Galaxy: Annoyance and Actions

From TFC Galactopedia

Captains Log, Stardate 41384.2

It is the first anniversary of the launch of the Galaxy and we have finally been let free from the constant returns to the shipyards for adjustment and ‘tweaking’, or out right replacement of re-designed components that Lad and his crews could not do in space. We are finally a fully functioning Starfleet vessel, not simply a prototype, though Galaxy will always bare the ‘NX’-prefix, I look at that as an honorific, to point to Galaxy being the first of her kind. Though, I am sure she will be overshadowed by one of her sisters, we’ve learned that the third of her family nearly complete at Utopia will take on the name Enterprise, about time if you ask me personally, its been too long since there has been a ‘Big E’ in the fleet and it will be good to see that name again. However, I would never give up the Galaxy for an Enterprise, even if they asked me. Galaxy is my ship, my home, and my family and I do not wish to leave her.

However, instead of the exploratory mission that we were all eager to commence, we have been asked as one of the fastest ships in the area to deliver a Federation representative to Kevra III, a small planet that has had Warp capability for almost a century, and has been considered for membership into the Federation. They’re place is open, as soon as they wish to join themselves, the Kevrans are an independent folk, and I respect that immensely, especially considering who their other neighbors are, the Cardassians. The Union has been less benign in their dealings with Kevra III, but the war they waged with the Federation spared Kevra III the fate that Bajor suffered when they rebuffed the Union’s initial offers for ‘client’ status. However, now that there is an armistice, if not true cease-fire in the war, the Federation is concerned about the safety of the Kevrans.

Michael looked up from his log as he tapped the ‘save’ command, he admitted feeling a bit nervous about this. Part of it was having a Councilmember, Shamus Todrin, looking over his shoulder every five or six minutes. Whenever he had spare time, which, for the wolverine was quite a bit at the moment, he insisted on spending it on Galaxy’s bridge. Michael couldn’t just kick him off, even though the wolverine had never spent a moment in Starfleet uniform, he had quoted to Michael the first day of the journey that he was part of the chain of command, and as leader of the expedition to Kevra III, he had every right to be on the bridge. He even quoted a regulation to do it though Michael was sure the intent of the regulation had not been for that particular situation.

Michael shook those thoughts off though as he went back to studying the Kevrans, searching for any literary text he might find as well as the more normal Contact Brief captains got when being introduced to a civilization. It was a little much to hope for but he had been able to find a few passages. He wished there had been a complete text of one or more of the passages. His hobby of xeno-literature and linguistics he believed also gave him an edge in such things, he knew that many of his fellow captains believed that to know a race’s culture was to understand its point of view, and Michael felt no better way to know a culture than to study its literature.

Unfortunately some simply were bulls in china-shops and he was afraid Councilmember Todrin was one of those. He had been bluntly told by the Councilfur that he was the one in charge of the diplomatic mission; all Michael was to do was to sit on the bridge and look impressive. There had nearly been an argument on the bridge between the Councilfur and some of his senior officers, especially Lad who took an insult to Michael not only as an insult to his close friend, but an insult to the Galaxy herself, especially in this situation. It had taken convening a department meeting (and that had taken some diplomatic side-stepping to do without Todrin waltzing in as if he owned the place) who’s express purpose had been to let his crew vent their anger in a proper place instead of the bridge of the ship to get them cooled down. After all, they had to put up with the wolverine till the end of the mission, as much as they disliked him, and wondered how he had ever been elected. He tried not to chuckle at the rather… Verbose language his chief engineer and friend had used, slipping into scotch gealic for a few choice words even earning an interesting glance from the tri-color collie's wife.

With those thoughts Michael just sighed and pushed them away and went back to his research. He was hosting his normal once a week ‘work dinner’ tonight with the department heads, and Tordin had invited himself to this one and none of the senior officers thought they would get much work done, even with the importance of the coming mission hovering over them. Normally a ‘Captain’s Dinner’ aboard the [i]Galaxy[/i] involved PADDs scattered about the dining table rolled up uniform sleeves, shop talk and brainstorming ideas. Councilmember Tordin however already had comment that he expected to see all the attendees turned out in their finest dress uniforms as was befitting such a formal occasion. He was completely negating the whole purpose of the dinner though he seemed to not even realize what he was doing, as if he simply walked through life upsetting people without realizing.

