Spacebound (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 15 Aug 2016 @ 5:14pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Natalya Kirilova & Lieutenant JG Eelim Galan & Ensign Miraj Derani & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant Commander Ryan Alexander & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Greg Mitchell & Ensign Ibrahim Qureshi M.D.
Edited on on 15 Aug 2016 @ 5:15pm

1,769 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 11 - Divinum Mundi
Location: Celes III, USS Galileo - Various
Timeline: MD 41 - 1855 L

Previously, on Spacebound (Part 1)...

Eelim smiled. She was so focused. He sent a note back,Yes Ma'am. I know you're very focused now but if you need to sit down. Only thinking of your health, Eelim.

Gyce could only shake her head in annoyance before she refocused her attention to the other areas of the ship.

Eelim grinned. He clicked off the message system and started looking at the read outs. He got that feeling again. He sighed and shook his head. So far readings were normal and all areas were secure.

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

Shuttlecraft Celeste

While Galileo and crew were preparing for the immanent departure, a small and yellow workbee zoomed overhead from the colony site back towards its mothership with haste.

"Wait for me!" called out Lamar to Miraj over the comm. Yes, he was late, and he knew it. He'd recently made friends with a couple hearty colonists who had asked him for a final favor to help install the dome facility for their new mess hall. Said 'favor' had actually been an entire day's work similar to that of a 21st-century crane operator, and he'd completely lost track of time.

Now, he found himself pushing the tiny maintenance shuttle at full thrusters to get to Galileo before the Nova-class blasted off into space and stranded him.

"I'm inbound, ETA 2 minutes," he added. "Permission to dock in the auxiliary bay?"

=^="Sure."=^= her voice came over the com. =^="I'll leave the tail-gate open, just drop in. You'll be fine."=^=

"Acknowledged," he replied. Due to stationary nature of Galileo, a manual landing seemed prudent and he was happy to be able to bring home a support craft without the assistance of a tractor beam for a change. Approaching the small Nova-class, he brought the workbee around the aft-end of the ship in the proper landing circuit, then peered out through the canopy to watch the auxiliary bay's slide open to allow him to park.

A series of delicate thruster maneuvers then ensued, during which he did his best to keep the craft stable while slowly descending it onto the cramped flight deck which used to be one of Galileo's cargo bays. A few wobbles along the z-axis were quickly corrected, and he touched town only a few minutes after he'd began the procedure. Lamar cut the power to the thrusters and powered down the small shuttle before tapping his commbadge to inform his chief that he was back on board.

"All set, ma'am. Celeste is secured," he reported. "You can secure the bay doors whenever you're ready."

"You had plenty of time," she assured him. "We're still in atmosphere. Locking bay doors now."


Deck 1 - Bridge

The countdown to launch was reaching its terminal phase. Lirha looked down at her PADD and noted the three minutes left until scheduled departure. All of the starship's department heads had checked in and status reports were coming in from all over the ship -- they were about as ready to depart as they ever would be.

"Secure all hatches and external ports," she began. "Hail the colony and inform them of our departure. Send them our best," Lirha added to the Operations alcove.

Ryans fingers flew over his terminal, bringing up the required information. He had been monitoring the progress during the entire pre-flight and was just wating for the bay doors on the Auxiliary bay to finish cycling. "All Air Locks, Pressure hatches, and external hatches are locked and or secured." Ryan announced to the Admiral.

Mimi transmitted the message to the colony and within seconds got a response. "Received a reply Admiral- Thank you for all the help and good luck."

Lirha continued with final preparations and this time looked over her other shoulder towards the Science personnel. "What are the atmospheric conditions like in the thermosphere? Will we run into any of the plasma storms we encountered during our descent?"

"Sailing should be as smooth as a baby's... wait... no... blue skies above...although these aren't... we're all good!" Marika offered the bridge crew a goofy grin, her failed attemps at humor not bothering her in the least.

Sigrid laughed at Marika's assessment. Always so full of life that one. "We'll have smooth sailing till the upper atmosphere. It'll be as bumpy as an Andorian rock ballad at Vega Fest with this ionization. I'll send conn the scan results from the mass spectrometer. Oh, Ensign Derani," Sigrid spun in her chair nonchalantly inspecting her latest nail design for any flaws. "I highlighted a route around it, but there should be wiggle room if your eyes spot a better route."

