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

Day 252: Your sister is okay-ish

November 1, 2260

Starfleet priority message for cadet Kevin Kirk from Captain Kirk-Spock

subject: Please send pictures of Baby D eating peeps.

There may be security footage of that, but I think Spock will cut me off if I go looking for it. I'm not sure what he will do if I teach Peter how to look for it. I was banned from teaching the Enterprise kids how to break into computer systems. I think that rule might apply to my own child. We are still working out the kinks on this parenthood thing.

Let Liz do whatever she needs right now. Even if it means spending quality time her with niece and a bag of Halloween peeps more power to her. It's a lot.

I'm spending the day on the Hamilton for reasons that may or may not involve going for the deceased captain's personal things with the security team. Fingers crossed Peter will spend the entire day hanging out with JoJo and not freaking out.

We are not taking things at face value. There's something else going on here; I just feel it.

Although while I am looking into this, send baby pictures.

PS: Of course, I use the good encryption. I'm not stupid.

XXXX

Starfleet priority message from cadet Elizabeth Chan to Capt. Kirk Spock

Hey, I thought I would write to you this time. Kevin's in class, but I'm taking the day off to decompress. Maybe work a little bit on the Kobayashi Maru assignment. Also, everything is better with half-price Halloween candy.

Thank you for letting us know, even though I know you weren't supposed to tell us what was happening. Mom may have broken out the Mandarin curse words and that is never a good sign, but I'm glad you did anyway because it was the only way I was going to find out the truth. I feel better knowing what's really happening than her trying to keep it from me. I'm not a little kid. I haven't been for a long time. Ming never met me as an innocent little kid, which may be why she's acting the way that she is, but as much as my mom wants to make up for the fact I didn't have a childhood, this is not the way to go about it.

XXXX

Starfleet priority message from cadet Elizabeth Chan to Lieutenant Commander Sulu.

Subject: Take care of my sister.

So obviously the fact that I'm writing you tells you that I know that Sue was kidnapped and promptly rescued by Enterprise or maybe held hostage would be the better term. My mom managed to tell me just a few minutes before Kevin got Jim's message that he really wasn't supposed to send. Apparently, when you're doing a super top-secret rescue mission, you're not supposed to send a message through your brother to the victim's sister even if she's now safe onboard Enterprise receiving medical treatment.

Mom didn't tell us anything about what was happening for days. She was holding up this happy façade when she was really falling apart on the inside. I was worried that her last checkup said she had one of the few strands of cancer that we can't cure yet. Mom said she was waiting until they found her to tell us what was going on. Which is why she did tell us as soon as Enterprise began the mission. Although by not waiting until the rescue mission was over, she didn't know Sue's status which made it worse. Maybe she wanted us to be together when we found out. Unfortunately, there was a long lag in communications. The Lag Time Is Getting Very Annoying.

Maybe I'll write more after I have time to process what is happening. I kind of feel bad that baby's second Halloween mostly consisted of her eating candy while in a costume as I cried a lot.

Just take care of my sister. Keep her safe. Also, if you can punch out anybody on the Hamilton that was involved in this cluster fuck, that would be awesome. I still don't think it was just the captain. I mean, they kept the team missing check-in from Starfleet San Francisco for over a week. They did nothing until Garber took over. Something's not adding up. Okay maybe I've been reading too many after-action reports from the battle of Vulcan, including mom's uncensored diaries. It's not paranoia if they're out to get you.

I'll write more tomorrow. Honestly, I need some more time to process that there was another damn conspiracy going on. I remember what a mess Kevin was after the Vengeance incident. Now I am that mess.

You should know I sent you some pictures of Baby D and me eating chocolate together yesterday. We sent them the old-fashioned way so you might not get them for two weeks. Jim authorized unlimited rapid messaging, but we don't want to be greedy. I'm also not 100% sure it applies to images anyway.

Anyway, give my sister my love, and I hope that she stays with you until your new Vulcan assignment, so we get to see her in December.

xxx

Starfleet priority message from cadet Elizabeth Chan to Lieutenant Commander Uhura.

Subject: Thank you for rescuing my sister

I'm going to start this with thank you so much because Jim and my mom said you were unbelievably valuable in getting my sister back. Thank you. I also heard that you are an integral part of the investigation to finding out what the fuck happened. So, thank you for that too.

Before all this went down, I wanted to ask you a bunch of questions about the Vulcan incident for my project. It doesn't seem like the right time right now. I need to focus on what happened. Although Ben recommendsI distract myself for a little bit and since I am not leaving Starfleet, I should probably try to finish my report.

Although I'm not in that mental headspace to read statements right now. Maybe tomorrow. At a minimum it will keep my mind off the fact that my sister was held captive for like two weeks and nobody told me. I may have had an extremely uncomfortable lunch with my mom where I may have yelled that at her.

I know my sister is on Enterprise, and everything's allegedly okay now. I'm not sure. Is Sue okay? As a Tarsus survivor I know that there are numerous variations of okay. I'm worried mainly because Jim mentioned therapy. It's good that she's talking to somebody, but I'm worried about the fact she needs to talk to someone. I'm also scared and a little freaked out because I came so close to losing my sister and I didn't even know. I keep holding the baby for dear life. Okay maybe today's lunch with mom made it worse.

Anyway, thank you again. Also, give JoJo a hug for me.

Xxx

Starfleet priority message from Lieutenant Commander Sulu to cadet Elizabeth Chan

Subject: Your sister is fine-ish

Your sister says she's fine or is as fine as she can be after being held hostage for two weeks. The kids made her and Gina brownies today. She can't eat them yet, but she appreciates it and I have put them in a stasis chamber. Leonard says she can have one in a week. However, right now it's applesauce and rice for the moment, but she is eating actual food and is happy to be in my room now.

Trust me, I am furious which might be why I'm not being assigned to the Hamilton. I might do terrible things with a rapier. The powers that be are not happy about sending Scotty over there to be the temporary captain, but everybody agrees with Jim's assessment that it's probably for the best. Okay, everyone agreed with Jim's desire not to bring his kid over there. Besides, we are going to be investigating for at least two weeks, which will keep us in the Hamilton's orbit.

Because of the situation, Sue is being given the option for the rest of her tenure on the Hamilton to be curtailed and to stay on Enterprise to recuperate before going onto the next onward assignment which will probably be Yorktown. You usually get an excellent job after surviving a kidnapping. Of course, if she doesn't take that option, Sue will probably get made the captain of the Hamilton and I'm not sure if she wants that. I know she didn't want that before. She has time to make a decision.

As for me, I'm not quite sure how I feel about her possibly going back to the Hamilton. Okay I really don't want her to go back there. Nobody told your mom what the hell was going on until Garber got back on the ship. That makes me worry about the type of people that were there and how they see Sue. It's hard to be the captain of people who don't respect you.

Thanks for writing. Sue's happy to hear from you even if you sent the message to me. Tell my boyfriend that I do need to hear from him soon and the kids. Let the babies know that I love them so much. It's been a tough couple of days, but it's starting to get better. Sue is safe right now, and we can deal with everything else later.

PS: Do you think Jim's ultimate rapid message rule applies to video files? Or at least still images because we could really use some happy baby moments right now. I'm sure Halloween wasn't what it would've been, but please tell me there are adorable pictures of her in costume?