First Assignment

Posted on Tue Jun 30th, 2015 @ 8:33pm by Ensign Abigaël Sorensen
Edited on on Tue Jun 30th, 2015 @ 9:25pm

Mission: The Belle of Bellatrix
Location: Starfleet Academy
Timeline: Early 2278 [Backpost]

[Starfleet Academy - San Francisco, Earth]

Abigaël walked briskly to the electronic billboard presently surrounded by a hundred cadets. Impatient feet and excited voices could be heard all around, as all those present awaited to learn both their final grades, and their first assignments. She searched for about a minute, before the jumping and waving of her roommate Alice caught her attention. Approaching her fellow cadet, she couldn’t help but smile at her friend's enthusiasm.

They hugged, and somewhat bounced in place as Alice let out a shrill of joy. From behind, their other roommate raised a quizzical eyebrow at their joyous effusion. A nearby andorian cadet chuckled at their effervescence.

Someone up front yelled for people to calm down. As they both looked up to the board, names, grades and affectations started appearing.

“Ninety-Eight percent!” Alice squealed. Abigaël laughed at her friends excited manner, but stopped as she saw the affectation.

“Starfleet command?” The young blond asked in disbelief. “I’m being assigned to starfleet command?” She asked again obviously convinced there was some kind of mistake.

“I guess they wanted to keep you close seeing as how you aced all those administrative and leadership tests.” Abigaël tried to guess just how bad her friend was hurt by this.

“I guess.” Alice said quietly. With a sigh and a forced smile she tucked at her shirt. “Can’t always have the glamorous ones. Let’s see what you got.”

They both pushed their way through the mass of cadets, trying to find Abigaël's name near the bottom of the list.

“Ninety six percent. Not bad. I’m happy with that.” Abigaël smiled with genuine pride.

“U.S.S. Farragut. U.S.S. Fa… isn’t that a Constitution class? You're going on a constitution class while I’m earthbound?”

The young blond tilted between joy for her friend and resentment at her getting such a great assignment. With a surprised look, Abigaël reread the entry. Her first assignment would be a front line ship. Her aunt would be impressed.

“Good luck with that.” An arrogant but good looking young man laughed. “That ship was just handed over to Captain Gunning. As in Elsa Gunning… surely you’ve heard of her?”
It wasn’t really a question. Abigaël looked at the young man with a puzzled look, as recognition hit her friends traits.

“I am going to loooove my time at starfleet command.” Alice said with renewed confidence.

Abigaël alternated looks between the both of them. - “What am I missing?”
The young cadet laughed once more as he started to leave. -”Like I said, good luck with that.”

Abigaël shot a look at her friend, who made a sheepish attempt at a smile.

[N Deck, USS Farragut, Three Months Later]

Ensign Abigaël Sorensen had been scrubbing the intake manifolds for the past 3 hours. She was really starting to wonder what she had done. It felt like she had been assigned to every single most boring and seemingly insignificant work on the ship since her arrival 3 months before.

She was glad to help out the refit crew finish up with the last details. And contrary to a few others, she didn’t mind having an enlisted officer tell her what to do. Chief Petty Officer Myles Watt had been nothing but courteous towards her. Always asking and phrasing things in ways she couldn’t help but say yes. She simply wished he’d ask for something a little more... fun, once in a while.

Abigaël tugged at her collar for the hundredth time. These uniforms didn’t let the air flow. She wondered if the people who designed these things actually wore them for a few days. She rolled her neck and sighed before getting back to work. With some luck she’d be done before supper.

Ensign Abigael Sorensen
Engineer's Mate