3.3 - The Other End of the String

[fthelev]

ooc: The Captain gave me permission to start a new thread as sort of a preamble to the upcoming mission.

ic:
Things have been quiet for Frek lately. Apparently the maintenance crew had decided to start with the navigation systems last. They had been at it for most of the time since had joined the Nevada crew. Until the upgrading and refitting were finished he basically had the time off. He used most of the time upgrading and refitting himself as well. After all, since his little adventure on the Hanson he was a bit short on clothing and sorts. The turbolift had chewed up one bag and the desert ducks on Jessin had used the uniform he had on at the time for their nest. Frek felled a sudden craving for roast duck as he thought back of it.
Luckily Starfleet had supplied him with new uniforms in the mean time, but he didn’t were so kind as to replace his personal civilian clothing as well.

During the past week Frek had visited several tailors and clothing shops. This afternoon he picked up the last of his orders. It had been a rough week. As all self-respecting, sane males he had a healthy dislike of going shopping. He entered one of the recreational establishments on the promenade. He had been there a couple of times before. The place seemed decent enough and apparently wasn’t short on clientele, as it was crowded.

Frek managed to wiggle himself past two dimensionally challenged Denobulans talking to some purple fellow in a station security uniform. He could overhear them talking about the long arm of the law. This long arm of the law could definitely do with a strong underarm deodorant, Frek thought.

With some effort Frek made it to the bar, spotted a free stool, pushed some kid away who was about to take it and sagged down dumping his bags beside him with a sigh.

“Hey, watch it pal.” Some scruffy guy looked at him in a non-friendly way.
“Excuse me?” Frek said, not knowing what he had done wrong. He waved at the bartender and ordered a glass of Trellian orange wine.
“Your bags,” the guy said. “They’re on my rodents.”
“Oh,” Frek put his glass down and shifted the bag. The two creatures in the cage were mostly white and a soft shade of pink.
“Tholian Mice,” the guy said in a friendlier tone.
“Are they?”
“No, those are Orion mice,” the guy pointed out, “My name is Tholian Mice.”
“I use them for testing cosmetics,” Mice added, “They used to be green.”
Frek looked down at the mice.
“Narf!” the long and thin one agreed, “Narf! Narf!”
The short and fat one prodded his companion with its rather large head. The thin one shut up.
“Isn’t that illegal?” Frek remarked sipping his wine.
“Nah,” Mice said, “Not where I have my lab. Besides no harm is done to them. Only the colour of their fur changes. No discomfort for them.”
“Narf, Narf! Narf!” the thin one started again.
Mice pointed at it. “That’s the stupid one. The other one with the big head is rather brainy.”

Interesting, Frek thought as he emptied his glass. That mr. Mice apparently was some sort of brilliant scientist working in the cosmetic industry. He was working on a pill which would allow some one to change the colour of their hair instantly. With his hair still bright pink from his encounter with the Klingon barber the pill seemed like a brilliant thing to him.

“I was just pondering,” Frek started, but brutally disturbed by his combadge.

“Thelev here,” he answered the call.
The voice of the Nevada’s first officer Steve came through. “Final maintenance has been completed. Report back onboard. We are preparing the ship for a little test run.”

“Sorry,” Frek apologised to Mice as he picked up his bags, “Duty calls.”

Back on the Nevada most of the senior crew were already assembled in the conference room.
“The final adjustments have been made,” Captain Jira started when the final officers had arrived, “We have permission to test the upgrades. Mr. Steve?”
“We are going to do a little test run in this system,” Steve told the crew, “Nothing special, simply testing and calibrating the new upgrades All necessary information will be uploaded to your PADDS. We’ll leave in three hours, so get every thing ready.”

“Finally some action,” Frek said Melain. Apparently she had been quite busy since he hadn’t seen her much in the last week.

[Harrias Jira]

Watching the crew leave the conference room, Captain Jira sat in quiet contemplation. It was the third time he had given a crew a briefing on board this vessel, but this time he was feeling a lot more confident than before. Finally, he had the majority of the senior staff positions filled. Intake numbers to Starfleet had been low recently, and the people already inside were not all suited for such positions. It was a problem that was surfacing across the fleet, and unfortunately a good many ship's were being decommissioned in the time when they were quite possibly needed the most.

Of course, at the moment, all they were doing was a short test run of the ship to make sure it had accepted all the new parts, and that they all worked. But, he knew that as soon as this was over, they would be getting an assignment, or at least, that was the impression he had received. He looked around. Everyone else had left. Scooping up all of his PADDs, he left the conference room, and walked across the bridge into his ready room.

Dropping the collection onto his desk, he stepped back out onto the bridge, where Steve was re-affixing one of the panels.

"Bloody thing fell off Captain."

