Helm, Take Us Home

Posted on 05 Aug 2023 @ 6:23pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant JG Rafe Caradec & Lieutenant JG Karras & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin & Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeysa Zeror & Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen & Yukime Frost & Lily Blake & Laeon Wylde

3,492 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: Pleiades Cluster, Regula I
Timeline: MD 16, 0450 hrs

[ON]

Four days of monotony. Four days of inconsequential happenings aboard the Nova-class starship with only the daily breaks being for exercise, food and administrative duty. This had become Commander Morgan Tarin's life and she wasn't sure if she enjoyed it. The lure of command was provocative and something most career officers aspired to. Yet after her very first mission actually commanding a Starfleet vessel, Morgan felt conflicted. The crew was capable and experienced, yes. But also emotionally volatile at times, awkward and unorthodox. How Captain Saalm had managed to control this gang of 'unique' individuals throughout the past 4 years escaped her imagination.

Morgan Tarin was no Lirha Saalm. That much had became obvious to every Galileo crew member who'd recently stepped foot on the ship's deck plates. She was a New York City-bred officer with hardened resolve and little patience for loquaciousness or joviality. And so, in a strange manner, she felt at home with the Klingon battlecruiser Praxis escorting Galileo through space back to their home port of Regula I. An orbital facility that was ill-equipped to handle any diplomatic incidents nor combat. The Klingons, at least were curt and straight to the point. They spoke their minds often with pure truth and usually without obfuscation. It was...refreshing to engage with their kind, despite their history of conflict and their government's totalitarian actions.

The door to the ready room opened and Jeysa made her way inside, she hoped with them arriving back at Regula I soon this would be one of her last interactions with Morgan but she knew that even after they got back there would still be more paperwork to sort and arrangements to me made. "Captain, Lieutenant Caradec reports our ETA to Regula I is now 5 minutes."

Tarin eyed her yeoman's arrival with some semblance of relief. She stretched her long arms out over her head and felt a light popping within the vertebrae of her upper spine at the base of her neck. A welcome sensation and a result of sitting at her desk for too long. "Thank you, Zeror," curtly acknowledged the captain. "I'll see you back on the bridge shortly."

Jeysa saw the ever so slight look of relief in Morgans face, she knew all the crew would be feeling the same to one degree or another. Hopefully they would get the shoreleave that was aborted for this incident; shoreleave they had long been in need of after the long trip there. "Aye Sir." She said and turned to head back out onto the bridge.

Blake's quarters were dark as the call came in. Despite the exhaustion setting in from the past couple of weeks, she hadn't been able to sleep when she'd left the bridge. She'd laid in bed and stared at the ceiling in the dark for too long, until she'd finally given in and gotten back up.

Scarlet had hesitated in her bedroom doorway, looking through to the shelf in the small but warmly furnished living area, to where the bottle of brandy would have been before the prohibition had been declared. Her fingers had gripped the frame for a moment, and she'd just watched the space before her jaw clenched as she'd pushed herself away.

She'd wandered to her daughter's room instead, watching the young girl sleep in the faint glow of her nightlight. She always looked so peaceful. And she knew she'd do anything to make sure that never changed.

Blake had carefully moved into the bed behind her, wrapping an arm around Lily. To feel her close...to know she was okay. She'd stroked her long, dark hair soothingly in the dark as she stared at the stars they'd painted above her bed. The silence was deafening. The darkness was blinding. But the anchor was stronger.

Blake sighed as the 5 minute warning came through and she rubbed her sandy feeling eyes. She took a last look at Lily, the girl not even stirring at the call, her dragon clutched under her arm. "Good for you," she whispered, kissing her hair before getting up to get ready for the bridge.

T'Lin simply did what her job was and that was to ensure through the scanners nothing more interfered. In her own thoughts she wondered about how the station commander might respond to a heavily armed Klingon warship showing up.

Vansen frowned as he stood on the bridge, at his station. With everything going on with Mimi, he was manning the Operations station on the bridge. Not exactly what he enjoyed doing, but here he was.

The bridge entrance hissed open and Tarin entered, a fresh un-wrinkled Starfleet uniform conforming to her tall and slim physique and complimented by dark curly hair which was pulled back into a rare mid ponytail. She quickly observed her surroundings then sat down in the captain's chair. "Inform Praxis we're going to be dropping out of warp soon," she quickly instructed Ops.

