A New Beginning, A Familiar Role

Posted on Mon Dec 17th, 2018 @ 1:38pm by Lieutenant Yid Seeyak & Lieutenant Commander Tyhr Th'rhaatress

Mission: Getting underway
Location: Earth Orbit
Timeline: 04 September, 2394 - 0900 Hours

[ON]

Yid sat in the shuttle, feeling rested after a nice long shore leave. He'd loved San Francisco during his Academy days and he'd taken the opportunity to visit some of his favorite places in the city. He thought he'd gained a little weight but the food was so spectacular that he couldn't really be blamed. The shuttle lifted off smoothly, the Golden Gate Bridge, crowded with early morning runners and walkers, falling away to the stern as the nose of the craft lifted upwards. The blue-white of the atmosphere soon blended to pure black, a blanket of stars greeting them as they broke free of Earth's gravity.

"Axca, this is Shuttle four six seven, on approach with inbound personnel and supplies," the pilot, a young Trill woman, said. Yid smiled. He was the only person on board. The rest of the craft was filled with boxes of all sizes. He'd taken time to look over the Axca in the database. She was a Nova refit, and he thought he was going to enjoy working on her. She was bigger than the Fearless had been. A deep sadness welled up at the thought of his lost ship. If only he'd been faster. He pushed away the thought.

=^=Shuttle four six seven, you are clear for landing in the main shuttlebay. Welcome=^=

In front of them the shuttlebay doors split open, the lights from the interior flooding the space just outside. The pilot made a minor adjustment and in a second they were touching down inside.

"Welcome to the Axca, lieutenant," the pilot said

Yid smiled a he stood up. "Thanks for the ride," he said in reply and turned and walked down the rear ramp.

His inquiries suggested that the ship was being completely turned over and no crew were staying aboard. He knew that the captain was Caitian and had served on the USS Yukon Yid knew of that ship as he had a friend who'd served on the old Ambassador class vessel. By all accounts it had been a good ship. Yid made his way through the shuttlebay, dodging around some of the enlisted crew from the dockyards. They were unpacking and moving the mountain of supplies necessary to make the Axca a truly operational ship.

The walk to the turbolift was a short one and disturbingly lonely. Yid saw only two other personnel, a harried looking ensign in teal and another dockyard worker. The ship was eight decks total, which after a Defiant class ship felt massive.

"Computer locate Captain S'relli," Yid said.

=^=Captain S'relli is in his Ready Room=^= the computer replied.

"Bridge," Yid said and the turbolift engaged. A moment later the doors opened, revealing the empty bridge of the Axca. It was more expansive that he'd expected, with Seating for the captain and xo in the center and stations behind and in front for others. He approached the Ready Room door and triggered the door chime.

S'relli sipped at a tea. His ears perked at the chime. He put on his best smile. "Come in!" He cheerfully said.

Yid entered, noting the spotted color of the captain's fur. He stopped in front of the desk and came to attention. "Lieutenant Seeyak Yid, reporting for duty, captain," Yid said. Internally he took the captain's smile as a good indicator. He knew that some captains preferred the strict approach to first meetings.

"At ease, Lieutenant," S'relli said. "Have a seat?" He motioned towards a chair. "Can I get you anything? I like to keep informal as much as possible."

Yid nodded and sat down in the seat across from the captain. "Thank you for the offer, sir but I'm good right now. Before I came aboard I had a last meal at the Madicedusan Sushi restaurant in San Francisco. My stomach is about to burst," Yid said with a smile. "I'm coming aboard a little early to get a grasp on the Axca's quirks. Every ship has them. I'd also hoped to get your opinion on the ship and find out if you had any requirements you would like me to take care of before we get underway?"

"Great idea." S'relli nodded, adding a smile of his own. "Only thing I can think of is this. The Axca is relatively new. And specs say what they say as to what it can do. But what will it do more speed wise? Does that make sense? My training is tactical after all."

Yid thought for a second before replying. "Captain, the one advantage here is that my specialty is propulsion systems. I've worked with a lot of different types of warp drives and impulse engines. The Nova is unique because we only have one impulse engine. Our warp drive is actually pretty robust for a ship of her size. Having said that, I can probably make things faster but I'll need to put the ship through a stress test. I'm not sure where we are going but if during the trip we can push her to maximum speed, I can then take that data and figure out how to make her run faster for longer. Of course, pushing a ship like that does have risks but as long as I monitor things closely, I'm confident it can be done," Yid said.

"Makes total sense to me. I don't know a phase coil from a spanner." The Caitian laughed.

Yid smiled and stood up. "I'll get to work on a series of maneuvers that will help us evaluate our engines. Thank you, sir," Seeyak said and headed out the door.

[OFF]

Commander S'relli
Commanding Officer
USS Axca NCC-75304

Lieutenant Yid Seeyak
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Axca NCC-75304