Yesterday's Children, Act I: In Our Image

[Kel Marya]

OOC: Better go read the last post of the previous act/mission before you read this.

-ON-

<<USS Hawking – Bridge>>
<<March 28, 2384 – 1300>>

Assistant Chief of Ops York-tee hummed a few bars of an old song. The Hawking was “parked” ten kilometers out from the asteroid field they had traveled into the Delta Quadrant to view, and the human had to admit that he couldn’t see anything special about it. Well, not beside the fact that he couldn’t see it very well at all—at least, not with the ship’s short-range sensors. Radiation blocked most of the functions. That was why they would be sending out the air group for proper scans. It was mostly just large rocks, not a few of them larger than the Hawking itself. Some gas around. Ice crystals. Typical asteroid field things. He found himself tapping his fingers on the console.

Kel had rooted herself in the Captain’s chair, and she rarely left during the first week of travel time. Now that they had arrived, she had returned to the habit of living on the bridge. It was agreed amongst the crew that she was a new commanding officer getting used to the feel of the center chair.

This was quite true.

“Mister…tee?”

“York-tee, Captain. No surname.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant.”

“Of course. What did you need, ma’am?”

“I was wondering if the air group was ready.”

“Shuttlebay is ready. Regarding the air group, I wouldn’t know.”

Jacob Orley chimed in, stepping off of the lift, “Air group is ready, ma’am.”

“Wonderful. I’m sure you gave Petty Officer Maran my final briefing?”

“I did, ma’am.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant.” Kel sat back and surveyed the bridge. Looking reflective was a good cover for wondering if one had forgotten anything. In this case, it wasn’t seeming like she had. The air group was prepared and science was standing by. Ops was running an astronomical phenomena scan that was reading out radiation—supposedly, that was part of the phenomena, but that radiation was also interfering with Science’s quasi-stellar material scan. “Not to seem like I'm trying to keep you off of the bridge, Mister Orley, but if you could monitor Lieutenant Hass in lab ten, it may help scans go that much smoother.”

Though the XO had practically been halfway into his chair, he aborted the motion and stood fully again. “You've got it.”

“Good.” And she left it at that.

Kel had never been especially interested in the sciences, but she would probably be dealing with them a lot more as Commanding Officer of a science vessel. Black holes were enough to keep the science officers buzzing around, but had an element to them that could interest almost anyone. Data collection wasn't especially interesting, in Kel's opinion, but the Bajoran couldn't help wondering what was hiding away among those over-sized rocks. Whatever it was, she had a good feeling about it, and Captains were known for their instincts.

-OFF-

Alright, people.

<TAG> Orley. Go do your thing, whatever that thing is.

<TAG> Iliari. You'll receive the mentioned briefing shortly.

Everyone else, our dear missing Travis West and the good Mister Falkner...you have the most freedom here.

[Michael Falkner]

-ON-

<<USS Hawking - Security Office - Deck 3>>
<<28 March, 2384 - 1310>>

Michael sighed, putting down the PADD on his desk. He was beginning to go a little stir crazy, sat in his office. Admittedly, when he took the assignment, he knew that being the Security Chief on a science ship would not stimulate the most riveting encounters, but still, something to do would be nice.

He’d just finished his preliminary review of the Security Personnel. Sgt. Collins was off on errands which Michael would rather have done himself, just to get out of the four walls of the Security Office, and Lyta Alexander was tuning the phasers in the armoury. The only mild interest he got was from the eight monitors behind him, which occasionally displayed some interesting interactions between the crew. Not that he was being ‘big brother’ but he needed something to distract himself. And it was his job to be the ever watchful eye.

Pressing his finger to the PADD to sign it with his thumbprint, Michael stood from behind the desk. Approaching the large display on the left wall, he examined the roster to see who was free to take the report to the Captain. On second thought, he decided to take it himself. He hadn’t spent a great deal of time on the bridge yet, nor had he had a real chance to introduce himself to the Captain. He seemed to be getting on quite well with the Executive Officer, the only member of the senior staff with whom he’d frequently spoken, outside his team. Michael was frankly surprised that someone had learned to tolerate him so quickly, as he knew that his sarcastic and cynical personality, and sometimes cool exterior, distanced him from social interactions. Even his security team weren’t that friendly with him yet, bar Lyta. Of course, the computer was the most disagreeable of the lot.

Leaving the office, Falkner set off down the hallway which was fast becoming his highest traffic area of the ship. He’d fully assimilated the deck plans of the ship since his initial confusion upon coming aboard, and made his way to the central turbolift of the saucer.

“Deck 1.” He said, leaning against the turbolift wall.

“Please specify section.” Never before had an artificial intelligence given a person so much back-chat, Michael pondered.
“We’re on a Nova Class ship, it’s only got eight damn decks you infernal machine, and each of them only have a handful of Sections!” Michael didn’t know why the computer pestered him so. It seemed so cooperative with everyone else. The other day he’d seen that Operations officer, York-Tee was it, order the turbolift without having to ‘specify section’. He’d have to talk to Lieutenant West about his personal settings on the computer database. Perhaps the computer core wasn’t fully repaired yet, and had twiddled with his User Interface settings...

“Please restate command.” The computer mocked him.

