Mission 1.04 - A Change of Cadence

[XO's Quarters, USS Normandie]
[July 21, 2386: 0630 Hours]

"Come" said T'Lani in response to her door chime sounding. She looked up from the sofa on which she sat and lowered her glass cup on tea onto the small table. She sat it next to the PADDs, several of the officers had submitted their departmental reports, and she had spent the last hour or so reading them, making notes to bring to the attention of the Captain.

The door opened to reveal Warrant Officer Andrew Kincaed, he walked into the living room and removed his beret, "Ma'am." he said with a polite nod.

"Mister Kincaed, please have a seat." she gestured to the other sofa and stood up, "Would you like something to drink?"

"An expresso please Ma'am" he said politely. T'Lani replicated the drink for him, and handed it to him as she returned to her seat. She watched as the man sipped it gently.

"What can I do for you?"

The Marine lowered the small cup from his lips and held it in both hands, "I thought you would like to know how the training regime is going."

"Ah yes, I believe Alpha Charlie may be under the impression that I am being overly harsh in my requests of them."

Kincaed smiled, "They under-stant the necessity to ensure that Marines are always at peak efficiency. "

"I am glad." she said in a non-committal tone as she sipped her green tea.

"Alpha Charlie have been training all night, I have given them 4 hours down-time before they begin again. I was thinking a 12 hour yomp across Vulcan's Forge on the holodeck."

The reference to her people's original home world wounded T'Lani slightly, although she hid it completely, "It will do them well to practice on a hot and high-gravity environment."

"I am glad you agree Ma'am." he said as he drained his small cup of coffee, "That was all Ma'am."

T'Lani nodded, "Thank you Mister Kincaed, I am pleased that my Marines are in such obviously capable hands." she nodded as a sign that he was permitted to leave. She watched as he left the room. T'Lani followed suit shortly afterwards, draining her tea and standing up. She walked over to the replicator and recycled her glass before replicating a fresh uniform. Being a Mollais Rihan she slept every other night by human standards, and only then for 6 hours at most. She took her freshly replicated uniform and carried it to her bathroom. She then proceeded to strip down and step into the sonic shower.

She could feel the sonic shower remove every particle of dirt from her body, she was engrossed in the act of cleaning herself when suddenly a voice spoke to her. She covered her breasts and lent around the door of the shower. The ships Hologram was standing in her bathroom.

"Is it not generally accepted to announce ones entry into a a room before doing so?"

SARAH cocked her head slightly, "I am sorry for the interruption Colonel T'Lani, but you have an encrypted communique from Mnheia N'alae ir-Hnaes T'rannus."

In all fairness the holograms Romulan pronunciation was almost flawless. Why was her grandmother contacting her? It was not normal protocol for the Empress of the Mollais Rihan to contact her family directly, there was an entire corps of protocol officers and ambassadors to do it. T'Lani stepped from the sonic shower not bothering to cover her body, the hologram was just a computer programme. She draped a rover over herself as she walked into the living room, the hologram followed her in silence.

"Please activate the communique" she said in a curt tone. The screen then flickered several times, being replaced by the emblem of the Royal House and the Mnheia's personal cypher. She watched in silence as her grandmother appeared on the screen. It was a recorded message rather than a real time communication. Her grandmother was seated on the Imperial Throne in the Chamber of State. There was no-one else visible, no Senators or Councillors filled their traditional places.

"My children" said her grandmother, her voice commanding and regal, although tinged with some emotion T'Lani could not identify, "The time has come for the sucession. My physicians have informed me that my Bendii syndrome will start to take a visible effect within the next year. I am here-by abdicating my throne in favourr of my daughter T'Eleijha ir-Hnaes T'rannus. I recall all my children from their worlds for ceremony which shall be in 4 seasons time." the old woman bowed her head slightly, "Far jolan" she said as she stamped the Imperial Scepter onto the marble floor, the recording ended.

"Are you feeling well Colonel?" asked SARAH

T'Lani was lost in thought and did not hear the hologram.

"Colonel T'Lani?"

"What?" she said as she spun around to face the hologram, her voice more emotional than she had expected.

"You appear to be crying Colonel, I was wondering if you required assistance?"

T'Lani raised her hand to her face and could feel the warm tears spilling down her cheeks, "Computer deactivate SARAH."

The hologram was about to speak when she flickered out of existence. T'Lani was alone, in many ways, but most of all she realised that her greatest role model was about to die, and she was far from home. It would not be proper for her to request that the Captain take the Normandie from their mission for her own personal needs, but she had around 5 months before she needed to take time off to return home.

She played the recording again, and this time she felt herself crumble into her sofa and let the tears cascade down her face.

OOC- TBC...

[July 21, 2386: 1130 Hours]
Magnus slowed down what warp capabilities there were in his small shuttle, pleased that he had made it this far. He looked up from his console to see the Normandie shinning like a jewel in the starlight. He wanted to hold that image as long as he could, because he didn't think he would get many views like this once he got on the ship. Mr. Garrett, who was also being reassigned to the Normandie, began to lock in a course to dock then paused and smiled at the Normandie, accepting this beacon as his new home.

A different feeling crept over Magnus then, one familiar, yet distant. It was a sensation and an aura both at once, that slowly ran down his neck, and gently to his feet. The smile was carried away by the chill he opened his eyes wide for a moment then took a deep breath.
"This isn't ominous. I am not in a old novel, you've seen fluxes before, let time fix itself," he said under his breath.

He shook his head and this seemed to help regain his composure. Then he kept talking to himself so he wouldn't get lost in thought again.

"Yellow never made me think of communications, pastel perhaps, yellow is too.....fluttery, oh well, can't change the ship now," the smiled and reached down to hit the gold button he had been talking too, then cleared his throat, "U.S.S. Normandie, this is Lieutenant Commander Dr. Magnus Evincrue, and Gerard Garrett asking permission to dock and report to duty."

Shortly a voice came back to him, "Yes sir, we've been expecting you, you are a bit early, we will bring you in."

A luminous tractor beam came out from the port of the Normandie and locked on to the tiny shuttle.

"Also, could you please notify the Captain that I have arrived, if she isn't busy I would like to meet with her as soon as possible to introduce myself formally" He spoke himself into a daze.

Gerard Garrett, who had been in this small shuttle with Magnus for hours, had begun to get use to the doctor talking to himself. He had also learned to just let him keep talking.

As the Normandie pulled him closer, that feeling of home was still there, but in Magnus's mind, that feeling of coming down a road and seeing a familiar site was replaced with a feeling he could only convey by uttering out, "My God, I may be falling down the rabbit hole."

[Main Engineering, Deck 17, U.S.S. Normandie]
[July 21, 2386 CE]
[0800 Hours]

Hayley rubbed the last bits of sleep out of her eyes as she walked down the hall to Engineering. She hadn't slept well, as she'd expected. Recruits were filtering in for the start of their day's training, and Lieutenant Sepeth was standing on the mezzanine, receiving data transmitted from their PADDs into his own as Hayley trudged up the stairs to meet him.

"Mornin', Lieutenant," she said, suppressing a yawn. "Didja end up workin' all night like I thought you would?"

Sepeth nodded in silence, but showed no sign of fatigue. "It is commonplace for Vulcans to refrain from sleeping when necessity dictates that we must." He cocked his head at Hayley and observed the dark circles under her glazed eyes. "You, on the other hand, are limited by human biological considerations. Have you slept at all?"

Hayley shrugged her narrow shoulders a bit and tersely redirected his question. "I'll manage." Her body contradicted her as she stretched and massaged out a knot in her neck. "So here's me reportin' for duty, Sir. Can I get over to the shuttlebay, so's I can make sure that the crew has everythin' they need for the Wanderer investigation?"

Sepeth lowered his PADD and examined Hayley, noting several additional signs of exhaustion. After spending some moments in contemplation, he replied, "No, that will not be necessary."

Crossing her arms in protest, Hayley countered. "Y'know, I am the new Shuttlebay Deck Chief. It's my workspace and my responsibility to oversee it."

The Vulcan had returned to looking at the recruit reports on his PADD as she spoke, and he continued reviewing them as he responded. "That is the case, Chief, but I am your superior officer, and you are required to follow my orders."

Hayley threw her hands up in desperation. "You're pullin' rank on me? You wanna deny me what'll probably be my last chance to see my daggone ship 'fore they take her out behind the barn and put her down?"

Sepeth watched her body language and listened carefully to her tone of voice; she was clearly angry, and he deduced that her presence in the shuttlebay would likely prove a liability. Besides allowing her emotions to interfere with the work that needed to be done, he believed that Hayley would suffer further emotional injury if she were to watch her ship disassembled.

"Your presence in the shuttlebay today will not be required. The potential risks to our crew and their work outweigh the benefits to be gained by your assistance."

Hayley was beside herself. "I don't believe this!" she exclaimed, rubbing at her temples to quell a growing headache. "How can you jus' stand there an' order me to keep away from my ship? You know how much bein' there means to me!"

As was his custom, Sepeth maintained his neutral expression, although his eyes betrayed a subtle touch of sorrow as he made his final determination. "Ms. Griffith, you are hereby relieved of duty for the day. You are to report to the ship's counselor immediately for psychological evaluation and any appropriate therapy that is subsequently ordered. You may return to work when the counselor declares you fit for duty."

Hayley's anger was on the verge of boiling over into a full-blown firestorm of rage, but before it reached the tipping point her face fell into her open hands and she began to cry. Loath as she was to admit it, on some level she knew that he was right. He was always right. In mid-sob she realized that there was a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Hayley, please. You need help. You must stop trying to care for everything else and first take care of yourself. You are a talented engineer. In a day or two we will put that talent to good use, but not today."

She looked up at the Vulcan through blurry eyes and nodded slowly, her lower lip twitching involuntarily. Sepeth didn't allow time for any further dramatics. "Go and speak with the counselor, Hayley, and get some rest. I eagerly await your recovery." He gave her shoulder an awkward squeeze and turned around to return to his work. His first task would be to assign someone to cover her absence.

The skinny redhead took a slow breath to calm herself, and then headed for her room to change out of her uniform, which had begun to feel a few sizes too tight.

[USS Normandie - Ensign Carter's Quarters]
[2200 hours, July 20th 2386 (The Night Before)]

Adam hadn't had the chance to stop off at his new quarters yet. Between taking a shower in the hanger, meetings and an exchange of secrets with the captain - must read her file, he mused - it'd been a busy few hours.

Still, what possessions he owned had apparently been delivered here and there was his name on the door. Home. It beat hotbunking on the Wanderer, he supposed. He'd kind of miss Corbet's snores though.

He palmed the activator plate and listened as the door opened with a satisfyingly precise psh. He stepped inside. The room was dark and felt cavernous compared to the spaces he'd gotten used to over the past couple of months, but that was a feeling he'd had since they'd been rescued. He was adjusting.

The door pshed shut behind him, leaving him standing in the dark. Great, the room had faulty sensors.

"Lights," he called, wondering if Sarah was capable of pulling practical jokes on new crewmembers. The room remained resolutely dark. "Lights!" he repeated, feeling vaguely silly. Instead of the full, daylight-style lighting he was accustomed to from Starfleet vessels, the room was suddenly lit with a low red-orange glow from its upper corners, giving the room an intimate air. Abruptly, he realized that he wasn't alone.

There lounging in one of the chairs, sat a young Orion woman with red hair in a slinky opalescent dress. Next to her, an unopened bottle of Cuvée Femme champagne in a bucket of melting ice and two crystal flutes that seemed to sparkle in tandem with the woman's earrings.

"Welcome to the Normandie, Mister Carter." The Orion smiled intriguingly, her sultry Orion accent provocative and alluring. "Please, make yourself at home."

Adam raised an eyebrow. This wasn't the first time today he'd regretted not taking the time to read the ship's crew manifest, but now he regretted it most of all. She was gorgeous and immaculately presented, her voice pitched at precisely the right cadence to fan the flames of that singular mixture of temptation, desire and intrigue that only a true femme fatale could inspire. And, like the best of them, she did it effortlessly.

"I was under the impression," he returned, "that this was my home." Crossing the room, he bent to retrieve the champagne, subtly inhaling her perfume - a gentle mix of floral scents with a hint of spice - as he did so. With a flourish, he popped the cork. A deft flick of his wrist made the cork disappear, and he bent once more to pour two generous glasses.

"They say," she breathed offhandedly as her eyes met his gaze while he prepared the champagne, "Home is where the heart is."

"So," he said casually, handing her a glass, "do they send you to greet all of the new crew this way? Because you could be in for a long night."

The Orion woman regarded him over the lip her flute, content with his remarks, as she focused on bringing her heritage into the matter. She knew her natural pheromones were being inhaled by the human and she trusted in hundreds of years of empirical knowledge to play the man into her hands.

"Oh, I like the sound of that." She purred as she rubbed the inside of her arch up his ankle and along his calf.

