To Boldly Go
Posted on Wed May 6th, 2015 @ 11:05am by Captain Aidan Rackham & Commander Ashley Kennedy & Commander William Carver M.D. & Lieutenant Rianna DiMarco & Lieutenant Duncan Harper & Lieutenant David Windsor & Ensign Daisy Skie-Cloud
Mission:
The Night Cries
Location: Recreation Stage Area [G Deck]
Timeline: 2278.48: 0700hrs.
Rackham watched the last of the officers able to fit in the recreation deck filter into the room. They represented the officers aboard the ship, all seventy-two of them, and the most senior enlisted personnel on the ship. All in all he estimated that there were around one hundred and fifty people squeezed into the hall where the small stage, beside which he stood, squated at one end.
The large display screen in the background, often used on other ships for displaying backdrops for plays and recitals, displayed the seal of the United Federation of Planets. Today it would provide the overview mission briefing.
Rackham allowed a brief smile at his First Officer, noticing a bead of sweat beginning to form on his forehead. He had never been one for public speaking. "You ready for this, Ash?"
Ash stood straight as an arrow with her hands clasped behind her back. She returned Rackham’s smile and felt an odd sense of amusement when she realised he clearly wasn’t comfortable with speaking in front of crowds. She never had a problem speaking in front of a crowd; she was far too confident to let the opinions of a hundred strangers get in her way. It wasn’t anxiety that Ash felt. No. It was excitement. A new beginning, the start of a five year mission, and she was about to help start it off. “I’m fine, sir,” she said, casually. “Are you?”
"I'll get by. I'll have to get used to it eventually."
Enign Skie-Cloud scampered into the Recreation area and found herself a good spot to settle down for the welcoming speech and the hype went with it. This would be the second time for the Captain of the Ship 'Welcoming Speech'. She wondered if Commander Rackham has the same pizzazz and drive that Captain Gunning had when she gave the speech and had the crew ready to take on Klingons with their bare hands, even herself felt the twinge of aggressiveness within her 'carefree' attitude.
Duncan stood around with several of his Security Staff and saw the Crew. They had been through a lot so for them to experience it once more was unusual. He barely knew his new Captain and First Officer but he had faith in them and their abilities.
Doctor Carver was standing at attention off to the side of the gathering. Well, it was at attention as far as he was willing to manage. He didn't make it to Commander by following the military procedure to the letter. He made Commander by being good at his job. Still, he knew he had to make some sort of impression. Besides, Elsa would never have put up with him slacking off. That thought sent a chill down his spine. Without her, he would never be on this mission, and now this mission was leaving without her. It was still a little tough to handle, and tougher still since they came so close to catching her killer. But now wasn't the time to dwell on such things.
Windsor entered, looking around for familiar faces. He spotted Carver's first and walked over to stand next to him, "I always get excited right before a launch," He confessed. "It's absolutely thrilling, don't you think?"
Carver wasn't sure if thrilling was the word he'd use, but it certainly wasn't the worst choice. "I suppose so. I guess the realization that we're going to be out there for five years hasn't quite set in yet," he replied to Windsor. "Still, we're heading out into the unknown, expecting to see things that no one in the Federation has ever seen. I suppose that is pretty exciting."
DiMarco wondered in and immediately fell into place at the rear of the group of senior officers until she was sure that she'd gotten the last few specks of grease off of her hands. Her nails were a lost cause, but with as much as there was going on in engineering, people were lucky to see her ducking in at all. Hopefully there'd be no handshaking, or random firings or passing of dockets for all of their reassignments..
Rackham stepped out onto the stage, accompanied by Commander Kennedy and motioned for the assembled personnel to fall into silence.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please settle down!" His voice boomed around the hall, the small microphone attached to the lapel of his uniform allowing him to be heard clearly. "Many of you will know that due to the loss of Captain Gunning, I have been assigned as the commanding officer of the USS Farragut. Today we embark on a five year mission in Galactic South."
Ensign Skie-Cloud smiled in her usual manner, looking her finest with an eagerness to serve, regardless of where the ship went. A slight trepidation flittered across her face as she fidgeted a bit and then became still with her usual attentiveness. This was all a grand adventure to her the moment she left Terran, her home-world, whether the ship was called back to Sol III or sent out on patrol.
