Taking Possession
Posted on Tue Jan 2, 2018 @ 5:57am by Captain Maritza Soran & Captain Ricardo (Rico) Montoya - CO USS Phoenix
2,313 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Victory Conditions
Location: Main OPS
Timeline: MD 01 0900
[ON]
[DS5 – Deck 73 – Shuttle Bay 5]
Their flyer touched down in one of the many cavernous shuttle bays on Deep Space 5. They hadn't had to worry about scheduling transports or depend on other transportation as the runabout had been their home during their extended leave. Rank did have some privileges. He was going to miss the runabout, it was too bad the Phoenix's shuttle bay wouldn't be able to accommodate such a large craft of he would have requisitioned one.
Rico came up from the lower deck after changing into his uniform. It felt good to be back actually, too much time off tended to dull your edge...at least in his opinion. As he moved forward Heather was in the process of shuttling down the flyers systems. She turned back and gave him a nod,
"Well don't you look sharp?"
"We all set here?"
"Yep. The deck officer is all ready to take possession of this little daring and also promised to have all our things transferred to the Phoenix for us."
"Excellent." Motioning to the aft hatch, "After you."
Stepping down out of the shuttle Heather was greeted by and orange clad member of the deck crew that offered her his hand. Accepting it with a warm smile she hopped of the steps. “Why thank you”.
“You’re welcome ma’am”, his thick southern drawl apparent even in the noisy shuttle bay. “My momma would have my hide if she ever learned I did offer to assist a lady.”
“Nice to see southern hospitality is alive and well. “ Adding with a wink, “Even if under the threat of a skinning.”
Rico stood behind her, in the hatch, listening to the exchange as he looked out over the crowd.
Looking up at the large framed Captain, glad that he’d soon be gone and he could work his southern charm on the red headed Lieutenant in front of him. “Cap’n. The Commander wasn’t able to make it down, but if head up to ops she has everything for ya.”
“Thanks Chief.” Glancing to Heather, “You can ah…handle all this?”
Know exactly what he was meaning she nodded. “Yes sir. I will see that everything is taken care of.”
She watched him go and turned back to the Chief. “So are you the big strong man that’s going to help me get all our things transferred to the Phoenix?”
Grinning even wider with, a nod to his head, he liked where this was going. “Yes ma`am I’ll see that the Captain’s personables are sent to his quarters and I’ll be taking yours go to…” pausing to check her location only to swallow hard. Clearing his throat, “…the Captain’s quarter too.”
When he looked up she was just watching him with one eyebrow raise and a wry grin. “No need to strain yourself, just have them beamed over please Chief...” She put her hand on his shoulder as the let it fall away as she moved to leave, “…and ahhh better luck next time.”
Heather sauntered off and after leaving the bay she found the nearest lift, stepping inside, “Promenade”. ~After the long shuttle trio I need to stretch the legs…and do a little shopping~, she thought to herself.
[Main Operations]
Rico stepped into Ops and was immediately greeted. “Can I help you Captain?”
“Yes, I‘m here to see Commander Soran and take a ship off her hands.”
The Petty officer indicated that Rico should follow him and led him through main ops to Martiza's office. "Captain Montoya, ma'am." he said.
"Thank-you, Claude,” Maritza stood as the superior rank entered her office, and held out her hand to Rico. "Commander Soran, CO of DS5. Welcome aboard, sir."
Rico took her hand and nodded as he smiled. "Thank you Commander. I've heard a lot about the station from my former CO. He served here before getting his first command."
There were a hundred thousand people on DS5, not counting the transient population. And his former CO was likely before her time. "Likely before my time, sir, but you'll be aware we aren't short of drama."
That drew a humorous laugh. "Neither was my former CO. He got his start with drama, when some Romulan sect attacked the station and he ended his career with drama after...shall we say a colorful display. But what would you except from a Klingon." He paused and reminding himself that even though she was a command level Starfleet officer, she wasn't read into and definitely didn't have the 'need-to-know' concerning the details surrounding the Commodore's departure.
Clasping his hands together and rubbing them slightly he warmed his smile and changed the subject. "I understand your yard master is putting the final touches on a ship for me. Do you have a progress report on that?"
"Dyson informed us that the USS Phoenix left the yard twenty minutes ago. The tugs bringing her should have her here very shortly. Flight control has instructions to notify me the moment they request docking." Maritza checked out of her window, but now the station was in a planetary orbit, her view was no longer static, and the yards were currently out of sight.
"Excellent, and for some reason I was expecting her to still be incomplete. Though I am curious as to why she's being towed in and not moving into the main dock under her own power?"
"I've not been informed directly of anything," Maritza replied, "But it shouldn't be too serious, or they wouldn't release her." She indicated her door, "Would you like to come with me down to the docking ring? We have a berth cleared for her."
Nodding and hoping that nothing was seriously wrong. Not exactly the best first impression he wanted to leave, what with all the Cardassians out there. "Lead the way"
She took him to the turbo lift. "Deck One Fifty." The doors whispered closed, "We've been receiving your crew for the last few days. Mostly engineering enlisted. If there's a problem, you should have plenty of help on hand to resolve it."
Leaning against the wall of the lift, "Enlisted are fine for routine matters but is there are any serious issue I will want to borrow a few of your officers. At least until mine show up."
He paused changing the subject. "What's with the Cardassian task force we saw on the way in?
