Exploration Embarkation

Posted on Sat Apr 20, 2024 @ 1:04pm by Captain Jason Faulkner & Lieutenant Elijah Cooper & Lieutenant Amon Narud & Lieutenant JG Adrian Hayes

1,214 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: One Giant Kaboom
Location: Main Bridge, USS Challenger
Timeline: MD 02, 1547 hours

Faulkner thought that it would have been nice for the ship's first mission to begin bright and early in the morning, with its intrepid crew setting sail with the dawn. Sadly, not only was dawn not really much of a thing on a space station that entered and exited its planet's shadow every two hours, but traffic control had assigned them a departure time that was solidly mid-afternoon by ship's time. Still, the paperwork was all done, the supplies all loaded, and the crew aboard, except for any stragglers who might be catching up by shuttle as they crossed the Federation to reach the frontier.

With all that in mind, as the appointed time arrived, he still made sure all the senior officers were summoned to the bridge so there could be at least a little ceremony for the occasion.

"You know," he said, sitting down into the captain's chair and looking at the metal wall visible on the screen out past the saucer rim, "I really wish we weren't parked nose-in. The view is not very inspiring."

"Could always pull up another feed for you, sir," Hayes said, pausing in his prep work and looking over his shoulder toward the captain.

"I'd still know it's there," Faulkner grumped. "One more reason to dislike this fad for windows with built-in screens. Give me a couple meters of hull plating behind a display like the good old days."

"Of course, sir," Hayes replied. Turning back toward his workstation, he continued to push through the various procedures and check-lists necessary for their departure. Most of it was automated, but a few key steps still needed his direct involvement to make sure nothing was amiss. So far, though, every one of them had been coming up green. At this rate, they were going to be ready in no time.

Amon exited the turbolift and went to stand by the Captain's chair. "So are we departing soon Captain?" He asked expressing his need for scientific exploration. "Sickbay is full prepped."

"Thank you, doctor," Faulkner replied. "I'm sure Lt. Hayes will make sure we don't need it quite this early in our trip."

"Yes," Amon said with a slight playful glare at Hayes.

"Now, where's the fun in that," Hayes wondered aloud as he finished off the last of his preflight checks. In truth, ensuring the crew's safety en route was going to be a fairly easy task. Barring something totally unexpected, like a spontaneous ion storm or a spatial anomaly of some kind, their journey was going to be relatively smooth. Once they arrived at their destination, however...well, that was a different story.

"All systems in the green, captain," he announced, turning in his chair, "We are good to go on your command."

Elijah turned his chair to face the rest of the bridge. "All tactical systems are available. All hatches and ports are reading sealed."

"Mr. Vega, request departure sequence from traffic control," Faulkner said.

"Aye, sir," Ensign Vega replied at the comms station. "Starbase One, Challenger. Standing by for disconnect and departure vector."

A moment later starbase traffic control responded. "Acknowledge, Challenger. Disengaging moorings. You are clear on heading two-two-zero by one-five. Safe travels."

Faulkner fought to keep his face professional. "Lt. Hayes, take us out on thrusters until we clear the no-impulse zone."

"This is where the fun begins," Elijah muttered to himself.

"Oh how long will it take to get there?" Amon asked openly.

"Hopefully we won't be having any of your sort of fun either, Mr. Cooper, although perhaps we can fit in some drills," Faulkner said, turning his chair slightly. "As for travel time, we'll be using this outbound flight as a chance to stress test the engine by maintaining a high warp factor. Depending on the vagaries of subspace currents, and the skill of our navigator here, I'd say a week or so. Plenty of time to prepare for the actual mission."

"Which should give me plenty of time to fine-tune the deflectors and phasers," Elijah said. "And to get everyone caught up on their phaser proficiencies, which some of you are lacking."

"Don't make Starfleet Tactical send me nasty memos about our certifications, people," Faulkner chided. Internally, he was more worried about the possibility of a practical exam, given how close their course would take them to Klingon space.

"Um, that includes you sir." Elijah said.

"I had completely forgotten about that, let me know when Lieutenant Cooper and I'll be there." Amon said with a nod at Elijah. He did like how holding a phaser gave him the feeling of protection considering his history.

Hayes chuckled a little at the banter going back and forth, but said nothing. Instead, he kept focused on the readouts in front of him, paying particular attention not only to their own speed and position, but that of the nearby traffic as well. Luckily for him, everyone else was doing a pretty good job staying in their lane.

"Now approaching the edge of the zone, captain," he called out as they approached the nav beacon, "Standing by on impulse power."

"Ahead full impulse," Faulkner ordered, while toggling a key on his armrest to switch the screen to aft view. For a moment the starbase still filled it, but as the impulse engines kicked in it suddenly dwindled away. A few seconds later Jupiter came in from the side but it too was soon a small orange dot. He hit another key for the 1MC. "All hands, this is the captain. Prepare for warp speed." Flipping the comm off again, he asked the bridge crew, "What's everyone's thoughts on warp catch phrases? I'm not sure I'm a fan."

"Hope we don't die?" Elijah offered. "That might be a tad melodramatic though."

"There's no law against using an already established one, Captain. I'm sure other Captains could be using the same one." Amon said as he gestured to the viewscreen. He chuckled, "it's not like they can stop you."

"Oh, no, they'd definitely talk about me behind my back if I did that," Faulkner said. "You'll never find a bigger group of gossips than explorer captains. Followed closely by destroyer captains. Although I suppose if I took 'punch it' it'd be fitting since Pike started the whole fad in the first place..."

He glanced at the navigation readouts rimming the screen and saw they were a safe distance from any astronomical bodies. "Mr. Hayes, set a course for the Karbin system. We'll take her up to... warp eight until with we pass Centauri and give the engines a good warmup."

“Maybe you just need to make a gesture,” Elijah said. “Point your finger at the screen or something.”

"If Hayes is not looking at the Captain nothing will happen if he just had a gesture," Amon said with a smirk. "Could go simple and call out, warp." He added a moment later.

“Does he really need a phrase?” Elijah asked.

"You know what, we'll workshop this later," Faulker said. "Ahead warp factor eight, engage."

The room filled with the hum of the engines. The viewscreen momentarily filled with distorted waves of light and then the starfield popped back into shape, now filled with rainbow streaks as they hurtled towards their first mission.

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