"To unexpected visitors," toasted Adam, raising his glass. He grinned at her rakishly and took a sip of champagne, maintaining eye contact. The drink sparkled down his throat, leaving him with the taste of woody fruit, tinged with a touch of salt. His expression unchanged, he lowered the glass to the table and took the seat opposite her. For a moment, he simply gazed at her, absorbing her beauty, her confidence, her poise. Picking up the flute again, he toyed with it, still looking at her. At length, he caught himself and smiled. Her perfume, her presence, was intoxicating.

"You know," he said, his intonation looser than before, "for a shipwreck victim, this really is quite a decent way to end your day."

The green skinned seductress giggled softly, her eyes never leaving his intense gaze as she slid out of her seat. Almost sauntering the few steps to Carter, she brushed her fingers on his shoulder before lightly lowering herself on his lap, wrapping her other arm around him. Tilting her head to upturn her lips, she drew closer to his ear. Her free hand smoothed his coat and played with his collar.

"The good thing about the day ending, Master Carter," she breathed in his ear softly, "is that the night is so young."

"It is that," agreed Adam lazily, feeling his body relax beneath hers. Absently, he ran a free hand up her back, feeling the softness of her skin beneath his fingers. As a warm relaxation spread through his limbs, he let his hand drop and instead maneuvered his head to meet her in a passionate kiss.

Taking the man's reactions in kind, The Orion girl melted into his affection and after a while gently bit his lip. Separating with bated breath, she nuzzled against his neck and purred a throaty chuckle. The promise of more hung in the air and she seemed to capitalize on his eagerness.

"I am sure you appreciate the privacy of your own quarters to the forced company of your roommate," she slowly nipped at his neck playfully, "unless you enjoyed her company like this...?"

Adam chuckled. "Corbet? Not bloody likely. Damn bunks on the ship were too small." He smiled winningly at her, tempting fate.

"Is this Miss Corbet a pretty girl?" She pouted, her petulant lip almost quivering and her eyes pleading for attention. In a flash her friskiness seemed to melt into a pheromone-induced rush of vulnerability as if his next word could render her heart asunder. "Or do your feelings belong to another?"

"My feelings," he replied at length, "are focused entirely here and now." If he was put off by the change of mood, he didn't show it. "How could they possibly be anywhere else?" Again he kissed her, running a hand through her hair as he drank in the proximity of her.

They pulled each other deeper into themselves, her brief insecurity now rebounding into luxurious warmth, then a voracious passion. Her hands reached into his shirt, the action demanding his attention. The Orion girl then broke free of his kiss, exhaling in delight and now focusing on stripping his top off of him.

He shrugged himself out of his jacket, allowing her to fling it across the room. While she was occupied with that, he whipped his t-shirt off and dropped it at their feet.

Once he was half nude, her soft fingers roamed his chest and the hard lines of his muscles. Feeling the imperfections on his skin, she cooed breathlessly. "War wounds, Uta?" Invoking the Orion name of master on Carter.

Sure, thought Adam, Uta. Why not?

"Something like that," he allowed softly, dropping eye contact for a moment.

"Please, tell me what happened." She voice thrilled with awe. "Was it terribly dangerous?"

Taking her hand, he traced her hand across his chest, touching old scars in turn, starting with his shoulder. "Shiv..." he ran her hand across to his right pectoral, "brass knuckles..." he moved her hand lower, across his abdomen, "Bat'leth..." here, he winced for effect. Finally, he brought her hand to rest atop his pelvis. "Fishing accident when I was twelve," he finished ruefully. "Hurt like buggery."

His other hand still roamed across the unblemished skin of her back. "You, on the other hand, are flawless," he complimented. "And that merits further investigation," he continued puckishly.

"As my Uta wishes." She murmured, eager to please. He hands slowly slid off his chest, down to her thighs, to skirt up her figure trimmed in the shimmering black pearl-coloured dress and ruffling the silken folds. Reaching her breasts, she cupped her curves briefly, illiciting a sigh, then her fingers rose to her shoulders to languidly slide her straps off. Her thin dress cascaded down her lithe frame to gather at her waist. Reaching out to him, her hands grasped the back of his neck as she reeled herself back in to lock her lips on his deeply again, pressing her flesh against his. After long moments, she began trailing kisses along his jawline until she nibbled on his ear.

"You must be very strong and cunning, Master Carter." She giggled softly, one arm wrapped around his back keeping them intimately close, while the other hand ran through his hair and probed his muscles. "A battlemaster with a Bat'leth is more than a match for the usual crewman. I was not aware the Wanderer fought Klingons."

Through his rising passion, Adam recognized the opportunity he'd been waiting for. As she whispered sweet nothings in his ear, his hands roamed her bare back sensually. While his senses screamed at him not to, he brought his right hand up to the top of her neck, and deftly applied pressure to five specific points at the top of her spine. Soundlessly, she collapsed on top of him.

"We didn't," he informed her unconscious form glibly.

-----

She awoke to find herself in a fully-lit room - Carter's room. Carter himself was seated, fully dressed, in the chair she'd waited for him to arrive in, holding the holdout phaser she'd hidden beneath the folds of the cloth wrapping the champagne cooler in one hand and a PADD in the other.

Dread shock coursed through her veins as she saw that her pre-conceived notions of the man were at the same time, terribly wrong and terribly right. He wasn't the nepotistic Academy dropout with connections and he most likely wasn't a foreign Empire's secret agent in bio-engineered human flesh. That meant he was an honest-to-god Intel officer with history... an erased history she had treid to coax out of him. Her skin puckered with the chill of the thought of being punished for this and the hair on the back of her neck rose to meet her anxiety, but she forced her face to remain still as she regarded the man that bested her.

"You," said Adam, "are either an incredibly ambitious or an incredibly stupid cadet, Cadet."

She sighed and tried not to look at the small tablet in his hand. If it was what she thought it was, the PADD was far more dangerous to her than the weapon. Meeting her eyes to his, she forced a smile.

"I haven't the slightest notion of what you are talking about, Ensign." Luna knew the gig was up, but she was prodding for one last spot of information, the whole reason she had come up with this silly spy game plot. "I honestly wanted to just show you a good time."

"Come on," he scoffed, annoyed. "Drop the act. For starters, you don't bring a phaser to a casual root." He arched an eyebrow. "It's also considered poor form to drug your partner. Handy hint? Don't mix a date-rape drug with a salty aftertaste with a sweet champagne. It goes better with rougher drinks. Beer, you'll never taste it. Champagne's too pure."

He stood and paced around her. "You were also a bit obvious. Hot Orion redhead seducing me in my quarters? Alarm. Bells. Pheromones can only get you so far - you introduce them to a dodgy situation and it's still going to be dodgy. Add a target that knows what he's doing and you can wind up compromised."

What he said only made Luna smile and relax her demeanor. He was already sounding like her mother, berating her for not studying enough or not applying what she had learned. Considering Ensign Carter and her profession, this was a good thing.

"Ah, I'll have to remember that about the Flunitrazepam in beer, next time," Luna smirked, her eyes challenging his as she continued, "but consider my end, Ensign Carter. A mere enlisted information technician who hasn't graduated from the Academy, serving on a Patrol Boat that happens to be planted halfway across the galaxy, becomes the Chief of Intel Ops on a Battlecruiser like the Normandie? Not exactly an easy pill to swallow. Since SARAH's databanks failed to explain any of that, and considering that there is a three year hole in your record, I had to do a little investigating of my own, Orion-style. And since we are talking about situationals, when exactly is an hot redheaded Orion seducing you not a dodgy situation?"

"When it's genuine," replied Carter simply. He abruptly realized who we was starting to sound like, and the situation this one reminded him of. He restrained the urge to smile nostalgically. "I'll be a couple of days setting up a reasonable Intel office - when I'm ready, I'll page you. If we can cure your monumental stupidity, we might be able to make a reasonable intelligence agent out of you. Now, put some damn clothes on and bugger off, I'm tired and your shift starts in three hours."

"Fair enough... Chief." Luna flipped her hair and rose, making no reservations about her nudity as she wriggled back into her slinky dress and heels. Before leaving, she picked up his jacket that she had previously thrown across the room and shrugged it on. Her eyes met his as she opened his door, smiling mysteriously. "I'll be seeing you, pretty boy."

---------------------

After strolling the corridors and ignoring the scandalized looks of crew members, she arrived at her room. Annoyed, she threw Ensign Carter's jacket across her bed just as she collapsed into the soft sheets to grab a pillow. The proud Orion covered her face to mute the scream of anxiety and shame that she forced out of her lungs. Feeling spent, Luna discarded her featherdown silencer and looked up at her ceiling. He had seen through everything, countered her check, and played the endspiel like a master. Listlessly, she reached over to her nightstand and prodded her display.

Intelligence Operations Cadet Luna Konev grinned wickedly. Ensign Carter, her new Chief of Intelligence, had pierced through her ruse, noticed her tampering of the drink, found her holdout sidearm, and countered her seduction. Yet he had failed to find the hidden camera that she had set up to record her interactions with him. She had nothing to blackmail him with, the only thing Luna had as a consolation was watching the man who bested her strip down and prepare for bed.

"You just wait, Chief." Luna Konev purred at his image as she snuggled into bed, suddenly feeling very content. "I'll get you yet, my pretty."

OFF:
This Harlequin novel of passion, deceit, and egos brought to you by the Intergalactic Spy Extraordinaire and the Wicked Witch of the West.

ON:
[Main Hangar Bay, USS Normandie]
[0600 hours, July 21st 2386]

Elena had spent the first 10 minutes of her investigation setting up portable tripods all around the Wanderer, in order to surround it in a isolating field. If her scans were painting the right picture, avoiding contamination coming from outside was going to be crucial to narrow her readings.

Cadet Konev had been mumbling for the best part of said ten minutes already, but mostly out of reach of her ears. Never the less, the reassuring constant background noise coming from inside the ship was somewhat amusing in the otherwise pretty quiet Hangar Bay.

"Well that's not supposed to be there. Looks like whoever was running Ops made some changes to how the relay... well, it probably helps bypass the modulator." Luna's voice came from beneath the small cavern of a console. "Leytnant, could you please be a dear and hand me that spanner near my foot?"

Damien could hear a woman's voice as he entered the main hangar bay. He didn't know who was speaking just yet but he thought that he should speak up before he surprised someone. A green-skinned arm was sticking out across the ground, near Damien's feet.

"Um........" Damien spoke up just as he reached the arm.

"Wait, you're not Fedorov." The Orion glanced out of her hidey-hole at the dark haired man. With a wan smile she began to worm herself out of the compartment as gracefully as she could before extending a hand to the young rakishly looking man. Allowing herself to be pulled up, her face brightened in introduction, attempting to salvage this first impression. "Cadet Luna Konev, Intel Operations. And you must be Doctor Valentine, the Lieutenant mentioned you were joining us, but she neglected to tell me you were so... close to my age. A pleasure."

Damien extended his hand and grasped Luna's firmly.

"Ha ha! Well, maybe my age slipped her mind." Damien said through his perfect smile.

He could sense the frustration in Luna. She desperately wanted to make a good first impression but Damien wasn't worried about Luna's impression.

"You should relax a bit more. I'm not that hard to impress, you know." the half-Betazoid spoke through a light chuckle, "I'm actually the awkward one who usually makes horrible first impressions."

Damien folded his arms across his chest and looked to where Luna had crawled out from earlier.

"Do you need any help with anything?" Damien said with a playful smile, "Perhaps a spanner?"

"Spanner helps." Luna grinned at the talkative newcomer. "I could always use a little more muscle... and a pair of capable hands."

Lieutenant Fedorov emerged from the bow of the Wanderer, attracted by the sound of a new voice she recognized from the evening before.

"Be careful Ensign," she cheerfully said walking toward Konev and Valentine, "Intelligence personnel are dangerous business. Nice to see you joined us, it's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"And it is certainly a pleasure to meet you as well, Lieutenant Fedorov." Damien smiled and extended his hand to shake Elena's.

Fedorov grasped Damien's hand and though she was smiling, the Lieutenant was a bit cold. Damien grew perplexed by this and his brow narrowed.

"Is something bothering you, Lieutenant?" the young man asked without thinking, "I don't mean to be so abrupt... it's a racial trait. Betazoids have no regard for privacy or sugar-coating and sadly, it's one of the things I inherited from my mother."

Damien looked down towards the ground and inhaled a deep breath of fresh air, in hopes that he didn't upset Elena.

"You mean apart the evil looking new Executive Officer and the fact that I have a mystery the size of this Wallace-class," she said pointing up at the Wanderer, "to solve?"

Damien followed with his gaze her eyes, and cracked a little smile, relaxing a bit.

"Seriously, Ensign, it's good to have you and Cadet Konev to help, but I suppose I won't really relax until I've made something out of why this ship appeared here. The Captain wants to start the decommissioning soon, and we don't have much time."

As her smile faded from her face, Elena added one last comment. "This said, I'd appreciate your Betazoid abilities kept under a certain level of control, Ensign. I'm sure you'll understand."

"Indeed," Damien began in reply to Elena, "I know that most people are not comfortable with an empathic, let alone telepathic, race around. I do keep my abilities in check, though, so no worries there."

A faint smile crossed the span of Damien's lips.

