Thanks for your comments, Grim, they're very welcome. And about Donally's upbringing: relaaaaax, guy! La'ra and I had a little brainstorming and her full motivations are background will be revealled, eventually. Not in this story, though. You'll just have to stasy tuned to the further installments! *smile*
Anyway, on with the show, and here's Part II of Chapter Five.
Date: 20th July 2272
Time: 1600 hours.
Stardate: 7428.6
Location: Bridge, USS Illustrious.Andrea settled more comfortably into her chair and nodded goodbye to Lieutenant Sherak, the Alpha-shift helmsman. He had just finished updating her on the events of his shift and what she could expect on her own, and as a result she was excited.
It had taken almost a month but something was finally going to happen during the Beta-shift. She was going to be at the helm for the
Illustrious’ arrival at Starbase Twelve.
Andrea checked her helm console databanks and confirmed that the ship was on course at the right speed--as she had been for the past twenty-three days--and that their ETA at the starbase was a bare two hours away.
Finally! Andrea silently celebrated.
Finally, a chance to actually do my job and fly the ship. I don’t even know how she handles for real! She ran a thorough diagnostic of her control panel to make sure that all was in working order and that she wouldn’t be shown up by faulty equipment when her time came. The power status monitor on the multifunction display was replaced by the diagnostic readout, and Andie was pleased to see that everything checked out.
She cleared the readout and brought up a holographic representation of their projected course so she could visualise any obstacles she might have to manoeuvre around. Their course into the Gamma 400 system was clear though, as the three small, barren, rocky planets this system had to offer were on the far side of the star from the asteroid that housed Starbase Twelve’s admin facilities with it’s co-orbiting dry-docks.
Good, no planets to hit on my first real turn at the helm, Andrea thought with a small measure of relief, before realising,
Oh crap. That just means it’ll be a straight warp into the base. A shrug and a quiet sigh.
Oh well, at least I’m getting to do something here. The thought made her brighten again. She looked over to her companion at the navigation console and saw that he too was absorbed in his board, running diagnostics and updating the ship’s position in the navigation databanks.
She suddenly felt rather than saw Arruntha’s large yellow eyes on her, so she returned her attention to her controls and the astrogator between her and Garn, becoming watchful for sensor alerts indicating foreign objects in their path or the vicinity of the ship.
*****
Nearly two hours later, Ensign Garn gruffly announced, "Lieutenant Commander Arruntha, we are approaching the Gamma 400 system, ETA to system boundary is ten minutes."
"Thank you, Navigator," the second officer replied, then turned to the comm. officer. "Mr. Surok, inform the captain we’ll be arriving at Starbase Twelve within fifteen minutes."
"Aye Commander," the slim Vulcan replied and murmured into his intercom. Moments later he informed, "Sir, the captain will be on the bridge momentarily."
"Very good."
The entire bridge crew seemed to sit straighter and become even more alert after this news, with the exception of Surok himself. As good as his word, Bates arrived on the bridge after a few minutes and relieved Arruntha, who updated him on current ship’s status before moving behind the captain to stand at the internal security station.
Bates took in the viewscreen, which was locked onto the their destination and now showing the Gamma 400 star as a disk instead of just another pinprick of light, then turned to Garn.
"Ensign, current position?" he asked.
"Crossing system boundary in two minutes, Captain," the Tellarite replied.
"Mr. Brown, slow to warp two when we get there."
"Aye sir," she replied suppressing the excitement she felt.
The captain then swung his chair to face the comm. officer. "Mr. Surok, hail the base and confirm my 1830 meeting with Base Commander Kellogg."
"Yes, Captain," Surok replied and quietly set about his task.
"Crossing system boundary, sir," Garn updated.
"Dropping to warp two as ordered, Captain," Andrea announced. "ETA at Starbase Twelve ingress point is ninety seconds."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Bates acknowledged.
"Captain, Commodore Kellogg has confirmed your meeting with her, and is ‘looking forward to seeing you’," Surok told the captain.
