A final Voyage, a new beginning...

Posted on Tue Oct 6th, 2020 @ 1:19pm by Lieutenant Jamie Dougherty & Captain Mikoto Misaka

1,570 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Cleaning Up
Location: On the way to Veridian 3

"Space. The final frontier. These were the voyages of the Starship Enterprise," Jamie said sadly as she looked out the window of the runabout as it warped into the Veridian system. She was sad, to say the least. The flagship of the fleet had crashed its saucer section into a planet, the engineering hull exploded in orbit, raining down debris across several continents.

She was a voracious reader, moreso since her encounter with the Orions left her with eidetic memory. oO What the hell were they doing? Oo she thought to herself.
oO Why weren't their shields rotating automatically upon entering a combat situation? Then the torpedo wouldn't have breached their shields! What was Commander Troi thinking in diving closer to the planet instead of away from the huge gravity well? Dear God, I'm going to write a massive e-paper to Starfleet Engineering about new engineering procedures when I get on board. Oo

The young lieutenant pushed some hair out of her face as she looked down and kept reading the report on the ship. She felt a huge sense of loss when she heard the ship had crashed. She had always dreamed of serving on the Enterprise some day, but the Ermiana was a sister ship, almost identical but for a name and registry number. Still, you get wistful for what was, what could have been, and what should have happened and should never have happened. She remembered her ordeal with the Orions here, and how every day a stranger looked back at her in the mirror. oO well at least I don't have to shave anymore Oo she chuckled to herself, trying to stay out of the dark thoughts she had for the first few weeks afterwards.

"Computer, send a message to Captain Scylding and Commander Lannon on the USS Utopia, an dlet them know we're arriving at Veridian safely," she said. Her PADD had an ETA display at the top to let her know they were almost there.

Then the deceleration out of warp and back to normal space came, and all the streaks of light became pinpricks again, interstellar dust particles whose light spectra were distorted around the warp field of the shuttle.

"USS Ermiana, this is shuttle Cleburne on approach, over," said the pilot, a young 29 year old man who reminded her of an old Earth actor she saw once (ooc: Mark Hamill).

"Shuttle Cleburne, we read you, over," came the reply from the shuttlebay operator.

"Please specify approach for docking. Which shuttlebay or planetside approach, over?" he asked.

"Main shuttlebay, over. Once our officer unloads she is to report planetside," said the shuttle operator, how reminded Jamie of someone else she'd heard back at the academy (ooc: Brittany Murphy).

The shuttle eased itself into the shuttlebay routinely, and Jamie was impressed with the size of the vessel as she exited the shuttle.

"Welcome aboard Lieutenant," the deck officer greeted her. "Its all a little bit busy here, however should you need to report in, Captain Misaka is still on board. Most likely in her ready room," he explained with a smile.

"Thank you," Lt. Dougherty nodded politely to the warrant officer, her thick, red, curly hair shifting about as she did. She noticed he was intimidated with her. She had that kind of presence now. And she noticed his eyes wandering, as often happened now.

She took her duffel bag, and had an anti-grav unit clamp onto the rest of her luggage to make it easier to take with her. She had already memorized the plans of the Galaxy class, not a difficult task given her kind of memory, and went into the turbolift to deck 5, a short trip. It let her out in the center corridor, so she went forward till it dead-ended, and went left, finally finding her cabin, 8 cabins away from the centerline.

It was impressive in size, the Galaxy class sometimes jokingly called a 'space hotel' amongst some in the fleet. The anti-grav unit she powered down, as it gently lowered onto the floor, and she tossed her duffelbag on the couch. "I guess I shouldn't dawdle," she said to herself. She went to the mirror in the bathroom and looked at herself. oOStill can't get used to the new face,Oo she thought to herself. She didn't have much make-up on, not that she really needed any. But she took out a hair tie and put her hair in it to try to get it under control, her endowment moving as she did. "Time to meet the captain," she said, psyching herself up. She straightened her uniform, unconsciously copying a gesture made by another captain and went on her way.

