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                                DUTY LOG
                         L.E. Beglin a.k.a. Krieg
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   Timeline: SeaQuest 2032
   Author's E-Mail: UEOKrieg@aol.com
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AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Hi all -

This is just a short story I wrote while, surprisingly, I was bored. ;) Yes,
it's my story...and the characters are Universal's (or is it NBC's?). Either
way, I'm just borrowing them temporarily...

Enjoy it and all comments go to UEO Krieg@aol.com
-Krieg


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Duty Log
L.E. Beglin
Comments: UEO Krieg@aol.com

    Ensign Lucas Wolenczak pushed his greasy blonde hair out of his eyes and
sighed. *I should go take a shower.* He stopped to glance at the computer
screen. *No, I have to get this out of the way first. Afterwards.*
    Sighing again, he stared at his computer screen and what was displayed.


seaQuest DSV 4600
Science Officer's Duty Log
October 14, 2032

Well, at least he had finally found a header he liked.
    What could he write about? Nothing had happened. _Nothing_. Well, that
wasn't entirely true. Someone down in engineering had twisted his ankle
after tripping over some tools left on the floor. Henderson wasn't very
happy someone had been careless enough to leave the tools on the
floor, thought Wolenczak had heard a rumor it had been her.
    But none of that concerned him. Nothing had happened in his area of
expertise. Usual amount of sea life. Usual, normal everything.
    It was times like this Lucas missed the ease he had as a civilian. Duty
logs were only required when something concerning him happened. When
something worth sitting down and writing about happened.
    Now, he was supposed to write one everyday. The reason? Something about
other people possibly needing to use the logs as a future reference. Why the
hell would anyone need to reference nothing?
    Ford told him three to four paragraphs was a good average length. O'Neill
had told him one to two paragraphs would suffice on days when nothing
extraordinary happened. Hudson had told him to use his judgement.
    It was Hudson's fault he had been sitting in front of his computer for
the past half hour, mindlessly redoing his header and trying to come up with
ideas. If Hudson had just left well enough alone, Lucas could have stayed on
_seaQuest_ as a computer analyst. The kid on the boat everyone respected
because of his talent instead of his rank. Or, more accurately, the kid
everyone liked to hate because of his talent instead of his "promotion" to
ensign.
    The kid who only had to write logs when something important happened.
    Sighing, he debated finding O'Neill and asking him. No, he was on duty
tonight. Ford? No, he might mention it to Hudson and Lucas had no desire for
him to find out. Somehow, it didn't seem like a very good impression to have
to ask a superior officer how to write a log.
    So, the question remained how to write something about nothing. Something
had happened but that something equalled nothing for what would be a decent
duty log.
    What had he always done for pointless writing assignment in school?
Mindless facts that sounded important but were actually nothing. Well,
nothing that would be included when you had something of importance to say.
    Smiling, Lucas realized he could handle that. After a moment, he began
typing.

    "We continued our patrol of the Southeastern UEO-Macronesian border today.
Average cruising speed was about fifteen knots. Nothing unusual was detected
on sensors. The normal amount of sea life was present. No sub traffic was
detected.
    "The new security program for the main computer is coming along nicely. I
expect it to be completed by early next week. If worse comes to worse, it
will be completed by the end of next week.
    "Captain Hudson has scheduled a senior staff meeting for tomorrow morning
at nine hundred hours. We will be getting new orders at that point.
-Ensign Lucas Wolenczak"

    For the first time in nearly forty minutes, Lucas smiled, saving the
log to the main directory. Standing and stretching, relieved at having
finally gotten the tedious piece of writing out of the way, he switched
his computer off. Stilling smiling, he left a moment later to take a
shower.


-Fini
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