so if i asked what the status was on who is or is not yet part of the ever growing mill of ppl that will be part of us?
could i then get an update on the races`s status?
just so i have an idea on who too lobby for
so if i asked what the status was on who is or is not yet part of the ever growing mill of ppl that will be part of us?
could i then get an update on the races`s status?
just so i have an idea on who too lobby for
Well, we were gearing up for a war with the Cardies and the Pact anyway; not even the Pacifists could deny it'd be the perfect grounds/excuse to do so if it happened.
Well, we were gearing up for a war with the Cardies and the Pact anyway; not even the Pacifists could deny it'd be the perfect grounds/excuse to do so if it happened.
Tall orders, what with the raging diplomacy war with Horizon, the aftermath of the Klingon/Romulan brawl, the Breen and Gorn wildcards, the always-fun interactions with the Lecarre, our trust-the-Tauni-to-stay-intersting issues and the always always always fun crit fails for events (like the altVulcans deciding to go universe hopping or whatever).
Forgot the 'why do you fail responses' complaints from members, and I foresee at least one potential member secession crisis (I mean, Brexit must be good for something, even if it's just for being an example ...).
Well, we were gearing up for a war with the Cardies and the Pact anyway; not even the Pacifists could deny it'd be the perfect grounds/excuse to do so if it happened.
Spirit's captain is seated behind the desk in her ready room, intensely focused on a spread of PADDs that are laid out before her; each containing paperwork more tedious than the last.
She's fairly average for a Human, one point seven meters tall, shoulder length black hair, the standard smooth skin that's given humanity so many nicknames, brown eyes. She's considered attractive if unremarkable by human standards; yet the name and face of Spirit's captain is well known to a surprising number of important Federation aligned species.
In a career spanning two and a half decades of service to Starfleet and the Federation that's taken her everywhere from the command deck of Enterprise-B, to the bridge of the Honiani flagship, then finally to two commands of her own, Captain Jennifer Zhang has made a well respected name for herself.
At the moment she is humming tunelessly to herself as she fills in replenishment requests for Spirit. None of the paperwork is particularly urgent, but there's no point in waiting to do the work later. Best to get it out of the way now.
As she fills in empty fields, she's not thinking of her long distance marriage to her wife and fellow Starfleet Captain Abigail Taggart, or about the future of her career. She is simply trying to figure out the most polite way to beg for spare parts from Starfleet Logistics Command.
Which makes it a very auspicious time for the future of her career to interrupt.
Captain Jennifer Zhang's future arrives in the form of a cheerful chirp and brief beep from her personal terminal. Understated, compared to the import of the message's contents, but it's not an urgent or high priority message from the perspective of Spirit's communications routing system.
Zhang eyes her terminal hopefully, the distraction from her work coming as a welcome respite at this late hour.
Setting aside her Starfleet-issue blue mug of Andorian hot chocolate, it's only the work of a moment for Spirit's Captain to log into her terminal and input the password; her eyes widen in sudden shock when she glimpses the message's subject line.
A minute later Captain Jennifer Zhang has a wide smile addicted to her face when the ready room door chimes.
"Enter" says Zhang cheerily, pushing her chair back from the terminal slightly, and absently arraigning the PADDs into a more presentable pile.
"Captain!" Lieutenant Dash sh'Rinboq says, quickly striding in from the bridge, where she'd been sitting as watch officer for Delta shift. The Andorian officer's expression shifts when she notices her captain's beaming smile, "Received some good news ma'am?" she asks as she hands a PADD over to her Captain.
The question interrupts Zhang's racing mind, that babbling brook of a thousand happy thoughts churning at once, and she looks up from the new PADD to her subordinate, "Yes. Yes, you could certainly say that I have received some good news, Lieutenant."
A thought occurs to the Captain and she tilts her head slightly as she evaluates the younger Andorian woman. Dash has helm skills that put the Lieutenant in the running to have her name uttered in the same breath as Mayweather, Sulu, or Stol. And... the young woman also has a demonstrated history of bravery and performance under the most dire of circumstances. The young woman was definitely on the way up.
