Chapter Five -
In the "Admiral's Aerie", a section of the Starbase set aside for visiting Admirals and other top brass, Vice Admiral Nick Ryder looked out the window of his office and watched as the USS Seraph slowly moved away from the station. Workbees and engineers in space suits were still working on removing hoses, wires and conduits as the ship pulled away from the external docking berth. A somber expression reflected back the Admiral as he touched the window.
"I sure hope we made the right decision Admiral." he said as he saw the door open
"What's this 'we' talk? It was my order, just be happy I let you be the one to give the Seraph to Captain Ryder." Takamura said non chalantly as he walked to the replicator. "Green tea, cold, two squirts honey."
"I was meaning to talk to you about that." Ryder said, still watching his daughter's ship in the near distance. "Why send a new ship out there, with a half temporary crew? And don't give me that line of caca that the Seraph was the only ship that was ready and capable."
Takamura sipped his tea and smiled, "Because, my old friend, like it or not the Cardassians know too much about us. We need to surprise them. Secondly, your daughter was up for a command of her own, she's a bright young woman. You do realize she beat you by about six months in getting her captaincy?"
"Really? Huh... never really thought about it. I was just proud my daughter got four pips even though she was stuck doing escort duty." Ryder deadpanned and turned to face Takamura "Look Admiral, I know there's more to this "simple" mission than you've told my daughter and her crew. Secondly, I know SI IS more involved in this." he threw a padd at him. "You do realize this is still my sector of space. I also have a high Intel clearance. Higher if I make a single call to an old friend."
"I know, that's why I requested the Ryders." Takamura took a seat and looked directly at Ryder, with an air of cool superiority he added, "After all, if it wasn't for my recommendations, your daughter would still be stuck here. Your fleet would be still be half under construction and your wife would be miserable."
"Oh so I'm supposed to thank you for pulling her out of her semi-retirement." Ryder pounded his desk. "I was working on getting her regular work as an investigator."
"That's funny, you've told her that for the past three months. No one was biting Nick, admit it, who wants an investigator who's pushing sixty?" Takamura shook his head, "They'll think she's too out of the loop. You know it, I know it, your wife knows it."
"So is that why she's about nine decks below us spying on my daughter, probably readying herself to beam over and hide away until its time." Nick told him point blank, his hands gripping the back of his desk chair. The blood rushing to his face. "Admit it, we're running two maybe even three operations here and the Captain of the ship doesn't know jack shit about the real story."
"And you won't say a word." Takamura smirked
"Damn you, you know I won't." Ryder pushed his chair into the desk. "That's why I got out of Intelligence, I hate the secrets, the lies. It ruined my marriage. You have any idea how many times Julie and I had split? How many times I had to literally beg her to come back, how many times she had to do the same?"
"Talk to the hand Admiral. I'm divorced three times over. You were a damn good Director back in the day." Takamura said as he put the tea down and folded his hands "Even to this day, you're still doing what you were taught. I bet even Angel doesn't know everything you did."
"And she won't." Ryder pointed his finger at Takamura. "You tell her, I'll tell Starfleet just what you did to the USS Sarra."
"You wouldn't dare." Takamura winced
"I would. I had to fix that damn ship after you thought you could pilot it. You're lucky no one was onboard." Ryder said and pulled his desk chair out and shook his head at the other Admiral. "You owe me so many."
"Same to you." Takamura winked
"Just don't kill my daughter or her crew. I know RAGE gave you a bloody nose, but that's why you sent them to deal with them. I just hope you can work your charm on the Cardassian Provisional government." Ryder said as he sat down, "Garak is still working on the council, but he needs more from you."
Takamura made a face and chugged his iced green tea "Garak needs more than just more information. Sometimes I hate dealing with spies."
"Former spies and watch it." Nick chuckled, "Remind me to tell that to Admiral Vince Piers." he looked at the chrono on the wall, "I think you're going to be late for that conference over holovid."
"I think you're right. Care to join me?" Takamura said as he got up and straightened his jacket. "Jacket straight?"
"Looks fine. I'll pass. I've got engineering reports to send Scotty and I promised Captain Nora that I'd meet her here to discuss some of the upgrades I'm going to have installed." Ryder shrugged his shoulders. "I take her favorite Exec, least I could do is give her a hand."
"More than a hand right?" Takamura chuckled as he turned to leave. "I remember you two during the Academy."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Ryder said with an innocent expression on his face. "We were study partners."
"Uh huh... " Takamura nodded his head "Right. She's model beautiful, smart and can fix things without reading an instruction manual. Sounds like the perfect woman for you."
"But she's no Julie." Nick said as he picked up a padd and attempted to look busy, "Look Admiral I'm busy here..."
"See you around Admiral." Takamura said as he left the office and walked down the corridor to his own office. Once the room was secure, he tapped his comm badge. "Sigma Delta Alpha Theta. Attention all agents, you have five minutes to get aboard. Flawless execution people. No contact protocols. Standard capture protocols. Execute." a smile crossed his lips. "All going just as I planned it."
Agent Lei and her agents smiled at the order. "About damn time." she told her men and women, "Alright people, get the gear, leave no trace we were ever here." Julie ordered "Scramble codes on the transport beams. Move it!" she barked
As the numerous agents buzzed around the small cargo bay, Julie crossed her arms and smiled, this was what she was meant to do. For the first time in years, the fire was back. Pulling a small padd out of her pocket, she transmitted a message to her husband's terminal, set to pop up when they were away. Reading the message one last time, she knew she was doing the right thing, at least for her.
"Nick, it's never going to be right with us so long as I'm unable to do what I was born to do. I love you dearly, but I'm an agent. You knew this when you dated me, married me and when we raised our children. I told you that I want to return to the field more times than I could count. I have no more reasons to stay behind the lines. So accept this or I will understand if you consider our marriage over. I will not go to my grave knowing that there was still so much I could have done. I am also protecting our daughter as much as I can, I failed to help her during the war and I will not let the Cardies hurt her again. Good bye Nick, if I make it through this mission... we'll have much to discuss. That is, if you're willing to accept this. Otherwise... then this is good bye. Don't reply to this message."
She slipped the padd into her pocket and once it had notified her of the message's transmission, she erased its memory. The equipment and personnel that once filled the room, was soon gone. Taking her wedding ring off, she left it on a crate near the door.
"That's the last of it ma'am." a young agent told her with a smile
"Excellent. Then let's go." Julie tapped her wrist band and dematerialized out of the cargo bay with the last of the agents. Re materializing aboard the Seraph in a room they had previously set up in the unfinished section of Deck 12, she looked around and gave her agents a smile, "Very good work people, now... get our eyes and ears installed and open a link to our agents behind the lines in RAGE space, the mission has begun."
End Chapter Five
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Chapter Four - The Briefing
Chapter Four -
Captain Angelica Ryder approached the head of the long briefing room table and gestured to the display behind her. She tapped a few controls on her remote and a 3D image of their ship appeared behind her.
"Crew of the USS Seraph, I want to thank all of you for coming to this briefing. I know some of you are temporary and some of you will be staying with us for as long as Starfleet deems fit to keep you under my command." she said with a broad smile "Now, for starters, I may be your Captain, but I am also an officer just like you. I've been on front lines, behind the scenes and undercover. So don't think all I've done is sit behind a desk or stand behind the lines." she cleared her throat "I know I overheard a few of you questioning my capability as a CO. Probably because I am Admiral Nicholas Ryder's daughter. Maybe because of my relative young age. Or maybe because you simply don't trust any Captain you've never worked with. All those are fine opinions. You're right, I did get my command partially because of who my father was. But I also earned all four of these pips on my own and my record will speak for itself." she looked at her crew "I also know that many of you may deserve more pips and titles than you have. Which is why after this mission, depending on how you all handle yourselves, I may recommend promotions. I may even approve transfers, why? Because I know how it is to be stuck somewhere and you can't go because your CO won't let you go." she cleared her throat "Anyway... I just wanted to clear those things up first." she picked up her padd and displayed the mission briefing on the panel behind her. "Alright, moving right along... this is our mission. We are to retrieve an Ambassador who was captured by a group of Cardassian hold outs, who call themselves... the RAGE. And it has an even sillier acroymn... Commander, what was it again?"
