All Aboard! (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on 07 Sep 2016 @ 12:03am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D. & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Min Zhao & Lieutenant JG Noah Khoroushi & Lieutenant JG Rahl Tyton Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Jonas Flynn PsyD & Ensign Miraj Derani & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant Commander Ryan Alexander & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Greg Mitchell
Edited on on 07 Sep 2016 @ 12:08am

2,529 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo - Bridge/Transporter Room 1
Timeline: MD -06 - 1405 hrs

[ON]

The last two hours of Alpha shift were always the most difficult for Lirha. Something about knowing that she would be released from her duties as a bridge officer -- even temporarily -- made her fidgety in her seat. Restlessness was accompanied by boredom which resulted in brief daydreams, especially while Galileo was at warp and slowly tottering along towards the nearest starbase with no pressing matters to attend to.

Suddenly, the sound of a nearby Operations console caught her attention and roused her from her thoughts. The repeating signal tone was very familiar from Lirha's early career as a communications specialist: they were receiving an incoming hail.

From his post at Ops, Noah glanced up and tilted his head toward Lihra. "Incoming hail from the USS Wolff, Admiral."

Interesting, the Orion thought to herself. The only starship in the immediate area that she was expecting to encounter was USS Oceana, the Nebula-class assigned to relieve Galileo at Celes III. "On screen," she replied.

"Transferring now." With a tap of the screen, he projected the missive onto the main view screen.

The screen flickered for the briefest of seconds to be replaced by the image of the Wolff's Captain, a female Caitian in her late 30's, glancing back through the screen. "Admirral Saalm. Captain Emerrson. We arre enrroute to the Celes system but we have some equipment and perrsonnel we need to trransferr aboarrd when you meet the Oceana."

Lirha straightened up when the image of a fellow captain appeared on the large monitor. She reached up to push a stray lock of dark hair from her cheek while also taking in the appearance of the short statured and golden furr'd fellow starship commander.

"Hello, captain," she nodded in acknowledgement. "Did you say you have personnel...?" Lirha was quite happy to requisition new stores for her starship and sort them out once they reached SB-234, but she was not aware of any pending crew transfers coming from Wolff

"Yes Admirral. We werre dispatched with some last minute supplies the Oceana left porrt without, and an officerr of yourrs, Lt Zhao, whom I underrstand was on leave." M'Elise responded calmly, her peircing green eyes staring back at Admiral Saalm across the viewscreen.

Lirha's own light green eyes widened at the revelation and the mention of one of her former officers. "Lieutenant Zhao...?" she asked, a bit taken aback with surprise. "I was not aware she requesting a transfer..."

But perhaps such conversations should be left in private as opposed to the two captains' entire bridge crews, Lirha then decided. "Very well. We will prepare to receive her. Please transmit your position and vectors to our helm officer. We will rendezvous with you shortly."

"Understood. Emerson out." As the screen blanked, M'Elise could be seen turning to helmsman, a young Bolian. Within seconds the Wolff's telemetry data and projected course were streaming across to the helm console on the Galileo.

Miraj saw the data begin to pop up on her console, and she let helm computers make the relevant adjustments. Navigating in warp was always done by computer, at the mind numbing speeds involved the slightest miscalcualtion could involve over shooting by hundreds of lighyears "New course laid in, ma'am," she confirmed to the Admiral. "Rendez-vous in thirty minutes."

Allyndra was doing double duty right now. She was working still as acting Exec for beta and Chief Medical for her normal gamma shift. Tuula had fit right in and she seemed to like the alpha time slot. As such getting into the swing of things she had a tendency to report to duty early so there was quite a bit of overlap.

As she entered the bridge, which seemed odd not to have to request permission but as acting Exec she had every right to be here, there was a comm call on screen and she just caught the tail end of things.

"Good day Admiral," Allyndra said, "personnel? It seems odd that they could not wait until we reached base."

Lirha looked up at Allyndra and nodded in acknowledgement of her presence before responding. "Yes, odd but not unexpected. Fleet command is always impatient...days at warp are often considered wastes of valuable time as far as Starfleet's Chief of Operations is concerned." She pointed down towards the middle console between their two chairs. "Our current position seems to be a wise choice for a rendezvous. It was probably planned weeks in advance," she surmised.

