Character Journal Part II
Mar. 11th, 2007 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
velvetpageLieutenant-Commander Kathleen Bell, acting Chief Medical Officer, FSS Bellerophon, private log.
I'm writing this at some remove from the events themselves. After limping back to Starbase in minimal warp, accompanied part of the way by an escort at once hostile and terrified of us, and being debriefed here by higher-ups whose primary sentiment towards our actions seems to be consternation, I've become rather defensive about the last part of our abortive mission under the command of Acting Captain Freeman. I maintain now, to anyone who has the authority to require a response from me, that we did the only thing we could have done. I will so swear to my dying day.
When our entire command staff was killed in the subspace wave that ran through known space, decimating any ship that happened to in subspace at the time and doing a fair amount of damage even to those that weren't, those of us who were previously second in command of our departments had to take control of our ship. We did it admirably. We lost no more people after that; we got the ship home in one piece; and we saved the life of our last remaining senior officer, though it will be many months before he can function well again.
We were also faced with a dilemma that many senior captains would have struggled to come to grips with. While we were still repairing the communications consoles and trying to sort out the many garbled messages we were getting, we received a communication from relatively nearby, on the other side of the Klingon border. We had just figured out that the subspace shock wave that battered us had come from inside Klingon space, indeed right at the heart of the Empire, and it was clear from the message that the Klingons were also suffering its effects. The message was from a planet, and it was a call for desperate aid. An asteroid had been knocked off course by a merchant ship which crashed into it when the wave hit. It was in a rapidly deteriorating orbit around a colony planet, and when it crashed it would render the planet uninhabitable within hours.
Captain Freeman decided to break the treaty, cross the border, and attempt to break up the asteroid, thereby saving the planet. It was his tactical skill that made such a thing possible, and it took most of our photon torpedoes to make it happen. But it worked. The planet was saved, along with its several million lives.
We were preparing to leave when a damaged Bird of Prey showed up, posturing and threatening to blow us up and calling our incursion an act of war. Of course, technically speaking, they were perfectly right. A Starfleet ship crossing into Klingon space is indeed an act of war. In this case, it was also a humanitarian mission. (I have been reliably informed that that rather racist word has no direct translation into Klingon. The part of me that went through Starfleet Academy knowing that many battles I fought would be against Klingons, finds that completely logical. The part that is a doctor, a humanitarian profession by very definition, is appalled at my own discrimination. But I digress.) The Bird of Prey escorted us out of their space and sent a strongly-worded diplomatic protest to the Federation.
Our commanding officers back at base have been wracking their brains in an attempt to decide what to do. How do you reprimand a crew who has taken command in a difficult situation, and saved a planet in the process? How do you NOT reprimand a crew that nearly started a war with a traditional enemy that has long been lurking on their border, waiting for just such an opportunity?
Even as the Captain was performing precise surgery on that asteroid, I was preparing our sick bay to evacuate anyone who was willing and able to come in the time we had to accomplish such a feat. I know very well that we could not have pulled it off. We had no room, and no resources, to offer evacuation. But I prepared for it anyway, because it was all I could do. I am a doctor. It is not in me to leave innocents to die if I can prevent it.
I suspect we will be promoted, and will retain command of the Bellerophon. This will happen fairly quickly, because the situation in Klingon space requires a Federation answer and our previous mission makes us admirably suited to that. They won't want to do it, though. If they had the choice, they would bury us at the other end of the galaxy, never to command again, for causing embarrassment. But embarrassment is quickly taking a back seat to change, and we are a part of that change. They can't afford to sideline a command staff who have proven their mettle so aptly.
We did the right thing. Freeman made the only command decision that a moral officer could have made, and we backed him on it. We did the right thing.
Why must we keep defending it?
Lieutenant-Commander Bell, logging out.
I'm writing this at some remove from the events themselves. After limping back to Starbase in minimal warp, accompanied part of the way by an escort at once hostile and terrified of us, and being debriefed here by higher-ups whose primary sentiment towards our actions seems to be consternation, I've become rather defensive about the last part of our abortive mission under the command of Acting Captain Freeman. I maintain now, to anyone who has the authority to require a response from me, that we did the only thing we could have done. I will so swear to my dying day.