Commander Whitman chuckled, "Rebellion Against Gathered Enemies." he shook his head "I wonder how many meetings it took for them to come up with that one?"
"Right, so... these hold outs, they are still a very dangerous and real threat. So far they have kidnapped ambassadors and various other officials. Bombed settlements, raided supply depots, stolen starships and have tried to keep the war going." Angel said as she pointed to a map of their targets. "Now they've been centered mainly around this area, SO it shouldn't be hard to find where they are keeping our ambassador. We just need to get within range of his bio signature to lock on and then send our extraction team to get him out." she displayed images of the leaders of RAGE "But these men are all very dangerous. They were well decorated soldiers and commanders in the Cardassian Union during the first Cardassian War and during the Dominion War. Gul Dukat himself decorated them at least once or twice."
She turned to her XO, "Commander Whitman, do you want to detail your plan?" Angel smiled, "I read your suggestions, I was very impressed."
"Thank you ma'am... Captain." Marcus nodded his head, giving her a slight smile and turning to face the crew. "Once we find our target, we'll be sending two teams in. One to do the actual extraction and one to keep the fighters at bay. Keep in mind, intel is reporting that there are close to five or six thousand soldiers and militants who are heavily armed on their central base alone. With another few thousand between their Galor class ships, stolen by the way. And they have a number of Hadeki class and Jem'Hadar Bug ships. So, if they engage us, we'll have a nasty fight on our hands." Whitman changed the display to show a few possible scenarios. "We've been given orders not to engage unless we have to. So, my plan was that at first sign of their ships, we drop a shuttle near their sun, out of sensor range and then leave the area. Our teams will be down there on their own, but we only need to stall for time until the Ambassador Garak can secure us the ships we need. RAGE is a Cardassian jurisdiction, not Federation. Once we have our man, we need to go."
"But sir, isn't that area near the Federation controlled part of Cardassian space?" Val inquired
"Its close, but it is within the Cardassian's area, so we have to respect their wishes. They feel bad enough about the hold outs, and having them taken down by Starfleet would demoralize their already shaky populace and military. They need a victory." Angel replied and tapped the table with her fingernail. "But this ship will defend herself, if they attack us, we attack in kind."
"Are there any other questions?" Whitman asked the crew
"Yeah, when do we leave?" Commander Bruce said with a smile "The Seraph is ready to roll on your orders."
"As soon as we're all aboard." Ryder said with a smile "Alright people, your orders will be sent to your padds and I want to say, thank you in advance for all your hard work. Let's get out there!"
Meanwhile - RAGE Central HQ
"Starfleet is sending a ship." Legate Dakar said with a sneer as he looked at his own intel reports.
"Then we will deal with them. Our spies within the Federation told us that our kidnapping their Ambassador would elicit this response. We destroy them and then we blame the provisional government. The Federation will become hostile and then, we'll pick up the scraps and rule Cardassian. Executing all Federation and Klingon and Romulans within our borders. And soon... we will take back all that was ours. Just as our great former leader Gul Dukat had dreamt." the Cardassian removed his cloak to reveal his battered, scarred military uniform and a belt with a number of Starfleet, Klingon, Romulan, Bajoran and even Cardassian badges that he had acquired "I will have more badges for my collection. When the ship they sent arrives, lock onto it, and watch them. I want their logs. Once we know what they know, we will use it in our fight. Then... destroy them, but bring me their command crew."
"As you wish, Gul Morvar. Soon the Federation will fear our RAGE!"
End Chapter Four
Captain Angelica Ryder approached the head of the long briefing room table and gestured to the display behind her. She tapped a few controls on her remote and a 3D image of their ship appeared behind her.
"Crew of the USS Seraph, I want to thank all of you for coming to this briefing. I know some of you are temporary and some of you will be staying with us for as long as Starfleet deems fit to keep you under my command." she said with a broad smile "Now, for starters, I may be your Captain, but I am also an officer just like you. I've been on front lines, behind the scenes and undercover. So don't think all I've done is sit behind a desk or stand behind the lines." she cleared her throat "I know I overheard a few of you questioning my capability as a CO. Probably because I am Admiral Nicholas Ryder's daughter. Maybe because of my relative young age. Or maybe because you simply don't trust any Captain you've never worked with. All those are fine opinions. You're right, I did get my command partially because of who my father was. But I also earned all four of these pips on my own and my record will speak for itself." she looked at her crew "I also know that many of you may deserve more pips and titles than you have. Which is why after this mission, depending on how you all handle yourselves, I may recommend promotions. I may even approve transfers, why? Because I know how it is to be stuck somewhere and you can't go because your CO won't let you go." she cleared her throat "Anyway... I just wanted to clear those things up first." she picked up her padd and displayed the mission briefing on the panel behind her. "Alright, moving right along... this is our mission. We are to retrieve an Ambassador who was captured by a group of Cardassian hold outs, who call themselves... the RAGE. And it has an even sillier acroymn... Commander, what was it again?"
Commander Whitman chuckled, "Rebellion Against Gathered Enemies." he shook his head "I wonder how many meetings it took for them to come up with that one?"
"Right, so... these hold outs, they are still a very dangerous and real threat. So far they have kidnapped ambassadors and various other officials. Bombed settlements, raided supply depots, stolen starships and have tried to keep the war going." Angel said as she pointed to a map of their targets. "Now they've been centered mainly around this area, SO it shouldn't be hard to find where they are keeping our ambassador. We just need to get within range of his bio signature to lock on and then send our extraction team to get him out." she displayed images of the leaders of RAGE "But these men are all very dangerous. They were well decorated soldiers and commanders in the Cardassian Union during the first Cardassian War and during the Dominion War. Gul Dukat himself decorated them at least once or twice."
She turned to her XO, "Commander Whitman, do you want to detail your plan?" Angel smiled, "I read your suggestions, I was very impressed."
"Thank you ma'am... Captain." Marcus nodded his head, giving her a slight smile and turning to face the crew. "Once we find our target, we'll be sending two teams in. One to do the actual extraction and one to keep the fighters at bay. Keep in mind, intel is reporting that there are close to five or six thousand soldiers and militants who are heavily armed on their central base alone. With another few thousand between their Galor class ships, stolen by the way. And they have a number of Hadeki class and Jem'Hadar Bug ships. So, if they engage us, we'll have a nasty fight on our hands." Whitman changed the display to show a few possible scenarios. "We've been given orders not to engage unless we have to. So, my plan was that at first sign of their ships, we drop a shuttle near their sun, out of sensor range and then leave the area. Our teams will be down there on their own, but we only need to stall for time until the Ambassador Garak can secure us the ships we need. RAGE is a Cardassian jurisdiction, not Federation. Once we have our man, we need to go."
"But sir, isn't that area near the Federation controlled part of Cardassian space?" Val inquired
"Its close, but it is within the Cardassian's area, so we have to respect their wishes. They feel bad enough about the hold outs, and having them taken down by Starfleet would demoralize their already shaky populace and military. They need a victory." Angel replied and tapped the table with her fingernail. "But this ship will defend herself, if they attack us, we attack in kind."
"Are there any other questions?" Whitman asked the crew
"Yeah, when do we leave?" Commander Bruce said with a smile "The Seraph is ready to roll on your orders."
"As soon as we're all aboard." Ryder said with a smile "Alright people, your orders will be sent to your padds and I want to say, thank you in advance for all your hard work. Let's get out there!"
Meanwhile - RAGE Central HQ
"Starfleet is sending a ship." Legate Dakar said with a sneer as he looked at his own intel reports.