"Excellent!" David whispered to himself. He had a feeling the mission would go on, but he'd also had this nagging dread that he'd be back on earth waiting for another ship within a week. He was excited to hear that that wasn't the case.
"I am addressing you today as the person who is responsible for your safety, your security, but also ensuring that the aims of the Federation remain upheld throughout our mission. For the next five years you will be under my command and I will rely on each and every one of you to give your maximum effort. If you do that, this will be an exploratory cruise on par with that of the Enterprise."
The screen behind them flashed with an image of the explored frontier of Galactic South. He allowed himself to turn to the screen in an effort to gather this thoughts.
While Rackham turned to face the screen, Ash kept facing the assembly. Her eyes passing over the faces of the crew, her shipmates for the next five years. She found herself noting the few here and there that weren’t paying attention and felt a sudden, sharp affinity with her ninth grade maths teacher.
"Our first assignment is to an area known locally as the Delta Triangle. This is unexplored space but rumours abound that it has an affect on ships travelling through it. Starfleet Command has assigned us to find out what we can about the Triangle from a safe range and to report our findings via subspace to Cestus Three."
An overlay of the Delta Triangle from a bartered starchart appeared over the screen and a couple of systems showed up. Visitors to Cestus had told stories of it, but very little was known about its affect on vessels making their way through it.
"Maybe they need some good sex," muttered Skie-Cloud as those nearby her gave snorts of laughter and soft chuckles. But then those around her were Ensigns of the ship. Some veterans of previous assignments and others, new like her.
"Come now Ensign, be polite." Duncan said overhearing her Comment. "Besides on a Five Year Mission sex isn't everything." He chuckled, recalling his time as a very Junior Officer.
He motioned to Kennedy. "This is Commander Ashley Kennedy- my First Officer. You will come to know her very well. I will invite her to brief you now."
“Thank you, Captain,” Ash said, taking a half step forward to the edge of the little stage. She held herself with a stern, marshal bearing that subconsciously mimicked that of a recently departed role model. “For this assignment, we are truly going into the unknown. We don’t know what we’ll find in the Triangle, so we need to be ready for anything. Most of the heavy lifting will be carried out by Science and Engineering. We’ll be sending probes into the Triangle, so those two departments will work together on those. Science will obviously analyse the data retrieved, but Medical will assist where required as well, particularly in scanning for pathogens. Communications will monitor any and all signal traffic in and around the Triangle. You never know what we’ll pick up.”
She paused for a moment, her eyes scanning the faces again. Notes were made. “As we don’t know what we’ll find, we have to be ready for the worst. So weapons and security will be on stand-by, to react as required. In order to maintain readiness and connect as a team, those two departments will be conducting drills.” The XO grinned as her mind momentarily drifted to some of the more challenging drills she had planned.
“Department heads will be given more specific instructions,” she continued. “You can brief your teams en route.” Satisfied with her briefing, Ash stepped back and nodded to Rackham.
The newly-minted Captain took a confident step forward. "We launch in three hours and there is still preparation to do to ensure that we're space-ready. It's time to boldly go. Step to it."
All Ensign Skie-Cloud was thinking at the moment was brushing up on her linguist skills, figure out how get rid of unnecessary sounds. She was still working on it. She wondered if the new Captain could authorize acquirement of some equipment that Captain Gunning turned down quite angry that she would need civilian equipment when Starfleet had the best already and was immediately assigned to Third Shift Bridge Duty. She waited in the back of the room to catch Captain Rackham as others filed out. She would give it one more try and resign herself to getting it through other channels. She was shocked that she survived the purge of Communication Officers from the Farragut's Roster.
With news that Security would be on readiness just on the off chance there would be trouble, Duncan looked around at his Security Staff some of them were Veterans with experience, others were greener than Vulcan Blood. It was his job to whip them into shape. "This is where the fun begins..."
Captain Aidan Rackham
Commanding Officer
Commander Ashley Kennedy
Weapons Officer / First Officer
Commander William Carver
Chief Surgeon
Lieutenant Rianna DiMarco
Engineering Officer
Lieutenant David Windsor
Science Officer
Lieutenant Duncan Harper
Security Officer
Ensign Daisy Skie-Cloud
Communications Officer
