From the end springs new beginnings

Posted on Thu Jan 29th, 2026 @ 6:17pm by Lieutenant Jane Belanger Dr

664 words; about a 3 minute read

Computer begin personal log.

I’m packing so this is a good time to talk to myself. My mind should be all on Sentinel Station as I am finally within reach of my new assignment but a message was delivered to me. It comes from Captain Caroline Paris, newly in command of the USS Pioneer as she informs us.

As former and nearly last First Officer of the USS Essex NCC-173, she has vowed to have one such message go round every year, to surviving crew members of the Essex. They survived because, like her, like me, they transferred out before what was to happen.

My old ship… the only ship I served on after graduating from the Academy disappeared last year with a crew of nearly 230. Two years after I left, one year after then Commander Paris did. Circumstances are still unclear but the hard facts remain. Many we served with were still aboard when it happened, many families would still be in mourning now.

I lived inspiring times on the Essex, once I started looking beyond Sickbay, which was really the only safe place where I didn’t feel like a fumbling fool. Thankfully I wasn’t the only late comer to the uniform but an Ensign will be an Ensign.

I didn’t have all that much time to dwell, as a matter of fact. My 3 year service aboard started with First Contact with the Saurans. It finished shortly before they made First Contact with the Deltans.

People love to pass around hearsay and more about the species. On a good day I won’t usually inform them that an officer was lost to us on that encounter, one I also happened to know. I pondered so many times if I could have come up with...

Computer delete recording after “Saurans” and resume.

It’s good to have the memories even if some can be a burden at times. I’m a doctor. After 4 years waltzing between several facilities hosting the Interspecies Medical Exchange programme, the old Essex manifest can still scroll in my head almost fresh and I know exactly who still lives. Just like them, I will answer Captain Paris’ message and it will do the rounds to everyone she included.

I stand ready to receive theirs over coming weeks and months, depending. This is how our space families continue to exist. My next message of course will be to my parents, whose way of life is beleaguered by more of these newer, faster cargos making the ECS runs now.

I’m digressing again really. I just returned from Sickbay where I said goodbye to a few people. I didn’t know them for long, just an officer along for a ride, one they could use for an extra. The ride had its moments though. I know I said it before but, UFP or not the ship is full of… so many Humans! Many more than I found myself around in any one place over the past 4 years.

It’s almost like arriving on Earth 18 years ago. Billions of Humans in the streets, so incredibly diverse and unique! I can only imagine it will be much of the same on the station – except it’s way out there, in the Delphic Expanse. I have strong expectations of it becoming an active crossroads for many species. Xeno medicine is my trade after all and I would hope I was chosen on this account.

The other highlight to these few weeks is, I just spent a bunch of shifts mostly treating Humans and they lived to tell. Ha!. Maybe that will be my new catch phrase… I’ll work on it a bit. Humour comes in many shapes too. Let’s hope I haven’t lost my touch. See what I did there?

The call came through and I’m all packed. Time to go and see it all up close. Computer, end recording.

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Lt Jane Belanger, MD.
CMO
Sentinel Station

 

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