Alex Chou's Log for: 1/24/2352 20:24


I spent most of the day in the command center. I tried to read over various reports, but I couldn't concentrate. I couldn't stop thinking about Cortez and hoping that whatever his problem is, it would just go away. Unfortunately, Cortez again proved it was hopeless.

Late in the afternoon Cortez showed up in the Command Center. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. Nobody breathed. Oblivious to the tension, he swaggered to the center of the room and flipped on a display. I know he's a dumb marine, but you'd think that even he could feel every eyeball in the room staring at him.

In the silence, I thought I heard a gun being unholstered.

I turned around and looked at Miller.

His eyes were fixated on Cortez. I noticed a facial tick in his right cheek.

Miller broke his glance long enough to look at me.

I shook my head "no". When I turned back around I heard the sound of a gun being holstered.

Mike Quid was the first to speak. "Captain, the comm speakers in the main corridor isn't workin'. I need to take a look."

A broken speaker hardly required his personal attention. I knew he wanted to get away from Cortez and I don't blame him. "Go ahead", I responded.

"I want you to stress test the primary engines", Cortez said.

"What? Why?", I asked.

"It's the only part of the ship that's failed. I want to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"You don't want the engines to break", I said, "therefore you're going to put it under an enormous amount of strain."

Either ignoring or missing the irony in my statement he responded by nodding his head and said, "That's right".

This led to our second argument in as many days. I was trying to calmly and cooly explain how completely moronic his order was. It's a waste of fuel and dangerous. The stress test would only degrade what was already working equipment. The parts that failed were replaced and triple checked. I told him all those facts during our argument.

He countered them all with the well thought out argument, "do it because I say so."

Being the superior officer, his argument won. Noon tomorrow, the test goes forward.

[*sigh] I'm sure Steele will say this is another reason whey we have to arrest Cortez.

System Command: End Log.