Michael gave in. It came to something when you were having regular arguments with a disembodied voice. Had someone else been present it would have been highly embarrassing. Of course, had someone else been present in the coffin sized turbolift, his claustrophobia would have been acting up. “Deck 1. Bridge.”

Not a minute later, the doors slid open revealing the bridge to the Security Chief. He liked the design of the Nova bridge. He’d read somewhere that the bridge was designed in a circular manner, with the sunken command ‘pit’, in order to give the science vessel’s bridge a ‘think-tank’ feel. This was why, unlike other bridges, there were no consoles that stuck out from the wall. Everything was integrated into the bulkheads, bar the Command chairs and the Conn. Michael personally didn’t see that removing a few consoles would increase the flow of ideas between officers and the command staff.

Spotting the Captain in her favourite nesting spot (he’d heard some NCOs joking about whether she was trying to hatch something – to which he’d scolded them – but he still couldn’t get the bird imagery out of his mind), and walked towards her, PADD in hand. She noticed his approach and acknowledged his arrival.

“Captain.” Michael nodded respectfully, extending his report hand.

-OFF-

TAG: Captain Kel, time for a proper onscreen introduction

[Kel Marya]

<<USS Hawking - Deck 1, Bridge>>
<<Directly following the post above>>

"Lieutenant," Kel returned genially, accepting the report. She glanced at it, as was proper etiquette whenever one was handed a PADD. His officers seemed to be adjusting nicely. Beyond that, the Captain took in enough to know that ship's security was running well. A bit too well, as there were little hints that may have indicated the good Chief was a little bored. Good times, the Captain thought, when Security Officers don't have to do their jobs. This thought still pleasing her, she smiled up at the younger man. "What can I do for you, Mister Falkner?"

-OFF-

<TAG> LTJG Falkner

[Michael Falkner]

-ON-

<<USS Hawking - Deck 1, Bridge>>
<<Directly following the post above>>

"Nothing, really, Captain." Falkner admitted, "I just don't get up to the bridge much, so I thought I'd deliver this report myself. Pretty much status quo on the security front. How goes our scientific endeavour, sir?"

"No doubt it'll be going better once we get the birds in the air. I'm sure Petty Officer Maran is itching to take her team out. We've all been getting a little restless these last couple of weeks." Whether she was indirectly-directly referring to his own boredom couldn't be told.

Michael nodded in agreement. "Still, it's to be expected. This is a coffee and cake run. I'm sure we'll be flying high in no time." Damn, he thought, more bird metaphors. Stupid NCOs.

"I've never been especially fond of coffee. A little too strong for my taste." The Captain gave an odd look out the viewscreen. "Something will come up for you eventually, I'm sure. Security Officers always find a reason and a way to do their jobs."

Michael raised an eyebrow. "Actually, sir, it tends to be other people that give us reason." The eyebrow resumed its prior position, "And I'm more of a tea person myself, but it does somewhat ruin the expression." A tiniest flicker of a smile played across his features.

"We'll have to swap recipes sometime, Lieutenant--I'm a tea person, as well." Kel did nothing to indicate whether she was joking or not. "I suppose I could settle for cake, though."

York-tee piped up, good-naturedely enough to avoid being obnoxious in his intrusion. "Ma'am, should I calibrate my sensors to scan for baked goods and leaf-based beverages?"

"Negative, Lieutenant. I believe your current scans will be adequate."

The human turned in his seat, and replied over his shoulder, "Aye aye, Captain."

When Kel looked at Falkner, there was a laugh in her smile, as if to say, How about that character?

"Well Captain, I'd best be getting back to my office to find some more work for my staff. If I hear Ensign Alexander remodulating the entire contents of the armoury one more time, there may be casualties." While the comment was half a joke, Michael's face betrayed no humour.

"Let's try to keep the body count down, Mister Falkner. It's a small ship. We only have so many people available." The CO gave him a dismissive nod, and took the time to start reading the PADD in detail. Interesting crew she had.

-OFF-

OOC: Unless you have objections, Mister Falkner, off? If you do object, add whatever in, and we'll be done.

[b]JP between LTJG Michael Falkner and LTCMDR Kel Marya.

[Michael Falkner]

-ON-

<<USS Hawking - Security Office>>
<<28th March 2384, 1325 hours>>

Michael had just re-entered the security office when he heard a muffled bang from the armoury. He was through the doors in a heartbeat, hand poised on his phaser. His adrenaline skydived when he saw a stunned Lyta Alexander, standing with a compression rifle in her hands, and a blackened face.

She sneezed, and rubbed dust out of her eyes. Sighing, Michael removed the weapon from her grasp.

"Let me guess," he eyed her warily, "You forgot to re-engage to safety interlock when you inserted the power cell."

Lyta coughed, "I must be tired, the other five times I recalibrated this phaser, that didn't happen."

"At least you didn't set off the fire suppression system."

"Thank heavens for small mercies."

"Just go to sickbay and get checked out. Then, you're off duty for at least 8 hours." he gestured with the gun, "These aren't cheap you know."

Michael shook his head as the amoury Officer left the room. He made a mental note to tell his second to schedule a session in the holodeck. He needed to rejuvenate his team, well, nothing worked like a wargame. Especially since Michael never lost.

-OFF-

OOC: a mini post to introduce the training session I'm posting tomorrow