The Ceremony (Part 4 of 4)

Posted on 31 Dec 2013 @ 11:18am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Scarlet Blake & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Lieutenant Ammar Fahad & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Lieutenant Min Zhao & Lieutenant Olsam Mott & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Commander Luke Wyatt & Alexander Iella & Tarishiana Barel

1,618 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 05 - Solstice
Location: Starfleet HQ - 1st Floor, Tertiary Meeting Hall
Timeline: MD 03 - 0820 hrs

Previously, on The Ceremony (Part 3)...

"Thank you Mr Quinn. I assure you the feeling is more than mutual. I must ask however, for your discretion with a specific task."

Taking a moment to look around him to ensure nobody was listening in, the Captain leaned in to the seasoned officer and returned the arm around his shoulder.

"I believe Commodore Saalm had an agreement with you regarding the brewing of...Orion Ale....could I suggest we look to continue the practice? As a mark of respect to the Commodore of course."

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

Quinn nodded. "Of course, Captain. I'd be honored." he replied

"If you'll excuse me, sir." Quinn said then moved over to Lirha and gave the Commodore a giant hug, and held on. A tear fell from the man's eye as he looked at her. "I'm very proud of you Skipper, though I know this isn't what you wanted. But still...this may only be a brief bump in the road until they can find you a new ship. Maybe one of those deep explorers or something."

Returning the hug from her trusty COB, Lirha smiled up at him and patted him on the shoulder. "It is bittersweet, I admit. It is nice to be promoted and further my career, but it was hard to lose command of Galileo," she explained. "But...John deserves the chance to command a ship, and I can not think of anyone else better suited for the job. I think the ship will be in good hands with him at the helm."

She cleared her throat then pondered the prospect of serving aboard a different starship as Quinn had just mentioned. Shaking her head, she didn't like that idea very much. "No, I do not want another ship. At least, not right now. I told the admiralty I preferred to remain on board Galileo and they were kind enough to honor my request."

"Glad to know you'll still be around for our Breakfasts. I have some interesting meals planned." he said with a smile.

Dea approached Commodore Saalm first. Lirha had been her first Commanding Officer aboard Galileo and had showed a lot of confidence and trust in her abilities. "Congratulations Ma'am," she extender her hand to shake.

Giving the blue-eyed flight controller a friendly smile, Lirha shook her hand and nodded her thanks. "Thank you, and congratulations to you as well on your promotion and advancement. Second officer...you have come a long way since we first met." Lirha still remembered Dea as a junior lieutenant when she first came on board, and it was a pleasure to see her now an official member of the command staff.

"I appraciate that Commodore. Its hard to believe I'm standing before you a Lieutenant Commander yet alone Galileo's new Second Officer. Safe to say that young Lieutenant you saw is no more," Dea replied with a smile.

"Yes, I can see that. Well, I am sure you will do just fine as the new second officer," the Orion remarked, giving her a polite nod.

Once she had finished with Lirha Dea moved on to Holliday. "Congratulations Sir. I look forward to serving as your Second Officer." She extended a hand to Holliday.

"See you don't let me down Lieutenant Commander. A lot of extra responsibility is about to land squarely on your shoulders." John replied, returning the handshake from his new 2XO as she began to go through the same thought process that Holliday himself had gone through when Admiral Hurin first promoted him to Captain.

Next it was time to properly extend her best wished to Commander Blake, "Congratulations on the promotion and your new position." Extending her hand to Blake.

Scarlet took the hand to shake, shaking her head with a small smile. "And to you, Mialin. You stepped up when we were under attack, I'm sure the rest will fall into place."

"Thank you Commander. I appreciate your words of encouragement," Dea smiled. All these changes would take time to get used to but she also knew she had to be at the top of her game for her new assignment.

Lt. Rhodes had enjoyed the ceremony. There was no one more deserving than Capt. Saalm to merit a promotion to Commodore. He watched as the crew mingled and chatted. He thought, if the Commodore would remain on the Galileo, then security measures would probably end up changing as well, in some respect. I guess I will deal with that when the time comes. He nodded to different members of the crew as Theron made his way out of the room.

