Captain's Orders! (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 21 Mar 2012 @ 1:02pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Nesh Saalm

3,176 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 00 - Pre-Deployment
Location: San Francisco Fleet Yards, USS Galileo
Timeline: MD 04 - 1330 hrs

[ON]

After a short lunch with her sister and Chief Counselor, Lirha now led Nesh up the main access ramp to the USS Galileo. The dry dock facility was alive with personnel, many of whom were busy loading various types of equipment and supplies on to the ship. The captain had managed to acquire permission from the dock master to let her sister step on board the starship for a few hours, and she was quite grateful that Nesh would get the opportunity to see such a marvel first-hand and up close. It was an honor which most civilians, let alone teenagers, were not privileged with. The only hiccup Lirha could think of was finding a member of the crew who was on board and could spare the free time to entertain Nesh. The prudent thing to do would have been to contact her XO the night before and make arrangements with him, but she had been so busy with her administrative duties that it had slipped her mind.

With Nesh in tow, Lirha stopped in front of the main airlock and looked back at her sister. "Well? What do you think?" she asked, as she spread her arms to indicate the massive silver hull of Starfleet's newest starship.

Nesh hated to admit it but she was impressed. Impressed didn't even really cover it, she was stunned. Her lips tried to form words but nothing came mind that could even begin to describe what she was seeing. "Its...its...big" She finally said.

"Big?" Lirha replied with a sideways smirk, "This is one of Starfleet's smallest starships. You should see one of the larger ones, like a Galaxy or Sovereign Class." she said, then pointed towards the registry name and number painted on port nacelle. "She's called the Galileo, named after a legendary Earth philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. I'm quite impressed with her so far... I never thought I would get the chance to command a ship of my own."

Nesh bumped her sister playfully with her hip as they stood in front of the ship that by all accounts of the young orion was massive. "Well a shuttle is about the largest I have ever been on." She said in an almost sarcastic tone. "Not all of us spend our time on starships...some of us live planet side." It may not have been the largest ship in the fleet, but it was the largest one she had seen. She turned to her sister, "Do I get to go inside?"

"That depends..." she started, then moved next to Nesh and put a friendly arm around her sister's shoulders, "Do you promise you'll behave if I introduce you to my XO?" she asked with amusement in her green eyes.

"You have my word." Nesh said with a playful grin and held her right hand up like she was making a pledge. "I will be on my best behavior while in the company of your...uh...XO?.." She gave her sister her best shit eating grin as she wrapped her arm around Lirha's waist.

Lirha shook her head and chuckled. Her gut feeling told her Nesh was going to be anything but well-behaved, but a part of her was curious to see how Commander Holliday would react to her. "Very well, let's go then, shall we?" she replied, and walked with Nesh past the security checkpoint and into the airlock.

They walked slowly down the narrow corridors, a deliberate attempt by Lirha to let her sister view as much of the ship as possible. After a few minutes of travel and a short turbolift ride, the two of them arrived outside of the doors to her XO's office. Turning to face Nesh, Lirha gave her a quick uniform inspection, straightening her commbadge and tugging on the front of her shirt to remove a couple creases. "This is Commander Holliday's office," she said as she looked seriously at Nesh, "He's my second-in-command and next to me, the senior-most person on the ship. Show him respect, and if he tells you to do or not do something, listen to him."

"Yes, Ma'am." Nesh said simple as the desire to re-wrinkle her shirt was not so easily suppressed. She still didn't understand why she had to wear this boring thing. She adjusted her shirt a little. She watched as her sister rang the chime and simply waited quietly.

Standing in front of the door, Lirha silently hoped that the commander would be able to occupy Nesh for a few hours. She hated to drop by unannounced, especially with her little sister in tow, but she had taken a liking to her XO and thought that he would be a good person for Nesh to spend time with.

Status reports seemed to take up the majority of John's days right now, every few moments a new report would come in, either from a maintenance team, the drydock, or the various supply departments that somehow had to liaise together in order to make sure that this ship launched with a full complement of every conceivable item required for their mission to be successful. PADDs were piled high on his desk as he looked for the next report to sign off, quickly interrupted by the chime of his office door.

"Come in" he announced in a half-distracted voice whilst still searching through the pile in front of him, he dreaded it being yet another crewman needing yet another requisition order signed off.

Nesh cast a glance up at her sister. She was a little bit confused as to why LeeRee had picked the second most busy person on the ship to pawn her onto. She shrugged her shoulders as she waited to follow Lirha's lead.

The captain stepped into her XO's office and briefly glanced around the room at the stack of PADDs on his desk. She kicked herself mentally, realizing that he might very well be extremely busy for the remainder of the day. "Hello Commander," she started in a light voice, "I hope you're not too busy...I brought someone who I'd like you to meet." she said, then stepped to the side for Nesh to move forward and introduce herself.

