That We Might See (Part 1 of 8)

Posted on 22 Feb 2019 @ 4:50pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Azra Ghoc & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Oliver Sylver & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & Crewman Draia Thero & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley" & LuAnn Lovegood PhD & Petty Officer 2nd Class Amul

3,027 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A, Latari System
Timeline: MD 01, 0247 hrs

[ON]

Exactly one-hundred and eighty-two days had passed since the start of Galileo-A's maiden voyage. 182 days of monotonous grind, routine, and training that would probably break even the most seasoned Starfleet admiral with its sheer boredom. Instead, it was the first Nova II-class' introverted crew who'd indeed been pushed to the brink of self exploration and insanity. Six months inside a technologically-advanced tin can the size of a large yacht traveling through the vacuum of space.

But none of it suddenly mattered when Galileo and the rest of her convoy finally approached the first designated waypoint on the outskirts of the Latari system. The needs of the mission outweighed the needs of the individual. The helm began to chirp as new vector and speed reduction alerts lit up the forward-most bridge console.

Lamar was on duty with the rest of his team per usual rotation, but he'd been anticipating their arrival at the new star system for several days. He hadn't quite worked out the math enough to realize he'd actually be the one at the conn of the starship when they arrived, but he was quite happy to roll with it. If nothing else, just to see his first trinary star system up close from the bridge.

He'd been keeping a steady eye on warp-deceleration countdown timer and when the alerts began to flash, he reported their position to the senior-most. "Commander," he called out over his shoulder to the familiar Akkadian. "Approaching our first entry waypoint, two minutes at current velocity."

Petty Officer Amul was very pleased to be on the bridge as they approached their destination. The primary Ops console then sounded to signal an incoming transmission from a local craft. The Risian couldn't help but smile as the communication system activated and he reported, “Sir, there is an incoming signal from the Lagrange.” He turned slightly to face the Akkadian.

The bridge was getting to be a familiar place. In fact it was becoming something of a refuge to Allyndra. The days had passed and the usual litany of bumps and bruises had come in. A few sniffles but nothing much, a few over indulgences but again nothing that really required much more than a bit of quick look at. Yes, the bridge was not a hub of activity but it was different and she was becoming used to sitting here and in the big chair. Of course, Saalm and Blake were only a communicator away but unless needed she wanted to show she knew how to handle this responsibility.

"Very good Mister Lamar, begin the deceleration and approach." She sat up as the information came in.

When the comm channel was activated, a momentary pause was followed by a male Human voice. "Galileo, Lagrange actual. We're approaching the edge of the star system. Recommend yellow alert. We'll hold here while you and Trial scout the system and give us the all clear. Expect comms update in ten minutes. Acknowledge."

"Send acknowledgement and indicate to task force we are decelerating please." Allyndra nodded to Amul. She looked over at Ullswater and said, "Try new long range scans, hold off on probes for now."

She then pressed the comm on the bridge chair, "Captain Saalm to the bridge. We are decelerating at the entry point to the Latari system."

The call from the bridge was one Captain Saalm had been expecting. She'd woken early from her midnight nap in anticipation of their starship's arrival at the Latari system, and now -- hot chocolate mug in hand -- she tapped her commbadge and proceeded from her quarters to the bridge. "On my way."

At the conn, Darius deftly tapped at his console and prepared their final vector for arrival. He slid his fingers down across the velocity controls to engage a lower factor then reported the results as the starship started its deceleration. On the far left of his terminal, he kept a close eye on the warp signature of USS Trial to ensure they both maintained formation. "Decelerating to warp three, ETA 60 plus ten."

After spending perhaps a moment too long looking at the long range telemetry of the stars themselves Ensign Ullswater turned her focus to an active scan of the system. Nothing seemed to be showing up of much use though. She swivelled in her chair to the face the commander and reported "Not seeing much from the scans yet, there is a lot of interference from solar radiation." she bit her lip as the thought crossed her mind that any more experienced officer might be able to cut through the noise and quickly swivelled back to redouble her efforts.

Allyndra felt the ship decelerate even though the compensators almost scrubbed the entire motion. When one danced on the waves and wind one got very used to slight changes. Lamar knew his craft quite well she thought to herself.

"Thank you Ensign Ullswater, it is what we have been getting. See if you can run an interferometry pattern on the signal to see if can extract any further useful information." As she got the report from Amul she nodded and then said, "Following recommendations, go to Yellow Alert please, raise shields."

Upon the Akkadian's voice command, the ship's main computer recognized the order and automatically began to initiate several portions of the sequence. It was a safeguard put in place by Starfleet in the event that one or more of the senior officers was incapacitated, and it only required several voice-authorized words to initiate action. Throughout the starship, the ambient corridor and room lights darkened, and the alert lighting strips along the vertical bulkheads began to pulse with yellow repeating and descending patterns.

