Captain's Log

[Cptn Moose 0]

Captain's Log, Stardate 10302.11

 

 Once again, we're perched on the edge of chaos.  This is good, according to the philosophers.  Evolution, and thus life itself, only occurs at the point where order and chaos combine.  I've never actually subscribed to chaos theory, but it does seem to rule my life like a hidden zodiac sign.

 

 Our encounter with the Vogarts ended abruptly when they hurled us thru space back to Federation territory.  It took us two weeks to reach them, and five minutes to get home. Alces detected a strange particle emission from the ship once the sensors came back online.  As they disengaged from the hull, the particles traveled incredibly fast back towards the direction we came from  Alces believes that the Vogarts used these particles to take us home, and that now they are returning to their point of origin.

 

  Lo'Ami has since developed a method to re-bind these "hyper-tacheyon" particles to our hull.  In theory, they should carry us with them, back to the Vogarts.  If successful, this would be the first time a Federation vessel has achieved faster-than-warp travel without the aid of some Q, goddess, or other omnipotent egotist.

 

 In theory ... that is the problem.  The particles have almost completely vanished.  There isn't time for a small scale test or a practice run.  We'll be lucky to have enough particles to try at all.  Right now, it's all or nothing.

 

 The question was asked, "Why do we want to see the Vogarts again?"  It's a valid point.  They abducted members of our crew, effortlessly possessing them and wiping their memories clean when done.  In my case, they even altered my molecular structure.  Not that I'm complaining, mind you.  They may have done me a favor.  Still, their manipulations caused untold physical injuries as we tried to fulfill the quest they sent us on.  In short, they kicked our asses.  And it seems that they did it for sport.

 

 However this isn't about them, it's about us.  The Federation has been working on faster-than-warp travel ever since the first giant hand materialized in space and grabbed one of our ships.  Alien species have been tossing us around for hundreds of years and have been making it look effortless.  In all that time, the closest our scientists have come to breaking the warp 10 barrier is a theory for "flux drive," a technique for folding space which, if successful, promises to shred the brain of any telepath unlucky enough to use it.

 

 In spite of the risks, this is why we're all here.  San Francisco is filled with countless Academy graduates cum bureaocrats who decided to play it safe and stay home.  We've been handed a once-in-a-lifetime chance to revolutionize space travel as we know it.  Safe or unsafe, no one here would make the call to not give it a try.

 

Earlier, Hayden gave me some advise. "Trust your gut," she said.  Well, my gut says run like hell.  But instead, we're going to fly.

 

Captain Moose

USS Arcadia, NCC-1742-E