Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last conversation. You are so wonderful. We're going to be doing rapid Starfleet messages for a couple more chapters, and then we will start to have some gaps between days. There's just a lot going on now and the rapid messages seem appropriate for this part of the story. We will be going back to our regularly scheduled emails soon. This is sort of like the deep space version of text messaging. Considering what's been happening this seems reasonable.

Day 253: Thank you for rescuing my sister

November 2, 2260

Starfleet priority message for Cadet Elizabeth Chan from Captain Kirk-Spock

After breakfast with Sulu where I informed him that Sue's maternity leave sub's metaphoric fingerprints were all over what happened on the Hamilton (one of his friends was put in charge while the others were missing A.k.a. the guy who didn't notify San Francisco when everyone missed check in), I was told to tell you that yes, you may use rapid messages for baby videos. Honestly, your sister can use the morale boost. We can all use the morale boost.

So quick update on the investigation at least in the case of the Captain Hanlon's razor seems to be in to play. Although I'm not ruling out some gaslighting on the part of his former temp first officer. We have a lot to look through including a ton of lapel cam footage and universal translator logs. Communications is going to be busy.

I promise to keep you updated myself because I'm not sure what your mom will tell you. You know I'm not going to lie to you. I might tell Kevin first so he can break the news gently, but I won't lie. We are family and that's what family does.

xxx

Starfleet priority message from Lieutenant Commander Uhura for cadet Elizabeth Chan

Subject: Re: Thank you for rescuing my sister

Let me start this message by reassuring you that your sister is okay. Recovering from malnutrition and being kidnapped due to being stabbed in the back by someone who wanted her job, but she's doing ok. I talked to her a little bit this morning and I get the impression she's a lot more pissed off about the getting stabbed in the back part. She is 99% sure her maternity leave replacement was responsible for what happened despite being in San Francisco right now. That might be because he is in San Francisco right now.

Other than not giving her enough food and water due to the fact her kidnappers didn't eat or drink a lot and didn't know what to give a human, they treated her and Garber reasonably well (although the captain not so much). They even sent her an apology present. By Starfleet standards, this is considered a decent hostage situation/kidnapping. Our diplomatic team along with Ambassador Garber are trying to smooth out the rough edges. They are willing to listen to her due to her display of integrity. I am on the diplomatic team because I understand the language enough to know when the universal translator is very wrong.

I am so sorry that I didn't reply to you yesterday. Yes, a lot is going on, but I have a good team and the translation work is going really well now that we figured out there was some bug in the system that was mistranslating things. We're trying to decide if it was malicious in intent or just stupidity. Your future brother-in-law is the one doing a lot of that. He doesn't trust anybody else, probably with good reason.

Jim and I have been working together these last couple days on the investigation (mostly so Spock has some plausible deniability), and he did tell me about your original email from a few days ago. First, let me say I'm not mad at you for accidentally telling my 12-year-old child about Kevin getting manipulated into a sexual situation that was statutory at best. It led to a critical conversation that we needed to have. Primarily because her grandfather is… well, let's put it this way, his current fiancé is 22. I'm sure you're aware of how accurate that statement is. There is also her Pavel crush. Thankfully, I know he won't pull a Christine, but I am not that sure about some of the others. I didn't think Christine would do that either, but she did.

Also it let me know that it was time to get certain toxic people out of my life for good. It was a hard decision, but a necessary one and finding that out definitely pushed me over the edge. So, I thank you for that.

I'm always happy to help the next generation of Starfleet officers. Unfortunately, things are a little too messed up right now for me to answer all your questions about what happened in excruciating detail and I honestly don't think you're in a place emotionally to hear all the answers. Jim mentioned that you are already thinking of getting the hell out of here. To help, I have attached my unedited draft of my initial report on the Vulcan incident. I can tell you only about 30% of it ended up in the actual official report.

