Last Voyage (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 30 Jun 2018 @ 11:59am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Lieutenant JG Rizil Chaya & Lieutenant JG Manuel Lucero & Chief Petty Officer Crispin Snow & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Petty Officer 2nd Class Donald Andrews & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday
Edited on on 21 Aug 2023 @ 2:52pm

2,690 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 16 - A Far Sun
Location: Rigel II - Avondale Shipyards, USS Schofield
Timeline: MD 19, 0800 hrs

[ON]

USS Schofield

The Schofield was on its final leg and due to come out of warp in a few more hours arriving back at the Avondale shipyards. It had been an uneventful trip back with just a small stop to pick up Commander Wyatt from the Kindred Spirits and ensure that ship was safely in Federation territory.

A high priority message had just come in.

CPO Snow looked up as his panel started beeping. "Hail from Avondale Yards, Ma'am. Admiral T'klan's office."

"On screen," Blake replied lightly, glancing to Snow as she pushed herself to stand at being addressed by an Admiral.

The image of the Vulcan admiral filled the viewscreen. "Commander Blake, I have read the reports given by yourself, the executive officer and various departments. I must say that given the unusual circumstances that you and your crew managed quite well. The alien machine you described is of course of high interest and another ship with scientists from the Daystrom Institute has been dispatched to study it. I must commend you on keeping interference with the culture to an absolute minimum as well. You and your crew again are to be commended. Now your final orders are to dock at Avondale shipyards, ring four, dock ten and prepare the Schofield for decommissioning at 1400. I will not be there but I think you will know the senior officer. I have asked Captain Saalm to be senior officer present and attended by the rest of the Galileo crew that did not make this voyage. Admiral T'Klan out"

Blake watched as the screen turned blank and she glanced down. Her features were neutral as they often were, but she took just a moment to dwell on what a different outcome it could have been, bound so tightly by the Prime Directive. How they wouldn't have been able to help any of those people, over such a small thing. She shook it away, nodding to Allyndra. "If you could inform the crew, please."

Allyndra nodded as the admiral gave his communication and the fact that the people of Pleione were going to be in for more of a shock. A pleasant one hopefully. As it finished and Commander Blake gave her the word for decommissioning. She nodded.

"Ship wide comm please," she told the comm officer.

"Attention to orders! The Schofield is docking in one hour, prepare the ship for decommissioning, secure and store, and dress whites. All crew be prepared for ceremony by 1400."

Ens. Shizn rotated in his helm chair to look at his friend and raised an eyebrow in quirky, “Dress whites. That definitely sounds official.”

"It is, this ship was coming in for mothballing we just had use of her for a time. Time to let this old girl take a well deserved rest."

Chaya was at the security station and turned in her own chair, an eyebrow quirked and a grin on her face. "Official can be good," she shrugged. "Sometimes. Hopefully. Itchy, but good!"


Amaranai's Quarters

Amaranai was in her quarters. After her capture and incarceration and eventual rescue, Amaranai was forced to stay off duty. She wanted to work, though. Work was what she needed to do. Not that she was tortured or abused in any way and Amaranai knew that her crewmates would rescue her, but there was something about being stuck and unable to help, that had bothered her.

And then there was Charlotte. Amaranai could tell that the girl was still not used to Starfleet and the chance of death that came with each Away Mission. Since her return, Charlotte had basically held onto her older sister, barely leaving the woman alone.

Amaranai was still in bed, thinking about her actions - or lack of action - on the Away Mission. She had avoided doing anything for fear of the Prime Directive and interfering in the society more than they already had. Charlotte was sleeping against her sister and for a small moment, Amaranai was happy to have her sister caring about her as much as she was at the moment.

The message from the captain sounded through the quarters and Amaranai took it in. Amaranai got up from the bed and stretched, feeling the need to get back to work. And there was work to do. She leaned down and whispered to her sister.

"I've got work to do," she said. "I'll be back later."

Amaranai left her quarters to prep the security and tactical departments for arrival. She also had to ensure that there were teams ready to disarm and disable the weapon's systems.


CSO's Office

Marisa was in her temporary office, pouring over data from the pyramid. She'd memorized much of it, but she knew there was still more to learn. She'd have plenty of time, as Daystrom was planning a long-term study, but she had the time now and her curiosity was piqued.

