“We’re our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.”

Tom Robbins, (1980)

<< Captain’s Personal Log – Stardate 79448.35 >>

“At our core we are born with the instinctual and pervading instinct to help. Compassion and empathy are the virtues that define the civilized mind and form the basis of any morally and spiritually humane society. The rescuer fosters that sense of deep empathy, drawing upon their own fears of facing the uncertainty of being imperiled within the void of space and is compelled to decisive action.”

Lane paused in her recording and took a sip of coffee; outside the tiny viewport the myriad stars of the cluster were teased into a quicksilver stream as the powerful warp drive of the USS Kirk elongated their bright ethereal – forms into a spaghettified – fresco of visible light that seemed to stream past the hull as the crew performed their questing search.

What must it be like? To be truly lost amongst all of that nothingness?

She resumed recording.

“The courageous act of aiding someone in need, often in the face of personal risk, highlights a profound compassion that transcends boundaries of self-interest, demonstrating a shared connection and mutual responsibility towards each other’s well-being. Compassion, in this context, represents the very core ideal of what it means to be Starfleet. Similarly, empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, is not a passive state of mind but an active engagement that inspires one to step into another’s plight and provide aid and is shared by all sentient species – not purely the purview of our own institution.”

“Then why is it, that the mission to rescue those that are intrinsically our allies and colleagues, elicits so much contention amongst their would – be rescuers?”

Lane paused her log again and considered erasing that last sentiment and re-recording it but ultimately decided against that self – censure. This was a personal log after all. It was unlikely that any CO would commit such thoughts to an official log – the Romulan Republic were ostensibly allies of Starfleet, their involvement in joint – fleet operations officially authorized and endorsed by the United Federation of Planets itself.

Yet, this alliance (and to a certain extent even that with the Klingon Empire – although the two sovereign states had a longer, if not always wholly harmonious, history of collaboration) with this surviving faction of former Romulan Star Empire was not universally popular with many in Starfleet.

The Romulan’s reputation of Machiavellian machinations and betrayal lingered long in the darkened memories of some and, even though they were all active participants in the current search for the lost Republic Science – vessel, Lane was sure that some participants engaged in the search – effort were considerably less active and motivated than others.

She more that suspected that her own Executive Officer had at least one foot in the latter camp, but she had known Bohrigm since their time at the Academy together and she would not have chosen the Tellarite to serve as her right hand, had she not the confidence in his own moral compass. It was widely accepted that there was no love lost between his people and their former Romulan adversaries, but Lane was sure that he would do his duty – with Bohrigm Nil the mission always came first.

Lane wouldn’t have it any other way.

Lieutenant Commander Hanley and her crew had been ordered to break from customs and border patrol duties around Framheim Station and to set course for the Hecate Cluster to join in the search for the Romulan Republic Science Vessel, the RRN Selquar. The Galas – class ship had been dispatched to the nearby Binary – Cluster newly christened ‘Hecate’, ostensibly on a routine mission to make stellar – observations on the ‘eclipsing – binary’ stars that lent the system it’s eponymous namesake.

Contact had been lost with the Selquar some 11 days previously. At first, this omission of protocol did not rouse any serious concerns. Sub – Commander Thecal was a seasoned captain and it was not unreasonable that any legitimate scientist of note would not and could not fail to be distracted by the prospect of uncovering the plethora of new discoveries that the undiscovered frontiers of the newly – opened up territory of the Shackleton Expanse surely represented.

It was said that the heart of science was measurement, after all.

The matter went unremarked and seemingly unremarkable as occurrences go, until the Selquar missed its second scheduled contact and then a third came and went with no reply.

A single Malem – class Bird of Prey was dispatched from Framheim to locate and castigate it’s wayward sibling for such willful transgressions of protocol and all concerned justly assumed a reprimand would be entered into the Sub – Commander’s service jacket and life would move on as it ever did, whilst the Selquar shared a raft of new discoveries and meaningful data.

But when the RRN Laehval arrived on station, there was no sign of the Selquar to be found.