Asahi glanced about, rubbing his hands together. Someone had to be ready to meet a jabbering little engineer, or at least capable of mingling. A quiet-looking, brown haired woman caught his eye. His lips curled into a smile at the color of her dress uniform. There was a chance she knew at least something he would have been able to carry on about.

The engineer made his way over, settling into the seat next to her with a bright smile. "Hello there. I don't think I've seen you around. Name's Asahi Kita. What's your's?"

Min smiled shyly up at the officer. "Nice to meet you Asahi." Offering her hand. "Min Zhao. And I'm guessing you're either Operations or Engineering?"

He grinned, shaking her hand firmly. "Good guess." There were too many yellow shirts running about; Asahi hadn't even thought about asking what department anyone was in. He still had to get used to the security officers. "Engineering officer. Nothing too fancy." Though, if he were promoted any higher, he would have been frighteningly concerned for his comfortable engineering position. "What about you? I haven't seen you down in the engineering decks, but I haven't really had time to meet everyone before shore leave happened."

"Operations. I'm a new transfer which is why you haven't seen me around." Min felt her daughter move around and placed a hand on her stomach. "I'd be hard to miss anyways. Not many officers with a child on the way from what I can see." She grinned. "Engineering you say. What specialty?"

Asahi's smile widened, eyes flickering down to Min's stomach for a tiny instant, before he met her gaze again. "Not at all. Not that I've heard of anyway, but I'm sort of new myself so I wouldn't have heard if there was another expecting mother aboard. That's great though. Congrats!" He paused, reeling in the excitement before it got the best of him. "Ah, energy and matter. If it spews from a warp core, I know about it."

Allyndra entered the reception line as well. She pushed away her wonderment as to what all the behind the scenes shuffling was. Obviously her first stop in the line was the new flag officer. She had observed others shaking hands so it was obvious that it would be alright and held hers out as she got the new Commodore, even so she could not help but make a small dip and bow of the head.

"Congratulations Ca..Commodore," Allyndra caught herself. "I see it shall take a little time, sir to get used to having a flag officer. Very unexpected but I do delight in the Admiralty noticing such a wonderful officer."

"Thank you, commander," Lirha responded to the tall, winged Akkadian with a pleasant smile. "And congratulations to you as well on your advancement. You have worked very hard since you came on board and it is well-deserved," she added.

"Thank you Commodore. I see it as my job, but none the less very grateful."

Her next was Holiday. She had had little interaction with him since coming aboard but then a lot of that had been the fact that the Borg had taken him.

"May I extend my congratulations as well Captain. I am pleased that we got you back and recovered."

"No more so than I am Doctor." John replied in agreement. Grateful for the thanks from the Galileo's CMO.

Her next stop was Blake and she extended her congratulations to her as well.

"I do hope you will find your new position to be satisfactory. I did it for a short time and found I was much more satisfied with just being in the ranks. I think, if I may draw on my own counseling experience, that you will do much better that I will."

Blake smiled wryly to Allyndra at her words, taking the hand to shake warmly. "I will miss counselling," she admitted, shaking her head lightly. "But it's always good for the soul to have a new challenge. It was a goal I had in mind for sometime ahead."

[OFF]

--

CDRE Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

Lt. Theron Rhodes
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

LT Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Commander Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo

LT CMDR Dea Mialin
Second Officer/Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Command Master Chief Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo

Tarishiana Barel
Civilian Scientist
USS Galileo

Ltjg Min Zhao
Asst Chief of Operations
USS Galileo

LT Ammar Fahad
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Alexander Iella
Bartender/Chef
USS Galileo

LTJG Olsam Mott
Asst. Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Delainey Carlisle
Counselor
USS Galileo

LT Asahi Kita
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

CPO Luke Wyatt
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Jared Nicholas
Linguist
USS Galileo

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