The Morning Report

Posted on Sat Jan 10th, 2026 @ 2:52pm by Captain Mitsu Sato & Commander Eva Grey

1,083 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Respite

The soft hum of the Eclipse’s systems formed a quiet backdrop to the morning routine. Mitsu sat at her desk with a steaming cup of fresh coffee cradled between her palms. The drifting scent was warm, familiar and grounding. She knew that soon the Eclipse would receive new orders, that shore leave would end and the crew would return to what passed for normal aboard a Starfleet ship. She had invited Commander Grey to join her to go over the morning report and make any adjustments to the duty roster before shore leave ended, something that simply made sense to do beforehand rather than later.

Across from the captain, Eva sat in a comfortable chair and quietly scrolled through a padd, her eyebrows drawn together in focus as she read through the morning departmental summaries. It was full of everything that was to be expected of a report; schedule changes, duty rotations, maintenance backlogs, all of it standard and with nothing out of the ordinary. That was, until a soft chime sounded as a late filed incident record populated at the top of the security log. Eva read through the report and paused.

“Oh,” she murmured.

Mitsu glanced up from the report she had been reading on her desktop monitor. “That tone does not sound promising,” she observed.

Eva’s lips pressed into a thin line. She was trying to figure out a way to explain the contents of the report, but when she came up with nothing she simply sighed. “I think,” she said gently, turning the padd toward the captain, “that you’re going to want to see this one.”

Mitsu took the padd with a frown and started reading the report that was highlighted. Her eyes moved across the text. The opening line of the report was enough to cause any command officer pause. 'Ensign Matt Connor, security officer, and Ensign Eric Banner, operations officer, both observed returning from shore leave aboard Starbase 24 in a state of significant intoxication'. Mitsu blinked slowly before she sighed, set the padd down on her desk and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Significant intoxication,” she repeated aloud. “That’s a diplomatic way of putting it.” Picking up the padd again, she reread the attached notes from the night watch officer slowly with no change in her expression.

Eva watched as the captain read the report. Picking up a spare padd, she typed in a command and accessed the security report, reading along. “The security timestamp logs place them at the boarding airlock at 0302 hours,” she said calmly. “Station cameras confirm both were inebriated to a fairly excessive degree.”

Mitsu finally stopped reading and set the padd back on the desk. “Were they disruptive?” she asked evenly. “Hostile? Disorderly toward personnel?”

Eva shook her head as she finished reading through the complete report. “Not from what I can tell from the report," she replied. "It seems that they were mostly unsteady due to the level of intoxication. They navigated back to their quarters without incident. No damage to property and no altercations were reported, either by our personnel or station security.” Eva paused and turned her gaze to the captain's. “Security only filed because of level of intoxication on return to duty vessel. I haven't seen a report or complaint from the starbase, but if they had caused enough of a disturbance there then it's fair to assume that they would have been arrested or a report would have been forwarded to us.”

Mitsu nodded slowly as she considered the situation. Consuming real alcohol to the point of being highly intoxicated enough to warrant an entire security report was frowned upon by Starfleet regulations. It was a rule violation and definitely a bad example for junior officers, but she had to consider the context of the situation. "They were both on the away mission at Adelphous," she finally said quietly.

Eva nodded slowly, her own understanding mirrored in the simply motion. "It was a difficult mission, and Ensign Banner's first if I remember correctly," she said. "Ensign Connor may be experiencing both survivor's guilt as well as feeling guilty for not being able to protect Rogers and Oku."

Mitsu nodded her agreement. It was clear that Connor and Banner were simply two young men still standing in the crater of their own grief. The reports from every surviving member of the Adelphous away mission had made it painfully clear that the mission had left its mark on everyone involved. The other survivors seemed to have turned to other means of coping. She turned the padd back toward herself, reviewing the report again.

Eva leaned forward slightly, her elbows resting on her knees. “Do you want formal disciplinary action to be taken?” she asked, though she already suspected the answer.

Mitsu didn’t answer immediately, instead, she lifted her coffee and took a slow sip as she let thought and instinct settle into alignment. “No,” she said at last. “Not yet.”

Eva nodded in agreement. “They seem to be holding themselves together on duty,” she added quietly. “But neither of them has requested counseling. And for Banner, as I said, this was his first away mission. Watching two of your shipmates die in the manner which Rogers and Oku did is bound to leave some form of mental and emotional damage.”

Mitsu set her coffee aside. Her tone, when she finally spoke, was gentle but still firm beneath the surface. “We cannot ignore the behavior,” she said as she tapped the padd thoughtfully. “But we will not treat this as willful misconduct.”

"Then how should we proceed?" Eva asked as she leaned back in her seat.

"Schedule them to a meeting in Lieutenant Alves office for counseling," Mitsu said. "And inform me of the time. I want to sit in on the meeting."

"Should I schedule it for this afternoon, that way they have a chance to finish recovering from their nocturnal activities?" Eva asked.

"That would advisable," Mitsu said with the hint of a smile. The commander's choice of words wasn't lost on her, but she decided to not comment further.

Eva nodded as she stood. "I'll get with Lieutenant Alves after breakfast to schedule the meeting," she said before she turned and headed out of the ready room.

Mitsu watched Commander Grey as she left before she sighed and picked the padd up once more. Silently, she prayed that the counselor could help as she read through the report one more time.

 

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