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Stardate 55717.4 Personal Log Entry, Cadet Icheb Hansen
While I was away on vacation, I took a break from keeping up my personal log. I've been very lax. It's time to catch up.
At the end of my summer session, during the break before my junior year at the Academy, Seven and I went away to Mars. B'Elanna and Tom had their vacations there at the same time. It was a working vacation for B'Elanna and Seven. They spent quite a bit of their time consulting with researchers up on Utopia Planitia, answering questions about how they adapted Borg equipment to work on Voyager. While I tagged along with Seven and B'Elanna some days, at others, I went sightseeing with Tom and Miral.
When I asked who was in charge of the Delta Flyer project while three of its leaders were here on Mars, Tom explained that Harry was left to run it during their absence.
"Wasn't he upset you left him by himself?"
"Icheb, have you ever heard the expression, 'like a pig in slop'? He's loving being 'The Man.' I can't blame him. Getting lost in the Delta Quadrant was the best thing that ever happened to me, but Harry would have be a lot farther along in his career if he'd been assigned to another ship and had followed a more conventional career path."
"Assuming he'd survived the Dominion War." Tom sadly had to agree with that.
One weekend we all flew to Jupiter Station and spent time with Dr. Zimmerman. The Doctor had told me about the Dr. Zimmerman's assistant Haley, and his pet photonic iguana, Leonard. The iguana was fun because he'd been programmed to talk and had a very acerbic sense of humor. Any being, organic or photonic, would benefit from maintaining a sense of humor around Dr. Zimmerman. I was more impressed with Haley than I was with him. She was very sweet. Maybe Dr. Zimmerman programmed her with all the qualities he'd never bothered to develop in himself. Our EMH was busy trying to cure Dr. Zimmerman when he visited Jupiter Station last year, while the rest of us were still plowing through the Delta Quadrant on Voyager. The Doctor could learn a lot from Haley - in particular, how to exhibit patience when interacting with difficult patients. On the way back to Mars, Tom explained that if I ever hear the term "curmudgeon," I should visualize Dr. Z!
As much as I enjoyed observing the researchers on Utopia Planitia and the sightseeing, I was relieved when we returned home. I had ten more days off before classes were to resume, so I lived in Seven's house for a week before coming back to the suite. I didn't want to be alone on campus when I didn't have classes or anything to distract me. Staying with Seven and Chakotay at their home was okay. They didn't talk very much with each other, but at least I didn't detect any animosity between them. The visit made me feel a little melancholy, though. Having a chance to spend time with Chakotay made me realize how nice it would be to have a father.
Rather than get into any sensitive memories about his life on Voyager after Seven came on board, I asked him to recount events from his earlier life, and to share his perspective on the early years of Voyager's journey - before the encounters with the Borg. His descriptions of his childhood on a world that maintained the traditions of the native American tribes were very interesting, but ultimately, very sad. Both of his parents are dead, and the life they lived there is, too. He admitted that one reason he likes to visit his sister is to help him regain a little of that history. She's working with scientists who are rehabilitating Dorvan so the tribes can move back there. The world was blasted by the Cardassians so badly, it's uninhabited at present, other than by work crews who are restoring its environment. Chakotay was still in Starfleet when the Cardassians attacked. It turned out to be his breaking point. When the Federation didn't protect planets like Dorvan, he resigned and joined the Maquis.
When he told me about the Vidiians, I felt bad for them, even though their method of dealing with their tragic illness was repulsive. Seven was with us when we talked about them, and she pointed out that if Kurros from the Think Tank was being truthful, the Vidiians may have been restored to health. At this point, of course, there's no way to know if he was lying or not. Seven and Chakotay both think Kurros embellished his claims about the "good deeds" the Think Tank did for others, especially since he'd set up the attacks on Voyager to make them come to him, and when Seven didn't want to join the group voluntarily, he kidnapped her.
Most of Chakotay's stories were more entertaining. I was fascinated with his tale about Marayna, the holographic character who turned out to be an alien scientist in disguise. She fell in love with Tuvok and tried to get him to stay with her. Tuvok explained he had a family who needed him and suggested she visit her home planet for a while to counteract her loneliness.
