Proceeding Forward

Posted on Mon Jan 6th, 2020 @ 8:18pm by Captain Alistar McKeon & Commander Isabella dei`Silvisi

999 words; about a 5 minute read

Alistar stood on the upper level of his ready room and stared out the view port and at the planet the Endeavour orbited. His meeting with the administrator of Inti had proven to be hopeful. He and Silvisi had been brain storming on how to proceed, they had a ton of possible things to do and a single ship and smallish medium size crew to do it all with. Inti was a fairly large world that was mostly unexplored, and the entire solar system was untouched as well. Without even leaving orbit, the Endeavour could spend over a year exploring and still have years more left.

Isabella hummed softly as she walked through the corridors towards the commanding officer’s ready room. She had spent the past several hours since she and Captain McKeon had returned to the Endeavour going through the countless possibilities of what the Endeavour could do, and she had finally compiled a list of what she thought they could proceed to do next. Arriving at the ready room doors, she reached out her hand and tapped the door controls. Being executive officer aboard the Endeavour, she had the unique capability of simply entering certain compartments without having to request entry. The personal retreat and work office known as the commanding officer’s ready room was one such room, and while she normally still gave proper respect and often waited until the captain admitted her, this was not one of those times. She was expected, and she had ship’s business to discuss.

“Good afternoon, Captain. I see you’re still taken in by the view,” Isabella said as she entered the ready room.

Alistar turned and shrugged as he crossed the room to his desk on the lower level. “It’s a nice planet with the fact that it’s not ruined by heavy industrialization,” he said as he sat down. “The fact that it’s mostly unexplored and mostly uninhabited only makes it more desirable.”

“That, and the fact that the solar system is extremely remote and not prone to constant visitation from people who hail from literally every corner of the Federation and thus negates starship traffic to a minimum is a pleasant bonus, as well,” Isabella said as she sat down. “I have a list of items I wanted to go over with you so we can discuss on what to do next.”

“Oh, great,” Alistar said as he leaned back in his chair. “So, what’s first on your mighty list of agendas?”

“First item is the nebula,” Isabella said as she glanced at her notes. “We can set up an observatory in the forward observation lounge on deck nine, and we can use the observation view ports on deck ten as well for observation. I would suggest that we conduct a full calibration on the sensors as well, and we have a full complement of probes onboard that we can use.”

“Do we have plenty of room for the science squad from the planet?” Alistar asked.

“Well, we have twenty four guest quarters, but we do have five civilians on board that count as part of our standard compliment, so that brings our guest capacity down to nineteen,” Isabella replied. “If we have to, we can find room for more if need be, but it’ll require some creativity on our part to comfortably accommodate them.”

“We’ll pass our capabilities on to the science staff down there and let them decide,” Alistar said. Technically, Endeavour was rated to handle 1100 people in an emergency situation, but he hoped they would have to test that any time soon. “So, simply put it wouldn’t take much to use the Endeavour as a mobile observation platform, but we’ll see how the scientists want to proceed and go from there. What next?”

“Well, naturally we have a flood of requests for shore leave, but I’ve already addressed those by stating that we’ll stand by standard shore leave regulations and procedures,” Isabella said. “Off duty personnel will be able to visit planet-side, providing they stay out of trouble and don’t have any restrictions against them.”

“That sounds fine with me,” Alistar said with a nod. “Just make sure that security maintains a list of everyone who goes ashore, just so we can double check and make sure no one is taking advantage of this.”

“I’ll pass it along,” Isabella said as she made a note. “There’s one final item of note that I need to pass by you. Miss Aura Vera has requested permission to take some supplies and embark on an expedition to the planet to conduct an archeological survey of one of the planetary ruins that hasn’t been catalogued yet. I told her we’d have to discuss it, since it is a matter of her safety.”

“Well, I prefer she take a security escort, maybe even another person from the science staff,” Alistar said. “But tell her we’ll need a day or two to go over her outline before we give her the go ahead. From what I recall, the areas that haven’t been surveyed haven’t even been mapped or even remotely explored, and I’d rather not risk her safety needlessly.”

“I’ll let her know, and I agree completely,” Isabella said as she stood. “I’ll pass everything on and we’ll proceed from here. Thank you, Captain.”

“Welcome, commander,” Alistar said as he stood. “I’m going to go enjoy the rest of the evening and relax a little. I’ll leave the rest of this shift up to you.”

“Oh, thank you so very much,” Isabella said with a smile. “Have a pleasant evening, Captain, and enjoy your down time.”

“You do the same, Commander, and thanks. Good night,” Alistar said as he headed out of his ready room and towards his quarters.

Commander Isabella dei`Silvisi
Executive Officer
Chief Science Officer

Capt Alistar McKeon
Commanding Officer

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