"Then we will deal with them. Our spies within the Federation told us that our kidnapping their Ambassador would elicit this response. We destroy them and then we blame the provisional government. The Federation will become hostile and then, we'll pick up the scraps and rule Cardassian. Executing all Federation and Klingon and Romulans within our borders. And soon... we will take back all that was ours. Just as our great former leader Gul Dukat had dreamt." the Cardassian removed his cloak to reveal his battered, scarred military uniform and a belt with a number of Starfleet, Klingon, Romulan, Bajoran and even Cardassian badges that he had acquired "I will have more badges for my collection. When the ship they sent arrives, lock onto it, and watch them. I want their logs. Once we know what they know, we will use it in our fight. Then... destroy them, but bring me their command crew."
"As you wish, Gul Morvar. Soon the Federation will fear our RAGE!"
End Chapter Four
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Chapter 3: Executive Meetings
Chapter 3 -
Aboard the USS Seraph, the XO had just arrived and wanted to do a quick walk through before he met with his new CO aboard the starbase. Commander Marcus Whitman was impressed by his new ship, everywhere he looked, he saw new systems and clean equipment, he never served aboard a ship that was literally fresh off the dry dock. The technicians were still doing last minute systems checks and installing some of the minor components.
"Commander, I didn't expect you aboard." Chief Engineer, Alex Bruce said as he crawled out of a Jefferies tube and extended a hand to his new Boss.
"I just came, my shuttle was late and I had an emergency to deal with." He smirked and shook the engineer's hand, "My ex-girlfriend."
"Been there. Too many times. Welcome to the Seraph sir. We're nearly ready for launch, when the Admiral brought her over, she was still in station keeping mode, wasn't really ready for a fight yet. So we're getting her battle ready." Bruce said with a flip of his spanner "She's a beaut."
"That she is." Marcus replied as he put his hand on the well polished wood accents "Classic design, surprised Starfleet could create something this nice so soon after the war."
"Admiral Ryder's pet project. He's been pushing Starfleet to get back into making ships that aren't just built for war, but still small and agile enough to be useful in a fight and look sexy." the engineer said as he wiped his hands on a rag "This is actually a slightly older design, but he made enough modifications to the design that it could nearly be considered a new class of ship. Holo emitters are in place everywhere on the ship, we've got hidden weapons banks, so if our primary phasers and torpedos are taken out, we can pop out turret based phasers like the old days."
"Older days than either of us Commander." Marcus smirked as he looked at the tech specs on the wall panel. "So have you met our Captain yet?"
"Oh we're old collegues. What about you?" Bruce said as he opened up a panel and started to calibrate a couple of internal sensors.
"I knew her from the Academy, but I haven't seen her in nearly a decade." he admitted, "She still as hyper as she was then?"
"A little, honestly its been a couple years since I really worked that closely with her, but she requested me, I couldn't refuse. She said she needed the King of Engines and well, that was enough incentive." Alex said as he twisted an isolinear chip back into place.
"Takamura assigned me here, said that if I didn't accept this promotion, I'd be assigned to a police cruiser." Whitman said as he rolled his eyes "I hate being threatened like that."
"Taki will do that. We'll be far enough away from him soon enough. By the way, stay out of sickbay for a little while, Dr. Bella's on a rampage. They lost some of her personal equipment and effects in the transfer. Unless you enjoy getting yelled at by an angry Italian doctor." Bruce warned "I heard things coming out of her mouth that would make my engineers blush."
"I'll take that under advisement. Carry on Mr. Bruce." Whitman saluted and continued on his way, chuckling quietly about his comments about their new CMO. He heard of Dr. Anabella Giordano, she was fiesty, passionate, but very good at her job. Although he did know one name in the sickbay roster, Nurse Rita Ortez. Nurse Ortez was assigned to his rehab after he was injured in the final days of the Dominion War. He jokenly called her Nurse Ratchet and Rita Metermaid, as she was always monitoring him and pushing him to get out of the hoverchair. After he was released from the hospital he had a fling with her until he found out she was married. He can still feel the punch where her, now ex-husband, hit him when he caught them together."This should be interesting." He muttered
Meanwhile in sickbay, Dr. Anabella Giordano was angrily sorting through some of the crates of supplies, hoping to find some of the things she was used to using. Starfleet medical gave them all new equipment and nothing was personalized yet and some of it was of a new design and style than she was used to. Thinner padd style tricorders that could be docked with a biobed, new dermal regenerators.
"I hate this!" She exclaimed and got up from the chair she was sitting in and walked to the replicator. "Computer, replicate a series four dermal regenerator... and a cup of decaf coffee... and a chocolate brownie."
"Hitting the chocolate this early Doc?" Rita said as she came in from the supply room
"I need this more than I don't. I bet my cargo is on some Andorian freighter being pawed through by Ferengi!" she said as she clinched her fists and grunted "I'm so mad! I've had some of that since I was in med school! It had my name on it too!"
"I'm sure it'll turn up Bella. Relax, have your chocolate and your coffee. Good news is, we've got all our supplies catalogued and sorted. We're good to go. I like these new tricorders." Rita flipped her's open and activated it.
"I hate them, I finally got used to the last model." Bella shrugged her shoulders "Although I do like the larger screen. Won't need my 'cheaters' to read the display. Anyway... have you scheduled physicals for the crew?"
"Not yet, we're still getting a final roster. Dr. Waters wants us to start with the lower ranks first, he commented that on his last ship they were the last to usually get seen." Rita suggested
"Not a bad idea, have him start with that, I'll do the senior staff." Bella nodded her head and pulled her order from the replicator. "Don't let the crew see me with the brownie." she said with a smirk and ducked into the CMO's office. "I really need to get back on track, since my husband died in the war I haven't really kept in as good a shape as I'd like to have."
"I can help with that Doctor... called going into a fight with two doctors and three nurses." Commander Whitman said as he walked in unannounced.
"Oh shifpt..." Bella muttered as she was chewing her first bite of brownie and quickly swallowed "Sir!" She stood up at attention. ~ Wonderful, my first meeting with my new XO and I've got brownie crumbs on my uniform...~
"At ease doctor, I'm here just on a walk through, and to remind you that we're all meeting on the starbase in an hour." Marcus smiled as he leaned against the wall "Commander Bruce was telling me you lost your cargo."
"Yes! I've searched all over, no one knows where it is, some are thinking it was heading to an Andorian freighter." Bella wiped her mouth and handed him the padd with the cargo information.
"I'll look into it, we don't launch until tomorrow." Marcus said as he took the padd "Sickbay to your liking otherwise?"
"Its alright, I'll get used to it." Bella whispered "And hands off my nurses sir, I know about you and Rita."
Marcus blushed, he should have known her to tell Dr. Giordano about them. "I'll take that under advisement ma'am."
"See that you do." Bella nodded her head and sat on the edge of her desk, "I hope we'll get to that ambassador time, Cardassians aren't known for keeping their prisoners that long."
"They have no idea that we know they have him. But when we launch tomorrow, we'll be faking a survey on a neighboring planet, then we'll be using our new long range transporters to beam our extraction crew over. I suggest you get familiar with the new transporters, because we may need you to do target locks from here."
"I'm a doctor not a transporter chief." Bella said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice "But if you want me to, I'll do it."
"Well, if you don't mind me running out so quickly, I need to head to the starbase now, I just wanted to check on the key areas of the ship before I met the Captain... she hasn't been aboard for that long yet." Whitman shrugged his shoulders, "I heard she was still wrapping up business on the station."
"She was based out of that starbase for almost five years. Although I think we'll still be linked to them in some way, they're our closest starbase in this sector." Bella explained "Which is wonderful since we'll have access to a full medical center and Betazoid doctors."
"Never quite liked them myself, something about a telepathic doctor is just scary." Whitman laughed "I can't lie to them."