A small smile was evident on Bates’ face at the slight emphasis employed by his Vulcan comm. officer.
It’s not exactly a JG’s place to disapprove of how a base commander runs her affairs, he thought with amusement,
but Maria’s never been one for formalities unless someone actually breaks her rules. Aloud, he said, "Very good, Mr. Surok."
At the helm console, Andrea’s hands effortlessly guided the cruiser across the empty orbital tracks of the system’s planets at eight times light-speed, compensating for the gravitational influence of the M-type dwarf star almost without thought. Under this slight pressure, her thoughts had emptied of anything unrelated to her task and her training had coalesced and crystallised in her head, ready to deal with anything.
The sparse asteroid belt that surrounded the star outside the third planet’s orbit loomed larger in the viewscreen, centred on one huge hunk of rock in particular. The distance wound down to the warp ingress point some five million kilometres from the base.
"Warp ingress point in ten seconds, Captain," she called out.
"Go to sublight, full impulse to the base," Bates replied.
"Aye sir. Going sublight... now. Transporter range of the base in sixty-six seconds."
"Very good", he acknowledged. Turning to Markus he asked, "Any other ships in the area, Science Officer?"
The Swiss performed a quick active sensor sweep and reported back. "Yes, sir. There is a police cutter in orbit of the starbase, the science vessel
USS Grissom in Dry-Dock Three, and the destroyer
USS Etzel on patrol around the system. No non-Federation vessels detected."
"Thank you, Mr. Bertschinger," Bates acknowledged genially. "Mr. Surok, pay our compliments to the other vessels and accommodate any requests for information they may make."
"Yes, Captain."
"All stop and hold relative position at 40,000 kilometres, Lieutenant Brown."
"Aye sir," Andrea replied, then after a few seconds added, "Answering all stop, sir."
"Very well. Mr. Arruntha, you have the conn while I go to see the sector commander."
"Aye-aye sir. I have the conn," the Saurian replied in his silver voice as Captain Bates got up from his chair, into which he settled as the captain disappeared into the turbolift.
Andrea made sure that her controls were set for thrusters at station-keeping, then leaned back in her chair to take in the image on the viewscreen of the great rock that contained Starbase Twelve. It was less boring than most asteroids as even though the rock itself contained many tunnels and rooms, the most recent facilities added to the base consisted of a glittering conglomeration of metal that adorned the outer surface facing the ship.
Andrea was envious of Bates at being able to go over there, though she knew that a crew in space for less than two months wasn’t entitled to any shore leave. She was put out that she was being denied her chance to see her first piece of alien architecture.
All things in mainstream Federation society--and Starfleet in particular--were designed along the same lines no matter who built them, be they Tellarite, Vulcan, or Andorian. The tunnels and rooms of what had become Starbase Twelve had been carved out of the rock by the Karsids, a long gone--and, some thought, now extinct--race that had dominated this area of space several centuries ago. Their once great Empire had lasted for centuries itself, until the Orions and Klingons had revolted against their overlords.
And I’m missing out on all that history! Andrea thought glumly.
Maybe before we leave for the Klingon border we’ll get the chance to come back. Consoling herself with that thought, she awaited the return of Captain Bates.
*****
The captain of the
Illustrious strode through the oddly proportioned corridors of the base as he trekked ever deeper into the asteroid towards the base commander’s office.
Although he’d been here many times before during his twenty-seven years of active duty he always liked returning to this place, being fascinated by it’s non-conforming dimensions. It was one of the few facilities that Starfleet used that failed to cater to the omnipresent humanoid form, and as such Bates found it refreshing and invigorating to visit.
Strolling through these corridors was like literally walking through a part of the history of this sector of the galaxy. However, Bates was honest enough with himself to realise that, even though this place was refreshingly different from his standard environment, he wouldn’t want to live here as it’s very alienness would eventually start playing with his mind.