When our entire command staff was killed in the subspace wave that ran through known space, decimating any ship that happened to in subspace at the time and doing a fair amount of damage even to those that weren't, those of us who were previously second in command of our departments had to take control of our ship. We did it admirably. We lost no more people after that; we got the ship home in one piece; and we saved the life of our last remaining senior officer, though it will be many months before he can function well again.
We were also faced with a dilemma that many senior captains would have struggled to come to grips with. While we were still repairing the communications consoles and trying to sort out the many garbled messages we were getting, we received a communication from relatively nearby, on the other side of the Klingon border. We had just figured out that the subspace shock wave that battered us had come from inside Klingon space, indeed right at the heart of the Empire, and it was clear from the message that the Klingons were also suffering its effects. The message was from a planet, and it was a call for desperate aid. An asteroid had been knocked off course by a merchant ship which crashed into it when the wave hit. It was in a rapidly deteriorating orbit around a colony planet, and when it crashed it would render the planet uninhabitable within hours.
Captain Freeman decided to break the treaty, cross the border, and attempt to break up the asteroid, thereby saving the planet. It was his tactical skill that made such a thing possible, and it took most of our photon torpedoes to make it happen. But it worked. The planet was saved, along with its several million lives.
We were preparing to leave when a damaged Bird of Prey showed up, posturing and threatening to blow us up and calling our incursion an act of war. Of course, technically speaking, they were perfectly right. A Starfleet ship crossing into Klingon space is indeed an act of war. In this case, it was also a humanitarian mission. (I have been reliably informed that that rather racist word has no direct translation into Klingon. The part of me that went through Starfleet Academy knowing that many battles I fought would be against Klingons, finds that completely logical. The part that is a doctor, a humanitarian profession by very definition, is appalled at my own discrimination. But I digress.) The Bird of Prey escorted us out of their space and sent a strongly-worded diplomatic protest to the Federation.
Our commanding officers back at base have been wracking their brains in an attempt to decide what to do. How do you reprimand a crew who has taken command in a difficult situation, and saved a planet in the process? How do you NOT reprimand a crew that nearly started a war with a traditional enemy that has long been lurking on their border, waiting for just such an opportunity?
Even as the Captain was performing precise surgery on that asteroid, I was preparing our sick bay to evacuate anyone who was willing and able to come in the time we had to accomplish such a feat. I know very well that we could not have pulled it off. We had no room, and no resources, to offer evacuation. But I prepared for it anyway, because it was all I could do. I am a doctor. It is not in me to leave innocents to die if I can prevent it.
I suspect we will be promoted, and will retain command of the Bellerophon. This will happen fairly quickly, because the situation in Klingon space requires a Federation answer and our previous mission makes us admirably suited to that. They won't want to do it, though. If they had the choice, they would bury us at the other end of the galaxy, never to command again, for causing embarrassment. But embarrassment is quickly taking a back seat to change, and we are a part of that change. They can't afford to sideline a command staff who have proven their mettle so aptly.
We did the right thing. Freeman made the only command decision that a moral officer could have made, and we backed him on it. We did the right thing.
Why must we keep defending it?
Lieutenant-Commander Bell, logging out.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 01:57 am (UTC)I feel a bit cheesey nitpicking, but as you say yourself, you're not as familiar with Trek as many of us:
- Although "FSS" (for [F]ederation [S]tar[s]hip) would arguably make more sense, the standard terminology is "USS" (for [U]nited Federation of Planets [S]tar[s]hip).
- 'Scrubbing' isn't really part of the medical drama of Star Trek - trauma operations are pretty rare and most medical procedures seem to be performed largely remotely - there's a lot of looking sagely at prostrate patients while holding glowing, beeping pieces of plastic over them and using technobabble. We'll find other elements of medical procedure/ritual to replace that in situ
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 03:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 09:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-12 09:49 am (UTC)I will make some changes as per your suggestions. I know the value of good editing. (There's a joke in there somewhere, I think, but this post is public so I won't spell it out.)