Officers logs (Lieutenant Commander Barker)

Chief Science Officers Log

"The Briar patch war is over, the Mullurians have been defeated by the forces of the Federation and their new allies. The results of this are that the Federation now controls a large area of space beyond the Briar patch. From the reports I have seen, it would take between five to ten years to explore all the new territory and how I wish that I was there to explore it."

"But that will not happen aboard the Leviathan, Starfleet has other matters for us to resolve. Were matters different, then I would be at the top of the list of those aboard petitioning Starfleet to allow us to explore the space beyond the Briar patch. But we still have to defeat our mirror selves, which means searching for the vessel, something which we were prevented from doing because of being assigned to DS 4. Now we must start all over again, although Starfleet has been keeping a quiet eye out and we have several leads with which to follow."

"This enforced absence from the search has allowed the crew to bond again, both with those who had been missing friends whilst repairs were underway and the new member of our crew. The most important being our new Captain, my oldest friend Aki Taybar. Although I first knew her as Aki Rozz, the joining with the Taybar symbiont hasn’t changed her that much. She’s obviously more confident with the crew than Aki would have been alone, I understand that Taybar’s previous host had over thirty years of command experience. It is good to be around her and until now I hadn’t realised just how much I’d missed her company and her friendship."

"The crew is more than ready to resume the search for the ISS Leviathan and the ship couldn’t be better prepared for the fight. With all the modifications that have been made just so that we can fight our mirror selves, the Leviathan is one of the most powerful vessels the Federation has ever produced. During our time here at DS 4, we’ve conducted a number of war games and the ship, it’s crew and the Marines have all performed beyond expectations. One of the major factors has been the addition of the Talon squadron, led by a Klingon of all people. I’ve not had too much to do with Ka’Leth, but he was Aki’s XO at Starbase 173."

"kA’Leth appears to have formed a friendship with Major Phahan, I suppose it’s because they are both warriors, but given the anonymity between the Marines and the Starfleet officers it is certainly good to see the two getting along. The Talon squadron will be not only providing air support to the Leviathan, but also to the Marines and their transports. If the two command officers were ever at loggerheads, things could be difficult."

"kA’Leth’s XO, Ensign Bridie Steer also seems a good pilot, an El Aurian who looks like a twenty year old, but is infact according to her records just over eighty. She’s spent nearly forty years flying fighter, participating in both the Cardassian and Dominion wars. Most of that time has been as a NCO, meaning that she would never gain command a fighter squadron. So she joined the academy about 2379 and graduated last year. Which explains why an Ensign is XO of the squadron, she has the experience but not the rank."

"My only worry at the moment is Ensign ASHER, he seems to be avoiding everyone, preferring to perform his duties from Engineering than on the Bridge. When he’s off-duty he’s either in the holo-research lab or off-line, he’s stopped interacting with the crew socially and is keeping his friends at arms length. The incident with the probe seems to have been the cause of this, but he won’t accept anyone’s help including Doctor Zimmermann’s."

"In the next few day I expect we will officially receive our new orders and that they will be to search out the mirror vessel and destroy it. Let’s just hope this ship is now upto the job, because if it isn’t then this universe maybe lost."

End Log