A Fond Farewell (Part 1 of 4)

Posted on 12 Mar 2012 @ 3:29pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Amara Damian & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Chauncey Remington III (KIA) & Lieutenant JG Robin Hilyer MD & Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Tarishiana Barel

2,669 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 00 - Pre-Deployment
Location: Starfleet HQ, Banquet Lounge
Timeline: MD 05 - 1800 hrs

Thirty hours before departure, the crew of the USS Galileo arrive at Starfleet HQ's banquet hall for a formal farewell reception...

[ON]

Standing outside of the large double-doors to the banquet lounge, the Orion captain took a deep breath and mentally prepared herself for the inevitable plethora of Starfleet personnel waiting for her on the other side of the door. Though normally a social and outgoing woman, Lirha had been dreading this moment for several days now. She was already a bit apprehensive about her ship's launch and the preparations, or rather lack thereof, and now she had the added stress of having all eyes on her for her first official command. The reason for the reception had been a bit puzzling to her at first until she had finally figured out it was the doing of her good friend and fellow commanding officer, Captain Rosewell. It was a well-intentioned ceremony, but nonetheless one that Lirha would have preferred to skip. At this point, she simply wanted to get her starship off the ground with no hiccups.

She checked the time on a nearby wall terminal and noticed she was a bit early, which she preferred rather than the alternative of arriving late. The green-skinned woman tugged on her dress uniform's white jacket and checked her sleeves to make sure she looked presentable, then opened the traditional-style hinged wooden doors and stepped into the lounge. The captain was somewhat surprised upon first glance, as only a handful of personnel were wandering about the large room. She walked past a security MP who stood at attention and gave him a polite nod before walking further into the room. Several large, white-clothed tables were arranged along the far wall and were neatly lined with silver platters and chafing dishes which contained a variety of food items. Along the adjacent wall was another row of tables which were set up with what appeared to be a fully stocked bar. Anxious for a drink to calm her nerves, Lirha slowly made her way over to the table and hoped some familiar faces would soon show up.

Robin hated wearing the dress uniform. It felt stodgy, stiff and the high collar dug into his neck. But when the Commander called dress, he was happy to comply. He pinned the last of his medals on his right chest under his commbadge and left the small area of his temporary quarters. It was 6:00 and he realized he was already late.

He hurried out the door, down the stairs and headed towards the Banquet lounge. A waiter appeared with Champagne and a red wine. He asked the young man where the darker wine came from. "Chateau La Barre, 48 Doctor." Robin took the red sniffed it and took a swig. He let it roll under his tongue and allowed the tastes over take him. It was good, but could use another twenty years.

Robin walked around the room and found his seat in the dais facing the front doors.

For the XO, these kinds of events were equally as painful as the rest of his colleagues seemed to have found this situation as soon as they were informed by their CO that they would be required to attend. Dress uniform seemed to serve so little purpose to him, if something were to happen, then even if they were completely unprepared, at least they would look presentable - another little bit of Starfleet doctrine that never made too much sense to him. The white dress shirt was more than a little restrictive, and did not lend itself to doing other than listening to assembled dignitaries and high ranking officers make windy and usually elongated speeches about anything that they happened to come across.

As the transporter reassembled his matter stream, he observed the entrance to the lounge that the ceremony was expected to take place in. With its traditional, control-less wooden doors, it seemed to call back to a past age, back when the final frontier were the oceans of Earth, rather than the four quadrants of the galaxy. Pressing his left palm against the door, he felt it give under his weight, and swing open, allowing him to enter the room where hopefully, they would be able to escape quickly enough.

There were certainly enough seats to go round, as of yet, there had not been an overly large gathering of crew or command officers, in fact so far he hadn't noticed too many people that outranked him, small pockets of the enlisted crewmembers scattered around the room who probably felt as uncomfortable and nervous here as he did. Desperate for somewhere to stow himself for the evening, he spotted the bar, and a familiar green skin helping to prop it up.

Realising his CO was here, he straightened his uniform, and headed towards the bar, quickly catching the attention of the barman as he approached.