"They turned up shortly after Pangea emerged. They claimed that since so many people were injured in the emergence that the Federation wasn’t capable of protecting its own interests let alone the lives of Cardassians. Its bull shit of course, they want the planet. The question is; are they willing to go to war to get it. The Federation won't initiate things so that leaves them harassing any shipping in international space that they consider 'suspect'. So far they've attacked a Bajoran ship, claiming self defense, and a civilian trade ship claiming they were smugglers. When the civvies scuttled the ship as the Cardassians were boarding, they had the nerve to demand we surrender the 'terrorists' responsible." She kept her sigh to herself. She wasn't sure there were any solutions either.
"Well at least they're consistent. I think the only time they cooperated willingly with the Federation was just after the war; but that didn't last long."
[Deck 150]
Arriving at their destination Rico, ever the gentleman, gestured for her to go exit first. Exiting the lift he looked out the large windows to the docking arm as the tugs manoeuvred the Phoenix into position. The ship was completely dark, not even her running lights were on.
Something wasn't right and he said as much. "A ship isn't normally towed out of the yard like some derelict. What's wrong with my ship?"
"I haven't been advised, but I want to find out." Soran started down the docking arm to where the Prometheus class's outer doors were sealed. Robot arms were attaching the umbilicals and workbees were starting to swarm to begin the charging and victualling process.
The outer doors themselves remained stubbornly closed at their approach, and then there was a creek, and the doors were ratcheted open on the manual release.
An Andorian woman in an Operations mustard vest stepped through, saw the two officers and pulled up suddenly to attention. "Master Chief Sh'ziqot, sir, ma'am. I'm head of the handover team for Phoenix."
Hoping there was some simple explanation, though his gut told him otherwise and not consciously leaving her at attention, he spoke directly at the woman addressing them. "Tell me Master Chief, why was my ship towed in here like a carcass instead of leaving the yard under its own power?" Waving at his ship though the windows, his voice calm but frustrated, "I have crew arriving or due to arrive to a ship were the lights aren't even on."
"There is an issue with the initialization sequences." The Andorian explained. "We've not been able to track it down as the fail over means the assembly docks will automatically take over. We've got no space in the disassembly yards so we thought we'd bring her over here to work on it. DS5 won't trigger the fail over automatically and we can disable the umbilicals much more easily here for testing. Hopefully we’ll have it sorted shortly."
Rico was puzzled, "That ship has multiple power systems from multiple warp cores and multiple fusion reactors and none of them will fire up? I'd say we have a more serious problem than just initialization sequences."
"It’s the multiple systems that are the problem." Sh'ziqot explained. "Individually they all work fine. But without the initialization sequence their cycles are out of alignment and you get random surges and drop offs. Not what you want in the middle of beaming someone or playing chicken with solar flares."
"Getting things turned on in the right sequence IS important, but when varying sources of power are interfering with one another I would think you would want to double check the power transfer grid. There could be issues with the matrix converters or power stabilizers."
Stopping himself from going any further, he looked up as the ship light up as the umbilicals tied his ship into the stations power. He had never been one to micro-manage his own people and he didn't need to start with someone else's staff.
"Carry on Master Chief; I know my ship is in good hands. I'll be back later."
Turning back to the Station's Commander; “If we could return to your office there was one other issue I wanted to discuss...in private."
Surprised, she simply said "Yes, sir." The best thing to do would be to move back to somewhere less open than the main docking ring.
Once back in her office with the door closed he took a deep breath. "I have a personal request..."
"I'll help if I can." She wasn't going to volunteer any of people or systems before knowing what he wanted.
"It's about my wife..."
That was not the opening she was expecting. "I wasn't aware you were married, sir."
"There is no regulation preventing a Captain being involved with a member of the crew and we were married before I was assigned this command. However a Captain having family as a member of his or her crew can cause...problems. We've discussed several options and she was adamant that she doesn't want to resign her commission. That said, if things begin to get difficult for her...or if I should find my decision making compromised. I would like you to entertain the idea of a transfer if needed.
"We always have room for good officers, sir.” Soran said. "There's no end to the work keeping this place to peak efficiency."
"Thank you Commander." He hoped things wouldn't come to that but it was good to have options. With the station as his home port they wouldn't be too far away if things took a turn for the worse.
"If there is nothing else I will return to my ship. I promise not to harass your people too much."
"Of course, sir. and please don't hesitate to ask if you need extra hands to get shipshape." Maritza shook hands with him again, and walked him to her door.
Making his way across the Ops center towards the exit, the doors opened at his approach. On the other side of the doorway the familiar, and unexpected, face of Admiral T'Vel. He stepped back and out of her way to allow her to pass, his voice calm, but tight. "Admiral".
She acknowledged the greeting with a nod as she passed, followed by her staff.
Before leaving Ops he turned to one of the officers there. "Ensign, I have a station wide address. Announce that the USS Phoenix has been moved to the main docking facility, department heads currently on the station are to report by 1500, crew may begin boarding and are to begin reporting to their respective department heads by 0800 tomorrow."
"Aye sir."
The lift ride back to the Phoenix was uneventful except for the public address he had ordered. =^= Attention all personnel assigned to the USS Phoenix. The USS Phoenix is now docked with the station's main docking facility, docking bay 94. All department heads are to report to your commanding officer by 1500 hours. All crew may begin boarding and can begin reporting to their respective department heads 0800 hours tomorrow. That is all. =^=
The rest of the journey to the Phoenix was preoccupied by thoughts of Admiral T'Vel...why was she here and what was she up to.
[OFF]
Captain Ricardo Montoya
CO - USS Phoenix
Commander Maritza Soran
CO - Deep Space Five
Master Chief Petty Officer Sh'ziqot
Engineer
Dyson Shipyards
NPC Soran)
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