Sofie paused from her meticulous scanning to recognise the commander's orders and pulled up the shields to protect them. A shiver of excitement when through her spine - this was the first time she'd done this. "Deflector shields now up." She called out and allowed herself a nervous grin.

Amul had been scanning all possible bans of communication since the initial deceleration. He had glanced over to Ullswater at her report. The lack of a good scan concerned him. But then, an indicator came on. Amul confirmed the authenticity and reported, “Commander, I am detecting a distress beacon. It authenticates as Federation.”

Allyndra nodded. It was not unexpected. "Inform the rest of convoy please and see if you can work with the science station to see if you can glean any more information please." She turned as the bridge doors opened and the captain was there.

Amul sent a digital message to the other vessels in the convoy.

The door hissed open as Saalm entered the bride from the port entrance adjacent to the conference room. The Orion captain was dressed in a freshly-replicated uniform and her dark black hair was pulled tight behind her head in a high ponytail. She quickly scanned the bridge to take note of the Delta shift personnel currently manning their stations. "Report," she said, nodding to her second officer in acknowledgement.

Allyndra got up out of the chair to leave it for the the captain. "We have started our approach to the Latari system, we and the Trial have been asked to scout ahead. Scans are still showing quite a bit of interference, but we have detected an authenticated Federation distress signal captain. I have asked science to run an interferometry programme to try to get any information and or clear information from the distress signal."

The bridge's dimmed overhead lights and pulsing yellow strobes illuminated the small command center with a sense of urgency and suspense. Saalm approached her station at the center of the bridge and replied to Warraquim. "Very good." She then tapped the 1MC on the center command console. "All hands, we're approaching the Latari system. Set condition yellow and report to stations," she ordered, her light voice sounding throughout the overhead speakers across the ship. "Lieutenants Franklin, Rezvani, ir-Llantrisant, Ensign Alexander, and Cadet de la Cour...report to the bridge. Commander Blake, report to astrometrics with the science team," she then added before closing the channel.


Deck 3 - Sickbay

"Please state the nature," begged the Emergency Medical Hologram as she materialized beside the primary biobed in a whorl of photonic witchery, "of the medical emergency." Shirley, as she was known, overemphasized the please because of the vast number of mundane tasks Doctor Allyndra had assigned to her in the past few weeks. This was overly apparent, when Shirley's visual sensors landed on the biobed and saw it lacked a patient. Every biobed lacked a patient. "Not agai--" she started to say, and she cut herself off when she noticed the yellow alert signals on the comm panels. "Okay," she said, through a sigh of relief. "At least there are no canapes or social responsibilities this time..."

LuAnn walked into sickbay and smiled when she saw Shirley. "Hello again. How are you?"

As LuAnn approached, Shirley locked her eyes on that smile and decided to fling herself at the woman. Wrapping her arms around her in a hug, Shirley said, "LuAnn, it's so good to see you." When she stepped back from LuAnn, Shirley answered the question with, "I am..." --and she struggled for a moment, her eyes darkening-- "functional?"

LuAnn wasn't quite sure what to make of the hug. It wasn't that she had a problem with them. She was a tactile person herself and loved hugs. No, it was rather the way the EMH -- Shirley -- hugged her. And then the look in her eyes. "Are you just functional? How are you adapting to your new subroutines?" She really wanted to know, in case Shirley needed any help. Could a counselor help a hologram? Perhaps.

Scrunching up her face and pouting her lips, Shirley replied with a halting, "It's hard to... I don't have a diagnostic for that," the Emergency Medical Hologram answered as honestly as she could, even if it wasn't entirely informative. "Since my last software upgrade, I've... grown. I know more, I feel more, and yet I've lost some... awareness of myself. I don't always have the words for what I'm feeling?"

"I don't know much about repairing your particular matrices, but isn't there someone who can help you continue your growth without feeling like you've lost something?" LuAnn asked. She wondered if it was possible to do a mental evaluation on an EMH.

"...All of my experiences ...with all people are meant to offer me opportunities to learn and grow," Shirley replied, thinking back to what she knew of her own origins, rather than thinking about the problem before them. "That's-- I think that's the trouble," Shirley whispered. "When I was upgraded for Galileo-A, less of my personality was locked-in. It's not pre-programmed by higher powers. I have greater flexibility to change, to grow, than I did when I was first born as a Mark X EMH."

The counselor whispered back. "I think it's wonderful. Your future isn't programmed by someone else. You can grow and developed in a similar way that flesh-and-blood beings do. It's exciting and terrifying. It'll give you more empathy, too." She gave Shirley a hug.

Welcoming LuAnna into a hug, Shirley could only think to say, "Free will is scary." A blink of time later, Shirley added, "Oh yeah, I forgot to ask. Are we under attack?"

LuAnn could only smile at her comment about free will. It was, indeed, scary. "No. The ship is entering the Latari system, so we're on yellow alert." She looked around the room. "We should both get to our stations. If you ever need to talk, let me know."

