Muster (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 02 Feb 2022 @ 4:01pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Lieutenant JG Karras & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kala Marika & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kala Gorvel & Ensign Amanda Turell
Edited on on 02 Feb 2022 @ 4:06pm

2,413 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 4, Main Shuttlebay
Timeline: MD 05, 0342 hrs

[ON]

The all-crew notification for an emergency shore leave recall had been sent out almost four hours ago by USS Galileo's first officer. Details were severely lacking and it was still the middle of the night; well before any sunrise on a terrestrial world. There'd been no previous notice or warning of an unscheduled muster yet the flurry of activity throughout the starship over the past hours had been chaotic. The tight winding corridors of Galileo had come alive with an influx of returning crew who'd hustled from Regula I through the gangway and back to their starship to report to stations.

Galileo's crew had responded accordingly to the order. Familiar faint vibrations in the deck plating reverberated the hum of the ship's now-active warp core. All major systems checks were either complete or awaiting computer diagnostics to finish. New ordinance had already been loaded into the forward torpedo bays along with fresh supply stores which populated the primary and secondary cargo areas. In space, final exterior hull repair checks from Regula I's two workbees were being completed. The Nova-class' warp nacelles glowed with contrasting crimson and azure complexions emanating from her Bussard collectors and plasma coils. The spotlights on her hull came online and illuminated the forward saucer section, majestically highlighting the starship's name and registry.


Deck 4, Main Shuttlebay

The time was 0342. Galileo's main shuttlebay was filled not with support craft, but instead the entirety of the ship's crew. Both Type 6 shuttles - Livia and Virginia - were below the tarmac in the maintenance hangar level. The large landing pad was clear for the assembly which included all personnel from all departments. They stood in standard formation consisting of six columns representing each department: Command, Security, Operations, Engineering, Science, and Medical. At the head of each column was the department head or senior-most officer trailed by their subordinates in descending rank and position. Standing at the front of the room was Galileo's familiar first officer, Commander Scarlet Blake. But positioned to her side was another red-collared officer unknown to most of the crew. Their captain, Lirha Saalm, was nowhere to be seen.

At the head of the shuttlebay, Blake's unfamiliar counterpart observed the gathered crew in silence. The three solid gold pips on the woman's collar denoted her rank as a Starfleet commander while her posture visibly projected an aura of authority. In contrast to the Orion captain, she stood much taller with broader shoulders and possessed distinctive Human features including a beige Caucasian skin tone. Her dark brown hair contained loose curls and was cut to traditional Starfleet shoulder-length standards. The locks flowed loosely around the edges of her face but didn't hide her attentive hazel eyes.

"XO," the woman deferred to Blake to begin her address.

Blake straightened up at the prompt, her body rigid and shoulders drawn back. She may have left the Marines, but there was no taking the Marines out of her posture. She glanced over the crew, and despite some tired faces, they were presentable. And they'd managed to meet their deadline. It was a mixed feeling; pride in their capability and concern at having to push them to it. She pushed the thought aside, her features set firmly. The who, what, way, when, how was irrelevant now. She'd told Tarin what she thought, now she had to focus on getting them through this. "Attention!"

Allyndra had been very surprised to receive orders that the Galileo was suddenly going back out, all repairs to be stopped, all the personnel recalled immediately. It did not take much of genius to figure that something was going on and standing here with an unfamiliar woman next to Blake with all the personnel lined up spoke volumes. There had not even been time to formally turn command over, not that it was needed but even she knew that the Federation liked its little formalities and rituals. The look on Commander Blake's face both when she had come back aboard and now spoke volumes that she was under duress. She had only stated that she was not at liberty to talk about the recall. Allyndra accepted that, but she was also concerned that suddenly pulling a crew together that had not had sufficient time to relax and obviously into a mission that seemed to be something that was potentially dangerous was also a bad idea. Perhaps later she might have time to talk to Blake. People where more important than missions and if this turned out to be something harrowing, then she would act as the chief medical officer. She had threatened even acted before when she thought it necessary to invoke that a captain was not fit for duty. Well that was for the future, she decided, first off let's see exactly what is going on.

As a species that needed its sleep more than most, getting called to suddenly help get the crew back onboard, the ship up and running and resupplied in only four hours was not Mimi's cup of tea, she had only just gotten ready for bed after a quite energetic day when the call had come through. Stood at parade rest near the head of the operations column she was starting to struggle to not yawn loudly and to hold off sleep.

Kala Marika wasn't sure why they've be called to the shuttlebay at such and ungodly hour but she'd joined Mimi when the ensign had made her way to the shuttlebay. Standing in line with Engineering, Kala glanced at Mimi, noticing the younger women's yawn.

A night owl since her injury Amanda stood in the security column fresh and ready for whatever was going to come their way, her stance was milimeter perfect as it always had been since she was young.

Marisa usually liked mornings, but this was early, even for her. Everyone in science was on board and accounted for. The department had been resupplied and everything was safely stored away for their next assignment. She needed more time on leave, but that was rarely an option in Starfleet. She stood at parade rest, waiting for the new orders.

Having had one to many nights on the station where she didn’t sleep until early hours in the morning Kala was luckily still awake when the all-crew notification arrived. She’d been in bed but reading a new book about witches and wizards who attended a school in England, which was on Earth. She’d quickly leaped out of bed, dressed and not feeling the need to go via engineering headed straight for the shuttle bay. Her department was ready, most where already here with her and she waited silently at parade rest to be given (undoubtedly) an obscure reason to why they are leaving early and that it’ll be ‘need to know’.