She'd do. She'd do perfectly well.
"Ms. sh'Rinboq. You have Explorer Corps qualification do you not?" Zhang says after that brief moment of consideration.
"Yes ma'am!" Dash says, briefly confused by the apparent non-sequitur, but her mind then begins racing towards a sudden conclusion.
"Well then, Ms. sh'Rinboq, how'd you like to accompany me when I take command of Enterprise?"
Stardate 27604.5, Hull NX-3902, Utopia Planitia
"So, is my information correct? That the saucer section crew deck is now fully completed?" Captain Jennifer Zhang says, eyeing a work crew from Utopia Planitia moving large containers across space from the dockyard into the open cargo bay of the hull that will be Enterprise's, a Starfleet Issue travel bag hanging from her shoulder.
"Yes ma'am," says a Utopia Planitia engineer. A man who'd been with the hull that would be Enterprise since her keel had been laid.
"To be clear. The deck is pressurized. Gravity is active, and the life support systems are fully online?" Zhang watches the yard officer intently, "That entire section is now complete except for fitting in crew amenities?"
"Yes Captain." The Indorian regards the Captain and the bag she holds, "Are you planning on moving into your quarters now, Captain?" The man asks with a tone of mild incredulity.
"Oh, Lakhept, no. Abby would kill me. Probably Old Man Leslie too, for getting in the way." The woman who will be Enterprise's captain, once the ship leaves the slip, chuckles before she changes the subject, "I am still authorized for day trips aboard to the finished sections, yes?"
"With permission from a yard engineer, yes"
"Good." Zhang begins to walk towards the worker umbilical connecting the yard to the uncompleted ship, "May I have permission to board NX-3902 today Lieutenant Neroth?"
"I, or another engineer, will have to accompany you, but you do have permission to inspect the completed sections, Captain."
"Excellent!" Zhang smiles as she approaches the entrance to the umbilical that connects hull NX-3902 to the yard, the dockyard Lieutenant hurrying to keep up behind her.
There's a small security and safety checkpoint to go through before entering the ship first though. The security officer checks the identities of the two officers, and the safety officer hands Zhang a suite of gear.
"The boots are both magnetic and antigravity, they are activated like so" the chief begins with practiced ease as he hands the gear over, "The helmet has a rebreather good for two hours which you will activate in the event of accidental loss of atmo." He demonstrates with his own helmet how to activate the breathing equipment, "The safety webbing also has an emergency beacon and communicator system that will also activate automatically on the station declaring an emergency." He finishes, indicating heavy sections of the bright reflective vest as he hands it over.
"Thank you chief" says Zhang as she slips on the safety gear and steps through the checkpoint to enter the umbilical, "As efficient as always."
She and Neroth approach NX-3902's airlock, their boots clanking on the metal grating.
Zhang has been aboard the ship before, more than once even, since she'd been assigned to assemble and train and command the officers and crew of the most sought after assignment in the fleet. But despite that, as she approached the ship's grey and white hull she still felt a heady mix of trepidation and excitement. More excitement than she'd felt for any of her previous commands.
Jennifer wants to reach out and touch the ship, to run her fingers along the walls as she walked. She doesn't do that, though that restraint was mostly out of a respect for the yard workers who still walked these corridors, who didn't deserve some random officer getting in their way.
Zhang holds her bag more firmly as she and Neroth walk along the central passageway that circled the midsection of the crew deck, taking a brief detour up and down through different decks to avoid the furnishing of a section of junior officers quarters.
The Captain comes to a stop just outside the forward lounge, the area of the ship designed to be the beating social and diplomatic heart of the Ambassador-class.
Zhang carefully sets herself down in front of the wall across from the lounge entrance and begins unpacking her bag as her Indorian companion watches with interest.
"This wall is on the other side of a materials storage room for the crew section. There is almost twenty meters of bare wall in either direction" Zhang begins, gesturing at the perfectly normal grey metal of the section, before carefully lining up a series of books and a pair PADDs, one containing an official permission from the yard for "Non-structural cosmetic cultural modifications," next to where she has set herself down.