Such musings occupied his thoughts until he arrives at Kellogg’s office, upon which he announced himself to her assistant. "Captain Bates to see Base Commander Kellogg."
"Yes, Captain. One moment please," the Caitian lieutenant told him, and paged her superior. Bates couldn’t hear the exchange but after a moment he was told to go right in.
Maria Kellogg was standing in front of her desk to greet him as he entered, and he shook her hand warmly. "Maria," he greeted her with a genuine smile of warmth. "You’re looking well."
"Leo, you old space dog. Good to see you," she responded in kind with a grin.
"Hey, look who’s calling who old,
Commodore," he shot back in mock annoyance.
Kellogg’s grin turned slightly wry at that. "Yeah, seems like only yesterday I was ChEng of the
Potemkin, until I remember all the crap that’s happened to me since I took charge of this base."
"Six years of admin duties and juggling Klingons and researchers from all over known space," Leo said. "I can see how that could be regarded as ‘crap’," he added with a smirk.
"Yeah, well, now that Starbase Twelve has been formally claimed as Federation space, I don’t have to put up with the Klingons so much," Kellogg noted. "During the Sixties we were still a ‘Free Space’ port. Now everything has to go through ‘the proper channels’," she intoned weightily, her eyes smiling, "and I can dodge a lot of extended diplomatic duty by simply refusing to let Klingon warships in."
"Yeah, those were the days," Leo agreed. He’d been the XO of the
Scovil in the early Sixties before taking command of the
Illustrious in ’67, when she was still a Surya-class heavy frigate. During that time he’d visited this base several times, most notably just before the defection of a Klingon scientist researching the old Karsid records, and had struck up a good working relationship with then-Captain Kellogg. That relationship had grown into the easy friendship they now shared.
"Well, that’s enough reminiscing for this visit, Leo," Maria stated, breaking into his reverie. "What’s the business end of things like?"
"As you probably know, the
Illustrious has been recently re-commissioned and is undergoing her shakedown cruise
en route to Starbase 20 on the Klingon/Triangle border," Leo explained, just in case she didn’t know.
Unlikely, he thought absentmindedly,
but she might have been busy. A BC’s work is never done. "This is just a little courtesy call that I wanted to make in person rather than by subspace, to tell you that we’ll be doing extensive trials and testing in the local area so that if we run into trouble you’ll know where to send the rescue ships."
Maria nodded seriously. "Understood, Leo." She knew as well as any Starfleet veteran that shakedowns were fraught with dangers both expected and not, and knowing where you were if you needed help ensured that help would indeed come. "Any specific systems in mind for where you’ll be bouncing around?" she asked.
Leo leaned forward in his chair and said, "We had considered the Pollux system as it has two uninhabited M-class planets we could survive on if something went disastrously wrong, but it’s unofficially quarantined since the
Enterprise found Apollo."
Maria grinned and Leo shrugged. "Who knows if it was actually him, but according to the tricorder logs the
Enterprise landing party made he was a being of great power and we don’t know if he really is gone for good." He smiled again and added, "Besides, it’s almost four days away--back where we came from--and I wanted to see you in person."
Maria chuckled and graced him with a high-watt smile. "Leo, you flirt, don’t make me call up Jackie and tell tales on you!"
Leo grinned back at her. "She wouldn’t believe you, especially after the way you behaved on Deneva." His friend affected an innocent "who me?" pose, eyes wide, and he shook his head, amused.
"Yes, so, anyway," he continued, eliciting another chuckle from Maria, "we’ve decided on system s1022. It’s only twelve hours away at emergency warp speed, and it has an uninhabited M-class planet that we could survive on for however long it takes to be rescued. There’s also a few more interesting systems with a parsec of s1022 that can give our sensors and laboratories a good workout, plus the Tau Eridani Cloud itself, if we’re feeling brave," he finished with a smile.
"I’d stay away from the Cloud if I were you, Leo," Maria warned him. "It’s been spawning some pretty nasty ion storms of late and our long range sensors and probes have been monitoring severe gravitational distortions for the past two months. It wouldn’t be wise going in there with a perfect ship an a top-notch crew, much less a boatload of children."
