Captain's Log: Meeting with Dr. Johanna Sk'Amor

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Captains Log, Stardate 43497.8: Patience is growing thin with our current situation. Despite the best efforts of our chief engineer, the Enterprise remains adrift, all the while new and strange lifeforms keep appearing on board. While no one has yet shown hostility toward the ship or her complement, the scientists and engineers we were tasked with transporting to Alemar III are growing understandably anxious. I have called a meeting with the lead scientist, Dr. Johanna Sk'Amor, in the hopes that I can allay this growing unrest.

The Almarians are not so different from humans, save for a reverse prognathism that gives them a distinctive jawline, and a small ridgeline between their brows. In fact, the dour look Dr. Sk'Amor gives Captain Picard as he enters his ready room would be at home on any Starfleet admiral.

"Thank you for meeting with me, doctor," he says, smiling politely and taking a seat.

"What other choice did I have, captain?" she responds civilly, inclining her head. "Until the ship starts moving again, I am rather at your mercy."

Picard's smile turns tight, until it is practically a grimace. "And you have my continued apologies. The delay has caused complications for many on board."

"None so much as I," Sk'Amor interjects. "The Enterprise was supposed to deliver us to Alemar III many weeks ago, along with needed supplies for our outpost. You understand why it is I am so eager to return, don't you? The importance of our assignment?"

"I know that you are working with geothermal energy," he responds cautiously. "And that you have asked for assistance from the Federation to accomplish your assignment, namely the supplies and scientists you have already mentioned. If I am not mistaken, you have spent a year training this relief team, while leaving your station in the hands of your partner, Dr. Nantor."

Sk'Amor gives him a bitter twist of a smile. "Did you learn all that from a Starfleet dossier? I assure you, captain, our work on Alemar III is much more than that. You know that I and most of my crew are from Alemar IV."

"Yes," he says, rubbing his chin. "I am aware that Alemar IV is inhabited, while Alemar III suffered a catastrophic event many hundreds of years ago, one which wiped out all life."

"Super volcanoes," Dr. Sk'Armor nods. "They turned the planet into a wasteland. You could not breathe the air or drink the water; all colonies were buried under ash and molten rock. Our sister colony was among those to be destroyed. There are only four bases on the entirety of Alemar III, one of which is a terraforming operation."

Picard arches his eyebrows. "You wish to recolonize the planet?"

"We do," she says. "And uncover what happened to our sister colony. We lost contact with them long before the volcanoes wiped them out. My area of expertise is geothermal drilling, as you know, but my partner, Dr. Nantor, is in charge of excavation work as lead archeologist of our team. Before I left Alemar III, they had just uncovered the ruins of what we suspect was our sister colony's capital city. It's delicate work, made even more so by the inhospitable conditions. The whole planet is surrounded by a dust cloud of highly charged particles that, along with the ash and pollution, distort sensor readings and communications."

"Leaving you blind," Captain Picard surmises. "As if you were hunting in the dark for a single grain of sand."

"Exactly," she says. "The geothermal energy fields will go a long way to powering not only our operation, but operations spanning the planet. That includes those tasked with removing the dust cloud and making the planet livable again. But it's not only that we have to contend with; smaller eruptions continue to this day, and the planet suffers devastating earthquakes. We just lost a drilling facility not very long ago to one such quake. It took out everything, and believe me, captain, it was a secure facility. We're still not sure how the damage ended up being so great."

"But if that is the case, how can you hope to re-establish a society on Alemar III?" he asks.

"That is why I have been working with your scientists," she says, happy to be to the point at last. "The team you are ferrying back to Alemar III consists of some of the best engineers and paleoseismologists in the quadrant. Our hope is to better understand what is going on beneath the surface and correct it, so that our work may continue. In the meantime, fortifying our existing stations is absolutely fundamental to our continued work there. In the time my engineers are stuck out here, our facilities could be succombing to yet more disasters. They need us to return with these supplies, post-haste."

"I better understand your hurry, doctor," Picard interjects. "And I assure you, we are doing everything in our power to correct our current predicament."

"But are you, captain?" Sk'Amor presses. "Are you?"

Picard purses his lips, thinking upon the last conversation he had with Q. He is reminded of what Ms. Gemini said: perhaps everyone here has a part to play in realizing a 'Perfect Possible Future'. The one who holds the answers to that question is the only one who can set them back on course, and the few times he has deigned to honor them with his presence, Picard has been nothing short of combative. He sighs, returning his attention to the doctor with one more smile and nod.

"You have my word," he says. "And my assurance that the Federation will fully support your endeavor. But I would like to discuss, please, how we may keep relations between us positive in the meantime. If there is any way in which my ship might better serve you, then it is I who is at your disposal, Dr. Sk'Amor."

She appraises him stiffly for some time before she smiles at long last. "Well, then. Do you have a means of writing all of this down?"

Picard's eyebrows arch. Ah, so there is a long list. The things he must do in the name of diplomacy. "Yes, indeed."