Supernova (Part 4 of 5)

Posted on 20 Sep 2018 @ 12:46pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant JG Manuel Lucero & Ensign Miraj Derani & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Lieutenant JG Matthew Plumeri & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Azra Ghoc & Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen & Master Chief Petty Officer Kai Mazen & Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeysa Zeror
Edited on on 20 Sep 2018 @ 1:00pm

2,768 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Rigel II - Avondale Shipyards, USS Galileo-A
Timeline: MD 146, 1906 hrs

Previously, on Supernova (Part 3)...

As the torpedoes were loaded onto the racks, Azra counted, verifying the number and types that arrived against the manifest the Operations chief had handed her. As the last torpedo was stacked she called out, "All munitions accounted for and identified as per the manifest."

Sofie slotted the her tricorder back into its pocket, the final checks complete. "Looks like we can say the same for the probes too." She called out and then patting the casing of one of the probes with her free hand she said triumphantly, “Now let’s get them out there and do some science."

Scarlet nodded with approval, scrolling down over her PADD for one last check over the list before she was happy to sign it off. She sent the report through with a final tap of the screen before motioning to the door with the PADD. "Good work everyone...let's get ready to sail."

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

The port-side door of the bridge softly hissed open and in stepped the small team of bridge personnel the captain had previously assigned to oversee the ordinance transfer. With that sensitive task now accomplished, Saalm could now focus on the remainder of her checklist which she hoped to complete in the next twenty minutes before departure. Unfortunately, she caught a glimpse of her yeoman approaching and her gut instinct told her something unexpected had occurred.

"Captain.." Jeysa said approaching the centre chair. "This just came in from command, transfer orders." She presented her the PADD.

"Thank you, petty officer," Lirha replied after taking the slim silver reading device from her yeoman. Her eyes quickly scanned through the content to discern the details, then she suddenly found herself letting out a long breath once she realized the severity of the situation.

Kai stepped out of the lift and walked over to his station. He'd felt pretty extraneous during the ordinance transfer. He really didn't know much about torpedoes. The ordinance he'd dealt with in the Raiders was much smaller scale. There really wasn't much for him to do until the ship actually launched. Once underway there would be all manner of crew management and administrative tasks. At the moment, not so much. Mainly he was just filling in wherever help was needed.

Ensign Ullswater quickly followed the chief out of the turbolift. She nodded greetings to the other bridge staff as she passed them and quietly took her place.

As Scarlet made her way around towards her chair, it didn't take long for the one time Counsellor to see that something wasn't right with the Captain. She watched her for a moment with curiosity before her gaze instinctively dropped to the PADD Lirha held, putting two and two together. She remained respectfully silent though, knowing Saalm would inform her of anything she should know.

When the captain saw her brown-haired XO return from below decks, she'd just completed her review of the new transfer order in her hand and motioned for Scarlet to join her in the XO's chair. Then, she gave Blake a long look while holding the PADD out for her to read, indicating a level of due privacy.

Blake looked to the PADD, wondering what bad news it contained, and if she really wanted to know. She took it all the same, steeling herself as she read down over the words. It only took a moment before she glanced to Derani out of instinct. Her heart grew heavy as she looked back to the Captain, but she gave her a firm nod to assure her she would deal with it. "Ensign Derani, if you could come with me please?" she asked as she stood, motioning towards the door, already leading the way there.

The young pink-haired Boslic turned to the XO with a sense of uncertainty and trepidation before looking to Saalm who nodded in approval. Derani followed Blake's instructions and stood from the conn then followed her towards the exit which led to the private ready room. It was no doubt an awkward scene on the small and cramped bridge, but there would be time for questions later.

Hearing Jeysa speak of transfer orders and seeing Miraj leave the bridge alongside the XO, Mimi feared the worst, if it sounded like she thought it sounded she was going to lose yet another friend before they even left the shipyard.

Marisa watched the Captain and Miraj and her heart sank. Whatever was going on wasn't good. As Derani's "legal guardian" she knew a bit about her friend's recent activities and was very much afraid it would be bad indeed.

Blake stood respectfully to one side for a moment, her hand held out to allow Miraj to walk through the door first. There were many joys to be found in taking a path to command, but there were also misfortunes too. Having to break the sad news of a death in the family to the young pilot, putting an end to her journey in their new home before it had even begun, would be one of them. Yet, at the same time, Scarlet wouldn't want the duty to fall to anyone else. She squared her shoulders, following Miraj off the bridge, the door closing quietly behind them.