When the announcement came over the comm system, she paused to listen. Dress whites? The replicators would be busy. She got up and replicated a dress uniform and hung it up for later, then she set an alarm to reminder her it was time to grab a shower and change. Then she went back to her computer to finish what she was reading and back up all her data to take with her.

Manuel sat in the corner reading over some propositions he had made as to the functionality of the brilliant star stabilizing technology they'd just risked their lives to repair; moreso a warning against its potential weaponization. He looked up just as Marisa finished hanging her uniform. He had heard the announcement, but just now realized what it said.

"Well, the Schofield's coming home from her final mission." He said, suddenly forgetting about his work. He looked to Marisa. "Any thoughts to where you think we'll all end up after this?"

"I'm assigned to the Galileo-A. I was sent here because the launch was delayed," she said. Marisa would be eternally grateful that it had. This trip had been amazing.

Manuel stopped breathing for a moment at the memories. The NIMBUS exercises, the Mirror Universe... the Galileo. His service aboard her had changed his life and, needless to say, defined who he was as an officer.

"Wow. I didn't know she was spaceworthy yet." He said staring off into an unseen distance. He quickly shook himself out of it, taking a deep breath, and continued nonchalantly, standing up from the terminal and grabbing a PaDD before beginning to step out of the office. "Then again, I don't look past our work most of the time..." He sighed. "See you on the bridge when we dock?"


Sickbay

Perched on the very edge of a biobed, Lake ir-Llantrisant was sat with his hands clasping the edge of a widescreen PADD. He wasn't clad in his dress whites on this morning; the black and grey duty uniform served him well enough. Lake's eyes were on the down, staring at the PADD intently, as if studying a patient's chart, except... Except. Except there was nothing on the PADD. The display had gone dark, due to disuse. Minutes ago --Lake couldn't remember how many-- the LCARS interface had asked for an indication that the device was still in use, because it had been so long since there had been any interactions from Lake. When no confirmation came, the device had shifted to an energy-saving mode. All the same, Lake still sat there, staring at the PADD.

The melodious voice of Allyndra entered Sickbay by way of the communication system. Lake heard her say, "Attention to orders! The Schofield is docking in one hour, prepare the ship for decommissioning, secure and store, and dress whites. All crew be prepared for ceremony by 1400."

All the same, Lake still sat there, staring at the PADD.


Approach to Avondale

Ens. Shizn felt very honored to have helmed the USS Schofield on her last mission. Bringing her now into the shipyard, he did it with grace and dignity. Tris brought the Oberth Class vessel gently toward docking ring Ten.

The Schofield was lined up with Dock 10 and velocity was brought to a ‘dead slow’. There was utter silence on the Bridge as it coasted. Right up until the final thrusters engaged and brought the bulk of the ship to a dead stop. Tris closed down all thruster systems and announced, “Reading full stop Sir.” Right after those words were spoken, it seemed like everyone began to talk at once. Tris knew that there were a lot of things to do when going into and out of spacedock.

The shipyard personnel went to work as the force field shut off space and the area filled with air. Moorings were put in place and the decks moved to where the airlocks on the ship were. It was a bustle of activity, but soon enough the ship was secured and the ceremonial bell and all were set up for the final ceremony the ship would probably go through.

Marisa was standing at the back of the bridge to watch the final docking of the ship. She'd let Lucero take the science station on the bridge partly to give him more experience, and partly because she wanted to spent all her time studying the new data, but she had to be here for this, and to say a final thank you to the Schofield. Her last voyage was truly a remarkable one. She'd carefully collected all data from this final mission onto several data chips as well as sending copies to her office on the Galileo-A and Starfleet Science. It was redundant. But she'd seen data get accidentally erased or lost and she wasn't going to take a chance with something as special as this.

Manuel stood at the science station, running the final log dumps and pre-shutdown protocols on the sensor arrays. He grabbed an isolinear chip and stored the remainder of the idle data alongside all of the research-worthy material. When the process was done, he just looked down. He turned the chip over in his hand and smiled. He couldn't help but feel a part of something greater, once again. The millions of lives they just saved, and the trillions more that could be saved once the data was compiled, parsed, and disseminated to the right people. He took a deep breath and looked ahead to the viewscreen. The Schofield deserved the best they could give her.