"There is an old Honiani tradition. Dating back centuries. Well, millennia really." She starts in a conversational tone, abruptly switching topics on Neroth again. "That tradition is that each Honiani ship has a part of the wall in the habitation sections of their ships set aside for a mural. And any member of a ship's crew has permission to add to the ship's mural." She laughs. "Well, within reason, I'm certain there are all kinds of disrespectful things that would be frowned upon."
Neroth kneels down next to Zhang as she pulls out a set of paints from her bag.
"That mural usually expands until a ship goes to the breakers or is lost in space." she opens up the pages of one of the books as a reference, "But traditionally speaking a ship's mural must be started by her Captain."
Zhang grins as she makes her first brush stroke, "We create a living legacy. A way for ship and crew to shape, and become part of, the same story."
Neroth smiles as he sets down next to the Captain, "I think she'll like this Captain," he says, patting the deck fondly.
Zhang smiles back at the Indorian Lieutenant, "Well, I'd hoped that she would!" she says with a quiet laugh.
Zhang pauses part way through an outline of Enterprise -this Enterprise- lying in her cradle at Utopia Planitia.
Zhang offers the brush to Neroth and he hesitates, hand outstretched, "I thought that only members of the crew were allowed to add to a mural?
"Well. There's a empty spot on my crew manifest, near the very top, for an engineer." Enterprise's future captain says with a raised eyebrow.
There is a moment of understanding and then the Indorian engineer finishes reaching for the brush.
Stardate 27769, USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C
Admiral Nash ka'Sharren all but hops from foot to foot on the Martian transporter pad as she waits for the transporter beam to take hold of her.
There is something to be said for quiet dignity and maintaining appearances. Nash knows that. But she also knows that there is a time and place for everything. And today was the time and place for grinning ear to ear like a giddy schoolgirl and occasionally breaking out into happy sighs.
If she were a better singer, she'd probably already have tried to start a musical number. Okay, three musical numbers.
Today would be a simple if significant day for Starfleet, Enterprise and Ambassador would undertake their final shakedown cruise, a quick trip to Proxima Centauri and back before they were officially sent on their very first Five Year Missions.
And in her position as the Chief of Staff for the Explorer Corps, Admiral Nash ka'Sharren had finagled her way onto Enterprise for that final shakedown cruise, finally boarding the ship that was the successor to her own beloved command.
Her excitement was so complete because Nash had stayed away from Enterprise until now.
No, that's wrong, she's given the hull that would be Enterprise the same amount of love and attention she gave every other Explorer Corps vessel under construction while she was the EC Chief of Staff. But she'd avoided lavishing all the attention that she'd been inclined to on the ship. It was better for her health, and the health of all the people involved in building and crewing the ship, that she kept a hands-off policy.
But now that she's here, finally here, all of that emotion sweeps her along during the transport to Enterprise. There was an incredible level of sheer joy of seeing her love reincarnated, the bittersweet knowledge that comes from knowing that this new Enterprise was not, could not, be hers. Excitement from being here to send the ship on her final shakedown cruise.
Admiral Nash ka'Sharren steps off Enterprise's transporter pad a beaming beacon of joy and pride.
The smiles of the officers assembled to meet her are filled with just as much pride, and Captain Jennifer Zhang steps forward to meet the Admiral with a sunrise of a grin breaking through her attempt at a dignified and stoic expression, "Admiral, what a pleasant surprise!" She opens her arms wide. "Welcome to Enterprise."
"She is a beautiful ship, Captain," says the Admiral. "Her senior staff doesn't look too bad either, mind giving me a proper introduction?"
"Of course, Admiral," says Zhang. "That's what they're here for. Though some of them are on the bridge or in engineering, like Lieutenant Commander Neroth; it's proving next to impossible to drag him out of main engineering."
"I'm sure we'll have a chance to catch up during the tour," says Nash. "I take it this gentleman here is your XO?"
"Commander Kol Deva," says an extraordinarily handsome Orion man as he reaches out to take Nash's extended hand, "I've heard so much about you, Admiral, all of it good."