"Yes Captain," Vansen said, his hair tied back from his face. He was tired, the sort of tired that came from not having been able to switch off. He hadn't since he had boarded that shuttle, a thousand things in his head buzzing around. Being here, on the bridge, still felt alien to him. As if someone was playing a prank and eventually he'd be pulled away, thrown into an airlock and floated. Positives though, it would shut his mind up a bit. He glanced at the Captain, his mind drifting even as his fingers moved on autopilot, establishing contact with the Klingon ship. "Praxis, this is the Galileo, we are dropping out of warp as we approach the station. Be ready."

A tick of mere seconds transpired while Ops awaited the reply. "Praxis acknowledges," returned a Klingon voice across the comm channel.

Commander Tarin quickly tapped at her chair's armrest console then thumbed the internal comms channel to activate a ship-wide announcement. "All hands, we're approaching the Remidia system. Prepare for arrival at Regula I." Her brief report echoed loudly throughout all decks and rooms. "Helm, on your mark. Put us just outside of the system's asteroid belt. I'm sending you our chart plots to navigate the field." Regula I's location had been specifically selected by Starfleet Command not only because of the planet Remidia's new intriguing scientific properties, but also due to the large, robust and convenient asteroid field which surround the inner solar system and provided a natural barrier to any non-Federation vessels attempting to engage in hostile activities. The asteroid field was dense yet well-charted by now, and several unique corridors were always available for transit. The acting captain continued to tap at her console then relayed the system's most recent navigational data to the conn.

Counselor Karras quietly slipped onto the bridge and found a place out of the way to stand and observe their arrival. He didn't have a bridge station to report to and was probably not even supposed to be up here. But after the events of this mission, he felt almost compelled to actually see them arrive at Regula I. He wrapped his arms tightly around himself, hoping he wouldn't be leaving the relative safety of the station for some time.

Caradec watched the seconds count down on the console to reduce speed to 3/4 impulse. Normally they would come to a full stop and then begin navigating the asteroid field, but he wanted to step it down through impulse to evaluate the recently repaired engines. He needed to feel them, hear the hum, and detect any vibrations. Thus, he would come out of warp a little further out to make that happen.

"Captain, if it's okay with you, I'd like to cycle down through different impulse speeds to see how the impulse engines perform."

Commander Tarin creased her brow at the request. It was unorthodox but perhaps there was an opportunity to be found by performing the evolution, especially considering the recent damage Galileo had taken to her hull. If anything, the chance to test the impulse engine would allow pertinent real-time data to be recorded for Engineering and Ops to evaluate once they arrived back at the station. "Request granted."

The seconds counted to zero and Rafe took them out of warp, just over 4 million miles away, just enough to cycle down through the impulse speeds a 1/4 impulse per minute for 3 minutes, beginning at 3/4 impulse speed. The Galileo came out of warp, smooth as silk, to 3/4 impulse. He ran it at 3/4 for a minute, then cycled down to 1/2 impulse. No shudders, vibrations or hiccups. Wonderful, very nice, he thought. Another minute of impulse to go. Just when he started cycling the impulse engines down to 1/4 impulse he about blew his head off when he sneezed and shoved the impulse engines to max!

It took a couple of seconds for him to realize what he did, while the bridge crew almost had a collective heart attack and had a desire to immediately kill him! He brought the ship to a full stop within just a few seconds... about 70 feet from an asteroid twice size of the ship as it slowly flew by from left to right, filling the view screen.

Rafe would find out the next day that apparently some members of the crew had to get counseling for extreme anxiety and anger management issues. The Lieutenant slowly turned around to the captain, "Um...we're um... we're uh...here, Captain." Rafe slowly turned back around, facing forward, not even focusing on the view screen, and remained motionless...literally, not moving a muscle!

"Mister Caradec!" yelled Tarin, finally standing from her command chair after bracing for impact. Her emotional state was currently teetering somewhere in-between wanting to fillet the conn officer alive and sending him into the nearest airlock with no oxygen.

T'Lin turned in her chair. "Were scans insufficient? I have no indication that navigation was not receiving proper data."

