Out Of Dodge

Posted on Sun Mar 6th, 2011 @ 5:17pm by Captain Liarra Von & Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax & Lieutenant Commander Morgan Kelly & Captain Alexander Gunning

Mission: Shore Leave - Archa IV
Location: Main Bridge - USS Thaden
Timeline: SL D01 - 1200

[ON]

Captain Gunning stood by the docking port with his hands clasped behind his back. Standing quietly counting the crew in and out as they came on and off the Thaden. He had assigned many more officers to this mission than were really necessary but he had felt it vital to assure himself that the new arrivals were well enough versed in the region. What better way than to send them out there? He hoped.

Liarra walked up to the docking port with a duffel slung over her shoulder. She flashed a smile at her commanding officer. "Were you afraid I wasn't going to show, Alex?" she asked with a little laugh.

"No, no. I just want to make sure you don't spend too long at the expanse. I know Nilani will nipping your ear off to try and get you to hang around as long as possible but Starfleet has been ignoring this thing for years so there's no reason to think that it's anything more than just some subspace distortions." The Captain said. His eyes drifted out to the little ship. It was a mixture of hugely impressive and slightly disappointing but it was perfect for this mission.

"Make sure Matsumoto is brought up to speed on any border disputes or skirmishes as well. He'll probably already have a vague idea what's going on but I'd like you to give him as much information as you know yourself, okay?"

"Of course, Captain," she replied, herself slipping back into officer mode. "I have some reports on the Ritorians that I'll make sure I pass along. Any last minute words of advice?"

The Captain turned to her with a slight nod. "Don't lose her," he quietly said, "and good luck."

[Some Time Later - Main Bridge - USS Thaden]

After dropping off her gear in the cramped commanding officer's quarters, Liarra was excited to get underway. She knew her crew would have to get familiar with the new ship, but she was pretty confident that they would adjust quickly. The ship was smaller than the Jackal, but she had similar character.

Von was the first of her officers on the bridge, having planned to arrive early. She had an example to set for the officers and crew under her command, and wanted to make sure she was ready to go before they were. With a PADD in her hand, she read and made various notes about her crew as they filtered into their stations.

Y'Laais took his seat at the CONN and immediately started to make the necessary calculations for the jump to warp. It wasn't a huge distance but in this ship it would take a fair while. "Course plotted, Captain. Estimated time of arrival; nine hours, twelve minutes."

"Thank you, Ensign," Von responded. "We'll get underway shortly."

After a briefing with the Captain himself, Shinji still had with him his duffel bag and bonsai tree plant. Shinji started pondering whether or not this trivial matter was a running gag put on by an unknown Q being pesty as usual. It didn't really bother Shinji, though, as it was good excerise for him, especially his hands and arms. Shinji stepped into the turbolift from Main Operations and then proceeded down towards the docking port for the Garrison vessel that he was to accompany. He really wanted to stay behind on the station, but he wasn't going to make enemies of the Captain so quickly by refusing his request. Shinji took in a breath of air filled with bonsai aroma and then the lift stopped at his destination. He stepped out and proceeded the short distance towards the open hatch.

Not even a day had passed by, and Shinji was geared up and ready for another trip to some other destination. Once he was inside the ship, he moved to find himself a place to store his belongings temporarily until things would settle down for him. He found a storage locker and placed everything inside; then, Shinji strode towards the ship's Bridge. It was exponentially less of a distance to get from A to B on the ship than the starbase, and Shinji was quite fond of that aspect of once again being on a ship, no matter its' size. Once on the bridge, Shinji found an auxiliary console for himself and logged in with credentials. Now all that remained was to wait for his orders.