"You've been talking to the wrong people," says ka'Sharren with a chuckle. "I'll have to set you straight later."
"Have we met before?" says Nash as she moves on to the man who is clearly Enterprise's new CMO. "I'm certain that we've met."
The doctor, a Risan man in a fashionably rumpled uniform and lab coat, who exudes an almost palpable sense of relaxed charisma takes Nash handshake, "Almost certainly Admiral, I've served on a lot of ships in my career." He chuckles. "Though on the other hand, If I had met you before I would certainly remember right now. You are the sort of woman who never fails to leave an impression behind." There is a moment of awkwardness. "Ah, right, I am Doctor Ahanle, Enterprise's CMO"
"Admiral," someone else takes her hand, as she drops Ahanles's. "Counselor Roxun. I handle Enterprise's metal health department."
"Roxun was on Courageous, but he came back with the Excalibur crew for continuity of treatment," Zhang explains.
The well built Betazoid man nods seriously, "There was only so much I could do, and now I've applied for a return to space." His expression tells an entire tragedy in one crestfallen expression.
"He is very good at his job, Admiral," Kol adds, cutting in smoothly. "No one else in the fleet has dealt with issues as varied and exotic as Roxun has. I can vouch for him being the best of the best."
"He's not wrong about my experience," Roxun says with a wry chuckle.
Nash chuckles along with the counsellor. If she didn't know that Jen Zhang was happily married woman of very particular tastes, she'd accuse her of assembling a harem of charming men. But as it is… it's simpler to move onto the sole female member of the senior staff here to meet her.
"Admiral!" says the Andorian woman excitedly, "Dash sh'Rinboq! I mean, I am Lieutenant Dash sh'Rinboq." she says hurriedly, "Enterprise's Flight Controller."
Zhang smiles almost maternally at the young woman, and leans in close to ka'Sharren, "She all but begged to be here to meet you," she says in a hushed voice, "I just couldn't say no."
"She certainly is a dashing young officer," Nash says, shaking the other Andorian woman's hand, "Your Captain's told me nothing good things about you when she was on Spirit."
"Thankyouma'am!" says the helmswoman quickly.
"Shall we?" says the Starfleet Admiral, gesturing towards the transporter room exit, "I'm not so old yet that I can't take a full tour of this magnificent ship!"
"Of course!" Zhang says, leading the Admiral towards the exit.
Commander Deva follows the two out, "Sadly Admiral, I have an appointment in the shuttle bay, some minor mechanical troubles, nothing to worry about," he shrugs, "But someone has to see to it."
"And the good Doctor and I have patients to discuss," says the Betazoid counselor, indicating his Risan companion. "I look forward to talking more with you later Admiral"
"Of course gentlemen, I'm by no means here to get in your way," Nash says, as the small party breaks up.
"You know, that wasn't entirely a joke." Nash says to Zhang as they follow Lieutenant sh'Rinboq towards the turbolifts, "Why are they all so young now," she says quietly, nodding at the younger Andorian officer.
"You're one to talk, you were almost a decade younger than me when you took command of your Enterprise." Zhang says with a look of amusement as the Turbolift starts and begins to race towards the bridge.
"Don't remind me."
"Well. Get ready for more of that Admiral, we've arrived," says Zhang as the turbolift doors softly hiss open and the trio of officers emerge on Enterprise's bridge.
Nash opens her mouth to reply but is struck mute as she notices the activity on the bridge. Really notices, as someone announces her presence, and the bridge crew turn to face her.
When Nash ka'Sharren had started her first Five Year Mission over twenty years ago Starfleet drew its crew from only a handful of worlds, the four core members and a scattering of academy cadets from neighbours like the Caitians and Rigellians.
But today there were members of no less than ten different species on that bridge. All in Starfleet uniforms and hurring to and fro with professional precision. Some of those races even from peoples who she had personally made First Contact with.
The galaxy had changed so much in so short a time.
"You may return to your duties," says the Admiral gravely. "You can ogle the legend out of the corner of your eyes later," she adds.
Zhang laughs along with the rest of her crew, "I have more officers for you to meet." She nods towards the officers on the bridge. "Unless it's time for your nap."