Karras took in the scene from his spot behind Allyndra, very much aware of the exhausted, expectant energy filling the shuttlebay. He'd only met a few of the crew in person, but he imagined he was one of the few assembled that recognized the woman standing at the front with Commander Blake. He'd exchanged some pleasantries with her during breakfast the day before and was curious as to why the station's Strategic Operations officer was present, and their Captain was not. He supposed they were about to find out.

Petra stood at the back of the group of scientists. She was a civilian and felt more like she was at some MLM meeting than a briefing. The thought made her chuckle on the inside. She knew better than to let it show at a time like this. Whatever was coming up, she didn't think she'd like it.

Looking around her colleagues in the sciences before standing smartly to attention Ullswater could see a lot of tired faces and maybe a few disappointed expressions. But since her shore leave had already pretty much ended with the discovery of the quasicrysal spores and she'd already been burning the midnight oil in the isolation labs she was wide awake. Whatever the crew were being recalled for it must be important, the ensign only hoped that the guidelines she had left on the station were sufficient to protect them from any contamination.

Shizn had been glad to have gone to sleep somewhat early for him at 2130 hours. Because at 2400 hours when the recall order came, he actually felt somewhat refreshed. Well, at least for the moment. Tris felt this assembly to be an odd situation. They hadn’t just reported and performed an emergency un-docking. No, this was very different since the entire crew were now to assemble together on the flight deck. He feared that this was much more serious than even the scuttle-butt floating about the ship. Upon return to the Galileo, Shizn had made a point to stop off at the bridge to check the status on the Helm and all flight systems. He immediately saw that they were still at Blue Alert. He confirmed that the mechanical and energy field moorings were still active, before rushing on to the required assembly.

Aria was glad that there were ways to sober up quickly, because she had needed to when the call had come. A quick hypo, the feeling of being sick (and all that came with it, but that was all the detail she mentally needed) and then brushing her teeth and throwing on clothes and here she was. She had taken a place, going into parade rest, but not before a) noticing that a certain Orion was not there and also b) wondering if an intergalactic war had broken out since this was all very short notice. And as the new Chief of Security, she really really hoped that they were not entering a war.

Nesh Saalm looked around for her sister, her breath catching with something close to panic when she realised she wasn't even there. After the argument they had, suddenly Lirha was nowhere to be seen? Now that wasn't right!

Upon the first officer's command, the simultaneous clicks of fifty pairs of boots adjusting on the flight deck echoed throughout the shuttlebay. Silence encompassed the large gathering which now stood at parade rest with heads and eyes forward and hands clasped behind their backs. The collective crew's body postures were tall and professional throughout each department's column - a testament to their training and Starfleet conduct. The unfamiliar red-collared officer standing next to Blake stepped forward while the XO stepped back. The woman looked across the crew; some she knew from passing in Regula I's corridors; a select few had been present at her debriefing five days ago. Most of them, however, were unknown to her aside from their available service records. She addressed all those assembled.

"Crew of the Galileo. I'm Commander Morgan Tarin. Strategic operations officer for Regula I." Her voice's flat timbre reverberated through the shuttlebay. "Your CO, Captain Saalm, is away on assignment. I don't know her personally but I do know she trained you well. Rumors in the fleet say your vessel is the best science and scout crew we've produced in the last hundred years." She paused. "I've also been hearing some rumors about the excellent captain I might be, so let me tell you about myself.

"I grew up on a starship and have served in Starfleet for fifteen years. I attended the Academy when the Dominion War broke out and watched half of my classmates deploy to the front and never come home. I served as a conn officer for six years aboard USS Yeager then as first officer for another seven on Lexington. I've worked every job on a starship you can imagine. I've inspected torpedo tubes, re-aligned warp coils, repaired hull plating, and cleaned blood from biobeds. I know how a ship is run and I know your duties just as well as you do. I expect nothing but the best from each of you on this mission.

"Starfleet Command has temporarily assigned me as your commanding officer in Saalm's absence. One of our local research stations has gone dark and we've been unable to re-establish communications. Something is wrong and our colleagues are most likely in distress." Tarin paused to allow her revelation to propagate. "We're going to find them and offer any assistance we can. Galileo is the only vessel in your task group that's fully operational and not undergoing UNREP, so the job falls to you.

"This is officially a search and rescue mission, classified Level 10. External comms blackouts are in effect...starting now." Tarin cast a short glance to the first officer then back to the crew in front of her. "All departments, prepare for departure. We'll continue to brief during transit. Godspeed." She looked back to Blake and gave a definitive nod.

Blake stepped forward, taking a moment to just look over the gathered crew. Her features were as stoic as ever, making sure to keep her misgivings to herself. What did it serve anyway? It didn't change the reality they were facing. There would be time for her to talk as she wanted or needed later. For now, quite enough had been said already. "Report to your stations, I want status reports from department heads in an hour. Dismissed."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Acting Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

Lt. Aria Rice
Chief of Security
USS Galileo-A

Nesh Saalm
Sous Chef
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Rice]

Lieutenant Commander Marisa Sandoval
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

Petra Varelli
Forensic Anthropologist
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Sandoval]

Ensign Mimi
Assistant Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Second and Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

CWO3 Kala Gorvel
Chief Engineer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Tris Shizn
Senior Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

CWO3 Kala Marika
Deputy Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Amanda Turell
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

CWO3 Kala Gorvel
Chief Engineer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Karras
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

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