Rendezvous with the Solstice

Posted on Wed Apr 29th, 2015 @ 5:47pm by Commander Angelica Fairchild & Captain Enalia Telvan

Everything was a blur since the Hera had gone to the Romulan research station, and Angel had a feeling she wasn't the only person still reeling from it. It had only been a short time, relatively speaking, and yet so much had happened. The crew had seen enough nightmarish creatures to last anyone a lifetime... and that was only counting the Devidians. She had no idea how to explain any of it to Temporal Investigations... how they'd ended up in the past, how they got back, or that there was still an Ophidian cane aboard the Hera, stored in one of the many science labs. Honestly, Angel was hoping she could avoid the explanation part of it all, but as Enalia's newly appointed first officer she suspected she wasn't going to have a choice in the matter.

New Sydney loomed on the viewscreen, and Angel sighed as she looked at it. Time to face to music, she thought to herself, thumbing the comm button on the arm of Enalia's chair. "Captain, we're approaching New Sydney. Might want to come out here for the official greeting nonsense."

Not bothering to reply, Enalia instead got up from her desk and walked out onto the bridge. "Thanks. Do we have contact with either the Katana or the Solstice? The Solstice should already be in-system." The Solstice was the Rhode Island class ship that the Temporal Investigations team and the Court Martial team had been assigned for now.

"No comms contact, but the Solstice is on sensors." With Enalia on the bridge now, Angel moved to her own chair. "No sign of the Katana yet."

Taking a position in the middle of the open area in front of the command chairs, Enalia took a deep breath. "Hail them please." Punching some keys on his console, the ops officer hailed the Solstice, bringing up the Captain on screen. "Captain Hollis, I presume. I'm Captain Telvan."

"Ah yes, your reputation precedes you." The young man said with a smile. "We have your 'visitors' ready to beam over whenever you're ready. Fair warning - I don't think there's a single sense of humor between them."

"Roger that. No time in their schedules to, I'm guessing." Enalia replied. "Will you be docking with us during your stay? Or are you off to some other assignment?"

Captain Hollis shook his head, chuckling lightly. "Sadly, we won't have time. They have us heading out to recatalog some systems in the JFS47 stellar nursery."

"That sounds amazingly fun..." Enalia replied, wondering why that area sounded so familiar.

"Have fun with that. The JFS47 nursery's been unstable for as long as I can remember, and I don't even study the thing." Angel knew she should have kept quiet, but it just wasn't in the cards today. "And if you have our guests, where is the Katana? She was supposed to meet us here."

"The Katana is en route and should be here within a day. I have no idea what's taking them so long, but I do know they're under a comm blackout. Your contact there will be a Commodore Krull and a Commander Maica." Captain Hollis replied.

"Thank you, Captain." Enalia said, moving so that Angel could be seen.

"Yes, thank you. Please have our guests ready to beam over... I'll meet them in transporter room two." Angel got up from her chair, tugging her jacket straight from where it had pulled up behind her back.

"Thank you Commander," Enalia said to Angel as she headed off to handle their guests. "Captain Hollis, thank you for all your help. I wish you luck in that stellar nursery."

"Thank you Captain Telvan. Good luck with your own trials. Solstice out." As the viewscreen reverted back to the image of New Sydney, Enalia plopped her spotted butt down into her chair.

"Time to deal with the time cops. I'll stall them as long as I can." Not exactly looking forward to greeting their visitors, Angel headed into the turbolift and ordered it downward toward transporter room two.

It didn't take long for Angel to arrive at the transporter room, and she sighed before going in. No one liked dealing with these temporal enforcement types. After a few moments, she went inside to greet the transporter chief. "Energize. And smile, Chief... don't give them a reason to dislike us."

Nodding, the transporter chief smiled and activated the transporters, bringing their first set of guests aboard - the Temporal Investigations team. The dour group of men stepped off the platform and offered Angel a PaDD. "Our timetables and schedule. Hopefully they meet with your approval."

So much for a cheerful greeting. Taking the PaDD that was practically shoved at her, Angel plastered a big fake smile on her face. "I'm sure we can accommodate any scheduling you might desire. Please, allow me to show you where you'll be staying while you're on board."

"Ahem..." The chief cleared his throat. "Should I transport the other group now, Ma'am?"

Other... group...? "Er... yes. Of course." Angel's smile quickly turned apologetic; she'd thought there was only one group waiting.

This time it was a full transporter pad full of people that materialized, each with a big bag of stuff. Their leader stepped forward and addressed Angel with a PaDD of his own. "Commander, I'm in charge of the Court Martial team."

"Right, of course. Welcome to the Hera... the Katana hasn't arrived yet, so you'll have plenty of time to set things up for the court martial." Clearly the lack of sleep was interfering with her brain; Angel didn't just forget about things like that.

"Excellent. I just hope we don't interfere with your Temporal Investigations guests." He said with a sidelong glance at the dour gentlemen in black suits. "We will, of course defer our timetable to their own if there are any conflicts."

"Thank you. Commander, our quarters and conference rooms, if you please." The more dour of the gentlemen said somewhat arrogantly.

"Of course." Angel's smile was becoming somewhat strained as she gestured for them to follow her. "You'll be at opposite ends of the same corridor, but that should be sufficient distance to avoid disturbing each other. The conference room is on deck 1."