"I deserve that," says Nash. "Alright, go on."
"Well then, I'd like you to meet my Science officer," Zhang steps next to sharply groomed Caitian officer with a Lieutenant Commander's insignia. "Commander M'hrana. She comes off T'Mir with Captain Connor's highest complements."
"Commander. It is a pleasure to meet you in person" says the Admiral as she shakes the Caitian commander's hand.
"The pleasure is all mine, Admiral, your missions were an inspiration at the Academy," says the younger officer with a graceful bob of her head.
Zhang suppresses a chuckle at her friend's expense as she shuffles the Admiral along to the tactical section.
"This is Lieutenant Commander Tiirid, my Tactical officer. He served as Fire Control officer on Sunrise before he decided to join Starfleet." Zhang nods at a very serious looking Fiiliral officer. "Honestly, if his whole career had been spent in Starfleet, he would probably be wearing your uniform right now."
Nash regards the betentacled avianoid tactical officer with mild skepticism, "Well, maybe not my uniform" she says, looking down and tugging at her uniform.
"Well, regardless, It's good to meet you, Commander Tiirid." Nash gives the Fiiral officer a respectful nod, "No one gets that spot if they aren't qualified. Keep my people people safe out there."
"Of course Ma'am." Tiirid gives the Admiral a respectful nod of his own. "I've been keeping crews safe for thirty years, I'm not going to fail now," he says with a deep, trilling, voice.
"Good man," Nash says as she moves on to the next officer, a tall Vulcan Lieutenant with the dark green of security in her uniform, "Hmm, one moment, I've got this," Nash squints slightly, "You're from Frontier? Lieutenant T'Sen, yes?"
"That's a pretty good memory for an old woman, Nash," says Zhang as they move to the centre of the bridge.
"I literally just approved her transfer to Enterprise from Frontier something like two weeks ago." Nash shrugs.
"I didn't think that was your job."
"I mean, it's technically not, I just keep a close watch on all the assignments to Corps vessels."
"Wait." Zhang says, stopping next to her captain's chair, "You've been letting me introduce you to my officers when you knew who they were all along?"
"I didn't want to get in your way, you were so happy," says Nash with a finely honed air of innocence.
"It's a good thing we're friends, Admiral," says Zhang with a chuckle as she settles into her seat, "Of course I knew that you already knew, but it does the crew good to meet you. You are a legend after all"
"Please don't remind me," says Nash with an unfeigned sigh and mirthless chuckle. "I'm just a woman doing her job."
"Anyway" the Admiral changes the subject, "You mind if I take this free seat? She gestures to a chair set to the left of the Captain's spot.
"The mission specialist's seat?" Zhang smiles, "I suppose that you count as a mission specialist."
Nash settles into the seat, taking a moment to appreciate the view of the bridge officers and crew setting into their task industriously all around her. Next to her Zhang takes a PADD from a Yan-Ros junior officer.
"Admiral, meet Lieutenant Cindre, she's transferred to Starfleet from a Vail Ranger academy. She's shaping up to be an excellent ops officer."
"Lieutenant," says Nash with a nod, coming to grips with the uncanny valley feeling of being close to, but not in, the Captain's chair.
"You know Jen, this second chair is my idea," she says after a moment.
"Really." The Captain doesn't look up as she puts her initials on the PADD.
Nash throws up her hands mock defensively, "No, I'm serious. The designers were in contact with every living explorer corps captain. It might not be entirely my fault; but I suggested the "mission specialist" chair next to the captain."
Jen Zhang hands the PADD back to the ops officer and looks at ka'Sharren, "I understand the designers reasoning, what was yours?"
The Andorian admiral gives Zhang a wink and a smile.
"Lakhept!" She laughs, blushing slightly. "Nash, no, you're not serious."
"Well, only partially," ka'Sharren laughs along with Zhang, "You remember Admiral Khev?" she pauses at Zhang's blank look, "Wait, no, that was before you came aboard. Khev was the Romulan Admiral from the Biophage campaign. He was always hanging over my shoulder." she gestures at her seat, "It's just easier to give someone like that somewhere to sit where they can feel important" she shrugs, "You can probably put your lunch or your XO or something on here when it's free. That's also my gift to you."
