Part Of A Fly-By

Posted on Sun Aug 27th, 2023 @ 1:53pm by Lieutenant Commander Victoria Aries

1,851 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Ethics, Morals & The Prime Directive.
Location: Transporter Room 3

"Five minutes until optimal beaming point, ma'am." The officer in the transporter room of USS Aspirant stated as Victoria Aries, freshly minted as a Lieutenant Commander loe those four days previously, finally managed to get through the door carrying her final two duffel bags of essentials. Already, a half-dozen crates that contained everything else that she owned, plus a few special bits and pieces she wanted to take with her.

A few seconds later, a short brunette Lieutenant JG came rushing in with a satchel and panting for breath, "Vickie, don't forget this!" She unslung the bag and handed over to the more senior officer.

"Thanks Annie, I think I'd lose my head if it weren't firmly attached to my body." Victoria smiled as she rifled through the satchel and saw a series of PADDs that she'd left on her desk when she'd gone through it in a whirlwind. Suddenly the other woman had her wrapped up in a tight embrace that lasted but a moment. Then they'd backed back up, "What was that for?"

"We're gonna miss you, ma'am, I think they did you wrong by pulling you with no notice whatsoever, but what can we do?" Annie shrugged, "It's gonna leave a big hole here with you gone, not sure Jeremy can handle it."

"That's why you're going to be his assist Lieutenant Sommers, keep him going when the going gets rough and Aspirant will be all right." Victoria grinned.

"Two minutes!" The transporter chief called, "Time to get on the pad, ma'am, our window is ninety seconds from the time we drop out of warp until we return there."

"Kick ass, Vickie, let them know what we did out there to the Tzenkethi." The brunette shot a sharp salute, then was out of the room on the run, just like she went everywhere.

"Right..." Victoria slung the satchel across herself and grabbed the duffels, hauling them onto the transporter pad even as the very slightest twitch of the deck that no one ever noticed indicated the damaged Akira-class was dropping out of warp. This was just the latest in the series of them, with several ships already having been visited and officers along with crew being transferred to fill holes on other ships. This time, they'd heard that Dreadnought had needed a senior engineer, reason unknown in the request. Victoria had been called into the CO's office immediately, then informed that she was going to be handed over as if she were just another cow in the herd.

"Fifteen seconds, Commander." The Chief announced as she'd dropped the duffels on the pile of gear, the long handle of a hockey stick poking out of one of them. "Left shoulder, ma'am?"

Victoria glanced over and picked off a piece of lint that had been there with a smile to the chief, then the transporter beam took her.

A few seconds later, the view in front of her eyes changed, from one transporter room on the relatively small side, to an absolutely massive one, the one that Victoria was only one of five in this one room, with a massive console manned by no fewer than three people. Even before she began to move, two others were already moving the gear and crates off of the pad behind her, efficiently loading them onto a grav-dolly and marking it with a destination tag. One of the duffels was on there before Victoria could think to grab the other one and sling it over her shoulder, but one of the crewmen gently tugged at it, "Please ma'am, let me take that for you. We'll have your gear taken to you quarters."

An Ensign with a PADD also approached, checking something and comparing it to Victoria before coming to a half-form of attention, "Excuse me, ma'am, but please let the PO take that for you, I'm Ensign Zambora and I have some instructions for you, ma'am."

Everything all at once was taking Victoria by storm and she had to shake her head to clear it, relinquishing the duffel, but holding onto the satchel, "All right Ensign, let's hear it." She was gratified to hear her voice was just as smooth and unrattled in sound as it had ever been on board Aspirant, because she sure didn't feel that way right now.

"Ma'am, the Captain's compliments and he'd like to see you when it's convenient for you, not the typical 'right now' that is, ma'am, he wanted me to be specific about it." Typically, 'at your convenience' had a special meaning with the CO of a ship, it usually meant 'Drop everything, come see me NOW'. Victoria nodded and gestured for him to go on, "I would like to show you your main engineering room, ma'am, where some of your sub-department heads are waiting for you. They only heard that we were getting you a few hours ago and have asked me to relay their anticipation to greet you."

"Very well, Ensign." It was something that could definitely be seen to be made and she took that moment to focus her thoughts, "But I'd rather get a look at my quarters first. I know I won't be seeing much of them, but send a message to the sub-department heads that I'll be there in an hour or so. Until then, lead on MacDuff."

"Zambora, ma'am." The Ensign 'corrected' her, obviously not getting the humor that had been attempted. He snapped his fingers in annoyance with one of the people gathering her luggage and pointed to the satchel.

