[snip]

Max had returned to the Merrimack after being on the away mission and he was a little split on how he felt about the captain asking him hide the idea of there being dilithium on the planet and stretching his report about not specifically including it. Max had determined the “sun crystals” were dilithium but not reporting this was very difficult for him. He was having second thoughts about this ship and how it was being ran. He wanted to have a discussion with the captain and he understood why he needed to stretch his report but it was very against who Max was at heart to do this. He hit his pad on his desk and said,

=/\= Lt Mullins to Captain Glen. Can we schedule some time to have a discussion about the mission we just completed and the required report to send back to Federation? =/\=.

=/\= Certainly, my diary is clear all day! My door is always open! =/\=

He did not want the captain to think he was leaving but he wanted to be open about how he felt. He did not care if this put an odd or bad light on himself by the captain but he did not like it at his core. He was hoping he could have this discussion sooner rather than later.

Cross knew the responsibility,obligation and duty as the CMO after such a dismal,harrowing, not to mention demoralizing of how the crew felt when nothing they said had convinced the Ascended to leave the inhabitant’s live ,it had affected her and she had seen in it in Hunter ‘s demeanor which shocked her on realizing the toil it had taken on him.

She closed her eyes for a brief moment then pressed the chime of the Lt Mullins’s office .

Max was happy the captain was available to speak right now. He wanted to get it over with. He then responded and said, =/\=Very well. I will head down there shortly to speak with you.=/\=

Glen was writing his report, and still having difficulty putting his thoughts into words, when the knock came at the door.

“Come in!” Glen called.

Lt Mullins had arrived at the Captains office when he heard a come in. He assumed it was for him so he went ahead and walked in and said, “Hello Captain Glen. Do you have a few minutes to chat about our previous mission?” He then went ahead and took a seat by the captains desk and waited for a response. He was nervous about this discussion because he felt very uneasy about lying in his report about not stating what they had found out about the sun crystals during their last mission. Max wanted to make sure the captain knew how he felt but he did not want the captain to think he was doing it out of spite or anything. Max knew he followed orders but needed to speak his mind.

“Certainly,” Glen said, putting his Padd down and giving Max his full attention. “I think I know already why you are here, but tell me in your own words anyway. Be as honest and as frank as you want. Believe me, it will be a tremendous help to me in writing my own report if you are. I’ve been struggling myself with this mission.”

Max thought for a second and was glad the captain was feeling the same way as him. He then stated, “I am not feeling good at all about your request to hide specific details in the report. I can understand why its needed but it just bothers me to the core. The face we know the sun crystals are dilithium. I feel like I am breaking my own morals with lying on a report. I have prided myself in the past to always report everything. So this is extremely difficult. I am by no means trying to go against your orders nor over think what you requested but I just wanted to bring it to the forefront about how I truly feel about this.” He was very nervous about stating this but he felt it was required. He waited to see what the captain’s reaction was to this.

“That’s not a problem at all,” the Captain told him. “I’d changed my mind and come to the conclusion that I couldn’t ask you to lie in your report. It has always bothered me that I’ve had to ask the crew to lie and keep secret the aspects of certain missions in the past, but those involved time travel were to protect the timeline. This is very different and I acknowledge that it was wrong to ask you. In any case, I no longer think that cutting off the planet EP19 from Federation contact would be a good thing for them either. The more contact that they have and the more people who know what the Ascended beings propose can only be a good thing. Burying bad news does not make it go away, and maybe we can change the attitude of the Ascended over a longer period of time?”

• Glen, CO

Max had such a sigh of relief with the response he got out of the captain. He was expecting the worse because of him bringing the idea of how he felt to the captain. He then responded to the captain, “Thank you sir. I am going to make a change to my report and we can move forward from this. I believe it will be for the best with having the federation engaged with the Ascended. I agree with you in stating it will help moving forward.” This discussion made Max feel much better. This was going to make the conscious of Max to be much better. It also made him like the captain even more. He had not been on the Merrimack all that long but having this information about the captain helped with his excitement about the Merrimack and his CE position even better. He then asked the captain, “Is there any specific way you want me to update my report other than talking about the sun crystals and what not? I just want to make sure how you want this explained.” He waited for a response from the captain about his question.

Glen replied, “just write the report as you would any other,” Glen replied. “It’ll be mainly a technical report, of objective and authoritative scientific data, detailing the planetary mineral resources and your geological surveys. The only difference is that you have made a health and safety investigation of the existing Klingon-built mines and have made improvements and repairs which will undoubtedly save lives and prevent injuries in the future. Everything else will be covered by my report, and by those of science, medicine and security.”

• Glen, CO