"Somewhere to put my stuff?" says Zhang, very deliberately not rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, they took the little table that we had, at least you've got the extra cha-"
"Captain!" The Caitian science officer suddenly bursts into motion at her station, "I'm picking up a major temporal distortion in this system, forming near Jupiter."
Nash curses quietly to herself as Enterprise's new bridge crew spring into action.
Zhang settles back into her seat, setting her elbows on her armrests with a calm solidity as she steeples her fingers together, "Bring us to Red Alert. I want readiness reports now!"
The chatter of a Starfleet ship echos back and forth across the bridge. This may be a new crew, unused to working with each other, but they are professionals, the best of the best and they perform with practiced expertise.
"Contact Utopia Planitia and bring us out of the yard. I want us between Mars and that rift"
"The rift is three hundred and sixty two kilometers across at the widest point, sending scans to tactical."
"We're getting a signal through the rift. Unable to compensate for atemporal flux"
"Shields online!"
"Receiving confirmation of sensor data from Ambassador!"
"Federation IFF signal! It's… Tarrak!"
"Well, Leaniss always knew how to crash a party," Nash mutters to herself as she does her best not to distract Enterprise's crew, "I really should just marry that woman or she'll keep doing this"
"Tarrak is the vessel coming through the rift!" calls out M'hrana as the screen shifts to a view of a roiling mass of spacetime and radiation, and in the middle of the maelstrom: Tarrak, graceful in her white and grey Starfleet finery.
"She's hailing us."
"Put her on."
The viewscreen snaps to a view of a familiar bridge, and a familiar face.
"Enterprise! Ambassador! We're transmitting a data dump now." Leaniss speaks quickly, her officers making their own excited chatter in the background, "There is little time to explain."
"The short version then," says Zhang quickly.
"To put things quickly: Parallel timeline, aggressive Empire, threat to Sol, threat to the Federation, threat to spacetime, Please follow us back to seal the breach. Actually not Tarrak's fault." Leaniss looks offscreen at someone, "We'll transmit authentication codes along with the full details."
Then there is a flash of light from the rift as Tarrak reverses her course and falls back into the rift.
"The data is undergoing quarantine, but the authentication signature is genuine Captain" calls out an Indorian officer, "I will route the data to your terminals once we've finished the data verification and security scan Ma'ams."
"Jen." says Nash thoughtfully, "Enterprise. She is fully equipped, right? We're not waiting until, say, next tuesday until everything actually useful is installed?"
"Enterprise was one hundred percent equipped for a full Five Year Mission when you transported aboard Admiral," Jennifer Zhang says, an eyebrow raised, knowing exactly what her old Captain is driving at.
"Well, we wouldn't want to repeat history now would we." Nash says, before nodding at the viewscreen, "She's your ship. We could keep on course all the way to Proxima Centauri if you wanted." She smiles gently, "I'll back whatever call you make, but I think we should trust Leaniss"
Enterprise's Captain raises a hand to catch the attention of her bridge crew, "Communications, signal Captain Volanen, tell her that we are moving to assist Tarrak and that she is welcome to join us. Retransmit our intentions to Starfleet command" Zhang turns and nods at the Andorian Helmswoman, "Lieutenant. Take us in"
"Jen." says Nash thoughtfully, "Enterprise. She is fully equipped, right? We're not waiting until, say, next tuesday until everything actually useful is installed?"
I am completely unsurprised by this turn of events but at the same time extremely excited. Also love the showing off how many different species are represented in the crew.
She's the one that actually married Nash due to a Kirk style misunderstanding. Then she got divorced by the end of the episode but in a SHOCKING TWIST actually stayed around to become an important character. There was also a Tsun bee, the Romulan Empress, and some Cardasian Girl who I've honestly forgotten about.
The Techno-Vulcans considered Tarrak worth pulling three cruisers in for - wonder what they will try to call in with the Ambassador twins backing things up...
