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

Day 222: It's all your fault

From: Elizabeth_Chen

To: Spock's_cuddlebunny

Time arrived: 10/2/2260 00:00:01

Subject: Re: The Kobayashi Maru is a class now, and it's all your fault.

Seriously, it's totally your fault I have so much extra schoolwork right now. I thought I was only going to have three classes and the Kobayashi Maru which would only take like an hour tops. When you were a student, all you had to do was take the exam.

However, mommy dearest in her infinite wisdom along with the other bastards that determine the curriculum standards agree with your philosophy about the previous version of the test and now want to make it almost something useful a.k.a. a simulated captaining experience. Now I must look at resumes and piece together my bridge crew. So far only Kevin is in place as my first officer and I'm not even sure my advisor is going to allow that. Also, I get to go through multiple mockups and write an essay on a randomly assigned great Starfleet cluster fuck that somehow did not go completely FUBAR due to excellent decision-making on the Captain's part or in several cases pure dumb luck.

Let me remunerate they were randomly assigned, and somehow, I got the Vulcan genocide. Which considering other classmates got Tarsus, San Francisco, and your birthday, I feel like I got off lucky. It could've been so much worse for me, not that Vulcan was a particularly pleasant experience for anyone.

Ok, it's not at all that great considering I must deal with the day my future brother-in-law watched his planet be destroyed and his mother died. Also known as the day my friend Ben lost his first husband. Honestly, there were not many great options for me, primarily because I'm personally involved in so many of them in one way or another.

However, because of the topic I received, I would like to interview you personally. I think you can tell me more than what I would find in any report. Is this possible? Maybe we can do a Starfleet messenger chat while you're on Star base? I know you're going to be doing 1 million HR things in the run-up to the crew switch out, but I would really like to talk to you and Spock about your experiences. It will allow me to do a more robust analysis. Since you are the reason why the Kobayashi Maru requires more effort now, you owe me so much.

Also, in addition to classes, I must start doing career placement. Which is going to be a little complicated because Kevin is going to be at the academy for another year. I want to stay here and start tandem after his graduation, but I don't think that's going to be feasible. Also, I think Winona would hurt us if we went off to Vegas and eloped just for tandem assignments. Plus if we did that, my mom would only send one of us to Delta Vega.

Scratch that, she probably would not do that because of who else is at Delta Vega right now. I'm sure you heard about what happened to Christine. Seriously she has so many issues. So, mom is not going to send us both there and will therefore choose other horrible assignments besides Ice Base Zebra.

So how is your kid? My kid does not like daycare at all if baby K is not there. I don't know what I'm going to do when Ben leaves for Yorktown. Mom recruited him. I should not be surprised one bit.

I am also annoyed that Winona is going to be in London through October. Because Christine is on her way to Ice Base Zebra, Winona is in London being the super supportive best friend helping Nhi get settled. So, I think Winona is going to be in London for a bit because getting settled takes a while.

Also, something is happening at Starfleet Academy London, and your mom is there to figure out what it is. This is probably because she is one of the few people my mom trusts right now. It's not rainbow sprinkles yet, but maybe confetti sprinkles and may or may not be related to the demon child problem.

Xxx

Starfleet priority message for cadet Elizabeth Chan from Captain Kirk-Spock.

Subject: I'm not sorry for making the Kobayashi Maru useful

I'm not sorry at all. If it means I get more competent people on my ship, then I'm okay with you suffering. I will help, which is why I'm sending this email express. Okay, I'm emailing you this message expressed because we are now docked outside a Star base which means it's easier to do priority communications and this is somewhat work-related.

Because of the subject matter, I would prefer it if you mailed me your questions and I worked on it over time. Possibly under supervision of Margarita or the new therapist. Probably Margarita. I have therapist trust issues because of the Cruz fiasco.

Also, I'm probably going to have to read through the official report. I think a ton of stuff got redacted. What clearance level is your project? Am I allowed to talk about Spock's "grandfather?" Also, you probably should send me your syllabus. I need to know precisely what the professor is asking for. Also, will you be allowed to call out Starfleet incompetence? Like why the fuck did they not search for the ship responsible for murdering my father? If they found him when I was a toddler, I would be trying to impress my mother-in-law right now. I feel like Amanda would be challenging to impress.

If I'm honest, you're probably going to need a lawyer to look at your paper before turning it in. This happened with my report on the Kelvin incident. I was too honest and put things in there that Winona told me that were apparently above top secret. I'm just glad Nhi made me let her read it first. It saved me some severe awkwardness. I also ended up having to write that due to randomly assign topics and professors who are dicks.

