New Beginnings?

Posted on Mon Jan 30th, 2017 @ 10:45pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Commander Eneas Clio

Mission: Refit Rondo
Location: USS Hera, CO's Ready Room
Timeline: 1 week before launch

It had taken quite some time to get the Hera even to the state of readiness that allowed personnel on board. Clio was actually starting to wonder if the project would ever be completed when she received notice that not only was the Hera now livable, Captain Telvan had requested to see her. With her meeting with Mal having gone very well and her previous discussions with Enalia having been amicable, she was somewhat less anxious about this particular meeting and was in somewhat cheerful spirit when she reached the Hera's bridge. Once there, she paused to give the new bridge module an appreciative look. An updated 'Hope' series module, it sported its very own dedicated intelligence console and seats at every post. Even the color was updated, with blue-grey coloring. Though the Hera was technically still the same ship, she hardly felt like a Nebula class anymore.

Her appreciation of the ship's bridge done, Clio ventured to the door of the ready room and pressed the doorchime, hoping this meeting too would go well.

"Come in," called Enalia, looking up as the doors opened. Unfortunately, her ready room was the same size as before, but at least everything in it was new. "Commander Eneas, it's good to see you again. What do you think of the refit so far?"

"I get my own chair. So far I can't complain." While the Katana had been easy enough to modify for her work, having her own station to work from that wasn't cobbled together from science and tactical was something Clio was most definitely looking forward to. She glanced around the ready room as she entered, finding it shared the blue-grey coloring of the main bridge. "I think this is the first Nebula class to carry the Hope bridge."

Enalia grinned from ear to ear. "We had a Galaxy class bridge previously, but it would have taken too much to update it so I asked for a new bridge module. This one was designed by Intel for the Olympic class ships but was very easy to recouple for the Hera, thankfully. Please, have a seat. We have a lot to discuss."

"You wouldn't think the Galaxy bridge would fit in this saucer." Clio eased herself into one of the chairs near Enalia's desk. "And I'm sure we have more to discuss than a single meeting could possibly cover."

"Yes we do, but we can get a start on it," Enalia said, sliding a PaDD over to Clio with a classified mission briefing on it. "We already have a mission and we won't have time for a shakedown, so I'll need you to start testing all the new Intel systems and scanners immediately. Ignore drydock protocol if you have to."

"I never liked drydock protocols anyway." Clio picked up the PaDD and read over the mission briefing, frowning and then scowling a bit as she did so. "You realize this is a suicide mission, right? They've sent three teams, one of which was a part of Spectre Squad. None of them ever came back, and anything that takes out a Spectre team is bad news."

"I had a friend in Spectre Squad. Three friends in the other teams. I know what they can do. If there's anyone to rescue, I'd like our crew to be the one to do it." Enalia replied. "Suicide mission or not, we're going on this mission."

"I'm not debating whether or not we're going, only telling you that if Spectre can't do it, our chances are slim." Clio read over the briefing again and set the PaDD down. "Honestly I'm surprised this didn't go to an Echelon ship, unless we've been drafted." Remembering the unusual armor she'd seen being laid on the Hera's hull, she paused and glanced out the window. She couldn't see much - if any - of the hull through it, but she remembered what the armor plating looked like. "Bloody hell, woman. They're turning your ship into one of theirs."

Enalia got deadly serious at this point. "They did. Every last scrap we could get our hands on is now embedded into this ship. You'll find the details of that in your office's quarantined computer core. They also found this," As she spoke, she lifted a small case from the floor and set it on her desk, punching in the biometrics codes to open it to reveal a small triangular device. "It took a lot to get this little gem. It was manufactured in the year 2544. Let's put it to good use, shall we?"

"Please tell me that my quarantined core also has it's own power source and has a chance of surviving the ship's destruction. I lost everything when the Katana went down." Not only had she lost everything, most of the data that Clio had collected on the Drej hadn't yet been sent to the Hera, leaving her to reconstruct large swaths of data. She paused in thought, looking at the little device and gingerly picking it up. "A mobile emitter..." In that moment, she got a crushing feeling in her heart. "If we'd had one of these on the Katana, Arivek would still be alive."

"That core has all that and doesn't show up on scans. The engineers tell me that it can survive a warp core breach if needed." Enalia replied. "As for this toy, I wish we had found it sooner. It's still future tech, but not as advanced as the one Voyager brought back so I'm not even sure if Akira's program will fit in it, to be honest."

