Star Trek - Tuesday

TUESDAY

By

J. R. Simons

"Personal log, stardate 9935.2. Commander John Harriman reporting."

John Harriman stabbed a finger at the controls of his personal log recorder, erasing the previous entry from the digital memory chip.He spoke once again into the recorder’s microphone, "Personal log, stardate 9935.2. Captain John Harriman reporting."His emphasis of the rank "captain" surprised him greatly.He stared at the recorder's screen.The cursor blinked in anticipation of his next words.The words, however, would not come.Slowly, he rubbed his eyes and turned the log recorder off.His personal thoughts could wait; could wait until they were no longer plagued by the image of Captain James T. Kirk.

Harriman folded the digital screen onto the control pad and slid the recorder into its storage slot on the desk.He arose stiffly from the chair, stretched and walked to the bed in his new quarters, the Captain's suite of the USS Enterprise.As he thought of the ship's name he realized how great a responsibility it was to command her.Only four men had commanded the Enterprise: Captains John Archer, Robert April, Christopher Pike and . . . James T. Kirk.

There he was again, haunting Harriman's thoughts like the ghost of Marley in Scrooge's.Why couldn't he shake his image?What was happening to him?

John Harriman was one of the youngest ship's captains ever in Starfleet.He was only 28 when he was promoted to the rank of commander and to first officer aboard the USS Excelsior under Captain Sulu.Suddenly, his seven years at that rank seemed as if they had begun only yesterday, yet at the same time they seemed so long ago.So much of his life had been spent serving the Federation.Commissioned a full Lieutenant upon Starfleet graduation at 22, promoted to Lt. Commander at 25, John Harriman had climbed the ladder of rank more quickly than anyone else, and now, at 35, he was the fifth captain of a starship named Enterprise.

Thirty-five, he thought.Kirk wasn't much older than that when he took command of the first Enterprise.Harriman thought of Kirk now, nearly forty years later, a wizened, shuffling old man with a halting voice and trembling hand.He was embarrassed to think of him, swimming in his ill fitting faded Starfleet uniform, his hair whitened and thinning, his face wrinkled and sagging, his shoulders stooped, his spirit broken by age and the inability to do as he once did.Harriman shed a tear for the ancient mariner.Or was it a tear for himself, for the fear of what he might become when the day finally came that he was forced to stand down because of age and overuse?

"You're being a fool," he said aloud to himself as he sat up on the edge of the bed."Old soldiers never die, they just fade away."Kirk was what an old soldier faded away to.Silently he prayed that he would never have to fade away.He returned to the personal log recorder on his desk and opened it.

The familiar whistle of the ship's intercom interrupted his new entry.

"Captain to the bridge," came the even unemotional tone of Commander Savvik's voice over the speaker.

"What is it Savvik?"

"They are about to commence with the christening, sir.They await your signal that you are ready."

"I'll be right there."

Again he closed the personal log recorder and slid it into its storage compartment on the desk.He re-buttoned his dress uniform tunic, straightened his belt and strode out of the study.Today was the first day of the rest of his life, the beginning of the USS Enterprise's shakedown cruise.

Licia awaited Harriman in the suite's common room as he exited the study.She looked concerned.It always pained her to see him unhappy.She was Argelian and her entire existence was based on a philosophy of joy and happiness.That was what had first attracted him to her when they met on the parade grounds at Starfleet Academy.Certainly she was beautiful and intelligent, more of both than any other woman he had ever known, but she had a zest for life and pleasure that always showed on her face.He had thought it strange that an Argelian would enroll in Starfleet, but as he came to know her better he realized that Starfleet was what gave her pleasure and that was all that mattered in her philosophy.Her presence had the power to cheer him on sight as it did now.That is why he married her.