A New Posting Part 2

Posted on Wed Jun 23rd, 2021 @ 4:19pm by Lieutenant Commander Andromeda Lightfeather
Edited on on Fri Jul 9th, 2021 @ 9:59pm

Mission: Mission 0: Have Wings, Will Fly
Location: Earth/Various
Timeline: Stardate 239405.30

[ON]

Next Day 0600 hours - Spaceport

As promised at 6 am Andi with her items was at the Spaceport awaiting her shuttle up to the ship that would take her to her new ship, as she was waiting for, the Captain that had visited her family, now came up to her at the spaceport.

"Hello, Lieutenant Commander, all ready to go?" He asked her as he stood next to her.

She looks to her left "hello Sir, it is unusual for a Captain to see off someone like myself, I would have thought you would have other duties, more important ones?" Andi asked.

The Captain shrugged "I just remembered I have never told you my name, it is Hernandez, Captain Gabriel Hernandez and I command the USS Marco Polo and Intrepid Class ship, she is the fastest in the Sector" he said.

Andi looked at him "Nice to meet you, Captain Gabriel Hernandez of the USS Marco Polo, so why are you telling me this?" Andi asked.

"I just thought I would offer you a lift to Starbase 48, ideal location for a shakedown cruise," he said with a smile.

Andi was taken aback by such an offer and the Captain was not unfortunate looking she thought, still for an unknown Captain to offer such a lift she could not help but wonder what he had to gain, then again perhaps he was just being kind.

"That is very kind of you Captain, I accept but what of my transport I have booked?" She asked him and saw him concentrate a moment and tapped his Commbadge.

=/\= Hernandez to Spaceport control, kindly cancel the slot of a Lieutenant Commander Andromeda Lightfeather will you, she has found another method of travel =/\= he said.

=/\= Acknowledged Captain, will do control out =/\= came the reply and then silence.

Andi picked up her two bags and weapon bag and looked at the Captain "ready when you are Captain" she said looking at him,

Again tapping his Commbadge "Marco Polo two to transport, energize" he said and a moment later both felt the effects of the transporter as it claimed both of them, the familiar earth gravity was replaced by the lighter gravity of a Starship.

As the effect wore off both stepped off the transporter as the Captain's Yeoman entered "Chief take the Commanders bags to visitors quarters will you?" He asked.

The Yeoman simply nodded and took the bags and left the room, the Captain looked at her "how about a tour? Ever been on an Intrepid before?" He asked.

Smiling at him "No I have not Sir" she said, and refrained from telling him she had served on an Intrepid-class called the Churchill as First Officer for a short time some years back, it was clear he wanted to impress her his actions while respectable were flirtatious, to say the least. She was flattered by the attention but she liked the rules in such situations, but she liked to tease such males as they were so easy.

As she was given a tour of the ship she asked innocent questions in the right places and ooh'd and aah'd in the right places, when it came to him asking her out she politely declined but said she would accept a drink, so as it went she had a tour of a ship she was familiar with and gotten a drink and escorted to her quarters.

"It will be a few hours before we undock, take some time to rest Commander and then come on up to the bridge," Hernandez said with a charming smile, such a smile that Andi was not immune to, the only thing that stopped her was the rules and for now the Captain seemed to accept that and bid a see you later to her.

0900 hours

Andi was relaxing in her quarters when she got a call that the ship was ready to leave and would she like to be on the bridge when it happened. Thinking it would be nice to be on an Intrepid bridge again she agreed and made her way to the bridge the Captain was still unaware that she served on an Intrepid in the past, he was only interested in her for one thing and it was the one thing he could not give her, but she had to admit his smile made her legs go weak oO Ah the roads not taken Oo she thought to herself as she entered the lift and when the doors closed.

"Bridge," she said and the lift whisked her to her requested destination, while she was on her way her mind was on her new Captain of the Endurance, she had heard of a full Command making a ship Commander, even after all these years Starfleet was still replenishing its Commanding Officer pool, granted there were more peacetime commanders now, but there were still quite a few ship Captain's that took part in the Dominion War and all current Captain's not engaged in classified or essential duties out on the borders had been involved in evacuating Romulus and Remus before Hobus reached the planets.

