I hope you're not tired of Space Center posts

As you can see from my past three posts, I've been wanting to go on another Space Center mission for a while. Today, I got my wish.

Graig and I booked the USS Phoenix for a 5-hour mission kind of on a whim just over a week ago. We got Tyler and Melanie on board (thanks to some Christmas money they were able to pay their shares - or in Mel's case, most of it) and two brothers whose family is one of our family friends: Brock and Taylor.

Our mission was to escort the diplomatic vessel USS Lexington to a solar system near Romulan space called Lecia. The Lecians had recently broken off from the Romulan empire in the confusion following the destruction of the Romulan homeworld Romulus. (Apparently Romulus' destruction is mentioned in the recent Star Trek movie.) Lecia had managed to stay independent from the Romulans and another solar system formerly under Romulan control (Bac-something) and had even expressed an interest in joining the United Federation of Planets. Hence the Federation ambassador aboard the Lexington. We were supposed to keep the Lexington and her crew safe during the negotiations.

We made it to Lecia, no problem. But after we got there, the military decided to overthrow the government and kidnap our ambassador. They launched a few ships to keep us busy, took control of the Lexington and used their army to control the Lecians on the planet's surface. We tried to fight back, but it soon became apparent there was nothing we could do but inform Starfleet what went wrong and flee. Pilot Tyler guided us through a nearby asteroid belt to throw off our pursuers and we received new orders from Starfleet soon after: 1)Determine whether the coop was justified or not, 2)Free the Lecians if the coop was proven to be unjustified, and 3)Rescue the Lexington if possible and retrieve the kidnapped ambassador.

Operations Officer Brock intercepted a message from the Lecian general captain (or was it captain general?) to the Romulans thanking them for their help in overthrowing the elected government that helped us decide the coop was unjustified. Using our top secret cloaking device (a prototype only the Phoenix is authorized to have), we snuck over to the Romulan/Lecian border and beamed aboard the command ship, where all six officers were promptly captured by a pair of indignant Romulan officers. First Officer Graig and Engineer Melanie really annoyed them during the following interrogation with numerous smart alecky comments until the Romulan captain finally "stunned" Graig with his gun to get him to stop talking. We were able to escape when the officers went off in the corner to discuss what to do with us, carelessly leaving one of their weapons within my reach. We stunned them both, made a copy of their computer files, and beamed back aboard the Phoenix without further incident.

The files proved the Romulans provided arms to the Lecian military, cementing our belief that the coop was illegal, and included a bonus: a transmission from General Captain Lucius to the Romulans stating he was prepared to take over Bac-something, the neighboring solar system, as well. The Romulans had knocked out all long range satellites, so we had to travel to the other solar system to warn them. This was slightly problematic because they'd closed off their borders to all groups after slipping out from under Romulan control, but once they were convinced the intercepted transmission was real, they were so grateful they sent a fleet of ships to help us recapture the Lexington and free Lecia.

That was a fun part for me as the captain; the Phoenix was put in total command of the battle. Starfleet sent five ships as well, and with advice from Graig and Brock, I directed the fleet and the battle. We recaptured Lecia, found the ambassador still on the planet safe and sound, and took General Captain Lucius prisoner. He caused some problems when he escaped from the brig, but we were able to subdue him and even get him to tell us where he'd sent the Lexington- a Romulan starbase called Constantinople.

We chased the Lexington to Constantinople and again used our cloaking device to sneak in unnoticed. When we were close enough, Brock transported the Federation crew to the Phoenix and then transported a bomb to the warp core of the Lexington. We zoomed away as the Lexington exploded, barely clearing the destructive range in time. There were other Romulan ships with the Lexington that didn't make it. They were caught by surprise.

However, not all of them were destroyed. As we made for the Romulan/Federation border, several ships were able to detect us and set off in hot pursuit. We barely made it past the border before they caught up, and they chose not to follow us into Federation space.

In all respects and definitions, we were victorious. Our flight director, Mr. Daymont, gave us a 9 out of 10 on the mission. (We died three times.) Tactical Officer Taylor proved to be very adept at destroying enemy ships - especially during the battle to free Lecia. Melanie proved to be easily distracted, which wasn't too good in an engineer but she was able to fix things when it counted. Brock, who thought he was signing up for an easy job as operations officer, was invaluable running the transporter and communications. Tyler did well at helm, especially going through the asteroid field. As first officer, Graig was just as calm and quick-thinking as a real officer from the television series.

I will fall asleep happy tonight.