Chapter One: That New Starship Smell

Chapter One: That New Starship Smell

Starbase 29 - 0920 Hours

The buzzer went off every five minutes, continually annoying the sleeper, but she wouldn't listen to it until finally she was summoned by an annoyed voice."Captain! It's almost 0930!"

The figure under the sheets stirred and groaned, her hand reaching out to slap the panel on her bedstand. "Let me sleep... it's my day off." she muttered and covered herself again.

"Admiral Takamura and Ryder are here and requesting your presence." the voice replied

She groaned and got up, the sheets still covering her head, "Why the feck are they here? They didn't tell me they were coming."

"Ever hear of surprises Captain?"

"Becky, the only surprise I enjoy is on my birthday or when my boyfriend comes over. Not when my father and Takamura come around. So much for enjoying my day off." she sighed heavily and got out of bed. Shuffling into the bathroom, she scratched her head and stretched her neck, "Computer, display any messages for Captain Angelica Ryder on bathroom mirror."

"There are five new messages." the computer intoned

"Lovely. Any from the Admirals?" she asked while pouring some mouthwash into a cup

"Negative. Two are from your boyfriend, one is from Chief of Engineering on the Valkryie, one is from Lt. Riga regarding your previous message. And one is from Starfleet Command." the computer replied

Angelica was just about to take a swig of mouthwash when she heard the Starfleet Command line. "What?" she said after spitting out the mouthwash. "Playback message."

"Message received four hours ago." the computer intoned and then began to playback the video message "Good morning Captain Ryder, I have some good news, you are going to have some visitors today, your father and Admiral Takamura on the USS Seraph. They will be giving you your next mission orders. I suggest you pack." the computer displayed the "End Message" graphic on the mirror.

Angel stared at the screen for a few moments "Pack?" she swallowed hard "Pack?" she blinked and looked at herself and then the chrono "I better rush and get ready... geez..."

In less than five minutes she was able to change out of her nightdress and into her full uniform, put her make up on and fixed her hair on the run. Dashing out of her quarters with her ever present briefcase, she ran to the command deck turbolift. Catching her breath in the lift, she wondered what her next mission would be that would require her to pack. She worried that maybe she was being transferred somewhere even more remote, as it was Starbase 29 was pretty far away from Earth. As the doors opened she saw her father sitting on a console reading a padd."Admiral." she saluted crisply and stood at attention.

"Captain." he replied as he looked up from the padd he was looking at. "You lost weight." he commented with a slight smile

"Been busy... and I had to attend a traditional Betazoid wedding a few weeks ago. Wouldn't do Starfleet proud if I walked in with a pot belly and love handles." Angel replied with a slight blush, one trait she always hated that she inherited from her father, the ability to blush easily.

"I see. I'd do the same thing." he turned red as well. "Well, I bet you're wondering why I came and why we screwed up your day off. Where you really going to sleep all day?" he looked at her over his padd

"Not all day. Half maybe. Then I was going to see if my boyfriend wanted to do something. Maybe pester him to give me a ring... again." She rolled her eyes. "Or maybe not. And yeah I am wondering... when you come personally I'm both overjoyed and scared. Especially when you come with Takamura and not mom."

Admiral Nick Ryder laughed and shook his head at his daughter's wit. "I scare you?" He kept chuckling at that "I thought I was a big teddy bear."

"You are, most of the time." Angel winked "Alright more than most of the time, so... enough banter, tell me... what did you want me to do this time?"

"Follow me." he gestured to her, "I've been going over your reports and the reports of your station commander. I think its time that you left this place."

"I do like it here daddy, I've made quite a few friends and the Betazoid governing council seems to approve of me." Angel replied "And as XO, I've made a number of changes here."

"I know, that's why its time for you to move on." he looked back at her, "After all, managing crew and supplies for a Starbase is hardly what you took all those command courses for, or why you agreed to be my yeoman for two years."

"I thought the latter was because mom was jealous of all the pretty young yeoman they were giving you." Angel said with a wry smile, she knew how her mother could be at times. Even though she was a stunning Asian beauty and that the relationship she had with her father was unbreakable, she still felt very possessive toward her husband. And why not, her father was tall, well built, good looking... she even had to personally slap a few of her girlfriends in the Academy for fawning over him.

"Uhm... yeah... that's partly true, but I also wanted you to follow in my footsteps. You realize how closely Legacies are looked at. On the one hand they don't want you to be too close, yet they want you to succeed, which you have done." he stopped by a window and turned around "As you know I've been overseeing rebuilding of the Fleet since the war, and well my division took heavy losses since we had most of the engineering ships, cargo and supply vessals and a number of multimission ships. Well, thanks to my help with the ASDB and Starfleet Command feeling grateful for my aide, they gave me one ship to give to a young, up and coming commander. Someone that can adapt to the changing Alpha Quadrant and present a fresh face to our allies." he took a small remote from his pocket and pointed it at the window "Captain Angelica Ryder... I present to you, the USS Seraph."