"That's a good thing! I expect you to be honest with me too." Bella pointed her finger at him "I know how you command officers will hide your problems, then you end up worse off because you had to tough it out. That's bullshit Commander."
"You're right." Whitman said as he started toward the door. "I'll pass that along." he saluted and dashed out of the door.
"Think we scared him?" Rita commented as she saw the door close
"Oh I hope so. C'mon, let's finish up here and head over to the base." Bella said and finished her brownie in two bites and washed it down with the coffee which was now cold. "Cold already... we need a better recipe."
Rita laughed "I'll get on that." she looked around "So what did you think of Marcus?"
"He's cute, I can see why you left that jerk Jose for him." Bella whispered "Just remember, he's your superior officer now. I wouldn't advise it." she smiled slightly "Besides, there are so many men on this ship. I'm sure you can find someone who isn't your boss."
"Too true." Rita pulled her hair back, "I'll stay here while you have your meeting, don't want to tempt the Commander too much just yet."
Meanwhile -
On the Station, the crew of the Seraph were slowly trickling into the conference room, most of them came early to meet their fellow crewmates. Captain Angelica Ryder was sitting on a couch chatting with the new Chief of Security, Lt. Val Astor.
"So Val, you really served on the Enterprise?" Angel said with a smile "I'll tell you, it was always my not so secret dream to be assigned there."
"Its an amazing ship, Picard is an awesome captain, you can't help but feel like you need to be at your best around him." Val said with a broad smile, "And it was an honor when Commander Worf would come around every so often to visit or assist in a mission." she ran a hand through her long blonde hair "I'll miss it, but I've wanted to be a security chief for a very long time, and during the war it seemed like security officers popped out of the woodwork. There was nothing for me until this ship came off the line."
"I know, even with the Franken-fleet we had assembled, there were more chiefs than indians so to speak, so some of those chiefs had to be indians." Angel said with a laugh, "I was one of thirteen command level officers who were assigned to ground support during some of the raids on Dominion facilities, but at least that lead to Starfleet assigning me to this station and doing work with SI. I can't speak about those missions or I'd have to kill you."
"Every SI operative I've ever met said the same thing." Val laughed "By the way, are we the only women on this ship?"
"No, there's others, I made sure that I had at least a couple of women in the senior staff. Our CMO, Counselor and Head Nurse are women, and I've made sure that we got a few female security guards and engineers. Enough to keep the guys from focusing on any one of us single gals too much. I've been on ships were I was one of only a small handful of women..."
"And you probably got offered more drinks, dates and escorts than any other time in your life. Been there. Its flattering, but I prefer not to date a co-worker. I'm not planning on being a lifer with Starfleet, I'd like to actually head back to Earth some day, start up a private security firm someday. I want to raise a family. Gold shirts don't have a very long life expectancy." Val said soberly "I know, I've had to walk over enough of them during the war."
"Understandable. Its a valid concern and honestly, I think that war is making many officers reconsider their commitment to the service. But then again, with so many leaving or lost during the war, we need all the good ones we can get." Angel reminded her, hoping that she wasn't going to lose too much crew to resignations in the coming months.
"Of course, I don't plan on leaving now! I love my work, but someday." Val replied with a sigh "I'm not even seeing anyone. Plus, people have thought I was lesbian since I never really go out much, and most of my friends are women, so you don't have to worry about me falling head over heels for some guy on the ship and quitting. You got me for at least a good decade ma'am."
"Very good to know Lieutenant." Angel laughed "You're like me, you talk a lot."
"My instructor at the academy once said I would be a perfect fit aboard a Ferengi ship." Val said with a smirk, "I shut up when I work. Trust me."
"I'll hold you to that." Angel smiled and then got up when she saw her XO walk into the conference room. "Commander Whitman, join us!"
"Ma'am." Whitman nodded to her, then to the security officer next to her, "Lieutenant"
"Okay first off Mr. Whitman, I never liked being called ma'am. I'm not THAT old. Call me Captain, Ryder, Angelica or Angel, and I will take sir or ma'am or even Ang, in a crunch, but we're not there yet. Like it or not we're in a three way marriage." Angel explained to him over her cup of coffee
Marcus raised an eyebrow and in a dry British accented "Huh wha?" he looked at her with a half smile.
"We're married to the ship. We're partners. I haven't worked with you before, but you come highly recommended, both the Admirals aboard seem to like you, especially Takamura and he's a hard man to please, believe me, I served with him on one of his ships at one point in my career. Once we're launched, I'd like it if we could have dinner together and hash out our command styles." Angel sipped her coffee and pulled a stray strand of hair over her ear "Oh and if you want to make me happy on the morning shifts, make sure we have a working replicator on the bridge that makes a good cup of Mocha."
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind ma... Captain." He said formally "And if you want to make me happy on the night shifts, make sure the replicator can make a decent Chai tea."
"He likes Chai..." Val whispered to herself and made a mental note, "She likes Mocha..."
"I think the Lieutenant is trying to stay on our good sides." Marcus commented
"Have to make a good impression sir." Val said with a nod of her head "After all, I plan on staying on the Seraph for as long as Starfleet and Captain Ryder will have me."
"Eager too." Marcus said to Angel "Much like you eh?"
"Its called high caffine content, she's had three of these." she said as she raised her cup "And I'm on my second. So Commander, once we're all here, I'll start the briefing and then we'll head to ship and get underway."
"Hope the rest of the crew doesn't take too much time to get here." Marcus said with a slight wince "
At that moment aboard the Starbase in a cargo bay, sixteen decks below that conference room. A woman in an all black and grey uniform monitored the conference room. She looked up from the computer terminal and saw a man enter.
"I really don't like this." he said from the doorway
"Not up to you like or not." she replied "I have my orders and they supercede yours. Admiral."
"Oh so its Admiral now?" He said as he stepped into the light. "Not Nick, or hon, or babe?"
"Not when I'm on assignment." She said as she pulled her hood down and shook her hair out. "Just as I'm not Julie Ryder, but Agent Lei. We've been through this before. You knew that when you remarried me."
"And I thought you were retiring." Admiral Nick Ryder said as he crossed his arms "Imagine my surprise when I'm in my temporary office and I'm just doing a scan for comm signals to piggyback some orders back to command on, and I come across yours. Or I should say MY old signal."
"Damn... I should have known you would have remembered it that well. What I get for marrying a techie... again." she smirked "Now I suggest you head back up before you blow my cover."
"I won't tell her, just as I won't tell them that not only is an SI operative coming aboard, but their mission is to not only extract the ambassador, but also kidnap the leader of the hold outs." Ryder said as he walked toward the door.
"Kidnap... yes." his wife said with a smile, she put her glasses back on "If possible."
"I don't have to tell you to be careful." Nick said as he looked back at her
"No, you don't, but thanks anyway." Julie said as she went back to monitoring the briefing, not turning to look at her husband as he left the cargo bay. Once she knew he was gone she touched the display "Someone also has to keep an eye on you my Angel. I won't let you get hurt again."
End Chapter 3
Aboard the USS Seraph, the XO had just arrived and wanted to do a quick walk through before he met with his new CO aboard the starbase. Commander Marcus Whitman was impressed by his new ship, everywhere he looked, he saw new systems and clean equipment, he never served aboard a ship that was literally fresh off the dry dock. The technicians were still doing last minute systems checks and installing some of the minor components.
"Commander, I didn't expect you aboard." Chief Engineer, Alex Bruce said as he crawled out of a Jefferies tube and extended a hand to his new Boss.
"I just came, my shuttle was late and I had an emergency to deal with." He smirked and shook the engineer's hand, "My ex-girlfriend."
"Been there. Too many times. Welcome to the Seraph sir. We're nearly ready for launch, when the Admiral brought her over, she was still in station keeping mode, wasn't really ready for a fight yet. So we're getting her battle ready." Bruce said with a flip of his spanner "She's a beaut."
