New Look

Posted on Mon Nov 29, 2021 @ 12:09pm by Commander Ajani Carter & Lieutenant Commander Sunita Conlon

Mission: Episode 5a: Pre-Discovery
Location: Eagle
Timeline: MD -01
1576 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Sunny felt a little funny walking around in a red uniform. She knew it was an eventuality, but it still felt a little strange to make the leap. She was keeping an eye out for the captain, so she could finish up the cross-over of the last part of her old job and the first part of her new job. She tapped the refit report padd against her leg as she walked the ship.

Ajani now remembered why she hated working within special operations units like the Anti-Borg Task Force. There was just so much red tape, even after the fact. Of course she had no intention on lording this victory over anyone, it had been damn close towards the end and thousands had died, yet the TFCO had harped on about the importance following procedure. It was clear that the man was not in the mood for her, as his aide-de-camp had put it, 'attitude'. Carter, however was never one to toe the line. Thus she had pointed out if procedure had been followed Illiran would now be a Borg planet. This did not go down so well and she was expecting a call from either Admiral Minawara or Captain Hawkins.

Leaving the shuttlebay she headed towards the nearest turbolift and ran right into an officer she hadn't yet met in person, but she'd read her personal file.

"Ah, Commander, welcome to the Eagle" she stuck out her hand in the traditional human greeting... a handshake, it was a handshake.

Sunny switched the padd in her hands, "Thank you, captain, pleasure to finally meet you in person," she took and shook the offered hand, "I've got the final wrap-up on the refit," she offered the padd.

Ajani took the offered device, "Give me a run down please" she said looking at her new Executive Officer rather than the report on the padd, she would read the details on it later but she was burnt out on reports for just now.

Sunny tugged at her collar while looking at the padd in Carter's hand, "The holographic emitters on the bridge are operating at 102% efficiency, though I don't expect it will be over 95% after the Eagle is no longer hooked into station power. We double-checked the back-up generators and pathways, so we shouldn't have anyone falling on their butts. I'm sure you saw the ACR is set up in the shuttlebay; we should probably give some tutorials on how to use it. Oh, also. we should either set access limits or production limits so we don't end up with buggy races in the halls, not that [i]that's exactly what happens[/i] on most ships within the first month out of dock when they get one. Then the run down of standard and general upgrades. I had the yard throw in a spit-shine for kicks, and then a cleaning so that we can touch things without worry."

"Executive permission I think" she said with Lise in mind. "I do like the technology, I'd gotten used to it on my other postings, I'm glad that they decided to put one on the Eagle. It should give us more flexibility in our mission profile" It was strange how Ajani was falling into a comfortable conversation with a women she had only just met, but with the last few days they had grown into a working relationship, maybe friendship wasn't that far behind?

"The last minute changes to the Bridge layout was a little out the blue, a holographic bridge is a new one on me!"

"I think it's an effort to make transitioning from one vessel to another less of a shock. With the new and old ships we've got coming out of the shipyards, with all manner of generations of technology, I think this is just one step being taken in order to make it easier on people. Besides, our old controls were a little bi-pedal-y biased. I think it's looking ahead to potentially more variety in Starfleet," Sunny scratched the bridge of her nose and thought of her grandmother.

Carter smiled, "That is very true" she accepted "It does allow for many more species to work along side each other." Ships like the Titan had been famous for their diversity. The entire class had been designed to allow species of almost all the Federations members to live and work aboard, including entirely aquatic stateroom, high pressure as so many more.

The Turbolift arrived and Carter indicated Sunny to go first. Ajani stepped in after her.

"Deck One," Sunny instructed the turbolift, then leaned on the wall and looked at Carter, "so, anything else I should be aware of? Problem crew-members? Wonky replicators? Don't surprise you from behind or else I might get karate chopped?"

Carter raised an eyebrow in a very Vulcan manner "Thats happened?"

"Once. It happened once."

"Well, another new one for me I guess!" she muttered, "You all caught up on our mission reports? The Eagle's only been out of space dock for like a month, yet we've seen more action that any peace time vessel has in a year."

"I thought the point of all the slipstream ships was to make them respond to everything. Maybe you're just always in the wrong place at the right time?"

A humph escaped her lips, "It is a shame that the Sabre Class is too old to integrate Slip technology." she said "We could be anywhere we are needed in minutes instead of hours, and hours instead of weeks." Ajani hadn't served on a slip-able ship but she for sure knew how it could be put to use.

"As someone with a lot of experience with slip drives, not sure if we already talked about the Vesta and Tesla, they're at least as much of a headache as they are a boon. You can be anywhere you need to be, which means they suddenly want you everywhere. Not to mention the actual technical complications of basically having two warp drives running in one ship. I guess that's the engineer in me."

Ajani nodded, "I get that, I'm a pilot and I would love to fly one. I have clocked up days of flight experience in the simulator. I love the thought that a pilot has to 'choice' the correct path to take, the simulator doesn't really cut it though."

The lift arrived on deck one and the doors slid open with a slight hiss. Stepping out on to the asymmetrical bridge, the bridge was compact but not as small as that of a Defiant.

They were still in orbit so the bridge was quiet, the duty commander was still sat at her station at the helm and merely nodded at her commanders. "We are heading out to the anti-spinward boarder, I expect we will see some more action up there as well." she frowned "You been up that way yet?"

"Most of my career has been spent in classrooms and shipyards, apart from my stint at the Romulan border. I don't think I could point that out on a map. Another thing for me to add to the reading pile in my office."

Carter wasn't sure if her new XO was joking or not. Ajani decided that Sunny was, indeed not joking. "That would be along the boarder in question" she was only just hiding the smirk, Ajani knew coz she was a pilot and had studied every part of 'known' space, but Sunny was coming from an engineering track.

"Okay okay." she said and using her station brought up a map of the galaxy, "as I am sure you know the Galaxy spins" she indicated the direction. "Clock wise is Spinward, and anti-clockwise is anti-spinward." pointing to Romulan space and tracing a finger 'up' from Romulans space. "Thats our new patrol zone"

"Ahhh," Sunny followed the explanation, "So, then, yes, I guess. I'll make sure to study the charts. What kind of action?"

"The Tzenkethi have been using the edge of Federation space as a short cut between their space and Romulan space. We will meet the Devils Brew, the Andromeda-A and the Holmes out there. Between us we will deter the Tzenkethi from using our space as their short cut. I do expect it will take a few encounters for them to get the point. Our home port will be an outpost, it was abandoned a few years back, part of our job will be to help repair the station, but the bulk of that work will fall to the Holmes."

"We didn't draw the short straw on construction duty, huh? I know some of the engineers on the Andromeda and Holmes. Good crews. 'Deter the Tzenkethi' is such a Federation way to say 'Shoot if you have to, but don't start another war'. I guess we'll see how thick the Tzenkethi really are."

"Don't get too engrossed in those maps though," she warned with a smile, "You'll miss all the fun up here," she winked at her new XO. She was looking forward to working with her.

"Oh, I know when to get my nose out of a book and roll up my sleeves. If there's anything a former engineer knows it's that sometimes you just need a solid thump with a wrench to get things to work," Sunny chuckled. Sunny was happy, it seemed like all of those fears of a grating partnership were unnecessary and this would be a productive team.