Stardate 1210.09 USS Remillard Captain Bindi McKinnon

Encryption matrix Willstown Delta Three

As we get closer and closer to Tholian space, I find that I can no longer put off thinking about those disturbingly personal aspects of this otherwise historic mission. There is a reason that some of our records show an NX-01 Enterprise, and some show an NX-01 Yorktown. The same reason that two different sections of the Memory Alpha library complex show two different dates and circumstances of a 'disastrous' first contact with the Klingons. Based on exhaustive study of audio records in the 23rd century, Spock was known to be the first Vulcan in Starfleet, and yet, Ambassador T'Pol once served with distinction as a Starfleet officer on Enterprise NX-01. The seeming contradictions grow and grow as the years go on. Most people don't know anything about it, but the Department of Temporal Investigations has briefed me fully.

There was, or will be, something called a Temporal Cold War stretching from the 31st century back to the 22nd. As a result of that, as well as a mission that the Enterprise-E undertook to April 5th, 2063, we had the Enterprise NX-01 launching in 2155 and all of the changes that came with it. And involved heavily in that temporal cold war was the Suliban race, under the direction and sponsorship of a power that we believe to be future Romulans. There did eventually come a time when the Suliban finally abandoned their benefactors and sided entirely with the newly founded Federation, but were heavily punished by their one-time benefactors. Every world that the already nomadic Suliban had settles on was destroyed, and the surviving 33,000 Suliban were forced to flee.

It was fifty years later that Suliban bases, known as helixes began to be discovered in wildly random and remote places, and the Suliban began to flock to them as homes. Since then, the Federation has been actively but quietly worked to find more and more helixes for the Suliban to live on, and powers and races that would allow the Suliban to live in their neighborhoods. Two leading civilian proponents of Suliban refugee relief in the 24th century are descendants of two legendary names in Starfleet history. Sammy Jo Archer and Jamie Lynn Kirk are also good friends of mine, and they were investigating a reported massive Suliban helix in the Tholian homeworld (incredibly, at the request of the Tholians) when they disappeared. The Tholians have now demanded that Starfleet dispatch a sufficient force to find the two humans and the helix and remove all from their space.

While I am an advocate for any refugee, and I harbor none of the ill will that some still cling to against the Suliban for crimes and aggression by their ancestors in the 22nd century, I have to say that I have taken issue with some of the risk-taking that my two friends have engaged in up until now. While it is true that civilians can often go places and open doors that military or government members can not, they are also not afforded the some of the protection that fleet and ambassadors can offer.

This is a deeply personal matter for me, and I will admit that the sense of thrill and wonder and anticipation entering what has been until now forbidden Tholian space is deepply overshadowed by a very personal stake I have in this operation. It is extremely disquieting, and I am concerned that my sense of objectivity will be challenged along the way.