"Who is the new Executive Officer? Have I met him or her?" the curious half-Betazoid quizzed, "And what do you wish for me to call you? Lieutenant? Elena? Fedorov?"

Damien sighed as he asked Fedorov this question but his lack of experience made it hard to remember what to call everyone.

"I would imagine Chief or Bosslady will suffice," the Cadet chirped playfully grabbing the man by his arm gently and pulling him toward the open terminal, "but for now, I need you, I want you, oh baby, oh baby. Come over here and put your hands to good use, I need someone to access the datalink when I manually override the security router. I don't have the skills like you science types to hack the computer directly."

OFF: To be continued in Part Three by...

Lieutenant Elena Fedorov
Chief Science Officer

Ensign Damien Valentine
Xenolinguistics Officer

Cadet Luna Konev
Intelligence Operations

[Enroute to Bridge, USS Normandie]
[July 21, 2386: 0655 Hours]


T'Lani walked from her quarters, it was 0655 hours and she was heading for the bridge. She was to lead the Alpha Shift for the rest of the day. It was a good way to get to know the abilities of the Cadets under her command. The news of her Grandmother's abdication was fresh in her mind, but she placed a wall around it. What was to follow would be harder, watching her Grandmother follow tradition would be painful. She entered the turbolift and saw the young Security Officer standing there. She made eye contact and nodded, "Lieutenant."

Julian straightened his stance a moment, and took a quick glance at the Marine officer.

"Good morning Colonel," he said, his tone terse but professional. Of all the people to be forced to share a turbolift with, she definitely fell near the bottom of the list.

Luc's advice earlier that morning had been to kill her with kindness. Now, having seen her, Julian didn't really think the situation would merit that.

He straightened his collar a bit, and focused his gaze squarely at the turbolift door. He hoped the ride to the Bridge would continue on in stoic silence.


"Congratulations on becoming the Chief of Security" she said without hint of emotion in her voice. She had actually wanted him to serve as the Second Officer but evidently the Captain had different ideas. "I am also sorry for the situation that led to your joining Normandie. You served well as her Skipper." Again no hint of emotion in her voice.

Well, that was unexpected. Julian did his best not to look entirely flabbergasted.

"Thank you ma'am. I like to think I completed our missions to the best of my abilities, in the short time I commanded her."

Julian glanced down at his PADD, and made a mental note to check in with the rest of his crew at some point.

"I have my report for you whenever you'd like it ma'am. At some point today I'd like to coordinate with you on an appropriate duty rotation between our departments for security, since neither of us are fully staffed as yet."

T'Lani raised her hand and the PADD moved from the young officer's hand into her own, "Of course Lieutenant." She paused and glanced at the report, "At least you don't have to worry about finding personnel to sentry the Bridge, my Marines have that covered" she didn't look up from the PADD.

Julian could sense relatively well when he was being goaded, and this seemed to be one of those times. He blinked his eyes a few times, and said

"I don't think Bridge sentry duty is really a necessary allocation of personnel, but I defer to your judgement on that. You've been with the crew longer ma'am, and I know what an honor it is to serve sentry. My father spoke very fondly of the times he served as sentry on his assigned ship.

"As far as the rest of the crew though, we may need to do a little shuffling and pull in some of the higher ranking non-comms for the more strenuous duty."

He looked up as the turbolift doors opened, gesturing for the higher ranking T'Lani to exit first.

"Yes it is" she said as she left the turbolift.

"Colonel on Deck!" Shouted the marine sentry. T'Lani ignored him and returned to talking to the security officer. "I think some of our cadets from other disciplines could do with some refresher courses in security protocol, so you can add them to your roster" she walked with him towards the centre of the bridge, "I have also prepared a selection of times and dates for the joint Security and Marines training session. They have been uploaded to your security mainframe, please select the most appropriate date and time for your staff and let me know."

She left him at the security station and walked towards the command chair, a final year cadet  stood up from the seat as she approached, "Ma'am"

"Cadet, I relieve you."

"I stand relieved Ma'am"

T'Lani nodded as the Cadet moved out. She pressed a button on the arm on the chair, "Computer, record in the log that at 0700 on this date that Cadet Marrihana Joral was relieved on the Bridge by myself."

The computer beeped. It was a very old tradition to record the start of a new day with a fresh shift but it was something T'Lani felt was important to keep it up.

She looked around the bridge, "Status report." She said to everyone and no-one.

Ayan stood and then nodded his head respectfully to the Colonel and then to Julian as they took their places on the bridge. He had arrived a few minutes early to query the cadet on duty and to finish his report.

"Operations shows ships systems operating at peak efficiency except for a minor incongruity in the lateral sensor array outputs that appeared at the end of the previous shift, ma'am," he said. "I will have the issue resolved momentarily. It will not affect sensor results or ship's security as the main sensor array is not impacted."

He tilted his head slightly, the bottom of his earring moving with him. "My full report has already been directed to your console, ma'am."

[Sickbay, USS Normandie]
[July 21, 2386, 0715 hours]

If there was anything that Autumn had learned in her many years as a Starfleet Doctor, it was that an empty sickbay was a good thing. That meant no one had been injured during Gamma shift, or that if they had the wounds were so trivial that they were able to be repaired, and the injured sent on their merry way.

She looked up from the large desk, through a sheer pane of glass, and watched as her Cadet Med-aide went through the process of restocking the kits, under SARAH's patient tutelage. Despite her misgivings, SARAH had proved to be an effective teaching tool, and Autumn was glad to have been given the opportunity to be in on the ground floor of such an interesting new technology.

A bright flash of light next to her caught her attention. She turned to find another manifestation of SARAH's avatar next to her.

"Doctor Holmes, you have a priority one communication from Admiral Holden." Autumn smiled, nodded, and turned her attention back to the monitor as SARAH disappeared. She activated the communication protocol, and the older man's smiling face graced the screen.

"Ah! Doctor Holmes. How goes everything on the Normandie?" he asked.

Smiling softly, she said "Not quite what I had in mind, but she'll do for now, sir."

"Well, she won't have to simply suffice for much longer, Doctor. I've been given your transfer orders. As of today, a new Chief of Medicine has been stationed on the Normandie. I'm sending through your orders now. Before you read them, I want you to spend a day familiarizing Doctor Evincrue with the new systems. At the end of your shift today, speak to Captain Virkov or Colonel T'Lani to make arrangements for you and Gwendolyn to be transferred."

Autumn nodded, and then raised her eyebrows for a moment. "Sir...what about Thomas? He's stationed here on the Normandie as well for his midshipman's in Engineering."

Holden appeared lost in thought for a moment, and said "Yes, well we'll leave him here for the time being, Doctor. After all, you'll both be in the same area of operations, so contact should be relatively easy. Review the new orders, Doctor, and get everything else squared away. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me again. Holden out."

Autumn looked as the monitor switched from Holden's face to her new orders.

Commander Autumn Darby-Holmes, you are hereby requested and required to resign your post of Chief Medical Officer of the USS Normandie, and to report to the USS Freya to assume command of said vessel. You are hereby promoted to the rank of Captain.

Autumn smiled, and brought up the specifications of the Freya. This was going to be a very interesting change of pace...

[Bridge, USS Normandie]
[July 21, 2386, 0730 Hours]

"Operations shows ships systems operating at peak efficiency except for a minor incongruity in the lateral sensor array outputs that appeared at the end of the previous shift, ma'am," said the Operations Officer. T'Lani changed her terminal to view the Operations system. The variance was less than 0.5 per cent, but she was pleased that the young officer was conceintious enough to notice.

"I will have the issue resolved momentarily. It will not affect sensor results or ship's security as the main sensor array is not impacted."

T'Lani nodded as she checked the readings. "Thank you Mr Ayan." She returned her attention to the many departmental reports waiting for her.

"My full report has already been directed to your console, ma'am."

"I shall come to it presently Mr Ayan" she said as she changed her terminal again to show two reports split across the main body of the screen with other ship information around the edges.

"It appears that when we have several instances of the ship's hologram active there is a 0.1 per cent loss acroos the main power grid for 0.9 seconds." She paused, "that is not something listed in the information relating to the hologram. "Liaise with Lieutenant Sepeth to investigate and attempt to rectify the matter. In a battle or emergency situation a 0.1 per cent drop could be the difference between life and death." She paused for a moment, "You may leave the bridge to do so Mister Ayan" she gave him a slight nod to signal she had ended their conversation.

She sat back in the command chair and continued to read the reports. Everything appeared to be working well, she had to schedule a meeting with the Officer Cadets in the afternoon to brief them about what she expected of them, and she would also need to digest the news of her grandmother's impending abdication. She would prefer to inform the Captain herself rather than the Diplomatic Corps beat her to it. Just as she finished reading the daily reports the doors of the turbolift opened followed by the call of the sentries.

"Captain on Deck!"

She turned her attention to her superior and stood from the central seat. Transferring her active screens to her own terminal, "Good morning Captain, I hope you had a pleasant nights sleep" she gave a polite nod of her head. "May I have a word with you in your ready room?"

Tag Ruskie. Email jp again?

(CO-yup. we've started on one. feel free to continue, everyone.)

[Ready Room, USS Normandie]
[July 21, 2386: 0810 hours]
[After the meeting with T'Lani]

Magnus took his first steps onto the bridge of the Normandie. A male ensign close to him turned and saluted him with a smile. Magnus smiled back, then asked where the captain was. The ensign, still working on something pointed to a room on the left side of the bridge. The doctor said a quick thank you and walked to the captains door.

He felt a little nervous, he knew the ship was currently dealing with a problem that somehow involved the Ferengi. He did not want to bother Captain Virkov, yet he did want to be introduced to his superior since he was to be aboard for some time. He also felt as a higher ranking officer on the ship, and head of Sickbay, that he should be debriefed about the mission at hand. Plus he could get a feel of how the ship ran. He had learned the efficency of a ship largely relied on how the captain interacted with crew.

He reached up to his badge. "Captain, if your not busy I would like to have a moment of your time."

"Come in," Virkov said. She looked up as the redheaded doctor walked into her ready room. She stood, smiled politely, and gestured towards the chair in front of her desk.

"Ah, Doctor Evincrue. It is a pleasure to finally meet you. I trust the shuttle ride went without any great problems?"

Magnus sat down and smiled back.

"I know I arrived early, I have to admit I was anxious to be on this ship and away from dying stars. Everything was fine until I saw a Ferengi vessel. We haven't lost a bet have we? Ferengi are very eager to collect what they think is theirs."

Doctor Evincrue studied the captain's face discreetly. He hoped that his humor would put her at ease. It had become his mantra long ago to make friends with everyone he met. He hated the idea of someone not liking him, whether superior or not. This quality had be quite beneficial in his career, as he had rubbed elbows with ambassadors ands diplomats while still and ensign.

After a moment of contemplation he spoke up again remembering his docking experiance.

"Also if I may ask, has the Normandie undergone any sort of time flux recently?" He became his serious officer self when he asked this. Still knowing what his people knew about space and time, he had to remember to make his questions regarding such very vague unless necessary.

Virkov looked at the man with an even gaze, and said "Trust me doctor, if she had I'd be the first to know. We're currently undergoing an investigation on a ship we rescued that may have been bombarded by chroniton particles, but I'm not privy to that information until my science officer provides her report."

She flicked a few fingers across her PADD briefly, and then looked up.

"For the time being, we'll have to wait and see what the report says. Have you met Doctor Holmes yet? You'll be replacing her as Chief of Medicine."

"No I have not had the pleasure of meeting her yet. I thought it to be more protocol to introduce myself to you and be briefed on the status of the ship. After meeting with you, I plan to go to Sick Bay, met the crew there. Were there any survivors from the ship? If so I would like to examine all of them it may help with your investigation."

Magnus adjusted his uniform and sat more up straight, he was excited to get to work, and test his skills.

"You'll be happy to know that everyone aboard survived, and they've all been patched up in the interim, Doctor. There's nothing to be concerned about in that area. I would say at the moment that the best place for you to be is Sickbay. We have quite a few cadets down there as I'm told, and I'd like someone with experience down there minding them before Doctor Holmes completely checks out."

She stood, and straightened the hem of her uniform. "Head down there presently, and have Doctor Holmes show you around. If you need anything or any other supplies, notify Lieutenant Retol, and he'll requisition them for you. Welcome aboard the Normandie." She extended her hand with the final sentence, smiling politely.

Magnus stood up with the captain and extended his hand out as well. His serious demeanor washed away and his genuine smile returned.

"Thank you very much captain, and not to appear I have an ego, but I extend the same courtesy to you. Due to my age some of my knowledge extends far beyond medicine. So if you need anything please let me know. I look forward to serving under you."

He shook the captains hand and shot another quick smile as he turned around and walked to the door. Then he turned around before exiting.

"By the way captain, after this mission and I've met the crew, I would like to start a weekly poker game. I found that games create a bond and enhance cohesivness with the crew. I would love to see your pokerface." he quickly said.

He turned around quickly to exit, he didn't want to see Virkov's face. He knew he wouldn't see the smile he wanted to, so he would have rather invisioned it in his mind as he left the room.

