Tour Guides

Posted on Sun Sep 9th, 2012 @ 3:48pm by Captain Vorn Krace & Commander Acle Walex & Commander Jordan Gunning & Lieutenant Commander Sara Archer & Lieutenant Elizabeth Lynn & Lieutenant JG Emily Hamson & Lieutenant JG Nicholas Tenebroso

Mission: Heart of an Explorer
Location: USS Iapetus
Timeline: MD41 1100hrs (Ship time)

The transporter operator was just starting to raise the gain bar on the transporters to initiate the power-up sequence at the beginning of a beam up when Commander Gunning entered Transporter Room One. The Captain had already called up to the transporter room to give the order to energize, and the Commander was to be part of the tour in his role as both Chief of Security and Second Officer.

"Okay, Chief." Gunning gave a half-hearted order, knowing that the transport was already in progress. "Let's pull her up."

The blue hue of the transporter beam formed on the pad as Gunning watched the Prefect appear. This was the first time that she had ever set foot anywhere other than Maltorra and here she was, on a different 'world' and in a different 'century' all in the space of ten seconds. Overwhelmed wouldn't even come close.

He nodded to his superiors as they materialized on either side of the Prefect.

As Acle materialized on the transporter pad, he carefully maintained his military bearing, ensuring that his frame was erect and shoulders straight. Aside from being Acle's usual habit, he was consciously aware of the political leader at his side.

Acle returned the Second Officer's nod and stepped off the transporter pad, turning to face the prefect. The Maltorran was obviously attempting to hide the dislocation that most beings felt after being transported for the first time, and was doing a rather admirable job of it. To help her recover, Acle proffered his hand to her, with the aim of helping her start down from the pad.

"Ma'am, if I may?" Acle asked.

"Thank you, Commander," the Prefect responded absent-mindedly, looking around the transporter room. Though the show of lights was certainly impressive and sometimes an overwhelming sight, the room was actually designed in a way as to be as settled a transition aboard the ship as possible; the lights actually slowly dimmed from their brightest state after transport had completed to avoid the feeling of snapping into and out of the light of a transporter beam, and the remainder of the room was soft with carpeted surfaces, but spartan in terms of control consoles or other pieces of technology, with the exception of the one station for the transporter operator, with the wall controls behind them.

"Prefect," the Captain said, pulling her from her gazing. "Allow me to introduce Commander Gunning, my chief of security and second officer."

"Prefect," the Commander nodded, offering his hand as a greeting to the visiting leader, "it's a pleasure to welcome you onto the Iapetus."

"Thank you Commander," the Prefect responded. "It is certainly an impressive ship. You said it was how large?"

"The ship has about nineteen habitable decks," Krace explained, as he led the way outside of the transporter room and into the hallway, as a trio of crewmembers turned the next corner, giving them a free stretch for a short while. "And the ship is just over four hundred and fifty metres long."

"I'm amazed that you were able to construct something like this, let alone fly it anywhere," the Prefect said, as they walked down towards the turbo lift. "Our own craft had to be limited to a few metres only, with the rest of the space taken up by the power plant to run the engines."

"Well I can assure you that the bigger the ship gets, the larger the power plant needs to be," the Captain smiled. "But we have found ways of optimising our power output by using a substance called anti-matter. It's quite dangerous if not treated properly, but if used in a controlled environment, it can produce enormous amounts of power. We'll have a chance to see it when we get around to Main Engineering."

"Where are we going first?" the Prefect asked, seemingly comfortable with being taken out of her position of power and put into the unknown for the sake of seeing such technology."

"I thought we'd start with the Bridge; the command centre of the Iapetus."

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BRIDGE
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Acle stepped off of the turbolift, entering the bridge. The prefect and others followed close behind. "This is the Bridge of the Iapetus. From here, we can exercise command, control, and communication functions over the entirety of the vessel. You will see the individual departments later on in the tour, but, it is here where all the various functions come together."

