Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. I got more comments on the previous chapter than I have on any chapter for a long time. You are all lovely.
Day 250: Sorry, This Is One of Those Emergency Messages
From: Elizabeth_Chen
To: Spock's_cuddlebunny
Time arrived: 10/30/2260 00:00:01
Subject: Starfleet really is filled with idiots.
So, I talked to mom, Starfleet legal, and Nyota's mom about the project. Good news, the new person overseeing the Kobayashi Maru exam is no longer in charge as of today. Remember when I said papers were randomly assigned, that turned out to be a lie. I ended up with the battle of Vulcan because I'm dating the brother of the acting captain in charge of Enterprise during that cluster fuck. The person who got the Vengeance Incident was Kristen Klucking-Marcus a.k.a. Carol's cousin. I think you met her at the courthouse when you picked up your marriage license last year.
Anyway, he was trying to manipulate us into providing information that wasn't in the official report. I'm delighted he didn't know I was on Tarsus during the genocide. Although apparently, he was aware that one of my classmates had a cousin who survived the Tarsus massacre. I'm sure you can guess which project they were assigned. I didn't put the pieces together because of different last names. Thankfully, they knew that I was there, but they knew not to ask. We were given an option to do something different. Fortunately, this didn't happen to everybody, but it was still about 30% of the class.
Nyota's mom is now overseeing the Kobayashi Maru personally this semester. Those of us who were given deeply personal topics due to our instructor being a voyeuristic asshole were given the option of choosing a new topic. I am a masochist on a time crunch raising a one-year-old, so I kept mine. I do not have time to read through another Starfleet mission report. I've already read through the after-action for Vulcan, all 600 pages of it.
So many mistakes were made. Mom says I should just choose one just make sure no one else finds out that the acting captain of Enterprise strangled his future husband, and that's how they sort of ended up Vulcan married. We are supposed to keep that a buried family secret.
BTW there is no mention whatsoever in the official report of what led your husband to being declared emotionally compromised. I know what happened because Kevin told me. That was why Kevin was so upset about you marrying Spock. He didn't consider the extenuating circumstances and all the therapy that has happened since then. Also, Vulcan culture. You also weren't dating at the time, which puts things in a very different light. Then there's also the fact you were trying to get him to attack you to get him declared mentally unfit. I am not touching that.
I think I'm going to focus on improper funding for intelligence gathering and ignoring the message that Nyota intercepted from the Klingon homeworld. That intel would have prevented so much. That means I don't need to interview you, but I do need to talk to your chief communications officer. As her supervisor, may I please have permission to discuss the Vulcan cluster fuck and the fact that nobody reviewed the message she intercepted?
Basically, I think I want to look at what happened from the perspective of the communications officer and how we in Starfleet sometimes downgrade the communications officer to the person just answering the phones when they are an integral part of the command team and when we don't realize that, terrible things happen.
I would write her directly, but I think she might be pissed at us for sort of accidentally telling her 12-year-old daughter about Kevin getting manipulated into having sex with someone who's the same age as his big brother. Who said big brother happens to have a restraining order against. I kind of need you to put in a good word for me first. I also need you to authorize her to send us a rapid message. I want to know what she found that day and how those overseeing her handled the information. The official report glosses over a lot of it, but I know there's more that happened then what was in the official right up.
XXXX
Starfleet priority message for cadet Kevin Kirk from Captain Kirk-Spock
Subject: I'm okay, but the Hamilton is FUBAR
You know how you assume that if something awful happened to me, Spock, Sulu, or someone else from the command team would contact Liz to soften the blow? This is one of those times. Sorry.
I'm sure you or your girlfriend have received letters from Sue lamenting how incompetent her Captain is. Well, he's so bad at negotiating that he managed to get himself killed, but not until Sue was kidnapped or may be held hostage. Nyota's communications team is still trying to work their way through the recordings. Apparently, the universal translator screwed things up. This might be part of the reason why negotiations broke down to the point where there are dead bodies and Sue ended up being held captive for two weeks.
Good news, Sue was not subjected to torture. Unwelcome news, she was subjected to inadequate nutrition. Bones is taking care of her right now, and Sulu is staying in the chair next to her. We were also able to negotiate her release diplomatically because my chief communications officer can learn a new language in 48 hours, enough to be passable anyway. Or at least enough to realize when the universal translator is screwing things up. It was useful.
I'm not surprised to learn of more Starfleet Academy corruption, considering we are going to be dealing with the hot mess that is the Hamilton for a while. This won't be in my official report, but it looks like the captain was deliberately trying to get your future sister-in-law killed.(Liz, if you're reading this over Kevin's shoulder, sorry to be so blunt, but I have to be. You deserve to know.) Be glad he's dead because otherwise I would be keeping my helmsmen from shoving a rapier up his ass and I don't think I would try that hard.
If you successfully managed to keep Liz from reading this over your shoulder, I know you're going to pass it to her anyway once you're done. Liz, yes, you can talk to Nyota for your project. You can also ask her questions about the Sue situation. I feel like you're going to assume I'm sugarcoating things.
You're totally right, communications officers are the unsung heroes of Starfleet. Nyota helped us negotiate the release of Sue. Which is nice because I just don't feel like going in all guns blazing. I have a 12-year-old now.
I am not surprised that Spock's replacement turned out to be an asshole. You kind of must be a dick to design that type of test or a Vulcan, and I assume the guy was human.
Also, Liz, thank you for keeping specific things that happened with my husband out of any essay you write. I don't think everybody understands the circumstances. I'll try to keep a lot of the things that happened with Sue from getting out. I really believe there are some things that happened that only Sulu's going to know. They're best friends for life.
To repeat for the panicking Liz, Sue is safe on Enterprise. The Hamilton is a hot mess, and we're investigating. Spock is overseeing the situation personally. Some of the brass, not necessarily Liz's mom, wants me to take over being the captain of the ship for a couple of weeks until they send a replacement. Currently the ambassador is in charge because things are that bad. I think I might have to send Scotty which just tells you the state that the Hamilton is in.
I have two backup chief engineers, so Scotty is the most senior officer that Spock and I can send over there. You know unless I send Sulu. I am 99% sure Sue is going to be staying with us for a little while to recover, so he's not going to want to leave her. Also, if he finds out that someone really was trying to kill his baby's mama, there will be blood, possibly literally. It will be good for no one.
Due to the circumstances, both you and Liz can communicate as much as you want with Enterprise using rapid messages. I expect several tomorrow. Nyota is waiting for you.
To be continued