he certainly showed it this morning. He would not open up at all about his past and refused to share anything that was not in his record. I don't see how that will engender a lot of trust but the man seems qualified at his position. Phil suggested that I give him orders and he may calm down. That seems so opposite of my experience but I will give it a try. Phil seems to have a sense about these things when my senses are at a loss.

"Speaking of friendly, though," she continued with a smile in her voice, "Ensign Luke Osswell went to the opposite extreme. He got a bit too friendly and actually started openly flirting with me on the bridge before my speech. Highly inappropriate. I mean, it was sweet that he took to calling me Captain Cindy, which I admit has a ring to it and I may adopt rather than just being called Cindy, but if he wanted to flirt, doing it on duty is just wrong. Anyways, I had him at my quarters for dinner tonight and he was very sweet, brought wine over, too. I told him that he should not have wasted it on me but he was rather emphatic about it. He even was understanding about my position about flirting on the bridge, on duty and not dating crew.

"Of course, I won't likely date for the next five years," she concluded with a sigh. "After all, one never wants to be accused of playing favorites. And I'm sure there will be enough rumors going around without having to involve me in the social scene." She sighed again. "Of course, it is not like I have had anyone that's interested me enough to enter into a serious relationship in some time. With my luck, I will find someone on a new planet and then have to leave them. Then again, I'm sure that mom would want me to drag that person on the ship, marry him and then start pumping out babies. I bet she wouldn't even care if they naturally came with three arms and four legs." Cindy again started laughing hard at that comment.

"God! Mom! She's something else. I think in her eyes, I'm still the disappointment of the family. I didn't see her at the ceremony and I wonder if she even watched it on the vid at home." Cindy shrugged. "She doesn't understand. There's so much more to life than propagating it. Nonetheless, I hope that I hear from her soon."

Cindy snuggled under the covers and continued, "The only real concerning thing about today, though, was Admiral Wheeler. Maybe he is the reason for Lieutenant Norquay. He does not seem to think that Phil or I are qualified for our positions. I just get the feeling he may try to set us up to fail. In fact, he implied as much when he told me in private that we're on a short leash."

Cindy took a deep breath and said, "I can't fail. I know I won't but now, he has given me every reason to prove myself twice over. I guess for awhile I am going to have to dot my 'i's and cross my 't's. I just hope that the first mission we get won't come from him. If it does, I have the feeling it will be less than pleasant. Well, here's to hoping that adventure and new experiences await me! End personal log."

Having said that, Cindy tried to find a comfortable position that would cause her to get to sleep quickly.

[Amanda Rose]

Now that the episode with the Romulans and the Klingons was completed, Cindy had a few moments to collect herself and reflect upon the recent events. One thing was certain, she had not expected some of the issues to arise with the personnel. She needed someone other than Phil to talk to at the moment and that was mostly herself. She stripped down and found a comfortable oversized T-shirt and put it on. She then found a pair of comfortable slippers and stepped into them.

Throwing herself onto the bed, back first, she exclaimed in an exhausted voice, "Computer, Personal Log, Stardate 2261.55." She paused for dramatic effect and then started, "Well, that certainly was an exciting way to start my command of Legacy! Romulans sneak attacking Federation outposts and trying to instigate a war between us and the Klingons. It very nearly worked. Just glad that we solved that riddle before the Federation became a battle ground and we lost more people needlessly. Maybe now we can actually get to some exploring!"

Cindy sighed and took a deep breath. "Of course, not everyone sees the last mission as a success. Frankly, a few people have been more than a little concerning. First, we have Ensign Keth Soban. Of course, his personnel record was a large red flag but I figured that I could tame the beast. Maybe I have. It is hard to say. He seems to have discovered on his own that he might be better suited for security on this ship. He has taken quite a shine to Lieutenant Williams who stunned him as Soban was rushing his way onto the bridge to single-handedly rip every Romulan apart that he could find. The only problem was that there were none on the bridge. Apparently, though, a stun grenade is about the only way to stop a rushing Huanni."

Cindy gave a slight giggle and then continued. "Now, Lieutenant Williams is another sore spot. Like Soban, I had fair warning with his personnel record. It is quite amazing to me that someone so obviously talented could be so contrary, cantankerous and difficult. He seems to want to run the ship his way rather than follow any sorts of orders. Worse, he seems to think that I should somehow become agreeable to him. This is going to be a difficult relationship to figure out. I can't afford to let his talent go but I can't allow him to disrespect me on the bridge. Thankfully, I was able to beat him on the squash court and that seems to have gained me some points in his very unusual book. We'll see what that brings. I'm going to have to heavily rely on Phil for this one because he doesn't react like most men do to me other than at squash."

She then huffed a bit and blew her hair out of her face. "But the worst of all is Doctor Vodden. I have never met a person that I have disliked more than her. She's self righteous and has no respect for my authority whatsoever. She even threatened my career. I don't care if she disagrees with the fact that I ask people to call me Cindy rather than Captain. I don't care that she dislikes my style. I do have a serious problem with her interfering with how the ship is run and interrupting on the bridge. Well, we shall take care of that. She is losing her access to contact the bridge absent an emergency override. Her behavior made a stressful situation on the bridge worse and I won't allow it again." Cindy turned uncharacteristically red as she continued, "Frankly, I'm just about ready to throw her off this ship. She has been out of the field too long and has forgotten proper protocol. She should be sent back to the Moon Base where she might be of some use."

Pausing to regain her composure Cindy gave a smile and her good humor returned as she said, "I gave my first major promotion to Ensign, now Lieutenant Junior Grade, Nav Khangura. I even went so far as to promote her to Assistant Chief Engineering Officer!" Cindy proudly exclaimed. "How she was not discovered to be a master with engineering, I shall never know. Lieutenant Whitney seemed to have no words for the promotion. I think that he was amazed by her too. Nav's truly a gift and that didn't even include her cooking. Now, if only she and Ensign Luke Osswell would officially start dating, Nav's life would be set. The two are such a match! At our dinner, I did find it cute and amusing that Nav suggested that if Luke was not my type that I should start seeing Phil. Imagine me and my former teacher! Could you?!" She laughed. "He's such a sweetie but I mean, come on! Could you ever see me and Phil dating? He'd never see me like that. To him, I'll always be his student. Besides, in all these years, he's never batted an eye at me. I think he's asexual," she concluded with a hard laugh.

"Anyways, Computer, I think that I should log off now. I'm looking forward to new orders and some true exploration. I can't wait for tomorrow! End log!"