Virkov arched an eyebrow as the man left her ready room, and sat down in her chair again.

<<JP by Doctor Evincrue and Captain Virkov>>

[Captain's Ready Room, USS Normandie]
[July 21, 2386, 0750 Hours]

Virkov nodded. Stepping towards her ready room, a mug of hot liquid in her hand, she said "As you were. That would be fine Colonel. Meet me in five minutes. I need to send off a private communication first."

Without another word she stepped into the ready room, letting the door slide closed behind her.

T'Lani waited the requested amount of time and then an extra 2 minutes to be sure. She had discovered long ago that when a Human said 'five minutes' they almost invariably never meant that specific amount of time.  She placed her terminal on stand-by and went to the ready room door. She pressed the chime and waited for a response, once it came she entered.

She took the offered seat and crossed one leg over the other, "Are you aware of the political situation in my home region?" she didn't like to beat around the bush.

Virkov looked up from her PADD, and then picked it up and displayed it to T'Lani. It was the communique explaining the situation to Virkov.

"I am now. This order states that I am to allow you personal use of the Runabout Volga to make any trips necessary, and to also make every reasonable effort to facilitate your needs to come."

She laid the PADD back down, and said "To hell with that. We'll take the damned Normandie back if you need to go back, T'Lani. Please bear in mind, I am by no means a diplomat, and frankly I have no intention of becoming one this late in life. So you tell me what you need, and I will see to it that it happens."

T'Lani looked in silence at her superior officer. She had not expected the Captain to respond in such a manner.

"Thank you Ma'am." was all she could think to say. She had expected to be given leave of abscence to carry out her regal duties.

"You are aware then that I will be required to be invested as the Imperial Princess of my people." She let herself relax slightly in the chair, "I had not expected it to occur this soon, I had estimated a further 5 to 10 years in which time I would have completed my time with Starfleet."

Her face turned serious for a moment, "I must also inform you that you may not feel a warm reception from some of our noble houses, not everyone is pleased on our joining the Federation."

Virkov nodded, and said "That, Colonel, is something I've come to expect at every turn. There will always be those who think poorly of the Federation."

She stood, and walked to her replicator, recycling her mug of tea. Turning back to T'Lani, she smiled sincerely.

"But I would imagine that the reception would be warmer than that of your...erstwhile cousins. Do you know what timeframe we'd be looking at? I'll need to inform Admiral Holden at some point that we've had a change of plans."

"It will be within the next 3 to 4 months, but due my Empire's location within the Mollais Expanse, Federation warp drives are limited to factor 3." She paused, "There are some worlds and nebula within the Expanse which might be of interest to the Federation."

"Then perhaps we can busy ourselves within the Expanse performing surveys. I'm sure that whatever lies within would be of great interest to the scientists aboard."

She returned to her desk, sitting down again. Looking directly at T'Lani, she said "We will do whatever is necessary to make sure that this whole thing goes as smoothly as possible, you have my word. Now, onto other matters. Doctor Holmes has been given command of her own vessel. We'll be rendezvousing with the Endeavour later today to affect the transfer. I'll need a list of enlisted personnel that she can take with her. I believe she has her own list, but I'd like you to meet with her and add your personal touch to the list."

"Yes Captain...are we allowing her free-hand with transfers? I am aware that we have augmented our numbers with Wanderer crew, but we are still not at our full compliment."

"No, not exactly a free hand. She's requested Shras as her chief of Intel and Security, which I'm happy to do. He was my XO on the White Star, he deserves a Senior Staff position. Our understaffing is one of the reasons I'd like you to meet with her, so we don't give away the whole farm, so to speak."

T'Lani nodded, "The whole farm ma'am?" She asked quizzically.

"An old Earth expression. A farmer gives away a cow, a pig, a goat, et cetera to a needy family. Eventually he's given away his entire farm and left himself without a livelihood."

Virkov smiled, and said "I suppose to outside ears, that would sound a bit archaic. Did you have anything else for me, Colonel?"

"No Ma'am" she said as she stood up. "I will meet with the Doctor presently."

A JP by Ruskie and Rommie

[[Bridge, Engineering; USS Normandie
July 21, 2386: 0730]]

Ayan was just about to respond to the Colonel when she cut him off, and when the Captain arrived on the bridge. He'd speak with her later.

He spent a few minutes at his console looking over the issue with SARAH that the Colonel had described, and then signaled a cadet to take over manning the Ops position.

He tapped his communicator after stepping onto the turbolift to engineering. "Retol to Lt. Sepeth."

"Yes, Lieutenant?" came the Vulcan's voice over the commlink.

"Lt. Colonel T'rannus has asked that we identify and fix a power loss of one tenth of a percent that occurs when SARAH is running her hologram in multiple locations. I've forwarded her report to you. I understand the software side of SARAH, but I was hoping that we could use Engineering to try to resolve this."

Sepeth's disembodied voice echoed around the turbolift. "Understood. There is indeed space enough for this task here in Main Engineering. I await your arrival. Sepeth out."

Ayan stepped out of the turbolift and walked through Engineering. He walked over to Sepeth and nodded. "Lieutenant," he said politely, and the Vulcan returned his nod. "The Colonel is concerned about that power drop in an emergency, and I admit she has a strong point."

Sepeth clasped his hands behind his back, solemnly. "I've reviewed the Colonel's report. You are correct, it is reasonable to be concerned about even a miniscule decrease in available power during battle. However, this ship is primarily a Starfleet Academy adjunct vessel, not a warship. The avatar hologram is a teaching tool that is seminal in the instruction of cadets and recruits. Its utilization allows living personnel to see to other necessary tasks, and it requires neither light, nor sustenance, nor housing to perform its duties. Therefore, I posit that activation of the avatar hologram represents a net increase in available power when compared to the alternative; namely, the life support power that would be required for an equal complement of living instructors. Furthermore, the greater the number of concurrent manifestations of the hologram, the greater the associated efficiency gain."

The Vulcan engineer brought his hands around to the front, his knuckles gently coming to rest against each other, and he rubbed his thumbs against themselves. Softly, and about as smugly as a Vulcan could manage, he added, "Perhaps it would behoove the Colonel to consider all factors before issuing commands in the future. Although I suppose that such is to be expected; the principal failing of the Romulan populace is their misguided rejection of logical reasoning."

Ayan fought down a slight chuckle and nodded.

"Your point, of course, has its merit," he says, keeping his opinion of the Colonel down. "My hope is just to be able to distribute the load a little bit." He chuckled again. "Perhaps we should dim the lights even more during a red alert," he said.

"There might be a way to work on the emitter array in a way that doesn't provide a single point drain if a new instance is created. I would be more concerned about a frivolous use of the avatar during an emergency situation."

He chuckled again. "Maybe we should just ask SARAH to be careful," he said facetiously, already bringing up the specifications.

Sepeth nodded. "The Colonel's reasoning, of course, is entirely correct when in a battle situation, as hypothetical living personnel would be irrelevant in such a circumstance. You and I are in agreement in that any unnecessary manifestations of the hologram would be uncalled for during an emergency."

The Vulcan glanced back down at the PADD with T'Lani's report. "In the meantime, I suggest that we run an experiment in an isolated environment that we've disconnected from the main power grid, in which we call up a series of avatar manifestations and monitor their associated power usage.

The Bajoran nodded.

"We could take one of the cargo bays off of the primary grid and use local power for some time," he said. "It shouldn't cause any degradation in system performance." He transferred SARAH's specs to a PADD.

"An excellent idea, Mr. Retol," said Sepeth approvingly. "Allow me to inform the Engineering staff of my absence." He pressed a button on a nearby console and typed out a department-wide communique. Then he moved to a nearby cabinet, withdrew a tricorder, and asked, "Shall we?"

Ayan nodded. "Of course. I'd suggest starting with looking at drain from one avatar appearing, then two concurrently, and so forth upwards. I'm sure that SARAH will be more than willing to assist."

"That is a logical approach, although the hologram's role in the study must be confined to that of subject. If the computer performs any of the power calculations then it must not do so in humanoid form, or our results will be inaccurate."

Ayan made a few notes on his PADD and nodded. "Agreed," he said, and proceeded towards the turbolift to deck 5.

((A JP by Sepeth and Retol))

[Holodeck, USS Normandie]
[July 21, 2386, 0900]

"Juno Leader, you are cleared to launch."

"Copy, control."

West eased his fighter aloft and slowly eased the throttle forward, pushing it out of the hanger bay and into open space at a moderate pace. Behind him, the four other fighters of Juno Squadron followed suit. The small ships inverted and dove, performing a neat Split S to bring them above the plane of the Normandie.

Ahead of them were two ships. Nearer was the disabled Wanderer, hanging impotently in space. Beyond it, the Ferengi Marauder waited.

This was the squadron's third attempt at this mission. They'd started before 'dawn' ship time after spending most of the night brainstorming attack strategies. West had crippled them somewhat by insisting that the Normandie play no part in the combat - the challenge would be to knock out the Marauder using only their starfighters. As such, they had initially struggled, as training suited to combat in the shadow of larger starships clashed with the task at hand. O'Malley's plan had relied mainly on the fighters running interference and distracting the Marauder in preparation for a larger assault which had never happened. Tucker's attempt involved multiple high-speed passes, giving the big Ferengi bruiser enough time between runs to re-angle its shields for the coming assault.

This time, it was Croft’s turn. After a break for breakfast (from which both Croft and La’roj had returned smelling vaguely like salsa) Croft had surprised West by requesting to outfit two of the squadron’s Gryphons with tri-cobalt launchers. It wasn’t a well-known feature of the fighter, and the Gryphon itself was barely out of its first year of service. Croft knew his starfighter, and that quietly impressed West.

Juno Squadron accelerated and quickly pulled ahead of its mothership, then flashed past the motionless Wanderer. West checked his instruments - they were approaching the maximum range of the Gryphons’ micro-quantum torpedo launchers.

“All ships,” West ordered, “acquire target.”

Four crisp acknowledgements were his reply.

“Fire salvo one. Juno Two, begin countdown.”

From the each of the Gryphons, a pair of micro-quantum torpedoes erupted from integral launchers set into the base of each wing. The ten warheads streaked towards the Marauder.

“Fire two.”

Again, the Gryphons salvoed. West repeated the order twice more, then re-checked his instruments.

“Approaching range. Begin phase two.”

A chorus of “copy” answered him. West dropped his speed, with Croft in Juno Two holding position on his wing. Junos Three, Four and Five accelerated, redlining their engines and driving towards the Ferengi ship. As they entered the Marauder’s effective phaser range, each fighter corkscrewed away, avoiding the heavy ship’s first strikes against them.

As their squadron-mates danced with the Marauder, West and Croft drew closer. West grimaced. In order to fire the tri-cobalts with a reasonable chance of success, they’d have to get close to the Marauder’s firing range. Avoiding phaser fire and maintaining a heavy weapon lock didn’t mix.

“Juno Lead, Juno Two,” said Croft. “Countdown at ten.”

“Arm tri-cobalt devices,” ordered West. A beat later, “Fire.”

From the underbelly of both fighters, large blue warheads burst free and rocketed towards the Ferengi ship. West’s console blatted. They were too close.

“Entering phaser range!” Croft’s yell agreed with him.

“Break!” West replied, suiting action to words. Juno One spiralled neatly out of space that was pierced a moment later by the brilliant fire of a heavy phaser.

“Evade, Two,” he ordered, forcing himself to keep calm. “Keep their attention.”

It was La’roj who saw the impacts start - he’d just pulled out of a steep dive and by chance found himself facing the Marauder as the first salvo of microtorps hit home. On his main display, he saw the ship’s shields drop 8%. Grumbling, he snap-rolled out of the way of another phaser shot and kept one eye on his screen. Three similar impacts later, he understood Croft’s plan.

“Marauder’s shields down to 68%, Lead,” he reported briskly.

Then the tri-cobalts hit. In a spectacular flash of artificial lightning, the Marauder’s shields flared and died.

“Shields down!” Croft whooped.

“It’s not out of the fight yet,” admonished West, watching Juno Five barely dodge yet another shot. “Break off and form up outside its range, we’ll make another run.”

“Wait!” Croft’s voice came back. West saw Juno Two flash past his own ship, pushing closer to the Marauder.

“Croft!” West barked. “Break off!”

“Copy that,” came Croft’s voice, his voice awash with the complete calm of total self-assurance. His fighter whipped through a tidy diving roll, but not before a second blue warhead emerged from the Gryphon’s underbelly launcher. Croft’s fighter sped away from the Ferengi ship. As the hastily-fired, manually-aimed warhead punched through the Ferengi ship’s hull, Juno Two performed a neat barrel roll and slipped into position on West’s wing.

Mission accomplished.

-----

TO: CO@USSNORMANDIE
CC: XO@USSNORMANDIE
FROM: CAG@USSNORMANDIE
DATE: July 21, 2386
TIME: 09:51
SUB: Juno Squadron Active

MESSAGE READS

Sir,

I am pleased to report that I have approved Juno Squadron for operational readiness, contingent on the completion of the deconstruction of the Wanderer.

