To the Stars (Part 3 of 3)

Posted on 25 Mar 2012 @ 11:52am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Chauncey Remington III (KIA) & Lieutenant JG Robin Hilyer MD & Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Tarishiana Barel & Crewman Nazhzhalh & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Ambassador Si'tar Del'an

2,486 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 00 - Pre-Deployment
Location: San Francisco Fleet Yards, USS Galileo
Timeline: MD 07 - 0000 hrs

[ON]

"I thought you'd never ask Ma'am"

John turned his attention back to the helm, a myriad of indicators and data panels flashing and pulsating as the once-dormant starship came to life under his hands. Slowly, he began to feed power into the thrusters, watching as the levels began to rise, slowly compensating for the vast weight of even a small starship. Soon, the entire vessel began to pulse and throb, vibrating under the force of its thrusters, before John increased the power ever so slightly again, and the starship lifted from the floor, the clunk of the landing struts coming away from the dock audible throughout the vessel.

The air around the dry dock began to shimmer in rippling waves under the intense heat and force of the Galileo's ventral thrusters. Dirt and debris kicked up from the Earth, creating a large swirling dust cloud around the base of the construction site. The ship ascended and slowly cleared the nearby moorings, finally beginning a slow turn as it passed near to the HQ and approached Golden Gate Bridge.

With a set of special arrangements already prepared to mark the momentous occasion, Lirha looked back across the bridge at Mor'an who was currently situated at the mission ops station. "Cadet, please take the tactical station and bring our torpedo launchers online." she called out. It was a strange order considering the circumstances, but Lirha didn't feel the need to explain herself just yet.

"Aye, sir," Mor'an said, raising an eyebrow but refraining be from making any other comment as she moved to tactical next to Holliday. "Torpedo launchers online, ma'am," she said a moment later.

Lirha walked next to Mor'an and reached down, tapping several command sequences into her tactical console to load a cluster of specialized ordinance into the fore and aft launchers. It took several seconds for the automated loading mechanisms to complete their process, after which the flashing red 'Fire' button turned solid red to signify its readiness. Lirha entered a customized firing pattern into the console then stepped back and looked over at the helm console, taking note of the Galileo's position over the city of San Francisco. "As soon as we pass over the bridge, you're clear to fire." she said to Mor'an.

"Aye, ma'am." Mor'an waited with bated breath for the beautiful little ship to glide clear of the bridge. As soon as she had done so, Mor'an pressed the red button. "Torpedoes fired."

As the torpedoes cleared the launchers, they quickly followed their pre-assigned trajectories, separating from one another into a broad strip across the San Francisco sky, like miniature stars shining brightly as they headed away from the newly-christened starship.

A few moments passed before the torpedoes completed their journey and detonated, acting not as weapons of war, but as images of celebration. Large antimatter fireworks designed especially for tonight launched bright hues of blues, reds and golds into the night sky, interspersed with greens and purples as the Galileo soared through the colourful haze. Anyone stood on the ground would have been more than suitably impressed as they glimpsed up at the silvery hull of the latest Nova-class vessel in the fleet being changed from one shade to another as the antimatter glare bounced off the mirrored finish.

"Atmospheric thrusters at 40%....retracting landing struts"

John firmly believed in keeping everyone aware of exactly what the helm was doing, calling out every manoeuvre and alteration as it happened. Looking to the other side of the helm, he quickly tapped the controls to order the four landing struts usually stowed in the belly of the Nova-class to retract, watching as the indicators turned from red to green to indicate their position.

"Struts retracted, Engineering please confirm?" He called out in the direction of the Chief and his newest assistant

Lilou nodded, watching as the landing gear icon on the console blipped from green to yellow to green again. Steady as she goes, she thought with a little smile. "Landing gear is fully retracted, sir," she called out.

With the ok from his colleagues, John increased the power yet again, watching on the sensors as the Galileo headed further into the air, the dock becoming more and more distant as he proceeded.

"Thrusters now at 85%....altering trajectory for orbital approach"

A few more helm commands flickered through his fingertips and into the conn station, as the thrusters towards the front of the Galileo came to life, forcing the ship to climb until her nose pointed to the heavens, and her stern towards the dock.