Lieutenant Helina Parks smiled as she looked over the shoulders of Cadet Belhinus and Cadet Midrigar. These two where coming along nicely she thought, making sure the two young proto-officers did not see her expression as she made notes to her PADD brushing back some of her long nearly white platinum blonde hair. She then for reward for such a excellent performance, sent them straight on into another exercise as she scanned over her ‘command’ of the bridge, which was at the moment running smoothly, just as she liked to see it she thought with a happy flick of her tail.

Helina admitted this was not something she had ever thought about when she had first enrolled in the Academy. She was a xeno-biologist, a scientist and had loved her first posting aboard the USS Gettysburg. Then Captain McLoude had tapped her several years younger than was normal to be his science coordinator aboard Galaxy. However, with the ship undergoing her acceptance trials and prototype phase, Helina really had not had much to do once she had pulled her science teams together. With that in mind, she had requested taking the watch officer’s test to make her personnel file look a little nicer. When she past (and what a horrifying experience the test had actually been she admitted) her test, she had found she actually rather enjoyed bridge watches. She was the lowest officer that currently held Officer of the Watch status so she often did not pull the duty very often, in fact, this was normally Lieutenant Thamone’s shift but he had requested and received a shift change for more training time in the holodeck with his tactical teams. That suited Helina just fine, because one of the other duties she had taken on and found she had enjoyed, was ‘training officer’ for cadets on their midshipmans cruise.

It was a new idea that the Academy was trying out, instead of having a single training ship as had been done since the time of the United Earth Navy, the cadets where spread across the fleet to actual operational vessels for their cruises. One officer aboard was usually detailed with overseeing their training as they shifted from different departments. The idea was that the cadets would get better real world experience, and that spreading them out through the fleet helped eased some of the logistics of keeping a single obsolete vessel around as a training ship.

When Helina had volunteered for the position, Lieutenant Commander Tabis had joked she was pushing for her own command with all the extra responsibilities she was taking on. It had never really occurred to the Terran cheetah when she began it all, but yes, yes she might one day enjoy a command of her own.

With those thoughts though brought the one thing she was glad that it was Captain McLoude dealt with, and not her. She heard the lift open and Shamus Tordin stepped out, striding onto the bridge as if he had every right to be there. The wolverine had already set her tail bristling at least once already by a phrase he had tossed in an off paw manner. He was a Homeworlder, borne and raised on Terra, while Helina had been born on New Lexington, a ‘Light Gravity’ colony world that had been established in the early days of the United Earth’s push for colonization. While her own parents had been Starfleet Officers, Helina’s family had lived on New Lexington since the colony had been founded, and over two hundred years, the people of the colony had adapted to their homeworld’s .83 Standard Gravaties. Helina was an extreme example though most of her generation of New Lexingtoners displayed her characteristics. She was tall for a Terran female, at one hundred ninety-two centimeters, but she was very lightly built at sixty-six kilograms in 1 SG. Her roommate at the academy called her ‘willowy.’ It gave her a slight frail appearance, and to be honest, 1 SG sometimes felt a little uncomfortable like she was just a bit too heavy in her own body, but unlike other extreme light-world races such as the avian Elaysians she was not hindered by it and did not need an exoskeleton. She actually feared the things she admitted to herself in private, being trapped in something to depend on movement. However she was lightning quick, and stronger than she looked.

Unfortunately when Helina had been with the rest of the senior officers in the initial welcoming of the Councilfur, Tordin had taken one look at her and made a mention of ‘GE’d colonists.’ Helina was furious; the stigma of genetic engineering was still quite strong in Terrans, even hundreds of years after the Eugenics Wars. The only acceptable forms of GE where those that would correct debilitating diseases, and even then if you were a Terran that had been GE’d to prevent those death sentences you still kept it quiet. Some colonies had skirted the prohibition against ‘enhancement engineering’ when they prepared themselves against certain hostile environments, but Helina’s ancestors had not been one of them. New Lexington’s low-gravity environment had not been considered a ‘dangerous’ situation like say, Halsey’s World which had nearly a 2 SG pull. She had been there once aboard Gettysburg and had been the only one of the away party forced to use an exoskeleton to get around. It had been the most embarrassing moment of her life and career, having to face her most private of fears very directly and out where her crewmates could see. That was, until the councilfur had ever so off-handedly accused her of being GE’d right in front of her colleagues and friends. Had it not been for the fact that the Captain was standing right there, she would have slapped him, Federation Councilmember or not.

