Ship Readiness Update

Posted on Tue May 9th, 2023 @ 7:57pm by Captain Lukas Fredricks & Commander Naois Mercy MD & Lieutenant Chexor Vonn

1,852 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Prelude: Getting Ready to Depart
Location: Captain's Quarters
Timeline: MD1 - 1330 Hours

Lukas had been lucky in the fact that the only officers that hadn't been reassigned were Commander Mercy and Lieutenant Vonn, who had kindly stepped in to oversee Britannic's repair process while he had been himself recovering from his ordeal.

He had been lucky to have two close friends who had helped shield the crew from how he was coping, or in this instance not, with his recovery.

Both officers had agreed to keep ship updates informal as to not add pressure to Fredricks.

Naois calmly stepped inside once the door slid aside to admit him to the captain's quarters. "All by yourself today?" He queried as he sensed the man to be alone. "Where are the children?"

"Oliver and Adele are on Earth visiting with my parents. I felt a change of scenery might do them some good. Zirvell is out and about on the ship." Lukas replied as he gestured to a free seat for his first officer to sit down.

"He did not want to see ah ..his future grandparents? How is the adoption process going?"

"I don't think he wanted to go without me." He said before taking a deep breath. "The adoption process is going slowly. The Federation is trying to reach his family to make sure they can legally go through the process. If I'm honest, it just puts a target on the boy's back."

Do-do-dee-do.

The room's door chime interrupted the conversation. A mere handful of seconds later and before anyone could utter a sound to acknowledge it, it rang again in an almost frantic manner.

Do-do-dee-do.

"Yes yes, come in please." Lukas said frustrated by the double knock as he looked towards the door.

The doors slid open and a blue burly fellow barged into the room. He moved to the side of the entrance and kept his body close to the wall as if to hide from someone. When the doors finally shut, the agitated Bolian turned his attention to Fredricks and Mercy. "He's not here is he? IS HE?" Chexor Vonn demanded from them.

The blonde first officer slash chief counselor turned his head towards the new arrival and arched a single eyebrow. "He, who, lieutenant?" He queried curiously.

"Zirvell?" Lukas asked frowning, wondering what trouble the inquisitive young man had gotten into this time.

"Zirv... what? No! The Chief!" Vonn clarified. He wiped the beads of sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his uniform. "He's gone MAD with power, he has." Chex gently rubbed his chin with his fingers as he stepped away from the wall. He was contemplating what to do about this individual. "He was a good kid... and now... there's no hope for him," he lamented. "One promotion and he thinks he's in charge of the whole damned ship!"

"It would help us greatly if you would attach a name to the title, lieutenant," Naois commented dryly, "because with the amount of chiefs aboard, your description is extremely vague at best."

"Gary! Who else could it be?" Chex answered, throwing his hands up into the air. He then took a deep breath, sighed, and plopped himself down onto one of the empty seats. "He's been running the crewmen on deck twenty-seven ragged."

Still none the wiser, Naois looked to Fredriks for help. "I am not aware of a chief named Gary, lieutenant. Do we have a stowaway on board?"

Fredricks lip curled up into a smirk. "You're talking about your holographic sloth aren't you?"

"Holographic?" Naois queried, still feeling confused.

"HOLOGRAPHIC?!" the Bolian repeated in surprise. He was somewhat vexed by the notion that his beloved, yet mischievous pet Gary, could be a fabrication from someone's imagination. Unfortunately for the good people on twenty-seven, the sloth was very real, and was quickly becoming a problem. "I won't tell him you said that," Chex told Fredriks, whilst glaring a hole into him. His face then relaxed, and he looked down to the side at the floor. "... It would hurt his feelings."

"I thought he was a hologram?" Lukas said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I didn't mean to offend, Chexor."

The Bolian dismissed the Captain with a wave of his hands. "It's perfectly all right. The mangy beast just has a way of getting your blood boiling. Ha!" Hopefully that would explain his outburt. Chex intertwined his fingers, except for his indexes as he chose to steeple them in front of his chest. "So, the... re-launch of the Britannic draws ever near..."

"Your pet should be confined to your quarters lieutenant, we cannot allow it to roam free across the ship," Naois commented before moving on. "Yes, we are acquiring additional crew as we speak.... In fact I am heading out soon to ah... acquire us a security chief."

"Yes, we are. I believe Britannic will be ready to launch within a week. New crew is arriving so Starfleet must aware of our status. I'm sure mission parameters will be coming in the next few days but before we deal with that I wanted to inform you both of my decision regarding my status on the ship." Fredricks said before a brief pause.