"That was one of the one's Lani put on. I'll talk to him about it later."

He slipped down into his seat, and looked around. The bridge was still mostly empty, as they weren't leaving for a few hours, but it was feeling a lot more like the bridge than the last time he had walked through it. While he was thinking, his commbadge chirped into life. He tapped it, an automatic reflex;

=/\= Jira here. =/\=

=/\= Ah, Captain. I have a medical lined up for you right now. =/\=

Harrias compained, =/\= Oh, does it have to be right now? =/\=

=/\= Yes, Captain. =/\= She said back, in a voice that sounded very much like his mother's, when she had made him do things.

=/\= Fine, I'll be right there. =/\=

A few minutes later, he was standing in sickbay. "Go on, do your worst."

[gracemitchell]

Grace left the bridge after the briefing and headed for the officer's lounge. It was empty! She had a ritual ever since the first mission on the Nevada-A and even though this was only a test run, Grace still felt compelled to go to the room.

Practically no one on the ship now would understand if they saw her because her face was wet with tears as she read the plaque. "USS Ne.ada, NCC 7..074" and "Steamr..ner cl..s"

Without saying a word, the other person who had entered the room a short while after Grace, decided to leave out of respect. That person was Lani, he left her with her memories.

[Deleted]

"I've been running checkups on the crew this past week so I can update everyones medical file. You're certainly lucky to have gotten me first, apparently the Nevada wasn't the only ship in need of a CMO." Melain guided the Captain to a bio bed and began to examine his medical file. "This is interesting..."

"What's interesting?" The Captain asked leaning over to take a look at his file.

"Since your joining you have sufferd minor ailments, and an ache on your left side. You should have come to me sooner about this." She gave him a slightly chastising look. "There are two possibilities that I can think of for this. One is that you and Jira have formed a more complex link then most Trill symbiote relations, or something went wrong in the joining. I'll contact the Trill homeworld and ask them if they know anything about this." Now added that to her growing list of things to do, a list she had hoped would be getting smaller of the course of the week, not longer. "Is there anything else that I should be aware of? Anything you can think of that's missing from your file?"


<Harrias>

[Harrias Jira]

The trill looked at his new chief medical officer.

"Why tell you when I was quite certain you would be able to read it in my file?" He asked, not quite sure what the point in a medical record was, if not that.

"Because I am your doctor now, and you should be able to tell me these things?"

"Doctor, you have only been here for a few days. My apologies that I didn't come to you about it sooner, but well, I thought it coud wait. Neither are giving me problems right now."

She looked at him with a analysing gaze, and seemed to forgive him, though no such words were given. He could have been wrong, but he liked to think he could read people to some extent at least.

"I do have a slight cut on my back though..." He mentioned lightly.

"Oh?" She replied, and pulled his uniform up to reveal a gash about an inch wide, running up about a foot of his back.

"A slight cut?"

"Well, okay, it may have been a bit more than that. And it hurts like damnation itself."

"How did you..."

"It's classified, I'm sorry." He cut her off, honestly sorry.

[Zhukarak Hrisvalar]

Zhuk was back in his quarters, relaxing on his bed. He had a perfect view of the one thing that could take his mind off of everything, a beautiful Andorian female.

Well, that was enough. Zhukarak had briefly met their new chief medical officer, when he had seen her to get bandaged up. She went ahead and performed the medical screening that was periodically required. All seemed to be well.

Zhukarak decided it was time to meet the other recent graduate, Frek Thelev. He was another Andorian, the first Zhukarak had run into since having been stationed at S47. He was a young Andorian and Zhukarak wanted to gauge him and his past flight experiences. Personnel files only told so much.

Zhukarak turned to Theel’zhiin who made his usual chirping and squawking to indicate when he was hungry. Zhuk went to the replicator to produce some half cooked meat and a piece of tuber root, an Andorian delicacy, for himself.

Theel’zhiin responded with excitement, knowing he was about to be fed. Zhukarak placed the plate on the table were Theel’zhiin proceeded to eat his meal. Zhukarak took a bite of the tuber root before making his call.

=/\= Lt Thelev, this is Maj Hrisvalar. Would you please come to my quarters? =/\=

[Deleted]

"Alright then, this will only take a moment Captain." Lorre used the Autosuture to close up the wound, something which took longer then if the cut had been fresh. "I'm going to give you a small dose of Rexaline for the pain, you shouldn't feel the cut anymore even after the drug has worn off. That said you may feel slightly drowsy, so try and take it easy." She pressed the hypospray against the Captain's spotted neck.

"Is that all you needed?" the Captain asked, like most of her patients he seemed eager to take off.

"Not quite, I'll need to take some basic scans so I can update you're file. It will only take a few minutes." Melain replied, taking out her scanner.