"Thrusters to 100%....approaching Earth orbit in 45 seconds"

John gave the command to the helm just as he finished speaking, and the whine of the starship's engines sounded like it could have been heard from orbit itself, a warning to anything up there to prepare for Starfleet's latest arrival. Looking up from his work, he saw the dark night time sky over San Francisco begin to shift, the stars seeming to change positions as the Galileo headed for orbit. Occasionally a wisp of cloud would part in front of the viewscreen image as the bow of the tiny science vessel broke through, heading for its natural home in space.

Finally, the last levels of clouds departed, leaving the ship alone in the coldness of the upper atmosphere.

"Approaching upper thermosphere....transferring to impulse engines....thrusters to station keeping"

With the atmosphere thinning, the landing thrusters were quickly running out of punch, rather than delay the launch for a few moments waiting for the standard thrusters to reassert themselves, John switched straight to impulse power, feeling the strain as the much more powerful engines began their contribution to the mission.

Eventually, the turbulence that had juddered the Galileo from the moment it left the dock came to an end. They were in space.

"We've cleared the upper atmosphere...impulse engines holding steady....Chief, is she ready for warp speed?"

He turned once again to the Engineering console, letting the helm take care of itself for a few moments, waiting to hear hopefully good news.

Lilou scanned the console, checking and double-checking. Now wasn't the time for guesswork. "Inertial dampeners in the green, auto-gravity online, landing gear stowed..." she ran through her mental check-list quietly, indicating icons as she went to make sure she was reading the console correctly. Quinn would correct her if she went astray. That, or just tell her to shut up and take control of the thing himself. She narrowed her eyes on the optical data network read-outs Quinn had pointed out before. They weren't steady, but they were green. She searched the MSD quickly, seeking out the icons that would tell her what she needed to know to be sure: "Phase inducers online... check. Aligned with propulsion ODN matrices... check. M/AMR in the green... check. Containment fields at full... check." She glanced at Quinn. "I'd say we're good to go. Second?"

Quinn smiled as he stood with his hands behind his back as he observed Peers' assessment, "I concur. We are ready to rock 'n roll Skipper."

Knowing that he was going nowhere until he received orders from his CO, John turned his head slightly to face up towards his CO, who for the last few moments had been almost rigidly glued to his shoulder. Her nerves were understandable though, it was never a good time to mess up a launch than when your ship is brand new. A wry smile crept across his face as he remembered his earlier meeting with her sister, and decided that now was about the perfect time for a comment he had been saving up all day.

"Looks like our launch went well....congratulations ReeHee " he muttered in a low voice, about loud enough for the captain and he to hear, but for the rest of the Bridge crew to be left hearing nothing but the sound of consoles bleeping in the background.

"Ready to set a course when you are"

The captain nodded in approval and returned to the middle of the bridge, satisfied that her crew had conducted a smooth and successful launch. ReeHee? she thought to herself with an incredulous shake of her head. She would have to thank Nesh for that at the next convenient opportunity. Lirha tapped several commands on her chair's console and smiled down with bright green eyes at Del'an as the ship returned to Green Alert and the overhead bridge lights came back online. "Well, that was a fun ride, no?" she asked the Ta'rkan liaison.

Del'an tilted her chin up at Lirha. She sat in the captain's chair with as much regality as a queen. "An... impressive ship," she acknowledged, her expression serene as ever, leaving no sign of her thoughts.

Turning her attention back to the conn, Lirha spoke in a calm yet determined voice. "Set a course for Starbase two-three-four, maximum warp." she said to her XO.

Nodding in acknowledgement, John turned back to the conn and quickly accessed the database for pre-prepared coordinates; all Federation starbases and facilities were held in the LCARS memory system for a more expedient journey for the myriad of starship's that wandered the quadrant. After searching and locating the starbase, he transferred the coordinates into the navigational computer, watching as the course trajectory appeared in front of him.

