Exploring the first star system

Posted on Tuesday 2 November 2021 @ 16:56 by Captain Melody Jones & Commander Seklar & Commander Caroline Miller & Lieutenant Marbim Rejal & Lieutenant Nir’anyar & Lieutenant Liodra

Mission: First Contact
Location: Main Bridge
Timeline: MD 3 1500
2464 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Melody steep out of the turbolift and headed toward her chair. "Helm, bring us out of warp."

Ensign Collins responded from the helm. "Aye Captain."

She sat and turned to Mathias "Full scan of the system please Lieutenant."

"Aye Captain." Mathias answered, his fingers dancing over the face of the console to bring up any signatures and information that can be had. He noted the existence of the ten planets, trying to mark down which were M Class planets and which ones were not, and sent the information to the captain when she was seated in the command chair.

"Quite a sight, eh Number one." She said to Rajel.

Miles took a moment to look at the system on the viewscreen before answering. "Yes Ma'am. While not a scientist I can appreciate what is available to explore here. As an explorer, this system is beautiful to behold, and I'm sure will contain information we'll have to learn, which is why we are out here."

Anya had been monitoring the activity from sickbay but nothing compared to actually being on the bridge during big events like this so she turned sickbay over to the tender care of Doctor Kyhl and had made her way up there, having left her Labcoat in her office. The doors parted once the lift had reached its destination and she had emerged onto the bridge and come to stand at the upper railing looking down into the command section of the bridge. She was content just staying quiet and watching, who knew she may even learn something in the process.

If memory served, Seklar felt that during his service as chief engineer, he didn't have bridge duty all that often when he first served as one. And if he had to be truthful, he didn't really see the point either. His place was in engineering. Still, he made his way up after making sure the twins were still safely in school. Quietly, he entered the bridge and took one of the bridge engineering stations.

On the bridge, Melody had a thought. "Number One, I have an idea if you'll indulge me." Off his expression, she added, "Don't worry, I won't be leaving the ship but I think we could give the good Doctor a chance to flex her command muscle, ready for her bridge officer test."

Miles grinned, "That sounds fine. I've had our good Doctor reworking the problems she just faced. Sitting in your chair sounds logical as her next step."

Melody stood. “Commander Seklar, Lieutenant McPhee and Ensign Collins report to the main shuttlebay. Take a runabout and begin scanning from the innermost planet. The Merlin will start from the outermost planet and work in and we’ll meet in the middle. "Lieutenant Nir'anyar, you have the bridge. Commander Miller is here to provide support. Number one will you join me in my Ready room?"

Collins turned around, a bit surprised to be going with the senior officer. “Aye Captain.”

The chief engineer nodded and powered down his station. "Understood," he answered crisply while making his way up to the turbolift, waiting there for his two team members to join him.

Mathias followed Seklar close on his heels, eager to go do some exploring. He paused to look back towards where Melody, Caroline and Anya were at. Then he stepped into the lift along with Seklar.

Miles moved towards the door to the Captain's Ready Room, watching with a bemused look at the lucky trio heading off to explore, and at the bewildered Doctor.

Anya stood at the aft section of the bridge still, a perplexed expression on her face as her conscious mind caught up with what the Captain had said. She waited, watching the Captain and First Officer walk across the bridge to the ready room door.

'She'll correct herself in a moment. She'll realize what she said and give the bridge to Commander Miller instead' so the Doctor remained in place... and waited. It wasn't until the doors to the ready room closed that she had to accept the Captain was indeed serious!

Her eyes shot to Caroline who was watching her intently and the two of them exchanged knowing looks and eye movements, one encouraging the other to actually take command, the other pleading for her to pull rank and take over. When the Benzite realized this too was not going to happen she started down the ramp to the command area.
"Helm, set a course for the outermost planet and let science do their thing once we arrive!"

Caroline smiled at her and settled into her chair. She couldn’t say it out loud of course not wanting to upset Anya's confidence or position but she tried to convey as telepathically as a human could … You have got this

Anya finally came to stop in front of the Captain's chair, unsure if she should be sitting there or taking the first officer's seat instead. This really was alien to her. In the end, she felt she had been dithering too long so dropped into the Captain's chair feeling it look around and over her once she was settled. She fought back the urge to stand again and start prowling the bridge and instead turned to Caroline and in a hushed whisper started speaking to her.

"Now what do I do?"

Gregor stood at tactical and hid a smile. He knew how nerve-wracking being thrust into command unexpectantly. He wished he could lean forward and tell her to let her team do their work and make a decision after her team had something to report, but it wasn't his place to do so. Nor would he do such in front of the crew. " Ma'am the runabout is beginning its survey run. No hazards detected, we should finish with the scans on schedule."

Keeping her voice as low as she could, hoping only Anya could hear it, Caroline said, "Calm down, everything's fine." She hoped she would twig to order the report. Gregor had given her plenty there.

"Sir!" Liodra called from the science station. "We should be in range of the outermost planet shortly but I am already picking up some unusual readings!"

Anya again shot Caroline the pleading eyes but instantly knew they would do her no good and instead she took a deep breath to steady her frayed nerves.
"Define unusual!"

"Sir, it's some form of gravimetric distortion... I'll need to be within a fifty thousand kilometre radius to do a more detailed scan!" her hands dancing over the console with a practised ease.

"Helm, you heard the lady!" It wasn't that difficult, or so she was starting to think. Listen, decide and execute a logical strand of thought.

Ensign Davis, who had relieved Ensign Collins entered the coordinates and replied "Aye Sir."

As the Merlin approached the planet, the ship rocked slightly and Davis reported "We're encountering gravimetric distortions as we approach that moon. I can't tell what's causing them, but they are getting stronger."