Once the scans were complete she allowed the Captain to leave and updated his medical file, although there wasn't much to update.

[steve]

Steve sat in the CO's chair on the bridge reading over report after report on the upgrades done to the ship. Steve was the only officer on the bridge at that moment in time. The captain had been called down to sick bay for a med check that Steve found rather funny and knew that somewhere on the list his name was their. Steve had only just joined the ship and hadn't had any kinds of checks.
"Computer Time" Steve called out.
The computer informed him of the time and Steve let out a sign of relief. There was no time for his medical now before the mission so that good doctor would have to wait.

[fthelev]

Except for Commander Steve the bridge was empty, apart from the occasional maintenance crewmember making final adjustments. Frek greeted the FO and headed for the navigation station. Though being a more or less capable pilot, Frek wanted to take a look at the controls and do the pre-flight preparations himself. Especially since it was going to be the first he would fly a Sovereign-class starship. Although Starfleet used universal controls for most of their ships there were ship-specific differences. It wouldn’t hurt taking a look at them and the updates. He had the feeling the Captain wouldn’t appreciate it if he were to crash the ship because he accidentally pressed the wrong button.

Frek soon discovered not that many had changed. The navigation deflector had been slightly adjusted, giving it a broader horizon. Some of the software components were adjusted as well, making it more easy to cross-reference sensor data. Frek shoved his chair back and got up. There were some specifics he wanted to check on the science station.

While the computer was searching for the information requested he waited impatiently, resting his elbows on the console.
“Hey,” one of the maintenance guys called out to him, “Wat…” But it was already too late.
As Frek turned around to see who was calling him, he felt something giving way.
The top transparent panel slit off the console. With a dull sound it landed on Frek’s foot.
Somewhat less dull, Frek let out a stream of words that would guarantee a PG rating.

“Are you okay?” Steve asked a bit worried as Frek hopped to the nearest chair.
“Don’t you have eyes in your head?” the maintenance man demanded pointing at a note that read ‘Be careful, top panel not secured.’
Frek gave the maintenance guy a deadly look as he crashed into the chair.
The chair crashed as well.
Frek groaned in agony, lying on his back. On the background he could make out the maintenance guy mumbling something about ‘Officers only causing extra work.’

Steve kneeled down at the same moment Frek's combadge sounded.

=/\= Lt Thelev, this is Maj Hrisvalar. Would you please come to my quarters? =/\=

“I’d rather not,” Frek replied through clenched teeth, “I’m in excruciating pain.”
“I think you should go to sickbay,” Steve suggested, “I’m sure Dr. Lorre can patch you up before departure time.”
Frek didn’t share the first officer’s optimism. His was fairly sure his foot was either minced or cut in half.
“Ensign,” Frek heard Steve say, “Would you be so kind to help Lieutenant Thelev to sickbay.”
“No problem,” a familiar voice answered.
Frek looked up at a grinning Danara, the security officer that trained with him on the Hanson.
“Oh no,” he groaned, “The universe must hate me.”

Not much later Frek stumbled into sickbay supported by the Cardassian. She was still grinning; Cardassians must like seeing other people deadly pains.
“What did you do this time?” Lorre asked as she saw who came into her infirmary.
“He..” Danara started.
“Shut up!” Frek interrupted, “I think my foot has been separated from the rest of my leg.
Something crashed into it. Melain, you can fix it, right?”

Sitting himself on one of the bio-beds he was glad seeing Danara leave.
“pff, men,” he could hear her mutter as she went away. Thank god she probably had things to do elsewhere.

[Deleted]

"I knew it wuld only be a matter of time before you turned up here." Melain reached for her scanner before remembering something. "Racheal, Frek's here so I geuss that means you one the bet."

A loud "Yes!" was heard from the storage room, followed by the sound of falling medkits and an "Opps"

"Bet! You had a pool running on my brushes with death!" Frek exclaimed, he almost lept off the bio bed before remembering his foot.

"It was Danara's idea. The entire medical staff and some of the other tactical were in on it. Besides you didn't have a brush with death, you've badly bruised your foot, and there's a minor cut, but I can have it back to normal in a few minutes." Melain reassured her friend. "Racheal, could you grab me the Tissue Mitigator and autosuture?"

"Figures it would be the Cardy's idea, that spoon head wished me ill ever since we met." Frek moaned.

"That "Cardy" is like that with everyone. It's how she is, just like you are whinny and dramatic." Melain replied taking the Tissue Mitigator from her nurse, who still seemed happy about winning the bet.

"how much did you win on my behalf anyway?" Frek asked, the nurse who was going to fetch him medical file.

"Three extra hours in the holosuit, 5 replicator credits and a drink on the Assailent's promenade when we get back." The Nurse sang handing Melain the PADD.

