Captain’s Log;

“The Century has completed the journey through the Thomar Expanse and is now charting a course recommended by our science department to begin charting and cataloguing the various star systems along our path. Lieutenant James has tagged several systems as worthy of in-depth study, giving us a rather robust schedule for the next few months. We will be sending expeditions to the surfaces of several planets capable of sustaining various forms of life, as well as several planetoids that might harbor rich mineral deposits suitable for future mining operations. Regardless of their utility to the future, it is exhilarating to both the crew and myself to be the first to set foot on new worlds. Perhaps I, myself, will indulge in the practice… if my Executive Officer doesn’t raise too much of an issue over it…”

Captain Gar’rath paused the recording and sank back into his chair, contemplating his previous statements. Because they were exploring uncharted territory beyond the boundaries of what was considered to be ‘known’ space, there was a non-zero chance that his logs would be reviewed at some later date by those that follow in the Century’s trail. Training for a command post did little to prepare the Gorn for the apprehension he was feeling in the corners of his mind about actually being in a position to trail blaze like the more historic members of Starfleet who’d come before him had done.

The door to his Ready Room hissed open, the figure of his Executive Officer appearing through the now empty entryway as she approached the chair that was situated in front of the Captain’s desk.

“Do you think any of them were prepared to be the first to discover things back then?” Gar’rath asked, catching the Commander by surprise with the sudden question.

Commander Peters blinked for a moment, trying to process the question in some intelligible fashion before sinking down into the chair she’d been approaching, “Who are we talking about?”

“The crews that led the way for exploration in the past,” the Captain clarified, “I was just composing a log about our progress and it occurred to me that we are very much following in the footsteps of our predecessors.”

“Huh…” Abigail murmured as she incorporated that new bit of information, “I hadn’t actually thought about it until you brought it up. My gut says they probably weren’t as ready as they hoped they would be back then. Hell, if I’m being honest, now that I’m sitting on the other side of things, I’m suddenly not sure I’m all that ready to make bold new discoveries out here. Pretty deep topic to come out of composing a log.”

Gar’rath snorted at the statement, “I suppose it is. Perhaps I am making more of it than it requires.”

“I wouldn’t say that, exactly. It’s not as if it’s unusual to think about what people many years from now will think of what we’re doing out here. If history has taught us anything, it’s that people in situations like ours tend to live in the moment and only stop to question what they did in that moment long after it’s passed. And even if they had a conversation similar to the one we’re having right now, they still proceeded exactly as they did… so maybe it’s just something we keep in the back of our minds and revisit it after we’re back in Federation space. Maybe that’s the trick to it,” Peters mused before shrugging, “Or free will is an illusion and we’re all moving according to some grand design from an invisible puppeteer.”

“I’m not sure which of those scenarios is the more disconcerting…” Gar’rath said, his maw drawing downward in a semblance of a frown.

“Yeah… probably a little too deep a thing to think about this early in the morning,” Abby smirked before lifting the PaDD she’d carried in with her to scroll through the report she’d been planning to make, “How about we lighten the mood with this morning’s status updates?”

“I never thought a status report could seem so uplifting…” the Captain retorted in a somewhat deflated manner.

“Take the wins where you can,” Peters shot back before continuing, “The initial survey of the first and second planet in this system have been completed, Lieutenant James reported that both planets are standard inner planetary bodies with little in the way of heavy metals or other useful materials. According to his note here, they are ‘pretty benign’. Operations reports that one of the sensor arrays being used for the outer system scan needs to be taken offline for a part replacement. They say it’s drawing more power than it should be due to a fault somewhere in the distribution relay. It should be down for about six hours while they locate the fault and make the repairs. They’re looking to get your approval before they take it offline because it presents a vulnerability to our long range scanning abilities.”

Cmdr. Peters took a moment to scroll through a few small notations that she’d already handled at her level before moving on to the next big item on the list, “Initial surveys conducted by the Flight Ops department over the third planet have revealed the possibility of former habitation on the surface by a pre-industrial civilization. They have not made entry into the planet’s atmosphere as of yet, and our anthropology team is currently going over the findings to confirm their suspicions, more to follow on that.”

“That would be a great find, if that is indeed what they have picked up,” the Gorn said with a small bob of his head.

“Agreed,” Abby remarked, “But let’s save the celebration until the experts bless it.”

“Of course, please continue.”

Peters skipped over another two entries before coming to the end of the report, “No need. That was all I had for you this morning.”

“Very well, have operations take the sensor array offline, that shouldn’t impact anything we’re doing to any great extent. Have Security closely monitor mid-range sensors while they complete the work. While we may not be in hostile territory, it never hurts to be forewarned about someone approaching us from parts unknown,” the Captain outlined as a condition of his approval for the maintenance.

“I’ll pass that along. Anything else we need to discuss?” Peters asked, looking up from her PaDD after noting down what Gar’rath had said.

“I believe that should do it for the moment, Commander. I’ll be spending most of the morning going through some of the requests that have been siting in my queue for a while, since there isn’t much need for me on the bridge at the moment.”

Abby chuckled as she stood, “Ah… paperwork… the never-ending battle. I’ll leave you to fight the good fight, Captain.”