Ready to Soar

Posted on Mon Jan 4th, 2021 @ 8:52am by Commodore Keiben Haistro & Commander Lillian Carter & Commander Peter Horn & Lieutenant Commander Melanie D’BrooNi- Haistro & Lieutenant Commander Junjie Han & Lieutenant JG Sher'ra Verona & Senior Chief Petty Officer Jonathan Stoun

1,886 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 2 - Echoes Of An Empire
Location: Deck 1 - Bridge
Timeline: Mission Day 4 @ 1000 Hours

ON

Tamaska stepped out onto the bridge, Today was the day! She could feel goosebumps rise on her arms, as she watched the final preparations for them to leave the station and head back out amongst the stars. The runabouts outside were making one more sweep checking to see if things checked out. She went to take a seat upon the XO's chair smiling, wondering who would be arriving next.

Junjie stepped out of the turbolift onto the bridge with a small bag on his hip with several PADD's in in and a Lidded mug of tea in the other. " Good I'm early! Greeting Tamaska. Your doing well I hope? I am looking forward to getting underway."

Tamaska smiled at him, then said, "Remember it's Commander when on the bridge, Han." giving him a quick wink.

Mel appeared the next time the turbo lift doors opened with her daughter the yeoman. She smiled proudly and took in the bridge. She hadn't been back up here since what happened. It felt both bittersweet and exciting. They went and walked to the back of the bridge passing the XO and Science chief.

"Commander, Chief," she smiled brightly. "I hope you don't mind but I negotiated with school to let her come up for a bit. I feel the maiden launch of the ship right now is something she, I or anyone should be missing. Don't worry we will be going through the lesson she's missing later to catch her back up."

"Math," Charlie scowled at Tam, but she brightened looking round. "It was a nice idea though mum. As long as its okay?" she added quickly.

" It's Charlie, Right?" As he turned towards the young lady. " Without math we wouldn't have music or just about anything else that make our lives better. If you'd like I could give you some pointers in math that could help you understand math better."

Charlie turned round and her mouth dropped a little. This was a member of the crew she had not met. Tall, dark and handsome. “Yes Charlie. That would be marvellous. Any help I can get. It’s my weakest subject.”

" Not a problem. With some dedication and work you'll see that basic math isn't so hard. Once you learn the patterns it becomes easy enough. But of course, I need your mother's approval first. I can't very well be teaching someone else's child without their consent, now can I?"

The young brunette's head swung round to Mel's. "Mum?"

Mel nodded. "I give consent."

If it meant less arguments her trying to teach Charlie math and the fact the science chief was clearly much much better at such things and her, she give it very willingly. "Please chief any help would be wonderful. I'm not the best at some of her school subjects either. My math is limited to working out medicine doses."

Junjie smiled. " Well that's an important job, I like knowing I'm getting the proper dose of medicine. Besides, there are no unimportant jobs on a starship. As for the tutoring we can do about an hour a day after her classes, that way it won't cut into her homework or social time to much."

Charlie lit up. "Yes yes ..."

"We would both be very grateful, Chief. She will work very hard won't you Charlie," Mel said.

"Oh yes ..." the teen said the smile growing further up her ears. Well this was turning out a good day for her. Wait till she told her cousin back on Earth about her handsome new tutor.

Sher'ra walked onto the bridge and quickly walked over to her station, "sorry, sorry, I can't believe I get lost on a ship this small"

Jon emerged from the turbolift and nodded to those on the bridge. It was going to be a bit of a tight fit for everyone. He went over and commandeered the ops station on the bridge to monitor the ship.

Lillian had entered the bridge a few moments before the Captain. She acknowledged the Xo with a nod and took her seat at the helm and started the pre-launch sequence in concert with engineering staff. Thrusters online. Impulse power on standby. Navigational deflector startup sequence initiated. Structural integrity field and inertial dampeners configured for flight. With her usual efficiency, Lillian had the helm ready and configured for departure. Engineering would inform her when the warp core was online and ready.

Keiben had been in a conference call with Starfleet leading up to the launch window, more reassuring Starfleet that he was ready for this, and that his crew were equally as ready. Once more he had attempted to secure a Chief Operations but more importantly a Ships Counselor but none were readily available at this time, so it left little choice but the launch as planned with those two key positions absent.

The bridge was a bustle with activity as he entered, waving of the crewman that spotted him and started to announce Captain on the bridge. It had never made sense to him why that custom had survived this long. 'Where else would I be?'

"Good morning Number one!" he said as he came down into the command pit, noticing the bridge was evidently short on seating as Mel and Charlie both had taken to standing. Perhaps this would be another job for his Chief Engineer to correct and add in at least one more chair. "Are we set to launch?"

