Star Trek Exeter: Chapter 1 Echoes

[Ronin84]

Captain Chou looked out of the window of the shuttlecraft as it banked around towards the shuttlebay of the Constitution class Starship Exeter. The blue white of her hull shining in all of the lights from the dry dock repair crews made the ship seem to glow. This was the second time he was coming aboard this ship, the first time was in 2255 a Lieutenant Junior Grade.

"Sir we have received permission to dock, are we ready sir?" The young ensign who was serving as pilot asked.

"That's fine ensign, just don't scratch any paint." Chou chuckled to himself.

The shuttle landed without any incident, the ensign moved to the shuttle door and when the lights changed from red to their normal color he opened the door.

Chou stepped forward and down the small stairs, the doors out of the bay opened revealing a line of officers on either side of the hall. Standing at the end was a tall woman in yellow top with black bottoms the rank of commander at the end of her sleeves.

Stepping forward, the bosuns whistle played, "Captain Chou welcome aboard the Exeter."

"Commander thank you, everyone thank you." Looking at Nicole Ransom it had only been a week since he saw her at Starfleet Headquarters but he could see the circles around her eyes.

"Side party, dismissed!" Nicole's voice rang out, clear and sharp, smiling.

"Glad to see you sir, the ships coming along but...the scientists we are transporting are beginning to drive me crazy."

The side party began dispersing and the sounds of the ship began to filter down the hall. Moving down the hall the two old friends stop at a turbo lift and get in as the doors close.

"What's wrong, we are in dry dock for heaven sake, what could be so demanding?"

Shaking her head in the negative, "Really it's the modifications to the transporter, they are still going over the bio-filters and so we have to use the shuttles to bring all of their gear on board. This has raised nothing but problems for our logistics, and don't get me started on all of these fresh faced ensigns we have on board."

"Bridge." Both officers state, and then begin laughing as the lift began to move upward.

Chou looked around and said, "Ok let's make the transfer of command official, I have to meet with Commodore Castillo at 1300, let's have a meeting of the senior staff at 1500 and then plan a gathering by 0800 tomorrow morning when the rest of the crew should be aboard."

"Aye captain, I am looking forward to getting a warp trail behind us." Looking a bit uncomfortable.

"Captain while you were on leave they finally came up with Captain Tracey's verdict, he's being incarcerated on the Elba II Colony, they are doing some amazing things there."

"Damn." Remembering Tracey as he was back when he mentored a very young flight officer on his first deep space patrol.

"Ok, number one let's make this official." The doors opened revealing the bridge.

"Captain on deck!" A young voice shouted out and the watch standers stiffened some able to stand up rigidly others were working on exposed consoles just stopped.

Captain and XO moved to the center seat, "Commander on this stardate 2268.299 by order of Starfleet Command I assume Command of the USS-Exeter NCC-1706." Removing two data cards from his pockets and sliding them into the data ports in the command chair.

"Sir, I stand relieved." Nicole smiled, "Again, welcome aboard Captain Chou." She removed two data cards and put them in her pocket.

"Thank you Number One, as you were everybody, we have much to do if we plan on not being towed out of drydock for our first mission."

Chuckles made the rounds on the bridge.

"Number one, I am planning taking a little tour, join me please."

Nodding to a few familiar faces, the lift arrived and the two old companions entered.

[Ronin84]

The lift stopped at Deck 2 Engineering, walking down the hall.

"Number one how bad is it really?" Chou asked.

"Sir, if HQ wants us moving in less than 48 hours we might not make that with all systems green." Ransom stopped.

"The medical teams did a great job of going through her, but they used hobnailed boots to do it." Looking very pained and tired.

"Nicole how is Campbell doing in engineering?"

"Jaime is doing fine, in fact when we're done I want to put him and his staff in for a commendation."

Chou stopped and looked at her, commendations were not something that she doled out easily.

"REALLY it was that bad?"

"Damian, if it weren't for Jaime and his bag of tricks we would have had to replace every piece of conduit and junction box in every jefferies tube."

The red door to engineering opened up to men scrambling up and down through access tunnels and up and down ladders and in the middle stood Lieutenant Commander Jaime Campbell an engineering tricorder in one hand and a very large spanner in the other.

Bellowing, "Lads, I dunna care whatcha cannot do, but if you don't give me my purrin' engines here in the next hour I'm gonna swap ya'll out for a class of cadets!"