Since then she had tried to avoid the wolverine, but any time she was on the bridge, she had to put up with him because he seemed to think the bridge his domain. Helina remembered the department head meeting the Captain had scheduled, and how Commander O’Donnel she was sure had been cursing up a storm, though she had no idea what exactly he had been saying, his accent had dipped that badly or she admitted he may have actually been another language than Standard English that the UC didn't pick up on. Even cool, calm and ever dispassionate Commander T’lara had been rather put out by the Councilfur’s attitude. The Captain had listened, really let his crew rail till they burned themselves out and then explained calmly that they had to put up with the councilfur, and Helina had to admit, the Captain’s calm reasoning tone had effected them, and the fact that the Captain had with skill Helina had no idea he had kept the oblivious councilfur from completely undermining the Captain’s authority. Besides, she thought they only had to put up with him for a little while longer.

As if to prove that they did still have to put up with him though, Helina heard a gasp of shocked horror from the young ensign that was at Tactical, a squirrel that had just been assigned to the ship and everyone on the bridge turned to see the councilfur had settled himself, into the captain’s chair! He didn’t even seem to notice the gasps and looks of horror on the ensign at Ops and the Petty Officer at Helm’s muzzles as they turned to see. He simply smiled that inane smile of his and flipped his paw. “Carry on your duties officers.”

They all looked back at Helina still in shock and Tordrin looked confused at why they would not simply obey him. Starfleet tradition, and regulations said there where two very strict stipulations for sitting in that seat, either you where a qualified and tested officer of the watch, or your where the Captain, no one else. On the Galaxy and quite a few other ships, despite the Captain’s protest, the officers of the watch had even begun to refuse sitting in the center seat, instead using one of the two duty stations on either side, reserving the right of the center for the Captain alone.

Helina looked around, she was the only ‘senior crew’ member on the bridge at the moment, and that meant despite her distaste for the wolverine, she was the one that had to deal with him. She straightened, nodding discreetly to all the personnel on the bridge while Tordrin went about fiddling with the command chair’s LCARS access points. Then as coolly as she could walked down from the after raised portion of the bridge to stand next to the command chair as the councilfur obliviously continued his puttering with the LCARS display. It didn’t make it any easier to control her temper when she saw just what he was fiddling with, one of the Captain’s literature files that he had left in the unrestricted memory, she recognized the ‘gibberish’ on screen as Klingon and it appeared Tordrin was trying to run it through a translation program.

“Councilmember,” she began in as best a diplomatic tone as she could muster, wondering how the Captain did it at times. “I…”

“Ah Miss Parks, good good,” the wolverine said completely ignoring her earned rank and status of officer of the watch and just went right on talking. “Maybe you can help me with this, seems your captain dosen’t keep a translation program on this access point. Odd that,” he murmured without looking up, “how he reads this gibberish is anyone’s guess, maybe he just likes the look of these silly symbols. Either way would you be a good girl and download a copy of the standard translator program into the console? Seems my access command won’t work on this station for some reason.”

Helina felt her cheeks flush ever so slightly at the councilfur’s comments, calling her a ‘good girl’? Blithely insulting the Captain? Forget diplomacy she decided, this was a time to use some of the firepower being a watch officer gave her. “Councilmember, the reason your access code does not work is that you are neither allowed to sit in that chair, or access the command protocols on it.”

“Excuse me?” he said looking up finally his eyes a bit annoyed that she had not hoped-to at his request. He had actually complained to the Captain about no one doing that.

“I said you are not allowed in that chair Councilmember,” Helina responded her voice frigid and her tail lashing a bit she knew.

“Now see here missy…”

“Councilmember, if you do not remove yourself from that chair this instant, I will have you thrown off this bridge, into the brig and let you rot there till the Captain decides what to do with you,” that she knew was going a bit too far. She could throw him off the bridge but she doubted the brig part would stick, her temper had hold of her now, and Kebin Thamone had often joked that when she let it loose it was almost as bad as a Caitani.

That got the councilmember shooting out of the command chair. “You arrogant gene-tweaked colonial,” he snarled as he stood, having to look up at her, not the tallest of terrans. “Who do you think you are to order me, me around like that I’ll have your pips and you’ll be the one in the brig for…”

Just then the door to the ready room opened and the Captain stepped out, pad in paw studying something. “Helina, I need you to see if you can…” he stopped as Helina was sure she felt the sudden tension setting off his senses and looked up at the stare down.