"While I've got you here, how about we update your Medical file. It's not as outdated as the rest of the crew, but a few scans won't hurt." Melain hadn't planned on seeing Frek untill she was done with everyone else, but since she had him in Sickbay anyways, it was worth a shot.

<Tag: Frek>

[Harrias Jira]

Harrias made his way back to the bridge. He was thankful for the doctor removing the gash on his back, but in a way he missed that constant dull pain, it was one of those kind of things that you get used to and start to like. He shrugged, something that was a lot nicer to do without the gash, and stepped onto the bridge. Of the senior staff, only Steve was on the bridge, occupying the centre seat. The trill commanding officer decided to walk around the bridge rather than take the centre seat. He took a few seconds to look at every console, at every change that had been made, every improvement. He saw that starfleet has finally given them a button that was specifically for the cloak, so that they didn't need to program it in themselves anymore.

He walked down the stairs to the lower level of the bridge, and Steve glanced up at him, but seeing his look, the kind of faraway contemplative look, the XO looked back down at the side console. Harrias walked around to the navigation console, and noticed that one of the panels had slid off. He reached down to get it, and saw blue blood on the floor. He turned to his first officer with a raised eyebrow.

"It was Frek. He slid on it, and well, the maintenance guys sorted the console back out, but they didn't put the panel back on."

"Is he okay?"

"He complained like hell, but I think it was just shock."

"Okay, well keep me apprised if you find anything out." Harrias smiled back at him.

The trill walked around the bridge some more, and then went to tap his commbadge. Just before he did, he turned to his first officer.

"Has Lieutenant Jenkins turned up yet?"

"Just a few minutes ago, you want me to send him up?"

"If you would." He smiled again, and then tapped his commbadge.

=/\= All crew, this is the Captain. Prepare for departure. =/\=

OOC: Mr Jenkins, I expect you just got a comm call from our XO asking you to come to my ready room.

[Zhukarak Hrisvalar]

Lt Thelev didn't answer the call.

"Computer! Locate Lt Thelev."

*Lt Thelev is located in sickbay.*

~I hope he is okay. There will be another time for a social call.~

"Come Theel'zhiin. I just realized that you and the captain have yet to meet."

Zhukarak and Theel'ziin made their way to the bridge.

The turbolift doors swished open. Zhukarak presumed that Cpt Jira must be in his ready room, as there was only a commander on the bridge. Zhuk went to the commander and introduced himself.

"You must be Cmndr Steve. I am Major Hrisvalar. Your Senior Marine Officer."

<Tag, Steve>

"Yes. He is a firelizard. I have named him Theel'zhiin. It means Guardian Sword in my tongue. I came to present him to you and the captain as we are now bonded."

<Tag,Steve>

"He should prove very helpful during some missions."

Just then the turbolift doors opened together with the ready room doors. All personnel were arriving to prepare for departure.

<Tag, to all that may be coming to the bridge>

[gracemitchell]

While in the turbolift, Grace introduced herself to the other command crew. As she stepped onto the bridge, the first thing she noticed was some kind of dragon Major Hrisvalar was holding. Firelizard, that's what it was.

She had heard about them, they bond with their owner and are telepathic. Which would explain the 'tickling' at her mind she was experiencing as she got closer to the fire lizard. This could present a problem, Grace had to take a few seconds to adjust her mind control and try to block this fire lizard's telepathy.

Grace's hesitation did not go un-noticed, she walked over to Major Hrisvalar "You must be Major Hrisvalar. I am Grace Mitchell, Ship's Counsellor. I see you have a fire lizard, whose name is Theel'zhiin.'

Zhukarak "Yes, how did you know what his name is?"

"Please forgive me, Theel'zhiin told me his name as I stepped on the bridge." Grace admitted. Seeing the look on Zhukarak face, she continued to explain "I am a telepath and I think Theel'zhiin sensed that. I have since adjusted my mind control to block him out. I hope I haven't insulted you, Major."

[rex]

Rex too went to the bridge. He greeted the officers present and proceeded to his station.

He started to inspect the station in anticipation of the upcomming assignment. It only took him a few minutes to run the standard diagnostics. It was evident that the maintenance people had done their jobs well.

The only thing that bothered Bonar was a small glitch he found in the upper left button. It seemed to shine less bright. Ah well, he would have someone in Engineering check it out.

Rex left for the observation lounge. He could do with a cup of coffee and a view.