The captain tapped her commbadge. "Saalm to shuttlebay. Lieutenant Shizn, please report to the bridge."

Tris was a touch surprised by the Comm. He was pretty sure the Ensign on duty was quite capable, but without a second passing Shizn tapped his Comm Badge, “Understood. On my way.” He made a notation in the console before him to have another officer take his place in the shuttle bay.

The turbo-lift was just a few steps away. Shizn stepped in and firmly stated, “Bridge.” As the lift rose up to Deck 1 the questioning thoughts entered his mind about what might have taken place. Tris knew that they we’re probably less than 30 minutes now before launch. There were of course multiple possibilities, and yet he really didn’t care what had happened. He was going to do his duty . . An edge of excitement began to trickle through his Andorian brain, that he would be piloting the Galileo-A out of station. The doors opened abruptly and Tris blinked twice before entering the Bridge. Shizn stepped toward the Captain. The Bridge was truly alive with activity, officers communicating in hushed tones to different parts of the ship. All stations were manned, except the Conn.

Stopping at attention near the Captain’s side, he formally reported, “Lieutenant Shizn reporting, Sir.”

Saalm gave a short nod to the tall Andorian in acknowledgement while doing her best to maintain a professional atmosphere on the bridge. "Ensign Derani has just been relieved due to a personal emergency," she then curtly explained in a voice loud enough for her bridge crew to overhear. "Please assume her station." There would be time for personnel briefings at a later point, but right now Galileo needed a conn officer at the helm.

Tris was now full of questions, but this was neither the time nor the place. He quickly replied, “Yes Ma’am,” matter-of-factory and moved to the conn without further query. He quickly scanned over the controls and readouts, and found everything functional and ready. The Andorian looked to the view screen, which had a forward view out from the construction cage about the ship with the forward portion of the primary hull at the bottom of the screen. He felt ready to take this starship out.

The Orion captain now scanned the bridge and noted the countdown to departure displayed on both she and her XO's armrest consoles. Ten minutes. She craned her head to look back to the primary Operations station and the Nekomi ensign manning it.

"Are all our personnel aboard and accounted for?" she asked the deputy operations manager.

Mimi ran her hands over the ops console bringing the ships internal sensors to bear across the corridors and rooms of the ship. Checking biosigns against crew records and combadge signals. "All crew are onboard Captain."

Saalm was happy there were no further delays and, for the first time in her career, the prospect of departing space dock on time as scheduled seemed fruitful. "Good. Secure all airlocks and external hatches and disconnect all umbilicals. Prepare to retract both moorings."

Vansen smiled as he looked over at the Captain for a moment before he did a scan for lifesigns in the airlocks. Nothing alive there. Good. "Closing and depressurizing airlocks," he announced and his hands moved to press the command in. "Airlocks closed and depressurized, shuttle bays are closed." Announcing everything he was doing he wasn't used to yet. But it would come. His voice felt...somehow rough and awkward here on the bridge. And he still couldn't believe he was on the bridge! What an honour.

Kai believed he was on the bridge, he was just having trouble with the whole manning a console thing. He had familiarization training forty years ago in the enlisted academy, and again recently at the Chief of the Boat/Command Chief Course, but in between those two training opportunities, he'd hardly ever set foot on a bridge and he'd never, ever manned a station on one. He heard the captain's orders and took a minute to look over his console and determined that he was totally confused.

"Uh," Kai said. "If you want me to do one of those things, someone is going to have to remind me how to do it."

Blake was just returning to the bridge as she caught the tail end of the orders and Kai's uncertainty. She altered her path to join Kai, taking a look over his panel. "Here we are..." she moved her fingers a little more slowly over the console than she might usually, so he could follow the commands she inputted. "Cargo and stores umbilicals disconnected," she confirmed for the Captain before looking to Kai with a faint smile. "We'll get you a refresher course booked in," she whispered with a reassuring nod to him.

"Thanks," Kai said. He bit his tongue before giving the reply he wanted. Kai was 41 years Starfleet. During the first 26, his only experience on starships, other than being transported from point A to point B, and sometimes back again, was in the enlisted academy...41 years ago. Out of the next 15, only six were spent on a starship and absolutely not one single solitary second of that time was spent actually serving on the bridge, unless you counted being called to the bridge for a medical emergency. Then he went to Chief of the Boat/Command Chief School and they ran him through a bridge course. For those Chiefs that had some experience on the bridge, that course was helpful. To him, well, he passed it, but just barely. He laughed. "In forty one years, I've never served at a bridge station, Ma'am. I passed my initial training forty-one years ago, and then again a few months ago. I had a refresher course. There just wasn't very much there in the first place to refresh!"