“Ah Captain good you’re here,” assured that the captain would listen to him, “I want you to remove this crew fur from the bridge immediately she insulted…”

“Lieutenant Parks, whets going on?” the captains voice was not the normal one, but firm and brooking no nonsense as he road over the councilfur, leaving him sputtering.

“Captain the councilmember violated regulations and sat himself in an un-authorised area,” she said turning to her Captain. “As officer of the watch I requested him to leave and he declined going on to insult me with a untrue slander sir.”

The Captain’s frown deepened. “Insult you.”

“Yes sir, his words where: ‘you arrogant gene-tweaked colonial.’”

Something sparked in the Captain’s eyes as he turned to the councilmember. “Councilmember, you will remove yourself from the bridge, if you do not do so at once I will have a security team escort you off and to your quarters,” he was more diplomatic about it than Helina had been she admitted.

“What?!?! Now see here Captain McL…”

“Councilmember your position as one of the heads of the Federation Legislator and the diplomatic chief of this mission has given you a lot of leeway over your actions aboard this ship, refusing a lawful command by one of the members of this crew however is not something your position allows for, and insulting any of my crew is something I refuse to tolerate.”

The wolverine’s muzzle paled in fury and it looked like he was going to lash back at the Captain when the ensign at tactical, who had been studiously studying her readouts spoke up. “Sir, I’ve got readings on our coarse bearing, weapons fire residue sir, and lots of it around orbit of Kevra III.”

Helina blinked as both she and the Captain turned away from the indignant politician. “What do you have Ensign Bancroft?”

“Weapons fire sir, just like said, now I’m picking up a lot of wreck…” she blinked holding her breath for a moment. Helina was actually impressed under her anger at Tordrin that the Captain actually knew the new Ensign's last name.

“Ensign?”

“S…sir I’m reading after effects of detonations on the surface of the planet sir.”

“Can you put it up?”

“Aye sir, we’re entering visual range now of the planet,” the ensign at Ops said as the petty officer at helm announced she was bringing the ship out of warp into the system, Tordrin all but forgotten in the sudden rush of activity.

“Do it,” the Captain ordered and the view screen, “Ensign Bancroft bring the ship to yellow alert, raise shields, I don’t want someone taking a shot at us with our shields down.”

“Aye sir,” and the steady tone, not as harsh as the red-alert klaxon was heard throughout the ship.

“Putting image up now sir,” the ensign at Ops announced and the screen flickered. It was a bit of a shock Helina admitted, instead of the pristine blue-green world wit its equatorial seas and large almost see-sized freshwater lakes with cities built around them like she had expected, there where two visible, ugly dark scorch scars and instead of orbital facilities nothing but wreckage.

Ensign Bancroft frowned as she operated her station. “Sir… if I’m reading the geography right on the data we where sent, every… every single center of government has been hit sir, in fact, other than the orbital destruction, they look like the only places hit. I’m getting a lot of frantic calls on the local com channels, sounds like mostly emergency or disaster stuff, but no one seems to have noticed we’re here yet, even though we’re broadcasting the beacon the Diplomatic Corps told us to.”

The Captain simply nodded as he stared at the destruction, “Can we tell what with?”

“Nothing dirty like a nuclear detonation sir, I’m guessing conversion weapons, like some sort of torpedo, its too….” She gulped at the term she would use, “its too ‘messy’ for someone to have just used a phaser or disruptor from orbit.”

Again the Captain simply nodded. “Start scanning the debris out there, we might get lucky, find a few people that might know what happened,” his voice saddened a bit, “right now I’d just be happy to find survivors.” He looked at Helina, as officer of the watch she was his main assistant and he started giving her orders. “Tell the med-deck to start prepping for triage work, also I want Lad’s people looking at the debris with tactical, they might see something from an engineering prospective. Keep the ship at yellow alert and shields raised, we don’t know if who did this is still around or not.”

“Aye sir,” the cheetah said shaking herself out of the image on screen and started relaying her orders through the communications network of the ship.

He then turned to Tordrin who looked at the destruction aghast. “Councilmember, I think the diplomatic mission for now is cancelled.”