Seconds later, she exited the turbolift on the bridge, pausing a moment to take it in. She had finally made it to a Galaxy class vessel, with the new side-stations on the bridge, a nice addition to a classic bridge design. A few moments, and she exited, walking down the ramp, and chimed the bell at the captain's ready room.

"Come in" Misaka called. She had been going over several reports that had been streaming in from the planets surface. Now with the Klingons also lurking around she was on edge more as well. Luckily their battle cruiser had cloaked and disappeared and not given them any trouble. Still she was still uneasy about the salvage operation, especially since so much of the materials couldn't be transported and had to be removed using good old fashioned shuttlecraft and runabouts.

Jamie walked in and saluted professionally, hoping to make a good impression on her new captain. "Lieutenant JG Jamie Dougherty reporting for duty, Captain."

"At ease Lieutenant" Misaka said simply. "Saluting is a little old fashioned" she said with a smile. She indicated to the chair in front of her with a hand, showing the Lieutenant she could sit down. She rose from her seat. "Take a seat, refreshments?" she asked as she moved over to the replicator. She could use something to drink herself.

"Thank you captain," Dougherty said with a smile as she sat. "Some hot tea would be great. I didn't get a mission brief coming in other than we're salvaging the remains of the Enterprise D. Is there anything more specific?"

Replicating two cups of tea, Misaka passed one of them to the Lieutenant before sitting down. "Well, its a little more complex than that," she explained. "We've got to be careful that nothing goes missing. Plus, we have had Klingons turn up recently too" she told her. "Lieutenant Carter is leading the salvage operation on the planet alongside with the Civilian Contractors. He'll be your direct superior officer"

"Our main mission is to remove all sensitive systems, technology and materials associated with Starfleet. Obviously as you know the Enterprise was a Galaxy Class like this. Starfleet does not want any of its technology ending up in the wrong hands" Misaka explained. "Everything from the phaser arrays down to the isolinear chips will need to be taken, recorded and stored properly on removal" She paused. "I shouldn't have to remind anyone that the Federation has its fair share of enemies, even if one piece of that ship can be reversed engineered could put us at a tactical disadvantage over them. Especially since we now know of this new 'Dominion'" she explained.

Jamie took a sip of the tea, enjoying the taste with an unconscious smile and a sigh. "That makes sense," she said a she set it down on the desk. "Despite the damage caused by the crash, I'm sure a lot of equipment still survived in the decks that weren't crushed. Classified files, science experiments, weapons, all that definitely needs to get brought up. How much of it can we beam vs. manually extracting?"

"Not as much as you think. For example the main phaser array is the height of the deck its embedded into" Mikoto replied. "Some of the systems will take extensive dismantling just to get them to a state where they can be transported".

"Wow," she said with an exhale. "I never thought of that. I usually think about the proper alignment of the warp field, by nacelles, pylons, and hull warp geometry, but deconstruction is a whole different game."

Misaka nodded. "Its not something which Starfleet Engineers usually deal with. This is usually in the hands of ship breakers, but this situation warrants us being here" she explained.

Jamie leaned forward, which was a little hard with her endowment, " I should probably meet with the chief engineer, let him know I'm here. Is he still planetside right now? "

"Yes he is. I would get down there as soon as you can. Lieutenant Carter is the one that's organising all the engineering teams," Misaka replied. "I'll get your transfer orders logged and gave your codes registered into the main computer within the hour."

"You got it captain," Jamie said with a nod, tussling her mess of red hair as she did. She stood up, and gave the captain a nod. "Thank you for the tea. I'll get some tools and head on down to the planet."

Misaka nodded. "Dismissed. And welcome aboard"

"Thank you, Captain. I'm excited to be on board," Dougherty said, saluted again, out of force of habit, then turned on a dime, and exited.

Posting by

Captain Mikoto Misaka
Commanding Officer

Lt JR Jamie Dougherty
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer

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