Pondering just what I got myself into... "
By: Dr. Alyssa Caitlin Northrop, Executive Officer, [PST]

Stardate: 58204.26 0959

Alyssa stared at the walls of her quarters, feeling the anger she felt at the entire situation threatening to overwhelm her. It wasn't just the missing pistol.....it was the everything. Having to use fear and intimidation to get information....having to dump the Zion's Anti-matter fuel pods...getting captured and beat....and finally having to shoot her way out of the brig.

It wasn't like she hadn't been hurt before.....because she had. Many times. One didn't go breaking into tombs that ancient peoples had intended to stay sealed for all time without getting hurt every once in a while. What made her good was that it simply didn't happen often because she did her homework.

Maybe that was what was bothering her in this instance? She'd gone into a dangerous situation with no plan of attack.....no idea of what would be coming her way.

The brunnette stood and left her quarters again....needing to get away from the grey walls and grey carpet for a little while. She guessed that she'd spent entirely too much time digging in the dirt to ever feel totally comfortable in Space. So maybe what she needed was a little bit of dirt....some wind....and some time to think.

When she arrived at the Holodeck, she did a quick check and found that no one was using it at the moment...and no one was scheduled to do so. That was definitly a good thing. Hopefully she wouldn't be disturbed a while and she'd be able to work all this out.

When the program was ready, she walked in and almost instantly felt better. She could feel the crunch of the loose dirt on the plateau and the wind that blew softly across. This was one of her most favorite places to be. It always helped her think. Down below in the canyon were the ruins of a people that had been known as the Visnu. They had been similar culturally to the Anasazi tribe of Native Americans back on Earth. Granted...they'd been very different biologically....but the cultures were very much the same.

Northrop shook her head and walked over to the edge of the plateau where she sat down. She smiled just a bit, looking over the edge of the shear rock face which dropped...oh...about a hundred meters. Looking up again, she looked at what had to be the most beautiful thing this planet had to offer. It was it's perpetual sunset. This planet was tide locked...which meant that it was only livable in a thing band around the halfway point. Towards their sun was a burnt wasteland that mere mortals could not survive....and away from it...a frozen wasteland. But right here in the middle.....an entire ecosystem had formed. Another thing that made this planet interesting was that on the other side of it.....was another group of people.....with a totally different culture. And apparently they both thought that there were no others and frequently stated this "fact" in their writings. But...Alyssa had always found the Visnu more interesting.

Getting back to business, she got comfortable...or as close to comfortable as one could get sitting on bare rock...and gazed up into the sky as she thought about her new life on the Zion, her motivations for joining the Maquis, what had happened to her and what would happen to her. If nothing else....it was going to be an adventure....