New Face, New Places

Posted on Fri Sep 1st, 2023 @ 1:20pm by Captain Ethan De Havilland & Lieutenant Commander Victoria Aries

2,720 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Ethics, Morals & The Prime Directive.
Location: Dreadnought Bridge

At least the bridge was somewhere that was logical to find in any ship. Why the design engineers always tried to put them on Deck 1, Victoria never knew, but in this case blessed them for doing that. She'd beamed on board two hours before, gotten to her quarters, met with her senior engineers and no doubt the Captain was now waiting impatiently for her presence. The fact that he'd not had security or a Marine detachment find her and drag her bodily before him was no doubt a good sign. She paused the turbolift for a brief moment to once again give herself another look, then allowed it to open.

The view in front of her as she stepped out almost made her step right back into the lift. She thought her quarters were roomy for a place to live and that Engineering was outright cavernous. This took every bridge she'd ever been on to another level, even the Galaxy-class that Warspite had been. "Wow..." She whispered, barely audible to even herself as she forced herself to step forward again and once more. Her hands smoothed down the front of her jacket and tugged down gently on the pleated skirt before rising again to in front of her. One automatically checked the PADD in the holster on her right hip to make sure it was there, then forced her eyes away from the holographic display in the front of the room to search for the most important person in the room and started her way over to that center chair, "Captain... De Havilland, I presume?" She hoped she hadn't butchered his name, but she'd only found it out seven hours before.

Ethan had initially not noticed the new arrival as he was reading a report from a PADD that he'd been handed. It was an update from command though from what he was reading it didn't really inform him of much that would change the current course of events. The cold reception from the colony administrator was to be expected but it felt more than that to him and part of him wanted an answer to the question....Why?

Then he heard someone speaking his name, looking up from his PADD confirmed that someone wanted his attention so placed it down to give the individual his full attention. "Commander." He spoke plainly. While not rude or blunt he was simply curious as to what the Commander would need from him. "Something you wish to talk to me about?" With all the information circulating the Bridge at the present time he could ill afford to play the guessing game.

"Yes, sir." Victoria stood to an abbreviated attention, "My name is Lieutenant Commander Victoria Aries," She pronounced the last name 'Uh-Rye-ess', "I apologize for the delay in reporting, sir, but I'm your new Chief of Engineering. USS Aspirant dropped me off a couple hours ago." Suddenly she wasn't sure if her black stockings had been checked before she stepped off the turbolift, or if her shoes had gotten scuffed since she'd left her quarters. Too late to really worry about it now.

"I was wondering when I might meet you." Ethan replied as he called up her service jacket on the PADD. A brief read of it told him some information but a more in-depth chat was perhaps in order. "Would you follow me please?" He asked as he stood up, seeing that everyone else was busy he simply lead the way to his Ready Room. The room itself was spacious but simple in decor since he'd not had time to add anything to it.

"Please, take a seat." His hand out offering her the choice of one of the two chairs in front of his desk as he rounded it to his own.

"Thank you, sir." She said simply, perching herself mostly on the edge of the chair, back straight. An invitation to sit wasn't an invitation to settle back and relax. She wouldn't expect that from anyone that came to see her of her own engineering crew, so she wouldn't do that here. Victoria swallowed hard as his few words resonated through her head. 'I was wondering when I might meet you.' He'd wanted her here sooner, she should never have... She cleared that thought from her head, tried to at least, even as she waited.

"Tell me, I've yet to read your file." He had already read it but sometimes meeting someone and word was more than the sum of text on a PADD. "But aside from the usual expected note and remarks from your department heads, commanding officers and staff...Tell me about yourself." He looked at her, leaned in his chair a little waiting for what she had or might say in reply.

"Well, sir, I'm a bit of an open book." She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, opening her eyes and letting them meet his, "I enlisted in Starfleet when I was twenty years old, sir, been in engineering my entire time in the Fleet after making Senior Chief in nearly record time before being pushed into going through an underway Officer Candidate School seven years ago. Served on the Tzenkethi border ever since getting my commission. I specialized in small craft and computer systems during my time as an NCO, but I believe I'm pretty well rounded now. I pick things up rather quickly and consider myself well organized."

