Nearest Approach

Captain’s Log, Stardate 66256.2

Nearest Approach

Our current assignment is to observe the nearby star cluster, Bellus Fides; this assignment was interrupted when the Communications Officer notified me that he had received an alert over the CLS (Condensed Light and Sound rays) that Venus would be making its nearest approach to Mars in this 26,000 yr. Cosmic Cycle which ends at Stardate 66440.2.  As Captain, I was obliged to instruct all official personnel to be on high alert in the event that we receive immediate orders to deploy to Venus; accordingly, I ordered our navigator to determine the precise location of where our ship would be at that time and asked the quartermaster to make sure we had ample stores in the event of our deployment.  Another communiqué came shortly after but was garbled owing to the confluence of two disruptive forces, Solar flares in the cluster’s twin stars and the magnetic disturbance of a Dark Giant two parsecs away.  The communications officer attempted to ascertain whether the previous transmission was flawed in some way, necessitating a correction, or whether the recent communiqué held new information regarding a different subject; however, communication could not be reestablished with Orvonton Command.  Since our current mission will hold us in the magnetic field of the Dark Giant for the next few days until the mass of its system comes between us, I am making this log entry.

I immediately alerted the crew to start making preparations to reach Venus because the event of her nearest approach to Mars is an event of immense importance to not only my whole Life’s work, as it prefigures the completion and fulfillment of a process I started on Mars around Stardate 4427.1, but also to the whole crew of our Starship because they volunteered for this mission on the chance they could serve in just this circumstance.  I must, therefore, note that the crew is thrilled and jubilant at this possibility and morale is very, very high.  Little did I suspect upon awakening this morning how wonderful this day would prove to be as a result of receiving just that little bit of wonderful news—even supposing our deployment to Venus never materializes.  In an effort to reestablish communication, I have taken advantage of emergency protocols that allow me to utilize the circuits of the Gravity Messengers for communication and I have instructed the communications officer to utilize those circuits to let Orvonton Command know that we have lost our regular communication channels and should be communicated with by the Gravity Messenger Circuits until such time as we pass beyond the field of magnetic disturbance generated by the Dark Giant.  The mood is electric right now among the crew and officers; and we are functioning at the highest level of efficiency I have seen since the Starship was christened.  We are all viewing this opportunity with much heightened expectations and anticipation.