Pending your approval, I will also be establishing a single-craft Combat Aerospace Patrol around the Normandie while she travels at sublight speeds. Not only will the experience prove valuable for my pilots, it will provide additional resources and a faster, more flexible response force to the ship during action.

Sincerely,

Michael West

MESSAGE ENDS

[Sickbay, USS Normandie]
[July 21, 2386: 0900 hours]

"Doctor Holmes?"

Autumn looked up from her computer panel, and smiled at the young cadet standing in front of her. Cadet Michelson was one of the Normandie's up and coming nurses on staff. She secretly wished she was able to take her to the Freya, but she knew that there would be no place for cadets aboard such a small ship.

"Yes Cadet, what can I do for you?"

The young woman seemed to shuffle a bit on her feet, and finally sighed, standing still.

"Are you really going to be leaving us for another ship?" she asked.

"That I am. I was never going to be permanently placed aboard the Normandie, but we expected it to be more than a day to receive my new command."

"I see," the cadet said. "Well, we wish you all the best of luck, ma'am. We'll be sad to see you go though."

Autumn sighed softly, and said "Thank you, Cadet. The sentiment is appreciated, even if no one really did get to know me that well here. I've been going over the last of my personnel reports for Doctor Evincrue. I expect great things out of you, young lady. You're going to make an amazing nurse."

The Cadet beamed, and said "Thank you ma'am!"

"My pleasure. Now, why don't you get back in there and finish up so we can make a glowing impression upon the new doctor when he arrives."

Michelson nodded, and went back to her duties.

"SARAH," Autumn began, "please inform lieutenant colonel T'Lani, lieutenant Shras, Doctor Evincrue, and Cadet McNeil that I am ready to receive them."

"Acknowledged," the computer's soft voice responded.

T'Lani walked into the sickbay and instantly made eye-contact with the Doctor, as she did so the Hologram of the ship appeared, "Dr Holmes is..."

T'Lani raised her hand, "Go away SARAH."

The hologram looked offended and vanished, T'Lani continued towards the Doctor, "Captain Holmes, congratulations on your promotion and new assignment."

Autumn laughed softly at SARAH's rather untimely appearance, and stood.

"Thank you Colonel T'Lani. It's going to be an interesting change."

She gestured towards her office, and said over her shoulder "Miss Michelson, when the others arrive, tell them to step into my office."

The cadet nodded, and said "Yes Doctor."

She followed T'Lani into the office, and sat down in one of the chairs in front of her desk rather than behind it.

"I'm told you're the woman to see about crew transfers, Colonel. I'd like to begin by saying that I know the Normandie is already severely short staffed, and that I don't plan on taking many with me. In fact my list is five, only one of them being an officer."

"Yes Captain Virkov mentioned something about that." she said with a slight nod, "Lieutenant ch'Ghorev. Who are the remaining four?"

"I'm also requesting Cadet Fletcher McNeil. He was the Wanderer's medic, and I worked with him at length in my brief time aboard that ship. He's started Academy adjunct training to become a Nurse, and I'll need him under my tutelage for that. The others are crewmen from the science department, since we seem to have an overabundance of staffing in that particular department. Ultimately though, if the Normandie can't spare them, lieutenant ch'Ghorev and cadet McNeil would be fine," Autumn replied.

"I'm told I'll be receiving some from the Endeavour as well, so I don't expect Captain Virkov or you to go out of your way to ensure that I'm staffed appropriately. If what I've heard is correct, none of the ships in this area of operations are."

"You are correct Captain, none of the Frontier ships of Task Force 92 are fully staffed. Given that the Normandie is about to enter the Mollais Expanse we shall be away from any possible re-crewing points for several months." she lifted a PADD and tapped a few commands, "I have approved the requested transfers." she offered the PADD to the other woman.

Fletcher walked into the Doctor's office, noticed the makeup of the meeting, and stood to attention for a moment.

"Ma'am," he said to the Colonel. "Doctor," he said, with a hint of a familiar smile to Dr. Holmes.

He relaxed, falling silent, having become accustomed to waiting for the Doctor to begin speaking. He felt no need to make plain the obvious that he had been called there.

Autumn accepted the PADD with a smile, and said "Thank you, Colonel. I know it puts the Normandie in a somewhat precarious position, but I'd like to have at least some semblance of the crew necessary to perform my duties on the Freya."

As Cadet McNeil walked in, she raised her hand, and said "I'll be with you in just a moment Cadet."

Fletcher nodded and stepped politely to the side, waiting for the colonel to depart. This could prove to be interesting

She looked up from the PADD, and said "I'll admit, this came much more suddenly than I expected. I was looking forward to serving aboard the Normandie. The needs of the Federation must come first though, I suppose. I'll need to meet with Cadet McNeil and Lieutenant ch'Ghorev at some point to discuss what I'll need out of them."

Autumn turned her head to the side slightly, suddenly aware that she was babbling.

"I apologize, I've likely taken up too much of your time rambling. Thank you again, Colonel."

T'Lani did not offer the woman her hand as would have been expected in such a situation, "Good luck with your new assignment Captain." she turned to leave and passed the Cadet, she gave him a slight nod, "Cadet" she said and then left the sickbay.

Fletcher nodded at the Colonel as she left. "Ma'am."

He waited for the door to close behind the her, and then turned to look at the doctor with his eyebrows raised inquisitively.

As T'Lani left the sickbay, Autumn waved Fletcher in, and gestured towards a chair.

"Well," she began, "now that you're all settled in to your new quarters, you'll need to pack up and get ready to transfer again!"

She extended her PADD towards him, and said "as part of your adjunct training, you'll be transferring with me to the Freya, so that I can keep my close motherly eye on you."

Fletcher chuckled and took a seat in front of the Doctor, reading over the PADD quickly.

"That assumes I ever unpacked more than a uniform," he said. "Shouldn't be a problem."

He looked over the ship's specs and compliment. "Interesting design. So who all are you stealing besides me?" he asked. "Any more kids like me to watch over?" His tone was light, and slightly teasing.

Smiling, Autumn said "No, not so far. Due to her nature, she's not really the appropriate place for cadets. You'll be the only one, unless Admiral Holden has any surprises for me."

She looked down at her PADD, her brow furrowing for a moment. "I'm not really comfortable with having so many spooks aboard, to be frank, but I suppose that can't be helped. We must do what we must do for the good of the Federation, after all."

The sound of a tray of instruments clattering to the ground drew her attention, and she looked up for a moment as Cadet Michelson softly swore under her breath, and leaned down to pick them up.

"That," she said to Fletcher, "is the kind of thing I'd like to avoid on the Freya. I'm sure your background in Chemistry will keep you busy between your adjunct classes though. There's no small amount of things to study out here."

He nodded his head seriously. "I'm not too much of a fan of SFI myself, to be perfectly honest," he said. "Previous encounters have been..." he paused. "Frustrating." He flicked his eyes up to the ceiling indicate he had a more choice word than that in his mind.

"I'd enjoy the chance to get some chem research in," he said, excited. "It's hard to get sensor time on a ship this big."

He grinned at the doctor, showing much more excitement for this posting than he had for the Normandie. "So when do we leave? And what else do you need me to be working on before we head over there?" he asked. He paused for a moment, and then seemed to remember himself. "Do...Captain," he added as a decided afterthought. He looked down slightly, a little embarrassed to have forgotten decorum in his excitement.

"For the time being, just familiarize yourself with the deckplan of the Freya. It's going to be...interesting to say the least."

She patted him on the shoulder, and said "Let's focus on the here and now for the time being. Once we're aboard the Freya, we can worry about the rest."

He laughed and nods. "Won't have to yell at the crew too much for exercise, at least" he said.

He looked seriously at the PADD for a moment longer, and nodded again.

"I'll keep that all in mind. I've got two physicals and a nutrition analysis this afternoon," he added. "Do you want to oversee?" he asked politely.

"I'm sure Doctor Evincrue can oversee your physical. I have a world of work ahead of me today getting everything taken care of. Go ahead and get everything ready, I'll let you know when we're ready to transfer," Autumn said.

Fletcher nodded his head.

"Of course, Doctor," he said with a small smile. "Congratulations," he said as he stood and left her office.

Shras stepped briskly into the office and smiled stiffly Dr. Holmes. "Reporting as requested, ma'am." He tipped his head in respect. "Sorry it took me so long to arrive. I have been busy with drills." His tone suggested that he did not exactly enjoy the task of drills. The Andorian's antenna quivered as he glanced down to the PADD on Autumn's desk. "I have an odd feeling that I am going somewhere..." This was a poor attempt at humor, but an attempt nonetheless. He followed it with a smile that seemed a little forced.

Autumn laughed softly under her breath. She picked up the PADD off of her lap, and briefly ran through some of the information.

"I've been looking through your service record Lieutenant. Aside from a few lapses in judgement, your service to the Federation has been exemplary, and your dedication to your family doubly so. These are both qualities I greatly admire in an officer, and something I think Starfleet has lost sight of in recent years."

She looked up from the PADD with her trademark smile. "But let's not beat around the bush Shras. The situation on the White Star set your career back much farther than it should have. You were in line for your own command, and that seems to have gone by the wayside. I would like to give you the chance you deserve. You deserve a Senior Staff position on a Federation Vessel, despite what the Admiralty thinks. I'd like to give you that opportunity again."

Shras blinked, one antenna went one way and the other the opposite. It was a moment before they were both back around and pointed at Autumn again. His cheeks flushed a light violet in color. "Ma'am, I... am most humbled." Shras was usually not a person at a loss for words and his surprise suggested he was also not used to compliments. "I would be honored to serve under your command. I sincerely hope that this will be a long-term position?" It was almost not a question, but he seemed unsure. The White Star had made him question everything about his career in Starfleet. He did not want to falsely read too much into the position being offered in case it was just another jump to yet another ship for a brief moment, while they replaced him with someone better.

Autumn nodded, and said "Absolutely. The Freya is a very unique vessel, and requires a unique, tightly knit crew. I need officers with command experience to fill out the manifest. The Fates willing, this command will last a long time. I can't offer you a promotion in rank just yet, but this is definitely a step up from a standard security position."

Doctor Evincrue entered the room. He looked abit flustered as if he had ran to get there. He tried to hide it as he caught his breath.

"Sorry for the delay captain. Sarah has a difficult way of explaining directions." he gathered his thoughts and composure and turned to the others in the room. "Hello, I'm Doctor Evincrue a pleasure to met you."

He extended his hand out and put his best smile on. Hoping he didn't appear to immature on his entrance.

Autumn blinked, and snorted to herself. Turning her gaze back to Shras, she said "We'll talk more later, Shras."

Standing, she extended her hand and shook it, smiling plainly.

"A pleasure to meet you, Doctor Evincrue. Let me show you around..."

((A JP by Autumn, Magnus, Shras, T'Lani, and McNeil))

ON:
[Main Hangar Bay - USS Wanderer]
[0700 Hours]

Cadet Luna Konev had worked with empaths before, back in her Academy Campus days. So teaming up with the Xenolinguist Doctor Damien Valentine was not as disarming as her last night's competition with Ensign Adam Carter. Empaths generally tried to be conscious about their ability to feel others emotions much to the detriment of their social life and Orion females generally tried to manipulate the emotions of the menfolk around them, Vulcans and Cardassians, notwithstanding.

So much of Luna's work with Damien was mutually assured interruption. More of a, "don't probe me and I won't prod you" sort of an affair. That out of the way in the first few minutes of their teamwork, they got a lot done.

"Doctor," Luna popped her head over a display as the Language Specialist was on the other side of the Wallace-class cockpit/bridge looking at some code, "any luck on finding that Navlog?"

"Not just yet," Damien replied to Luna's question rather quickly, "But I'll find it. Your skills have really taken a lot of the workload off of this whole thing, by the way."

Damien smiled as he fingered the controls of the terminal in front of him, it's glowing screen illuminating his handsome face. The young man's eyes widened in suprise.

"I believe I've found it, Luna." Damien spoke with a confident smile, "You want to come take a look at it?"

Damien lifted his right hand into the air and motioned for his green-skinned cohort to approach him. Luna regarded the half-Betazoid, he seemed more than eager to please, but then again, it might just be the effect pheromones. She could no more turn them off any more than stop sweating in her uniform while working on the Wanderer.

"Damn it. Nevermind. Wrong log..." Obviously frustrated, Damien kicked the ground. With his left hand, Damien gently shoved his black, string-like bangs from his eyes. Brushing the hair back with one swift stroke, Damien began to think.

"Ah ha!" As though he had discovered the murderer in a mystery novel before anyone else even had the chance, Damien messed with the terminal some more, "And success! Now, come take a look, Luna."

Cadet Konev put a hand on his shoulder and peered at the culprit at hand. The logs didn't match what normal physics allowed. Grimacing and ignoring the effect that her proximity to the scientist was causing him, she figured it was important enough to get Elena involved.

"Leytnant!" Luna raised her voice. "I think the good doctor found what we are looking for."

Elena trotted inside the Wanderer, one tricorder on her belt and a phase inducer in her hand. "Struck gold, you two?" She asked approaching the console where Ensign Valentine and Cadet Konev were working.

