Building Bridges
Posted on Wed Apr 3rd, 2019 @ 12:40am by Captain Evelyn Knight & Lieutenant Commander Mira Jayde & Lieutenant Commander Jason Smoak & Lieutenant Commander Velah & Lieutenant JG Élan Val & Chief Petty Officer Wendi Maberu & Lieutenant Zhara Rynn & Lieutenant JG Iona Csira & Lieutenant JG Bodrin Fyre
2,391 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission: Ghost of a Chance: Epilogue
Evelyn had to admit that she was beginning to see why the Luna class star ships were becoming highly requested postings throughout Starfleet. The Hyperion was the first Luna class ship she had ever been on, and she was beginning to think that they rivaled even the mighty Galaxy class in terms of comfort and scientific capabilities. While smaller, the Lunas had clearly been well designed and thought out ships, and they were rightfully taking their place throughout Starfleet as front line ships. Entering the conference lounge, she saw that that she was the first to arrive. Running her fingers along the smooth edge of the table, she walked down the length and hesitated before she sat down in the captain's chair at the head of the table. Having a little bit of time, she turned towards the view port and stared at the view quietly.
Velah came through the doors with a padd in hand, her expression one more of concentration than anything as she glanced up to see an all but empty room; for that split second she thought she might have missed the meting time but the New Captain in the chair told her otherwise. She moved to about the half way down the Captain's right side of the table as she spoke.
"Hello Captain; seems I am unfashionably ... early?" She greet.
"Hello, Commander," Evelyn greeted the Orion medical officer with a smile. "I believe we're both a bit early, but I needed the break from going through the ship's logs."
"That is the best excuse for Fashionably Early that I know." Velah replied. "I hope they do not work too well as a sleeping aid?"
The doors of the conference lounge swished open and a rather tired looking and limpy Wendi wandered in. She was holding her left side as she walked, obviously she was still getting over her 'encounter' with the Romulans. However sickbay had cleared her for duty, just not to overdo it. That of course didn't help when the Hyperion's Engineering department was at the moment, only her and a few borrowed officers from Operations.
"M..Morning" she said as she wandered slowly to a chair and sat down. At least when she was sat down it didn't hurt so much.
Jayde came in next. "Good to see you here," she said to Wendi as she passed.
"Hello, doctor, captain." Jayde said as she took her seat.
Velah smiled and winked to Jayde.
Jason stepped off the turbolift and onto deck 4, headed toward the Conference Room. As he headed down the corridor, he heard a familiar voice come up from behind him.
"And how are we feeling today?" Bodrin said as he eased to his friends right and walked with him.
He rolled his eyes and let out a sigh before answering. "I'm fine, Bodrin."
"Really?!" Bodrin replied as he smirked a bit. "No trips to a Holodeck this morning to ride the artificial waves?"
"No." Jason replied firmly before adding. "I took what you said to heart and I don't expect to be doing that again. It's a brand new day."
"Is it now?" Bodrin said with a raised brow and a sly smirk. "Well... I guess we'll just have to see about that, won't we?" He handed him a PADD and continued. "Some stuff for you to look over, as well as, some info you should see."
Jason smirked back and looked at the PADD, quickly skimming through the PADD, before stopping in his tracks to look to Bodrin. "How accurate-
"Very." He replied before Jason could finish his sentence. "I double checked it, and soon after, triple checked it." Bodrin placed his hands behind his back and smiled slightly. "It's accurate, and now if you excuse me, someone has to man the bridge while you're off drinking coffee and eating whatever it is you senior officers eat in that room." He said as he began to walk away.
Jason shook his head and laughed softly before continuing his way. His good mood soon faded away as he entered the conference room. He stood there for a moment, at the doorway, and got his game face on before walking to his seat. As he sat down he placed the PADD on the table and nodded a quiet greeting at everyone. He didn't know what any of this was about, but he had a few simple rules to survive it. Speak when spoken to. Don't offer anything new unless it was relevant. Lastly, and most importantly, lower your expectations on future outcomes. It was clear nothing was as it seemed on this ship and there was no need to make things worse for himself.
Jayde glanced at Jason and nodded to him in greeting. Then decided she should say something, too. "Hello, Jason."
"Commander." Jason replied firmly, leaning back in his chair, as he slid the PADD closer.
She recoiled a little at the formality. To her ears he was very clearly telling her to keep her distance.
Jason released a slight sigh, clearing his throat a bit, before looking to Jayde and saying. "I'm sorry, Ma'am. Was there something specific you needed?"
She looked at him for a long moment, then shook her head. So that was it. She'd said or done something and now whatever chance they had of working things out was over. She pulled out her PADD and tried to focus on it.
Jason nodded his head. "I'm sorry. You were just saying hello. I thought you were calling my name for a specific reason." He picked up his PADD and looked at it before adding. "I didn't mean to misunderstand. I guess I was expecting it was about something when it really wasn't. My mistake."
Why was he trying to push her buttons? "I was being polite, which is more than I can say for you," she whispered.
"So was I." Jason whispered in return. "I thought you needed me for something. I apologized. It was a misunderstanding. There is no reason to get mad at me over a misunderstanding, or is this a new thing for you?" He leaned forward again and added. "Tell me. Where did I go wrong now? It's hard to keep track of all my failures. I'm afraid there isn't a big enough PADD for them all."
She was not going to reply to that. Liang was wrong. There was no way they were going to work this out. And why did he always think she was angry?
Iona slipped in and quietly took a seat. She was more curious than anything and wantaed to see what was going on about the new captain.
