Catching Up
Posted on Wed Apr 3rd, 2013 @ 1:59pm by Captain Vorn Krace & Commander Acle Walex & Lieutenant Commander Sara Archer
Mission:
Renewed Beginnings
Location: Proxima Maintenance Yards - Office Space 24-Bravo
Timeline: MD01 0900hrs
Shortly after the Iapetus had moored up at Proxima Maintenance Yards, the entirety of deck one had become off-limits to all of the crew remaining onboard, except for the yard crew assigned to its overhaul. The entire bridge module and surrounding areas had been one of the replacements that Captain Krace had authorized whilst the ship was in dry dock, allowing the bridge and ready room to take on a completely new layout, as well as ensuring that all of the consoles and technology on the deck were the latest that Starfleet had to offer. Doing this resulted in the absence of any patching jobs, the new work was simply merged with the old stations. The work was still ongoing, with just a week to go before the ship's re-launch date, and with Krace back on duty after his leave, he needed a place to conduct meetings.
Most of his office-related work he had long since taken to doing in his quarters, the mess hall, or one of the recreation facilities on the Yards, but he still wanted to keep his meetings separate from his living space, and he didn't want to have to downgrade certain meetings to one of the other conference rooms on the ship.
As such, Admiral Drazman had offered him the use of one of the Yards many office spaces the facility was equipped with specifically for the use of Starfleet officers temporarily without an office of their own. It was relatively small and spartan, with just a desk, a wall console and a few chairs, but it suited Krace's needs well enough.
"So," he said, as he walked in with the two most senior officers on the ship after the departures of Gunning and Drex. "Travel anywhere nice while we've been back?" He smiled. Neither of the officers he was with were the kind to head off for extravagant vacations on Risa or Pacifica, and it wouldn't have surprised him one bit to learn that they'd spent all of their time within transporter distance of the ship. He nearly had himself.
"I actually made a trip back to Earth," Sara answered, almost surprising the other two with her statement. "I promised my aunt that I would come back and visit. Besides, someone had to see Jordan off on his new assignment." The truth was that the trip was quite difficult for her. Although her counseling sessions had made some progress, she felt like she had made the most progress through her friendship with Commander Gunning. But now that he had left the ship, she felt like most of that progress was gone.
"Where was it that she lives again?" the captain asked, genuinely pleased that his new security chief had taken the time to get away from work for a little while. Ever since she had come aboard she had extremely closed-in and kept very much to herself and her work, with the exception of the friendship he had noticed growing between her and Jordan before he had left.
Acle looked up from the padd that he had been reading from towards the newly minted security chief. As always, he was wearing his full uniform, immaculately pressed. He raised an eyebrow at her, surprise showing slightly, for the moment, he remained silent as he listened to her explain. He too had been slightly worried for her.
"She lives in Seattle, Washington. I never really visited her. While I was in the Academy, she would visit occasionally, especially after my mother died. She never married, so really the two of us are the only family we have left." Sara's voice started to trail off and she regained her composure. "Of course, but main purpose was to debrief Commander Gunning after his time here." She stood up a little straighter, eager to move the topic away from her.
Acle smiled slightly when the other two officers looked at him expectantly. "I'm afraid that I did nothing so exciting... I stayed nearby and caught up on some dispatches that I had missed. I did have the opportunity to qualify with the new issue holdout phasers though." Acle said, expressing pleasure at his chance to do such a thing.
That fact didn't surprise Vorn in the slightest. If there was such a thing as an addiction to work, then Acle would be a serious sufferer of it. Still, though it meant that he was constantly encouraging him to take some time to himself, it meant that he had the best first officer in the fleet.
"Well, now that we're all - sorry, both back," he said with a grin to Acle. "I figured it would be a good time to catch up on the refit of the ship and the personnel transfers." As Vorn settled back in his seat, he leant as far back as the chair would allow, only ever adopting his most informal stances with his long-serving senior officers. "Sara, how have you been setting into Jordan's old shoes?"
"It has been an interesting transition. I've been relying fairly heavily on his staff lately until I can get settled. I'm not used to having a department to run larger than a few people. At least finding my way around the armory and tactical console has been easy."
"Well if you need any assistance, feel free to let either of us know," Vorn answered. He was well enough aware that he had asked Sara to enter a difficult position when he had asked her to merge her existing duties as his chief contact with Starfleet Intelligence with the duties of running the second largest department on the ship, but he was certain she could live up to the challenge. "We've both got enough experience in the area afterall."
Acle nodded his agreement with the captain. He had started out as an enlisted crewman in the security department back what seemed several life times ago. His thoughts turned inward as he began to think upon the early stages of his career.
"Now, let's get down to the details. I'm meeting with Lieutenant Cohen later to talk about the time frame for our eventual departure from the yards. I've got the estimated completion time of the guys here, but I want to hear from him an exact estimate. Either way, it shouldn't be longer than a week, so I want you to make sure that we've got all of our people back aboard before then."
"Aye aye Captain. What adventure will we be setting upon this time?" Acle asked, a wry grin coming to his usually somber features. If truth were to be told, he was getting a little bit antsy and was looking forward to setting forth and doing something. "No zombies or anything this time right? I think I've had my fill of such things."
"The McAllister C-5 Nebula," the captain responded, with a faint smile at the zombies remark. "Starfleet want us to test out our upgrades before they send us on any higher-profile missions, and the egg-heads are convinced that our new sensor upgrades will let us cut through the particle flux and chart the interior of the nebula."
Acle nodded. "Sounds like it should be a relatively simple mission... And I know I would like to see the chance to see our crew working together again before we go into too dangerous of a mission. I think I may have to tweak the roster a little bit, but if that happens I will send you a copy." Acle said, thinking aloud about the duties that he would have to do before turning to look back at the Captain.
"Should we be expecting anything unusual?" Acle asked.
"No. The space used to be within Cardassian territory right up until the 70s, but its classed as neutral space since the end of the war. The only thing we need to watch out for is the particle flux - it prevents most starships from remaining inside the nebula for more than 72 hours." Krace looked between both officers, apparently sizing them up to see if they had anymore questions.
"I'm due for my meeting with Cogen, but if you've any other questions, we can discuss them when we meet tomorrow. Dismissed"
Captain Vorn Krace
Commanding Officer
Commander Acle Walex
First Officer
&
Lt. Commander Sara Archer
Chief of Security and Second Officer