"Good work, by the way, sir." Luna made sure to compliment the Doctor. "Show her what you've found, I'm going to back up all the Engineering data on portable. I'll be right back."

Trying not to saunter away, the Orion made her way out of the bridge and out of sight. Let Elena work with the new guy, she thought, the Leytnant was going to have to feel him out sooner or later. Luna needed some time to think by herself about her current situation with her new boss.

Damien nodded as Luna fluttered away and Elena approached him with a look of interest. She'd want Damien to explain everything to her and he choked on the facts of his discovery.

"I excelled with computers back at the academy," Damien began with a lump in his throat, "but as you know, I'm a linguist and it was honestly pure luck that I found these logs at all."

Damien folded his arms across his chest with a confident smile.

"But I did happen to rely on my smarts in busting the codes on this thing! And it was pretty tough. Some of the codes were in languages that I am not fully fluent in." Damien explained the situation further, "but these logs are detailed to the smallest aspects. They should be of the utmost help in determining exactly what cut this ship off...with the simulations we'll run on the Normandie of course..."

Elena nodded all through the explanation that Damien proposed her, and while still taking a good look at the content of the logs, she commented on it.

"That seems promising, and seems to fit into what I've been able to determine so far. The high concentration of chronitons and tachyons seems to suggest a powerful isolating field, something that cut off the ship from normal space, thus altering its place with regards to the rules of physics."

She looked over to Damien. "I want you to keep digging in this log, I will start patching this batch into the Normandie's computer, to disassemble it, and to improve my simulations. Nice find Ensign," she smiled.

"Understood and thank you, Lieutenant." came the ensign with a friendly smile.

Damien went back to work as soon as Elena turned on her heel and exited the area. The computer terminal in front of him was a puzzling enigma to Damien and he just had to crack it fully.

CLANG!

All of a sudden, a loud noise came from behind the Ensign. He whirled around to see Luna exiting an access panel on her hands and knees. The panel cover itself lay on the deck as if he had just kicked the hatch apart.

"What the....?" Damien spoke as he turned around, "Are you okay, Cadet? What was that noise?"

"What, me?" Luna got up and dusted her self off. "Just manually bypassing stuff again. It's a good thing I'm pretty small and agile, or doing all this might be a pain in the ass. Think I got something though."

Holding up her PADD, new data filled the small screen.

OFF: To be continued in Part Four by...

Cadet Luna Konev
Intelligence Operations

Lieutenant Elena Fedorov
Chief of Sciences

Ensign Damien Valentine PHd
Xenolinguistics

Lieutenant (jg) Gerard Garrett
Biologist

[0700 HRS]
[Elsewhere, USS Normandie]

Clean-shaven, washed, and feeling somewhat more like himself after a short catnap, Garrett donned his duty uniform. The uniform and the act of slipping into it had become almost as subconscious as blinking over the years, but this time, it felt different. This time, he wasn't just in it to give a lecture to cadets.

He took a deep breath. All right, Gerard.

"Computer? Please locate Lieutenant Fedorov."

"Lieutenant Fedorov is in the main hangar bay."

The AI's voice was warm and tonal. Garrett wondered if it could sing soprano.

Hangar bay? What's down there that's interesting enough to require a science chief's attention? Maybe lab resupply, or perhaps something more... involved?

"Computer, how many dedicated science personnel does the Normandie have aboard at this time, excluding myself?"

"Excluding Lieutenant Garrett, there are currently two science officers serving aboard the Normandie."

Just two! So at least half of them are already in the hangar bay, and so much for statistical analysis. Garrett paused to think of a fruitful line of questioning and thought better of it; he could find out what was in the hangar bay firsthand as soon as he arrived there. Falling easily into his predictably timed, heel-heavy stride, he exited his quarters and stepped into the corridors of the Normandie.

The turbolift uneventfully carried Garrett to the hangar deck. Finding the hangar after a brief search, he realized his heart had slowed and the lump in his throat had largely disappeared. He smiled inwardly. See? All it took was finding something positive to occupy that overactive brain of yours. Now relaxed, he stepped forward, allowed the hangar doors to admit him, and found himself looking at something that almost certainly precluded the possibility of lab resupply.

It was a Wallace-class starship.

He halted his stride and intently eyed the Wallace, stroking his chin. Not every day one starship docks within another. What went on here? She doesn't look too badly damaged...

A loud "CLANG" from the vicinity of the Wallace broke Garrett's cognition and drew a quizzical glance. He resumed his pace to close the distance between himself and the hulk.

"Sounds like work," he called, his basso profundo echoing across the bay. There were still no uniformed personnel in sight. "Could someone use a hand?"

"...bypassing stuff again. It's a good thing I'm pretty small and agile, or doing all this might be a pain in the ass. Think I got something though." A green skinned Orion girl was saying, holding a PADD up and showing the red haired young man in a blue Sciences uniform. The Orion's eye flickered to the newcomer and she lowered her brow inquisitively like a cat noticing someone trespassing on her territory.

"Another Sciences guy?" The young woman quirked an upturned grin. "Hey Leytnant! You've got another Blue Shirt officer here."

She followed Luna's voice, turned her head around and her gaze came to rest on the new arrival. "Now that is three against one, we have finally outnumbered you, Cadet," she said while jumping off the small flight of stairs on the side of the Wanderer, heading for the newcomer.

"Lieutenant Fedorov, Chief Science Officer." She said extending her hand. "But I'm afraid I've to confess I haven't received your file yet, Lieutenant...?"

“Gerard Garrett at your service, Lieutenant Fedorov,” he replied, returning the handshake and meeting Fedorov’s eyes with a bright grin. “I’m your biologist.”

Fedorov nodded in salute. “A pleasure to have you aboard, Lieutenant, as you can see,” she pointed at the Wallace-class behind her, “the Department is starting off with a big mystery to unfold. Even if you are a Biologist by training, we could use some help around.”

Ahhhh. I think I've found a home. Garrett was in his element among fellow scientists. This was already turning out to be quite a good day.

“Oh, I’d be more than pleased," he replied to Fedorov. "So what brought that Wallace here?”

Fedorov gave an abridged, yet thorough account of the events that placed the Wanderer in the Normandie’s hangar bay and the direction the science staff would be taking to determine their cause.

“Well, in that case,” Garrett returned, “I dabble a bit in programming on the side. I could help with dialing in some of those computer simulations you mentioned.”

"Excellent!" Elena exclaimed. "We might have a plan after all," she then added with a grin before turning around to the rest of the team. Both Cadet Konev and Ensign Valentine were standing on the Wanderer hatch, overlooking the conversation.

She addressed her Departmental colleague first. "Ensign Valentine, I'd like you to remain here, finishing extracting from the computer. You might even seek out the help of someone from Engineering if you feel it, I'm sure they'll be happy to help."

Damien was positioned beside Luna in an odd way. The two of them were both trying to peer out of the Wandere hatch and it was almost like to large peas in a very small pod.

"That is a perfect idea, Lieutenant!" Damien smiled warmly, "I'll do just that."

"Very good, as for you Cadet," Elena continued, "I don't pretend to address your methods of investigation, I leave to you to recover as much data as possible from the ship."

Luna gave a waifish smile and leaned on the Doctor playfully, then gave a three fingered salute.

"We will do what we can." The Orion replied.

With assignments sorted, Elena turned back to face Lieutenant Garrett. "I think we'll better get to work on those simulations. Science Lab one?" She gestured towards the hangar doors.

Damien watched as Elena and Garrett walked off. He then began to think to himself. There was something about this Garrett fellow that was perplexing and at the same time sort of strange. He seemed to be adept at controlling his emotions or he was half Vulcan. Damien shook his head in disbelief at his last though.

"Nah..." the young man spoke to himself, "But something's different..."

Damien's stunning eyes shifted from left to right and then back inside of the Wandered behind him. He needed to get some more work done.

"Come on," Luna told the scientist as she patted him on the shoulder, "if we get done early, you should check out the lounge. A little liquid libation might be a fitting reward for all this mysterious work."

OFF: This joint post by...

Cadet Luna Konev
Intelligence Operations

Lieutenant Elena Fedorov
Chief of Sciences

Ensign Damien Valentine Ph.D
Xenolinguistics

Lieutenant (jg) Gerard Garrett
Biologist

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TO:CFCO@USSNORMANDIE, CSTO@USSNORMANDIE, COO@USSNORMANDIE, CSO@USSNORMANDIE, CMO@USSNORMANDIE, CIO@USSNORMANDIE, CAG@USSNORMANDIE, CAG@USSNORMANDIE
FROM: XO@USSNORMANDIE
DATE: July 21, 2386
TIME: 10:00
SUB: Cadets

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MESSAGE READS

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Department Heads,

I have scheduled a meeting for myself and the Officer Cadets currently assigned to Normandie. The details are as follows;



Please ensure that any Officer Cadets assigned to your department attend at 1200 hours prompt.

Yours,

Lt. Colonel T'rannus
XO, USS Normandie

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MESSAGE ENDS

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TO: CEO@USSNORMANDIE, COO@USSNORMANDIE
FROM: XO@USSNORMANDIE
DATE: July 21, 2386
TIME: 10:05
SUB: SARAH

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MESSAGE READS

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Lieutenants,

I would like an update on the status of investigations into the power consumption of the ship's holographic avatar. At your earliest convenience please furnish myself with an SIT-REP

Yours,

Lt. Colonel T'rannus
XO, USS Normandie

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MESSAGE ENDS

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TO: CMO@USSNORMANDIE
FROM: XO@USSNORMANDIE
DATE: July 21, 2386
TIME: 10:07
SUB: Physical Examinations

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MESSAGE READS

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Doctor,

Firstly welcome on-board the Normandie I have yet to have a chance to personally welcome you, I intend to see you at 1100 hours in sickbay to discuss the scheduling of physical examinations of crew members. With our recent in-take of new crew and our planned pro-longed time away from the core worlds of the Federation I would like to ensure the physical health of our crew and to set in place any contingency plans.

Yours,

Lt. Colonel T'rannus
XO, USS Normandie

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MESSAGE ENDS

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TO: CAG@USSNORMANDIE
FROM: XO@USSNORMANDIE
DATE: July 21, 2386
TIME: 10:14
SUB: Flight Operations

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MESSAGE READS

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Lieutenant West,

In response to your request for operational approval for Combat Aerospace Patrol, I here-by grand authorisation.

Yours,

Lt. Colonel T'rannus
XO, USS Normandie

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MESSAGE ENDS

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TO:
TO:Included Department Heads
CO@USSNORMANDIE, SO@USSNORMANDIE, COB@USSNORMANDIE, CFCO@USSNORMANDIE, CSTO@USSNORMANDIE, COO@USSNORMANDIE, CEO@USSNORMANDIE, CSO@USSNORMANDIE,
CCO@USSNORMANDIE , CSTO@USSNORMANDIE, CIO@USSNORMANDIE, CAG@USSNORMANDIE
FROM:CMO@USSNORMANDIE
DATE:July 21, 2368
TIME: 1130
SUB:Physicals

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MESSAGE READS

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Please all senior staff receiving this message, report to Sickbay as soon as you can be relieved from your stations so that I may perform your physical. Also, my staff is also ready to perform physicals for the other crew in your areas. Please allow them a short time to report to Sickbay for there physicals. Though my nurses will perform the crews evalutations, I prefer evaluating each of your personally, as a chance to introduce myself as your new Chief Doctor. Please report as soon as possible, if I am not at Sickbay please come to my quarters at any hours, I don't sleep. Thank You

Lieutenant Commander Magnus Evincrue.

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MESSAGE ENDS

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[Adam Carter’s Quarters, USS Normandie]
[July 21, 2386, 0845]

Adam Carter shrugged on his newly-replicated uniform jacket and regarded himself in his bedroom’s mirror. The grey accents to the uniform’s mantle were, to him, less aesthetically pleasing than the red of the uniform he’d worn on the Wanderer, but this was a more important post. He was, after all, an officer now, the head of a department, and appearance was important. At least the new Ensign’s pips were nicer than the Crewman ones he’d been wearing.

As he left his room, he gave thought once more to Cadet Luna Konev. She’d broken in (if one could be said to have broken in to a previously-unused room), drugged him, nearly slept with him and left his apartment bugged - all as a test of his abilities. Any way you cut it, her actions represented assault on a senior officer. If he were to report the incident, as he should, she’d almost certainly be drummed out of the Academy, if not formally charged. That, he thought, would be a waste of potential. Konev had screwed up, but in doing so she’d revealed a considerable degree of talent - and that talent would be sorely needed moving forward. Discounting himself, the Normandie’s Intelligence Department contained a grand total of zero field-rated operatives. That was almost to be expected, though. Starfleet’s ship-based Intelligence community was, he’d discovered, comprised almost entirely of analysts and remote data-gatherers. While he had a lot of time for that aspect of the job, as a former field agent himself Adam held the firm opinion that reports only told half the story. Personal experience was vitally important. It was one thing to pour through a target’s finances and deduce his favourite watering hole, but another entirely to have seen him in that environment, learn his drink of choice, watch him interact with the regulars and staff, maybe even drink with him yourself.