Blake gave a small smile at that as she glanced down. She had suspected as much, but hadn't wanted to make him uncomfortable by saying something along those lines. "Don't worry, leave it with me," she assured, tapping the edge of the console close to him before pushing away.

Scarlet took a deep breath as she returned to her seat, tugging her jacket neatly into place as she settled back. Her eyes moved quickly over the information scrolling on her screen, catching up with what she'd missed. "Blake to Control," she tapped her screen even as she contacted drydock. "We're right on schedule and now ready to retract the moorings."

"Galileo this is control, we copy. Retracting port and starboard moorings," replied the female dockyard controller's voice through the ship-wide comm channel. In space, the two long personnel and cargo ramps attached to each of the Nova-class' airlocks slowly began to retract and compress inward as each module folded into itself while pulling away from the starship's hull. After two minutes, the sequence had completed. "Galileo, control. Moorings retracted. You're cleared for departure. Good luck, and godspeed."

Blake couldn't help a smile at the words, even if the woman on the other end of the comm wouldn't be able to see it. "Thank you, control," she said softly before closing the channel, looking to Lirha, her smile widening a touch. "She's all yours, Captain."

Azra walked at a near jog through the corridors. She'd just finished verifying that the final airlock was sealed and secure. She arrived at her destination console and brought up the external cameras on the mooring clamps. As she watched, the last one retracted in the silence of space.

"Ghoc to bridge," she said, "airlocks secure and moorings retracted. We are clear for launch."

"Thank you, chief." Saalm replied to the bosun before thumbing the toggle button on her chair's arm console to begin an open transmission across the vessel's ship-wide comm channel.

"All hands, this is the captain. Prepare for departure and secure all stations."

Manuel tapped at his terminal. Things seemed eerily quiet immediately around his station. He couldn't really notice much except the hum of the Galileo vibrating against his bones and slipping into the very core of his body. A half-smile was barely noticeable as he quadruple checked the static variables that composed the algorithmic nexus between the ECM/ECCM and the peripheral sensor arrays, then further between the arrays and the shared astrometrics modules. Everything was clear... No... Perfect.

Matt looked around the bridge and then at his Science crewmates and said to no one in particular, "May the road rise to meet us,
may the wind be ever at our backs.
May the stars eternal shine us,
and the may the unknown become the known."

Matt looked to the crewman next to him, "Off we go ay? Second star to the right."

It was finally T-minus one and the captain gave the order to depart the shipyard's berth. "Lieutenant Shizn, take us out. Thrusters while in spacedock."

“Aye Captain,” Lt. Shizn replied. This was an inspirational moment for him. “Activating rear thrusters to full power.” The Andorian breathed in and let it out slowly to ease the excitement that wanted to take over.

Any first year engineer student knew that law of motion that stated, ‘An object at rest will remain at rest until a force is applied to it.’ In their case, the mass of the Galileo-A wanted to stay right where it was, hidden safely in the arms of the construction framework. But, it only took a second or two for the thrusters to coax this brand new vessel forward. It slid gracefully with no vibration or flaw in its course.

Tris could feel the excitement in the air of the bridge. His Andorian senses were picking up elevated electro-chemical activity from the crew. This sensation brought a slight smile to his face. Yet, it broadened even more as the nose of the Mark II Nova Class starship eased out of the construction berth. Tris thought the stars seemed brighter than normal, but he knew that it was most likely just his own excitement.

Shizn now saw light glint of several objects forward and to the side of their position. The sensor display confirmed that 2 shuttles were present and now moving forward in unison ahead and with the Galileo-A. Tris wasn’t quite sure what their purpose was, but they weren’t interfering.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Tris Shizn
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Marisa Sandoval
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

CWO3 Azra Ghoc
Boatswain
USS Galileo-A

Ensign Mimi
Deputy Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

PO3 Jeysa Zeror
Yeoman
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

MCPO Kai Mazen
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo-A

PO3 Constantin Vansen
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A

CDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Manuel Lucero
Deputy Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Matthew Plumeri
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Miraj Derani
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

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