"That she is." Marcus replied as he put his hand on the well polished wood accents "Classic design, surprised Starfleet could create something this nice so soon after the war."
"Admiral Ryder's pet project. He's been pushing Starfleet to get back into making ships that aren't just built for war, but still small and agile enough to be useful in a fight and look sexy." the engineer said as he wiped his hands on a rag "This is actually a slightly older design, but he made enough modifications to the design that it could nearly be considered a new class of ship. Holo emitters are in place everywhere on the ship, we've got hidden weapons banks, so if our primary phasers and torpedos are taken out, we can pop out turret based phasers like the old days."
"Older days than either of us Commander." Marcus smirked as he looked at the tech specs on the wall panel. "So have you met our Captain yet?"
"Oh we're old collegues. What about you?" Bruce said as he opened up a panel and started to calibrate a couple of internal sensors.
"I knew her from the Academy, but I haven't seen her in nearly a decade." he admitted, "She still as hyper as she was then?"
"A little, honestly its been a couple years since I really worked that closely with her, but she requested me, I couldn't refuse. She said she needed the King of Engines and well, that was enough incentive." Alex said as he twisted an isolinear chip back into place.
"Takamura assigned me here, said that if I didn't accept this promotion, I'd be assigned to a police cruiser." Whitman said as he rolled his eyes "I hate being threatened like that."
"Taki will do that. We'll be far enough away from him soon enough. By the way, stay out of sickbay for a little while, Dr. Bella's on a rampage. They lost some of her personal equipment and effects in the transfer. Unless you enjoy getting yelled at by an angry Italian doctor." Bruce warned "I heard things coming out of her mouth that would make my engineers blush."
"I'll take that under advisement. Carry on Mr. Bruce." Whitman saluted and continued on his way, chuckling quietly about his comments about their new CMO. He heard of Dr. Anabella Giordano, she was fiesty, passionate, but very good at her job. Although he did know one name in the sickbay roster, Nurse Rita Ortez. Nurse Ortez was assigned to his rehab after he was injured in the final days of the Dominion War. He jokenly called her Nurse Ratchet and Rita Metermaid, as she was always monitoring him and pushing him to get out of the hoverchair. After he was released from the hospital he had a fling with her until he found out she was married. He can still feel the punch where her, now ex-husband, hit him when he caught them together."This should be interesting." He muttered
Meanwhile in sickbay, Dr. Anabella Giordano was angrily sorting through some of the crates of supplies, hoping to find some of the things she was used to using. Starfleet medical gave them all new equipment and nothing was personalized yet and some of it was of a new design and style than she was used to. Thinner padd style tricorders that could be docked with a biobed, new dermal regenerators.
"I hate this!" She exclaimed and got up from the chair she was sitting in and walked to the replicator. "Computer, replicate a series four dermal regenerator... and a cup of decaf coffee... and a chocolate brownie."
"Hitting the chocolate this early Doc?" Rita said as she came in from the supply room
"I need this more than I don't. I bet my cargo is on some Andorian freighter being pawed through by Ferengi!" she said as she clinched her fists and grunted "I'm so mad! I've had some of that since I was in med school! It had my name on it too!"
"I'm sure it'll turn up Bella. Relax, have your chocolate and your coffee. Good news is, we've got all our supplies catalogued and sorted. We're good to go. I like these new tricorders." Rita flipped her's open and activated it.
"I hate them, I finally got used to the last model." Bella shrugged her shoulders "Although I do like the larger screen. Won't need my 'cheaters' to read the display. Anyway... have you scheduled physicals for the crew?"
"Not yet, we're still getting a final roster. Dr. Waters wants us to start with the lower ranks first, he commented that on his last ship they were the last to usually get seen." Rita suggested
"Not a bad idea, have him start with that, I'll do the senior staff." Bella nodded her head and pulled her order from the replicator. "Don't let the crew see me with the brownie." she said with a smirk and ducked into the CMO's office. "I really need to get back on track, since my husband died in the war I haven't really kept in as good a shape as I'd like to have."
"I can help with that Doctor... called going into a fight with two doctors and three nurses." Commander Whitman said as he walked in unannounced.
"Oh shifpt..." Bella muttered as she was chewing her first bite of brownie and quickly swallowed "Sir!" She stood up at attention. ~ Wonderful, my first meeting with my new XO and I've got brownie crumbs on my uniform...~
"At ease doctor, I'm here just on a walk through, and to remind you that we're all meeting on the starbase in an hour." Marcus smiled as he leaned against the wall "Commander Bruce was telling me you lost your cargo."
"Yes! I've searched all over, no one knows where it is, some are thinking it was heading to an Andorian freighter." Bella wiped her mouth and handed him the padd with the cargo information.
"I'll look into it, we don't launch until tomorrow." Marcus said as he took the padd "Sickbay to your liking otherwise?"
"Its alright, I'll get used to it." Bella whispered "And hands off my nurses sir, I know about you and Rita."
Marcus blushed, he should have known her to tell Dr. Giordano about them. "I'll take that under advisement ma'am."
"See that you do." Bella nodded her head and sat on the edge of her desk, "I hope we'll get to that ambassador time, Cardassians aren't known for keeping their prisoners that long."
"They have no idea that we know they have him. But when we launch tomorrow, we'll be faking a survey on a neighboring planet, then we'll be using our new long range transporters to beam our extraction crew over. I suggest you get familiar with the new transporters, because we may need you to do target locks from here."
"I'm a doctor not a transporter chief." Bella said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice "But if you want me to, I'll do it."
"Well, if you don't mind me running out so quickly, I need to head to the starbase now, I just wanted to check on the key areas of the ship before I met the Captain... she hasn't been aboard for that long yet." Whitman shrugged his shoulders, "I heard she was still wrapping up business on the station."
"She was based out of that starbase for almost five years. Although I think we'll still be linked to them in some way, they're our closest starbase in this sector." Bella explained "Which is wonderful since we'll have access to a full medical center and Betazoid doctors."
"Never quite liked them myself, something about a telepathic doctor is just scary." Whitman laughed "I can't lie to them."
"That's a good thing! I expect you to be honest with me too." Bella pointed her finger at him "I know how you command officers will hide your problems, then you end up worse off because you had to tough it out. That's bullshit Commander."
"You're right." Whitman said as he started toward the door. "I'll pass that along." he saluted and dashed out of the door.
"Think we scared him?" Rita commented as she saw the door close
"Oh I hope so. C'mon, let's finish up here and head over to the base." Bella said and finished her brownie in two bites and washed it down with the coffee which was now cold. "Cold already... we need a better recipe."
Rita laughed "I'll get on that." she looked around "So what did you think of Marcus?"
"He's cute, I can see why you left that jerk Jose for him." Bella whispered "Just remember, he's your superior officer now. I wouldn't advise it." she smiled slightly "Besides, there are so many men on this ship. I'm sure you can find someone who isn't your boss."
"Too true." Rita pulled her hair back, "I'll stay here while you have your meeting, don't want to tempt the Commander too much just yet."
Meanwhile -
On the Station, the crew of the Seraph were slowly trickling into the conference room, most of them came early to meet their fellow crewmates. Captain Angelica Ryder was sitting on a couch chatting with the new Chief of Security, Lt. Val Astor.
"So Val, you really served on the Enterprise?" Angel said with a smile "I'll tell you, it was always my not so secret dream to be assigned there."
"Its an amazing ship, Picard is an awesome captain, you can't help but feel like you need to be at your best around him." Val said with a broad smile, "And it was an honor when Commander Worf would come around every so often to visit or assist in a mission." she ran a hand through her long blonde hair "I'll miss it, but I've wanted to be a security chief for a very long time, and during the war it seemed like security officers popped out of the woodwork. There was nothing for me until this ship came off the line."
