AT/L99 - Crew Log

[Tyra Crawford]

== Crew Log ==

[Lucy Devereaux]

Stardate 22310.04
Lucy Devereaux
Personal Log – Private

Training! Yay! And a ****-ton of studying Cardassian systems and language for this bat**** ‘mission’?! Or at least what Starfleet know of Cardassian systems.

Sure, it’s for a worthy cause. Stop the Cardassians slash the Breen Hegemony from getting their hands on… Wait a minute. They already have the slipstream technology. They mercifully don’t have a clue how to use it. They might guess enough in time, so it’s our job to steal the Callisto back from them, maybe get control this Benamite mining facility and not get killed. I might have missed a step.

Was good training alongside Ben and Jay. Hope we can stick the landing.

Save and encrypt.
End log.

[Aeryn Miller]

Acting Chief of Security's Personal Log

Stardate 22310.05

Lieutenant Aeryn Miller, recording

My official log will come later, but I wanted to get my personal thoughts about this mission out of the way ... just in case. While the circumstances are different and the odds higher than anything that I've encountered so far in my career, I can't help but draw on my past and how it might very well aid me in achieving the objectives that have been set out for us. I'm experiencing the same kind of emotions, but they're nothing compared to what will happen should we fail.

Preventing a war might seem like an impossible task, but I'm confident in my ability to do my part, not to mention the rest of the team, because whatever happens, I know we would have done everything to make this a success, even if it comes at a cost to ourselves rather than thousands, even millions of lives.

I'm also aware that this is the second time we will be bringing back another starship, and against the same people who set a trap for us with the Brittany, but unlike that mission, it's not us versus one galor class ship. Some might call it irony, considering how this started with the break-in at Utopia Planitia, but for me it's a chance to put an end to it once and for all.

Take back what's ours and stop something that's bigger than all of us, and as protocol dictates, I've recorded the necessary letters to be sent to my parents, which wasn't easy but necessary.

End log

[Benjamin Elias]

My name is Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Elias. I am the Chief Engineer of the USS Artemis, and this will likely be the last log I record in that post.

By the time you read this, the Artemis will have launched a classified mission as part of Operation Ursa Major. As part of this, I installed and utilized a stolen cloaking device from a B’Rel-class Bird of Prey in the USS Liberty Bell, NCC-66053-A. 

It was recovered from the K’mich’ta, a ship in the service of sentient traffickers, which was subsequently destroyed. I liberated the ship from them at Pomn on stardate… I honestly can’t remember at the moment. It was over four years ago, prior to the Artemis being commissioned. I was there with my friend, then Ensign Nathan Ramius, when we were both on the Gettysburg, and were caught up in their net. We escaped, managed to rescue several of their captives, and stole the Bird of Prey. We decided to destroy the ship, but I convinced him to recover the cloak before we did so. Ramius did enquire about it eventually, but I told him that I had disassembled it to study its workings, and then dematerialized it bit by bit into the replicator system. By the time he left the ship, he believed that it was long gone.

I got it aboard Gettysburg as a crate of personal effects, and then to Artemis the same way. I would periodically move the crate and relabel it personally to try and avoid it being discovered. Now Lieutenant Commander Cera Morgan, the ship’s quartermaster, did not ask about the contents of the crate, and I never volunteered the information. It is possible that she considered the crate to be full of components for my still, which would also account for me moving it regularly.

As an aside, yes, I have been operating an illegal still on the Artemis, as well as on the Gettysburg and even in my dorm at the Academy. Note for Academy security - do a better job on your dorm searches; several of the wall panels are easy to remove and can hide many things. This is currently where mine is on Artemis as well, in the panel to the right of my replicator in my quarters.

In my own defense, I retained the cloaking device for eventualities just like what this mission has entailed. As a former civilian engineer, I knew better than to discard anything that might prove useful eventually, particularly something as valuable as this. I knew what would happen if it was ever used, or if it was ever discovered, and have been prepared for this. Honestly, I’m mostly surprised I was able to keep it secret this long.

In particular, I would like to note that Captain Tyra Crawford had no knowledge of the cloak’s existence until four days ago, just after we left Deep Space Nine for this mission. She asked for my help and, looking at the problem, I determined this was the best solution. The guilt for this lies on my shoulders, not on hers. She simply decided to utilize the options given, but she had no part in anything that led to her having that option.

That said, after she decided to use the cloak, the two of us were the only ones involved in installing it and preparing it for use. No other member of the Artemis crew, or even the Philadelphia crew, were involved.

I recorded this confession 22310.13, of my own volition.

Computer, please send this to Starfleet JAG offices on Earth, scheduled for receipt three days from the Liberty Bell’s launch. End log.