Turing, "Ah, Cap'n just goin' over a few of the finer points of Starship Engineerin'."

"Commander, ma'am nice of ya to stop by."

Chou knew that Campbell probably had not slept since he got on more than a week ago but he looked fresh as a daisy.

"Jaime, if you run into problems with these yard dogs let me know." Chou commented.

"Trouble with the dry dock lap dogs, nay sir, won't be botherin' you at all." Hefting the very large looking wrench.

"Me and da missus here." Gives it a short kiss. "We can handle any little pooch, besides I still have a few surprises left in me."

There was a spark and some smoke.

"Pardon sir, ma'am."

"Lad I've told, you...what's your name, Daniels isn't it...ya cannot be crossin' those feeds. Now ensign what you have to be doin' is take this feed off, and bring it back slowly through this sub-system here."

"But sir that sub-system can't handle that much power."

"Daniels, that is what the book says BUT I know what it can do, I personally have re-wired that board, it can handle it."

"Nicole, just put that commendation on my desk, I'll sign off on it." Chou said backing out.

"Sir, it's pretty much the same throughout the ship and we have so many green crew."

"Nicole, I seem to remember you on your cadet and first cruise along the Klingon border."

Smiling, "Yes sir, but I was never that green." Responding to the old joke between them.

"Greener, Nicole you were far greener."

Later on in the Captain's cabin.

"Captains log Stardate 2268.298."

"The ship is coming along, the phaser control room is a mess looks like someone got real happy with their cleaning duties and fried out so many primary and secondary systems that we might be down a bank when we leave dry dock."

Taking a sip of herb tea.

"Most of the senior staff was able to make the meeting today except Chief Engineer Campbell, he had work to do on the outer hull. I'm not sure what it was but if he needed to be out there then I'm sure it was needed. I have approved a letter of commendation to be placed in his file and a unit commendation for his department."

Damn Ron, what happened I read the logs did you think seriously that you could beat time, stop aging. I'm just glad that Karen didn't live to see what happened to you.

"Commodore Castillo and his staff will be guests aboard the Exeter as we travel out to Starbase 34, but before we go there we have to make one stop..."

The beep beep of a communications coming in. Switching off the recorder.

"Captain Chou, this is ensign Dallas down in cargo hold one, sir we have a situation down here."

Yelling in the background.

"Sir." Sounding very nervous.

"On my way ensign, on my way."

[Grendelwulf]

Stardate: 2268.297
Setting: Deck 22, Engineering Section

Lt. Vincent da Costa pulled the access panel away from its lodgings, placed it to the side against the scorched bulkhead next to him, and crawled into the access tunnel of the power transfer conduits.

What he saw almost made him sick, from an Engineer's point of view.

There were duotronic cables hanging down from above, some scorched and burned, some fused with others, some ending in a hardened mass that hung like a Karisian sabre-bat. All caused by the intense radiation of the decontamination crews.

“Butchers,” da Costa muttered to himself. “Bloody, uncaring butchers.”

The science teams had to be certain of ridding the Exeter of any lasting trace of the Omega IV virus which destroyed her previous crew. Their initial sweeps used a synthensized form of anti-virus to cleanse the ship, and from all reports it had done its job. But the starbase commander wanted to be ABSOLUTELY certain. So, radiation teams were dispatched with variable gamma-photon emitters. Normally, the moderate levels of such devices are harmless to inorganic materials aboard a starship. But a few of the teams had hurried, increasing the power of their sweeps near several of the power transfer relays.

“They might as well have used phasers,” he thought, making notes to himself as to the specifics of the damage. “At least, it would have made things easier to fix.”

Lt. da Costa poked his head out of the tunnel. "Hand me an ion-weldgun, get one for yourself and climb in here. We need to start cutting away some of this useless cable and debris to get at the rest of the conduit," he said shaking his head. "It's a real mess in here," he added.

Ens. Daniels, a newly arrived Academy graduate, obliged, handing him a weldgun and followed da Costa back into the tunnel. The space was cramped, and forced them to do the bulk of their work on their backs. As such, aiming was tricky in these tight spaces.

"All right. Let's do this," da Costa said, firing his weldgun at the first mass of fused cable and debris in front of him, keeping the beam as tight as possible. "Clear everything away; we'll need to run new cables in here anyway, so don't worry about destroying any good cable that you might come across. We'll do it right and start fresh," he said.

