Today is a great day, but that didn’t stop it from being eventful.

A day of festivities was predicted at the Region 9 Starbase where we are docked. By mid-morning the entire crew was in the central plaza of the Starbase dressed in our best clothes enjoying the friendly company of the people who live and work there. The plaza is impressive, along with its already admirable fountains and small samples of vegetation from different worlds of the Federation, we enjoyed attractive lighting, accompanied by giant holographic images showing our ship. Everything is ready to celebrate that our captain has been promoted to Commodore of Region 9, the first officer has been promoted to Captain of the USS-Andalucía, not to mention various additions and promotions among the crew.

The mix of a serious atmosphere due to the event, but a joyful and festive atmosphere due to the good news, filled the star station.

However, just minutes before the main event of the celebration began, Starfleet Command sent an urgent message: a Vulcan ship relatively close to the Starbase has sent a distress signal, and the USS-Andalucía is the only ship nearby and capable of responding.

Commodore Pittarelli only needed a small nod to our new Captain Segura for the entire crew to rush off towards the USS-Andalucía, ready to fulfill what is expected of a Starfleet crew.

Within a few minutes we had left Starbase and approached the Vulcan ship at top speed. It was a scientific ship, with that characteristic reddish color of Vulcan ships, but there was a lot of damage all over it.

As soon as we got close, a rescue team was transported, including the chief scientist, the chief engineer and the chief physician. We found ourselves in the heart of a ship in serious trouble, with almost no life support, we were wearing self-contained breathing equipment. We spread out and quickly, but laboriously, we found the crew, who were quite affected, with injuries of varying severity. We evacuated them to the infirmary of our ship. The Vulcan ship is large but the crew is small, our tricorders help us locate all the beings on board.

As we approach the last two life signs, we are unable to reach them. They are in an isolation room in the center of a large laboratory that is completely saturated with metreonic radiation. The concentration is lethal and at the same time prevents us from using the transport to reach them. We are blocked. Looking at the diagram of the ship, I see that the laboratory is on an outer deck, so I think of asking the captain to fire a phaser beam at the hull, to open a breach in it. My companions look at me in disbelief, but the captain trusts and fires.

We manage to breach the lab and it opens up to outer space, and we begin to lose atmosphere, and with it some of the radiation. As soon as the radiation drops to a non-lethal level, I rush into the lab and get to the isolation room; I attach signal boosters to the transporter cells on the survivors and we are immediately transported to the infirmary.

As the number of survivors outnumbers the number of beds we have in the infirmary, the engineering team has quickly cleared a cargo bay and adapted it as a convalescent area.

Although many of the Vulcan ship’s crew and the rescue team suffered serious injuries, the excellent nursing team managed to ensure that there were no deaths.

I am on a stretcher, undergoing radiation treatment. Next to me are the crew members we evacuated from the isolation room; on one side I have the captain of the Vulcan ship and on the other the ship’s chief medical officer.

Once the crew is stabilized, we begin to drag the Vulcan ship with our tractor beam. An engineering team has managed to stabilize the ship’s systems and eliminate sources of dangerous radiation.

According to the Vulcan captain, they were doing experiments with metaphysical radiation, when something went wrong and there was a general failure in the ship, they were saved by getting into the isolation room.

Within hours we are back at the Starbase, the Vulcan crew is taken to the base’s medical facilities and we, the crew of the USS-Andalucía, arrive exultantly at the party after the official celebration. Even though several of us are still convalescing from the injuries we suffered during the rescue, we do not want to miss the party and we limp to it.

Captain Safe’s first mission was unexpected, though we have received thanks from Vulcan High Command for saving the entire crew.

I hope we can at least enjoy the party without interruptions.