Although none of the Jim/Spock stuff was even in my initial draft. With good reason. No one really wants to think about the guy that they're interested in being interested in someone else. OK and I tend to use sex as a coping mechanism and I wasn't coping very well. Mistakes were made on everybody's parts.

My initial draft had a lot of curse words in it from multiple languages because I was furious that my report wasn't taken seriously at all. Jim was the only one who put the pieces together and then it was still too late. Spock lost his mom and Ben lost a husband. I lost another best friend and my mom lost Sarah and her wife. All those losses could have been prevented if the Intel I picked up wasn't just dismissed as weird Klingon gossip. There's a lot of anger there in the initial aftermath and honestly, I'm still processing some of it.

I understand the point of this exercise. Sometimes looking at your mistakes can swallow you up inside. Other times it's a way for you to move forward. It gives you a chance to see what needs to be changed and how you yourself can affect those changes. Maybe by looking closely at this past Starfleet fuck up, you can find a better way, but to do that you have to stay here.

I understand wanting to leave. I think after the miscarriage and almost losing Jim, I was ready to leave. Suddenly being a mom to an emotionally traumatized child on top of that made the desire worse. I think those months in Georgia just being able to adjust to everything has really helped. Maybe you should consider taking a break yourself eventually. I think Sue might need a break before coming back. Even if she doesn't go back to the Hamilton and I don't think she is, I think you're still going to have baby D until summer. I don't think your mom would be mad if you decide to do a gap semester with everything going on. That's probably something you need to talk to her about, but not right now. This is the time for healing.

Although maybe send Sue lots of baby pictures. Jim told me he was going to send you a rapid message this morning telling you to send more pictures immediately. She has been going through all the stuff that you sent everyone here. The videos make her smile and I feel like she needs to smile right now.

Xxxx

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

Subject: tons of baby pictures attached.

I got Jim's message. I've sent a bunch of baby pictures via rapid messaging. Let the baby healing begin.

Thank you for getting back to me. Also thank you for not being mad at me for saying the wrong thing to your child. I am glad baby D is still too young to know what we're accidentally saying in front of her although I'm sure her next word is probably going to be a curse word. I used some choice vocabulary words after finding out my sister got kidnapped. So many choice words.

I think you're right about the break. I'm looking at options. Although I don't know what my options are going to be because Kevin will be on the Discovery next year. So that means I will be by myself with Desi with Kevin in the wild blue yonder, Ben will be in Yorktown, and Winona in London. I don't know if Jim got the letter yet, but Winona is relocating to London permanently come January.

Thank you for your notes. They really did edit the hell out of what you said. Thankfully, your report did answer about 90% of the questions I had and the other 10%, I can probably get from asking other people (possibly my mom). I think I'll at least have a halfway passable report. I'm already working on the draft. Again, something to stay distracted with as the investigation continues. I have an interview with Desi's aunt soon.

Xxx

Starfleet priority message for Lieutenant Commander Sulu from cadet Elizabeth Chan

Subject: Did you know that your sister is part of that branch of Starfleet?

Hey, more adorable baby videos attached. Jim said I could send the good stuff immediately so I am.

I've got confirmation from other sources that my sister is ok, but when she's feeling up to it tell her to write me. Also, let her know that I'm glad she's on Enterprise right now. Also, let her know that we're packing for New Vulcan. I can't wait until the semester is over with. This is like the most exhausting semester I ever had, and I haven't even had my simulation yet.

Ben will try to write to you again soon, but I think I'm going to be spending all day tomorrow getting your fiancé rapid message privileges despite Jim authorizing it. His original message got bounced back to us. It was mostly near frantic panic so maybe it's best that one got bounced back. You should get something from him by tomorrow at the latest.

I have an interview with your sister tomorrow because her team is being brought in to do the investigation. Mom doesn't actually trust anybody who is not related to us by marriage, pending marriage, or illegitimate children right now. Although I hate her a little less now that I realize that she didn't want custody of baby D due to her job being a little on the dangerous side.

Anyway, right back when you can.

To be continued