The arrival of his CO had been enough to disrupt John's entire train of thought, in fact her appearance in the doorway, and his hectic attempt to stand up and get to attention had caused him to launch a couple of the myriad of PADDs in front of him into the floor beside his desk. He was damned if he was going to ignore protocol just because he was busy.

"Captain! Good to see you ma'am, how can I help? A new crewmember you need bringing up to speed?"

Nesh stepped from behind Lirha and gave the man behind the desk an almost timid wave followed by a little grin. She couldn't help but feel a little awkward. Apparently her sister hadn't cleared it with him, before making this random decision. The thought prompted an escaped laugh which she quickly tried to cover with her hand.

"Erm.." John said with an air of confusion in his voice, this was definitely something new that he hadn't been told to expect. Unless the age rating for Starfleet cadets had dropped substantially, and there was no longer a uniform code for cadets, there was no way that this was going to be what he had expected it to be.

"Nice to meet you young lady" He said, raising his hand in a sort of... half-wave.. to return the girl's equally confused gesture.

"Captain, care to fill me in?"

"Yes...about that..." Lirha said as she cleared her throat and let her eyes stray down to the ground for a quick moment. "This is Nesh Saalm, my younger sister." she said as she gestured to the quite-similar looking Orion girl next to her, "Nesh, this is Commander Holliday, my XO." she said as she formally introduced the two of them.

"I was hoping...if you're not too busy...I could leave her with you for a couple hours this afternoon? She's been cleared with Security and has permission to be aboard the Galileo." she said with an imploring look in her eyes to the commander. "Perhaps you could give her a quick tour of the ship? It's her first time aboard a starship..." she added with a hopeful smile.

Sighing to himself, John closed down the PADD that he had been working on and laid it firmly back down on his desk. It was true that he really didn't have the time to be acting as a chaperone to some teenage relative of another officer, but this wasn't just any other officer - it was his captain. Strictly speaking, he didn't really have much room to manoeuvre, an order was coming from his commanding officer, and as a member of her crew, it was his job to follow it.

"I err...yes ma'am" he replied, sounding a little deflated, although he was trying his best to cover it up.

"I guess we could start from the lower decks and work our way up...if you're sure she has sufficient security clearance for areas like the Bridge and Main Engineering?"

Lirha let out a mental sigh of relief and nodded. "Yes, I stopped by the Office of Personnel Management this morning and managed to get her the required clearance. She's not allowed near any weapons systems, but other than that, she is free to roam around...with an escort, that is." she finished with a wink at the commander.

"Well, I have to get back to my office." she added, grateful that Nesh would be looked after for the afternoon. "If you need anything, either of you, don't hesitate to page me." she said, and rubbed her sister's back reassuringly. Lirha glanced at John and silently mouthed the words 'I Owe You' before turning towards the door and exiting.

John felt his heart sink as his CO disappeared from the office, in his opinion, she definitely owed him more than one. That said, he was going to make sure that he got his own back out of this little arrangement. For now he turned his attention to the teenage girl now stood alone in his office ahead of him, her dimunitive stature up against his 6ft frame making him appear to almost tower over her.

"So err...first time on a starship huh?"

"Uh...yeah." Nesh said as she cast a glance at the door her sister had just exited from. "I am sorry...uh..I don't know what to call you." She continued before he could reply. "Lirha promised me this cool day with her...and it seems to be I am being pawed off on her crew instead...But thanks." She was a little nervous, she didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with the man who had her sisters back.

"Well, you aren't a member of my crew, so Commander Holliday is probably a little too formal, let's just go for John, easy enough to remember when there's only one syllable" He said with a smile on his face, he could see that the young girl was on the verge of terrified of being left alone on a strange ship with someone she had only just met.

"Trust me, I'm sure the Captain isn't just dumping you because she wants to, you see the pile of PADDs on my desk?" He said, gesturing to the precariously piled collection of equipment scattered across his never-to-be-tidy desk
"She's gonna have a pile probably twice as big as that...think of it like getting a whole year's homework in one go"

Nesh simply nodded she knew her sister was busy. It made sense she was the Captain of her own ship. She looked around the office for a moment. "I get that....at least I get to see her ship before it launches...that is pretty cool." She gave John a large smile.

"Heh, yeah she might be small, but she's perfectly formed, we can hold our own in a fight with a ship almost twice the size of ours. Not quite as fast as something like an Intrepid class, or a Sovereign, but we can shift fast enough!"