No, Luna Konev was needed where she was. It could even be fun, teaching her the tricks he’d learned in his old life. Assuming, of course, she managed to get over whatever it was that had prompted her to test him in the first place.

“Good morning!” he said, sweeping through a door marked 'Data Analysis'. “I’m Adam and I’ll be your new department head.”

The six cadets in the room turned to look at him in rough unison. There were four men and two women. Two of them were Andorian, one was a Vulcan and the other three Human. All six wore expressions of mild consternation. They were seated along both long sides of a rectangular room. One short end, the side Adam had entered from, was blank save for the door. The other featured a desk with an integral terminal, behind which was a large screen currently displaying Adam’s own personnel file.

“And I see you’ve already done your research. Good!” He crossed the room and turned, standing in front of the desk to address the room. “Now! I don’t plan on keeping you long, but we do have some housekeeping to do. I’ll be stationed on the bridge, mostly, and Cadet Konev is going to be far too busy with her new duties to keep acting as your supervisor. Which means that you’ll need a new one. You!” He pointed to one of the humans. He was slightly fatter than the others and sat with a hunch. He reacted to being singled out by withdrawing slightly, as if he were a naughty schoolboy. “Karl Peterson, fourth-year cadet. Top of your class in research methodology, absolute bottom in marksmanship and field exercises. Karl, you're it."

Karl gaped for a moment, then, tentatively, smiled. Adam grinned back merrily. “As for the rest of you, what are we working on right now? Let’s go around the room. You!” He pointed first at the Andorian male to his immediate left. “Aside from reading up on your new boss, what are you up to?”

As they went round the room, Adam reflected that for her faults, Luna had run the department well. In the absence of a mission or specific destination, she’d had the team go back through Starfleet’s records for The Expanse, cataloguing records of contacts made, ships encountered, relative tech levels and so on. Karl had even put together a rough map of which cultures’ technology bore signs of outside influence, indicating an old war and potential conquest.

“OK, that about wraps it up then. Karl, enjoy your new desk, everyone else, enjoy your new Karl. For now, keep doing what you’re doing, researching and cataloguing. Once we hit The Expanse, I’ll have more for you - barring any more emergencies, of course. Any questions? No? Good, then! I’m off, keep up the good work!”

And with that, he was gone. For a moment, the room was deathly silent. Then, slowly, Karl turned around, logged out of his terminal and walked up to the front desk. Sitting down, he cleared the big screen behind him and brought up a star chart of the Expanse instead.

“Let’s get to work, then,” he said in his Welsh drawl.

[Sickbay, USS Normandie]
[July 21, 2386, 1100]

T'Lani walked into sickbay, she nodded politely at a Nurse as she walked towards the Office that she had previously met with Autumn in.

"Dr Evincrue I presume, I am Colonel T'Lani the XO of Normandie" she smiled at the new CMO.

"A pleasure to meet you T'Lani" Magnus said with a smile and moved his PADD to the right of his desk as he stood.

"I'm very excited to meet all of the new crew members aboard. It is a dual-edged-sword as they say though, excited to meet new people, yet they only need to see me when something is medically wrong. I was just going over your medical files a few moments ago." he snickered a little and turned his head away, then looked back at the Romulan, "So aside from your ears burning, what seems to be the problem?"

He picked up a tricorder from his station and began gathering data, still making eye contact with T'Lani.

T'Lani looked at the man, he had addressed her by her name alone with no rank or other honourific. She paused and recalled how she had introduced herself by her name alone? She was not used to being addressed in such a manner. And why would her ears be burning? Was it a petty attempt at humour about her being Mollais Rihan?

She hid her emotions without any effort, and glanced at the tricorder. Was he actually scanning her without consulting her first? "The pleasure is all mine Commander Evincrue." She made a point of looking at the tricorder, "I would like all the senior staff and as many of the crew to have a physical before we reach the Nebula, the majority of personnel save the Captain and myself are behind on their required medicals" she looked at the man, "I wish for you to correct this over-sight"

The Doctor closed the tricorder and set it back down, then looked at the Colonel with a more serious expression that he rarely used.

"Well worry no more, your physical is done. I believe in doing as much as possible when one can. I have already begun making a schedule for physicals for the entire crew, senior officers first. I look forward to working with everyone, but I must apologize about not being perhaps as formal as other officers at times. Thank you for your visit, I will continue to make the proper arrangements."

He somewhat hated not being his usualy self, but he had forgot that he was talking to a Romulan. So he needed to adjust his demeanor to his audience. He had just realized he may have offended her previously, but without knowing so it would be best not to apologize.

He straightned his uniform and leaned on his desk and folded his arms. He gave T'Lani a stare, somewhat to "size" her up before what he was about to say. He wanted to make friends with everyone on board, but he realized what he was about to do to easily tip the scale of friendship either way.

"Colonel T'Lani, on a more personal matter I would like you to know that other than my medical duties, I also have a shoulder to lend to anyone who wants to talk and not to a ship's counselor. I have alot of friends on Romulus, acquaintances that a person can achieve over 500 years. Many of them still owe me bets, members of the Royal House are terrible at Kal-toh," he allowed a smile to form but not to much as to seem silly, but in a friendly way,"anyway, I get updated on what happens as I'm a listner for a select few there. I understand what your going through, and it must be difficult. I will not get involved, and I'm not snooping into your personal affairs. I just received a communication earlier, and I wanted you to know if you need a ear to vent to, I am here for you."

He looked into her eyes on his last sentence. He understood her race, as he had many Romulan friends, and he wanted her to see that he was being honest, and honorable. He then stood upright, and walked to a replicator beside his chair. "Elderberry tea." He commanded, then sat down, crossed his legs and looked a the Romulan while he sipped his beverage.

She allowed the man to speak. She remained in almost perfect silence and dtared at him. Once had had finished she kept her voice as neutral as possible. "While I thank you for your concern Commander, I would prefer it if you did not involve yourself in matters that are limited to the Imperial House of the Mollais Rihan" she took a step closer to his chair, "It may have escaped your notice in your 500 years of life, but my people are not Romulan. We are Mollais Rihan we are those who flew under the Raptor's Wings, we are the children of S'Task. We are no more Romulans than we are Vulcans. I suggest you brush up on you understanding of galatic politics and speciation of Vulcanoids beofre attempting to begin such a discourse with me in future" she stepped back and moved towards the door, "Also Commander, I am sure you are aware that as a medicial practitioner you are required to seek the informed consent of your patient before beginning any procedures or scans upon them. Failure to do so is in breech of their rights and your own professional code of conduct and ethics." She began to move through the door, "I would like a status report from you tommorrow morning at 0700 hours. Good Morning" she gave him a curt nod and walked from the sickbay.

a JP brought to you by

Lt. Colonel T'Lani

and

Lt. Commander Evincrue

Quote :

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TO: CEO@USSNORMANDIE, COO@USSNORMANDIE
FROM: XO@USSNORMANDIE
DATE: July 21, 2386
TIME: 10:05
SUB: SARAH

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MESSAGE READS
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Lieutenants,

I would like an update on the status of investigations into the power consumption of the ship's holographic avatar. At your earliest convenience please furnish myself with an SIT-REP

Yours,

Lt. Colonel T'rannus
XO, USS Normandie

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MESSAGE ENDS
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Sepeth cocked an eyebrow as he read the brief communique when it came up on his PADD. He and Ayan had already been working for several hours planning today’s experiment. The Bajoran had taken a great deal of time exhaustively explaining the intricacies of the hologram’s programming, including its interface with engineering hardware, displaying all the while a level of enthusiasm that clashed severely with the Vulcan engineer’s trademark stoicism. Sepeth had found the proclivity of the energetic Operations Chief to simply chatter on to be irritating at times.

He returned the PADD to its holster on his belt and continued planning the experiment with Lieutenant Retol.

---

[Auxilliary Cargo Storage Bay, Deck 5, USS Normandie]
[1115 Hours]

The doors to the cargo bay hissed open and twin Lieutenants in yellow uniforms stepped into the room. It was a bit cramped inside; the bay was filled with large cargo containers and miscellaneous barrels of supplies and raw materials. Before selecting which cargo bay to use as a laboratory, they had verified that this one contained only non-perishable supplies. Retol had checked in with the Operations officer on the bridge, and had alerted him to their plan to take the bay off of the main power grid.

Over by the side of the room, an Ensign in yellow was taking tricorder readings on an opened cargo container, checking that its contents were still in proper condition.

Ayan nodded his head at Sepeth, and then walked over to the young man with the tricorder. He waited for his attention, and then smiled. “Ensign, good afternoon!” he said. “Lt. Sepeth and I are going to need this cargo bay for the day. If you could, please move on to your next assignment. I will let you know when we are finished, sometime later today.” Ayan was long winded, but his tone made it clear that it was time for the Ensign to be moving on.

Sepeth opened a panel on the wall and began making adjustments to the wiring with a hyperspanner. After a few moments he closed the panel and moved to the opposite side of the room and repeated the process. Finally, the engineer entered a series of commands into the console on the wall near the cargo bay door, and the gentle humming sound that had filled the room diminished and died out.

Ayan walked over to the Vulcan after politely escorting the Ensign to the door.

“The cargo bay is now cut off from the ship’s main power supply,” said Sepeth, pulling out his tricorder and taking some general readings around the room to confirm the statement. “The lights, life support systems and environmental controls are still in place; cutting the power has caused the backup generators to activate.”

Ayan nodded his head. “Good,” he said.

The engineer looked up from his tricorder to the tall Bajoran. “Where shall we start, Lieutenant?”

“I figure we should first make sure that SARAH is aware that she should not interfere, but only respond to requests made to constitute an avatar. After that, see if there is a power drain from one avatar, then two, and so on, until we can either figure out what’s happening, or see that there is no issue. Making sure the program knows not to interfere is important, though, as I noticed in the past she has a tendency to really want to help.”

The Vulcan agreed. “I will monitor power usage by interfacing with the main console here.” He punched some buttons on his tricorder, aimed it at the wall console and said, “I am ready to begin.”

Ayan nodded. “SARAH,” he said.

A copy of the computer’s avatar appeared in the middle of the room. “Yes, Lieutenant Retol?” she asked.

“You are aware of the experiments we plan to undertake?” he asked. “Do you have any questions of us before we begin?”

“I am aware of the planned investigation,” she said. “And that you plan to ask me to remain mute. I am also aware that Lieutenant Colonel T’rannus is concerned about my power drain during a time of emergency.”

Ayan nodded his head again. “Yes, that is of concern, SARAH,” he said. “We hope to find a solution if such a problem exists.” He looked over at Sepeth to see if they had gotten enough of a reading to move on. The engineer nodded back and returned to checking the tricorder readings.

“Thank you SARAH. When we call for you next, please limit your functions as previously discussed. We’ll call you when we need you again.” He smiled at the avatar, and nodded his head.

SARAH bowed her head slightly at the Bajoran. “Understood, Lieutenant Retol,” she said, and instantly dematerialized.

Sepeth turned to Ayan, saying, “Baseline power usage of the avatar hologram has been established. Ready to proceed with iteration one.”

Ayan nodded and tapped a few notes onto his own PADD. “SARAH, one avatar, please.”

SARAH reappeared in the same spot where she had just been, but did not speak, as ordered. Sepeth buried himself in the tricorder measurements. After a few moments, he turned to the Operations Chief and nodded.

Ayan nodded back. “Thank you, SARAH. Please create an additional avatar.”

Another avatar hologram appeared, standing next to the first. Sepeth arched an eyebrow as he eyed the readings. “Interesting,” he muttered, before turning back to Lt. Retol. “I have formed a working hypothesis. Please continue, and we shall see whether the data support it.”

Ayan nodded again. “SARAH, create an additional avatar. Continue this pattern every thirty seconds until otherwise notified.” He looked over at Sepeth. “Feel free to change the time period if you need longer for data,” he said. He went over to the engineer to watch the data coming in.

T’Lani walked silently into the Cargo bay and looked around, she could see the two officers standing by a terminal, “Gentlemen, how goes your project?”

The Vulcan looked up from his tricorder and nodded to T’Lani as another SARAH appeared nearby. “Good morning, Colonel. We have just begun our experiment, and will report our findings to you at our earliest opportunity.”

Ayan looked up from his PADD, still typing quickly, and nodded to the Lieutenant Colonel. “Ma’am,” he said, looking down at his data again, and then back up to the Colonel.

T’Lani stepped closer, “Please explain to me what you intend to do,” she said as she glanced at the terminal and returned her attention to the Vulcan.

Sepeth handed his tricorder to the Lieutenant Colonel. “We have isolated this cargo bay from the main power grid, so it is only supplied by backup generators. We are evaluating the power usage of the avatar holograms, starting with one and working our way upwards in an attempt to determine the cause of the power drain. All of the hologram’s vocal functions have been disabled, so we may eliminate superfluous independent variables from our investigation. You are welcome to stay and observe the experiment if you so desire, Colonel,” he said, turning to look at several new holograms that had appeared.

