Alex Chou's Log for: 1/24/2352 12:23


On the way to meet Steele I saw 2 marines walking around with firearms at their side. I stopped walking and stared at them. My gut filled with dread. I gave security of the ship over to Cortez's marines. Who knows how many at any one time could be armed. What would happen if Steele and I went through with a plan to remove Cortez from duty? Before, if Cortez resisted and ordered his marines to help, the worse we would face would be some shouting and blows being exchanged. Now... who knows.

I shared the thought when I met with Steele this morning.

"Chou, if we aren't careful, we could have a possible fire fight breaking out", Steele whispered. She was staring at me from across a table she set up.

"As dumb as marines are, I can't imagine them firing on humans, let alone fellow members of the military", I whispered back. We met in Steele's quarters which, like mine, the walls are sound proof. So, once again, I don't know why we were whispering.

Steele took a deep breath. She spoke slowly. "Let's not test their dumbness. When we arrest Cortez-"

"If. If we arrest", I interrupted.

"Right. If we arrest Cortez, we should do so when there are no marines around and get him to either the brig or confined to quarters as quickly as possible."

"Why don't we just do it when he's already in his quarters late one night? Show up, tell him what's going on, and confine him to his quarters. That way he'd be sleepy and there wouldn't be any marines near by."

Steele and I discussed the issue for an hour and didn't really come up with a better plan. As it turns out there's only so many ways to tell a superior officer you're not going to listen to him anymore.

At the end i asked Steele about Taylor. "Steele, can you see if you can make friends with Lieutenant Taylor? Feel him out. He's Cortez's XO. If we can somehow get him-"

Steele began shaking her head. "No way. I've already talked to him. He his completely loyal to Cortez."

I let out a sigh. "I just figured if..."

"No", she said shaking her head. "We're on our own."

"Great", I said. "Well, we better get to the command center. We don't want to be late to seeing what crazy thing Cortez does today."

Steele laughed. "I'll see you in the CC, Chou", she said.

I left her quarters. Upon leaving I felt for the first time that I had an ally on this ship.

System Command: End Log.