Allyndra nodded with the explanation and moved to sit quietly in the second command chair. She would just observe for right now and probably the Admiral would overstay her time but that was alright. Rank had its privileges.

Luke stood up, "Afternoon admiral, we're taking a slight detour today?" He asked presenting their seats to them as he looked between the two woman. Both of which he had the upmost respect for.

"So it appears," answered Saalm. "Personnel and parts transfers, I have been told. Nothing that we cannot complete within thirty minutes if all goes well." The rear admiral wasn't particularly in any rush to get to Starbase 234, and a quick visit with two other Federation vessels might lighten the mood for everyone.


Thirty minutes later...

The time to rendezvous passed quickly, and it was not long until the half-boslic at the helm annouced, "rendezvous co-ordinates in two minutes."

"Very well. Drop us out of warp," the Orion replied. "Engage one-quarter impulse and bring us alongside Oceana and Wolff."

With a flick of her fingers, Miraj brought Galileo back into real space and the long white streaks of stars coalesced into a scattered field of tiny points of light. Hanging in space were the two waiting vessels, and she altered the helm gently to slide the ship down from its original approach to lie on the same plane as the other two vessels. Oceana and Wolff were already aligned, barely fifty meters apart. Galileo was 43 meters wide. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking," she whispered to the ship. Knowing the little frigate would agree with her she put a fingertip's touch to the helm and they glided in between the two. It was a snug fit, with maybe only a meter to spare either side.

"Helm at full stop and holding position," Miraj said, trying and not quite succeeding at keeping her tone professional and not smugly satisfied with the tight position

Lirha had watched somewhat wide-eyed during the maneuver. Now that her starship was situated between the vessels, she could breathe a sigh of relief, but only temporary. "Miss Derani, activate maneuvering thrusters on the Y-axis. Drop us down and give more separation from the other starships. Safely," she ordered, with emphasis on the last word. Galileo was dangerously close to the other two vessels which made Lirha extremely uncomfortable despite any trust she had in her helm officer.

Miraj sighed very quietly. She wasn't going to hit either ship. If either ship collided with them, it would be entirely the fault of whatever lump-handed moron was sitting at the helps of the two whale-like ships the minnow Galileo was squeezed between. But she made the adjustment, and fired thrusters, sending the tiny frigate straight down, the safest vector by far, and then slid under the belly of Oceana and came back up at a much less intimate distance of her port side.

Allyndra watched with practiced eye at the maneuver. If there was one thing she was quite good at was thinking in the three dimensions. She nodded as Miraj smoothly parked the Galileo. It was an excellent job.

"Signal both vessels that we are standing by for transport," Lirha ordered to the Ops station before putting her hands on both armrests to bring her pregnant frame to its feet. "Mister Alexander and Wyatt...Miss Mimi and Warraquim, you are all with me," she added before tapping her commbadge. "Chief Mitchell and Lieutenant Benice, please meet me in Transporter Room 1. We have new crew to greet. Saalm out."

Ryan nodded and signaled both ships, that Galileo was standing by and ready for transport. He waited for the return receipt from both ships. "Both ships acknowledge and will begin transfer." Ryan said before reliquinishing his console. He turned and followed the Admiral into the turbolift.

Allyndra rose with easy grace and went to follow the Admiral but she stopped for a second at Miraj's station. "Excellent job, and since the Admiral did not say, you have the bridge Ensign."

"Yes, Ma'am," Miraj squeaked. She knew that technically, traditionally, when all the proper command officers were off the bridge, then the Bridge fell to the Conn officer, but there were several far more experienced, and higher ranking, officers on the bridge. They should have the watch. She was barely out of the academy. All right, she thought, Nobody touch anything. Nobody even breathe

Allyndra hastened to join the Admiral in the iift.

Luke closed down his console since there was no one else trained to take over and moved to the lift settling into the lift with the XO and Lirha. "This is cost," he joked eagerly waiting to see what surprises the Federation had for them today.