I wish I'd been able to meet Gegen, the honorable Voth scientist who was convinced his people were descended from a species which originated on Earth many millions of year ago. Gegen voluntarily gave up his theories when he was given an ultimatum: continue to espouse them, and Voyager's crew would have been held hostage for the rest of their lives. Not only would they lose any chance of returning home, their futures would have been even more bleak because the reptilian Voth were prejudiced against mammalian species. Chakotay showed me his proposal for a project to explore for evidence of a sophisticated dinosaurian culture. He believes the best place would be along margins of the continents as they existed at the time of the hadrosaurs, the most likely species to be the Voth's ancestors. Fossilized remains could be found deep inside rock strata or buried beneath the sea floor.
And I laughed quite a bit when he told me the story of the stranded Ferengi "prophets" who made a "profit" from people they scammed. They'd fled from Federation justice by flying through an unstable wormhole. The people where they landed had legends which seemed to describe how the Ferengi arrived. They used those myths to take advantage of the populace until Chakotay, Tom, Neelix, and the captain put an end to their scam, although the Ferengi managed to get away through the unstable wormhole before it closed up, preventing Voyager from utilizing it as a pathway home. I wasn't unhappy about that, since Voyager didn't rescue us until several years later.
Tom had already told me a lot about Voyager's trip back through time, when the ship landed in Southern California in the twentieth century and they met Captain Braxton. I was struck by Chakotay's tender smile when he reminisced about walking along the Venice boardwalk with Captain Janeway. Seven wasn't in the garden when he told me about it, so she didn't see his face. It was better she didn't. I really like Captain Chakotay, but whenever he talks about Captain Janeway, his face just lights up. Chakotay's a great person. He just isn't right for my mom.
When I came back to the suite yesterday, Verit was in our common living room, standing next to a very tall Vulcan male. She introduced him as "my spouse Torin." They were both dressed in very beautiful, traditional Vulcan robes. I was very unhappy when I saw them there. "Have you come back to pick up the things you left here last spring?" I asked. She replied they had not. She would return here to live until our graduation. Torin is on the staff of the Vulcan Science Institute. He's here to make final arrangements with Starfleet Medical staff for a research project. Torin will be part of a mission traveling to the Gamma Quadrant to work with the Founders. After their experience with the illness that almost led to their demise, the Founders wish to exchange information with Federation scientists to explore ways to prevent anything like it happening to their race again. He expects to be gone for approximately two years. Verit had trouble maintaining her Vulcan equanimity when he told me how long he'd be gone.
Fortunately, their marriage bond was confirmed a few days after Verit arrived home for vacation with her family, at the conclusion of her field study placement. She said she is relieved there will be no barriers for either spouse to continue following their career paths (for the next seven years or so, but she didn't mention that, and I didn't bring it up). Verit left most of her baggage in her room and asked me if I would transfer the storage boxes I'd been keeping for her to her room, too. I told her I would. For the next few days, Verit and her husband are going to do some sightseeing on Earth. He's never visited here before. Even though they're leaving for the weekend, I'll have company again. Austin and Farys are both due to arrive tonight.
We'll all be together for the six-week spacewalk course from early September until the end of October. Then we'll return in time for an "old fashioned Halloween." I told her I'd heard there would be lots of ghosts around then. Verit said Austin would share the Day of the Dead traditions with me, too. She was familiar with the Day of the Dead from residing here with Austin and Farys last fall. Verit had no trouble at all accepting the idea that the spirits of family members might visit the living for All Soul's Day. "A ghost is simply a katra that has not been stored properly." She was absolutely serious when she told me this. After she left with Torin for the weekend, I went to the database and researched Vulcan beliefs on the spirit world. It's intriguing to think that although Vulcans prize logic above all things, they also believe in the katra of those who have left this plane of existence. I'd like to think they have hard evidence of its survival after the body expires. It's a very comforting concept.
Let's see. I think I've caught up . . . no. There one more thing to record. It has to do with recordings, too. This morning I prepared a long transmission to send to Mezoti. I had an imager with me on Mars and recorded many of our experiences, both on Utopia Planitia and from our sightseeing trips, to send to her. I told her I hoped she'd enjoy them. I had a separate message to forward to her from Aunt Irene. She's begun a correspondence with Mezoti, too, which pleases Seven and me. Aunt Irene has invited us to Sweden for Christmas - Mezoti, too, although she obviously won't be able to make it. Seven and I will. We hope we'll get there by Christmas. Several events celebrating the first anniversary of Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant are planned, and Mrs. Paris has already told us to "save the date" for Miral's first birthday party. Mrs. Paris promises it will be an "extravaganza."
We'll share images of all those events with Mezoti, too. It's getting a little easier to correspond with her now that it's turned into a regular routine, but I still wish she could be here on Earth with us. Someday . . .
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