Zhara arrived right after her. She noted the tension in the room and chose to carefully observe the others to see how she could best ameliorate it.
Élan stepped through the doors and into the conference lounge in an easy, smooth gliding stride. She had heard that the Hyperion now had a new commanding officer, and because of that she had tried to be a little conservative in her dress. She wore black slacks and a dark teal shirt along with one of her simplest corsets. It didn't reveal as much skin as what she usually wore, and to add to her conservative side she had left her hair down. Finding her seat, she sat down, setting the Padd she carried down on the table and leaning back in her chair to wait.
Seeing the 'Good Ole Gang gathering Velah was glad she had opted to leave the Star Base; even though the 'situation' that brought her out here was long gone; good riddance, and now Velah had a new Captain to get to know. Things just never got boring. She would be on her good manners and observe today rather than putting her foot into it as usual. Or so she planned.
Evelyn had been keeping mostly to herself as she observed her senior officers interact with each other. The last officer to join them was a tall Trill wearing something other than her uniform. Recognizing the woman from her service record, Evelyn couldn't help but frown as she noticed the chief science officer's clothing. Hiding it quickly, she glanced around the room as the final arrivals found a seat and settled in. Leaning forward, she coughed politely to get everyone's attention. "Good evening everyone. For those of you who haven't met me yet, I'm Evelyn Knight, your new commanding officer. I've been going through the ship's logs for the past several hours, as well as the crew records in order to try to get to know as much about the Hyperion as I can. I'm impressed, and I look forward to working with all of you."
Reaching out, she pressed a control on the built in panel on the table. The view screen on the wall came to life with an image of Romulan space. Once area was highlighted. "I've decided that I want to deviate from the course that Captain Theisman had plotted out a little. Instead of heading to the TarQuin Sector, I want to alter our heading to the Varian Nebula, and then head onwards to the Aruva Sector beyond the nebula. I understand that both have only been minimally charted, so this will be an excellent opportunity to prove to the Romulans the importance of our presence and the continued peace between the Empire and the Federation. "
"Are we exploring and mapping, or are we looking for something in particular?" Jayde asked.
"Our mandate is to explore, but that doesn't mean that we won't stop and take a closer look at anything that catches our eye," Evelyn said. "According to what I've gone over, the Romulans know little or nothing about the region. There were sublight colony ships sent in centuries ago, around the founding of the Romulan Empire, but other than that, there's nothing. The last ship that was sent into the area was never heard back from, so I do want to proceed with caution."
"Fascinating," Jayde said. "So we could run into Romulan colonies that have been separated from the Empire."
"Or something they've been hiding away from everyone else." Jason said as he looked around before focusing on the new Captain. "And they are okay with us exploring this region they claim to not know much about? A place like that is perfect for hiding things, especially, from their own government and the outside quadrants."
"No matter what we find, we will proceed with caution and document everything we come across," Evelyn said, politely but firmly. "There is the possibility that there are Romulan colonies, secret military bases, or even things that are unknown completely. Naturally, the majority of the workload will fall to science, but I want security and tactical to be on stand by as well."
Iona glanced over to the captain and then back at her PADD. It was going to be a long, tedious journey for ops. She would have to find something to keep everyone on task.
"It depends on what we find," Jayde said. "I'm sure there will be enough variety for everyone to be involved."
"Naturally, we hope that everyone can get involved, but as we'll be exploring uncharted space and going into the unknown, I want to be as cautious and prepared as we can be," Evelyn said.
Zhara made a mental note of the conversations and reactions. It was looking like the new captain would have a bit of trouble fitting in. It was to be expected when a crew was used to the old captain's way of doing things.
Jayde did not like the new captain stating that almost all of the work would just be for science. There were far too many possibilities to make such a broad statement. Especially when the captain mentioned they could find Romulan colonies and hidden military installations. While Jayde did not discount that there would be scientific research and that science would no doubt be busy to extremely busy, the captain should be considering how to utilize the abilities of all of her crew, not just science. Even if it ended up that most of the work was scientific. After Theisman's departure, they needed to come together as a crew and feel like they were valued.
Élan shook her head and tapped a stylus against her Padd as she thought. The chances of just the science department having something to do were slim. She was sure that everyone else would have plenty to do as well, although she was sure that science would take the majority of the workload. She finally looked up and around at everyone's faces, trying to get a feel for how everyone else felt about the recent and sudden changes that were still taking place.
"I will unpack the industrial Band-aids." Velah said with a grin. "Sounds like we might need them?"
"I certainly hope not, but it is possible," Evelyn said with a slight smile.
"There is that old Earth Saying 'Better safe than Sorry." Velah smiled.
"Well, that is true," Evelyn said with a brief smile. "You may want to have the medical labs cross train with science in case we come across any biological entities as well. Security will need to qualify for multiple encounter scenarios, as well."
"Break out the Band-aids, warm up the Tricorders and take out the Sample Case, Got it." Velah winked.
"I'll have get security clearance for medical personnel to enter a few of the science labs, mostly the biology labs and a few of the multi-purpose labs as well," Élan said. "And we'll have to screen for security officers who have some basic grasp of science procedures and cross train them as lab assistants, just in case they have to step in and give someone a hand."
"Get with medical and security, and I would like to suggest operations for that as well," Evelyn said.
Jayde made notes so she could follow up with the departments later.
"Alright then, people. I want the Hyperion ready to depart in twenty four hours. We'll use the time to finish any repairs and get started on cross training. Dismissed," Evelyn said. Standing, she waited for the others to stand and start out of the conference room.
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