Out in space, the ship's running lights turned on, the bussard collectors and warp nacelles began to glow, the navigational deflector came to life and the ship came around, as if it was on a turntable.

"It's... she's... beautiful." Angel was speechless as she gaped at the starship. She was transfixed on the pearlescent finish of the hull, the blue warp nacelles, the way the entire ship seemed to flow, her eyes didn't quite know where to look, everything she saw amazed her.

"We decided to go back to the drawing board and revisit the classic designs. She's based on a prototype of the Constitution class that was never put into production. Starfleet felt that we needed to go back to our roots somewhat in terms of design. She's a one of a kind for now, at least in active service, we're testing it out but she's all yours." he said with a proud smile. The same kind of smile a proud father gives to his child when they do something exceptionally good. It was a smile his daughter knew quite well.

"I'm... I don't know what to say." Angel said softly "She's beautiful. I think I'm in love."

"Then I know I made the right choice. Captain Ryder, you finally have a ship to command, and no that escort ship you use doesn't count. That's not a true starship. That's a runabout on steroids. Sabers are good for patrols, but THIS is a ship!" he said as he opened up his jacket and pulled out two padds "These are your mission orders, and these are the tech specs of your new baby. Or would you rather I show you around and let you look at the specs later."

"Daddy, if everyone wasn't looking I would leap up and give you the biggest hug and kiss I could muster... " Angel said as she clutched the two padds as if they were her most prized possessions. "Does mom know?"

"Of course, you really think I would give my first born daughter a starship and not tell her mother? I told everyone! Your grandmother sends her best and she'll visit you soon, as soon as her own ship is ready. Refit time again."

Angel barely listened to a word her father said as she stared at her new ship. "Let's go for a tour..." she touched the glass and smiled.

"Of course." he nodded to the transporter chief in the Ops pit and in seconds the two of them were beamed to the bridge of the Seraph in a shimmer of blue and white light. "Welcome to your bridge. She's on automatic right now, Takamura and the rest of the crew are in the holosuite doing some last minute training."

"Last minute?" she inquired with a raised eyebrow "What do you mean by last minute?"

"Well... you have a mission. I assembled a temporary crew for you, but we need you to go and pick up an ambassador who's being held by hold outs from the war. Some Cardassians who think the war shouldn't be over. So we need you to get in, pick up our ambassador and if at all possible, try not to engage the Cardies until the Cardassian government can send some reinforcements." Admiral Ryder clasped his hands behind his back. "Its not a fluff mission, but I know you can handle it."

"I won't let you down." she saluted him. "Never have, never will."

"I'll hold you to it." he gestured to the command chair "The conn is your's Captain."

Angel gently touched the leather and wood arm rests of the chair, her fingers brushing the soft leather. A smile crossed her lips as she inhaled deeply. "Even has that new starship smell. That combination of newly replicated metal, fresh plasma and gel packs and new isolinear chips heating up for the first few times."

"You're definately my girl, I think I'm the only one who can pick up those smells." he laughed "Enjoy the moment kiddo, because once your crew beams aboard, you won't have this much quiet for a while."

"Thank you daddy." Angel leapt up and gave him a warm embrace and kissed his cheek.

"You're welcome. Sure beats the hover bike I gave you when you were twelve right?"

"Hands down." Angel said with a beaming smile.

End Chapter One

Welcome!

Welcome to Star Trek: Angel's Wings!

This is sort of my archive of fan fiction based on the Star Trek: Angel's Wings story I'm running over at the TrekBBS. The story of a young female Captain on the first real command of her own.

The story is based on characters I created over the years in my various fan clubs and RPG/SIM groups. I do plan on writing a novel with my best friend, Jenny, using some of the characters eventually, but I have missed writing in a purely Star Trek universe and this is my outlet.

Captain Angelica Ryder is the daughter of a Starfleet Admiral and a Starfleet Intelligence agent. Some would say she's "daddy's little girl", but she's her own woman and has experienced plenty during her time in the Dominion War. The story picks up about a year or so after the end of the war. The crew is a bit quirky and after the horrors of war, they're more than a little nuts.

This IS set in the "Prime" timeline - but may contain some "nuTrek" elements here and there. The USS Seraph is a starship fairly similar to the Enterprise from JJ Abram's Star Trek - I'd like to find a good 3D model of it in a format I can use so I can rework it slightly to make it more my own. But the ship "looks" similar to an old Constitution class so it can be any other canon or non canon class that looks similar.

I won't spoil too much in this opening message. I'll be writing it on the TrekBBS first and then posting it here a day or so later. So for new chapters and other's comments, check the forum!

Enjoy!

Nick "Ryder"