A Long Trip Made Short
Posted on Wed Sep 20th, 2023 @ 9:32pm by Lieutenant Commander Chester Ripley & Lieutenant JG William Verhoeven & Fleet Captain Maxwell Culver & Lieutenant Desha & Lieutenant Rowena "Rena" Campbell
1,929 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
First Contact
Location: USS Intrepid: Transporter Room 1
Timeline: MD1: 1630 hours
Max entered the transporter room and flipped the panel next to the door. He checked his hair, checked to make sure he didn’t have anything stuck between his teeth and then looked at his uniform. He straightened his combadge and looked at the dark circles under his eyes. .’Too many hours, he thought. Dani was right, he was letting the ship into his head too much.
Lifting a small mask, he held it to his face and pressed the button. Thirty seconds later, the mask was returned and the dark bags were gone. Looking to Chief Collins, he said, “Go ahead and beam her up here. She’ll get the full tour later.”
Collins looked at the Captain as the woman was in shuttle bay 2, three decks below them. “Prepare for transport,” Collins said, befuddled.
“Energizing,” Collins said, the operation nearly completed before his words.
A flurry of charged particles danced around as a mildly perplexed Lieutenant Desha materialized on the transporter pad. One moment she'd been in the shuttle bay, making mildly tedious small talk with the pilot of her shuttle, and the next minute she was face-to-face with the captain.
Rapidly regaining her composure, she said, "Captain Culver, I presume?" as if she hadn't gone through the files of the entire senior staff on the journey here.
“Lieutenant Desha, welcome to the Intrepid.” He smiled. “Ironically, your orders have been cleared and secured by your CO.” He chuckled lightly as he extended his hand.
Desha hopped off the transporter pad and shook his hand with a polite smile on her face. "Since you took the liberty of beaming me across three decks, I can only assume I need to be briefed urgently. That, or the turbolifts are down," she joked.
“Or I’m just a dope who didn’t realize that they put you three decks down,” Max countered. “That said, we do have a bit of a situation. Head up to the bridge with me and we’ll have a talk,” Max motioned with his hand. “Chief Collins, see to her luggage.”
Collins nodded and once the doors closed, started the task of getting her stuff situated with the quartermaster and the shuttle pilot. In about ten minutes, he’d know where to beam her junk to.
As Max walked casually, they talked. “A few hours ago, we encountered a small starship, well barely big enough to even call it that. Anyway, we were en route to run by Heliva, as far as we know, a pre-warp civilization. Coming into range of the system, we detected three warp signatures.”
The pair entered the turbolift and after asking their destination, it fired upwards. “The ship we encountered was emitting a distress call over radio waves. Apparently the crew had gone into stasis…not a damned thing made sense. Well, as you know, we’re expected to follow up on all distress calls.”
“As it stands, we’re tethered to the ship off our starboard bow. I’m sure you noticed from your transwarp shuttle. I understand they have to slow down at some point,” he said, a weak joke that even he couldn’t laugh at.
By the time he’d finished jabbering, the turbolift opened, depositing them on the bridge. “Here we are, home sweet home,” Max smiled, noting there was still a young, blond ensign in his chair. Turning to the Denobulan, he asked, “Will you excuse me a moment?”
"Of course", Desha said, before examining the Intrepid's bridge. It was spacious and modern - a bit of a far cry from Denobula and the USS Luna, where space existed at a premium and carpet was considered the default. Still, it was a pleasant change of pace for her. She nodded towards the officer at the tactical console.
Max walked up to Will Verhoeven. “You haven’t let a little power go to your head already? Let Commander Ripley off for the night?”
Will’s jaw dropped. “Oh, uh, no sir! He told me to hold the bridge. Said he had an emergency and then headed off toward the lounge.
Max shook his head as he returned to the Denobulan Sec/Tac Chief. “Not the best first impression. I suppose we should go and find our Second Officer. Our XO is currently on the boarding party to the Helivan ship.”
"I'm sure the ensign appreciates the work experience", she said, smiling. Although in reality, she definitely agreed - having an ensign in command while docked to another ship was a recipe for disaster. But she'd only been here 10 minutes, and wasn't about to go critiquing the second officer's decisions in front of the captain.
Just turning toward the lounge, the double doors opened and Lieutenant Commander Chet Ripley emerged, seeming a bit more full of himself, with a hearty smile. Until his face met the captain’s. “Oh! Captain, heh heh heh. That was…quicker than I expected. But uh, either way, welcome back.”
Looking to the new lieutenant, he changed topic quickly. “You must be Lieutenant Desha, our new Denobulan Chief of Security and Tactical Officer.” He extended his hand. “Uh, welcome to the, uh, Intrepid.”
Max’s head dipped to the side, his face a mixture of annoyance and disappointment. “I see Delta shift is at their stations, except for their commanding officer.”
“I had to take an emergency call, sir, from uh, Counselor Campbell,” Chet responded.
