Legacy

Posted on Mon Jan 11th, 2021 @ 11:07pm by Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Rozia & Captain Abigail Laurens

Mission: Enforced Intermission
Location: USS Astraea, Corridor Outside The Bridge

Evelyn was on a stepladder, not because she truly needed it to reach the entirety of the brass plaque she was polishing, but because she wanted to be sure she had the best view of anything that could be seen to be wrong. She'd found out only a few days before what the ship's designation would be and it had taken her several hours to do the engraving on the bare brass slab she'd had replicated, complete with builders names and in some subscript the commissioning crew of half a dozen.

But all of that was mere fanfare to the centerpiece of the bronze: A very detailed image of the Odyssey-class starship, with the USS ASTRAEA NCC-80819-A centered below it. In the bottom left corner was a smaller version, but of the Akira-class version of the Astraea, with the name Captain Abigail Laurens centered underneath it. It was Evelyn's own personal touch, to include the final CO of the ship for past namesakes. To bring the older ship with the souls of her crew in the Captain's name. Across the top were the words 'Honor, Loyalty, Integrity, Courage, Class', the motto on record of the ship.

Buffing one final spot on the brass, she got down from the short stepladder and took a couple steps back, looking over the plaque for any imperfections and she all but sensed someone coming up the corridor, but didn't even bother to look.

The sound of Abigail's footfalls on the carpeted deck echoed in the otherwise silent halls. The ship was, for the most part, devoid of any crew, bar a few engineering teams who were making last minute adjustments.

This moment was unlike any other. She could still specifically recall the moment she had first set foot on the Akira class Astraea, the feeling of excitement she had experienced, the honour she felt at being given her first command. She had even joked to Jack after about her desire to cartwheel in the corridors.

This time it felt different. There was honour and prestige, but there was also a sense of loss that came with it. The ship under her command had been destroyed. She had fully expected to have her command stripped away from her in the aftermath, yet Command instead seemed to have taken a different path. Her crew had been reassigned to this ship, an Odyssey class vessel that had been redesignated to the USS-Astraea A.

Her crew would start arriving in the next few hours, so until then, she had opted to take the time to walk through the ship, get to know her new charge before being overwhelmed with the prelaunch work she knew was coming her way.

Now there was only one place left for her to go, the bridge, which was where she was headed when she found herself face to face with Evelyn in the corridor. "I'm sorry Commander," she offered a small smile. "I was off with the fairies and didn't see you there."

“No worries, Captain.” Evelyn returned the smile as she noted the four pips on the collar. She’d seen quite a few senior officers, Captains, Commodores, Rear Admirals and even a couple two-star Vice Admirals coming on board the un- Astraea, she reminded herself, castigating herself in her own mind after the handful of months that the ship didn’t have a name. The Odyssey-class was new enough that the higher ranks always wanted to see one of the newest and best ships in the Fleet’s inventory, which her standing orders had eventually become ‘Let them on board with a warning not to disrupt any engineering crews actively working.’ She wondered if this were an up and coming Commanding Officer wishing for a ship like this.

She glanced over the shiny plaque inset into the bulkhead one last time, “She’s a beautiful ship, ma’am, as ready as we can make her until her new Captain gets on board. I know the Board of Inquiry is supposed to rule today, in fact, should have early this morning, but I’m sure Captain Laurens will retain command. Admiral Pavelski had me review the reports from the engineers, security and operations just to see if I could have responded better given what was known, and I’ll be damned if I could.” The shake of a head, and the slight smile turned wider, “I’m sorry, ma’am, I’m Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Rosie, Senior Engineer and Senior Officer in command until Captain Laurens arrives to take over.”

There was a fleeting moment of surprise caught on Abigail's face before she smiled politely. "She is indeed a beautiful ship," the Commanding Officer replied without giving away her own identity. "Perhaps you could walk me through the bridge and then accompany me to Engineering? I'm interested in hearing more about this ship, she is indeed spectacular."

“Of course, ma’am.” Evelyn folded the ladder and leaned it up against the wall, then turned to the bridge doors, “Computer, unlock Bridge, Rozia-Six-Six-Aleph—Two-One Showroom.” The doors dutifully slid open and Evelyn led the way into the relatively spacious bridge as two holographic officers vanished from two consoles, “Since Astraea is technically ‘fit for deployment’, we have a standing watch that I’ve put on the auxiliary bridge. No one gets in here without me or Lieutenant Baldwin until command staff arrives.” She waved at the three chairs in the center of the room, “Feel free to sit in the Exec’s chair. No one, not even me, gets to sit in the center seat until the Captain arrives. I had to, with a slipcover, just to ensure the displays worked, but since then? Besides, the XO seat has most of the same capabilities.”

Resisting the urge to sit in the Command chair, just to make a point, Abigail slid gracefully into the XO's seat instead, watching as the displays immediately activated. She flicked through with mild interest, listening as Evelyn continued talking.