Still concern was not unduly high amongst the joint – command elements assigned to this new region of the Beta Quadrant. A Galas – class science vessel was an assuredly capable ship and more than able to handle itself and protect itself from most threats it might encounter. It was a recently new edition to the Republic Navy, itself only been commissioned in 2399 – so it was unlikely that it would have encountered any issues related to failure of its systems. Lastly, the Hecate Cluster was relatively close to Framheim’s own operating space and it was not considered a particularly hazardous volume of space.

As time went on and no sign of Sub – Commander Thecal was found along the route of their published flight plan, more vessels were assigned to search for the missing ship, ostensibly Republic vessels at first, but as the days drew on and no clue as to the Selquar and the fate of her crew was found, additionally vessels were suborned to join in the search efforts, including those of Starfleet and their IKN allies.

Hanley and her crew had joined the effort and had spent the last five days of increasingly fruitless and frustrating searching with the Shran – class Escort’s powerful long – range sensors, scrutinizing impossibly vast tracts of hitherto unexplored space, hoping to uncover some clue pertinent to the perplexing paradox of the Selquar’s disappearance.

A good skipper always keeps her ear to the bulkheads and Hanley was keenly aware that the one unregulated system operating aboard a starship was also one of the most dangerous, if it was not monitored regularly and kept in rigorous check.

Scuttlebutt.

Ever since ships had put to sail & seas, the ubiquitous rumor mill (derived from the nautical term for the cask used to serve water abord ships) had been the rambunctious focus and exchange of unfettered gossip likely to put any office – water cooler/break room network you’d care to mention to utter shame.

Sailors of sea or space, living together in close proximity with time on their hands always found time to spin a yarn and distort the truth, if only for the purposes of entertainment on long voyages.

In some ways it was the most effective communications channel aboard ship and a canny captain could actually use this dissonate echo – chamber to their advantage (if judiciously managed), but as equally injudiciously – if left unchecked, even a simple uncomplicated fact could be conflated to a wild – rumor that could unbalance morale and upset the flow of efficient operation – quite figuratively (if not literally) scuttling the ship as an effective command.

On a ship as small as the USS Kirk, where everyone knew everyone and far too much about each other’s business, it was near – impossible to counter and Lane Hanley normally kept her crew in line through rigid discipline and the enthusiastic application of routine maintenance tasks and drills.

However the Romulan’s, as a race, had long occupied a singular place in the minds of their former – the archetypal ‘Nemesis” during the centuries – long galactic ‘cold – war’ that had persisted between the Star Empire and their serried opponents, and even a ship as rigorously controlled as the Kirk had begun to quietly resonate with the dissonant ‘Chinese – whispers’ of conjecture and conspiracy – theory, much to Hanley’s chagrin, so that the truth of their search bore only a scant resemblance to established facts.

As she made her away throughout the ship, variously she chanced on overhead snippets of rumor that equated (respectively) to some ‘shadowy test of a fictitious new Romulan technology’’, or that ‘the Romulans and the Borg had struck some Faustian bargain over the purloined technologies of the Borg Reclamation Project and were secretly moving to establish a new power – bloc together in the Expanse’ or (more ridiculous still) that ‘the Romulan Republic and the forces of the Free States were secretly plotting reunification and the apparent loss of the Selquar was merely  a pretense to draw Starfleet and Klingon assets into a decapitation strike to level the playing field as a prelude to invasion’.

That last was nonsensical to Lane, when she considered the deep enmity that the splinter – factions of the former Star Empire held towards each other. Still, each consecutive utterance was as equally idiotic and confoundingly unhelpful as the last and inwardly Lane cursed her XO as Bohrigm became an unwitting figurehead for this unacceptable flutter of conjecture aboard her ship.

She would have to put a stop to this rumor – monger and she was pretty certain that Lieutenant Bohrigm Nil was the ‘wooden sabot’ she would have to remove from the metaphoric mill – wheel, to see order restored.

Hanley found herself frowning at the screen, the prospects of continuing her log quite forgotten as she remonstrated upon the current state of affairs.

