Personal Log for Stardate 40813.3

Posted on 25 Jun 2020 @ 10:30pm by Lieutenant JG Elise Auray

Opting for a video record for this log entry, Elise has set up at the table in the shared chamber of hers and Tressyl's quarters. She clears her throat and begins her recording.

"Personal log for-"

Elise's image on the screen is interrupted by a black cat hopping onto the table and standing before the camera. She laughs fondly and lifts the cat off screen. The recording ends and restarts with her seated before the camera again.

"Personal log, Stardate 408-"

For a second time, her image is replaced suddenly by the black cat sniffing onto the screen. She once more carries the cat off screen, prompting a new recording..

"Personal log for Stardate 4081-"

..but a demanding meow from the corner of the dim-lit background pulls Elise's attention away from the screen. Another recording is not attempted for several minutes as she hunts down her furry ward.

"Personal log, Stardate 40813.3. This is going to be audio-only due to.. difficulties..."

Elise instead chooses to retreat into her small Ensign's cabin, taking the needy Halifax with her down for play.

"Halifax possesses an uncanny ability to disrupt my work. Despite the many hours, our sizable crew complement and vast ship to explore he decides it must be me, here and now. But.. because I love him, I will allow it."

Pulling her sleeve over her hand she lightly pokes Halifax's nose and allows the cat to retaliate without mercy. She smiles but glances up at the room ceiling to speak.

"We have retrieved Madame Santori and are free to depart from Pirakta. Before long we will reach Federation authority and put all of this behind us. I ought to at least speak with her before she is taken away and incarcerated.. she was one of my favourite instructors after all. I believed in her. But now.. mostly I can only think of her role in all of this madness and want to keep away.

Then there is Grenkat..."

Elise glances at the gift flower Grenkat had 'willed' to her, stored in a high tech vase on her makeshift shelf. It was by now very artificially alive.

"Just as soon as we had found him we had to give him back. He wouldn't leave or come with us. He wanted to finish what had begun. To return to face a world on the edge of collapse. From here it could be a long time before things settle for him."

The black cat alternates between gnawing and clawing at Elise's sleeve while she speaks without interruption.

"Normally I do not think I am the kind of person to become unreasonably worried for someone else. But normally I have not first been informed that this someone else was dead before later being upgraded to alive."

Halifax swats a paw impatiently at Elise's idle hand until she resumes "attacking" him.

"Grenkat and I had spoken many times at length about his home. After these talks I concluded that I never wanted to visit Pirakta. Or to even be in orbit of it until after the entire governing body has been replaced. I didn't tell him this. Or so I don't think I did. Having been there in person now, I can safely say.. I was right. And that the next time I see Pirakta had better be from the bridge of my own ship. In my own fleet. "

She hums contemplatively at Halifax, who does not seem to comprehend and chooses to chomp down on her sleeved palm.

"As awful as this experience was that Madame Santori made such a mess of.. there is one truth I cannot avoid: because of her, I got to see my friend again. However briefly. Now I know for certain that Grenkat is not only alive but has a chance to make things different and better if he and those rebels succeed. Which would mean.."

Elise lightly sighs and hoists Halifax up to tuck him under her chin.

"I suppose I should go speak with Madame Santori, then. This should at least be an interesting discussion.."

By now both cat and officer have taken to lazily lounging, but Elise continues to record her log.

"That is all for official business. One thing that is nagging at me.. Noël approaches. I still have not asked him to join me for dinner because I still have not learned how to make it. My mother laughs at me all the way from Saint-Malo for she predicted this very thing would happen when I refused to learn from her. But little does she know .."

Frowning and then gasping, Elise comes to a realization.

"Umm.. that I am running out of time to learn and she will laugh harder still if I end up replicating it instead!"

She suddenly bounds from her nestling in bed, carefully dropping Halifax off on a nearby chair before frantically moving to change clothes.

"Computer, end recording! And locate Lieutenant Kilrai!"

The log terminates.