[steve]

"Has Lieutenant Jenkins turned up yet?" Asked the Captain
"Just a few minutes ago, you want me to send him up?" Replied Steve
"If you would." He smiled again, and then tapped his comm badge.
=^= All crew, this is the Captain. Prepare for departure. =^=
"I will be in my ready room XO, send him in when he gets here."
"Aye sir." Steve tapped his com badge =^= Lieutenant Jenkins, Please report to the Captains ready room. =^=
A few minutes later Mr Jenkins stepped onto the bridge and Steve pointed to the ready room door and the Lieutenant entered.
Steve finished reading the pad he was in the middle of. The door to the bridge whooshed open and Steve looked up to see Andorian wearing a Marine Officer's uniform with the rank of Major walk in. He was holding one of them bloody fire lizard but Steve didn't complain as he knew how useful they can be to missions... at times.
"You must be Commander Steve. I am Major Hrisvalar. Your Senior Marine Officer." extending a hand
"Nice to meet you Major, I see you have a firelizard."
"Yes. He is a firelizard. I have named him Theel'zhiin. It means Guardian Sword in my tongue. I came to present him to you and the captain as we are now bonded."
"Well" Steve said "The captain is in with the new Chief Operations Officer at the moment but I am sure he will be happy to see you once his meeting is over. How long have you had Theel'zhiin?"
"Not too long" the Major replied "But He should prove very helpful during some missions."
"Yes I have seen reports from Starfleet on how they have helped with missions."
The door to the bridge opened again and the Ship's Counsellor stepped onto the bridge and joined Steve and Zhukarak and started talking about the firelizard and its ability to communicate with her.

[fthelev]

Carefully he put more weight on his foot, testing if everything was in working order again. To his own satisfaction everything seemed alright. He walked back to the bio-bed so Melain could perform her scans.
“You are all evil,” Frek declared as he got on the bio-bed, “Taking advantage of my misfortunes.”
“I fixed you up again, didn’t I?” Melain responded.
“Well, yeah,” he replied, “But you’re still evil.”
“Hold still for a moment.”

Frek waited patiently until she was done. The scans were completed fairly soon and Frek was a free man again. Except for a little tingly feeling in his foot the pain was gone.

“Okay, you can go back to work again,” Melain said as she put away the scanning device.
Frek headed for the door and turned around. “Thanks, Melain. I’ll buy a drink later on.”

By the time he got on the bridge it had turned from quiet and silent into a crowded place. Perhaps they wanted to see the site were he nearly got killed, although it seemed more likely they were here because they were heading out. Frek recognized some of the crew, some were new to him.
“Ah, lieutenant Thelev. I see you’re back on your feet again,” Captain Jira said.
“Yes sir,” Frek replied, “Ready for duty again.”

Frek quickly introduced himself to the other officers on the bridge. Commander Steve and the Captain he had met earlier of course. The counsellor, Jenkins and his fellow Andorian were new faces. The maintenance had wisely disappeared before Frek returned to the bridge.

Somewhat disgusted Frek glanced at the firelizard. Pets didn’t belong on a starship and most certainly not on the bridge. He didn’t like lizards. There was this time on Tellus Prime when he was a small boy. He had been on a little vacation trip with his parents. One day he went down to the brook at the foot of the hill when he encountered it. It was probably the most hideous and fearful thing he ever encountered. It was at least five foot tall. With a deafening roar the reptilian lizard like beast had charged towards him. Frek didn’t recall having had to run that fast in his life again, and he hated running.

The Captains voice tore him away from his contemplations. “Mr. Thelev, get to your station and take us out.”
“Yes sir,” Frek acknowledged checking the chair and the console before taking his place.
“All ready here sir.”
“Very well,” Jira said, “Release docking clamps Mr. Jenkins.”
“Clamps released.”
“Mr. Thelev, get us under way.”
“Aye sir.”
“And Mr. Thelev, at foot-pace.”

Firing the port thrusters the Nevada slowly moved away from the station. Graciously the ship glided into the vastness of space, putting more distance between the ship itself and the starbase. For someone outside the ship it would have made a spectacular vista. The slim lines of the ship moving away from the station, contrasted against the diffuse light radiated by the Betreka Nebula.
Speed increased as the Nevada moved to a safer distance. When the ship was out far enough the thrusters were cut. The blue hue from the impulse engines became denser as they were activated, pushing the ship away, accelerating towards new adventures.

[Deleted]

Melain braced herself as the ship began to move, she trusted Frek's piloting abilities, but this was his first time with a ship like this and with his luck something would go wrong. Once underway she relaxed her grip on the console, and took a deep breath. "That was better then I expected. Now let's get started on whoever's next." She pulled up the Medical files again.

"Oh! I just remembered I should brief you on emergency medical protocol." Rachael rushed into her office and came back with a PADD. "Alright as you can see we have three medical wards. When the first ward starts to fill up call in Ensign Wicken, once it nears capacity call in Crewman Adara. At this point it's recommended we activate the EMH who you haven't met yet. When ward two is about half full call in Crewman Heathers, and Ensign Lotat. Ward two usually won't get packed unless we're in a big battle or taking in casualties from another ship. In that case immediately call in both Crewman Visser and Williams. If we find ourselves still overwhelmed there is a list in my office of further medical on calls and ward Three can fit some more beds on, we can also convert Cargo bay 3 and 4 into triage units." Rachael handed Melain the list who looked it over.

