Date: 10/02/2358 Time: 19:33 I heard Lester Donovan was killed last night in LAP. I don't know what he was doing down there. I wish they just let me depressurize the entire area. That way we'd get rid of all of the vermin.
Date: 10/03/2358 Time: 18:41 I finally got the maintenance reports from the Chief today. We're doing quite well for a two hundred and fifty year old piece of rock. The docking clamps need work as usual, but other than that things look pretty good. The Chief has also come up with a new strategy to work more closely with his counterpart in the civilian sector. It seems they've managed to put their egos aside.
Date: 10/04/2358 Time: 18:41 Col Iverson gave me a report on his marines exercises today. The man knows how to train. If we do run into unfriendlies on Terra, I feel comfortable that the Col's men will "pacify" them.
Date: 10/07/2358 Time: 23:33 Had a long day today. I'm going around with Stryker again on his ability to call in the military. Fortunately, President Goldburg agrees with me, but I think Stryker thinks if he hounds me enough, I'll give in. Our constitution clearly separates civilian security and military security, and I plan to keep it that way.
We took a class three impact from a micro meteor today. It got by both forward outrider satellites. I guess it was in coming with several thousand other pieces of rock, and the outrider's lasers were overwhelmed. It impacted over the forward hanger and ripped through some conduits, but the Chief assures me not major damage was done.
I'm having the chief look into networking the forward 20 gig and 30 gig lasers into the outriders. Right now they're just hooked up to long range sensors and are only meant to take out the big stuff. If that micro meteor had sailed through the hanger bay and impacted on a fuel cell or a missile, it would have been like we were hit by a big one.
Date: 10/08/2358 Time: 18:33 The damn docking clamps froze up again on armature 2. The chief wants to scrap them since it's not likely we'll be using them for another three hundred years (unless, of course, we run into any aliens). I want them maintained though. Who knows, maybe we'll run into an asteroid with a enough raw materials on it to build our own capital ship. That would keep some idle hands busy.
Lt Ricks and Lt Johnson both picked up that strange blip again on their fighters long range sensors. Whatever it is appears to be at the very edge of our sensor range off our aft . Unfortunately, someone must have slipped with this information and now the civies are regurgitating that damned alien rumor. Whatever it is, I'm having intelligence keep an eye on it.
Date: 10/09/2358 Time: 18:00 We lost another F2000 today. The pilot is alright, but the fighter's a loss. Lt Ricks was flying forward recon when he hit a cloud of ice fragments. He's lucky he's alive. His on board AI ejected him safely out of the path of the oncoming frozen shrapnel. I guess the G's he pulled broke a few bones, but medical assures me he'll be operational in a few days. We're salvaging what we can from Lt Rick's fighter.
Date: 10/10/2358 Time: 14:00 I don't know how a job can be so satisfying one day and so frustrating the next. The New Births League "assaulted" my office again today. This time they suggested we space the older members of the first generation currently stored in cryogenics.
Ungrateful bastards! I suppressed my initial urge to space Andrews and his fellow clowns. These are our grandparents for crying out loud! They want to eject them to make space for the next generation?!
I suggested to Mr. Andrews that if he were to voluntary space his carcass prematurely, I'd gladly free up ten births for his vacated space. I guess I didn't entirely control my anger.
Date: 10/12/2358 Time: 15:20 Ensign Johnson has begun work on the new fighter. She seems very confident that she'll be able to build one from the bits she has lying around. How did I ever get so lucky and recruit such capable personnel?
Andrews has bugged me for two whole days. I don't know if he's trying to start a feud between the President and me or what. It's not working though. He's just making us both Angry.
Barbara has Stryker posting extra security down in cryogenics, because she's afraid Andrews might do something stupid. I told her I'd start having my marines do simulated combat exercises down there. That should keep Andrews away.
Date: 10/15/2358 Time: 18:20 They finally got the A-3 fighters on-line today. We've got a total of three built from scratch. That's pretty damn good for a facility that's basically supposed to be a colonial transport ship.
I guess the pilots don't much like they way they look. They've taken to calling them the flying watermelons. Evidently they like they way they fly though. It's the first time a craft has ever been built with an inertial stabilizer that didn't leave the pilot dazed after it kicked in. When you're in a combat situation you don't want to be disoriented after pulling a tight maneuver.
I guess the pilots also like the fact that they get to use the fighter's AI off of the ship as well as onboard. Most of these young folks couldn't afford a Z level AI on their salaries so it's a nice little bennie. We're scheduled to begin combat simos with the Escapade fighters at the end of the week. That should be very interesting.
I had a meeting with Barbara today on the state of Genesis. She seemed very distant. I eventually called the meeting short because she obviously wasn't paying attention. Very strange...
Date: 11/04/2358 Time: 20:23 One of my young Lieutenant's came to me directly today. I was a little preturbed at first that he didn't go up through the chain of command. Then he gave me some very interesting news. Lieutenant Wu gave me some sensor scans that seem to indicate that Genesis might have a visitor. At first I was more than a little skeptical, but his reports...
The Lieutenant came up with a very good idea. He suggested I have my marines go on recon excercises. He suggested we make a game of it, tell them that we placed something on the surface that they must find. Something that has the same dimensions as this object. I think the Lieutenant is due for a promotion.
Date: 11/05/2358 Time: 07:00 I've been up all night, but I finally signed the final orders just a few moments ago. I'm mobilizing all forces for operation "Deep Scan". Colonel Iverson just left with the last of his mission parameters for his marines. He wanted to know what we were really looking for, but I'm afraid I had to keep that secret from even Andy.
This place is going to get pretty lively around 17:00 today. Even if we don't find anything it should be a good moral booster.
Date: 11/06/2358 Time: 07:00 I am numb. It's as though I've been kicked in the head and paralyzed from the waist down. I keep seeing the faces of my men as they are vaporized or blown out into space. The casuality reports keep coming in and I keep seeing their faces. Oh God what have I done! It was supposed to be an exercise for the love of God!
Date: 11/07/2358 Time: 12:20 I'm trying to concentrate on the tasks at hand. It helps to ease the pain. I have to find a viable hydrogen source. I've talked to my astrogaters and we are in some serious trouble. If we don't find enough hydrogen soone enough we'll never get this rock back on track.
I've got my fliers on twenty four rotating shifts. They know there's something up. They're not stupid. I'm sure they've figured it out. I hope they just have the good sense to keep their thoughts to themselves. I don't want to get the civilians in an uproar over anything else. I have been swamped during the explosion and the President has had to fend off at least a hundred calls for my resignation.
I need to concentrate on the tasks at hand.
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