Valued Voices Captain Léa Chevalier. Lieutenant Commander Gregory Griffith.

Stardate 58807.14, 18h00 Location: Captain's Ready Room, Deck 01, USS Vanguard NCC-76381 ***

The night was young, yet to Léa it had felt anything but.
About an hour earlier, she had surrendered her usual evening green tea in exchange for something with a bit more kick—in this case, coffee. Or rather, three of them. As she sipped, her weary eyes scanning the lines of text across the computer terminal on her desk, she felt as though she were fighting a losing war of attrition. Insomnia had been a common bedfellow these last few years, and she knew well that her insistence on familiarizing herself with the Vanguard, its systems, and, more importantly, its crew before giving in to the need for rest would only hasten its return.

Yet she was committed. Her sudden reassignment from the Ticonderoga had left her at a decided disadvantage, which in turn meant the crew of the Vanguard was just as disadvantaged.
Simply put, she felt she owed them her best, even if it meant a day or two without sleep.

With a resigned sigh, Léa blinked heavy lids and leaned back in her chair. She took one more sip, then set the small gold-rimmed cup back on its matching saucer. A pair of fingers came up to pinch the bridge of her nose. For a moment she considered upping the ante further to an espresso, but thought better of it. Instead she stood and moved to the viewport. The stars streaming by were a constant reminder that the ship was at warp, that the last known location of the Kepler awaited them—and perhaps also an idea as to what had happened to it.

“The time is eighteen hundred hours,” the computer’s cold voice announced.

Glancing back over her shoulder, Léa expected a chime at the door at any moment. The scheduled meeting with her new executive officer was waiting. So far she had been impressed by Commander Griffith, but she knew it would take more time to truly get a gauge of him.

And vice versa, she realized, recalling her own experiences as an executive officer.