"Scotch...and quickly" he quipped as he got close enough to be within earshot without being audible to those on the other side of the room. Taking his drink from the man, he placed it on the bar to the right side of his CO.

"Tell me you hate these things as much as I do ma'am?"

Lirha turned at the sound of a familiar voice next to her. With a glass of Andorian brandy in hand, she quickly looked him up and down, very impressed with his dress. "You look nice, Commander." she remarked with a smile then paused for a second to consider his question. "Hate? No. Disapprove? Absolutely." she answered.

"I know the feeling....if you like, I'm sure I could have one of the crew left aboard the ship call us to deal with some urgent matter...like a warp core breach?" He said half-jokingly, yet still with a sense of seriousness in his voice.

She chuckled and took a sip of her drink. "An emergency beam-out in the middle of our reception? That would be quite a sight.... I'll keep it in mind." she said with a friendly wink.

"A sight it might be, but I'd rather wade into Engineering and deal with a rupturing core than listen to too many speeches in here....at least there's a free bar, it's like the Admiralty knew something we didn't" He replied, taking a long draw on the glass of scotch in his hand, replicated, and loaded with synthehol, but the taste was about as close as he was going to get to the real thing for now.

Amara had gotten used to public appearances and dress uniforms but she found herself more than a bit nervous. This would be her first public gathering since her capture during Victorious' last mission. Since the ship had stopped over to gather supplies and it provided Commodore Damian a chance to attend a special event. Commissioning ceremonies were always interesting. Purposely deciding not to arrive too early Amara checked her uniform one last time then took a deep breath before entering the Banquet room. There were not a lot of familiar faces but that was to be expected. However here and there she saw a few either from personnel records or face to face discussions like Commander Saalm. After getting a drink Amara started to make her way through the crowd. Cordially greeting those she passed, "Good evening."

Dru opened her eyes as she materialised outside of the room the banquet was to be held in. She had always hated travelling by transporter, the logical aspect of her always told her that a person could not be taken apart molecule by molecule and reassembled without a few molecules going missing in-between.

As Dru took a few breaths to calm herself she stepped forward to the door of the room, waiting for it to open. She quickly places a hand on her collar to reassure herself her new pip is there, the Captain may have been willing to overlook it being missing, but she was sure the Admirals would be. The white dress uniform she had on felt strange, but not as strange as the pips in her collar.

Walking through the door way, Dru looked around herself trying to see if there was anyone she knew present. She noted the Captain and XO over at the bar but figured they might want some space if there were discussing last minute details pertaining to the ship leaving. Dru grabbed a glass of wine from one of the waiters in order to be seen to have a drink in her hand but her nerves made her realise it might not be a good idea to try drinking alcohol at this moment in time. The counsellor walked over to the buffet table in order to see if there was anything there she would be able to stomach.

Markum enjoyed Banquets, especially when there were going to be senior captains and Admirals. They always brought out the best food and drinks for such functions. He wasn't a 32 year veteran of Starfleet, and not been to his share of these things. The Chief Engineer entered the large room and walked to the bar. "Yridian ale." The kid behind the bar reached into a cooler, then handed Markum an ice cold bottle. "Here you go Chief." Markum smiled and took a long swig. It was refreshing to have the real stuff, not that synthehol the replicators gave you.

Markum noticed a couple of his shipmates standing with the Captain. He approached and smiled, "Good evening Skipper, Commander. May I join you? I trust you are enjoying being in this monkey suit as much as I do. Rather be doing this down at the shore, in my jeans and boots.."

Looking up from his drink, John acknowledged the approach of his Chief Engineer, and raised his glass in agreement.

"I agree with you entirely Chief...in fact I was just discussing with Commander Saalm here, how most annoying it would be if we all had to suddenly go back to the ship to deal with some kind of disaster...I don't think we're going to get much luck with that though."

Looking around the room, he observed a new face, a senior officer wearing the dress uniform of a Commodore, but not one that he had ever had dealings with before.

