Lessons Learned (Part 1 of 4)

Posted on 24 Aug 2014 @ 5:42pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain T'Zera

2,553 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo/USS Crown - Administrative Offices
Timeline: MD 03 - 1340 hrs

[ON]

T'Zera looked at the chronometer in her ready room. The Crown would be approaching the Bajor system soon. She wanted to be on the bridge when they hailed Deep Space Nine. Switching off her PADD she stood to leave.

Then the ops officer on duty called her over the comm. "Bridge to Captain T'Zera. You have an incoming transmission from USS Galileo. Commodore Lirha Saalm."

T'Zera stopped cold and arched her brow. Lirha Saalm. Curious that she would make time to call her. "I'll take it here." She returned to her chair and swiveled the desk monitor to face her. The seal of the Federation vanished from the display and was replaced by a familiar face.

Sitting in her administrative office with a plethora of PADDs stacked all around her, T'Zera's face materialized on Lirha's screen and the Orion commodore gave the pointed-eared hybrid a friendly smile through the LCARS console. "Well...hello, captain. It has been a while," she said with a pleasant light and airy voice. Her Yrevish accent was subtle yet still noticeable for those with whom she was acquainted. "I almost did not believe it when I saw you had been appointed a command within our task force," she added with a friendly glint to her light green eyes.

T'Zera's neutral expression belied the pleasure she felt at seeing her old friend. "A serendipitous occurrence, Commodore. I found it most agreeable to see your name on the list of senior officers. Though I regret that the distance between us is still great. By your smile and demeanor I assume that you are well?"

"Well enough, I suppose," Lirha replied with a casual shrug, then reached up to push a stray strand of dark hair back behind her ear. T'Zera's vernacular and pointedness was almost exactly as she remembered which was a pleasant and reassuring sign. "Starfleet has been keeping me busy, to say the least. And you?"

"We are kept busy as well," T'Zera said. "Ship and crew are performing commendably. I could not ask for better." She leaned back in her chair. Her expression softened almost imperceptibly. "Although talking to you now, I can't help but feel that things would be more...fun...if you were here."

Lirha arched her eyebrows with a bit of casual playfulness. "Fun? I thought Vulcans did not have fun," she teased with a mischievous grin. It had been a running joke between the two of them throughout the time they had known each other, and Lirha almost felt obligated to quip about it for the sake of old friendship.

"I am admittedly not often the source of it," T'Zera replied, "but that's not to say I object to being in the presence of it. Particularly where you are concerned."


------ Many Years Prior ------

The alarm in Lirha's chronometer went off precisely at 0330, piercing the quiet of the small, dark cabin. Cadet T'Zera swung her legs out from the top rack and hit the deck. Her feet landed with a soft thud. She walked two steps to the sink and turned on the light over the mirror. In the reflection she could see her roommate still resting comfortably in the bottom rack. "Lirha, are you awake?"

Before Lirha could answer the voice of one of their training officers, Lieutenant Casey, boomed over the ship-wide address system. "Now hear this! Now hear this! Next watch will begin in thirty minutes."

T'Zera stood before the mirror and pulled her long, brown hair back into a ponytail. "Lirha, are you up? You have the center seat this morning."

A muffled groan sounded from beneath the covers followed by slow movements of limbs beneath the comforter. Lirha did her best to slowly wake from her sleep at her own pace, but her roommate, annoying alarm clock, and internal comm voice was doing a fantastic job of motivating her to move more quickly.

"...It is too early..." she mumbled in between a lengthy yawn, then pushed her blanket down to waist revealing her nude green torso and another female cadet who was snuggled up next to her following their adventures several hours earlier.

"Sorry...duty calls," Lirha said to her temporary Human lover and gave her a gentle pat on her butt before slowly pushing her out of the bed and coaxing her to put her clothes on and leave her and T'Zera's quarters as quickly as possible.

Skimpering to her feet after hearing the alert, the young blonde security cadet quickly grabbed her clothes from the foot of the bed and scurried out of their quarters barely dressed leaving Lirha and T'Zera alone to get ready for the pending training exercise. "Kobayashi Maru again?" she asked her hybrid roommate.

T'Zera watched impassively as the blonde exited then turned her attention back to Lirha. "No holodeck simulations today. I overheard Commander Gerhardt say that he's going to give you command of the ship as soon as you report to the bridge. It's supposed to be a surprise."

