Forgotten Memories

Posted on Wed Mar 30th, 2011 @ 10:40am by Captain Alexander Gunning & Commander Dietrich Reinhart & Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax

Mission: Shore Leave - Archa IV
Location: En Route to Archanis Sector
Timeline: May 5th 2291

[ON]

The quaking of Captain Sulu's tea had become an almost synonymous sound along with the distant hum of the Excelsior's engines. The bridge was quiet but the Alpha Shift was due to come on duty any minute and with that would come the inevitable reports on the various gaseous anomalies that they had encountered along the way. What Riordan wouldn't give to get some action or... something that wasn't gadding about nebulae staring at things that only the science officers like Valtane understood.

Supposedly a Starfleet science vessel had disappeared near the Archa system and, being the furthest vessel out, the Excelsior had been ordered to come back over the quadrant border to investigate. Sulu thought it was probably nothing. Ships fell out of sub-space contact all-too easily out here in this region but any ship reported missing by Starfleet had to be investigated and it was only natural to send them out.

The approach to the sector was pretty standard. Riordan had noted a slight sluggishness in the engines as she pushed the Excelsior onwards into the recently dubbed 'Archanis' Sector. No worries there though, she had reported the variation to the engineers and CPO Armitage was probably looking into it right at that moment. He was quick, that man. Constantly going on about the need to achieve the closest thing to perfection that he could. Riordan had never, ever seen the Engineering Deck with more than a speck of dust on any of the bulkheads or consoles. Spotless. Always.

Alev walked onto the bridge amongst the influx of alpha shift officers, reaching up to rub his chin as he stifled a yawn. It was rough already, despite him having a shave before he went to bed. Drowsily, he took the chair at the weapons console as the Gamma shift occupant left it, signing in with his credentials and running a brief check on the weapons systems. The security log for the night was pretty much empty, so not much to take in there.

Commander Rand on the other hand had become much more used to the schedule of ship life throughout her thirty-odd years in Starfleet. Taking her post bright-eyed and alert, she ran through the communications logs of the last few hours. There was not much of note, other than the follow-up communique for Starfleet's orders to Captain Sulu and a few personal letters being sent to crew member's families. Those messages wouldn't reach their destinations for a few weeks, but the priority Starfleet comms were almost instantaneous in their transmission from A to B.

Valtane stood at the aft-end of the bridge overlooking the science monitor. He was there early, because the Excelsior's processor was finishing the initial scans they took last night. With his interest peaked as he stared out the porthole last night, he could not sleep. With his eyes glued to the scope, he was monitoring the free electron flow in relation to the solar winds in the passing system. Interesting and beautiful, he thought, as the galactic drift from the electrons lit the gases in Nebula-C-21-8A. Vibrant purples, blues and greens filled his spectrometer. With that sort of electron flow, it'd be impossible to navigate with sensors only though. He wrote it down in the log to further probe. He checked his chronometer, an update was due soon. His right hand checked his status report to the Captain. The Executive Officer looked over his shoulder to the front of the Bridge. Armitage, the Chief Engineer, was punching away at something.

Wyatt's hands were shaky. He was tired, still, as he was every morning. They left Stardock several months ago, but he still could not get the right sleep schedule. He spent his nights playing poker with the other Chiefs down in the lower Hangar Bay, and his credit supply was slowly running out. Armitage was busy checking his Starfleet Credit line. When the next payment was coming through and how soon he could get back to the table. Down $250 last night to Petty Officer Goldsmith. That bastard mormon smiled too much as he handed over his three week savings.

Sulu's hand was guided, more by routine than desire to his cup of tea. He lifted it to his lips with one long, flowing motion. As soon as Alpha Shift had taken a moment to reacclimatise to their surroundings, he would be asking for their initial reports on the day. They were still at least five hours away from their destination. No doubt an irritating day of status reports and auto-signing reports that he didn't care one jot about.

"All stations, report in." He said, trying his best not to sound down-trodden.

The Chief Petty Officer Armitage shifted his head from his bank account. He was usually the first to respond, at least after the helm. But he'd make the young pilot run for his money this morning. "Deuterium depletion rate is nominal. Antimatter injection nominal. Navigational deflector running slightly below normal. Probably needs recalibration after the last shift's pass by the nebula. All gauges are green, sir," the man said.

Riordan span in her chair to face the older man, whose usually bright, joyous features were sunk and ashen. "All helm systems check out, Captain. Now we're clear of the nebula, we're probably in a position to increase speed slightly. It may cut a few minutes off our journey time."

"Communications are green," Rand responded, turning in her chair to face her fellow ex-Enterprise shipmate. "No new communication from Starfleet."

"Weapons systems, check," Kintuv responded, squeezing his eyes shut momentarily before continuing with his read-out. "Torpedo bay reports all armaments secure. Phaser banks in standby mode."

"Sensor arrays are working great sir. Processing last night's results. All other departments have checked in," Valtane called out from behind Sulu.

"All right. Helm, increase speed." Sulu said quietly.

[OFF]
_________________________________________________

Captain Hikaru Sulu
Commanding Officer [NPC: Gunning]

Commander Dmitri Valtane
Executive Officer / Science Officer [NPC: Reinhart]

Lieutenant Kintuv Alev
Chief Security / Weapons Officer [NPC: Prax]

Lieutenant (JG) Lecia Riordan
Helmsman [NPC: Gunning]

Lieutenant Commander Janice Rand
Communications Officer [NPC: Prax]

Chief Petty Officer Wyatt Armitage
Chief Engineer [NPC: Reinhart]
USS Excelsior