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