"I wanted to thank you both for your efforts while I've been recovering from my injuries, both physical and mental. Britannic wouldn't be almost ready to launch if it wasn't for your hard work in my absence. You both know I was considering stepping away as Captain and retiring but my counseling sessions have been helpful and feel I'm in a better space in myself. Therefore I shall be staying on Britannic as her Captain."

"I am gratified to hear that," Naois answered, "I assume I will remain as first officer?"

"Of course, number one. I couldn't continue my job without both of you here doing yours." Lukas replied with a smile and nod.

Having been through extensive counseling and rehabiliation recently himself, Chex could easily sympathise with the Captain's plight. Even in the wake of the Dominion War, there was no easy return to the simple every day life of space exploration. Despite his own progress, Chex never went a day without thinking about his lost friends from the Scobee. Lukas' recovery would take time, but he'd get there. Just as the Bolian would.

The Lieutenant pumped his fist into the air in a congratulatory manner. "A hip, hip, hooray to you, Captain. I never doubted that you wouldn't return."

"Thank you, Chex." The Captain said smiling at his Operations chief. "So, what's our status?"

"We are, more or less, on schedule," he answered. Chex then further elaborated on their progress. "The new pod was connected to the EPS grid late last week. There were a few minor issues with the installation that were resolved on the day. More recently, we had a malfunction with the atmospheric recycler on deck five. Instead of oxygen, the deck was flooded with xenon gas. A handful of engineers sustained minor injuries as a result but Sickbay has assured me that they will all make a full recovery and will return to duty in the next day or so. A diagnostic is ongoing to determine the cause of the fault. As far as supplies go, most of it has arrived. A shipment of flora and fauna for the arboretum is scheduled to turn up via shuttlecraft in a few hours. Agricultural Affairs has chosen the Britannic to grow a crop of the rare Calceolaria uniflora. I've been led to believe that the flowers look like orange penguins." Chex gave a shrug to the thought but he was very eager to see whether or not that description would turn out to be true.

Lukas nodded, "Sounds like most everything is mostly under control. The Calceolaria uniflora sounds interesting, once they come into bloom I may take a wander through the arboretum."

"What about teaching staff?" Naois asked, "have they arrived yet?"

Chex took a moment to try and recall if he'd read whether or not any such individuals had come aboard the ship. To be fair, he'd looked at so many names lately that they simply didn't register in his brain anymore. Teachers also weren't exactly at the top of his list of essential personnel to watch out for. "Maybe. Perhaps," he answered. "I'll have to look it up and get back to you."

"Please do. As we have children on board, we have to ensure their education." The Vulcan gave a single but slight nod to encourage his words.

"Perhaps Gary could keep them in line until the teaching staff do arrive." Lukas said with a smirk as he looked at his chief of operations for a reaction.

"SHHHHH!" Chex brought his index finger to his mouth and attempted to silence his commanding officer before he could say more. "Don't give him any ideas! He'll hear you."

"The children may well dote on him," Naois suggested, not at all understanding the COO's reaction, "so...why not? If that keeps them out of mischief?" While he trusted his son Revan to stay out of trouble, he actually didn't trust Delon to do so. Laura depended on what her mood was like.

The Lieutenant gave them both a serious look. "You would like to have a creature who casually throws his fesces to... supervise the children?" He articulated those last three words to make especially clear what he was insinuating. "Look, I'm not one to judge others but that, my dear friends, is simply absurd." After a moment he sighed and shrugged. "Besides, you'd have to ask him. Gary doesn't... enjoy having decisions made for him. Neither of you share a room with him. I have no interest in feeling his wrath."

"Perhaps Gary isn't the right candidate for teaching. Especially if it makes Chex's living arrangements difficult." Lukas replied. "Hopefully the teaching staff will arrive before we depart. Is there anything else we need to discuss?"

The Bolian was relieved that his Captain came to see reason over the matter. Nothing good would come of his seasloth being around children. He knew with absolute certainty that Gary would have been a bad influence on them. Moving on, Chex spoke up to answer Lukas' question. "No, Captain. Not at this time," he said.

Naois shook his head too. "Nothing that cannot wait. I do have a prospect security chief to visit, with your permission?"

Lukas looked at both officers before smiling. "Thank you both again for your hard work and diligence. Britannic would be nothing without you. Return to your duties, I suspect I have a large pile of paperwork on my desk that needs me to look over."

Nodding, the first officer stood and left the Captain's quarters.

Lieutenant Vonn too, rose from his seat and started to head out but he stopped just short of the cabin's entrance. He turned back towards Fredricks. "Mount Everest large," he disclosed, partly in sympathy as he'd relayed much of said documents in the Captain's direction. He didn't envy the task whatsoever.

 

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