<div dir="auto"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:arial;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Mission: Murder on the Exeter Express</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:arial;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Day:03</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:arial;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Stardate: 2445:12:03</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:arial;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:arial;color:rgb(29,34,40);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">( USS Exeter - Personal Quarters - CSO Lt Jg Erin Cortez - 1747 )</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:arial;color:rgb(29,34,40);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">After speaking to Jimmy and contacting the counselling team, Erin sat back for a moment to allow herself a moment to think before she left to speak to someone. As she closed her eyes, one word kept ringing in her mind. ~Evolving~</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:arial;color:rgb(29,34,40);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">That was the word. She was evolving. Becoming better. Someone that wasn’t scared to admit she was wrong or vulnerable. Thinking back to the night that Christian had broke her in more ways than one, she knew that she was not that person. The feelings that she had had then, the fear, the pain, the uncertainty, the unworthiness. But, she had fought her way back to get into starfleet. Struggled but made it through.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:arial;color:rgb(29,34,40);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Then there was Dulon and what had happened there. The fact that she had recognised that she needed help and time away from the life she had on mars was not lost on her. She had recognised that she needed to become something other than what she was at that point in her life. She had needed to evolve. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:arial;color:rgb(29,34,40);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">And now, with the whole ‘Maxine’ situation, with Clarke and Nesha losing their lives and her nearly losing hers… she realised that again, she was evolving. Constantly adapting and changing and becoming stronger. Erin shook her head as she knew the word stronger wasn’t right. Jimmy had been right with what he had said about her becoming obsessed with becoming stronger and he had been right to a point.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:arial;color:rgb(29,34,40);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The word Strong was a double edged sword. She knew that she was stronger but she could tell that she was using it in a different sense now. No longer was the word something that she strived for, was desperate to become. Stronger now meant being able to admit when she was feeling weak and vulnerable and letting people in. Letting people in to help her with her struggle and being open to receive that help.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:arial;color:rgb(29,34,40);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">She smiled to herself as she opened her eyes and stood. ~Maybe strong is not the word, evolving is. It’s like a chrysalis. Everything up to the moment in my life has been to help me change, to become who i was meant to be. I am evolving and that’s fine. I can be weak, i can be vulnerable and that’s fine and, right now, i need to be that version of me. The fun version of me will come back as a part of the whole.~ </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:arial;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Taking a breath, she walked out of her quarters, knowing that she was feeling better about her journey and where it would take her.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:arial;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(Reply none)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:arial;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">(Posted by Jackie)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.656;background-color:#ffffff;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </p></div>