Welcome aboard part 2

Posted on Friday 6 May 2016 @ 19:23 by Captain John "Apollo" Barstow, M.D. & Captain Melody Jones

Mission: Old, New Ship
Location: Bridge / Ready room
1159 words - 2.3 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

The first thing that struck her was it was bigger than she expected. She quietly stepped over to the helm, which was currently unmanned. As she placed her hand on the back of the leather chair, she cast a skilled eye over the layout. Thruster control, destination and heading input, nacel power distribution, impulse override control, warp power readout. Her eye fell on the multi vector assault mode config button.

After studying the system, she was looking forward to trying that little gem out. Theory was one thing but the practical application was something else. She was just thinking on how she could coax a little extra speed from the warp nacels by fine tuning the warp field alignment protocols when the bridge duty officer stepped up next to her.

“Can I help you lieutenant? Lieutenant?” He asked, not sure of her name.

She turned to him “Jones Sir, Melody Jones, your new Chief flight control officer. The Captain?” She asked.

He inclined his head slightly towards the rear of the bridge “In his ready room.”

“Thank you sir”

“No problem and welcome aboard” He added smiling.

Melody smiled back at him, causing her face to light up, and her eyes sparkle which always happened when she smiled, and with a slight nod of her head proceeded over to the ready room door. She had studied the captains’ service jacket and know his love of flying would work well with her love of speed. She hoped they would get on well together. She pressed the chime and waited.

Barstow looked up, "enter," he called and stood up when he saw the Lieutenant enter.

She walked in coming to her best military posture “Lieutenant Melody Jones, reporting aboard sir. May I just say thank you for the opportunity you have given me and a look forward to serving you and your ship to the very best of my abilities.”

Apollo smiled, "at ease, Lieutenant, have a seat," he said with a nod, "and your welcome, though you don't need to thank me. I needed a helm officer and you were the best candidate," he added.

She sat, pulling the low backed chair out slightly and swinging one leg over in a swift, fluid motion.

Her cheeks flushed slightly at the complement. "Can’t wait to get out there and see how fast I can get her running. Of course I have a few ideas on how to get raise the top speed a few notches” Her hands steadily became more animated as she spoke with increased passion “and I was hoping to speak with the chief engineer about fine tuning the warp field parameters for quicker response time and……”

She stopped herself, biting her lower lip “Sorry Sir, I get a bit carried away sometime when I’m excited, and I talk with my hands a lot” as she firmly clasped her hands together and placed them in her lap.

“I understand you like flying, I have a holo-program that recreates the first flight of the Phoenix. You can really feel the acceleration in your stomach. Do you know when we will be getting underway?”

"It's alright, Lieutenant," Barstow replied with a friendly smile, "you should have heard and seen me when they told me I was getting a command, I must have made them think I was a freshman Cadet I was so excited," he replied with a chuckle, "we should be able to get out in another few days, we just have some loose ends to fix up before we go. Captain Liconie of the Thunderchild also told me to tell you hi," he added.

The corners of her mouth turned upward and she smiled at the memory of the man who had rescued her from the Borg and sponsored her application to Starfleet academy. He had been a rock when times were bad. In some ways he was like the father she never knew. She sometimes wondered if her father had been like that.

“That’s really sweet of him. I hope he hasn’t forgotten he still owes me for that bet he lost. I did tell him I could get that test shuttle going faster than warp 4.3. I believe it was a bottle of Aldeberan whisky. The real stuff, not replicated. It matches my eyes” she said with a flutter of her eyelashes.

Apollo just smirked and shook his head, "I will," he replied then leaned forward on the desktop, "I called him along with a few of your instructors when I was building my senior staff. References about you not being happy unless you're going warp nine with your hair on fire kept coming up," he said with a grin, stealing a line from one of his favorite 20th century movies.

Melody laughed involuntary, bringing one hand up to her mouth, then using it to brush a stand of red hair out of line of sight.

“I do recall that all of my piloting instructors had trouble keeping up with me. I literally had Captain T’Lar gripping the edge of her seat, and she’s Vulcan! At the end, she turned to me and in that calm Vulcan manner all she said was,” changing her voice to imitate a flat monotone of a Vulcan “that was satisfactory cadet, if some what flamboyant.”

Returning her voice to normal, she continued “I almost though, I saw a slight tremble in her hands. Must have been that 0.8c turn turned around Titan that did it” She mused wistfully.

Her hands had started moving again and there was a sparkle in her eyes as she recalled one of her happier memories. She clung on to those hard, as the bad ones still outweighed the good ones. She caught herself again, and once more returned her hands to her lap.

“Will there be anything else Sir?” She asked, coming out of her reverie.

Apollo shook his head, "nope, I think that's it. Just try not to scratch up the new paint job for at least a few weeks," he said with a wink, "and we'll have to get in a skirmish on the holodeck in some fighters after we get underway and settled," he added and stood back up extending his hand, "good to meet you and welcome aboard, Melody," the Captain added, now having shaken the hands of and welcomed all but a few of the senior officers, wanting to make sure he tried to give a personal touch to all of the senior staff. He had been warned not to break the personal barrier between CO and crew, but, he had found while that things seemed to work better if that barrier was a little blurred.

Melody stood and smiled warmly as she shook the Captains’ hand “Thank you Sir, I’ll Keep that in mind.”

And with a slight nod of her head in respect, she turned and walked back out on the bridge.