Information
Leila hurried toward her crew's quarters, her head buzzing with a strange combination of excitement and anger as she anticipated the coming mission. On one hand, she could not wait for the mission to commence. She had never been on an exploration mission before, and she was honored that the Alliance would choose her and her crew to undertake it. She had been waiting for this moment, for the chance to prove herself, for nearly two years, since becoming captain of the Stargazer. Throughout these years, she had never settled for second-best. Her ship had to be spotless and her crew impeccable, a feat which had not come easily. She and her crew had proudly gained the respect of all the other members of the Alliance. She had much respect and thankfulness for her crew; when they had first come together, no one had a clue what they were doing. But now, after two long years, they were the most hardworking, attentive, and dedicated crew she could ask for. It would be a difficult decision in choosing who would have to stay behind.
On the other hand, Leila was incensed that Kirk and his crew would be coming along. By the way those around him responded to his actions during and after her speech, she could easily see that they would not be willing to follow her command. And she knew that Kirk, himself, would be a problem. He had already caused her to lose her temper once, and that was less than twenty-four hours ago. The close quarters on the ship would be a nightmare. Leila knew she would have to establish command immediately. She also knew that, in order to do this, she would need to know everything she could about Captain James T. Kirk.
Leila finally reached the doors of her crew's quarters. She swiped her identification card across the reading pad and sighed as the doors slid open. The last thing she wanted to do was spend her few remaining hours on Earth investigating the man she hated the most in all of Starfleet. 'Oh, well,' she thought to herself. 'A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.' She pressed the button to activate intercom beside the door.
"Attention all Stargazer members. This is your captain speaking," she announced, her voice booming throughout the building. "You will all meet in the common room immediately. No exceptions. Our plans have changed. There are new matters to be discussed." She knew that every woman in her crew would hear her, because they had all been ordered to stay inside the building during the trip. Leila didn't want anyone becoming enamored of a Starfleet member and running off with him. Distractions. They could do that on their own time, not during a diplomatic mission. Although the crew had groaned and fussed when they heard this order, Leila knew that it was half-hearted. They respected and trusted their captain, and because the ambassador building was like a resort anyway, they wouldn't miss anything. They had agreed to stay in the building for the duration of their visit. Which had turned out to be just four days, what with the change of plans.
Leila walked to the common room and found Elvira, Acelynn, and a few others already there. She took her place at the front of the room with Elvira and Acelynn, watching as her other crew members poured in and took a seat. Let it not be said that the crew did not unceasingly follow their captain's word. Soon the entire crew had arrived. The excited chattering stopped immediately as Leila took a step forward.
"Ladies, there has been a change of plans," she informed, pacing the room. "We have accepted a mission to explore the planet Tremonillian and establish contacts with its inhabitants, if they so exist." Excited, curious eyes lit up. "Not all of you will go," Leila continued. "Some of our crew will team up with some of the crew of Starfleet's USS Enterprise. We will use our ship. Do not feel bad if you are not chosen. You have all performed admirably in the time that you have been on the Stargazer. I will choose about half of you. I do not know how long we will be gone, so I am giving the half that is not chosen free reign to explore Starfleet while we are away. A message will be sent to your pager notifying you whether or not you have been chosen for this mission. If you find that you have been chosen, you will gather your possessions and report to the ship at 0500 tomorrow morning. You may now return to your previous activities. Thank you." Leila turned and walked out of the room, flanked by Elvira and Acelynn. She hated to be so formal with her crew, but that was what must be done when giving orders.
Two hours later, the three ambassadors sat in their room on their respective beds, finally having completed the list of chosen crew members for the mission. The messages had been sent, and the list of the crew had been discarded in a corner. Leila lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling above her. She knew that she would not be able to rest for long, so she savored the peace and quiet. Sure enough, ever-sensible Elvira spoke up.
"The ship is already ready for the voyage," she reminded Leila, "but we should probably get the crew organized."
"Yeah, probably," she agreed, sighing. "There is something I need to do first, though."
"And that would be…?" hinted Acelynn, curiosity aroused.
"I need to find out all I can about Captain Kirk. Knowing what type of a person he is, seeing as he will be on our ship, will be very useful to us. I want to know everything about him," Leila answered.
"Everything?" Elvira questioned, raising her eyebrows suggestively.
"Well, no, not everything," replied Leila, laughing with her friends and she playfully chucked a pillow at Elvira's head for the second time that day. The girls headed out, ready to pick up information on the captain. The information they would recover, however, would only add to Leila's intense exasperation.
Three hours later they gathered in their quarters once more. Leila was clearly not in a good mood. Everyone they had spoken to had raved about Kirk. The cadets were the easiest to extract information from, due to their obvious idolization of Kirk and their willingness to please the ambassadors. They recounted his accomplishments with awed voices, the female members of Starfleet often blushing as they spoke. Apparently he had somehow passed an impassable test, the Kobayashi Maru. Well, technically he had cheated, but the cadets always overlooked that fact. After only three of the four required years of training, he took his first combat voyage, which resulted in his becoming captain later that year. True, he did not know it would be a combat voyage at the time, but this was also overlooked by the young cadets, who instead stressed what had happened on the voyage. Apparently during this voyage, he had saved the Enterprise and its crew from destruction multiple times, saved the Admiral – he was then the captain of the ship – Pike, and saved Earth itself from the deranged Captain Nero. He also brought Montgomery Scott on board, and everyone knew how brilliant Scotty was; his trans-warp transporter theory had changed the way all Federation ships operated. Kirk's crew was dedicated to only him. Everywhere the Alliance ambassadors went, they heard words like "legend" and "hero" associated with him. In short, Kirk was an idol. And this fact could not have come at a more unwelcome time to the weary, agitated captain of the USS Stargazer than this very moment.