Lirha's eyes opened wide when she heard T'Zera's revelation and she quickly got to her feet and anxiously looked around for her uniform. Her side of the room was a mess and clothes were strung everywhere, making the relatively simple task of getting dressed somewhat complicated.

"...No simulations? A real ship??" Lirha asked as she spun around flailing her arms with anxiety at not being able to locate her cadet garbs. "Where is my uniform?!" The poor Orion cadet was almost in a state of mild panic.

A few minutes later the two cadets quick-stepped out of their room and towards the bridge, dressed and ready to go. They weren't late for their duty shift. In fact they were early, but the word of what was to come for Lirha just made it seem very urgent.

"You will perform acceptably, Lirha," T'zera said, trying to be comforting in her own Vulcan way. "Everyone sits in the center seat for the first time at some point. The instructors will not be expecting perfection. Only that you discharge your duties with the authority expected of a commanding officer. Do not allow the possibility of mistakes to cause you trepidation."

Lirha gave T'Zera a sideways glance and rolled her eyes at the fellow cadet's Vulcan optimism. "Yes, of course. It is so simple, now that you put it that way," she dryly remarked.

The bridge of the Defiant-class USS Renown was typically busy for a ship about to depart spacedock. The difference between her and other Starfleet ships, however, was that she was the Academy's designated training ship. Currently she was in the middle of an eight-month student cruise paying port calls to various points in the Federation. Today she would be departing Starbase 247 orbiting Benzar.

The duty stations were occupied by cadets representing all career tracks, while the only regular Starfleet officers present were the student advisors. They mostly stood and observed, occasionally stepping in when it looked like someone was about to do something not-very-smart. The senior-most advisor, Commander Gerhardt, smiled when he saw Lirha arrive and called out, "Captain on the bridge!" It was meant to be a surprise.

Lirha looked at the senior officer on duty and instinctively snapped to attention with her hands clasped professionally behind her back. It took a few moments to register in her head before she realized she was the one who was now being shown respect in the chain of command.

"..Thank you, commander.." she managed to reply to Gerhardt. At this point in her career, she was nothing more than a simple operations officer-in-training...one who now apparently had been given the chance to command an actual Defiant-class starship.

"Your orders, sir?" she asked, having virtually no idea what was now expected of her and only a vague idea of her assignment which she had previously thought would be a just simulation.

Gerhardt looked at her with a knitted brow. "I'm not the captain of this ship, Cadet. You are. Does a captain ask what to do or does a captain say what to do?"

T'Zera, meanwhile, made her way forward to the helm where she relieved the cadet on duty. She noted with satisfaction that all systems had been pre-flighted.

Lirha privately grumbled at herself, not exactly wanting to get chewed out any more so early in the morning and on her first official voyage. Giving the commander nothing but a curt nod to acknowledge his statement, she took a deep breath then moved towards the ship's command chair and took a seat in the center of the bridge.

"Status report?" she inquired from the bridge crew, wanting to double-check the ship's systems' readiness before departing. She looked down at her chair's armrest console and delicately tapped her lithe green fingers across several buttons to bring up a series of LCARS displays that would give her a visual representation of the starship's current status.

"Gangplank is retracted. Airlocks closed," one cadet reported from his station.

"All decks report ready for departure," another said.

T'Zera spoke up from the helm. "Spacedock has granted departure clearance. Moorings are cleared. Thrusters at station-keeping." She finished her inputs and looked up at the main viewer, waiting for Lirha's order.

Gangplank...airlocks.....departure clearance, moorings...thrusters... Lirha nervously did a somewhat delayed mental checklist of all the proper steps which preceded a starship's departure from spacedock while trying her best to not forget anything. Reaching up with a green hand to wipe several small beads of sweat from her forehead, she took another deep breath before giving her first official command from the center seat.

"Very good. Helm...take us out. Maneuvering thrusters only until we have cleared dock traffic," she instructed, then leaned back in her chair with her hands anxiously folded in her lap as her eyes turned towards the main viewscreen to observe the vessel's movement. "Computer, overlay aft view on the main screen," she said which then quickly resulted in a small picture-in-picture screen showing both the forward and aft camera angles of the Defiant-class.