"I'm keeping this on me, Ensign, P-O." Victoria stated simply, making it a no-nonsense issue to leave it be as it were. She would have felt horrible if she just left everything to them, it wasn't her way. "Let's go. And while we're on our way, tell me more about this ship. I've never been on a Valkyrie-class before and I had absolutely no time to review anything before I got here."

"Yes, ma'am.." He sighed, his new boss should have had some sort of knowledge of the ship she was going to. Not very professional of her, "Dreadnought is Two point Four kilometers long and One point Two kilometers wide, with six hundred meters of height encompassing one hundred and seventy two decks. We've got well over seven thousand people on board, a full wing plus of fighters, more than forty shuttlebays with over a hundred shuttles and runabouts plus two Defiant-class ships in support bays. Couple companies of armored vehicles for our battalion of Marines, too."

A low whistle from Victora, "Damn... Big ship, Civilian presence?" She asked, "Status of the ship? Do we have any damage or issues that I don't know of yet?"

"Nothing major that I'm aware of, ma'am, I'm a transporter specialist. My assignment is transporter room two, the one you came into." Zambora stated rather proudly, "I'm one of your liasons with the Operations department."

"Is that so?" Victoria didn't really like this Ensign that much, perhaps she could pawn him off onto Operations itself if he made himself too much of a pain in the ass, but that would be a last resort. Twits were usually easy to keep off to the side, "Is there anyone on board who would have a more detailed idea of any problems?"

"That would be the Chief, ma'am. Or the Assistant Chief." He added hurriedly, remembering that this was the incoming Chief now. Of course she wouldn't know what was happening, "The Assistant Chief is-"

"Down in main engineering, waiting for me." Victoria cut him off before he could get the reminder in. He'd been rather insistent earlier and their path had already taken them through corridors and turbolifts. At this point, she had no clue if he had followed her instructions to take her to her quarters or to engineering, but... She read a location plate and it had a name. Lieutenant Abigail Henley. Good. That meant these were quarters in this corridor.

"And here we are, ma'am." Zambora stopped by a door with a blank nameplate but the title 'Chief Engineer' in subtext. "I'll wait here for you to refresh yourself so I can escort you down to Engineering."

'And so you can make it look like you're my automatic favorite.' Victoria added mentally as she gave him a tight smile in appreciation, "No. You're free to return to your duty post, I can find my own way to Engineering. Worst case, I'll download a map before I leave, trust me, I'll be fine."

"Of course... Ma'am.. I'll... Only be a comm call away if you change your mind." He hovered, apparently waiting for her to do just that.

"Dismissed, Ensign." Victoria sighed and he hesitantly moved away, leaving her alone in front of the door. She waited until he was gone before finally reaching out and tapping the key to let her in.

The space in front of her was absolutely massive, especially compared to her quarters back on Aspirant. Even with the furniture, some chairs, a full sized couch, a love seat, tables and an inset kitchen area, there was more room than she could have possibly imagined having to herself. Perhaps she could set up a few things here that she didn't have the space for before? She unslung the satchel and put it on the chair and turned in place, just in time for her door chime to sound. "Enter." She sighed.

The door opened and the Petty Officer from the transporter room came in and Victoria pointed to one empty corner, "Just pile it all over there, I'll get to them later." She remarked, getting an acknowledgement from him before she vanished into the... Wow. A King-sized bed, walk-in closet, refresher with real water fixtures to go along with the sonic options. This... Was heaven. Aspirant hadn't had the space, Warspite did, but was packed full of transient officer candidates so it didn't have them. It was good to be a senior officer here.

She splashed some water on her face and looked at herself in the mirror. She still looked as fresh as she had earlier, uniform still basically spotless. She walked out to the closet and yes, a full-length mirror that she looked over the rest of her uniform. A quick tug of the uniform jacket and it now covered the belt-line of her skirt. The black stockings were still nice and neat, ending right below the hemline of her skirt, shoes still polished. She stood there for several minutes, questioning if she really were ready for this. Ready for the responsibility of a ship this size.

Comparing Dreadnought to Aspirant and Bayou before even her. The two had been through hell and back and she'd helped keep them together, especially Aspirant, her first Chief's slot. Maybe that was why the Skipper thought she was ready for something like this. She inhaled deeply and let it out. Not like being the starting center in a packed building, this was more serious. And the decision was made.

"Right. Let's be about it."

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