She was rather clinical with what she'd already said and it struck her that she hadn't truly answered his question, at least not to what he might have wanted, "I also love ice sports, sir, played in pro hockey for a couple years before I discovered that I wasn't going to make it in the top league." She shrugged, didn't need to go into her other career just yet most likely.

"You may have noticed that the Dreadnought is not your typical line of starship, far larger than the fleet norms. She comes with her own unique challenges, she also comes with two Defiant class escorts that will also need maintaining and repairing. While the ship does come fitted with some of the latest technologies her function is more command and control." Ethan knew that presently there was little to command and control beyond the two escorts and the deployed fighter wing.

“I did sort of figure that out, sir.” Victoria admitted softly, “As soon as I heard what class Dreadnought was, I knew that I would become more of a glorified manager rather than one of people in the hanger bays, on the decks making everything work properly. I’m honest enough to say to you that I’m not looking forward to that aspect of the job, sir. I’ve always been perfectly willing to get my uniform dirty, he’ll, enjoyed getting it dirty doing the grunt work. Now I have six Lieutenants that are directing an ungodly number of others to do that and I’m responsible for all of it.” Victoria gave a small chuckle and shook her head slowly, “I’ve got my work cut out for me to learn the newest gizmos and shiny bits that we didn’t have on Aspirant, but I’m going to have to trust my people to know the details better than me. My first impression was the transporter room, where it was nearly as large as one of our cargo bays on Aspirant and it’s one of seven it’s size on board, not counting the cargo transporters or smaller rooms.”

She was almost babbling and she had to stop for just a moment to compose herself, “But that’s why someone wanted me here, isn’t it? I’ve brought along junior officers into what I hope become good engineers and I’m used to getting things done efficiently when the sh-“ Victoria stopped for a moment, “Fecal matter hits the rotary air impeller. Size matters not and all, sir, just more layers caked on.”

"The Dreadnought is by design a carrier, though her function is something else so you can expect to get multiple requests for parts or equipment from our CAG and the ground crews. Though we also got a green light to launch I still like to make sure that everything is as it should be and ready for use when the time comes for it." Ethan spoke. Though he was confident in the officer given the comments in her record, the ship still felt uncertain to him.

"You should familiar yourself with the critical systems especially the point defence systems since the ship has many of them and especially the engines as I'm sure you have noticed the ship has 6 nacelles that are larger than a Galaxy class."

“I hadn’t gotten those yet, sir.” Victoria flushed red as she admitted it. A Chief Engineer who didn’t know the ship, not a good impression to make when meeting the CO for the first time, but she also wasn’t about to claim knowledge about a ship that she didn’t know yet. Integrity. “I’d heard scuttlebutt that a ship like the Dreadnought has enough firepower to raze a moon faster than a full task force, but this is the first time I’ve ever actually seen one of them, much less been aboard, sir. I can promise you that in a week I’ll have an extensive macro knowledge of the ship and in a month, sir, I’ll know Dreadnought inside and out, along with what makes the fighters and Defiants click. I’m already well-versed on the rest of the small craft.”

"I hope so, because the mission we are currently on requires searching for a missing ship, investigation of a colony as well as this being the first mission outside of the Sol system in little over a year." Ethan was well versed in the lifetime of the vessel and what it was used for before he took command.

"You are right that the Dreadnought has a considerable array of weaponry and defence systems and yes she can stand up to a considerable amount of incoming fire if the trials and testing were anything to go by and while a fight is not always the answer I want to be prepared for one if it comes to it.

“I haven’t been in the Sol system for over four years, sir, and I’m always prepared for a fight, the Tzenkethi never backed down from one when we were there.” Victoria had truly seen enough casualties from that, been one for a time even, “You will always have my best, sir, always. What’s the ship we’re looking for, if I may ask, sir?”

