Jaruq Log -- 37907.02

[Thomas Jaruq 0]

Computer, begin recording personal log, Stardate 37907.02.

      A diplomatic assignment.  What am I supposed to do on a diplomatic assignment?  I studied at the Academy, of course.  I took the basic diplomacy course.  But I certainly didn't pay attention or anything crazy like that.  I'm an engineer!  Engineers aren't supposed to negotiate with people ... only with technology.

      If these two parties are out of alignment, I can't just zap them with a phase regulator!  And if something breaks, what am I supposed to do?  Pull out the toolkit?  People aren't machines, unfortunately.  There is no way I can apply my engineering knowledge to this mission, so why have I been assigned to it?

      I know why.  It's that Captain Moose.  First he leaves me stranded out in space with only the moments of oxygen an EVA suit provides.  And now this.  And all because of the comments I made out there, comments he was never supposed to hear.  This is some kind of twisted punishment, I know it...

      But then again, what Starfleet Captain would risk interplanetary bloodshed just to discipline an officer?  I don't know.  This one, maybe.  I don't know enough about him to conclude otherwise.  Machines are just so much less difficult to figure out.

      Dad was an ambassador.  What did I learn from him?  The only thing I can remember was when I asked him about his job.  He summed it up in one sentence... "diplomacy is the art of telling someone to go to hell in a way that makes them look forward to the trip."  He ended it at that, and I never asked him another thing about his job.  So, basically, I learned nothing from him.

      These two peoples have been fighting for quite a while.  The ones I'm representing, the Brodynaggins ... er, Bordynangs ... the Broobdingdongs ... eh, I can't even remember their names!  You couldn't tell it when they beamed aboard, but they can apparently reach heights of up to sixty feet.  The other ones, on the other hand, average only a few inches.  I wonder how much their physical statures contributed to the tensions between them?

      It reminds me of the tensions back on my own world, Felinia.  You have the caste that has embraced technology, space travel, and contact with alien races, feuding with the tribal caste that has stuck to the same traditions for thousands of years, all the way back to when Felinia was still an icy planet.  Ever since the "science caste" made contact with the Federation, those tensions have been steadily worsening.  The diplomats back home live very short lives (either because of stress, or being killed by the opposing side) simply trying to keep the castes from going to war.  It's a messy situation that serves as my own personal reminder of how important these negotiations are.

      Which only worsens matters.  I'd rather spend a week in the brig.  By the time this is all finished, I could find myself being held accountable for a planetary genocide.  The worst I ever assumed I could be held accountable for was allowing a warp core to overload.  I knew something like that would never happen on my watch, though, because I have the ability to stop a warp core overload.  I'm an engineer, for Lianos' sake!

      Well, on that note, at least engineering will be in good hands.  Reese, Hans, and Trichon are exceptional engineers with enormous leadership potential.  Arcadia is a better ship for having all three of them aboard.  A diplomatic mission should give them plenty of time to analyze that Vogart dilithium crystal.  I'm also hoping they take some time to get to know one another.  They work well enough on their own, but when they put their heads together, they'll be like a well-oiled ... machine.

      Yeah.  Machines are just so much easier to understand ...