Getting Underway

Posted on Tue Feb 21st, 2017 @ 9:50pm by Commander Isabella dei`Silvisi & Lieutenant JG Fe'cia Niatra & Ensign Matt Connor & Lieutenant Élan Val & Lieutenant Isha t'Veralan & Lieutenant JG Zoe Ellija & Ensign Sarleya D'Nal'khiy

1,008 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: The Kingdom of Shadows

Isabella felt a mixture of happiness and dreaded worry as she walked into the shuttle bay. The Nighthawk was already prepped and ready for departure, having been fitted out for an extended survey mission by the station engineers. One of the Yellowstone class runabouts, the Nighthawk’s sensor pod made it easy to identify it among the shuttles and Danube class craft. Already, the other members of her team, six females and two males, had arrived and were waiting. Like her, they had field packs and standard extended away mission gear, but they seemed less than thrilled. It was understandable, at least from Isabella’s point of view. Most of the crew included on the mission wasn’t even familiar with each other, and they would be spending nearly two months together on a small craft. As she stopped next to the group, she offered a smile before speaking. “Is everyone ready to go?” she asked.

Sarleya had been standing there gazing at the runabout that was to be her home away from home for the next five or so weeks. The thought of being in such tight quarters with so many people for so long terrified her, but she was certain that they could all survive the experience. Turning to face the first officer, she gave a slight nod to indicate that she was ready.

Élan tugged at her uniform collar and eyed the runabout uncomfortably. While she was looking forward to an old fashioned survey mission, she silently wished that they could have taken a larger ship. Runabouts were decent enough on a short term mission, but nearly two months was a bit extreme, especially with this many people. Her concern was the fact that the majority of the science officers had barely had time to meet and exchange names, in fact Élan only knew Niatra and had only met t’Veralan and D’Nal’khiy once before the mission briefing. It wasn’t exactly the most ideal situation in her opinion, but at least it would get her out and about while the Endeavour was being repaired.

Isha offered the executive officer an affirmative nod. Being one of the newer officers recently transferred to the Endeavour, she hadn’t had time to settle in among her new colleges and wasn’t certain how they would react if she simply led things off. She had decided to take a step back and let Lieutenant Val take the lead, which only made sense given that the Trill was the chief science officer.

Fe’cia felt her tail twitching as a sign of her anxiety as she waited. She had brushed out her fur as best she could, and had packed away a shedding brush just in case. Caitians weren’t the best travelling companions in tight quarters for extended periods of time. In most cases, they would curl up and go to sleep if possible, but given the fact that she as a science officer would be required to perform her duties as such, that was out of the question. She just hoped that the air recycling filters on the runabout had been replaced recently, otherwise there might very well be a layer of fur on the inside soon.

Zoe tried to not let the fact that she was nervous show too strongly. She was fine with the extended mission details and even the heavy field pack, but the Type II hand phaser clipped to her belt made her extremely nervous and uneasy. She wasn’t a very good shot with the weapon, just good enough to have passed the required scoring at the range during basic training. It was for that reason alone that she was happy to see that the commander had added a security officer to the away mission team.

Like any guy, Matt had been excited at first at the idea of spending several weeks on a runabout with so many good looking females. Unfortunately, both he and the other guy who had been assigned to the mission had had the same realization. They would be in close quarters with six females for almost two months, and one of those females came naturally equipped with claws and very sharp teeth. At least he knew Lieutenant Niatra somewhat. They had worked together during the diplomatic mission that had gone completely wrong, but other than that they didn’t know each other that well. That was one of the bad sides to being in security, he thought. Everyone saw you, and you saw everyone else, but very rarely did you get to know someone in another department. His field pack was slightly heavier than everyone else, since he had packed away spare clips for the phaser rifle that he had slung across his back. Hopefully, he wouldn’t need to use it.

“Alright everyone, before we board and depart, I want to go over our rotation,” Isabella said. “We’ll maintain eight hour shifts. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of overlap, but I’ll take Alpha Shift along with Crewman Ellija and Lieutenant Val. Lieutenant T’Veralan, Lieutenant Niatra and Ensign Connor will take Beta Shift, and Gamma Shift will be Ensign D’Nal’khiy and Petty Officer Graves. Any questions?”

Zoe was somewhat happy at the fact that she wasn’t the only enlisted crew member on the away mission. She was still the most junior ranked member, but she figured that until she was promoted up to NCO that would just be a fact of life.

Élan gave the science officers a few moments to speak up with any questions before she spoke up. “Commander, I think we’re all ready to get underway,” she said.

“Very well. Let’s get underway. Crewman Ellija, as soon as you get your gear stored away on your bunk, go ahead and get us ready for departure. I’ll join you in the cockpit as soon as we’re ready,” Isabella said. With that, she nodded a dismissal and they began boarding the Nighthawk.

 

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