An Old Friend

Posted on Tue Feb 28th, 2012 @ 5:56am by Captain Alexander Gunning & Captain Liarra Von & Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax

Mission: The Mystery Men of Mira
Location: Main Hangar Bay - Observation Lounge
Timeline: After "The Captain's New Clothes"

Previously...

How was he supposed to remember that the pilots would now be wearing blue and the Diplomatic Corps purple? It was made worse by the fact that Tactical & Security officers would now be wearing red. He wasn't elitist, he had just spent so long understanding things one way, only to be a little suspicious of the change.

He placed his rank pips carefully on the jacket, which felt significantly more comfortable around the neck, and glanced at himself in the mirror. Only one thing missing. He placed the sleek communicator badge onto the jacket at the appointed level and stood back. He stuck his arms out to his side as he regarded himself in the mirror.

I can work with this, he thought as he tapped his combadge. He had an appointment to keep. "Commanders Prax and Von, please meet me in the Main Hangar Observation Lounge."

[ON]

The shimmer coming off the newly refitted vessel was something to behold. Her hull seemed to glitter under the intense light of the Starbase's hangar bay. The saucer section raised high like the craned neck of a swan, gazing out across the other ships in the bay. After all, this was her bay now and they were mere interlopers.

She lay in berth next to the ship that had served Galactic South through thick and thin, the USS Jackal. She was almost fully repaired after a month out of action. Her heroic action in the Battle for Thane had taken its toll but she would be back, stronger than ever soon.

The loss of the Metis though had been difficult to take for them all. This new ship seemed to be Starfleet's way of smoothing things over with them. The message was clear though. The Sojourners were here to stay, galvanised by their victory at Thane and a small science vessel couldn't really cut it as a replacement. They would need something with teeth as well as poise and grace. It looked like they had it.

Nilani was still tugging at her new uniform jacket in the mirror when the call from the Captain came through. It felt a little too tight around her chest and stomach, but the only times that she could get the replicator to make her a comfortable one the computer chimed in with it's own opinion; it was too baggy according to the uniform regulations code. It would appear as if form-fitting was, once again, a design choice of whoever had designed the new Starfleet uniforms. Nilani quietly wondered who that had been; probably the same lonely man who had designed the spandex-style uniforms of the 2360s. Still, even if she couldn't agree with the lack of comfort, her own small bit of vanity couldn't disagree with the results.

As the commander stepped out of the turbolift and progressed down the corridor towards the Captain's location, her eyes had the chance to wander over to the wall of glass to her right, and the main hangar within. Though the observation lounge itself provided the best view, as well as somewhere to sit and grab something to eat, many of the corridors surrounding this area of the station had the same glass windows to afford a few of all the starships within, though each were able to be polarized electronically as a security measure following the discovery of the Founders of the Dominion.

As she stepped through the doors into the observation lounge, he hands clasped behind her lower back, her gaze automatically fell on the ship that now occupied the space vacated last month by the USS Metis, and she felt a pang of guilt, shame and sorrow in her chest. There had been too many lives that had been lost the day that she lost the Metis, and hers had nearly been amongst them. It hadn't felt fair for her to have been saved when so many others couldn't, and she felt it only right that Starfleet hadn't even asked about offering her operational command over the Nova class' replacement.

Liarra put down the book she was reading and reached for her uniform jacket. She paused and took a look in the mirror before leaving her quarters. She looked good in the new uniforms. They were sleek and form fitting, but they were still easy to move around in. She admired the splash of red in the sea of black. She missed the grey around the shoulders, but she could live without it.

As she headed out into the corridor, Liarra knew exactly what Alex wanted. The replacement for the Metis had arrived earlier that day. She didn't know much about the ship, other than that she was considerably larger than what they had previously. Stepping off the turbolift, her thoughts went to Nilani. She had taken the loss of the Metis pretty hard, but Liarra couldn't do much t comfort her. The constant meetings about the Sojourner threat seemed to occupy most of her time. She had only recently finished writing the report she was going to deliver to the brass at Cestus III.

She entered the observation lounge to find Alex and Nilani already there, watching the work in the dock around the new arrival. She was a beauty, a testament to one of Starfleet's best designs. Liarra moved up to Gunning. "What's her name?" she asked, gesturing to the ship in front of them.

"The USS Carthage." Gunning said, standing in front of them with his hands clasped behind his back. "She wasn't decommissioned after all."

Liarra thinks for a moment. "Wasn't that Dietrich's old ship, before he was assigned to the Jackal?

"The very same." Gunning replied. "She's had a bit of a refit since then though."

"I take it Starfleet's concerned about the Sojourners?" Nilani asked quietly. Though old, the Carthage was an Excelsior class, which could pack much more of a punch than a science vessel. They had been part of the backbone of the Dominion War front-line fleets.

"Pretty much," Gunning admitted candidly. He had been given the command transfer orders for the Carthage a couple of weeks before she had actually arrived and the mission outlines didn't look positive. "Starfleet believes that we require a 'Tactical and Diplomatic presence in the region'."

"I just hope the new strategic operations chief is up to the task, whoever it is that Starfleet sends us," Liarra muses. She was starting to get used to her new role as the station executive officer, but she still missed strategic operations.

[OFF]

Captain Alex Gunning
Commanding Officer

Commander Liarra Von
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax
Chief Science Officer / 2XO
Starbase 332