Vansen was gripping his console, looking towards Caradec's station. He took a slow breath to reassure himself, that he was still very much alive. That helped. A lot. It had been a bit of a week.

Karras steadied himself and closed his eyes, breathing deeply. He could not wait to get off this ship.

Blake shared a look with the Captain before shaking her head, pushing herself up to stand. She strode to the helm, a hand clamping on to the back of Caradec's seat as she leant in close to him to lower her voice. "Do I need to relieve you from your position?"

You could hear Rafe's accelerated breathing...ok, actually almost hyperventilating. "No Commander, um... my apologies. I will uh, um... see the doctor immediately after my shift to make sure I'm not coming down with anything, sir. I honestly don't know why I sneezed." He readjusted himself in his seat. "I will make sure to keep my hands clear of the of the console if I sneeze again, Commander!" Rafe thought to himself, Crap, crap, crap with a side of major crap, Rafe. What the heck?!?

"See that you do, Mister Caradec," Blake's voice managed to be clipped and cool even at such a soft and low level. "Do not make me regret giving you this opportunity," she watched his profile from over his shoulder for a significant moment longer before pushing herself away. She took a few steps back but didn't return to her seat...instead, she remained standing, arms folded across her chest.

In space, USS Galileo and IKS Praxis maneuvered together through the convoluted asteroid field with the Klingon battlecruiser in trail formation. The melange of lifeless copper, gray and silver rock formations appeared mundane, yet as the vessels approached their final waypoints, the majestic purple and cerulean atmosphere belonging to the planet Remidia came into view. Scattered formations of soft bulbous cloud cover littered its surface while below them was the occasional glimpse of crystal blue oceans. Of course, the research station Regula I wasn't nearly as large or impressive. An older Class-2 complex first designed over a hundred years ago, it appeared as nothing more than a tiny silver mark in space when viewed at a distance. But it was their new home, and the base of operations for most science and logistic vessels within the sector.

Rafe, very carefully this time, guided the ship towards the research station. The ship responded very well, considering it had just been through an extremely exhausting repair session. It's response was almost sublime, fluid. Kudos to the engineers, he thought. They did one heck of a job...and he, in all his glory, almost smashed it to tiny little bits. "It's going to take some time to live this one down, Caradec!", he mumbled underneath his breath. Well, his dad always told him that if he made a mistake, make a big one.

"Ops, open a channel to Regula I," instructed Tarin from her command chair. "Inform them we have...'guests' in tow and that we need to speak to Administrator Frost."

"Regula I," Vansen opened the channel, his eyes on Tarin for a moment. "This is the USS Galileo. We have some allies coming with us, a Klingon ship, and we need to speak to Administrator Frost."

"A moment Galileo", an ensign replied. "Putting you through now." There was a quick flicker and the platinum blond visage of Yukime Frost appeared. "Welcome back Galileo, what's this about a Klingon vessel?"

Casting a sideways glance to her first officer seated next to her, Tarin gently cleared her throat while choosing her words as carefully as possible. She'd known Frost for close to two years now and predicted this could turn into a contentious discussion. "Frost, this is Tarin. We encountered a renegade Ferengi heavy cruiser near the cold station when we arrived in the facility's vicinity. They engaged us and attempted to take Galileo as some sort of 'prize', and would've succeeded until a Klingon battlecruiser came to our assistance. It's a long story. But in exchange for the lives of the Ferengi prisoners and as a gesture of good will, I struck a deal with them to resupply at Regula I. And...maybe conduct a brief shore leave on the station. They traveled all the way from Qo'noS to hunt down the Ferengi captain and are dangerously short on food stores."

Silk tried to keep from making a face but didn't manage fully. "I see. You realize that this place is mostly for research and some of that is, shall we say, things of a delicate nature. Permission for both to dock, but I want escorts on any Klingon contingent that leaves their ship."

"Yes, I understand," nodded the captain. She felt secretly thankful that Frost didn't chew her out in front of the crew. "They won't be staying long and I'll make sure their 'expeditions' to Regula I are limited to non-secure, public spaces only. Tarin out." The channel closed then Morgan let out a subtle relieved breath. "Number One, you heard the administrator. Take us in for a hard dock along the starboard side airlock. Ops, transmit soft docking protocols to Praxis. Let's put them in a synchronous orbit around the station at ten kilometers distance."