"Thrusters ahead slow," T'Zera answered, advancing the throttles slowly. The Renown moved forward towards the massive doors of the zero-G harbor. So far so good.

Around the perimeter of the ridge, other cadets gazed dutifully at the readouts on their consoles, most of which were on standby since the ship wasn't actually out in space yet. One or two glanced over their shoulder at Lirha to see if there was any stress evident on her face.

Commander Gerhardt stood at the rear of the bridge with his hands clasped behind his back. His deputy, Lieutenant Casey, stood with him. They merely observed and tried to stay as inconspicuous as possible. As far as the cadets, and especially Lirha, were concerned this was their ship to steer.

T'Zera, the cadet in charge of the actual steering, kept it slow and steady until they had cleared the space doors. The forward view now showed nothing but stars. The Renown came about to her assigned heading. A chime sounded on T'Zera's console and she answered it. Then announced, "We are free and clear to navigate."

"Thank you, Miss T'Zera." It felt strangely weird calling her roommate by such a formal title, but apparently it would be something Lirha would have to get used to.

"Set a course for the edge of the solar system and -- once we are away from the core planets -- set a course for..." she paused again to think of a suitable destination for the tiny Defiant-class, one which would stay within the operational parameters she'd been given. "...Starbase 74 in the Tarsus system," she finally decided upon after consulting a small star chart on her armrest console. "Warp 5," she added.

The helm console beeped and chirped under T'Zera's fingers. "Course laid in."

Before Lirha could give the "engage" order a persistent chirp came from the tactical console. The young cadet manning that station spoke up. "Captain, a ship just dropped out of warp one-thousand kilometers off the bow. She's hailing us."

Lirha recognized the distinctive comm chirp and swiveled in her chair to face the tactical cadet as the young lady reported the new arrival. Strange... she thought, half-wondering if this was some type of planned test arranged by her instructors.

"...What kind of ship?" the young Orion asked, hoping for more information before she accepted the communication.

T'Zera scanned the hull markings. "She's the MV Celestial Pride. Three-hundred thousand ton uridium ore freighter. Rigellian-flagged but owned by a private interest."

"Reading seventeen crew aboard," the tactical officer reported. "She's mostly automated."

The vessel appeared on the main viewer, reducing speed as she approached Benzite space.

"Hmm..." Lirha rubbed her chin while she pondered the possible reasons for a civilian freighter to be approaching and hailing a Federation warship. Perhaps they were in need of assistance? There was really no way of telling until she answered their hail.

"Very well, open a channel to the ship," she instructed, then sat up straight in her chair and adjusted herself into a more professional posture. Her mind briefly reviewed a mental checklist of proper procedures to follow when neutral ships approached their Federation counterparts.

"This is Captain Saalm of the Federation starship Renown. How may we be of assistance?" Lirha said through the comm.

The image of the Celestial Pride was replaced by the image of her captain, a turtle-like Rigellian wearing a hooded garment. "Captain Saalm, I wish to report an act of piracy. Seventy-one light years from this position we were pursued and fired upon by an unknown ship. They attempted to beam a raiding party aboard but we were able to jam their targeting scanners. If you hurry you can catch them."

"Piracy?" Lirha repeated out loud as her brain wracked itself to recall even more protocols and procedures for such an incident. Her first instinct was to verify the information presented, and also dig for more information. "Were you in contact with the ship? What did they want?" she asked, then spoke to T'Zera sitting at the console in front of her.

"Are you picking up anything on long range sensors?" she quietly inquired.

Looking down at her console, T'Zera shook her head almost imperceptibly. She knew Lirha would get the message.

"They didn't explicitly say what they wanted," the Rigellian captain went on, "but obviously it was our cargo, which is very valuable. They dropped out of warp, fired a shot across our bow, and ordered us to come to full stop and prepare to be boarded. The craft was a small raider. I'm not sure what type. Fortunately we were able to outsmart them."

The cadet manning tactical turned his chair to face Lirha. "Captain, if we proceed to the scene of the incident we can start immediately on a search pattern with our long-range sensors." He looked to Commander Gerhardt and the other instructor for approval, but the two officers merely stood stone-faced and observed.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CDRE Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

Captain T'Zera
Commanding Officer
USS Crown

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