Port Of Call

Posted on Sat Sep 1st, 2018 @ 2:08pm by Commander Rita Paris & Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Mona Gonadie
Edited on on Mon Sep 3rd, 2018 @ 2:19am

Mission: Holographic Horrors
Location: USS Hera, Deck 1, the Bridge
Timeline: 2395, entering the kabrel system

A lot had changed in the past few hours for the redoubtable Rita Paris. The plucky explorer had arrived at the conclusion that she was in peril on the USS Hera, which her commanding officer had then realized after a discussion with the chief engineer. Or perhaps it was that she had tried accessing the Section 32 transporter which had reassembled her on her arrival from her native universe, the Kelvin timeline. One which had been created by intrusion into the timeline which had created a splinter timeline, rewriting what was known of time travel and alternate dimensions.

Just trying to access an off-limits technology would not likely have been sufficient to put the pieces together, though. Accessing the Hera’s mission logs from her time travel mission were another clue, as well as her accessing the detailed schematics of the runabouts. While Rita had tried to keep her searches private, she was not familiar enough with modern protocol to hide her inquiries. While she did not know it, her best friend, the Andorian engineer, had spoken to the captain, voicing her concerns about the marooned maiden. Then of course there was the warning the Captain received from the USS Pasternak, which was still monitoring the situation involving the tempestuous time traveler. By the time the Captain’s wife had chided Enalia Telvin for coming on to the already emotionally overwrought officer, the arrival of a summons from the captain had the lost navigator practically panicked.

But an honest and clearly communicated conversation had brought it mostly out in the open, and left all parties relieved and calmed, with both women coming away with a far greater understanding of one another. A shared meal had been healing, and a promise of hope for the future had set the lost navigator back on course.

The USS Hera was Rita's home now. She had a captain who recognized the value of the unconventional officer from another time and space, to whom she could relate and understand. She had a stalwart friend, and a mighty starship as her assignment that she knew how to pilot well enough to take bridge shifts. Now she had learned that she would at least be able to tell Starfleet back where she came from what had happened to her, as well as the love of her life, who no doubt blamed himself for her death.

Life was good, and as usual, it wasn’t what she had expected. For now, Rita Paris was actually happy to be where she was, as she fulfilled her first, best destiny- piloting a starship.

Stepping out of the turbolift on Deck 1, the bridge, the former tactical officer was happy to see the Captain, all dressed and prepped for a semi-formal greeting with her past. The Hera had been bound for her orbital family fortress, and soon they would be coming out of warp into the Kabrel system to bring her in for some repairs and R&R. Now that she was no longer anxious about becoming pirate booty, Paris was curious about their destination, and the system itself.

Offering the captain a cheerful nod and a happy smile, the blonde bombardier sipped in behind her assistant, the colorfully plumed Mona Gonadie.

While Thex sh'Zoarhi had become her fast friend, Gonadie had been endlessly patient, showing her new boss the ropes with good humor and great relief that someone else was now doing all of the paperwork. Thus, as she could now count the captain and her wife as friends, so too she could not discount the Miradonian pilot as a friend as well, and a darned good shipmate.

“How long until we reach the Kabrel system, Ensign?” Paris asked from behind the plumed pilot, her hand resting on the shoulder of the helmsman’s station.

“Just a few more seconds. You got here just in time.” Mona didn’t have the holographic controls activated at the moment so she pointed out the countdown timer on the warp auto-controls. “Our approach vector will be taking us past the outer asteroid belt and through an industrial zone. The fortress is near a planetoid in the inner asteroid belt. System control cleared us for this approach because they didn’t want us to inconvenience some delegate’s sloop or something near the fourth planet.”

“A word of warning about Kabrel four…” Enalia chimed in. “While it’s a wonderful vacation spot and it often puts Risa to shame, most people can’t afford the price. If you visit a world in-system, try Kabrel three. That’s where the common folk go so you’re not expected to be filthy rich.”

“I don’t suppose I have a hundred thirty years of back pay accumulated, do I?” Rita turned to joke in the captain’s direction.

“If you did, I don’t think I could afford it. Besides, just your luck it would probably only apply in another universe,” Enalia shot back with a lopsided grin as the ship dropped out of warp. On the viewscreen was a rather small yellow star and several streamers of solar energy. The holographic viewscreen popped up information about in-system items that were in view as the navigation sensors scanned throughout the system, reporting back everything.

