Julian spent the next couple of days being upset about Samantha's leaving. The next day, he received her first letter detailing her experiences on the ship.
Hey Jules,
I miss you a great deal, but I have learned so much on this ship in just the past couple of days. The ship is brand new which means it has all of the latest upgrades that any ship could have. That means I have so many tech manuals to read just to catch up with it all. Some of the tech here would make Chief O'Brien swoon.
The crew has been amazing and welcoming to me. They are also strangers to each other, but they did spend the most of their time before reaching DS9. Soon, I will be joining in their weekly poker night as it happens every Monday night. Strange night for it, but it works out alright. The size of the ship is one of the most daunting things about it. You'd think after being on a space station, it would feel small but someone it manages to feel much bigger.
One of the things that I wasn't prepared for when accepting the promotion was the amount of paperwork I would be doing every night after my shift. Some of the older engineers at first didn't respect me but once I took apart a tricorder and put it back together in under five minutes, they were on board.
Captain Kirk allowed me to prepare for the bridge officer's test. He is well aware of how it can feel being so young and in charge of so many people. That will be next month when I've had more time to adjust to the ship. I think he sees in me a chance for someone else to be captain of a Starship at a young age like him.
The work in engineering has been satisfying because I'm not trying to get systems to talk to one another that were never designed to do so. Instead, I'm just learning about the systems one by one with everyone else. The new warp core design is fascinating, definitely an improvement on the older design.
I've also made some other friends with the other engineers who were more welcoming from the beginning. Scotty 2.0 is amazing. He's the chief engineer on board. The only difference I can see from him and his grandfather is that he doesn't multiply the time it takes by three. We work closely together to keep everything in perfect shape. It would be quite embarrassing for him if the ship stopped working, barely out of space dock.
I think that's it for news. I had an eventful couple of days,
Love
Samantha
Dear Samantha,
I'm glad that you are fitting in so well with your new crew. I should have warned you about the sheer amount of paperwork being in the top jobs means for you. It will get easier as time passes. I remember in the beginning, I too, found it almost overwhelming. But after doing it for six months, I found it much more bearable.
Things have changed slightly on DS9 without your presence. Mostly things tend to break more, which drives the Chief up the wall. He is keeping to his scheduled work time as the other engineers have stepped up. Apparently, you taught them a great deal about getting the two systems to talk together.
Miles dislocated his shoulder again to no one's surprise. I popped it back into its socket and all is well. I think he was just waiting for you to leave, because he knew that you would pop it back into place for him.
Personally, I've been spending my free time doing more research. Once my paperwork is done of course. There is one problem in particular that is proving tough to solve. I think I've just about got it, so in the next letter, I'll tell you about it more along with the solution I came up with.
Love,
Julian
Hey Jules,
Sorry for not responding sooner. I was injured during one of the away missions on a class M planet. Kirk and I were on planet side doing the proper diplomatic things. The first officer was back on the ship like they should be. The discussion got quite violent as it can happen. We were in a rock cavern which when one of the delegates got super angry, fired up at the ceiling causing a bit of a cave in.
Kirk and I were buried in the rubble for several hours. I don't remember much of it. I had a broken leg and was bleeding internally. It was a slow bleed, I promise. Kirk kept me alive until we were rescued by Mr. Spock. Kirk had to lift me above his head so that Spock could grab my reaching hand. It was a very deep hole that we were in. Once I was there on the new surface, Bones in his grumpy way stabilized my leg more and I was beamed on board.
The reason why I took so long came a couple of hours later. I developed a moderate fever from an infection caused by my broken leg being on dirty ground before Kirk regained consciousness. I survived but it did leave me weak. I have since regained my strength and am back at full duties. The next day that I was doing my duty, I did my Bridge officer's test and passed with flying colours. Kirk had a celebration in Ten Forward for the senior crew.
I'm going to be shifted over to navigation which means I will be serving on the bridge instead of in Engineering. I know that since I'm 24 that's way too soon but Kirk offered it.
Mostly, he rationalized it by referring back to my behaviour during the conference and the other away missions. I admittedly have defused some rather tense situations. And so, I accepted. He also named me second officer during the most recent mission today.
I talked an entire civilization into joining the Federation with nothing but my words. The current second officer did his duty but did not want to be second officer any longer.
I wasn't going to accept until one of the Admirals who was present at the discussion agreed with Kirk. Admiral Pike, coincidentally. I promised I'm not making it up with all the descendants on the same ship. It just kind of worked out that way.
And so, I'm now second officer and constantly on the bridge. It took a good couple of weeks for me to have any free time to write this letter. Last night, I collapsed into bed and was asleep until my alarm rang in the morning.
With Love,
Samantha
Dear Samantha,
Are you quite sure that your description of your injuries was accurate? I heard from Sisko when you were hurt and the nature of your injuries. Benefits of rank, I suppose. Those were not minor injuries in the slightest. Your internal bleeding would have killed you if it had been ten minutes later! You also forgot to mention that you were in a medically induced coma to help you heal from your brain injury.
It is amazing to know how much closer you are to achieving your dreams of captaining a star ship. Second officer is a prestigious position to hold. Is Kirk just as reckless as his famous grandfather? I think you will do great as second officer.
Things are going well in Sick Bay, especially with now we have three doctors instead of two. It makes more sense, and now I have more time to do other things besides medicine. I have been running a first aid course here on DS9 which has proven popular. I also will in the next couple of weeks, host a week's worth of first aid training for people on Bajor. It should be useful for people to know about how to emergency treat injuries in less of a cowboy fashion. So much information was lost during the occupation including the non-cowboy way of doing Bajoran medicine for so many people.
I miss you, Samantha, I really do. Your letters have been a source of great joy to me. Please, don't stop writing to me.
Julian
Hey Jules,
You won't believe what craziness happened while I was on the bridge one day. We were under fire from an unknown enemy. As we were taking on fire, Kirk and Spock were both severely hurt and needed to go to Sick Bay. I sent them along with some medical staff. I was in command of the ship.
According to other people, I looked like I was in my proper element, commanding people in this way. I did enjoy it, I feel like I would have enjoyed it more if the circumstances were better. Regardless, I took an old ploy out of an even older book and played dead for the enemy ship. They inched in closer and closer until we fired, causing enough damage that they were disabled. The odd thing is that they immediately self destructed which was odd. We still don't know who they were or what they wanted from us.
Kirk and Spock were both on medical leave for a week. So I spent a week being Captain of the Enterprise, trading off with Scotty for the night shift. I really enjoyed it. Maybe I shouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did. I was relieved when they both returned to duty. I wanted a break from the paperwork and responsibility. We continue on our mission to explore space.
With love,
Samantha
Dear Samantha,
I can't believe that you got to command a ship! That is an amazing experience for you. I'm glad everything turned out well. Especially with Kirk and Spock, they are both a credit to their grandfathers.
Things are going better on the station as somehow Miles and his team of engineers have finally managed to get everything to work with one another. I even have some more Starfleet technology in Sick Bay because of it.
Love,
Julian
Dear Samantha,
What is going on? I haven't heard from you in a couple of months, your ship is reported missing, where are you?
Julian