As the Captain sat down, holographic panels began to spring up around the seat at below eye height filled with information on the shields, weapons, a schematic of the ship with designations that signaled there was no damage and Evelyn watched on with a grin on her face, “The armrest has the controls for the holos, plus it’s a great tool to be able to check on ship status at a glance without having to waste time to move to another station or ask someone else. In combat, seconds count.” She gestured to the consoles at the Helm and Ops seats, “The consoles have been enchanted with a plus five buff to explosion resistance.” She couldn’t help the reference to a game her Academy roomie had gotten her addicted to, “And there isn’t an isolinear chip on board the entire ship. Everything is done through bio-neural packs for a faster reaction speed.”

"Bio-Neural gel packs seems to be quite standard now, I've seen many of the older ships retrofitted with them. Now, tell me, this ship is fitted with a quantum slip stream drive isn't it?" Abigail asked curiously.

"Well, that ruins the big speech I had ready for once we got to engineering." Evelyn chuckled and shrugged, waving at the engineering station that sat above the command chairs a few feet from the security/tactical station, "But yes, we do have a QSD. We may not be able to cruise at warp nine point nine six like the speedboat that the Prometheus is, but with forty minutes of warning, we can make about five hundred light years in a span of five hours. We can repeat that every thirty-six hours, which would leave a Prometheus in the dust."

"And I assume the hull design was modified to take into account the additional strains that such levels of travel would have on the ship as a whole?" Abigail asked, genuine curiosity in her voice as she spoke. "How does the slip stream travel affect the rest of the ship? While travelling with the QSD is everything else operational as normal?"

With a smile, Evelyn waved at the general surroundings, "The Mark Two Odyssey did receive some additional structural reinforcements, but they don't add a significant percentage of mass to the frame and are primarily intended to reduce the damage from emergency usage of the drive. For normal usage, the problem is overheating of the Benamite matrix rather than any point stress of the frame and hull. While within the slipstream, we're in a tunnel within subspace, so the outside galaxy basically has nothing to do with us, however since Starfleet has the specific frequency that our drive uses, they can still communicate with Astraea."

Her eyes never left the Captain, "But being in a bubble of subspace has disadvantages as well. While the ship is itself fully capable, because the Q-S-D has its own reaction chamber, separate from the warp drive, our sensors aren't going to get readings from outside the tunnel. The only aspect of the sensor suite that will be in use will be looking for phase variance shifts. Transporters get locked down except for site-to-site transports on board and discouraged even then. Weapons function, but there's no ability to target anything outside the bubble." She shrugged again, "All really the tradeoff to get the speed over distance. From an engineer's point of view? Absolutely worth it. Even at warp Nine, it takes five and three quarters hours to go a light year. With the standard setting of the Slipstream? Thirty-six seconds. It's five hundred and seventy-eight times faster and the biggest tradeoff is that it can only be used five hours at a time with a thirty-six hour downtime in-between. It gives Astraea and her sisters an unprecedented response capability within the Federation and without."

"I see," Abigail replied with a slight nod. "Thank you, Commander, for taking the time to speak to me. I hope I'm not taking up your valuable time."

“Not at all, ma’am. I’m actually at loose ends for the next couple hours. We’re due to embark the old Astraea’s crew first, then any remaining required personnel. All I have to do is make sure my welcome teams are ready to help guide the incoming personnel to their quarters, so they’ll be stopping their own tastings in another half hour to prep for that.” Evelyn sighed, shoulders slumping for a moment, “There’s no more sprucing up I can do at this point, so I’m basically just waiting for Captain Laurens to arrive so I can be her tour guide and answer any questions she has after I hand over formal command, which will be a relief. Then I’ll see if she plans on keeping me or replacing me and go from there.”

"Do you have any preferences?" Abigail asked curiously as they started walking toward the doors to exit the bridge. "Most engineers I know become quite possessive of their toys, would you want to give her up?"

Evelyn tapped a key on the XO's chair as she passed it, following the Captain to the doors, setting it back into sleep mode, "Stay, no question about it." She said definitively, "I've been here for the installation and runup of the Slipstream, this ship is my home right now and I'm not willing to give her up if I don't have to." She quirked a smile as she half-jogged a step to catch up, "I was pulled off of Scheherazade and out of my engineering room to come here and make this ship ready for service, because I was involved in the development of the drive. Well, Arcturus was, and I've got his memories as well as my own. So no, Captain, I don't want to give her up."

Abigail smiled. "Well, I'm sure where ever you end up, you will be a solid asset to your Captain and crew," she said warmly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I really should get back to work. I've taken up more than enough of your time already. Good luck Commander."

"Thank you, ma'am, and good luck to you as well." Evelyn smiled as they left the bridge and the engineer locked it behind them, "By the way, ma'am, I never got your name?"

"Abigail," she called back over her shoulder before disappearing around a corner and heading toward the turbolift.

"Abigail." Evelyn repeated to herself, the other officer having vanished. "Captain Abigail... Laurens?" A moment of panic spiked through her, but she shook her head and shrugged, grabbing the stepladder and heading the opposite direction, "Couldn't be. Nothing to worry about, Evie, nothing to worry about."