"Looks like the brass have arrived" he mentioned in passing "Anyone got any idea who that is?"

Just as the question was asked, an Andorian admiral arrived, flanked by a younger Andorian male on her left, and a handsome Bajoran male on her right. The Bajoran seemed to be her escort, while the younger Andorian trailed a little behind them. She looked both confident and actually happy, because she was here with her family.

As they walked, the Bajoran seemed to gravitate towards her, in a most protective manner, his eyes scanning the room. While the admiral's dress uniform bore the markings of a commanding officer that of the Bajoran commander bore those of the intelligence department. The couple waited, until they would be noticed by someone who could direct them to the correct place. The Andorian youth too wore a dress uniform, with the insignia of the medical department, however his also bore the markings of a 4th year Academy cadet.

"Looks like I spoke too soon" John piped up as he saw the arrival of yet more senior officers. The room was quickly filling up with various dignitaries and crew members now, and with the arrival of an Admiral, he knew that there probably wasn't much time left before the ceremony would begin.

"What do you think Commander? Should we mingle?" he mentioned to his CO.

Lirha shrugged then smiled at her XO. "That's what we're here for." she replied simply.

Evelyn entered the Banquet Lounge, tugging her dress uniform down. "I miss the old design, much more comfortable..." she muttered to herself, trying to keep from frowning. She looked around, the Lounge was filling up and there were a few faces she recognized, and others she didn't. She moved towards the bar, deciding to get herself a glass of Champagne.

Markum sat down at the table, and looked about. "Yeah, indeed the brass has arrived. It won't be a party until some of the Marine Generals and Senior Colonels arrive. Now those are the party animals of Starfleet." Markum took a long swig of his drink, then asked, "So how long do you think it'll take before a big wig arrives and takes notice of us?"

"I have no idea...but hopefully we can get through this without too much pomp and circumstance...really not my scene"

The desire for that impending warp core emergency was slowly growing inside his mind, it would be so easy just to convince one of the junior officers to help him out in exchange for an extra duty shift off, but he had already decided he was going to hold on for now, and see how this whole thing went. The room was certainly filling up now, and he was becoming rather uneasy with the number of unfamiliar faces and the mixture of ranks inside the chamber.

Will fiddled with the lieutenant commander's pips on the collar of his dress uniform as he walked into the banquet lounge. The whole walk there, he had been unable to convince himself that the hollow pip was aligned with the other two. But once he was inside he dropped his hand and put on a more professional air. Walking with unhurried steps, he made his way towards the bar and ordered a glass of champagne and then standing off to one side. His cool grey eyes drifted around the room as he tried unsuccessfully to identify many people besides the captain.

Tarishiana loved her dress uniform. A lot of that had to do with the fact that she loved parties and dressing fancy. It was a hazard of being raised by her mother. One of two things happened in that instance, you either grew to adore parties or grew to hate them. With a smile on her face and her hair pulled back she happily entered the banquet room. She loved the buzz of being around other people even if most of the other crew didn't want to be there. That wasn't completely true, the young crew was excited and anxious. Tarishiana was sure this was simply from the fact that this was a new experience. She couldn't help but smile as she moved deeper into the room.

Amber Rose had been reassigned to the Galileo fairly recently. As soon as she boarded she was told there was a banquet to be held for the crew. She looked over the requirements and pulled on her uniform. Once that was done Amber Rose made sure the uniform was straight and wrinkle free. With a deep breath she left her quarters and returned to HQ. Outside the Banquet Lounge she hesitated. She was new and didn't know anyone, but if she was to be a part of the crew she had to set aside her nervousness and get it over with. That being thought she stepped into the room and saw many others were already there.

[OFF]

To Be Continued...

--

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Chauncey (Will) Remington III
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Amber Rose Scuito
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Robin Hilyer
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Drusilla McCarthy
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

CWO Markum Quinn
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

SWO Tarishiana Barel
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

RADM Talla H'Rhar
Task Force Commanding Officer
USS Sarek

COM Amara Damian
Task Group Commanding Officer
USS Victorious

RSS Feed