"Praxis, stand by to receive instructions," Vansen said as he smiled, before transmitting the information. He didn't get a reply, but he saw they had received it.

"Helm, take us in to dock..." Blake moved back to her seat, crossing her legs as she brought up the details on the screen in the arm of her chair. "Starboard, Level 16 docking module..." she glanced up and over to the pilot, arching an eyebrow. "And keep it slow."

Rafe guided the Galileo towards the docking module on Regula I, nice and easy, maneuvering the ship to dock at the starboard side airlock. He aligned the airlock with the dock and moved in slowly. The docking light showed green on his station, which was great as there was no sudden stop felt. He started the standard mooring procedures. "Captain, the ship is securely docked.", Rafe said as he turned and looked at her and Commander Blake.

"Good work, Mister Caradec." Much better than the last time, Tarin privately mused. A cursory check down to her chair's console confirmed Galileo's orbital position attached to the station's extended gangway. Her hazel eyes looked back up and around the bridge; to the select scorched bulkheads and shattered consoles still in need of repair following the battle with the Ferengi. She'd never considered the Nova-class to be anything more than a disposable science frigate, but her recent experiences had taught her the reality: this was a tough little ship.

Tarin tapped the internal comm switch on her console. "All hands, we've docked at Regula One, starboard side airlock. Secure your stations then power down all non-essential systems. Engineering, I want the impulse reactor and damaged nacelle offline in preparation for upcoming repairs. Stow your belongings then report to Regula One operations for your temporary quarters assignments while we begin repairs and resupply. Welcome home." She then leaned back in her chair. The first mission of her CO career was complete, despite it being a near-disaster.

Vansen let out a breath before he secured his station. He took a moment to pat the side of the console, a silent thank you to the ship for getting them back alive. Always appreciate what allowed you to breathe another day.

Taking what could very well be a last look at the bridge, Karras turned and made for the turbolift, more than ready to disembark. If his transfer request was approved, it wasn't like he'd be abandoning any of his new crewmates. He'd simply be in a more secure position to provide the support they would need. Yes. This would be better. He wasn't going to be abandoning anyone.

Rafe secured his station and put in some security measures to notify him if anyone tried to maneuver the ship from space dock without his or any senior personnel's approval. Finally, he powered it down, ready for repairs. Finally, some relaxation after such a crazy assignment. He was looking forward to reaching out to his family back home. Before packing, he made sure that every conn officer had filed all reports, even if he was the new guy. He didn't want anything left undone.

Down in the Security Office, Gabriel Stark went through the well trodden routine of securing the systems and then powering down the main desk. Having spent so much time (and overtime) in the tiny office over the last weeks due to being shorthanded, he couldn't wait for another view. Even if it ended up being another four walls, at least it would be a different set of four walls!

In the mess, a very excited child was standing on a chair. Lily Blake was as close to pressing her nose to the window as she could be, having been bouncing with excitement as they came in closer to the station, and now trying to spot as much as she could.

Laeon Wylde had his arm around the girl to make sure she didn't flip off the chair in her excitement, but he chuckled all the same at how the simple things seemed to please her. "It seems pretty big after being couped up on this little ship for so long, right?"

Lily was nodding, her finger in the air and following the movement of light she'd spotted. "Do you think it has an ice cream parlour?"

Laeon laughed at the suggestion, shaking his head as he glanced to her knowingly. "Hm...I don't know about that. But I'm sure we can hunt down some ice cream if we try hard enough..."

Jeysa remained on the bridge, she doubted Tarin would let her leave any time soon, there was always more paperwork to be done, more meetings to be arranged and more errands to run.

[OFF]

--

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

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

Lily Blake
Civilian Child
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

Laeon Wylde
Civilian Child
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

LTJG Karras
Counselor
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Fynn]

PO2 T'Lin
Science Officer/Specialist
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Allyndra]

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

Yukime Frost
Administrator
Regula I
[PNPC Warraquim]

LTJG Rafe Caradec
Conn Officer
Cold Station 31

PO3 Constantin Vansen
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Rice]

CMDR Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

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