Securing the mission ops console Mimi unwrapped her tail from around the chair and scurried into the lift.

Once on her feet, Lirha made her way from the command station of the bridge then around to the side, and finally towards the turbolift with her ensemble in tow. The tiny elevator cart was stuffed full once they all entered but she knew it would be a short trip. "Deck two," she called out to the ships computer. The lift's doors swished closed and the pulsing strobe lights in the background began to throb for a several seconds before the car came to a stop at their desired deck and the exit parted.

The Orion stepped out onto Deck 2 and made a beeline down the main corridor before taking a quick left at the next junction. She entered Galileo's primary transporter room with haste then took up position directly in front of the large pad.

Allyndra took a position much further back and out of the way.

With no one manning the transporter station when they entered Mimi took position at the station and bought the console online, she didn't often get the chance to play with the transporter. After a few seconds inputting commands she looked up. "Ready to transport Admiral."

Greg arrived in he transporter room and stood at the back wall where he could see everything, placing his hands behind his back.

"Energize," said Lirha who now looked back towards the transporter pad in anticipation of new crew members.

Taking up a position with Gyce, Luke smiled gently at his replacement as security chief before turning his attention to the blue spirals of the transporters he can't remember the last time they received such an influx of crewman he couldn't hold back the excitement for much longer.

It had take Brax only ten minutes to get his stuff and get into the transporter room. When he got there, there were several people already getting ready for transport. His eyes were drawn to a tall woman with raven hair and intense emerald eyes. She had on a long black dress with a lace up corset like contraption; black mesh gloves that reached her elbows finished off the outfit. The skirt part of the dress, he noted, had a slit up to mid thigh. You'd have to be dead not to notice the shapely leg that peered out from the slit. He watched her tuck a strand of hair behind her ear an then noticed that she had pointy ears.

Their eyes met. A telepath. She had some Betazoid in her like he did. He gave a nod. He watched as she pulled a black cape around herself and raised the hood turning away. He allowed himself a small smile. She looked like some vampire princess from a time long ago.

Splendora felt a bit nervous. She'd been on leave for a year and now she'd been called back and assigned to a science ship at that. She felt the presence of another telepath in the room and her eyes turned to meet the ice blue eyes of a man with pointy ears much like her own. She could tell he was part Betazoid too. She watched him for a moment and when he gave her a nod she quickly put on her cape and hood. She had a job to do, she wasn't out to make friends. Splendora Nightingale walked herself up to the middle transporter platform section which was the biggest. She did not travel light. She sat on her trunks. She hated transporters and was always afraid that her molecules would be splattered across space.

She watched the tall handsome man with the intense blue eyes move gracefully up to stand a few inches from her. She pulled her velvet cape and hood around herself and said a silent prayer to the Goddess for safe transport. She closed her eyes and felt the pull of the transporter. Within seconds they were onboard the Galileo.

Traveling on a different ship then the others, Min stood in the alcove facing her sister. Complete fluke that she'd been assigned a ride on the same ship as her older sister's posting but it'd been nice to catch up, and a distraction during the journey. Waving at her sister, Min looked up briefly as the beam grabbed her.

Min blinked as the beam let her go, the slight difference in gravity from the deck plating a bit odd but it was familiar and she waited until the beam released her. She'd not expected so many people to be greeting the arrival, least of all Admiral Saalm. A few faces she recognized, Saalm, Allyndra, Gyce, & Wyatt, the rest new crew she'd no doubt be meeting soon enough.

Allyndra did not know the other two but she could not help but smile when she saw a former shipmate.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Mimi
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Ryan Alexander
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Crewman Aurangzeb Ameen
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief flight control officer
USS Galileo

Lt JG Rahl Tyton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Jonas Flynn PsyD
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

Commander Langdale Wiggins
First Officer
USS Galileo

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical and Second Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Luke Wyatt
Strategic Operations Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Noah Khoroushi
Asst. Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

CWO3 Greg Mitchell
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

PO3 Micah Hershey
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

LT Min Zhao
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

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