Post 254: The Federation's Finest

Stardate:70626.1615
Title: The Federation’s Finest
Author: Fox Margolis
Scene: En route to and in personal quarters
Time: After “Babies? Me?”

Walking back to her quarters after a very long and tiring day, Fox had to admit it was times like this—when the going was rough and everyone had to pitch in to save the day—that she was glad she was a member of Starfleet. Only the best and brightest made it this far, and she should know. She had after all starred in at least half a dozen recruitment videos.

Thinking back on her Academy days and those lovely spots made Fox giggle. And given how tired and giddy she was, it was also hard to stop giggling, which meant she received a few curious glances from passing crewmates.

Still, she could never forget the day when the-then Commodore Alvin Jessup, director of Starfleet recruitment and enrollment, had come to see her. She was at the time a second year cadet, and he had come to personally ask her to “star” in a series of Starfleet recruitment videos. He had played to her vanity, claiming that her talent and fame would be a tremendous service to Starfleet. And young and still cocky as she was then, Fox immediately said yes.

She shot the spots and then embarked on a ten month trip around the Federation, making personal appearances and speeches. She had to imagine she was the only person in Starfleet who managed to pass her second year Academy classes because she had the personal tutoring of a commodore and his staff. After all, it would have looked terrible for their star recruiter to not do well in the Academy, and looks weren’t everything with recruitment…they were just almost everything.

Thinking back on it now, Fox mused, if she had only known then what she knew now.

Oh, she still would have done the videos. But now she wondered, having seen what she had seen already in her short Starfleet career, could she be so honestly enthused if she had to go on such a recruitment circuit again?

But maybe dear, that is why they got you to do them when you did,” she mumbled to herself as she entered her quarters.

But that was the past…and well the present too. She knew those recruitment ads were still a hot commodity. But they were not her future. For that, she knew that a long and hot shower was the first order of business…

Faustine Margolis
Operations Officer
USS Independence