The two men began chopping away at the jungle of vine-like cable in front of them, using their weldguns almost as one would use a machete centuries ago. Gradually, little by little, the two men whittled the debris down until nothing was left covering their real objective.

da Costa wiped the soot off of the positronic flux conduit, and smiled. "Damn," he said softly.

Daniels looked at the conduit. “Total loss. I’ll contact Ship Services and have another unit replicated. “ He immediately reached for his communicator. "This is Daniels in the…”

“Belay that, Mister,” barked da Costa.

Daniels hesitated for a moment. “Disregard,” he said as he snapped the communicator shut. “Sir?”

“This flux conduit is fine,” da Costa tapped the unit with his hand. “See this, here and here. The flux plating is still intact. If this had overloaded like the duotronic cables, it would be split open.”

“B-but, shouldn’t we replace it,” Daniels asked, “just to be sure?”

“If there is one thing you need to learn while being an engineer on a starship, Daniels, it is that you do not need to replace every unit every single time it gets a little bumped and bruised. We can’t just pull into spacedock after every mishap and get a new batch of spare parts.”

“The replicators can...,” Daniels started.

“…be a waste of resources,“ da Costa finished. “Trust me. Let’s finish cutting these cables, install the new ones and you may have the pleasure of running the diagnostics.”

“And if the unit still, well, happens to need to be replaced?” Daniels smiled slightly.

“What’s your next duty assignment tomorrow? Bio-filters for the main transporters, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir,” the ensign’s tone noted the dissatisfaction at the lengthy, monotonous task of calibrating and recalibrating the transporter bio-nodes and their many backups.

“Well, in that case, if you are right, Ensign, I will swap you. You can replace this flux conduit with a new unit and I will even file a report to the Chief Engineer for your keen, skillful awareness. Agreed?”

“Agreed, yes sir,” Daniels beamed.

da Costa nodded back at him. "Okay then, let's replace these cables and run a few diagnostics.”

++++++++++

Stardate: 2268.298
Setting: Deck 5, Main Transporter Room

The pneumatic doors to the transporter room hissed softy open.

“Lt. Vincent da Costa, reporting for Bio-filter maintenance.”


-----to be continued-----

[rflowers]

As Marcus Sloan entered sick bay, the lights cycled on. "Good," he thought. "First one here."

Sloan wanted a chance to settle in before anyone else reported to duty; he hadn't even been to his quarters yet. He took a quick self-guided tour. These facilities were larger than those he had just left. The Saladin Class Independence couldn't compete with the Exeter.

He couldn't help but shiver when he thought of all the people that had died aboard this ship. Perhaps many walked through those doors, through these corridors, expecting someone here to save their lives.

The last stop on his tour was his office. He started the workstation on his desk to look over the personnel that would be reporting. No doubt the ship's new Captain would soon summon him to his first staff meeting, or maybe even stop by sick bay...

[thedungeondelver]

Lt. Shane Finnegan was unhappy. Those who knew Finnegan well could've seen it a parsec away. His crooked smile, set in an otherwise stone face, was the visage he wore when he was on the verge of losing his temper.

He was smiling now.

The console top to PHAS6 - Phaser Bank subunit #6 - was flipped open like a groundcar's bonnet. Sitting in the S1K Main Target Bus were a series of duotronic relay cards, each no thicker than a print magazine, and not much larger than a data tape shell. Inside, however, lurked a Daystrom Reflex/Switch that (Finnegan suspected) could very nearly think for itself and fight the ship if need be.

All but one of these cards, each of which cost Finnegan's standard year's salary twice over (if one were to be so gauche as to put a pricetag on Starfleet equipment), wouldn't be thinking anything ever again. They were blackened and twisted, fused beyond use. While the Exeter had secondary phaser banks operational, and of course the devastating photon torpedo systems, the primary weapons capable of surgical, tactical offensive operations were completely useless.

To make matters worse, it seemed that fate had played Finnegan's appreciation of weapon systems against him: his desire to be the first weapons officer on board had meant he had to go to work repairing the systems immediately.

"I mean immediately immediately," Finnegan whispered to himself, considering his predicament. His gear, rather than being secured in his cabin, sat next to him. The Engineering officer - da Costa was his name - had given Finnegan a tricorder, hand-scanner, universal toolkit and given him a rundown on what was wrong with the targeting system.