"Good Morning Captain!" Tam responded. "Its a fine morning indeed, Sir."

Junjie took his station at the science console. " Science station is ready Captain. All sensors are online."

"Medicals all a go," Mel reported. "I've left Russ in charge now he's all fixed up and so we can be part of this big moment."

"And my teacher said I could miss math to be part of it," Charlie told him but beamed at the new science chief. "But don't worry I will catch up Captain."

"Excellent... In that case, Carter, retract all moorings, Chief could you signal the dock master for permission to depart. All hands, this is the Captain, prepare all stations for departure", Keiben couldn't stand, not at this moment so he moved to stand just shy of the flight control station. "You all know what to do, take us out once we have clearance!"

Mel moved to gently turn her daughter in the direction of the viewscreen rather than watching the science chief who was suddenly very interesting to Charlie it seemed. She wondered for a moment if Keiben would make an official speech or anything.

Working the helm, Lillian replied "Aye Sir. All moorings cleared. Thrusters online and currently at station keeping. Awaiting departure clearance."

"Glad you made it, Verona" Tamaska remarked with a smile. Then turned towards the viewscreen as procedures unfolded in their prep to get underway. She could feel goosebumps start to rise, as things progressed.

'I wonder if our newest crew member will make it to the bridge." Tam mused. She tapped on her commbadge and stated. "Commander Holt to Counselor Horn, you are invited to come to the bridge please."

Counselor Horn. Peter smiled inwardly at that as he headed towards the bridge. It would certainly take some getting used to, but it did have his preference now. "On my way," he responded as he stepped into the turbolift car that would carry him up towards the bridge. Within seconds, he stepped out onto the bridge, and made his way down to the command centre. He assumed, his seat would be on the other side of the captain, where he could have a clear view of the majority of the bridge.

A voice came over the comm "Copernicus, the is the dockmaster. You are cleared for departure through the port gates. Safe journeys."

"Acknowledged dockmaster," Lillian replied. "Aft thrusters ahead 100 KPH. Port gates in 30 seconds."

Slowly at first, then gaining momentum, the Copernicus started moving. Soon, she had cleared the space doors and was in out in open space.

Lillian reported to the Captain. "We have cleared space doors and are free to navigate. Course and speed Captain?"

"Set course for 'The Garden' the Captain offered, settling into his chair for the first time and it feeling truly comfortable. Perhaps all he needed was space behind him rather than the trappings of a Starbase for it to really feel like him own ship.

Tamaska whispered quietly to herself, a quote from a book Peter Pan, she had read when as a girl. “Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning. ”

Keiben heard the whisper from his first officer, recognising the quote instantly and couldn't help but smile at her flight of whimsy.
"Warp 5 at your convenience Ensign!"

Jon pulled up the core readouts, everything looked fine, he'd know momentarily if they were going to become the seeds of a next star. He pulled up the commands for an emergency warp shutdown just in case. He was confident in the repairs, but it was always a concern.

Lilian quickly entered the information into the helm, not liking the nickname the planet had been given by the science staff, called the planet by its proper name. "Aye Sir. Course for Oriana Omega Three laid in, warp 5." Pressing the final command sequence, the ship accelerated to warp speed.

As the ship accelerated, a minor tremor started that grew to be quite noticeable. Lillian worked the control panel. "One of the torque sensors is out of alignment, attempting to correct."

After a few moments, the ride smoothed out.

Sher'ra sighed, "can we keep that shaking to a minimum please? the ship's small enough without parts falling off"

Tamaska looked over towards Sher'ra wondering if the new chief of security was making a joke or... actually worried about pieces of the ship falling off. "Chief Stoun and his crew have gone above and beyond in their efforts to get our ship back together. They have done quality work." giving a small smile.

Peter observed the conversation, then leaned in towards the commanding officer. "Are they always this jittery?" he asked quietly, "the tremor does not bother me at all..."

"Tam and Mel will take it in their stride" Keiben whispered back to the Counsellor. "As for the rest, they are all new on me!"
It felt good to have space beneath him again, only this time he was the master of the ship and not one of the subordinates. "Well, Commander Holt, now that we are underway I have some reading to do so the bridge is yours!"

He nodded with a smile at his first officer as he started across the bridge to head for his ready room. In truth he wanted to go over the few reports they had of the planet they were now bound for, possibly over preparing but one could never be too prepared!"

"Aye Captain."Tamaska moving from the XO chair to the command seat, once Keiben headed to his ready room. It was great to be moving through space once more. Tamaska felt like she was more at home now, with the ship feeling much better.

" A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Junjie said softly. " So begins our adventure."

END

 

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