Just beyond the moon, a shimmering orange ellipse suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started moving, bearing down on the moon. As it approached, the moon began to tremble and started to break apart, being sucked piece by piece into the swirling orange mass that had appeared.

Gregor was surprised at the sudden appearance of the orange mass as it began dissecting the moon in front of their eyes. " It must have been behind the moon when we ran the scans, and we're getting awfully close to it. Orders Lieutenant?"

"Helm, keep your distance!" She was on her feet now, standing in front of the captain's chair, her mind racing. Should she call the Captain back to the bridge? Was she putting peoples lives in danger with her indecision? She looked once more and Caroline.

"Scan the anomaly. Get everything you can on what's going on," Caroline said. Perhaps Anya wasn't ready for this yet. She looked terrified.

"Lieutenant readings show it to be a stable pocket of normal space moved by a surrounding elliptical gravimetric distortion with a perimeter measuring fifteen million terajoules of subspace energy... I think this is a Graviton Ellipse!"

Liodra was amazed having only ever heard about this phenomenon and here she was on the bridge able to run some active scans.

From the helm, Davis was getting increasingly worried as.... as whatever that was continued to devour the debris that had been a moon a few moments prior. "Sir, whatever that thing is I swear it was not there before the moon started to break up and..... what the hell?"

The object had finished with the moon and now made a beeline straight for the Merlin.

Davis called out "It's moving directly toward us now! And it's accelerating." The ships shuddered again, stronger this time. "Gravimetric distortions are increasing. It's giving off a great deal of electromagnetic radiation, It's destabilising the warp field, warp drive is off-line."

"Keep us ahead of it... Caroline!" out of her depth, scared for the lives of those expecting her to do the right thing but still doubting her own ability. She didn't even give her friend the chance to respond instead she tapped her combadge. "Captain Jones to the bridge!"

Davis called out "We're at full impulse and it's still gaining on us. Impact in sixty seconds!"

Melody walked out onto the bridge, an island of calm amid a turbulent sea. "Problems Lieutenant?"

"Yes ma'am... Some kind of gravitational anomaly... I'm out of my depth!"
She was honest, she had no qualms being such given her inexperience, her insecurities and her own lack of self confidence.

Melody turned towards the viewscreen, concerned but not alarmed. "I read a report on these not long ago by Admiral Janeway." She called out to Ops "Cut main power and reverse the polarity of the deflector shield!" then added, "Helm, alter our course by negative thirty degrees on the z-axis."

Standing at the Ops console, Jack took a second to look it over, “Right, I can do this” he said, trying to remember the Manuel’s he’d been reading. After a moment, the orders were completed, “there, not so hard”

The phenomenon still appeared to be closing. At the last moment, it sailed above the ship and carried on, suddenly disappearing in a flash, just as mysteriously as it had appeared.

Davis let out a sigh of relief "It missed us by less than 100 kilometres and it's gone back into... where ever it was before."

"Umm... Captain? You said you just read a report on the phenomenon?" Asked Gregor. "I think it would be wise if I read up on that one as well. Who did you say the author of the report was?"

Melody turned to him. “Admiral Janeway wrote some accounts of Voyager’s encounters in the Delta quadrant. One of them was with this phenomenon. I’ll make the relevant files available to you.”

" Thank you Ma'am, I appreciate it. One never knows when such information will be useful, I'm glad you knew it, it really saved our bacon. "

Melody turned back to Anya, “A bit of excitement for your first time in the big chair.”

"Yes sir... If you will excuse me" sounding defeated and as if she couldn't be beaten down any further Anya turned and started for the turbolift. Perhaps now was the time to clear out her desk and just call it done. Starfleet was obviously not for her. Maybe the scars of her past were to blame or maybe she just wasn't right for it.

Melody sighed as she watched Anya disappear as the turbolift doors closed. Her attempt to give Anya some on the job experience had ended in her confidence in herself shattered. Not exactly what Melody had been hoping for. Would she come back? Would this incident drive her out of Starfleet completely?

Melody sat down in the captain's chair rather subdued. After a moment she called out “Helm, take us back into standard orbit of the outermost planet. When we’ve completed our scans, we’ll move on to the next one.”

Caroline leaned in and kept her voice low. "Captain if I can be excused. I think Anya may need someone to talk to right now."

Melody nodded her approval to Caroline, planning to speak to Anya herself later.

Gregor sighed. " For her first time at command and having something like that happen, she did pretty darn well all things considering. She'll even do better the next time. "

Miles moved up next to Gregor, "You are correct Mr Morgan, however, having worked with Anya over the last few weeks, she will view this as an utter failure. Hopefully, Commander Miller or the Captain can make her realize that."

Gregor nodded in agreement. " I certainly hope so, She's a fine officer and it would be a shame to walk away from a promising career over an unexpected event such as this. I hope she rethinks this and makes the right choice. "

Miles nodded, "You are correct, Anya is a fine officer, I just don't think she believes that, thus why these tests. I will pass along that you agree with me that this shouldn't end her career, but give her something to think about and overcome."

The blond counsellor stood up, "Do not forget that she is an exceptional doctor," Caroline informed them. "And patching up people is very different to sitting in that chair and doing that job. I intend to remind her of this too. She's not going anywhere if I have my way," she stated firmly heading towards the turbo lift to go after Anya.

Gregor cleared his throat. " Commander Miller, we all know that she is an exceptional doctor which has never been in doubt, But if it would help please let her know that many of us thought she did damn fine for her first time in the chair. I don't think anyone would have handled it any better, all things considered. We all wish you the best when you chat with her. "

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