"If it doesn't, I'm sure she and I can do some tweaking to expand the device's capacity. I might not have an Operations degree, but I've learned a bit working with her." Still holding the tiny device, Clio shook her head slightly. "That is, if she even wants to use it."

"I've heard that you know her better than anyone else so I'll let you approach her about it. The technology is advanced, but not so advanced that we can't do something more with it." Enalia added. She then clicked a holographic readout on her desk, displaying the schematics of the new pod. "On another note, some of these systems should look fairly familiar... Ever feel like appearing on a planet the next system over in holographic form? And those special torpedoes we tried to give your last ship?" Pointing into the holographic display, Enalia continued. "About here, we have several devices we still haven't figured out."

"Doctor Dodger had a prototype holopresence unit in the Katana's sickbay, so I'm somewhat familiar with that particular concept." Peering at the holographic display, Clio tapped the unidentified devices, thinking they looked at least slightly familiar. "The Banshee had some of these systems, I think. I wasn't a department head so I wasn't privy to how they worked, unfortunately."

Enalia nodded and rotated the schematic a bit. "The pod arrives in less than an hour and should only take a few hours to install so when you have some spare time, please take a look at them. One of them is supposed to be a duotronic field emitter, but we still have no idea what that's for, let alone the purpose of the others. We just know that the systems we DO know the function of refuse to work without them."

"I was going to look whether you gave me permission or not." Of all the Nebula class ships in Starfleet, the Hera was going to be the only one carrying specific Intelligence equipment, and Clio couldn't wait to get her hands on it. "I thought when I left the Banshee I'd never see anything like her again."

"You likely have more access on that pod than even I do. As for the Banshee, from what little I know, I think we might be better equipped." Enalia reclined in her chair and sat silent for a moment.

"We likely are. She's reaching the end of her service cycle and hasn't been refitted in several years." And Clio knew Enalia was probably right about her access permissions as well. It was the worst kept secret in Starfleet that an Intelligence officer could - and often did - carry a higher security clearance than their captain.

Enalia nodded. "I think this is the part of the meeting where I'm supposed to ask if you have any questions. So... Any questions before I let you get to your department of thirty three other intel officers?"

"...thirty three?" Clio's eyes went a bit wide, as she was used to being the only intelligence officer on a starship. "I... damn. That's incredible." Still a bit awed, she shook her head. "No, no questions at the moment."

"Then welcome aboard. If you need anything let me know." Enalia replied with a polite smile. "Oh and I almost forgot, congrats on becoming my second officer as well."

"I'm sorry, your new what?" Clio wasn't sure she'd heard that one right. "Are you... sure?"

Enalia had an innocent smile as she replied. "Second officer. Unless I get another full Commander before we launch, yes I'm sure. If you don't want the job, you'll have to find someone else for the position."

"No, it's not that I mind. It's just... Starfleet. With their rank rules and all that... I don't want to get overridden by that again." While Clio had given her second officer role on the Katana over to Jenni without much fuss, she still felt the slight sting of that particular injustice.

"Do you want a promotion then? Would that help?" Enalia asked as she reached into her desk and pulled out a small black box. She then waited for a response, still smiling innocently.

"Uh..." Clio kind of stared blankly at Enalia for a moment. She was pretty sure she hadn't met time in grade for her next promotion yet, but at the same time she wasn't exactly going to refuse either. "Did you plan this or are you just messing with me?"

"A little of both, actually. Thanks to the refit, I'm behind in a lot of areas and promotions is one of them. I'm supposed to hand out a few of these before we launch." Opening the small box, it was filled to the brim with both black and gold pips just sitting in there loose.

"Okay..." That kind of made sense. Clio understood someone falling behind in their promotion quota, even if she thought it a bit strange that Starfleet had such a quota. "Well, clearly it is your decision and not my place to question it. Although... others might. There was a bit of dissent on the Katana over it, despite how quickly Matthews bumped me back down."

"Fair enough. We'll wait a while and see how it goes then." Enalia replied, shrugging and reclosing the little box. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"At the moment, no. I need to get a look at that console on the bridge and my Intelligence facilities, if the engineers are done poking around down there. I'd like to know what sort of systems I'm working with before I really need them." Maybe Clio was a bit odd in that regard, but she liked knowing her systems before launch if possible.

"Good luck then," Enalia nodded at the sense that made. "We launch in a week if everything else stays on schedule."