Maxim #39

[Kazinsal]

14 November 825
"But those days are gone now, changed like a leaf on a tree, blown away forever into the cool autumn breeze."

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The finishing touches are being put on the Unforgiven. Harold and I had a discussion about the number of capital ships that have cycled through the fleet. There's been at least five cruisers and two battleships now, plus another four ships with capital designations despite not being considered proper capital ships under interstellar law. As part of our establishment of a new, definitive fleet database, Harold and I worked out the chronological order of ships in the Fleet and assigned them formal registry numbers. The newest member of the fleet, OCS-OF-11 Unforgiven, will be the first to launch with the whole designation painted on it. OCS-OF-10 Black Cloud II will have its full ship registration painted on next time the crew cycles off for leave.

I had dinner with Commander Keighley last night. We hadn't spent an evening joking around like we used to back aboard the Metropolis in months. We've gone into different tracks since then, and technically he outranks me, but He's still adjusting to being a warship captain, though I assured him that the position would start to feel more natural as time goes by. God knows I wasn't ready to be the head of research and development for the Vagrant Raiders, or a field agent of the Commission. It just started to come more easily as it became just a part of my everyday routine.

On that note, I'm no longer a field agent. I told Escher that I was going to step back into the role of being a handler for a more suited field operative, Agent Synchronicity. She's young, but she's sneaky, she's clever, and she's a much better pilot than I am. I suppose sending her to Vespucci for one of her first covert operations was probably a bit rough of me, but someone had to do it and I sure as hell wasn't going to fly halfway down the Barrier to do it. I fucked up on the intel, though, that's for sure. I thought Monterrey was a bit further out than I gave her a checkpoint for and she almost ran headfirst into the station's perimeter defenses and had to weave through a dense asteroid patch with IFR mostly off to reduce risk of detection. She took some great photos, though, I have to admit. I should have some of these framed for her as a gift.

This is starting to become less of a work-related log and more of a personal one. It better not turn into me complaining about being old and shit or I'm going to be real disappointed in myself.

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"The words stuck in my mind. Alive from what I'd heard, I had to seize the day; to home, I returned."