T'Lani followed the explanation without any interruption or extraneous movement, once he had finished speaking her eyes flashed briefly, "Engineering is not my speciality, Lieutenant," she said as she looked around. Why did being in his presence make her skin crawl? “Do you have anything to add, Lieutenant?" she said, looking towards the Operations Officer.

“I have a working hypothesis on possible remedies, but we need to continue more iterations of this to verify our findings,” Ayan said. “If the data are correct, we might be able to resolve this without a change in SARAH’s programming.”

"I would like to be kept abreast of how your experiment progresses, gentlemen," said T’Lani with a slight nod, "although I would like to make it clear that if it expands to the point where it may compromise the tactical security and combat readiness of Normandie it is to be terminated."

“Our investigation should not result in any deleterious effects to critical ship functions, I assure you, Colonel. That is why we took the precaution of isolating this room from the main power supply.” The Vulcan extended his hand in expectation of having his tricorder returned to him.

T'Lani placed the tricorder on a nearby terminal. "I shall hold you to your word, Lieutenant." She looked him in the eyes, they flashed brightly, and she turned from the two men and moved towards the door.

Ayan looked between the two other officers, his eyebrows raised, as Lt. Sepeth reached over impassively and retrieved his tricorder. “But of course, Colonel. I stand by my word, now and always,” the Vulcan replied, as the cargo bay door slid to a close.

Lt. Retol waited as the Colonel left, and went back to typing on his PADD. Even he realized that sometimes you should just keep your mouth shut. As another SARAH popped into being, Sepeth straightened his uniform and returned to scanning the power usage from the main console.

---

A few hours later the cargo bay had truly become a sight to behold. There were blonde avatar holograms everywhere--standing shoulder to shoulder, sitting on top of cargo containers, crouched in tight crawlspaces--and the two experimenters were poring over the readouts in fascination.

“Look at this,” Ayan said excitedly, pointing at his PADD. “Look how much power consumption has spiked just in the last ten avatars! If it keeps up at this rate, the cargo bay’s power just isn’t going to hold. It’s almost as if there’s a cap at which point the system draws more power to compensate.”

“Agreed, Lieutenant,” said Sepeth. “We need but a few more readings to have gathered enough data to be confident in our results.” No sooner had he spoken than another avatar had appeared, at which point the lights in the cargo bay began to dim and flicker.

Ayan raised his eyebrows. “How many more do you think we can get before the power fails?” he asked with a chuckle. “I’m betting 10, maximum. Assuming that many can fit in here.” He turned his head to look at all of the avatars in the room. “Prophets, this is insane, Sepeth.” He laughed again.

The Vulcan looked up from his tricorder and scanned the cargo bay. “Your assessment is likely accurate, Mr. Retol,” he said. “Computer, slow new avatar hologram generation to once every sixty seconds.”

Ayan watched as the next avatar appeared, and each of the nearly 300 avatars flickered suddenly. “Getting close,” he said. “The bridge is probably going to notice this soon,” he added. “Should we just wait for power to fail? I’m glad you suggested taking this cargo bay off the grid.”

Absorbed in the data, Sepeth extended a staying hand to the Bajoran. “The upcoming readings may prove to be the most significant of the study,” he said. “These last few avatars may very well allow us to elucidate the cause of the power drain.”

Ayan nodded, looking around the room as all of the avatars began to slowly dematerialize. Some lost their hair, others their limbs, and the remainder lost the crispness of their image. As the next avatar appeared directly next to Sepeth, the burden became too much for the cargo bay generators to handle. Each of the avatars fully dematerialized at once, and the lights in the cargo bay blacked out. The two lieutenants were left standing alone with only the light from their PADDs.

Sepeth looked up and around the darkened bay. “Fascinating,” he muttered.

Ayan simply laughed to himself, staring around. “That was one of the strangest things I’ve done in Starfleet,” he said.

---

[Bridge, USS Normandie]
[1400 Hours]

A yellow light flashed on the main operations console, indicating a power and life support failure in one of the secondary cargo bays. The cadet manning the ops station glanced down in surprise. “Ma’am?” he said over his shoulder to Colonel T’Lani. “I think you should take a look at this...”

((JP by Agent Spith, Lieutenant Colonel T'rinity, and Missster Ayandersonnn...))

[Deck 12, USS Normandie]
[July 21, 2386, 1155]

T'Lani walked into the Lecture Hall, she had used the lesser used entrance, knowing the Cadets would be waiting outside the main door. She looked at the lectern and walked towards it, the room was set up like a traditional lecture hall, with a tiered seating arrangement for up to 50 people, she had expected an attendance of 18 Cadets to attend, they were all the Officer Cadets currently assigned to the Normandie, the majority of those under-going training were Enlisted Recruits doing their first tour on a starship.

She accessed the computer terminal set into the lectern and tapped in a few commands, the large screen behind her, it changed to show the emblem of Starfleet Academy, she pressed another button and it activated the intercom and the main door, "You may enter. Please take a seat." she said in a clipped tone. She stood in silence as she watched the Cadets walked in and took their seats.

Cadet Luna Konev walked in with a serious look on her face. The last twenty-four hours had been shocking, confusing, and strenuous to her. And while most of it was of her own making, she didn't enjoy the end result any less. Taking her seat, she produced her PADD and set it to record. Taking an almost meditative sigh, she centered her self, and when she opened her eyes once more, she was ready for the rest of the day.

Cadet Tat entered the lecture hall with the other cadets. Although she was a veritable giant among Ferengi, her human side only gave her so much and she had long ago accepted that she was shorter than many of her classmates. She strode confidently to the front of the room, talking a seat beside an attractive Orion. Tat greeted her with a toothy grin and the Orion returned a weary smile.

Tat prepped her PADD and prepared for the lecture. She had known that, as an Academy adjunct, there would be classes but she ahd thought the current mission might have taken precedence. She fidgeted in her seat, anxious to be out of the hall. There were Ferengi out there, real Ferengi, and being this close to an opportunity to meet one of her kind in person,she could hardly concentrate on the class.

T'Lani cleared her throat, and then spoke. She did not need any artificial means to amplify her voice, she had been a member of the Imperial House her entire life as well as a military officer, she was used to speaking and being heard.

"Good afternoon Cadets." she looked at them, "As you are all no doubt aware I am Lieutenant Colonel T'Lani the Executive Officer of the Normandie, in that role I shall be the person to whom your Department Heads report your progress, and with whom your final mark on this cruise lies." she looked at them, hoping they understood that she was the person who decided if they actually completed their Cadet Cruise and became commissioned officers in the United Federation of Planet's Starfleet. I do not take my role in your careers lightly, nor do I expect you to." she pressed button on her terminal and the lighting lowered slightly, "You are on the cusp of being Officers." she paused for a long moment, "What does that mean to you?" she asked opening it up to the room. They remained in silence, she had expected as much.

"Cadet Evans" she said looking at a Science Cadet sitting in the middle of the 5th row. She had committed the name of every person on the Normandie to memory.

The young red-haired woman looked nervous, almost as if she had been caught doing something very naughty with someone she should never have been with. T'Lani suppressed a smile that threatened to dance across her lips. "I...uh...I want to explore..."

T'Lani looked directly at her, "Then why go through 4 years of in depth and difficult training, when to explore you could have done 3 months basic training and shipped out as an enlist?"

"I...uh...well..."

T'Lani raised her hand, the traditional sign for silence, she wanted them to think deeply about what she was about to say, "Let's cut the sentimental bollocks shall we?" she said rhetorically, "You are all training to be Officers, that doesn't mean you just want to explore, or do your jobs, you want to lead people. You think you have the inner strength to take control of any given situation and make the right decision, you think you have the abilities to make life and death decisions about the people who will serve under you. You want people to look up to you and to respect you for your knowledge and abilities." she looked around the room, "Cadet Tat, why have you chosen to be an Officer rather than an Enlist?"

Tat came to her feet immediately with a crisp salute. "I want to be a leader, Ma'am! I have the strength and determination that it takes." With a faint smile, she added, "I hope that I can be as fine a leader, as you. Ma'am." Rule of Acquisition number 33 - It never hurts to suck up to the boss.

T'Lani nodded, "You can hope Cadet" she said, her voice completely neutral. She looked around the room and then returned her attention to her, she was fond of Ferengi, they were the first race outside of those native to the Mollais Expanse her people had any contact with, "Could you not have bought a leadership role in the Ferengi Alliance?" she asked cocking her eyebrow slightly. She awaited her response having several replies ready for her answer.

Tat's confidence wavered at the question but she grit her teeth, trying not to show her sudden discomfort. "As it says in my personnel file, Ma'am, I was raised on Earth by my mother. My HU-man mother." She tried not to sound defiant but it was hard not to keep an edge out of her voice. Rule #31 - Never make fun of a Ferengi's mother. Self-consciously she ran a hand over her closely cropped blonde hair and blinked her blue eyes. With a shake, she returned to attention and continued, "I have had little contact with other Ferengis and have no suitable connections within the Alliance." Hastily she added, "Not that Starfleet is my second choice! But I would have joined the Alliance if I had the suitable resources with which to do so." The back of her neck burned. Even though she was raised among humans, her strong desire to be a true Ferengi left her feeling embarassed by this admission of insufficient funds. A Ferengi without profit is no Ferengi at all, she thought ruefully. Rule 18.

Not exactly the response T'Lani had expected, but it would suffice in allowing her to make her point, "I was hoping you would say something along the lines of the need for monetary growth and prestige paled in comparison to the rich personal rewards of being a Starfleet Officer, in leading people you know to be the best in their fields in constantly pushing the boundaries of known knowledge." she shrugged slightly, "But I suppose lack of contacts is just as valid" she said sardonic humour lacing her every word.

The rest of the Cadets were from the usual mix of races, but one green skinned woman stood out next to Tat, "Cadet Konev, why have you chosen Starfleet, and specifically why a commissioned role?"

The Orion stood slower and with less enthusiasm as the half-Ferengi, her movements deliberately
not as militant but more like a scholar in a University.

"I took the path of the Officer because they won't let an enlisted crewman command a ship, Ma'am." Luna Konev stated. "It is my intention to become a Command Officer to adequately supervise, train, and guide others for the common goal of exploring new lands..."

T'Lani pressed a button on the lectern and a quote from the Starfleet Cadet Handbook appeared on the screen behind her, it was almost word for word what the Cadet was saying...a small wave of laughter filled the room.

"I asked why you chose to be an Officer, not what the dogma of the Academy tells your reasons for doing so."

Luna resisted the urge to scowl or look away, yet the heat on her face betrayed her embarrassment. Straightening her back, she put her hand to her mouth, clearing her throat loudly waiting for the chuckles to die down.

"Freedom, Ma'am." Luna stated with renewed conviction in her voice. "I was brought from the threat of chains and slavery by the freedoms guaranteed by the Federation Constitution. As Starfleet Officer, I do not wish to become just another crewman on a ship, but instead an officer of the best the Federation has to offer to this Galaxy."

She turned to meet the reactions of her peers as she continued. All eyes were on her but she was used to performing, albeit not in this manner; this time it was not to garner approval or hedge an innuendo.

"Not with constant war and pillaging like the Klingon Empire. Not with threats of violence and domination like the Cardassian Union. Not with, and begging my fellow cadet's pardon, usury and bribery like the Ferengi Alliance." Luna nodded to Cadet Tat as she then swept her gaze back to the Executive Officer. "And not with ambushes and ruses like the Romulan Star Empire. But rather, with honorable diplomacy, earnest curiosity into the unknown, and the honest willingness to share its freedoms with any wanting to partake in it. And for that reason I seek the uniform and pips of an officer. Because I will do anything and everything to protect my freedoms, and those of my friends and family, against those that would threaten it."

"The words honourable, diplomacy and sharing freedoms are not words one usually associates with our colleagues of the grey variety Cadet." she looked at her, "You may sit down."

T'Lani was about to speak to the collected cadets again when her combadge chirped. She looked to the class and nodded her head slightly as a sign for them to talk through themselves while she dealt with the communique.

=/\= T'Lani here =/\=

=/\= Colonel, you have a priority real-time communication from Starfleet Command =/\=

She cocked an eyebrow, she was not expecting any messages from Command, =/\= From whom?=/\=

=/\= General Louise T'rannus =/\=

That was definetly unexpected, the Commander of the 4th Corps contacting T'Lani directly, =/\= Please extend my apologies, I will wrap up this lecture and then patch it through to my office =/\=

=/\=Understood Ma'am. Bridge Out =/\=

T'Lani returned her attention to the Cadets, "Sadly I will have to close this lecture early. Your assignment to be completed by tomorrow morning is to speak to your Department Head and discuss with them their reasons for joining Starfleet and why they chose the commissioned route. You will need to discuss what they see as their role as an Officer" she looked at them, "You will all receive a message from me this afternoon concerning your practical assignment for tomorrow. Until then," she looked around, "Cadet's Dismissed" she gave a final nod to signal she had ended. She watched as they began to leave the room. Once they had left she walked through the back door and headed to her office.


A JP by The Rommie and the two wet behind the ears.