Rain or Shine

Posted on Sun Apr 5th, 2015 @ 1:01pm by Commander Ashley Kennedy

Mission: The Night Cries
Location: Shepard Park, Pike City, Cestus III
Timeline: MD00: 0630hrs

The rain was easing to a drizzle as she entered the fifth kilometre of her run. Despite the weather, Ashley Kennedy was running as though the sun was shining. How could rain dampen the high spirits she felt that morning as she got up in her modest hotel room? It was a wonderful day! Today was the day she would be introduced to her new ship.

The USS Farragut would be her home for the next five years and although she'd undoubtedly spend a lot of time in the Officers' Gym, it wouldn't be the same as a long open air run. Rain or shine.

Ash loved running. It gave her plenty of alone time, which she probably appreciated on a level higher than the obvious health benefits. Spending most of her adult life cooped up in a never-big-enough starship meant she placed a high value on time alone. Time to clear her head, focus her thoughts and review things.

Shepard Park, where she had run every morning since arriving in Pike City a week ago, was devoid of many other runners on account of the rain. There were some eager runners out, but Ash mostly ignored them; her mind was busy running through the weapon specifications of the Farragut.

She repeated them in her head like a mantra as she pounded along the running track. Six dual-cannon phaser banks. Six single-cannon phaser banks. Two forward-firing torpedo tubes. Standard complement of twenty torpedoes.

Another jogger passed her in the opposite direction and she smiled as she thought, I’ll have to see if we can increase that torpedo complement.

A gust of wind sprayed more rain into her face and she wiped it away without slowing her pace. After five years in space, I might actually miss rain in my face, she thought to herself with a smile. Maybe I’ll get someone to spray water at me while I’m on the treadmill?

Ash was excited. Very excited. Not everybody gets to be part of a five year mission of exploration and those lucky few in Starfleet who get to do it know that they are truly on the edge of the final frontier. Although she would be away from home, her family and the civilisation she’d grown up in and served, she would be out there finding new civilisations and growing the Federation’s knowledge.

She would be an explorer.

That never ceased to bring a smile to her face; the thought that she would be exploring where nobody had gone before.

The romance of it was inspiring, the opportunity was unparalleled for an ambitious officer like Ash, and the importance of it was not lost on her. It was a the kind of opportunity most officers dreamed of and the pressure was on her to perform. She was determined to do a good job. So she repeated the weapons specs.

Six dual-cannon phaser banks. Six single-cannon phaser banks. Two forward-firing torpedo tubes. Standard complement of twenty torpedoes.

Captain Gunning had hand-picked her to be the Farragut’s weapons officer after she had aced the Advanced Starship Tactics Course at Starfleet’s Command Candidate School. At first, the Black Widow had scared the living daylights out of her and she was convinced she hated her. But Ash respected the old lady and immediately saw how her’s had become such an august name in the service. Easily the peer of Kirk, Pike or Wesley.

So when the Black Widow offered Ash the position on the Farragut she at once leaped at the chance and realised how hard she would have to work to live up to the high standards of the the eminent Captain Elsa Gunning. She got a hold of the refit specifications and studied them hard for the entire trip to Cestus from Earth. She’d barely left her cabin aboard the Corinthian, preferring to stay locked up and learn as much detail as she could. By the time she arrived at Cestus III, there was very little she didn’t know about her new home.

It wasn’t just the tactical specs that she could recite as she ran around Shepard Park either. Deck listings, shield modulations, Jeffries Tube access points, the location of damage control lockers, how to access RCS thrusters, security systems, airlock sequences and, critically, what might be a useful running track around E Deck for those times when the treadmill just couldn't cut it. She was determined to know the Farragut inside and out as best she could before ever setting foot aboard.

Six dual-cannon phaser banks. Six single-cannon phaser banks. Two forward-firing torpedo tubes. Standard complement of twenty torpedoes.

It would pay off once she was aboard. She was determined to live up to the faith Captain Gunning placed in her. Not only live up to that faith, but exceed it. Ash’s goal was to come out of this tour on the Farragut with a dozen commendations in her service jacket and a fast-track ticket to a first officer’s billet. Anything less would be failure.

Confident in her own abilities and skills, Ash knew deep down that she would get there. She would reach her goals. It was just a matter of putting in the hard work. As the rain started to fall heavier, she approached the Collins Street exit of the park which would take her back to her hotel and a hot shower. She smiled and ran right past it.

One more lap.