Setting Course

Posted on Tue May 1st, 2018 @ 3:17am by Captain James Warrington & Major Patrick Smith & Commander Tracy Henderson & Lieutenant JG Seamus MacDonald Jr & Lieutenant JG Un'nara & Lieutenant JG Rohlev th'Zequis & 1st Lieutenant Caleb Jennsen

Mission: It's a Whole New World
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Mission Start

Walking onto the bridge at the start of a mission never got old. The excitement amongst the crew was palpable at this stage and as James walked around the massive room to his center chair the engineer in him had yet another chuckle about the wasted room here. As he sat he hit the intercom button, "All stations standby for departure and report readiness. Senior staff report to your stations. Major Smith grab Jennsen and get to the bridge. I have a job for you," he finished.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Un'nara sat at the engineering console aboard the bridge. Here she could monitor most of the ships systems, issue orders to repair teams, and have the computer run diagnostics and make simple repairs that it could make. The engineer pressed a quick command into the console and the engines started their quick warm up procedure, which would have the engines ready to depart in a matter of two minuets and ready for warp in just under five minuets "Engines ready on your mark" Un'nara reported and then quickly went back to monitoring the ships systems.

Seamus looked over his console and glanced across to the secondary tactical station. After receiving a quick nod from the officer at that station, he looked towards the center seat. "Tactical is good to go, Captain."

The Andorian looked at his console. Checking the status of all the sensors and saw that they were fully operational. Pivoting in his chair towards the command seat, "Science reports ready sir. All sensors operational."

Jennsen stood silently next to the Major as they arrived on the bridge, taking in the hum of activity around the bridge.

Smith stood as well for a moment before walking forward and putting both hands on the rail overlooking the middle of the bridge. With a polite, 'Captain' to Warrington and a nod to Seamus he settled in for the ride.

Hearing the new voice behind James turned, "Ah. Major welcome. 1st Lieutenant Jennsen you have the helm if you'd be so kind."

The marine was a bit surprised, he hadn't spent a lot of time at the helm of a ship, other than as part of his flight certs. He nodded to the Captain and took the forward station. He completed a quick check of the flight systems before turning slightly to face the Captain. "Helm ready Sir, waiting on a course and heading."

"Alrighty. Starfleet have designated this system the Honsil system. We get to do some proper exploration," he stated standing, all in the bridge listening. "Hephaistos to Iota, requesting permission to disengage from spacedock and depart."

"This is Iota. All readings are green across the board from our side. You are clear to disengage and depart in your own time," came the reply quickly followed by the sound of the channel closing.

"Busy day it seems," James noted looking around. "Alrighty. Lieutenant th'Zequis bring main deflector dish online and start up primary sensor array. Helm stand by maneuvering thrusters. Engineering switch to local power plants and detach umbilical. Tactical structural integrity to full."

Once everyone had confirmed their tasks were done and the familiar, albeit significantly quieter than other ships, thud of the umbilicals detaching was heard James issued his next set of instructions. "Helm take us out half thrusters."

"Aye, half truster." Jennsen said, the mammoth vessel slowly moved out of her dock, as she cleared the station the pilot rotated the ship to bring it on it's heading.

"You'll want to keep an eye on this one Major. Seems like you finally got someone who can fly," the Captain joked having had his ear beaten enough over the state of the ships squadron. "Alright then. Time to destination at warp 9.5 by my calculations is about 19 hours and 40 minutes. Since I am eager to go exploring I'm inclined to not dawdle along and get there with some modicum of haste. Helm plot a course to J143895, warp 9.5 and engage when ready."

"Course plotted, engaging warp drive." Jennsen said, the ship vibrated slightly as the warp drive engaged, the viewscreen becoming a streaking tunnel of lights. "Warp 9, warp 9.5." He said as the ship settled in at the upper limits of warp speed. "ETA 19 hours. 35 minutes." He said.

Tracy had always loved the view of the stars as they flew by at warp. She had only wished that her son and husband were here to see this.

James settled back in his chair confident it would be an uneventful trip out.

===== 19h 30mins Later =====

Across the change of shift he made sure that he was back on bridge 18 hours after they entered warp. Sat in the center chair with his senior staff present again, and his new sort of voluntold helm Jennsen, there was an air of excitement still which had persisted all day. As the ship dropped out of orbit James ordered the planet on the view screen. The crew were met with a picture of a lush green planet, covered in dense forest and oceans and they took a moment to absorb it. "Well at least now you can't say I don't take you all anywhere nice," James proclaimed. "Helm high orbit please. Can I get a scan of the surface please for possible landing sites."

"Aye, entering orbit." Jennsen said, the H must really be hurting for decent pilots, he thought having been requested back at the helm at the end of the nearly day long high warp trip. "We're in orbit above the northern continent."


The Andorian at the science station quickly activated the sensor array to start scanning the planet. "Scanning the planet sir. Readings coming in now." The blue skinned man watched the screen as it filled with information. He eyes gleaned as he sifted through it, "4 main land masses, separated by 3 bodies of water. Class M, Nitrogen, Oxygen atmosphere." Swiveling in his chair to the climate sensors, he glanced at all the screens, "All major climates accounted for. Dense jungle covers 67% of the planets, deserts 15%, plains 12%, polar caps 8%." Once again turning in his chair he starts to look at life scanners, "Life signs so a diverse animal and insect life on the surface. A variety of sea life is down there too sir, some are reading 100 meters long!"

"Well that sounds fantastic. Major Smith how much space do we need to land the transport ships?" James asked the Major who had up until now been relaxing to one side not paying a lot of attention.

Pat startled into the room again. "Oh ahm. We are planning on dropping a few different modules. Hundred meters squared should be plenty," he answered.

"I am tagging appropriate landing locations now Captain." The Andorian said looking around at the Captain.

"We may want to deploy a CAP to establish a perimeter line. If we're going to have a large number of crew down on the surface extra warning and firepower should someone decided to pay us a visit may be warranted." Jenssen suggested form the helm.

Rohlev nodded from the science station, "I like your thinking Lieutenant. Most of the men down there will be my team, and they will have their heads in whatever they find interesting, not watching around them. I will make sure they know to keep eyes and ears open." The Andorian said as he started scrolling through the science department manifest and selecting which team members were going down.

The fighter pilot turned helm officer glanced over his shoulder to the CAG realizing he may have overstepped, but returned his attention to the controls in front of him. "We're holding position over the area Lieutenant th'Zequis has indicated." Jennsen reported.

Seamus stood at his station, listening as the rest of the bridge crew got their departments set to deploy. He knew his staff were ready to guard the ship against anything that came it's way. He found himself looking forward to flying shotgun in one of the new Gryphons and waited patiently while the set up was completed.

Putting the final touches on the science teams he turned back to his scanner console and checked the sensors, "No change except some minor animal life movement. Sir I would like permission to head down to my office to prepare for the away mission." Rohlev said, turning in his chair towards the Captain, "If I am apart of it, that is. Sir."

"You are," James answered. "Once the fliers do their initial sweep we will drop you in the drop-ships so make sure your gear is stored safely in cases. Get to work folks," the Captain instructed.