"Oh, and remember, let's try to salvage every component we can,"

Indeed Finnegan thought. The bloody board's mess, there's one card that looks like it might still work and I won't know until I can route power to it, which means replacing the backplane, which means disassembling the rest of the board... Two hours, minimum.

For a split second, Finnegan entertained the thought of going down to the armory and unlimbering a phaser rifle, melting the console down to the deck and writing it off as a power surge.

Finnegan's grin got bigger.

But something wasn't right, and it wasn't just the ridiculous amount of work on his plate required to save a handful of LEDs and one or two circuit cards. The slagged down backplane of cards - a power surge would have tripped the duotronic breakers just south of them in the deck below. The gamma photon emitters should've just been swept back and forth across the board - it shouldn't have been opened and one focused in one spot long enough to do this much damage!

Sabotage? In space dock? Where contractors and ground crew have to triple sign off on everything they do, up to and possibly including using the head? Moreover, in here of all places?

Finnegan carefully re-sealed the console and made sure the few remaining functioning peripheral displays and controls were locked down. Until someone could give Finnegan a straight answer about what happened here, he was treating Phaser Control as a potential crime scene.

[o/c - guys my writing sucks, so bear with me]

[chgowiz]

Personal Log, Stardate 2268.298, Lt. Roundtree

I've arrived aboard the USS Exeter to assume helm duties aboard her. She is the first Constitution-class ship that I've been assigned to. Despite the stories of her being a "cursed ship" with the loss of all hands save the Captain, I've jumped at the chance. I will be serving aboard one of Star Fleet's finest class of ships! Even better, I will be at the helm, taking her to the stars! I can't wait till I get my hands on her controls and armaments.

I am assigned to Deck 9 crew quarters, with a Lt. Greenwild. He's apparently a security sort, also newly assigned. I have not met him, as we all are running around getting ready. The decon performed on the Exeter has left some systems ready, others in tatters and with the imminent arrival of our new commander, Captain Chou, we are to get our stations as ready as we can. I'm off to the bridge immediately to begin.

-----

Personal Log, supplemental

I've arrived to the bridge as the XO, Commander Ransom, was just stepping away to receive Captain Chou aboard. Well, make that I almost ran over her in my haste to see the bridge. Acknowledging my salute and apology, she muttered something about "fresh faced ensigns and caydets!" and left. Not the introduction I was hoping for.



The HELM is a mess of blinking lights and confused readouts as teams in other sections reroute connections, power and command functions around, getting systems ready. Most worrisome is the loss of our primary phasers, which I heard a quick comment that a "Finnegan" was working on. However, the warp drives and impulse engines appear to be on the way to ready and ... this ship is a dream. I am SO going to love going through tactical maneuvers with her - the power and grace of something like this is beyond words.

---------

The turbolift doors hissed open and the Captain and XO stepped through. I catch a glimpse of them and manage to quickly call out "Captain on deck!". I caught a couple of annoyed glances at me, perhaps it was a bit dramatic, but after almost running over the XO, I wanted to look my Starfleet best.

I watch as the Captain and XO talk as old friends, performed the change of command and then go to leave on a tour. I turned around and fixed my attention to the board. This ship was going to be amazing when she finally left dry dock. I begin to familiarize myself with the current status and any changes from the trainers and simulators I had learned on.

[Ronin84]

Jan 19, 2010 23:34:01 GMT -5 rflowers said:

As Marcus Sloan entered sick bay, the lights cycled on. "Good," he thought. "First one here."

Sloan wanted a chance to settle in before anyone else reported to duty; he hadn't even been to his quarters yet. He took a quick self-guided tour. These facilities were larger than those he had just left. The Saladin Class Independence couldn't compete with the Exeter.

He couldn't help but shiver when he thought of all the people that had died aboard this ship. Perhaps many walked through those doors, through these corridors, expecting someone here to save their lives.

The last stop on his tour was his office. He started the workstation on his desk to look over the personnel that would be reporting. No doubt the ship's new Captain would soon summon him to his first staff meeting, or maybe even stop by sick bay...

The office already had a very lived in look there were personnel effects on the desk. From the exam room music was playing, and from that door to the office walked an African male.

"Ah, Doctor Sloan is it, Dr. Pearl." Putting his hand out to be shook.

[Ronin84]

Bridge: Lt. Roundtree

A young ensign wearing the red of services stepped down and over to the helm, "Ma'am have you served with the captain before?"

[Ronin84]

XO Office: Lieutenant Finnegan

"Shane we've been friends since the academy, are you sure this was some sort of sabotage?"