"I know, even with the Franken-fleet we had assembled, there were more chiefs than indians so to speak, so some of those chiefs had to be indians." Angel said with a laugh, "I was one of thirteen command level officers who were assigned to ground support during some of the raids on Dominion facilities, but at least that lead to Starfleet assigning me to this station and doing work with SI. I can't speak about those missions or I'd have to kill you."
"Every SI operative I've ever met said the same thing." Val laughed "By the way, are we the only women on this ship?"
"No, there's others, I made sure that I had at least a couple of women in the senior staff. Our CMO, Counselor and Head Nurse are women, and I've made sure that we got a few female security guards and engineers. Enough to keep the guys from focusing on any one of us single gals too much. I've been on ships were I was one of only a small handful of women..."
"And you probably got offered more drinks, dates and escorts than any other time in your life. Been there. Its flattering, but I prefer not to date a co-worker. I'm not planning on being a lifer with Starfleet, I'd like to actually head back to Earth some day, start up a private security firm someday. I want to raise a family. Gold shirts don't have a very long life expectancy." Val said soberly "I know, I've had to walk over enough of them during the war."
"Understandable. Its a valid concern and honestly, I think that war is making many officers reconsider their commitment to the service. But then again, with so many leaving or lost during the war, we need all the good ones we can get." Angel reminded her, hoping that she wasn't going to lose too much crew to resignations in the coming months.
"Of course, I don't plan on leaving now! I love my work, but someday." Val replied with a sigh "I'm not even seeing anyone. Plus, people have thought I was lesbian since I never really go out much, and most of my friends are women, so you don't have to worry about me falling head over heels for some guy on the ship and quitting. You got me for at least a good decade ma'am."
"Very good to know Lieutenant." Angel laughed "You're like me, you talk a lot."
"My instructor at the academy once said I would be a perfect fit aboard a Ferengi ship." Val said with a smirk, "I shut up when I work. Trust me."
"I'll hold you to that." Angel smiled and then got up when she saw her XO walk into the conference room. "Commander Whitman, join us!"
"Ma'am." Whitman nodded to her, then to the security officer next to her, "Lieutenant"
"Okay first off Mr. Whitman, I never liked being called ma'am. I'm not THAT old. Call me Captain, Ryder, Angelica or Angel, and I will take sir or ma'am or even Ang, in a crunch, but we're not there yet. Like it or not we're in a three way marriage." Angel explained to him over her cup of coffee
Marcus raised an eyebrow and in a dry British accented "Huh wha?" he looked at her with a half smile.
"We're married to the ship. We're partners. I haven't worked with you before, but you come highly recommended, both the Admirals aboard seem to like you, especially Takamura and he's a hard man to please, believe me, I served with him on one of his ships at one point in my career. Once we're launched, I'd like it if we could have dinner together and hash out our command styles." Angel sipped her coffee and pulled a stray strand of hair over her ear "Oh and if you want to make me happy on the morning shifts, make sure we have a working replicator on the bridge that makes a good cup of Mocha."
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind ma... Captain." He said formally "And if you want to make me happy on the night shifts, make sure the replicator can make a decent Chai tea."
"He likes Chai..." Val whispered to herself and made a mental note, "She likes Mocha..."
"I think the Lieutenant is trying to stay on our good sides." Marcus commented
"Have to make a good impression sir." Val said with a nod of her head "After all, I plan on staying on the Seraph for as long as Starfleet and Captain Ryder will have me."
"Eager too." Marcus said to Angel "Much like you eh?"
"Its called high caffine content, she's had three of these." she said as she raised her cup "And I'm on my second. So Commander, once we're all here, I'll start the briefing and then we'll head to ship and get underway."
"Hope the rest of the crew doesn't take too much time to get here." Marcus said with a slight wince "
At that moment aboard the Starbase in a cargo bay, sixteen decks below that conference room. A woman in an all black and grey uniform monitored the conference room. She looked up from the computer terminal and saw a man enter.
"I really don't like this." he said from the doorway
"Not up to you like or not." she replied "I have my orders and they supercede yours. Admiral."
"Oh so its Admiral now?" He said as he stepped into the light. "Not Nick, or hon, or babe?"
"Not when I'm on assignment." She said as she pulled her hood down and shook her hair out. "Just as I'm not Julie Ryder, but Agent Lei. We've been through this before. You knew that when you remarried me."
"And I thought you were retiring." Admiral Nick Ryder said as he crossed his arms "Imagine my surprise when I'm in my temporary office and I'm just doing a scan for comm signals to piggyback some orders back to command on, and I come across yours. Or I should say MY old signal."
"Damn... I should have known you would have remembered it that well. What I get for marrying a techie... again." she smirked "Now I suggest you head back up before you blow my cover."
"I won't tell her, just as I won't tell them that not only is an SI operative coming aboard, but their mission is to not only extract the ambassador, but also kidnap the leader of the hold outs." Ryder said as he walked toward the door.
"Kidnap... yes." his wife said with a smile, she put her glasses back on "If possible."
"I don't have to tell you to be careful." Nick said as he looked back at her
"No, you don't, but thanks anyway." Julie said as she went back to monitoring the briefing, not turning to look at her husband as he left the cargo bay. Once she knew he was gone she touched the display "Someone also has to keep an eye on you my Angel. I won't let you get hurt again."
End Chapter 3
Chapter 2: The Captains and the King of the Monkey People
Chapter 2.-
"So you're really moving out?" Captain Nora Spanos said as she looked at the crates stacked in one corner of Angelica Ryder's quarters. It amazed her at how quickly ones life can be packed away into crates and moved out.
"I've got a new home and a new mission." Angel said as she looked at a few items in her closet "I really don't need these quarters anymore, besides Captain, you need them more than I do." she tossed a sweater in the Captain's direction "Catch."
Nora caught the blue and white sweater and looked at it, "This is mine!"
"I know. I forgot you let me borrow it when environmental controls were down." Angel chuckled. "Sorry it took almost a year."
"Never fit me right anyway, although I probably will fit into it since I won't have my favorite diplomatic liasion officer and part time patrol ship captain. I'll have to start doing patrols myself." Nora sighed dramatically, "I'll waste away, I swear. So Ang... who of my crew are you stealing?"
"I'm not stealing anyone, Starfleet is." Angel clarified as she closed one case and opened another. "Besides, some of the crew that's going aboard are due or will be due for transfers soon anyway."
"True. I hope before you leave that you leave a briefing for your replacement." Nora said as she looked at a couple of the pictures still on her desk. "I remember this birthday party. I specifically told you all no parties." a smile slowly crept across her face.
"And you had a great time Cap'n. Especially when the strippers showed up." Angel walked over and looked at the picture "A shame not everyone in that picture is still with us. That was the last time Ensigns Timmerman and Franks would be on the station. Damn Dominion." she sat down at her desk and put her head in her hands "Do you think I'm really ready to fly free Cap?" Angel looked up at her old friend, hoping that she would have some sage words of advice, or at the very least a good wisecrack.
"Do you think you are?" Nora raised an eyebrow "I am a former counselor, talk to me." she took a seat across from her, crossed her legs and pulled her long blonde hair back over her shoulder.
"I think so. Its not the first time I've been in command of a starship, nor is it the first extraction mission I've ever done. When I was with Intel, we did one a week. Its just, this is the first time I've been given a fresh off the assembly line ship and everyone from Starfleet Command, from my father, to my friends... everyone's got an eye on me. I was so happy when I set foot on my ship, but when I got off to pack... I started feeling like I was on display."
"Welcome to being a member of the four pip club. You were a CO, but not a permanent CO, now you are. Trust me, when I got this station, I was nervous as hell. I never commanded a Starbase, even a little one like this one. Give me something with an engine and warp nacelles. Station keeping thrusters don't count." Nora laughed "But I adapted. I got over the fact that every Admiral in the fleet was watching me, including some Admirals that didn't like me."
