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)
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