"A civilian cargo freighter that initially was conducting supply runs to the colony we are heading for, it was carrying industrial grade equipment and sensitive materials for its scientific projects aimed towards atmospheric terraforming. So my intention is to search for it while conducting the ground elements on the surface." Ethan responded, though he had high hopes of a favourable outcome he knew much would fall down to the conduct of his crew. "For now my aim is to have all the focus on the Dreadnought while the fighters and escorts search, hopefully with much smaller power signatures they might be able to maneuver around more before detection."

“Civilian freighters have different warp and impulse signature than Fleet ships, even Fleet supply ships, sir.” Victoria advised him, even though he no doubt knew. It had been a part of a bridge tracking exercise during her OCS days, she even remembered the name of the little freighter they’d used, Avalon, “With your permission, sir, I’ll get an updated signature log of this particular ship’s registered signatures and have a sensor update sent to all searching vessels.”

"Already tried, the log is nearly a year old because of the remote region of space that was selected for the terraforming trials. Once it arrived it was mainly used for satellite deployment measures and orbital sensor platform. Even long range probes couldn't yield an accurate reading due to being at extreme range. That, and what we suspect is the presence of potential raiders or at the very least, other vessels means that with all the traffic it was hard to determine an exact match." Ethan replied.

"What I'd like you to do is make sure this ship is ready, check in with other departments on operational needs, fabrication and equipment requisitions, resupply of general stock as needed. I do not want my first mission as Captain to be a failure because of something that Utopia Planetia forgot or overlooked."

“Will do, sir.” Victoria made the mental note to prioritize Operations over the rest, maybe to bring cookies or something to butter up that Officer, since they were going to be working really close together, “I’ll coordinate with Operations to make sure we’re both fully up on requisitions. If my initial review finds any major deficiencies, I’ll advise you of them with my recommended solution if it requires your authorization, or just as an F-Y-I.”

"Good, just what I like to hear." Ethan responded as he consider the next steps.

"When the Defiants return I'd like you to run your attention over them as well. The reports that I read indicated that for the most part while the Dreadnought was in Earth orbit they were moored within the Starbase unused and SCE no doubt crawled all over them. While I doubt the did anything that would impact the operational capability of the vessels I'd still like a once over done on them now that we have launched and SCE can't overlook our shoulders." He added wanted for the most part to put his own stamp of approval over things now that the ship had been handed to him. He always believed never to trust a tool without trying it himself first, he trusted his crew, he didn't know anyone from SCE.

Defiants were rather simple, Victoria recalled, basically a weapons package with the bare minimum of a ship and support systems built around it. Deployment on a Valkyrie-class was actually a rather thoughtful and indeed perfect use of the platform, giving the carrier instant escorts at any given moment. She herself had never served on one, but the concept just... Easy. "I'll have a maintenance crew crawl over them once they get back, personal oversight on it, sir."

Ethan looked at his computer seeing that in a few hours they would be arriving at the colony. "Then I won't keep you, we have a few hours before we arrive and I'd like to be as prepared as possible." He didn't want to draw the Commander away from her duties, even if it was for an initial meeting. There were many questions surrounding the particulars of this mission and many vague answers. He hoped that when meeting the Administrator of the colony it would at least provide some means of clarity.

A few hours... A few hours to really get a handle on her department, on the few hundred people of whom she'd probably get to know a mere four or five dozen in any form more than by rank or perhaps name if she were lucky. She'd only just gotten the names and faces of six of them less than an hour before and she'd need time before she could recognize them in an instant. The weight of the job ahead of her laid heavy on Victoria's shoulders, but she could do it. With time. Time, the one thing that no one had in abundance. She stood from the edge of the chair she'd been perched on and came to attention once more, "Yes, sir!" She stated in a clarion voice, "That gives me enough time to have a readiness check on the major systems. We'll be good to fly, sir, my word." She snapped her arm up in a salute.

"Dismissed." Ethan replied with a nod. "And Commander, Just as it seemed she was making her way to the door. "Welcome to the Dreadnought."

END:

Captain Ethan D Havilland
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Commander Victoria Aries
Chief Engineer

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