"Lets hope we won't need all these people. This Sickbay's a lot bigger then the one on the Hanson, and I don't want it anywhere near capacity." Melain noticed the PADD also contained information on performing Triage and other things she already knew from the Academy.

"Them there's also Tanat, the Medical technician. He works in Engineering, but if we need him he's ours." Racheal handed Melain another PADD on the technician, a sweet looking Bolian. "We don't have a resident Xenobiologist, but so far that hasn't been a problem."

"It should be fine, I took a couple extension courses at the Academy and I'm sure together we can fill in the gap. You guys seem to be used to that." Melain looked around the room, now empty, and had to admit she liked it that way. "Now how about I met our EMH. Computer Activate the EMH."

The computer beeped, and a young man materialized before them. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency." He recited.

"There's no emergency Tom, just wanting to say hi." Rachael smiled. "This is Doctor Lorre Melain, she's the new CMO."

"I see." The EMH gave Melain a brief look. "Have I not told you not to call me Tom, I have no name, I need no name."

"Nonsense, everyone needs a name." Rachael laughed before turning back to Melain. "I call him Tom because he looks like my brother and is just as fun to tease. He's a little used to being activated for long periods of time, so he's developed a bit of a personality. Tanat refuses to reprogram him because he thinks it's funny..."

"Well being deactivated for so long isn’t funny, what did you do to the place!?" The EMH interrupted gesturing to the sickbay which Melain had readjusted when she had found time.

"He's going to be a bit bitter about you, having a CMO means he won't be needed as much." Rachael gave Melain a weak smile. "Poor Fellow. Computer Deactivate the EMH"

"Hey, I haven't even been able to stretch my..." Tom's protest was cut off as he dematerialized.

[Harrias Jira]

Pacing his ready room, Harrias wondered where Lieutenant Jenkins had got to. Impatiently, the CO tapped his commbadge.

=/\= Commander, you gave him the message right? =/\=

=/\= Aye sir, he is on his way. =/\= Steve replied.

The trill moved his tongue about in his mouth, running it along his teeth, his gums, feeling the roof of his mouth. It was a habit he had when frustrated. He walked back over to his desk, and flipped his screen up. He looked at the federation logo that appeared, looking at the star formation, wondering, as he had always wondered before why humans had such a dominance of the federation. For sure, they had started it, but they flouted Starfleet and the Federation as human.

He wasn't sure what had made him think of that, but it ashamed him. Both that he was thinking of it, and that it happened. He moved frustrated across the room again. Still, the new head of operations had not arrived. Then the door slid open.

"Finally, you decided to grace me with your presence." Harrias said, looking at the new arrival.

The operations officer looked up at his captain. He locked eyes with him firmly before speaking.

"I chimed six times. I don't know whether the chime wasn't working, or whether I was being ignored, but eventually Commander Steve let me in."

[gracemitchell]

Grace surveyed the crew on the bridge from her usual chair looking a bit nonchalant. Until the crew knew her better they would not know that she was really observing them. Being watchful of those who may be having a hard time adjusting to space, the ship or other crew members.

It seemed to Grace that the majority of the command crew were all new to the ship, including herself, even though she had served on the Nevada-A before. The Captain, Major Hrisvalar, and Lt Boner were now the 'old-timers'.

Of the new crew members, Grace wasn't sure what to make of Lt. Thelev. He seems to have a streak of being accident prone, and should prove to be an interesting person to watch.

Grace hadn't gone to sickbay, yet. She had been avoiding the place, even though she had been friends with the EMH the last time she had been on the ship. She didn't know if he was the same or not. Besides, she had just left Starfleet Medical not too long ago, she didn't think that she needed a physical.

Grace continued her people watching, when her eyes fell on the FO. Steve seemed to be just a little uncomfortable with her sitting near. Hmmm, maybe he thought Grace was listening to his thoughts! She wasn't, but maybe she should send him a telepathic message, could be fun!

Grace decided not to. She had promised the Captain she would only use her telepathy when directed to. Oh well, maybe when she gets to know the crew better, she could have some fun. Not today, though.

[Harrias Jira]

"My apologies. I will have to get the chime looked at. Most likely, when they 'refitted' it, they left a wire loose of something." The trill paused, sitting down behind his desk, and offered the operations officer a seat opposite him.

"I won't ask how you are settling in, as that wouldbe a rather stupid question to ask when you've only just got here. But I trust everything has gone smoothly? Accommodation, equipment and everything?"