The lift arrived on the bridge and the doors opened, she looked up and saw Captain Hernandez "permission to come aboard Captain?" She asked it was a formality, as she was not part of the crew it was protocol.

Hernandez looked at the officer in the lift "permission granted Commander" he responded and watched her fine physique walk onto the bridge, he had tried to get a proper date with her, but she was not so easily ensnared this made him want to date her even more, but she had diplomatically spurned his advances with great finesse but he still held out hope.

"So this is an Intrepid-class bridge!" Andi said as she stood near where the Counsellor would normally sit she noticed the First Officer sitting in his seat but no Counsellor "where is your counsellor Captain?" She asked.

"Picking her up at Starbase 48, this is why I offered you a lift, we have to go that way" Hernandez responded "but please have a seat," he said indicating the empty Counsellors seat.

"Thank you Captain" Andi answered and took a seat and remained silent as the Captain did his job.

"Communications notify Shipyard flight control that we are ready to switch to internal power" Hernandez ordered

"Aye Captain, Starbase control acknowledges and is prepared for change over," the Officer at communications said.

With that, a hum was heard as the ships activated its warp core and switched to internal power "Ship is now running on internal power Captain engines powering up" came the Ops Officer's announcement.

"Detach external cables and retract gangway's," Hernandez said and was pleased to see his orders being carried out very efficiently, now if other things in his life went as smoothly it would be a major victory.

"External cables detached and gangway's retracted we have clearance to leave the shipyard Captain" again the Operations Officer said from his spot on the bridge.

"Very well" he began and sat down "Helm one-quarter thrusters if you will until we are clear then go to full impulse when able until we clear any major gravity wells," Hernandez said and watched as the viewscreen came to life and he saw the ship moving forward slowly as they left the shipyard.

"All systems reporting green across the board Captain," the Operations Officer said, the Captain simply nodded as the ship picked up speed after it left the shipyard.

As the ship reached full Impulse they passed the moon of Titan and out past Neptune when they cleared the gravity of the planet well "Warp ready Captain" the Helm Officer replied.

"Excellent set heading for Starbase 48, maximum warp," Hernandez said and the hum of the warp core drawing power could be heard as the pylons raised up to the standard angle, "engage," Hernandez said as the stars became starlines.

As the ship hurtled at warp nine point nine there was a funny noise, Andi tilted her head to one side "Captain, do you hear that strange noise?" She asked and saw him take note oO full of it, but never one to ignore a subordinates suspicions, this is good Oo she thought to herself.

"Yes, I hear," he said and tapped a button on his chair arm "Bridge to Engineering, is there a problem with an EPS or ODN relay on the system we can hear an unsettling buzz up here on the bridge," he said.

"Affirmative Captain, an alert just come up, I recommend dropping to Impulse until we can fix it" was the response from engineering.

"Acknowledged, Bridge out," he said then looked at the Helm officer "drop us from warp speed," Hernandez said and the starlines became stars again, as the ship returned to full impulse Andi stood up and walked to the Helm/Navigation "Lieutenant where are we exactly?" She asked.

The Lieutenant checked "halfway to the Cestus system" she replied.

"What is the closest Starbase to us Lieutenant?" Andi asked the helm officer, she had a bad feeling about their location.

"Deep Space Nine at maximum warp five days" the Lieutenant responded, "why do you ask Commander?" came the question.

"We are still in Federation space, yes?" She asked.

"Yes!" the Lieutenant replied clearly and with a curious tone.

Hernandez had heard some of what passed between his helm officer and guest and walked over to them, he saw Lightfeather tapping something into the console as if it was second nature to her. "What is it, Commander?" He asked, her tone did not put him at ease.

Turning to face him "Captain, warp has failed, we are some light-years from the nearest Starbase and at least two light-years from any other starship and while this is Federations space it is lightly patrolled and has been known to have pirates operate out here until the warp issue is fixed we are a sitting target Captain," Andi said as she moved away from the helm station, in time it would seem as the ship was rocked from a hit sending her and the Captain flying and the helm officer receiving a fatal burn as his console exploded.

[OFF]