"I've got a few of those." Angel said as she ran her hand through her hair "I've been in the service since I was seventeen years old. I've fought in this war since the first shots were fired and we were all deployed around the Quadrant. Yet it feels like, I'm going to have to endure more "daddy's little girl" comments." she groaned at the very thought.
"I knew that would come back in my face." Nora winced "Sorry. You proved yourself with me, now you have to prove yourself to your crew. You've got a good record, great even. A number of officers owe their lives to you."
"Well, I'm just looking forward to being able to be THE Captain Ryder. Known on my own merits as a Commanding Officer. And like dad said, my escort ship doesn't really count." Angel looked at the model of the USS O'Neil on her desk, her fingers traced the hull of the small Saber class ship "She was small, but we did a lot with it."
"Starfleet may finally give us that Akira class or something bigger that we've been asking for. I mean, c'mon Betazed needs more protection than five or six runabouts and a Saber. Sure its got armnament, but its hardly useful for long term defense, or other heavier missions. We have to swap out sections of the ship all the time." Nora shrugged her shoulders. "Although I think the Seraph is a much nicer ship than an Akira."
"She's beautiful isn't she?" Angel said as she looked out her window and saw it orbiting the station. "Like an updated Constitution. Small, but something that will probably let me take on any number of missions. Although I'm sure that she won't look nearly as pretty as she does now once we've gotten her mileage on her."
"Speaking of missions, I hope the fact that there are Cardassian hold outs this long after the war, doesn't mean that we're in for another Maquis like battle." Nora looked at the padd on Angel's desk.
"I hope not, but there are still a number of Cardassians who feel that they have nothing to lose by attacking the Federation. The hope is that we can negotiate with them and try to keep things calm until the Cardassian backup we asked for arrives. They're still trying to rebuild their military and with most of their shipyards destroyed in the war and much of Cardassia Prime bombed out, its a long road." Angel explained as she picked up a few of the spare power cells for her tricorder that had fallen to the floor while she packed. "Look at Starfleet, we're still rebuilding too."
"Who would have thought the Cardassians would become a somewhat friendlier state?"
"I sure didn't. Not after what I experienced in the war." Angel gripped her desk and closed her eyes "I still have nightmares about when my team was captured. Not often, but... I don't plan on sleeping much tonight."
"You could call Sam in." Nora winked, she was referring to Sam Edwards, Angel's current on and off boyfriend, a freelance security officer from Betazed. "He's always had a calming influence on you."
"We... I think we're almost broken up. His last message didn't seem too happy. I like him, but... maybe its best if I ended it now. I'll have enough on my mind with this mission and with my new command." Angel replied as she got up and leaned against the wall. "The last thing I need now is to spend time trying to salvage a relationship that going nowhere."
"You must do what you think is right." Nora said softly. "Anyway, I'll let you get back to packing, I have to meet with your XO, he wanted to finalize the transfers for the crew you... Starfleet is borrowing."
"Thank him for taking care of that for me. I'll meet him aboard the Seraph once I'm done here, I won't be long." Angel said as she packed away some of the pictures from the desk "Anything I leave here, you can take if you like. My father brought over some of my personal effects from the Solidarity earlier, so I don't have room for everything."
"See me before you leave. Alright?" Nora shook her finger at her "And that's an order."
"Yes ma'am." Angel saluted "Captain."
"Captain." she nodded her head and walked out with a box "I'm taking this as insurance." Nora said as she let the door close behind her.
Angel laughed as the door closed, she was always doing things like that. She would miss Captain Nora, but that's what happens when you're in the service. You have to leave every so often. No one ever said any position was for life. It still amazed her at how close they had gotten, when they first met, she was this tall, blonde Amazon of a woman who had a chip on her shoulder and Angel was fresh out of being deep in Intel, and distrusted everyone. Then slowly but surely, a bond of friendship formed. She hoped that she would form the same kind of bond with her XO.
Meanwhile in the engineering section of the USS Seraph, the warp core was being watched by three men. They stared at the way the blue and white plasma flowed up and down the center core and through the ball like chambers surrounding the core.
"Is it me or are these warp cores getting more and more phallic as time goes on?" one of them said
"Only you Core." the other officer said with a smirk
"I think it looks like a bong." the third officer said with a laugh that echoed through the near empty engine room.
"Monkey! Core! Jables! What the hell are you three doing?" Commander Alex Bruce, the new Chief Engineer said as he walked in.
"Just admiring our new phallic bong warp core." Lt. JG Cordell "Core" O'Dell said with a smile
"This gringo is loco in the cabeza." Ensign Manuel "Monkey" Lopez said as he shook his head "It looks like a bong."
"How did I, the King of Engines, end up with you three jokers?" Commander Bruce groaned "This is my penance for being so good."
"Riiight... sir." Lt. Justin "Jables" Bradford said with a smile "Its really an honor to work with you again."
"At least you have your head on straighter than these two. Monkey, please tell me you won't try to go climbin' on the warp core again..." Alex said firmly "Please."
"I won't do it. Unless I have to." Monkey replied "So we got ourselves a hot chica Captain huh?"
"Don't let her hear you call her that." Alex chided "And don't let me hear you talk about her like that again. Yes she's pretty, but she's our CO. Aka, the Boss. Aka the lady in charge."
"You seem almost afraid of her Brucey." Core commented as he crossed his arms "This wouldn't have anything to do with the time you got demoted because you thought it would be funny to pull a prank on her and instead it happened to her father."
"No, its because I respect the lady... and I worked my way back up. When you fix the lady's hopper in the middle of warzone and save not only her, but a dozen officers and civilians, that changes things. Or when she saves your life more times than you can count." Bruce explained
Monkey and Core looked at each other "So what about the CMO, Dr. Anabella Savino?"
"Just don't harass her boys. She's old enough to be your uhm... older sister." Bruce warned
"That's a buzz kill sir." Justin groaned "I'm going to go now... something tells me that I need to work on something... elsewhere."
"At least someone knows there's lots to do and not a lot of time to do it!" Bruce said as he slapped padds in each of their hands
"These are your assignments for today and tomorrow, let's make sure our Captain has a ready to go ship before we deploy in two days? You're my team leaders, I'm counting on you."
"We won't let you down." Core said with a crisp salute "Sir."
"God I hope not." Bruce sighed and headed for the engineering office "King of Engines has just become King of the Monkey People... what did I do to deserve this." he muttered.
"I still say it looks like a..." Core said to Jables and Monkey
"WE KNOW!" They said in unison.
End Chapter 2(engineers are based on some old co-worker friends of mine - they're meant to be a bit off beat)
__________________
"So you're really moving out?" Captain Nora Spanos said as she looked at the crates stacked in one corner of Angelica Ryder's quarters. It amazed her at how quickly ones life can be packed away into crates and moved out.
"I've got a new home and a new mission." Angel said as she looked at a few items in her closet "I really don't need these quarters anymore, besides Captain, you need them more than I do." she tossed a sweater in the Captain's direction "Catch."
Nora caught the blue and white sweater and looked at it, "This is mine!"
"I know. I forgot you let me borrow it when environmental controls were down." Angel chuckled. "Sorry it took almost a year."
"Never fit me right anyway, although I probably will fit into it since I won't have my favorite diplomatic liasion officer and part time patrol ship captain. I'll have to start doing patrols myself." Nora sighed dramatically, "I'll waste away, I swear. So Ang... who of my crew are you stealing?"
"I'm not stealing anyone, Starfleet is." Angel clarified as she closed one case and opened another. "Besides, some of the crew that's going aboard are due or will be due for transfers soon anyway."
"True. I hope before you leave that you leave a briefing for your replacement." Nora said as she looked at a couple of the pictures still on her desk. "I remember this birthday party. I specifically told you all no parties." a smile slowly crept across her face.
