New Ship, New Captain, New Orders

Posted on Thu Sep 19th, 2019 @ 1:56pm by Captain Nathan Hunt & Lieutenant Commander Ty'licia zh'Kirisor & Lieutenant Commander Alexander Thorn & Lieutenant Rikka Takanashi M.D.

Mission: Shadows of Weimar
Location: USS Mercury, Shuttlebay
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 1025

As Hunt’s shuttle crossed the force field marking the boundary of the shuttle bay interior, Nate found himself absently fiddling with his fourth rank pip. It still felt New on his uniform, and he forced himself to stop fiddling as the small shop cane into land, lest he give the wrong first impression to his new crew. He stood and stepped out of the rear hatch just as it finished touching the decking of its mothership.

"All Hands, attention to orders!" Ty'licia barked to all present, "Commanding Officer Mercury Arriving."

The sound of the boatswain's whistle echoed through the shuttlebay.

Hunt stepped up to the small podium that had been set up directly in front of him, and picked up the PADD to start reading from the orders there. “To Captain Nathan Hunt, Stardate 69681.5: You are hereby requested and required to take command of the USS Mercury as of this date. Signed, Rear Admiral Joseph Rhimer, Starfleet Command.” He pressed his thumb to the scanner on the PADD to confirm his fingerprint.

“Command Codes transferred to Captain Nathan Hunt,” the ship’s computer intoned. “USS Mercury now under command of Captain Nathan Hunt.”

Nate put the PADD down, the official part of his taking command now over, and released a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding as he lent forward on the podium. “Starfleet’s first mission for us is a simple one,” he told those assembled. “We’re to take the supplies waiting for us down below to the Cardassian colony of Thessia, along with a small contingent from the Corps of Engineers. We see them off to a good start, then we head home. A nice easy one to break us in, but I still expect everyone’s best.” He took a brief look around the room before pushing himself off the podium and nodding to his new XO to dismiss the assembly.

"All Hands, To your duties, dis-missed!" zh'Kirisor bellowed, before lowering her shoulders down to a more relaxed pose. Some of the assembled crew found something better to do and left quickly, others milled around, hoping for a meet with the Captain.

“Commander zh’Kirisor,” Nate said, approaching his XO and offering his hand as many of the more junior staff assembled for the ceremony departed to continue their duties. “Am I pronouncing that right? It’s good to finally meet you in person.”

"Close enough sir, I've long given up correcting people. Pleasure is mine Captain, did you have a safe journey?" zh'Kirisor said, hating how cordial these events were, but until they had the chance to get to know each other, things would be awkward for a while.

"Can't get much safer in a shuttle than when you're only going to orbit and it's clear skies all around," Nate responded. "Though why Starfleet still insists on doing this ceremony in the shuttlebay rather than the transporter room escapes me. I take it there were no problems with getting the ship and crew underway?"

Ty'licia beamed a smile across her face, despite herself, as what the Captain had described sounded amazing, "Had I known that sir, I should have come down to get you myself," she looked around, "I love this Shuttlebay sir, it's so new, and how would you fit this many personnel in the Transporter room?"

She changed tone, "Nothing abnormal to report, ship and crew are performing well so far," she was glad to be telling the truth. It was a strange thing when the crew knew that things weren't entirely normal, an abnormal schedule, strange duties to perform to bring a new ship up to spec, but they were doing it admirably. Things would normalise soon.

"Glad to hear it. I'll let you get back to organising them then. I'm eager to get the supplies up from the surface and get underway," Nate said, before turning to see who else had stayed around to talk to him.

Alex hung back a few steps while waiting for the captain to speak with the XO first. As he did he tried not to check his uniform, fix his hair again, or otherwise fidget. Maybe from an objective standpoint Starfleet had already voiced its confidence in him, but still: a lieutenant commander and chief of ops and second officer? He needed to make sure this was a good first impression.

Lieutenant Rikka Takanashi, a young doctor stood to the edge of the others. She wasn't a massive social type. She was watching everyone closely as she usually did, her long blue bangs hiding her eyes slightly. She let out a small sigh, now her work was to begin. She had an entire crew to medical certify. She caught the eyes of the new Captain for a split second, she bowed slightly before heading towards the doors.

"You must be Commander Thorn," Nate said, turning towards Alex as more people filtered out of the room. "Good to have you aboard. I've heard good things about you from your last CO."

"Thank you, sir," Alex replied. "I guess that means I must be getting better at not being caught."

“Good!” Nate responded. “If we get into a tricky spot, I plan on making use of that skill. I take it you're settling in well, getting familiar with the ship and crew?”

"Yes, sir. She's a bit older than my last ship, but that just makes the work more interesting, right?"

"The Galaxy design has been around for a while, true," he agreed, though this particular ship was fresh off its shakedown cruise and boasted all of the upgrades to the design that Starfleet had added over the decades since its introduction. "But I once had to chase down the crew of an old Antares class freighter - ship must have been at least 60 years old. The amount of tricks that crew had up their sleeve had me playing catch-up for weeks." He shook his head ruefully at the memory.

"Well, hopefully the yard engineers at least haven't left us too many gremlins in the ship's systems to make our lives too interesting," Nate said, clapping a hand on Alex's shoulder jovially. "I'll let you get back to your duties, Commander. I have a ready room I'm eager to get settled in to."

Fresh out of the shipyards or not, it was still a design almost as old as Alex was, which just meant more time for ill-conceived upgrades. "And I should get after some of those remaining gremlins, sir."