Yes, the Romulan’s had not done themselves any favours in the past and yes, the current state of hostility evidenced by the Republican ship’s captains towards other assisting with the search – effort in the earlier phase of the search had done little to endear them to their Federation of Klingon allies. Yet Lane, espousing the very empathy that she had just been writing about in her log, could understand why the Romulans had closed ranks.

Consider the situation from a Romulan’s position.

They were searching for one of their own and it was understandable that they would operate from a place of deep fraternal concern for their lost shipmates. Add to this the fact that the Romulan Republic was going to great pains to establish themselves not only as an aspiring client state to the Federation, but a capable and productive equal partner within the alliance. The loss of cachet associated with the loss of one of their vessels stood contrary to that goal and if Lane could put herself in the shoes of a Republic CO – she would want to be the one to locate their lost ship, rather than one of her allies.

It was a matter of saving face as much as it was about saving lives.

Lane grimaced as she took too big a sip of her still – too – hot coffee and her attention strayed out of the viewport of her ready room to the stream of light again.

In a way, the Romulan Republic and the UFP were like the ‘eclipsing binaries’ of the Hecate Cluster in which both sovereign nation – states now searched.

An eclipsing binary star was a binary star system in which the orbital plane of the two stars lay so nearly in the line of sight of the observer that the components undergo mutual eclipses. It wasn’t a massive stretch of imagination to liken this relationship to that of the history of both the Federation and former Star Empire.

Both had been bound together in a compelling , parallel orbit throughout so much of their history. Each consigned to eclipse the achievements of the other, vying for it’s time to shine, before the inevitable struggle would reverse and the conflicting orbits of mistrust and dominance throw the other into shadow and would begin the cycle of distrust anew.

That had been the state of affairs before the fall of Romulus.

Now the relationship between both parties was more akin to two bodies with a major difference of mass orbiting a common barycenter. It was also possible for widely separated binaries to lose gravitational contact with each other during their lifetime, as a result of external perturbations, resulting in the gravitational disruption of both systems, with one of the stars being ejected at high velocities, leading to ‘runaway stars.’

For as much as she could emphasize with her crew’s mistrust of their Romulan allies, as much as she could emphasize with the desire for the Republic to be perceived and trusted as a viable ally, Lane more than fully appreciated the full significance of the USS Kirk’s part in this search for the lost Selquar.

This was more than a search for a lost ship and crew. This was more important than one party saving face in the contemplation of another. The fate of the Alliance hung in the balance, in some respects. But it was also much more, she knew.

It required an act of perfect altruism.

Finding and rescuing the crew of the Selquar signified the purest form of compassion and empathy, embodying the indivisible spiritual truth that we are all interconnected and responsible for each other – epitomizing the belief that every life is of infinite value.

If Starfleet could not set aside it’s mutual distrust of the Romulans as allies, then the Romulan Republic would inevitably become a ‘runaway star’ and be lost from the Federation’s orbit altogether. Along with the Free States the UFP would create not one but two antagonistic inheritors of the former Star Empire and that was a fate that would be as disastrous as it was avoidable.

Not on her watch.

Sometimes the act of rescue isn’t just about ‘the right thing to do.’

Sometimes it is an act that involves relinquishing one’s comfort, safety, and sometimes even life, reaffirming the belief that the human spirit is capable of extraordinary feats when fueled by compassion. A symbolic act that often serves as a reminder for individuals to look beyond their own needs and desires, encouraging them to extend their hand in assistance, empathy, and true friendship towards others, irrespective of the risks involved.

Lieutenant Commander Lane Hanley was resolved that she and her crew would do everything within their power to locate and bring the crew of the RRN Selquar safely home.

To do otherwise not only went against the very tenets of her oath of service as a Starfleet Officer but she knew that the act symbolized the power of the human spirit and the willingness to embrace the unknown for the welfare of another.

With this thought foremost in her mind, she elected to let the log – entry stand as it had been recorded and she turned the console off as she rose from her seat, intent on taking the bridge and continuing the search for the lost Romulan vessel.

She would do this, not because it was the right thing to do, or even that she had been ordered to do so by her superiors.

But because it was the Human thing to do.