Acle stopped near the tactical console, turning to look back at their guest. "The Iapetus is, as you might have assumed, well equipped to defend herself, and indeed, is capable of projecting military power if the mission calls for it. That being said, the main mission of our vessel is scientific and diplomatic in nature, but, if required, the bridge can act as a strategic military command location as well." Acle said, finishing his summary of the bridge.

"Allow me to also introduce two more of my senior staff," the Captain said, after Acle had finished with his explanation, and the two staff officers in question came to meet them. "This is Lieutenant Commander Archer, my chief intelligence officer, and our ship's counselor, Lieutenant Lynn."

Elizabeth nodded to the Prefect in greeting as she kept an eye on the newcomer's body language. Their visitor was doing her utmost best to keep the awe out of her expression but her stance and movements told Lt. Lynn otherwise.

"A lot to take in, I'm sure," the counselor said with a hint of a smirk at the corners of her lips.

Standing behind the Prefect offered Gunning the opportunity to drop the polite smile that he had kept up all the way from the transporter room. The fact of the matter was that there were still a number of unanswered questions that were putting the Maltorrans in real danger; he wasn't convinced this was the time for ceremonial tours.

Archer offered her hand to the Prefect. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Ma'am. If you have any questions about the ship or the Federation, I would be happy to answer them."

"Thank you both," the Prefect responded, before allowing herself to be directed to a quick view of each of the consoles before being led back into one of the turbolifts.

"Engineering," the captain said, just before the doors closed.

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SICKBAY
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"This is our main sickbay," Krace was saying, as the quartet entered through the main doors after their trip through Engineering. The sickbay itself was extremely quiet; from the reports he'd seen on Acle's desks, Vorn knew that the visitors to sickbay over the last several weeks had been limited mostly to minor cuts and bruises. "This facility is fully equipped to provide medical care for all members of our crew, regardless of what race they are a member of. Through here," he continued, indicating a doorway through to a room within which one could hear more activity than was going on is sickbay. "Is one of our medical laboratories." He moved to lead everyone inside. "This is where our medical and science personnel can research and study new diseases and organisms, and where we're currently studying the information you provided on your virus."

As they entered, the captain indicated the two officers present in turn. "Doctor Tenebroso, my assistant chief medical officer, and Lieutenant Hamson, my chief science officer. Lieutenants, this is Prefect De'Laan."

Emily turned around from her microscope.
"Its a pleasure." She said and politely nodded her head.

"Prefect, ma'am," Tenebroso said in kind, nodding towards the planetary leader.

"The Lieutenants have been studying the various samples we've received from you since our first meeting," the Captain told the Prefect.

"Have you made any progress?" the Prefect asked, eager for news.

"Unfortunetly not." Emily stated.

"We're only in the early stages of studying the pathogen," Tenebroso added. "At present our studies are limited without access to live samples, however we are doing the best we can to study the inert samples we have."

"I hope that you'll be able to help us with this disease," the Prefect told them, before politely nodding her exit to them.

"Where to now then, Captain Krace?"

"Now Prefect, Commander Walex will show you to our mess hall. After that, myself an a few of my officers would like to speak with you more about the situation on your world."

"Very well Captain, I'll be happy to tell you all you need to know."

Acle smiled at the Maltorran "Prefect, please follow me." the commander said, slowly beginning to walk down the passageway towards the turbolift. After a brief pause, Acle began speaking as he walked, playing the part of tour guide.

"Our vessel is capable of operating for long periods of time, without resupply or any type of outside support. Indeed, it often does. With that in mind, crew morale becomes an important part of any ship's make-up, and one way to achieve high morale is to have high standards of food. Our mess halls-" Acle's voice trailed off down the hall, becoming softer as the group made its way away from sickbay. He was continuing to explain the importance of a well-run mess hall or dining system, much to the boredom of the other Starfleet Officers. The Prefect for her part at least appeared to be interested, seemingly having much more practice then Acle's fellow officers and pretending to be interested. Such should be expected though, the Maltorran Prefect was a career politician after all.

[end]