The Changing of Command

Posted on Sun Feb 20th, 2022 @ 8:03am by Captain Alistar McKeon & Commander Inara Valérian

914 words; about a 5 minute read

The USS Endeavour hovered above the planet Earth in a standard orbit. Even surrounded by temporary scaffolding and worker craft, she looked every bit the sleek predator that she was. From Starbase One's main concourse observation windows, Alistar watched her as she drifted by. Final preparations were already underway, and his orders were already sitting on his ready room desk, waiting. With a tug on his uniform jacket, Alistar turned and headed to the nearby public transport bay. The transporter chief nodded that he was ready to beam the captain over, so Alistar headed over to the pad and turned, nodding to the chief once he felt ready. The transporter beam took over, and the hustle and bustle of Starbase One vanished to be replaced by a starship transporter room. Alistar focused on the senior officer, who clearly was waiting for him.

Commander Inara Valérian, Starfleet Officer and proud new first officer of Starfleet's newest and most advanced star-ship, had only been given just a few minutes warning that the Endeavour's new captain and commanding officer was coming aboard. Fortunately, he was arriving by transporter, which meant that they didn't have to disrupt the shuttle traffic schedule. It also meant, technically, that the arrival ceremony could be slightly less formal. Inara had managed to grab a pair of security officers on her way to the transporter room and arrived just in time for the captain's arrival. Bracing to attention, she rendered a salute as the transporter beam released him.

Alistar came to attention long enough to return the salute before he moved off of the transporter pad and away from the whole device entirely. He didn't trust the infernal machine any more than he had to. The commander who had greeted him had to be his first officer, but he had been wrong before. "Commander, by order of Starfleet Command, I hereby assume command of this ship and her crew," he said as he pulled a padd out of his jacket pocket and handed it over.

Inara accepted the Padd and glanced at the orders it contained before she nodded. "Captain McKeon, as the ranking officer on board, I hereby surrender full command of this ship and crew to you. Computer, please log the change of command in the ship's record," she said before handing the Padd back. "I'm Commander Inara Valérian, your executive officer."

"I guessed as much," Alistar said. "Have my personal effects been brought aboard?"

"They arrived yesterday, and I had a yeoman place them in your quarters," Inara replied as she waved to the door. "Can I offer you a tour of the ship?"

"I've studied the specifications, but thank you. I know we have a lot of work to do before departure, and that deadline is coming sooner rather than later," Alistar said as he started out into the corridor. He had guessed that he had been beamed to transporter room one, namely because it was the closest to the bridge. "Have the senior officers reported onboard yet?"

"A few have officially reported for duty, but there's stiff a few that haven't," Inara answered as she fell into step beside the captain. "We're still without a department head for the majority of our departments, including engineering, security and tactical, medical, flight control, and science. And I still haven't heard back on my query for an assigned diplomat."

"Science is taken care of," Alistar said as he turned down a side corridor and hoped that he was recalling the deck layout correctly. "Commander Silvisi should be coming aboard in the next day or so. And I've managed to grab a couple of people for the helm and a really good diplomat. The others we'll have to simply hope that the personnel department comes through for us. I'm assuming that we have a chief of operations, since you didn't mention it."

"It's been logged that we have a chief operations officer, but with all of the chaos of getting the ship ready, I haven't been able to confirm if that person is on board or not. I'm sorry, Captain," Inara winced as she physically tensed. Some captains would see that admission as a reason to start jumping on their officers, and she had been the target of such a dressing down more than once.

Alistar simply stopped and turned towards his first officer. Seeing her reaction, he frowned. "Commander, let me get one thing straight. I'm not going to expect you to do a perfect job. Mistakes get made, but it's the ones that cost lives that I'll judge you for. Overlooking personnel matters while we're still at port isn't the end of the world, but I really don't like my officers to make the same mistakes several times over. In this case, you've been working on getting this ship ready for deployment. Relax, and just know that I know you're trying to do your job. I'll check in with senior officers. You get my ship ready."

"Yes, Sir!" Inara said as she began to recover and smiled. "Thank you, Captain."

"Dismissed, Commander, and carry on," Alistar said. Watching the commander as she headed off, he decided that he clearly needed to do some digging on the officers assigned to the Endeavour that he didn't know. With a sigh, he turned and headed to the turbolift. There were 780 officers under his command, and that would be a lot of reading. He figured that he might as well get started.

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