“Good, we’ll talk about that later. Why don’t you show Lieutenant Desha her station? I’ll relieve Ensign Verhoeven,” Max answered, showing no room for back talk.
Chet looked like his head was about to pop. “Alright, Captain,” he said through clenched teeth.
Max reached his chair when he noticed Chet was sweating and his face was as red as the Bussard collectors. “Alright Will, you’re relieved.” The ensign stood and skittered off the bridge. Max was about to take his seat, except that now Chet was in a flop sweat.
“Chester, bring your ass over here, would you?”
Chet and and the Lieutenant returned to where Max was, standing beside his command chair. “Out with it before your head explodes.”
“It’s just, I wasn’t supposed to say anything but now it’s an hour later than I said it would be and Dani’s gonna be pissed at me. You see, he found out it’s your,” Chet looked around and mouthed the word birthday.
Max deflated. “Already?”
“Every year, Captain. He has something planned and you’re supposed to be off duty, but now you’ve got this ship in tow and I know you aren’t going to leave the bridge…”
Max shook his head. “Priorities, Chester,” he said with a smile. “Now, would you show Lieutenant Desha around the bridge?” Max asked nicely.
Chet blew out a sigh of relief. “Yes sir.”
Max turned back to the Denobulan. “Welcome once again. Apparently, I’m overdue to leave my shift.”
Desha nodded silently - at this point, she was just taking in the atmosphere of command. Personnel files don't prepare you for the real thing, it would seem.
Max turned to the turbolifts just in time to see Rena step out. ’The emergency call!’ he suddenly remembered.
Rena stepped out of the turbolift on her way to a very late dinner. S'Tera was off with the away team, but she still had patients to see. Including the man standing in front of her now.
"Sir!! You're supposed to be off duty!! I am meeting Commander Ripley in a moment. Don't make me have to haul you home myself!! Because I WILL." They both know she was not going to do that. Still, she tried to sound scary. "Anyway. SCOOT. I better not keep Commander Ripley waiting!!" She headed off in the direction of the bridge.
“Rena?” Max asked wryly after she got about five steps away. “Chester let the cat out of the bag, to use a human idiom. Dani should have gotten you involved,” he added with a laugh.
Rena laughed. "Probably. He'll learn," she said.
“Come on,” Max said, offering the crook of his arm. “Let’s let the Commander get back to starting his job…”
She took his arm, and led him the opposite way. "The other turbolift is faster, you know," she said, headed to the aft command turbolift. "If you want my opinion, that is," she said. "Happy Birthday. How old are you now?"
“53,” Max answered quietly. Gods forbid any of the rest of the crew find out. Chet knew his age, not much he could do about Academy friends, but he didn’t make much fanfare about his birthdays. “Uh, just one more thing. Chester, you will show Lieutenant Desha around, please?”
“Of course, Cap’n, sir. Adios,” he said with a wave. “Arrivedierci. Bye bye!”
Max and Rena entered the turbolift. If Rena wasn’t on his arm, he would have facepalmed. The word smooth was not in Chet Ripley’s vocabulary. Still, he was a good officer and a better friend.
Finally the doors of the turbolift shut and Chet felt like the weight of the world had beef taken from his shoulders. Turning around, he found the Denobulan. “Sorry about that,” Chet said as he turned to the waiting woman. “The place is always hopping, if you know what I mean, which you probably don’t because you’re Denobulan. We’re always busy.”
"Mhmm", Desha mumbled.
Chet did what he usually did when he found he didn’t know what to do. He talked. “So Chief of Security and Tactical is good! We haven’t had a permanent one in a few months. The, uh, last guy we had was a good fit for the crew, so he chose not to join us…ah well, you know I used to be a security officer, can you believe it?!” he asked, patting his hefty stomach. “I outgrew the position.” He laughed outright at his own joke.
“Outgrew it,” he chuckled and snorted for a bit, still indicating his weight. At some point, everyone in Starfleet became thin and pretty, like models running around the ship…
“So what shall we do? We can tour the ship, check out your station or just let you get settled in. I’m sure it was a fairly long flight, even with these new Uber-fast shuttles. ’Maybe that’s what we should chalk these transwarp transports? The Uber?! Nah, that’ll never catch on,' he thought to himself.
"A tour of the ship'll do", Desha quickly spoke before he could get another word in. The shuttle pilot had had a similar enthusiasm for small talk, and Chet was right - it had been a long flight.
“Good! Let’s start with your primary station,” he said as he moved starboard, about a meter behind the captain’s chair was a free standing duty station. Already occupied by Ensign Vaughn, the Beta shift watch station holder.
“I’ll leave you in his capable hands. Unfortunately, I can’t leave the bridge right now, I’d love to tell you all about this ship. She’s amazing. Mister Vaughn, your new Chief and Boss, Lieutenant Desha. She would like the tour.”
“Of course, sir.” Vaughn smiled at Ripley and then at his boss. “Lieutenant, shall we?”
"Of course, Ensign", Desha smiled - she was just glad she wasn't going to get handed off to anyone else at this point.
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