With the ship docked for its final time and it's systems starting to be shut down Mimi picked up some tools and walked up to the dedication plaque and with great care started to remove it from the the mounting it had stood for so long.

"Yes," Marisa said, coming up beside her. "That needs to be preserved."

"I will take good care of it Lieutenant." Mimi replied, finally pulling it from the wall it revealed a perfectly clean patch of the original paintwork from when the ship was commisssioned all those years ago. She slipped the plaque into a protective case.

Marisa smiled at her.

Acting as the default QM, Snow had much less symbolic duties. He started calling up lists of stores and ordinance. They would have to be tallied: Phasers and torpedoes with the count of the Master-of-Arms, a role which would fall to someone in security, maybe Lieutenant Franklin. The dilithium crystals would be taken out of the warp core, the anti-matter transferred, and the engineer's mate would bring him the final weights and quantities for the record. Sickbay would empty out, count and recount hyposprays and tricorders. Decades of service, countless lives, and discoveries, reduced to lists and tallies in a log. And as QM there was one final log that only he could produce. Count and recount the souls on board. Eighty two souls went out. Eighty two souls came back. He gave a smile of professional satisfaction, and went to take the replicators off line.


Engineering

From the overhead catwalk, Crewman Draia Thero raised the hand-held probe to the level of her eyes. It didn't take her long to decipher the flashing symbols. "Detectors confirm all gasses have been flushed from the matter/antimatter reaction assembly," Draia said, calling down to the engineers below her. "All gasses were vented before we reached space dock."

John brought the warp core down and as the system settled began the shutdown the star drive. All the valves and systems would be shut down. It seemed strange to see such a blank looking system but it was what it was.

"Donald you catch the impulse engines when we get docked?"

"I'm on it, just waiting for the signal." Donald replied, he'd already shut down most of the non essential systems in the small engineering bay, just a few lights and a couple of monitors remained on.

When another display cycled off, Draia reported back, "All power had been bled out of the reactant injectors. The reactant injectors have been safed."

"Thank you Draia." Donald said, the signal he was waiting for came a few seconds later. "Taking the impulse engines offline now."


Avondale Shipyards, Administrative Complex

The comm in Lirha's office beeped with a high priority message. The admiral had contacted her the previous day.

Inside her small office located within the shipyard's administrative center, Captain Saalm turned her attention towards the tabletop LCARS terminal which was now suddenly chirping in a distinctive sequence to indicate an incoming communique of importance. Her green fingers reached out to touch the keypad and initiate the call.

Admiral T'Klan's visage appeared. "Good day Captain Saalm. As we talked briefly yesterday I asked you to handle the decommissioning ceremony for the Schofiled. The ship will be docking at ring ten dock ten and the ceremony set for 1400 hours. I presume all is in readiness." It was a statement not a question. "Your crew did a exemplary job given the circumstances. You should be proud of them."

"Thank you, admiral," replied the Orion captain. She took a brief moment to digest the news of Schofield's impending arrival and recalled the preparations she'd made. "I'll see to it immediately." She was about to close the transmission but reminded herself to inquire about the status of her personnel. "Were there...any casualties aboard Schofield during the mission? Did they all return safe?" she asked.

"Indeed Captain Saalm, all reported returned and no injuries. There was a report of a brief interaction with pirates trying to hijack a Federation freighter, but no injuries in the scuffle. You have trained your crew well captain."

It was good to know she had the admiral's approval, although it wasn't necessary. Saalm was content enough with the knowledge that despite the hardships many of them had endured over the past year, they were once again back in space and performing their duties as Starfleet officers. "They've been through many challenges," the captain replied in agreement. "I will contact Command once the decommissioning is complete. Saalm out."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

Ensign Tris Shizn
Helmsman
USS Galileo-A

Ensign Mimi
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin
Assistant Chief Security / Tactical
USS Galileo-A

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

Lieutenant Marisa Sandoval
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant (j.g.) Manuel Lucero
Asst. Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

Cmdr Scarlet Blake
Second Officer
USS Galileo-A

Chief Warrant Officer Azra Ghoc
Boatswain
USS Galileo-A

CPO Crispin Snow
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Derani]

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