Voyenture Time, Ep. 39 - Muptown Funk

Voyenture Time

It's always black outside my window. Growing up I was used to it being dark, but ever since I've been here, it's been black. Endlessly, always black.

They give us shades for our windows. I asked someone at Starfleet why once, and she told me that they found better mental health outcomes for crewmembers with shades for missions longer than six months. "We think it helps people maintain a routine."

Every morning I open my shade and the light in my room changes from a low, dark orange to something that almost feels like sunlight, but outside the window is the same blackness that's always there. At the end of a shift, the lights pretend that it's sunset — maybe even the dead of night if I've been in the holodeck bar long enough — and I close the shade to block out the black.

Two days ago there was some sort of transporter accident. I've never actually used one before — I barely even left the ship before we got stranded out here — but after what we've been through I don't think I ever will. I'll spend the extra two hours in a shuttle if it means I don't have to worry about getting blended up with Petty Officer Anderson.

I guess things got bad. Turns out that if you get fused with someone else, you're not two people in one body, you're one new person. I got wondering, do you still have to take orders from your CO if he doesn't exist anymore? I kept writing reports, kept adjusting the resonance in the nacelles. I don't think anyone notices, but we're going to be out here for a long time. I want to make sure whoever takes my place finds these in great shape.

That day I forgot to open my shade. I came back to my quarters at the end of my shift and the shade was still closed. The light in my room told me the sun was just sinking behind the horizon. I stood there a long time as it got darker and darker, thinking about the black behind the shade.

It was still closed in the morning. I could feel the blackness behind it, sucking the light out of the room. It was overcast, the room grey and flat. I left the shade closed.

The flux density was off in the November-12 chamber. It was easy enough to fix, but I had to draw a little extra power from the warp core. Last time that happened, Chief Engineer Torres chewed me out. Carey talked to me about it in the Mess later, which helped a little bit. But this time, no one noticed.

After I fixed it, I sat down to write my report. I keep them all in the same place on the ship's network. Just makes it a little easier for everyone if they're all in the same spot. There's a number at the top, tells you how many files are in the directory. One thousand, five hundred and sixty-seven. I've written one thousand, five hundred and sixty-seven reports. I never wound up filing one for the problem in November-12.

Keep reading here.

Covered this episode:

Star Trek: Voyager S02E24 — Tuvix

Adventure Time S03E25 — Dad's Dungeon

Adventure Time S03E26 — Incendium

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