"Excellent. We'll use that one." The TI gentleman said as he waited for Angel to lead them out of the transporter room. The Commander of the Court Martial team gave Angel's elbow a sympathetic squeeze.

"Okay. Let's... do quarters first." Feeling like she was under a microscope already, Angel quietly turned and led the way out of the transporter room and toward the turbolift.

"Commander, if you'd like to show them to their quarters first, we can wait here for you. I'm not sure we can all fit in the turbolift." The CM team leader said as they walked down the hall.

No, you can't leave me alone with them! Despite that thought, Angel smiled sweetly. "All right, we can do that. I'll be right back." Motioning for the temporal investigations team to follow her, she called a turbolift car and went inside the moment it arrived. The faster she could get them settled the better.

Stepping into the turbolift, the TI team all stood there stoically, staring... Just waiting for someone to say something or for the doors to open.

The tension weighed on her, and just when Angel thought she might break under it, the turbolift doors opened again to let them out. Oh thank god. She went out into the corridor and waved them out. "We'll be going left down this corridor, to the last set of doors."

Following Angel in silence, the team paused outside their doors, the leader giving one more look to her and asking a sudden question. "Do you consider your Captain to be competent?"

"Yes, I do," Angel replied immediately, bristling slightly under the question. What was that even supposed to mean? Of course she thought Enalia was competent! Clearly Starfleet thought so too or they wouldn't have promoted her.

"Do you believe that the command decisions she made were the best during your...escapades in the past?" He followed up with.

Angel had to take a moment to reign in her temper before turning to look at him. "Look, I don't know where you're going with this, but we tried not to get involved in the past. We made some hard choices, but I think they were the right ones."

The man's expression never wavered - it was as if he was looking for this response and meticulously measuring everything about it. "What kind of woman is Captain Telvan?"

"A good woman," Angel said firmly, turning to unlock one of the doors. "A bit of a prankster, but she's fair and she leads this crew well. Why?"

Making a mental note, the man answered Angel with a question. "Do you know why we requested you to greet us?"

"I don't know anything about a request," Angel replied with a confused look on her face, stepping away from the door as it slid open. "I volunteered to come down and greet you, and it's my responsibility anyway as first officer."

"Indeed," He mused, glancing into the room. "I requested that you specifically meet us upon coming aboard because of certain connections you have. I'm... Happy... that things worked out." Indeed, he looked even more dour and stoic than before, if that could be called 'happy'.

"...I see. Well, let me unlock the other cabin..." Instantly, Angel felt beads of sweat on her forehead, and she hoped none of these temporal agents noticed. If they knew that she had connections to Section 31, who knew what else they had all figured out? Her fingers fumbled a bit with the unlock code on the second door, but soon it too slid open. "Please let us know if you require anything."

"There is one more thing... Commander..." He started, slowly turning back to look at her again. "We will be asking you about your connections... AND what connection they had to your mission, if there was any."

"Thanks for the warning," Angel replied sweetly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have another group to escort down to their cabins."

Without another word, they both entered their assigned quarters and closed their doors, apparently satisfied with what they had accomplished.

Angel wasted no time in getting back to the turbolift and heading back up to the transporter room. She hadn't quite gotten her heart to stop galloping along like she was being chased by the time the doors opened again, but she smiled anyway, waving the court martial team over.

The apparent leader of the group smiled at her knowingly as the doors parted. "I hope they didn't stress you out too much? They can be very... unnerving."

"I've dealt with worse." Angel didn't know if that was really true, but it was better than being angry at them. "They should be in their cabins by now so at least you won't have to deal with them."

"Thank goodness," he sighed as they piled into the turbolift with Angel. "Hopefully their stay will be a short one."

Oh god I hope so. As the turbolift headed downward again, Angel just shook her head slightly. "I do hope so, but investigations take time."

"Especially their investigations..." The man muttered just before the turbolift doors opened and everyone started piling out.

"Exactly. Turn right please." As she exited the turbolift, Angel looked to the left and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the corridor was empty. "All the way to the end, and it will be the last two cabins on either side. I apologize if that's not enough room... we might be able to find one or two more empty cabins if you need them."

"I'm sure that'll be fine for the six of us. After all, we'll be in that courtroom you've set up for us most of the time. We'll just be in here to sleep." the man said with a warm smile.

This time, Angel's smile was real, if a bit weary. "I appreciate your gratitude." By then they had reached the four cabins at the end of the corridor, and she quickly unlocked all of them. "I can show you the conference room now or you can rest for a while first. I know how difficult traveling can be when you're not used to your accommodations."

"I'm sure the computer can direct us there just as easily. Thank you for all your help." He said as the others settled into their cabins. "I would ask that you meet us in the courtroom later to go over the setup and preparations, if you're not taken by Temporal Investigations."

"I'll try to be available, but no promises." Angel flashed him another smile. "The computer may not respond to your voices right away, but you can just touch a panel on the wall to get its attention." She put her hand on one of those panels, touching its corner to open the computer interface. "Then just ask the computer for directions to where you want to go, and it will light up a path for you to follow."

"Ah, just like the Galaxy class. Thank you." He said with a warm smile.

"Yes, exactly. The Hera is a Bonchune-series Nebula... it actually used to be named Bonchune." Angel chuckled a bit, beginning her retreat down the corridor. "Please let me know if you need anything else. I'll be happy to provide it."