"Yes. Although, the replicator has been playing up slightly."

"We'll get that looked at. Anyway, I don't mean to rush you, but I kind of have to command the ship, and time isn't waiting for me."

He stood, and shook the operations officer's hand.

"Welcome on board. Now let's get to the bridge." He said with a smile.

The pair walked out onto the bridge. Harrias looked at Frek.

"Mr Thelev, what is our ETA?"

"Errr, sir?"

"Estimated Time of Arrival, Lieutenant?"

"I know that sir. But we, umm, only have a course, no specific target."

Harrias paused, realising that he had not told them where exactly they were going. The truth was, thye weren't actually going anywhere, he had simply picked a course at random to test out the engines.

"Very well, keeping heading this way for another two hours, taking us right up through the warp scale, monitoring how the engines cope, Mr Jenkins, I would appreciate if you also monitor that. Then head for an asteroid field, and we'll give the tactical team some target practice." He took the centre seat.

[Deleted]

A few more Crew members cycled through sickbay for the routine tests before Melain realised she hadn't eaten anything since that morning and had been working steadily for quite some time. "I'm going to take a half hour break Racheal, we'll start up the checkups again when I get back. Oh and you might want to get Tanat to take a look at the fourth biobed, it's beeping."

"Alright, have a good break." Racheal replied, taping her comm badge. =A=Nurse Taylor to Tanat. Tanat we have a biobed up here that could use some of your TLC.=A=

Melain was about to grab a PADD on her way out, before she realised that taking her work with her would not give her the break she needed. She headed strait for the mess hall, waving at a few familiar Crewman on her way. Aaden Abmers shot her a glowing smile revealing that his new tooth was doing well. In the Mess hall Melain replicated a salad and soup like her mom used to make. Walking over to a table she over heard a conversation between two crewmembers.

"It's been months since I talked to my parent's, I'm not sure if he's forgiven me or not." The more distressed of the pair lemented.

Mom Melain thought, she meant to talk to her mom about her trip to Bajor, but things had been so hectic she hadn't found the time. While she had time then and by the Prophets she'd use it.

In her quarters (which she still had not moved into) Melain contacted her parent's house, and the Lorre Computer asked her to lave a message. She had hopped her mom would be home, but it wasn't like her parent's waited around the house for her to call.

"Hi mom, hi dad. I thought you guys might be wanting me to drop you a line, and I've got some time between patients. I'm having to update the entire crew's medical files. They haven't had a CMO for over a year! That's not why I'm contacting you through. After I contacted you about my graduation I went to the Dakhur province. I thought I'd check out the archives. long story short, things just don't add up mom. I'm sending some pictures and you'll see what I mean. Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

She downloaded the images from the PADD she had taken to the archives. She was wuite sure her suspicians were correct, but there was a possibility she was mistaken. Hopefully She was.

[fthelev]

A few taps on the controls and the ship increased. Frek’s eyes shot back and forth between the helm controls and sensor readings on the display next to it. As he had noticed earlier the navigational deflector needed some fine-tuning. Nothing special, the readings were a bit blurry on the edges of the scans. Warp 6, 6.7, 6.8. Smoothly the ships kept increasing speed.

“Captain,” Frek started, “I rea…”
He didn’t finish the sentence. A fair to moderate tremor went to the ship. A lamp, not entirely secured as it should, fell from the ceiling.
It shattered into pieces twenty centimetres to Frek’s right. Frek swallowed and glanced at the remains of what once was a light.
“That was a near miss,” he sighed. Frek wondered what Melain would’ve said if he showed up again in sickbay. And who would’ve won the pool this time.

The ship kept shaking until they reached warp 7.2.
“Lieutenant, what was that?” Captain Jira wanted to know.
“I don’t know sir,” Frek replied checking his data, “It started when we passed the warp 7 threshold.”
“I read an energy surge in the plasma relays sir,” Jenkins stated as he looked up from his console.

Jenkins barely finished talking when the shrill voice of lieutenant T’Fat came over the intercom.
“Nothing’s wrong, captain,” she rapidly started talking, “Nothings wrong. Just a little discrepancy in the antimatter injectors. That’s all sir. Nothing wrong at all.”
Lieutenant T’Fat was the Nevada’s short and seriously oversized Vulcan engineer. She had come onboard a few weeks earlier as second engineer. With a CEO still missing she had taken the function for the time being. She was probably the only Vulcan who actually liked talking a lot and in abundance. Which was a rather odd experience since she, as all Vulcan, didn’t show any emotions.