"Okay then, s1022 it is," Leo amended with a smile. "Are any of these ion storms heading in that direction?"
"Let me check," she told him. Hitting her intercom tab, she instructed, "Lieutenant, get the latest long range sensor sweep data and weather forecasts for the Cloud and the area around system s1022, and send them to the
Illustrious, please."
"Aye sirrr," she replied.
Snapping the channel shut she addressed Bates again. "That’s for your benefit, really. Yours and your science staff, anyway. As far as I can remember there are two storms, both force eight, but both heading away from s1022. No unusual conditions of last report in your target area."
"Thanks, Maria," he acknowledged her information.
"No problem."
"I’d better be going. I’m expected on the border by 32.9 and it’ll be around another month’s travel time to get there," Bates said, getting out of his chair.
"Okay then," Kellogg replied, coming round to his side of the desk to shake his hand. "You take care of yourself, Captain. I don’t want to have to send my ships after you."
"You’re not the only one, Commodore," he agreed. "Until next time."
"Until next time. Godspeed, Leo."
*****
Captain Bates stepped off the turbolift and onto the bridge of his ship. It was like coming home, even though most of the faces had changed since her refit. Once again he ousted Arruntha from the conn and took a status report. Nothing had changed in the half-hour he’d been gone.
"Thank you, Commander," he acknowledged the Saurian’s report, then ordered, "Ensign Garn, plot a course for system s1022 at warp eight. Lieutenant Brown, take us to the warp egress point at half impulse."
At the Helm/Nav console, both officers acknowledged and got to work. Garn’s task was ridiculously easy this time, as all he had to do was find the system in the Navigation databanks to retrieve its co-ordinates and plot a straight line from this system’s egress point. Since the destination was a bare 1.37 light-years away, there were no neutral zones or navigational hazards to manoeuvre around and he was finished within seconds.
"Course plotted and laid in, Captain," he announced just as Andrea got the ship moving. "ETA at destination is twenty-three hours, twenty-six minutes."
"Very good, Ensign. Lieutenant Brown, engage on that course at warp eight when we’re clear of the base."
"Aye sir," she responded briskly as she swung the cruiser around to face away from the asteroid at 1,000 kilometres-per-second, then gunned the impulse drive to push them up to half impulse, or one-eighth light-speed.
Andie felt a thrill.
Ooh, she does handle sweetly, she thought as the cruiser heeled to starboard gracefully under minimal power. As she throttled up to half impulse she--and the whole bridge crew, including the captain--felt a tremor run through the ship. She was checking her readouts even as the captain asked, "Lieutenant?"
Feeling herself blush furiously, she kept herself facing forwards as she searched for an answer. After a few seconds, she replied, "Sir, the helm controls checks out as fully operational, no malfunctions, and the log shows I applied power smoothly," she started, managing a calm tone and forcing the defensiveness out if it. "However, there seems to be a slight fuel flow problem on Impulse Thruster Two. It could indicate a faulty inlet valve or fuel flow regulator."
Captain Bates nodded approvingly, though Andrea couldn’t see this. "Very well, Lieutenant. Good work."
As he turned to Surok to order an engineering crew to check the suspect systems, Andrea began to relax again, feeling the blush fade from her face.
Phew, that was a close one, she thought, incorrectly.
I’m glad I checked this board out before we arrived. I thought I’d get it in the neck for being clumsy there! Andrea took a moment to wipe her suddenly sweaty palms on her blue uniform trousers before they reached the warp-out point.
Instead, the captain accepted my word and congratulated me on doing a good job! YEAH! Taking note of their position, she announced, "We are free and clear to navigate, Captain."
"Warp speed, Lieutenant," he ordered.
"Aye, sir," she replied, and sent them shooting out of the system toward their next destination.
Topic: First Steps (Read 20843 times)