"And you had a great time Cap'n. Especially when the strippers showed up." Angel walked over and looked at the picture "A shame not everyone in that picture is still with us. That was the last time Ensigns Timmerman and Franks would be on the station. Damn Dominion." she sat down at her desk and put her head in her hands "Do you think I'm really ready to fly free Cap?" Angel looked up at her old friend, hoping that she would have some sage words of advice, or at the very least a good wisecrack.
"Do you think you are?" Nora raised an eyebrow "I am a former counselor, talk to me." she took a seat across from her, crossed her legs and pulled her long blonde hair back over her shoulder.
"I think so. Its not the first time I've been in command of a starship, nor is it the first extraction mission I've ever done. When I was with Intel, we did one a week. Its just, this is the first time I've been given a fresh off the assembly line ship and everyone from Starfleet Command, from my father, to my friends... everyone's got an eye on me. I was so happy when I set foot on my ship, but when I got off to pack... I started feeling like I was on display."
"Welcome to being a member of the four pip club. You were a CO, but not a permanent CO, now you are. Trust me, when I got this station, I was nervous as hell. I never commanded a Starbase, even a little one like this one. Give me something with an engine and warp nacelles. Station keeping thrusters don't count." Nora laughed "But I adapted. I got over the fact that every Admiral in the fleet was watching me, including some Admirals that didn't like me."
"I've got a few of those." Angel said as she ran her hand through her hair "I've been in the service since I was seventeen years old. I've fought in this war since the first shots were fired and we were all deployed around the Quadrant. Yet it feels like, I'm going to have to endure more "daddy's little girl" comments." she groaned at the very thought.
"I knew that would come back in my face." Nora winced "Sorry. You proved yourself with me, now you have to prove yourself to your crew. You've got a good record, great even. A number of officers owe their lives to you."
"Well, I'm just looking forward to being able to be THE Captain Ryder. Known on my own merits as a Commanding Officer. And like dad said, my escort ship doesn't really count." Angel looked at the model of the USS O'Neil on her desk, her fingers traced the hull of the small Saber class ship "She was small, but we did a lot with it."
"Starfleet may finally give us that Akira class or something bigger that we've been asking for. I mean, c'mon Betazed needs more protection than five or six runabouts and a Saber. Sure its got armnament, but its hardly useful for long term defense, or other heavier missions. We have to swap out sections of the ship all the time." Nora shrugged her shoulders. "Although I think the Seraph is a much nicer ship than an Akira."
"She's beautiful isn't she?" Angel said as she looked out her window and saw it orbiting the station. "Like an updated Constitution. Small, but something that will probably let me take on any number of missions. Although I'm sure that she won't look nearly as pretty as she does now once we've gotten her mileage on her."
"Speaking of missions, I hope the fact that there are Cardassian hold outs this long after the war, doesn't mean that we're in for another Maquis like battle." Nora looked at the padd on Angel's desk.
"I hope not, but there are still a number of Cardassians who feel that they have nothing to lose by attacking the Federation. The hope is that we can negotiate with them and try to keep things calm until the Cardassian backup we asked for arrives. They're still trying to rebuild their military and with most of their shipyards destroyed in the war and much of Cardassia Prime bombed out, its a long road." Angel explained as she picked up a few of the spare power cells for her tricorder that had fallen to the floor while she packed. "Look at Starfleet, we're still rebuilding too."
"Who would have thought the Cardassians would become a somewhat friendlier state?"
"I sure didn't. Not after what I experienced in the war." Angel gripped her desk and closed her eyes "I still have nightmares about when my team was captured. Not often, but... I don't plan on sleeping much tonight."
"You could call Sam in." Nora winked, she was referring to Sam Edwards, Angel's current on and off boyfriend, a freelance security officer from Betazed. "He's always had a calming influence on you."
"We... I think we're almost broken up. His last message didn't seem too happy. I like him, but... maybe its best if I ended it now. I'll have enough on my mind with this mission and with my new command." Angel replied as she got up and leaned against the wall. "The last thing I need now is to spend time trying to salvage a relationship that going nowhere."
"You must do what you think is right." Nora said softly. "Anyway, I'll let you get back to packing, I have to meet with your XO, he wanted to finalize the transfers for the crew you... Starfleet is borrowing."
"Thank him for taking care of that for me. I'll meet him aboard the Seraph once I'm done here, I won't be long." Angel said as she packed away some of the pictures from the desk "Anything I leave here, you can take if you like. My father brought over some of my personal effects from the Solidarity earlier, so I don't have room for everything."
"See me before you leave. Alright?" Nora shook her finger at her "And that's an order."
"Yes ma'am." Angel saluted "Captain."
"Captain." she nodded her head and walked out with a box "I'm taking this as insurance." Nora said as she let the door close behind her.
Angel laughed as the door closed, she was always doing things like that. She would miss Captain Nora, but that's what happens when you're in the service. You have to leave every so often. No one ever said any position was for life. It still amazed her at how close they had gotten, when they first met, she was this tall, blonde Amazon of a woman who had a chip on her shoulder and Angel was fresh out of being deep in Intel, and distrusted everyone. Then slowly but surely, a bond of friendship formed. She hoped that she would form the same kind of bond with her XO.
Meanwhile in the engineering section of the USS Seraph, the warp core was being watched by three men. They stared at the way the blue and white plasma flowed up and down the center core and through the ball like chambers surrounding the core.
"Is it me or are these warp cores getting more and more phallic as time goes on?" one of them said
"Only you Core." the other officer said with a smirk
"I think it looks like a bong." the third officer said with a laugh that echoed through the near empty engine room.
"Monkey! Core! Jables! What the hell are you three doing?" Commander Alex Bruce, the new Chief Engineer said as he walked in.
"Just admiring our new phallic bong warp core." Lt. JG Cordell "Core" O'Dell said with a smile
"This gringo is loco in the cabeza." Ensign Manuel "Monkey" Lopez said as he shook his head "It looks like a bong."
"How did I, the King of Engines, end up with you three jokers?" Commander Bruce groaned "This is my penance for being so good."
"Riiight... sir." Lt. Justin "Jables" Bradford said with a smile "Its really an honor to work with you again."
"At least you have your head on straighter than these two. Monkey, please tell me you won't try to go climbin' on the warp core again..." Alex said firmly "Please."
"I won't do it. Unless I have to." Monkey replied "So we got ourselves a hot chica Captain huh?"
"Don't let her hear you call her that." Alex chided "And don't let me hear you talk about her like that again. Yes she's pretty, but she's our CO. Aka, the Boss. Aka the lady in charge."
"You seem almost afraid of her Brucey." Core commented as he crossed his arms "This wouldn't have anything to do with the time you got demoted because you thought it would be funny to pull a prank on her and instead it happened to her father."
"No, its because I respect the lady... and I worked my way back up. When you fix the lady's hopper in the middle of warzone and save not only her, but a dozen officers and civilians, that changes things. Or when she saves your life more times than you can count." Bruce explained
Monkey and Core looked at each other "So what about the CMO, Dr. Anabella Savino?"
"Just don't harass her boys. She's old enough to be your uhm... older sister." Bruce warned
"That's a buzz kill sir." Justin groaned "I'm going to go now... something tells me that I need to work on something... elsewhere."
"At least someone knows there's lots to do and not a lot of time to do it!" Bruce said as he slapped padds in each of their hands
"These are your assignments for today and tomorrow, let's make sure our Captain has a ready to go ship before we deploy in two days? You're my team leaders, I'm counting on you."
"We won't let you down." Core said with a crisp salute "Sir."
"God I hope not." Bruce sighed and headed for the engineering office "King of Engines has just become King of the Monkey People... what did I do to deserve this." he muttered.
"I still say it looks like a..." Core said to Jables and Monkey
"WE KNOW!" They said in unison.
End Chapter 2(engineers are based on some old co-worker friends of mine - they're meant to be a bit off beat)
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