“Welcome home…” Enalia muttered to herself before addressing the rest of the bridge crew. “Lieutenant Paris, if you would be so kind, please take us the rest of the way in.” With that command, Ensign Gonadie logged off at helm and stood up, motioning for Rita to take over for her, a bit of a smile on her face.

The professional pilot paused only long enough to offer the captain a bit of a frown and a nod meant to offer support to the captain before she slid easily into the pilot’s seat. “At your pleasure, Captain”

It was a phrase she’d used for years now, whenever answering a command from the center chair, and it felt good to offer it on the Hera. Nimble and able fingers danced over the controls, logging her into the station before she activated the full range of physical and holographic controls that Gonadie had installed. Somehow this, of all things, made Rita feel like she was piloting a starship of the future, and it brought a wide smile to her face.

Lining up her vectors and making minor course corrections, the curvaceous chronal cosmonaut reported. “Approaching the asteroid belt, on target vector 75 mark 219.”

Enalia pulled up the projected path on her own chair console and looked over it again. “They gave us a horrible path through the outer asteroid belt and the Hera is far from small. I know you’re up to the challenge though. Best possible speed, if you please.” Smug as can be, Enalia clasped her hands in her lap and leaned back in her chair, ready to enjoy the show.

Catching the idea, Rita offered a grin to Ensign Gonadie, who was still standing by to offer help if needed. But this was a moment Rita had been waiting for- a chance to prove that the Captain’s faith in her piloting skills was not misplaced.

The ‘throttle’ on the controls was simple and intuitive, and while the plotted course took them through a flight path with mobile obstacles, an order was an order. The Hera was capable of .9 lightspeed, after all. It was time to see if all that simulation practice in minefields had paid off. The extradimensional explorer pushed the throttle forward to bring the mighty starship up to speed, even as she began twisting and banking the big girl through the obstacle course the universe had laid out for her.

The grin on her face was unlike any seen on the face of the neurotic navigator since coming aboard. This was what she’d been born for, and a hundred years out of date just meant that she knew how to do more with less. A modern pilot might have been more cautious. But the daredevil dame from the era of mansplaining and miniskirts knew no fear here- only excitement and the thrill of a challenge.

Mona clung to the helm side monitor as Rita dove the behemoth nebula class through the asteroid field. She could feel the internal inertial dampeners straining to keep up but had a grin on her face, nonetheless. “I have a feeling sickbay is going to be inundated with complaints of space sickness. She’s a bit more maneuverable than the old constitution class though, isn’t she?”

“Are you kidding me? This is like handling a sports car after you’ve spent your life driving a bulldozer,” Rita quipped as she took a barrel roll over a particularly large asteroid that came up on them awfully quickly- but at full impulse power, everything came at you fast. Fingers freed from the throttle tapped across the console as her eyes never left the screen, as Paris called for more power to the deflectors to take care of the micro asteroids that couldn’t be driven around. The deflectors could do the job, but they had a hard time keeping up at this speed. “Clearing the asteroid belt in 30 seconds ma’am- we’re en route to the industrial zone. I’ll do my best not to run anyone over as we’re passing through.”

Even as she said the words, Rita banked the Hera hard to starboard to avoid a passing mining freighter that looked oddly familiar to her from the history books.

“Please try not to destroy any of my family’s mining ships. They’re antiques, so we’re the ones that’ll have to move out of their way.” Enalia commented calmly as the freighter flashed its running lights at the Hera. They were probably pissed at being pelted by micro-debris, but they had deflectors and armor that could take that at least. They just didn’t have the engines to maneuver past one tenth impulse or warp two.

“Yes ma’am, duly noted... I promise not to trade paint,” Paris quipped as she banked a bit wider and more generously around the next freighter’s projected flight path that they were not supposed to have encountered for another 20 minutes yet. The real-time holographic telemetry made moving at such a speed in-system an absolute breeze, and it just made compliance with the order that much more fun. Internally Rita was glad the first officer was elsewhere, otherwise she was sure she’d be getting a stern, boring and unnecessary lecture about all the lives in her hands as she took unnecessary risks with the helm. It was hard to take such a lecture seriously from someone whose father hadn't been born yet when she'd sworn to well and faithfully discharge her duties to Starfleet.

