The Endurance at Dry-Dock

Stardate: 2290.792

Starfleet Anchorage, Sol

Today is the day. The day you meet your first starship.

Watching from the front viewport of the dock’s transport shuttle, you can see the Endurance, surrounded by an shipyard dry-dock cradle. A delicate wirework of supporting structure around a sleek grey saucer and twin nacelle design that’s as famous throughout the Federation as it is dated, the Endurance is a Constitution-class starship, supported by nearly 300 crew. It’s a well-worn ship, too. You can spot places where shiny new hull meets drab old sections. To others it might look conspicuously out of date, but as the new captain, you love your ship and it’s foibles: it’s all about character.

After all, this ship is going to get you laid like no one’s business, you tell yourself. If it’s not a blushing crewman eager to get a good remark, it’ll be an overly-thankful civilian, or a strange-but-lusty alien dignitary. This ship, and the authority and glamor that goes with it, is guaranteed to open…doors for you.

You have other goals, other reasons to be a captain, sure. You’ve spent nearly sixteen years dreaming of this assignment—of course you wanted to spread peace and understanding and all that. That’s important, too. But first you’re going to enjoy the little things that go along with making the Federation a better place.

First perk: you cherry-picked the crew of the Endurance. Which is unheard of for a new captain, but you managed on account of two very important factors. Most of your requested crew were only in modest demand for crew placement, if that. And you had an in with Starfleet Command’s Admiral Whitfield—knowledge of a certain recreational substance that you had occasionally helped him procure. Those two factors meant that you were looking at a roster that was significantly more…supple than you’d have otherwise.

The dock’s shuttle pilot lands in the Endurance’s hangar, and for a moment as you wait for the hatch to cycle you feel a panicked rush as you’re about to meet your first crewman: Yeoman Brogan.

When you put in the request to have Isobel Brogan as your yeoman—your personal assistant—you expected to get some pushback, as many of your other requests to Admiral Whitfield had been cited as unfair, over-reaching, or simply obtuse. Brogan, however, was an easy transfer to get approved. By the time you’d done a detailed survey of Brogan’s first assignment you started to doubt your criteria for selecting her. She is a Betazoid, a race of natural telepaths and empaths that are relative newcomers to the Federation. Brogan is no telepath, but she’s a potent empath—no more able to filter out her perceptions of others’ emotional states than she is able to selectively filter out unwelcome sounds from reaching her ears. And as she’d gotten a reputation at her last assignment for speaking so out of turn it bordered on insubordination. You might wonder how she’ll react to your casual, entirely innocent impulses and appetites.

At least you’re about to find out. If only you had a proper sense of your own feelings.