"I've got the data. Looks good to me." Miraj made some adjsutments to her original exit vector. If it didn't turn out that way, she could quite easily adjust on the fly. With the good weather, any atmospheric hiccups would be small.

"Miss Derani," Lirha said, now looking forward to the conn and satisfied that all preflight checks were complete, "bring our atmospheric thrusters to thirty-percent. Once we are off the ground, give us a seven-degree rate of climb until we clear the stratosphere. Slow and steady..."

Miraj had a her back to the command chairs, so her superiors couldn't see the face she'd made at the request for slow and steady. She wanted to be off this rock and on to new adventures, and so did galileo. But she brushed her fingers across the helm, and without so much a whisper of unwanted movement, the little frigate rose from the ground, curled up the landing struts and glided upwards.

Gailieo gleamed as the setting sun hit the brushed metal of his outer hull, turning the silver to shades of fire, and clouds spilled down his lines as the atmosphere parted like a waterfall around them. They rose above the clouds, and for a moment the viewscreen was filled with the vivid blue of an m-class atmosphere that slowly blended into the cobalts, indigoes and deep sapphire of space.

Miraj looked over her shoulder to where thhe ships senior staff were standing and queried for a course. None had been sent to helm. "So... Second star to the right?"

Allyndra paid little attention to the scenery. She was more focused on getting the feel of the bridge crew and what needed to be done. Sensors, flight movement, scans, all the myrid inputs that one needed to keep track of even if a normal launch.

The chief engineer, with her back turned to the viewer, missed most of the view. That was okay though, Natalya might not have looked even if the view had been right in front of her. With this being her first planetary egress aboard a starship, she was not likely to take her eyes off of the system displays. There was still so much for her to learn about the Galileo, especially during not-so-routine operations such as this one.

Luke watched from his new chair as the Galileo began its accent and the setting sun gave a bright red and orange hue over the horizon. Luke could sense a change and the future was certain to be full of surprises "I think I could sit here more often" he said to Allyndra and Lirha the only two really close enough to hear him.

Lirha chuckled softly then offered him her PADD. "You are certainly welcome. Can you file all of my paperwork as well, while you are enjoying yourself?" she teased.

Luke frowned, "paperwork? What mythical creature is that?" He added before he continued to watch the Galileo rise. He had seen ships snd sunsets a million times over through his life but this was possibly the most beautiful view he had seen yet.

While Lirha observed the launch and double checked all system readings on her PADD, she'd taken a long pause from her duties to watch Miraj's piloting and the ascent through the atmosphere. It was a beautiful night by any definition of the word, and a serene sensation washed over her once the starship punched through the upper atmosphere and into space. The bright reflective colors from Celes III's atmosphere suddenly ceased and was replaced by the familiar sight of a solar system's starfield.

"Very good, Miss Derani," she complimented the ensign. "Engage three-quarters impulse and set course for the outer reaches of the system. Once we are clear from the gravity wells, set course for Starbase 234. Warp five," she instructed.

Miraj beamed at the compliment as her fingers danced across the helm, putting in the co-ordinates and seeing the course plot flash up. She programmed the speeds, and then her hand hovered over the conn. "Course laid in, all hands prepare for warp." With a touch, Galileo rolled gently around to face the direction of the starbase. Her hand hovered over the warp controls, waiting for the Admiral to give the magic word.

"Engage," came the captain's order.

Miraj's hand slid up the conn, and Galileo came to life. The trusty Nova-class' warp nacelles began to glow white hot as they spooled up while the ship's impulse engines cut out. The deck plating throughout the vessel began to gently vibrate in tandem with the warp core's increasing power levels. Once the subspace warp bubble established itself around the tiny starship, Galileo momentarily stretched to elongate itself then snapped out of the solar system into the greater cosmos with a silver streak and bright flash, leaving Celes III and its new inhabitants to discover the world on their own.

[END EPISODE 11]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CWO3 Lamar Darius
Chief Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
[PNPC Saalm]

Ens Ryan Alexander
Operations
USS Galileo

Ensign Lenaris Marika
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Benice Gyce
Chief of Security/Tactical
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Natalya Kirilova
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Mimi
Operations
USS Galileo

LCmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer and acting XO
USS Galileo

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Luke Wyatt
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. JG Eelim Galan
Security Officer
USS Galileo

LT Tuula Voutilainen
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

ENS Ibrahim Qureshi
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

CWO2 Greg Mitchell
Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Noah Khoroushi
Asst. Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

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