Right now, the captain wanted best possible speed, and she was by gum going to get it. Plotting the course on the fly, the Starfleet legacy officer caromed and banked the big starship through the twisting flight paths of other vessels in the vicinity, powering her toward the inner asteroid belt that protected their eventual destination.

“Child’s play,” Rita muttered as she took great delight in the task. This was why she was here... this was why she had learned to pilot as well as navigate. For moments like this, when she was called upon to do something most pilots could not do- well, Gonadie could do it, but to be fair she was an avian and had literally been born to fly. For an Earth girl a hundred years and more out of date, this was a challenge, and Rita Paris loved a challenge that showcased her skills at the helm.

“Coming up on that inner asteroid belt ma’am... looks like there’s one way in and someone a lot slower is using it right now- unless you want me to deviate from the logged flight plan?” Rita reported while they were still passing the manufacturing plants, far enough in advance for the captain to monitor the readings and make a decision.

Enalia pulled up the readings on her chair’s display and hummed over the results. “That would be a problem all right. Bulk freighter. Overloaded too.” Punching in a course correction, the captain sent it to helm. “You’ll have to do a powerslide around asteroid GCN-975C but we can get around him without deviating from the flight plan too far. Just crank up the external inertial dampeners to compensate.”

“Yes ma’am!” Paris responded, taking in the new telemetry and eyeballing it. Holographically she tweaked it a bit, adding her own flourishes as she took in the data and astronomical orbit plans along with the freighter, a series of asteroids and a little pleasure craft that had no business being where it was at the moment. One finger drifted to the inertial dampeners as she rode the throttle and pushed the mighty starship, braking slightly with the front dampeners to produce a drag effect for a drift maneuver. The powerslide was a 24th century innovation- trying this with the Exeter back in the day she would have torn a nacelle off. But with the more compact and sturdy design of the Hera’s unique build, she could not only take it, she was built for it.

A shudder began vibrating the starship as Rita slid into her first powerslide, which wasn’t bad at the start, but built a little too long for comfort. A bit of overcompensation that had to be recovered from, which certainly wouldn’t make the history books, but it was good enough to get them where they were going. And at no point did Mona Gonadie feel the need to say anything or take the stick, which Rita took as a good sign. Another slight shudder was felt from not enough dampeners recovering from the slide, which Rita quickly compensated for, but all in all she still had to chalk this imperfect performance to experience.

“Ah, sorry about the rough ride there, ma’am,” Paris coughed, a bit embarrassed.

“Not bad for a first try,” Enalia commented, checking her sensor readouts again. “Looks like you’ll have to do it again but with a lateral roll though.”

As the words left her lips, the pilot’s agile digits were already at work, the joystick in one hand even as she tapped at the ring of holographic commands that encircled it. To Rita it was somehow reminiscent of the superhero mythos of old Earth, when the hero would fly by following their fist into the sky for some terribly anti-aeronautical unsound reason. Yet here she was, piloting a starship through her fist gripping the control arm out before her.

“Easy peasy ma’am. She handles like she knows where to go if I let her,” Paris offered from the helm.

“The autopilot isn’t quite as good as the three of us yet, thankfully,” Mona chuckled as she kept clinging to the navigation readouts on the helm next to Rita. She hadn’t made any motions to help her, but she was there just in case. “On top of that, RCS thruster nine was acting up earlier, but engineering was able to sort it out. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have made it through the outer asteroid belt.”

“She’s a wonder, a real marvel. We didn’t even dream of this back in my day- we thought we were flying the best of the fleet. I appreciate you know how to fly her, too,” Rita chucked her gaze over to the captain briefly. “Every captain should, I think. Captain Stuart could technically do it, but...” Rita shuddered a bit as she took a hard bank to starboard to get a view of their destination. “So this would be...?”

The ship’s path was now free and clear of any more obstacles and they could now see a glimmering snowglobe floating in space. A literal snowglobe. There was a silver castle and forests and lakes inside of it, and spires below it, but there was no mistaking what it was. This was the Artan family Orbital Fortress.

“There she is. One hundred forty kilometers wide and waiting for us to dock.” Enalia punched up a detailed scan of the fortress, including what little magnification was needed. “More amenities than a pleasure planet and larger than Earth Spacedock. Far fewer personal accommodations though.”