Waving a handful of data cards. "The ship is in a bit of a mess right now, could the damage been caused by the medical teams that swept through or one of the damage control parties?"

[chgowiz]

Jan 20, 2010 11:55:27 GMT -5 Ronin84 said:

Bridge: Lt. Roundtree

A young ensign wearing the red of services stepped down and over to the helm, "Ma'am have you served with the captain before?"

I look up startled at the ensign and then remember... my long hair. I sigh and almost absentmindedly put it into a ponytail, revealing that I'm an American Indian male, not a female.



After the obvious shock, I'll let the ensign know that Starfleet allows me to go with a non-regulation hair cut due to my religion.

"No, I have not. Why do you ask?"

As I speak to her, I start running simulations through the boards to ensure that HELM WARP and HELM IMPULSE are going to react normally. I see that the standard THREAT programs are installed and I begin with the famous three tweaks that I recall hearing from the talk Lt. Sulu of the Enterprise gave via sub-space radio:
1. Maneuver in all 3 directions, the programs like to start in 2.
2. Think like a fighter pilot - a starship is just a bigger weapon
3. Speed and maneuverability will keep you alive a lot longer than shields.

[thedungeondelver]

Jan 20, 2010 11:58:14 GMT -5 Ronin84 said:

XO Office: Lieutenant Finnegan

"Shane we've been friends since the academy, are you sure this was some sort of sabotage?"

Waving a handful of data cards. "The ship is in a bit of a mess right now, could the damage been caused by the medical teams that swept through or one of the damage control parties?"

"With the captain's permission; you an I were scrubs together an one o' the first things they pounded into our coconuts was the importance o' a light touch on decontam gear like gamma photon bottles. E'en with th' plebes they're a-rushin' through Academy these days, they'd have more sense than to do this. Remember what they told us about accident reports? 'In space dock, its carelessness, ignorance or malice.' Nobody, not even the scrubs, is lazy or stupid enough to pull a stunt like this. They burned the heart out o' the offensive systems, an' they knew joost whar tae shoot."

Finnegan grinned at the idea of catching the parties responsible for the damage done to the main console.

"In th' meantime, as I'll be on nav anyway, we should probably cut fire control over to manual an' route it to the nav board. That'd slow down one o' these scrubs," he gestured vaguely at the corridor, alive with new ratings heading for berths or, more likely, running errands for engineering until full automation was restored. "But you an' I are the pair that beat Fleet Problem '51 with a simulated half-dead ship. Gimme the reroute an' I'll dead-eye an Orion pirate at five hundred thousand kilometers. In th' meantime though, I think we should bring in Security on this. Assumin' they're not scrubs, too."

[Ronin84]

Jan 20, 2010 14:14:19 GMT -5 @chgowiz said:

Jan 20, 2010 11:55:27 GMT -5 Ronin84 said:

Bridge: Lt. Roundtree

A young ensign wearing the red of services stepped down and over to the helm, "Ma'am have you served with the captain before?"

I look up startled at the ensign and then remember... my long hair. I sigh and almost absentmindedly put it into a ponytail, revealing that I'm an American Indian male, not a female.



After the obvious shock, I'll let the ensign know that Starfleet allows me to go with a non-regulation hair cut due to my religion.

"No, I have not. Why do you ask?"

As I speak to her, I start running simulations through the boards to ensure that HELM WARP and HELM IMPULSE are going to react normally. I see that the standard THREAT programs are installed and I begin with the famous three tweaks that I recall hearing from the talk Lt. Sulu of the Enterprise gave via sub-space radio:
1. Maneuver in all 3 directions, the programs like to start in 2.
2. Think like a fighter pilot - a starship is just a bigger weapon
3. Speed and maneuverability will keep you alive a lot longer than shields.

"I'm sorry sir!"

Looking sheepish, "The pants should have given it away but I know the XO wears pants and she's a she." Smiling a little bit.

"I hope no offense was taken." Putting her hand out.

"Ensign Klein, engineering."

"I was wondering about the Captain because we heard that he was more of a "guns" captain, he has spent most of his time on the border patrols then on exploration missions."

[Ronin84]

Jan 20, 2010 14:21:44 GMT -5 thedungeondelver said:

Jan 20, 2010 11:58:14 GMT -5 Ronin84 said:

XO Office: Lieutenant Finnegan

"Shane we've been friends since the academy, are you sure this was some sort of sabotage?"