John realised that in the past couple of days he had become rather more fond of his ship and its abilities, even though it might not have been the battleship that he was hoping for, it measured up as being much better than an assignment on board a cargo vessel or a simple transport.

"So...where would you like to see first? The Bridge? Engineering? Mess Hall? take your pick!"

"Uh..I guess..." Nesh started, she didn't really know much about starships. She knew the bridge was where Lirha would spend most of her time. "I guess the bridge." Her tone made it sound more like a question then a statement. "It would be cool to see where Lirha will be working all the time."

"The Bridge it is, stick close with me, its easy enough to get lost on these smaller ships" John guided her towards the door, and out into the corridor, destined for the nearby turbolift. The walk was not particularly long, and soon the pair found themselves approaching the familiar doors as they parted to reveal the waiting lift car

"Deck One - Bridge" John announced to the computer, which replied with its usual bleep and began to move. Turning to the young Orion, John had a mischievous glint in his eye

"Who knows, if she's not around, I might even let you sit in your sister's chair - someone has to make sure it all works properly before we launch after all"

A large smile crossed Nesh's lips. "That would be really cool." She said as her smile morphed to match the mischievous glint in her companions eyes. The lift ride didn't take as long she had thought and soon the doors parted to reveal a room not much unlike the ones she had seen in the books at the library. She took a few tentative steps out onto the bridge. "Wow..."

The Galileo's Bridge, although not at its usual peak efficiency, was nonetheless an impressive sight, most of the panels were now fully installed an active, and with the exception of a few maintenance staff, who did nothing more than look up to acknowledge the XO's arrival, before burying their heads back in their work to avoid missing their deadlines

"Not bad huh? The Bridge controls pretty much every system on the ship, down there you've got the helm, over there is Ops, Engineering, Medical, and my station" He gave a short dialogue, pointing out a few of the more vital stations to starship operations, before moving his hand back to the centre of the bridge.

"Aaaand that's where Commander Saalm sits....the Captain's chair, wanna try it out? Just don't press anything on the arms, trust me, everything on that panel does something!"

Nesh gave John a playful smile as she walked around to the Captain's chair. She looked at the chair and with a little twirl took a seat. It felt a little odd, but you could see almost everything from here. She turned in her chair to look behind her. A questioning look crossed her face, "So...She can only see ops and the helm from here? Does she have to turn around to see who is talking? or do COs not do that?"

"Well, she can if she wants to, although because we've all spent so much time getting the ship ready, your sister already knows which voice belongs to which person. Plus officers kind of expect that their captain might not decide to look straight at them when they give an order....they just know who's job it is to do what...like if your sister wants us to fire phasers, everyone knows that's for Tactical to do, and not say, the Science station"

John had never really dwelled on the design of starship bridges too much personally, the designs to him were meant to be functional more than they were meant to look pretty, but to someone who didn't have Starfleet training under their belt, he agreed it could look a little odd

"We just all have to make sure we're listening, even when we're particularly busy"

"Makes sense." Nesh said simply as she stood up from the chair. That chair had too many implications and all of a sudden she wanted to get as far from it as she could. She looked around the bridge at all the different stations. "This is pretty cool...what else is there to see?" She moved back around the chair to stand closer to Holliday.

"Well, there's the helm, which is basically like a giant map...or if you want, we can go and see the warp core? It's not active at the moment, but its still pretty big? I'd offer to let you see the phaser assemblies but your sister would kill me if I did"

"Weapons kinda of freak me out." Nesh said honestly as she gave John a large grin. She looked around the bridge. It was cool, but there wasn't much to see when you were a fifteen year old civilian. "So...this is the bridge." She looked up at John, "I have heard ships like this have...a...the plant room thing...it starts with an a...arboretum?" She asked not 100 percent sure of her conclusion, "Does this ship have one?"

John couldnt help but giggle at the childlike analysis of an interstellar starship, and the existence of the so-called "plant room". He wished that sometimes he would be able to see starships with the wonder and amazement of a teenager, but that was many years ago now, and unlikely to ever happen!

"haha yes, yes we do have a plant room. The arboretum is down on deck 4 - wanna take a look?"

"Nope, was just checking if you had one." Nesh said with a roll of her eyes. She broke out into a grin before grabbing John's arm and tugging him towards the turbo lift. She let out a little laugh, "Of course I want to see it...that is why I asked."

As he was almost dragged towards the turbolift, John took a second to compose himself, before returning fire with a line of his own.

"Fair enough, lead on captain-in-training, just watch out for the Denobulan Tectrapod, its an insect eating plant normally but I hear the bigger ones tend to have a craving for teenage Orion girls who make fun of well-meaning human XO's" He laughed, heading for the doors.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

LTCDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Nesh Saalm
Captain's Sister
NPC'd by Barel

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