Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are all absolutely fabulous.

One thing I want to mention again is that you're not seeing all the correspondence because that would make this story ridiculously large. You're seeing mostly personal correspondence and no official reports. Mission readouts would probably be a little on the boring side even if the missions themselves were absolutely bonkers. Of course this is probably because Jim would be sending Starfleet the sanitized for their consumption version of anything weird that happens. Thankfully in this universe Spock knows that Jim will omit some things. That's why they write all the reports together. They still do now that Spock is Captain because Jim is still the better one at subterfuge.

Day 55: No Wonder Spock authorized botany to grow cannabis.

From: Number_one_Pike

To: Spock's_cuddlebunny

time arrived: 4/16/2260 01:23:01

Subject: I completely understand why botany is growing homeopathic Vulcan headache medicine.

Spock's going to need a lot of it, if the year keeps going like this. Yes, I read the reports about April Fool's day. Do you think Margarita would be offended if we sent a second therapist to the ship? I feel like you guys need two.

I'm looking for a teacher with counseling certification for that reason. I think I may have found somebody. She knows the big boss personally, so this might work out. Let me handle the teacher issue and you concentrate on your husband. I'm thinking cannabis cheese crackers.

On the bright side, you will be happy to know that that I managed to convince Rodriguez that Enterprise should not participate in any of the activities commemorating the second anniversary of the battle of Vulcan. The Enterprise is going to be exploring the recently discovered planet XZ9 beta and therefore could not possibly get to a Star base on the day of the anniversary to film good soundbites. It's going to take you at least a week and a half to get there at a reasonable warp.

Yes, this means you're probably going to have your prisoner until at least mid-May, but for the sake of your husband and the Ashleys, I think it is for the best that they not have to deal with the fake pageantry of the Starfleet commemoration. I'm sure you remember the Kelvin Memorials too vividly. We're doing a wreath laying here and reading off the names of all the Starfleet officers that died during the incident. That's enough.

We all lost people in the battle. Friends and lovers alike. I lost my host family. You know I lived on Vulcan for a few years growing up. Last year was hard, but I had Chris. I think this year might be worse because I don't have him.

Chan said the first year after her husband's death was the hardest year for her, and it might be that way for me as well. I think she's right. So let's just get through the anniversary and then you can tell me how the kids are doing. Maybe once the anniversary has passed, they'll be acting out less. Although all reports I'm getting about Jo Jo have been glowing. Your second officer's reports have been valuable. Keep me posted. I know your actual reports are just the clean version and I want to know what's really going on.

No Captain has ever served as their own science officer yet. A few in the past have scheduled some time in their specialization so they wouldn't become rusty post captaincy, but not that many. Although very few double track and therefore have a specialization outside of command. Usually that's something more likely that the first officer would do. I served as first officer and science officer, just like your hubby.

However, I think you might be just as restless. Have you considered maybe doing some hours in engineering? OK, yeah that's not going to work because it's engineering. Have you made peace with that part of the ship yet?

From: Spock's_cuddlebunny

To: Number_one_Pike

Time sent: 4/16/2260 05:23:01

Subject: Re: I completely understand why botany is growing homeopathic Vulcan headache medicine.

I think Margarita would be fine with an additional therapist. Actually, I'm surprised she hasn't asked for backup yet. She's always booked solid.

Thank you so much for taking over the search for a teacher. At least you can do in person interviews which may yield better results. The one qualified person I found may have been one of the nine people I slept with before I met my husband and will not take the job. Apparently, he really believes I lost my job due to the alcoholism rumor. That was not a fun conversation to have with Spock. So, my reputation has been shot to hell due to the show I used to put on at the Academy.

Yes, I've made peace with engineering, mostly. The real children of Enterprise like to go down there for the alcohol that my, should already be adults but act like children Engineers, are brewing. I can't wait for our traditional Vulcan medication to be ready. I think I need the cannabis cheese crackers more than Spock. Also, maybe I'll have to worry about engineering accidentally blowing up the ship with their unauthorized distillery a little less.

However just because I've made peace doesn't mean I want to spend quality time down in engineering because again they're my problem children. And Spock would prefer I not accidentally get blown up by one of Scotty's experiments.

Since Spock said no to Enterprise's junior hacking club, I'm giving Spock and myself some IT shifts with communications. Also, this way we can figure out why Chen discovered that my second officer accidentally let something slip to the boyfriend. He's sorry about that by the way and he will be doing better with his messages to the boyfriend. Not that there's anything exciting going on just yet. Although we did receive official orders yesterday so I'm looking forward to two weeks of planetary exploration. Fingers crossed that nobody ends up in Sickbay. I'm not looking forward to three weeks of traveling there and back. But at least the starmapping will be over tomorrow.

And yes, I'd rather explore an unknown planet then put Spock through the pomp and circumstance of anything close to the Kelvin memorial events from when I was a kid. That stuff was god awful. All those fake people giving me their equally fake condolences. They didn't give a fuck about my father's sacrifice. If they did, they would have approved the funding to find Nero decades before he blew up Vulcan and killed my mother-in-law before I even met her.

I don't want to play nice with Star base diplomats. I know Spock didn't want to. I was considering giving him some disease that required him to stay in quarantine until after the event was over with. Thank you for me not having to do that now.

I'm planning something to actually cheer Spock up. He's planning something for the Ashleys since they all lost a parent so I think it's going to be a bonding moment. They're starting to come around a little bit mostly because their punishment for April Fools' Day was replicating our wardrobe. They have good taste and are great at replicator programming.

I have to ask, could an element of this program be interning or job shadowing? I mean you can only spend so much time in the classroom. Maybe some on the job or real world experience will calm down the restlessness and everyone would be less bratty. I have no hope for Jeremy not being bratty and I'm secretly crossing my fingers that his mom will apply to another ship. But the rest are getting better. (Okay, not. All other ships are an option. I don't want Jeremy on the Hamilton because I can't put my second officer's baby's mom through that, but anywhere else. Anywhere, especially Delta Vega. God, I want that kid off my ship.)

OK glad that you find my second officer's reports interesting and educational. Why do I have a feeling that they're probably a little bit more interesting than what I sent in. OK we're going to have to have a talk. Probably definitely. Anyway, I'll write back soon, most likely after the surveying mission is over since we are going even deeper into space. I hope I'm not allergic to everything.

To be continued