Waving a handful of data cards. "The ship is in a bit of a mess right now, could the damage been caused by the medical teams that swept through or one of the damage control parties?"

"With the captain's permission; you an I were scrubs together an one o' the first things they pounded into our coconuts was the importance o' a light touch on decontam gear like gamma photon bottles. E'en with th' plebes they're a-rushin' through Academy these days, they'd have more sense than to do this. Remember what they told us about accident reports? 'In space dock, its carelessness, ignorance or malice.' Nobody, not even the scrubs, is lazy or stupid enough to pull a stunt like this. They burned the heart out o' the offensive systems, an' they knew joost whar tae shoot."

Finnegan grinned at the idea of catching the parties responsible for the damage done to the main console.

"In th' meantime, as I'll be on nav anyway, we should probably cut fire control over to manual an' route it to the nav board. That'd slow down one o' these scrubs," he gestured vaguely at the corridor, alive with new ratings heading for berths or, more likely, running errands for engineering until full automation was restored. "But you an' I are the pair that beat Fleet Problem '51 with a simulated half-dead ship. Gimme the reroute an' I'll dead-eye an Orion pirate at five hundred thousand kilometers. In th' meantime though, I think we should bring in Security on this. Assumin' they're not scrubs, too."

"Ok, Finns we were tadpoles together and I know you like to embellish things a bit but it is a pretty hard thing to do accidently."

Putting a card in a reader and speaking, "Computer, log Mr. Finnegan's findings and then show me the roster of security personnel that have just come on."

"Working" The computer voice answers. Ransom looks at the data on the screen.

"Ok there is an officer I'm looking for I'll make this his issue, Finns I'll make sure that the captain knows you could have easily bypassed this, good catch."

Looking dead on and pretty serious.

"Finns I gotta tell you the Enterprise is in orbit, she isn't staying long but...I know that you and Captain Kirk enjoyed a very interesting academy life, let's make sure you don't find any trouble alright?"

[chgowiz]

Jan 20, 2010 14:32:04 GMT -5 Ronin84 said:

"I'm sorry sir!"

Looking sheepish, "The pants should have given it away but I know the XO wears pants and she's a she." Smiling a little bit.

"I hope know offense was taken." Putting her hand out.

"Ensign Klein, engineering."

"I was wondering about the Captain because we heard that he was more of a "guns" captain, he has spent most of his time on the border patrols then on exploration missions."

I smile at Ensign Klein and shake her hand.

"No offense taken. I have heard that a time or two, but it's always a nice icebreaker, no?"

I turn my attention quick as the TARGETING system comes online during the THREAT simulation I just started and the targeting system whirrrrrrs out of the console.



"No, I've not heard too much about Captain Chou." I say, almost absentmindedly. The simulation shows a bit too much latency in the system. I'll need to fix that.. hmm...

I realize that the Ensign is still there. I turn to her, sheepishly.

"Sorry..." I smile. "I only know that this ship had a reputation now because of ... the incident. I'm not one to believe in curses, so I volunteered. Flying one of these machines... it's like a dream come true."

I smile at her again. "Will you be on the bridge much?"

Just then, the TARG/THREAT light goes on and I eye the scanner. I override the usual program and flip in a new set of instructions. I insert a data card into the programming slot underneath the panel and flip the PRG/ACC switch, a quick whirrrrh and the scanner beeps. I nod, satisfied. I'll have to tell the navigator that the controls might respond quicker than is normal.

I turn back to see if the Ensign in there. Damn, between the lovely women of Starfleet and HER... this ship... my attention span will be very divided!

[thedungeondelver]

Jan 20, 2010 14:37:00 GMT -5 Ronin84 said:

"Finns I gotta tell you the Enterprise is in orbit, she isn't staying long but...I know that you and Captain Kirk enjoyed a very interesting academy life, let's make sure you don't find any trouble alright?"

Finnegan cracked a genuine smile. "Ahh and is it Captain now?" Finnegan's smile grew broader. He well knew that Kirk had his own command: the Enterprise's commander's exploits were famous throughout Starfleet despite Kirk's youth and relatively short time at the helm of his Constitution class cruiser.

"Well, I'll have me hands full with the plebes on this ship. Just so long as th' good Captain doesn't rear-end us while we're in spacedock, I think he an' I will be able to coexist in the same square parsec for a wee bit."