So, you should probably realize that what happened and what Starfleet says happened are not the same. Of course, you probably know this from the Tarsus fiasco.

I bet the official report has no mention in there about me pissing off my husband to the point that he would choke me so he would realize that he was too fucked up to be in charge. Most people don't know about that except those that were there. Check with your mom to see what I can and can't say before I start working on it. I have a laundry list of things I would have done differently in hindsight.

Also, thank the universe you didn't get Tarsus. The redacted version of things made me throw up. Be glad all names are redacted because otherwise, you know whichever classmate got that one would be interviewing you and I'm not sure you would really be up to it. I think you would handle it only slightly better than my husband handling questions about the Vulcan incident.

I know you want to ask the same questions to Spock, but I don't think he's ready to go back to Vulcan. Thinking about what happened is always hard for him. It might be his own Tarsus. In addition, Spock did design the last version of the simulation, so it might be perceived as cheating if he helps you with your paper.

I know you're mad about all the extra work, but now the Kobayashi Maru is something useful instead of sending kids in to take a test that you know you will fail miserably. That doesn't help. You can't go into a situation thinking you're going to fail because then you will. It's like me trying to stay positive with the entire Peter situation. We will get through this, and I will not totally screw Peter up, I hope. Okay, I'm a little negative, but not wholly negative, which helps.

Things are improving. We are talking to each other more. Also, Peter wants to know more about his dad, and I think eventually, he's going to ask about how he died. I'm not ready for the real version of that conversation. He knows a little, he knows he went to Tarsus and never came back.

He knows about the famine, but I'm not sure Peter knows about the genocide or the other god-awful things that happened on the planet of the damned. He was a little thing when it was all over the news. I feel like his mom would keep the truly hideous stuff from him. I hope she would've anyway, but I don't know because it was too hard for her to tell me anything towards the end.

Now let's move on to wedding stuff because I really hate crying when writing emails. So how is the prep going? Did you get the ring? I know you picked something out, but things can go badly.

On my end, I made sure that Sulu has his video session scheduled for 11 AM ship time tomorrow. We are planning to have a party afterward. I hope you're going to be filming everything. I wish we could have coordinated better, but you're right about saving the messages for emergencies. I'm only sending this because we are at the base and you probably need a quick answer about helping with your project.

PS: I heard about the engagement rumor started by wedding ring shopping. That made me laugh out loud during your lines about eloping. Winona really would kill you, and your mom would help her hide the bodies.

Xx

Starfleet priority message form cadet Elizabeth Chan for Captain Kirk-Spock.

Subject: Of course, you're not sorry for the new Kobayashi Maru.

Thank you for choosing a much better subject line. I'm surprised this managed to slip through the filters, but it probably helps that the word Kobayashi Maru was in the title.

I understand Spock not being able to participate. I wouldn't want to do interviews about the Tarsus incident right now. It would be hard, and it's been much longer for me. I understand exactly where Spock is coming from. Rachel got Tarsus, and I am not volunteering to help her on that project.

I will consult my professor, my mother, and at least one Starfleet lawyer before I send my questions to you. I don't think my teacher thoroughly thought things through when he assigned some of these topics or maybe he didn't realize that some students in the class would have access to extremely top-secret information and choose to put it into their project.

I'm aware that the Starfleet version of what happened on Tarsus was complete bull shit. The public version was even worse. So, you're right, I need to start by reading the official version of events. Because of Tarsus, I have a higher security clearance than most Starfleet cadets, so I might be able to read the unredacted text. I don't know yet.

Operation Proposal is in motion. We have music, roses, champagne, and the engagement ring. The jewelers just finished it today. The ring is beautiful. Of course, there is another round of engagement rumors going around about me due to going to pick up the ring, but I don't really care. At least the parents don't believe it although Ben is suspicious about us. At least he's suspicious about me possibly marrying Kevin and therefore does not suspect that Sulu is preparing to propose, which is all I asked for. Scenario attached, because yes, Sulu's sister made a scenario for the proposal. She even used the Starfleet format; I kid you not. She also drafted a possible proposal for him to use.

As for the tandem assignment situation, I'm working with lawyers Lee and Shawn to come up with a possible solution. There are other ways to get tandem assignments, but the only other one I know of is to have a kid together and that would incur more wrath from the moms. We want to avoid that.

Anyway, I'll write to you once I have all the legal stuff worked out. It might take a little while, but I will get back to you.

Anyway, give Peter a hug for me. I'm sad I probably won't get to see him but getting them engaged is very important.

To be continued.