"Course laid in, Starbase 234, standby for warp velocity"

The final order was simple enough, but one which marked a historic day for all involved, and represented the culmination of everyone's hard work. "Engage." she said.

John was a little nervous right now, after all, the warp engines on this vessel had never been tested outside of a computer simulation, and there was always that possibility that something could go wrong. Accessing the warp control systems, he began to funnel power from the reactor to the warp coils, watching as the warp field began to form around the starship. After a few moments the stars ahead of the viewscreen seemed to shift and distort, before finally the moment that they had all been waiting for arrived; the Galileo thrust itself into warp, leaving normal space behind, and heading out of the solar system.

"Warp one..." John called out as he continued to increase the power to the nacelles, he had no desire to leap straight to maximum warp, but was instead preferring to gradually build it up.

"Warp three..." Slowly the power curves began to build, their shapes becoming more and more distinct as more and more power was taken from the now-fully operational warp reactor, countless matter and antimatter particles disappearing every second in the reaction chamber, fuelling their mission to the stars. He continued the starship's acceleration

"Warp five...." The Galileo's cruising speed seemed to arrive easily enough, looking across at his panel the warp field seemed stable, no obvious errors or abnormalities for him to worry about...intently he stared at the display, his hands still increasing the starship's speed further, waiting in anticipation of any blips...but thankfully they did not come. Eventually, he reached the top of the Galileo's standard range.

"Speed holding at Warp 8....eta to Starbase 34 hours 9 minutes" He signed with a relieved tone in his voice, they had finally gotten into space, they were on their own.

Dru stood back leaning against the wall. Babel and Ziyal had everything under control, she took this opportunity to observe the people scattered around the bridge. She saw faces of people she knew and faces of people she still had to meet, she still had a lot of work ahead of her. No matter the person one clear thing was evident, the excitement which shone through in the eyes of everyone, especially Lirha and Holliday. As Dry quietly observed the two of them it was clearly well evident Starfleet had made a good decision to pair them together. Even though they both experienced high levels of stress and worry over this launch, they seemed to compliment each other easily, helping the other.

It was all so much more real now with the ship having left dock. While everyone was busy prepping their stations, Dru quietly slipped off of the bridge. She had her own work she needed to put a dent into and she was only in the way of the people at each of their stations. She had seen what she needed, that this ship was a good crew who worked well together and she knew her job was going to be made easier by that fact alone.

Quinn watched over the Propulsion Dynamics read out on the MSD. "Peers, you see that number ratio their? That's the M/AM Intermix Ratio Calculate. Also, the algorithm next to it is the current speed we are traveling at."

Lilou leaned closer, following Quinn's indications. "When I was studying the ship's schematics, I didn't take into consideration the reorganization of the MSD," she admitted, brows drawing together in consternation as she reviewed the console. It had been a rookie mistake; that, and she'd grown used to being shunted into the repair bay. She'd simply stopped being concerned with the larger responsibilities of her position. The fact that she was being oriented to those responsibilities again now - was exhilarating. But it also meant she had to learn and fast. They were safe and on their way and maintaining a steady speed on the way to their objective. Now it was just a matter of keeping that pace even for the next thirty-four hours. She watched the numbers in the algorithm shift while maintaining the same final speed. The balancing matrix of the system was incredible. The flux on the Cheyenne had been broader.

The Galileo cruised through space at high warp, the streaking stars blurring as they passed across the ship's shiny hull. Their projected course would take them through the Wolf 359 system and next to Andoria, until they finally entered open space in Sector 003. With less than two days before they arrived at Starbase 234, the crew had much to prepare for on their first journey. But for now, the tiny vessel had accomplished her first mission: up, and to the stars.

[OFF]

--

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Chauncey (Will) Remington III
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Robin Hilyer MD
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Drusilla McCarthy
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

CWO Markum Quinn
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

MWO Tarishiana Barel
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

MWO Lilou Peers
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

CN Nazhzhalh
Biotechnologist
USS Galileo

CDT(SR) Im'er Mor'an
Red Squad Cadet
USS Galileo

Si'tar Del'an
Ta'rkan Observer
USS Galileo

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