“Can it happen again lieutenant,” Jira asked.
“It might sir. It just might. Probably when we pass another warp threshold. It might happen again then.”
“Fix it.”
“Yes sir. I wi…”
Captain Jira apparently had enough of her babbling and cut her short. “Let me now when you’re done.”
He turned his attention to the pieces of lamp next Freks seat and then to Frek himself. “Mr. Thelev, keep us at warp 7.5. Same course.”
“Aye sir.”

[steve]

Steve got out of his chair next to the captain and walked over to Frek's station
"That was close eh Lieutenant." Steve said with a low voice
"Yes it was sir" Frek agreed
Steve patted Frek on the shoulder and spoke again "I know people have said you are a little accident prone but that had nothing to do with you and it wasn't your fault so don't worry."
"Yes sir"
Steve walked back to his seat and sat down.
"Mr Boner" Steve called out "Make sure you are ready when we get to this asteroid field, I don't want to wish again that I hadn't had that extra serving of cake."
Rex nodded and Steve turned to the Captain "While we are waiting to arrive I am going to pop down to sickbay and set up a little training for our new doctor."
Steve stood up and made his way to sickbay when he entered Dr Melain wasn't present and Steve decided to take this moment to have a ward with the new EMH.
"Computer activate the EMH"
"Please state the nature..."
Steve cut the doctor off "Doctor do you have access to the newly uploaded medical training programs in the database?"
"Yes I do"
"Well I think it is time to test one, a simulated medical emergency will be sounded and you will be incharge here until the Doctor arrives, I will start the simulation in a few minutes." Steve walked out and tapped his comm. badge
=^= Steve to Dr Lorre =^=
=^= Yes commander? =^=
=^= Are you free at this moment in time? =^=
=^= Yes sir, is something wrong? =^=
=^= Not at all, I am just about to start a medical simulation, as well as testing the ships weapons and engines I want to make sure other areas of the ship are working to a standard I expect on a ship like this. =^=
=^= Aye Sir =^=
"Computer activate Medical Emergency Program Alpha Two"
In sickbay the room turned dark and emergency lights came on, the comm. sounded and the computers voice sounded =^= Plasma conduit explosion in the Mess Hall prepare for injured =^= and a holographic person appeared on a bio bed bleeding and covered in burns.
Dr Lorre was walking towards sickbay when her comm. badge beeped =^= Dr please report to sickbay we have a situation here =^=

After setting the program Steve headed back to the bridge and would review the results for this test later.

[Deleted]

Melain was expecting a call when the ship shudderd and had decided to head back to sickbay even when she wasn't paged. After all this crew was so used to not having a CMO it was quite possible they forgot to inform her she had patients. Commander Steve's similation she had not expected, but she had done these before in the Academy and knew what to expect. She would treat this as a real emergancy, after all that was the point.

=A= Lorre to Transporter control, one to beam directly to sickbay=A= There was not point wasting time using a turbolift.

She materialised a moment later and headed strait for the patient, taking out her scanner as she did so. "Rachael, pull up his medical file. Tom, grab me a hypospray with a medium dose of Rexaline." Melain scanned the "patient" reasuring him as she did so.

"Doctor, there is no medical file." Rachael regretfully replied. "there wouldn't be"

"I know, just pull up a random Terran crewman. If this was real there would be a file." Melain happily noticed her scanner was programmed with a readout in accordance to the similation. "We've got first and second degree burns, with deep gashes in the right shoulder and forehead. Tom, were's that Rexaline?"

"Right here." The EMH handed her the hypospray. "have I mentioned I don't like playing nurse?"

Melain pressed the hypo against the patients neck. "No, you didn't. Racheal what have we got?"

"Crewman Hans, blood type A positive. No allergies." The nurse handed Melain a PADD.

"Tom, prepare a transfusion, Racheal get me a Tissue Mitigator." Melain scanned the file as she continued to scan "Hans".

[Zhukarak Hrisvalar]

OCC: It’s Rex Bonar, not Boner. Every time that mistake gets made I’m LOL.


Zhukarak had located himself near the auxiliary science station to the left of the bridge as the Nevada had made its way for this test run. Ensign Rubor, a Vulcan male, manned the main science station.

Theel’zhiin had gone between and returned to Zhuk’s quarters, after having met everyone. Zhuk was busying himself by observing everyone on their performance at their stations. He wanted to see how this new crew was going to work out.

It was enough of a challenge for one new crewmember to arrive and be accepted, but here was an entire command crew that was going to have to get to know each other. Major Hrisvalar saw that the new Counselor, Cmndr1C Mitchell was doing the same as he was, observing. Of course this was her job. She was going to be busy.

Cmndr Steve and Cpt Jira both seemed a little uncomfortable. The XO just seemed a little offish with the new counselor, but Cpt Jira was troubled by something else. Zhuk hoped that Counselor Mitchell sensed it as well. He might approach her about it to see if she had noticed it also.