Captains Log.

star date: zero-two-two-four-two-zero-zero-six

today is the second day of five that my crew and i will be living in close quarters before they are temporarily reassigned on another planet.

towards the end of the first twenty-four hour period, i began to suspect something alien was possibly affecting my crew. lieutenant worf, lieutenant geordi la forge, counselor deanna troi, and ensign ro have just returned from a field study in the chaos galaxy, also known as "dad's house"...

la forge and troi are both showing symptoms of some kind of illness... la forge is coughing heavily in the morning and troi seems to be easily overwhelmed with emotion for no reason whatsoever. this very morning, she claimed that she no longer wished to be part of my crew due to the fact that geordi didn't immediately respond to her request for harness assistance prior to hyperspace jump, even though she is well versed in the mechanics of seat-belt buckling...

lt. worf, usually unsocial, made a private request for personal time in two days. it appears that he would like to spend some time with some of his fellow mates from the academy, one of whom is to have a birthday celebration. while i trust in my officer's judgment completely, i am beginning to worry about him. he appears to be going through a chemical change that will most likely alter his common sense, an affliction known as "puberty" in some cultures... he is showing a greater interest in a particularly dangerous race of aliens, known as "females", and i fear for his future mental and emotional safety. some of my colleagues have given me advice to be patient and wait things out, keeping constant watch. i will make a note of it.

i was, however, taken aback by his additional request (or, perhaps, i should say, "insistence") to spend his monies on "any kind of horse present"...

ensign ro is fortunately fully recovered from a minor lip injury she acquired during a soccer match at preschool.

i must have a meeting with the president of the chaos galaxy regarding his management of my crew during their time there.

while i know that the next three days are supposed to be for holiday, i cannot help but feel overwhelmed by the insistence of two planets in different solar systems demanding my presence, and several of my colleagues insisting that i host a study group aboard my ship. all of the events are scheduled to overlap each other somehow, with one of them leaving me to find a substitute captain to watch my ship and crew.

and for the third night in a row, i am going to be piloting on only five hours of sleep a night.

i have been consuming entirely too much grey earl, but cannot seem to get through the day without it. this very evening i had an uncontrollable laughing fit during a conference due to lack of sleep... at least the schedules aren't filled with any potlucks - the food replicator isn't in the mood to cook anything at the moment...