Nilani, converse to most of the other crew that were just coming aboard, had been aboard the Thaden for a good couple of hours now, getting the ship ready for their trip near the Expanse. She'd had the engineers on the station make sure that the ship's sensors were as accurate as they could be on a ship of this type, and had been working on getting her supplies onboard for her makeshift lab, down on deck three. As the bridge crew were just coming onboard, she was just finishing the half-an-hour recalibrations of the large, wrap-around station at the rear of the bridge - the mostly-vacant engineering post on the bridge had been relegated to the original science console, to give Nilani much more to work with during the mission. It had taken some convincing to get permission to re-appropriate the bridge engineering console in addition to her makeshift lab, but she'd refused to back down; this was likely to be the only time in her current life that she'll have the opportunity to study the Expanse.

Nodding a greeting to the others as they filed in, she slipped out of the bridge against the tide, heading down towards deck 3.

Kelly, realizing he would be going without a chair for this mission reached his console with an irritated stomp. He hadn't anticipated this much discomfort for a quick patrol mission. Still, the thing had just been delivered and they were probably going to be using them more often. Hell, maybe he'd get to command one at some point.

Von noticed a look of disappointment on Kelly's face as he stepped up to the tactical console. "What's a matter, Lieutenant? Not used to standing up?"

"Something like that, Commander." The Tactical officer responded, shifting his feet around uncomfortably.

"You'll get used to it. The Galaxy never had a place to sit at the tactical station either," Von replied with a grin.

Samuel emerged onto the bridge, or what could better be defined as a space more equatable to that of a battle bridge, as the cabin really wasn't much larger than that of the Galaxy-class starship's shipboard battle bridge.

"Commander Von, medical supplies have been inventoried and stowed." He reported briskly. Due to the skiffs size and accommodations, the medical department on board the Thaden consisted, exclusively, of Samuel and a nurse; Warrant Officer Cristina Sun assumed the latter of the two positions and was currently within the petite medical bay conducting a final inspection of the ships medical facilities' equipment.

"Thank you, Doctor. Hopefully we won't need to use any of them," the CO replied.

"How're you finding the accomodations, Doc?" Kelly asked with a chuckle. "Not quite what you're used to, eh?"

"To say the least," Samuel replied cooly, "but I'll make it work." He finished with a wink as he tucked both hands into the pockets of the blue lab coat. "If anybody needs me, I'll be in the bay." He said, waving over his shoulder as he navigated away from the bridge and back towards the sickbay.

[Makeshift Science Lab]

Nilani stepped through the large doors to the cargo bay-cum-laboratory, walking just past the edge of the door sensor's range, allowing the loud, mechanic whining of the doors to cease upon their closing before moving to continue with anything else.

Most of her equipment was here already, but was scattered around the bay in crates, having been moved over from the station earlier this morning. The only things that had actually been set up however, were the desktop units; there were a few work surfaces which had been brought in and fixed to the deck in the positioning Prax had specified, and surrounded by a semi-circle of sensor clusters over near one wall was a circular console, which reached up towards its domed 'peak' - one of the few specialist science consoles starships utilised, it was its own contained unit, whereas the other equipment she had brought with her had 'plug-and-play' functionality when combined with one of the generic work surfaces with integrated LCARs interface.

Setting aside the PADD which held a few specific system variables of the console on the bridge, she set to work lifting the top of the upper-most crate on the nearest pile, and began setting up the equipment.

[Main Bridge]

Y'Laais shot a look back across the bridge. "All stations report ready to disembark, Captain."

Liarra smiled and leaned forward in her chair. "Then let's get this mission underway, shall we. Mr. Kelly, inform Threshold of our departure and clear all moorings."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Ensign Y'Laais, thrusters ahead, one quarter. Once we are clear of the station, proceed to full impulse and engage to heading at Warp 4. Take us out."

[OFF]

Captain Alex Gunning
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Commander Liarra Von
Commanding Officer [Assigned]
USS Thaden

Lieutenant Nilani Prax
Chief Science Officer
USS Thaden

Lieutenant (JG) Shinji Matsumoto
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Thaden

Lieutenant (JG) Samuel Foster M.D.
Chief Medical Officer [Assigned]
USS Thaden

Lieutenant (JG) Morgan Kelly [NPC]
Chief Tactical / Security Officer
USS Thaden

Ensign Y'Laais [NPC]
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Thaden