Shirley didn't say anything to that. Her attention snapped towards an approaching surgeon. Either as a matter of evasion, or because of her programming, she immediately moved in his direction.

"Is it my imagination, or is something actually happening?" Doctor Wylde muttered as he moved across the bay, his hand on a shoulder as he rolled it lightly.

"No, I think it's actually happening," the Chaplain assured him with a slight chuckle, taking a glance around to see who they already had there. "That or we're sharing delusions, which would be very, very worrying," Verity added with a slight tilt of his head as if considering the prospect.

"It's been known to happen," Mott said. He'd appeared from behind a medcart, having given no previous indication he was even there. It was alarming sometimes how someone so portly could move so stealthily. "I read a report about the colony on Crasmere III being infected by a virus that induced telepathic thought. Of course, it also induced violent, delusional behavior. Everyone died, of course. It's tragic, really, knowing that someone's coming to kill you." Having been staring off in the middle distance, he broke it with a shrug and a jovial chuckle. "That's probably not happening here, though."


Deck 3 - Armory/Brig

"Do you think it's pirates?" Gabriel Stark was grinning as he half jumped around the console, his hands sliding as his fingers tapped away to fire the systems up. "I'm putting in an order for a tall one, with dark hair...blue eyes...and a strong grip."

Aria chuckled at the words, shaking her head as she moved to the armory to prep it. "Pirates aren't half as sexy as they are on the holodeck, Stark. Trust me, I've met some. Tall and sexy with dark hair and blue eyes you can get on this ship, don't need any visitors..."

Gabriel laughed gently at that, glancing across to Aria with an arched eyebrow even as he started a quick check on the gear, ready to deploy if needed. "Where's the thrill in that?" he teased softly.

"Hey, don't ask me..." Aria said before she made a show of crossing herself. "Living like a Nun I am..." she frowned as she made sure every phaser rifle was loaded and ready to go before she reached to tie her ponytail tighter so it wouldn't get in the way. She grabbed a PADD and pressed in the update, so that the paperwork was in order. "All good at your end, Stark?"

Stark gave a firm nod back, in the same moment as he hit the command on the screen to send through their ready status to the bridge. "Peachy..."


Deck 4 - Shuttlebay

Azra wiped a greasy hand on a somewhat clean portion of rag as she slid out from under one of Galileo's shuttlecraft. Because the engineering staff were so short-handed, she'd been helping out with some shuttle maintenance. She had to fill her on-duty hours somehow. The last few months had been excellent. She'd spent the first month or two training the crew on updated procedures. It had been rocky at first, but now they were all up to her admittedly astronomical expectations. The captain had chosen a solid crew.

The Cardassian-Human hybrid pressed the button to close the maintenance hatch underneath the shuttle before standing up and grabbing the hover-sled. She put it away and ran her hands through a sonic-wash off to the side. She shed the overalls, revealing her spotless uniform shirt and pants. She pulled her jacket off the peg in the locker, and donned it. It was time to get to work.

"Ready for some shuttle-prep, Chief Sylver?" Azra asked.

"Ready as always, Chief Ghoc," Oliver said with a small nod, meeting her eyes for a moment before a brief smile came to her. He headed to the shuttlecraft at once, touching the side lovingly as he always did. "I'll do the system check and get her fired up."

"Sounds good," Azra said, "I'll take the external checks." Galileo's bosun circled the shuttlecraft, checking for open panels, exterior damage, and anything else that might cause issues for flight. Given that they'd just finished service on the shuttles, they were pristine. After making a slow circle, she entered the back of the shuttle and called forward. "Exterior is clear for launch."

"We are good in here too," Oliver gave her the thumb's up before he smiled weakly. "She is good to go. I'm going to start warming her up." He reached to run his fingers over the controls, the humming in the shuttle growing as the lights came on. Yes. Ready to go.

Azra returned the thumbs-up and jogged to the other shuttle to do the preflight check. Most situations didn't call for both shuttles, but it was better to be prepared.


Deck 7 - Engineering

"Impulse systems are at the ready, Sir," called out Crewman Draia Thero. The inexperienced Engineer's Mate didn't fully understand every meticulous interaction of the impulse engine system, but she had followed the orders that had been given to her. She had followed them meticulously. Eying the LCARS display with satisfaction, she drummed her grey hands along the bottom edge of this interface panel. Reporting out a little too loudly, Draia said, "Two backup reactor elements are running hot!"

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

CWO3 Lamar Darius
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]

PO2 Amul
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A
[NPC Shizn]

CMDR Allyndra Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer/2XO
USS Galileo-A

ENS Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

EMH Mark X-C "Shirley"
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

LUAnn Lovegood
Counselor
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Sandoval]

CWO3 Alexion Wylde
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

LTJG Aria Rice
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Vansen]

CWO3 Azra Ghoc
Boatswain
USS Galileo-A

CWO2 Oliver Sylver
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Vansen]

CN Draia Thero
Engineer's Mate
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

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