Captain's log, USS Enterprise-E

The Captain's log on the USS Enterprise-E was the method used by the commanding officer to record the course of events and circumstances that the starship and crew encountered.

Log entrant

• Jean-Luc Picard

Entries

est. 1990s

Second Contact

• "Captain's Log, Supplemental. Kang's ship has imploded, leaving no trace. With the baleful influence of its temporal resonator gone, the rift between realities has begun to knit itself together again. Meanwhile, the phenomenal energies of the X-Men have been put to good use in assisting us to make shipboard repairs in record time. Now all that remains are farewells. The Traveler and Wesley Crusher are leaving to monitor the healing of the reality rift. I am pleased to see that under the Traveler's tutelage, Wesley has grown and is beginning to realize the extraordinary destiny that awaits him. As for the Enterprise and the X-Men...our own worlds await. As the chronal compasses return us to our rightful places, I am struck by the nobility an fortitude I have witnessed during our brief alliance."

est. 2063

Second Contact

• "Captain's log, April 5th 2063...or thereabouts. The Borg have been destroyed. Their attempt to divert the course of human history thwarted...at no small cost to ourselves. However, Zefram Cochrane did succeed in making his pioneering warp space flight. We are now attempting to return to our own time, a hazardous journey into the unknown itself, but this is a fine ship and a sterling crew. I could ask for no better."

est. 2375

Forgiveness

Captain's log

We are entoute to a meeting with the Palami race, where after fifty years have appealed for release from their punishment quarrantine. On most Federation worlds, public opinion runs heavily against forgiving the Palami for the biological crime they committed two generations ago, but we are bringing a Federation envoy to hear their request.
The Ambassador seems unlikely to agree to end the quarantine. After all, the Federation is at war. Our struggle with the Dominion is going badly.
The Ambassador has a point. our thoughts are many parsecs away, where the rest of the fleet is suffering and dying alongside our Klingon allies, battling against merciless battalions of Jem'Hadar. Our crew feels strange to be sent away from the front.
But Starfleet Command says they depend on the Enterprise-- and a few others like us -- to handle urgent matters elsewhere... To race around the Alpha Quadrant, dealing with emergencies... Holding the Federation together while every other resource is thrown into battle.
And yet... Is this mission to the Palami an "emergency?" It seems so routine. Another diplomatic chore. I can't help feeling we'd be more useful at the front.
Meanwhile, our research staff continues to investigate the rogue transporter beam we intercepted in deep space., an event so unlikely that it is unprecedented in Federation history.
I wonder. How long did that narrow beam flow across the vast gulf between stars, a frail ripple in space. It's hard to imagine... A living being, dissolved and encoded as pure information, then cast to drift at light-speed across the galaxy. What were the odds against the it ever being recovered.
Did we salvage it in time to restore the full person.
I can't help wondering... As the encoded wave traveled for so many years... Did it beam?
Dr. Crusher informs me that our unexpected visitor is human. But beyond that, he remains a mystery.

• Captain's log, supplemental.

  We have reached the outer layer of the Palami Quarantine Zone, surrounded by layer upon layer of sentinel drones, set in place more than a century ago to prevent a pariah race from ever again escaping the confines of their solar system.
  What the Palami did to our ancestors cannot easily be forgotten, even if their crime arose from carelessness, as they claim, and not malicous intent. Federation Ambassador Kuhlan seems determined to reject the Palami request. She claims -- and many agree with her -- that this is not the time to let loose a species that proved unpredictable and dangerous in the past. Not while we are still recovering from the damage done by Borg incursions and waging a desperate struggle against the Dominion.
  I can see her point. One more heavy blow could fracture the Federation. We don't need trouble right now. How much easier it would be to leave the quarantine in place until the Alpha Quadrant is safe again.
  And yet, almost a century has passed since the Palami plagues. Their present generation had no part in the disaster. I cannot help wondering if we are compounding their crime by insisting on this harsh curtain of permanent separation.
  Meanwhile, Doctor Crusher has been exploring possible ways to help our mysterious visitor from the past. Enlisting aid from Commander Data and Counselor Troi, she hopes to try an experimental technique she observed at Starfleet Medical.
  Beverly proposes using facilities of Holodeck to tap his subconscious and replay the events leading up to his being beamed into space.
  The techniquei involves creating a complex and delicate neural feedback-loop., reacitng swiftly to the patient's empathy field, letting him control the holodeck with his deep expectations of what his "normal" world was like. Mr La Forge is even now working on a technical solution to the problem of translating subconscious electronic impulses from the patient's brain into holodeck images.
  It sounds a little dangerous. But Doctor Crusher says there may be no other way.

  Captain's log, supplemental.

  I have increased alert status aboard the Enterprise as the mysterious Palami armada approaches. Clearly the Federation should have paid more attention to this system, instead of consigning it to quarrantine...
  Meanwhile, Dr. Crusher's experiment on the holodeck continues, using empathy feedback to simulate events from three centuries ago, when our unexpected guest somehow became a castaway in space and time...

  Captain's log, emergency entry.

  We have suffered damgae from an explosion just as the Palami fleet arrived within phaser range. Could this be the start of war?

  Captain's log.

  Three days after the crisis at the barrier, things have finally settled down. Starfleet sent a full mission to discuss entering diplomatic relations with the Palami.
  And emissaries from the Federation Science Academy have come to escort Colin Blakeney to Earth, for education about his new world -- and long overdue recognition of his genius.
  He will take along the man who tried to murder him... and who delayed the discovery of a true transporter by fifty years.
  Would I be able to forgive, under circumstances like those? We are used to thinking that our ancestors are primitive. But some of them could teach us a thing or two about the true humanity.
  Meanwhile we are discovering another dimension to forgiveness through the Palami.

2379

Death in Winter

• "Captain's log, supplemental. With the help of our friends the rebels, Doctor Greyhorse has set up a small lab here in the tunnels below the ancient castle, and is taking blood samples from Kevrata who are showing symptoms of the disease. He seems confident that his research, combined with what he learned at Starfleet Medical, will enable him to develop a vaccine in a relatively short time. For the sake of Hanafaejas and his people, I sincerely hope Greyhorse's confidence is not misplaced."

2380

Star Trek: Legacy

• "Captain's log, supplemental. With the help of our former allies, we were able to force T'Uerell's collective to retreat from Deep Space 9. While the Klingons believe this is a sign of victory, I am a bit more cautious. Without the support of DS9, we lose the advantage of choosing the time and place of our engagement. However, the alternative of letting T'Uerell escape so she can replenish her drones and ships would be foolhardy. We have no choice but to pursue her to whatever ground she has chosen for this final confrontation."

• "Captain's log, Stardate 57332.5. Victory. Though we have thwarted T'Uerell's masterplan, a victory begs the question, where do we go from here? The Borg have once again left us picking up the pieces, honoring our dead, and hoping for the future. My responsibility here is inescapable. Ripples in the water, a consequence of my actions. However, I have come to live with an understanding that all things have a bane and this one, the Borg, haunt me the most. I could hear T'Uerell in her final moments calling out to me. Whether it was the Vulcan or Borg in my mind, I wonder which we destroyed, and which one was set free."