The ensign at operations, whom looked much more green than normal, piped up. “Captain, TRGCN-779156A automated control has us on approach and approves our docking. Tractor and docking ports are standing by.”

“Thank you ensign,” Enalia replied. “Helm, you should have automated beacons routed to your station now. Once we’re within five kilometers the tractors will take over.”

At that, Rita took her hand off the wheel, as it were. “Coasting to the tractor beams annnnnd” there was a slight bump as the tractors took over for the high-speed approach of the craft. “Impressive. As she’s a station, you have tractor beams strong enough to catch a starship this size and mass moving at .863 lightspeed on approach.”

Spinning her chair, Paris sighed contentedly then smiled, a close-lipped slightly smug affair. “The future is bloody marvelous, ma'am. Best possible speed, Captain. I don’t know if we broke any records, but we certainly established a watermark.”

Enalia gave her normal lopsided grin as the umbilicals engaged and operations transferred ship systems to external power. “I’m sure medical will be filing a complaint, but I’ll write it off as a combination of training and necessary due to… diplomatic affairs with the system.” Pressing a few more controls, the ship’s alert status went to blue and the intercom activated.

“This is the Captain speaking. We have arrived at the Artan Family Orbital Fortress and two weeks of shore leave starts now. Same rules as last time apply. Don’t catch anything you don’t intend to keep and don’t end up in a prison if you go off station. Minimum manning for the duration. If you haven’t already, get with your department heads for the schedules. Fireworks will be included this time. Captain Telvan out.”

With that, Paris turned in her chair to face Ensign Gonadie. “Helm is of absolutely no use in port, so you are officially on liberty, Miss Gonadie. I’ll set the rest of the rotations for shore leave according to performance evals, and spend the next few writing out reports and dealing with the port authorities and all the fun stuff. You’ve been a real sport about me being in the job, and you have been an invaluable assistant. Go forth and be on leave, and you can check in with me here again in seven days. That much I can do for you.”

“Thank you, ma’am. I’ll see you on the fortress.” With a nod and a smile, Gonadie was in the turbolift with six other of the bridge crew, eager to start their shore leave.

“With your permission, I’ve got plenty of work to do, so I’ll be staying aboard for a bit.” The leggy lieutenant rose from the helm and took a step toward the ship’s commander. “Shall I mind the bridge for you, ma’am? It’s shore leave for you too, after all.”

“Yeah, thanks. Though my shore leave doesn’t really start for a while yet, really.” Enalia sighed heavily as she stood and stretched, her semi-formal uniform shifting out of place a bit as she did so. ”I have a meet and greet on the fortress shortly with my wife. Then a dinner party, and not the pleasant kind like the one we had. If I don’t get roped into some engagement, I might be able to relax tomorrow.” Adjusting her uniform, she headed to the turbolift as well. “The bridge is yours, then. Take good care of her for me.”

“Will do ma’am. If you need either one of us, just call and we’ll come running,” Rita reassured as she watched the captain head for the lift, staying in place where she was. Once the captain was off the bridge, Rita approached the command chair slowly, reaching out her fingers to touch it gingerly. Half-turning, she eased herself slowly down into the center chair, settling lightly into it before buffing it a bit with her bum.

It was comfortable, it looked sensible, and as Rita tapped in her login, it was obvious that as a command chair it was well designed. Seatbelts. Finally.

As a little girl, Rita Paris had dreamed of sitting in the center seat- the command seat on the bridge of a starship. Her first time had been aboard the Farragut, when she had sat in a few graveyard shifts as a junior officer. On the Exeter she had often taken the chair when Stuart and Sonak were on an away mission, and it had lost its glamour by becoming commonplace for her. Although when she genuinely had to take command, those moments were thrilling for her, and she had acquitted herself well, according to Captain Stuart and the medals he had awarded her.

Today, she sat at the centerpiece of a technological marvel of a bridge that hadn’t changed that much aesthetically, but was light years ahead in her science, design and capabilities. They had to rework warp math, for phloog’s sake. As she sat in the command chair of the USS Hera, starship of the future, Rita Paris settled in.

This was home. Well, maybe not in the center chair, but she’d gladly keep it warm for her Captain. But the mighty starship, the weird universe of the future- this was where she was meant to be. Bringing that ‘can-do’ pioneer spirit of the 23rd century into the 25th century.

Living the Starfleet dream, and boldly going.