USS Bodkin

Half asleep, Sonia leaned back in the co-pilot’s chair of the arrow-class runabout and yawned, “How much longer, Tel?”

Joran Tel let out a short laugh and rolled his eyes. Over the last couple of days, he had grown to enjoy the company of the young Lieutenant and new Chief Engineer of the Gagarin. “You could easily have asked the computer with an extra word or two,” he said with a snort as he pulled up the ETA on the navigation console in front of him.

“We will drop out of warp at Starbase 406 in 90 minutes. The last update we had was that the Gagarin was on site as well, so we should dock shortly after that.”

“WHAT!?” Sonia said as she shot up. “Though we had hours left.” With that, she ran off the command deck of the small ship, muttering under her breath about being ready and the importance of first impressions.

Joran just shook his head, “If you had your uniform and not your ridiculously oversized fuzzy blanket coat thing, you would be ready.”

“Shut it, Tel, it’s COMFY!!” he heard from back in the crew compartment before Sonia disappeared into the bunk room she was using.

Just under two hours later, the USS Bodkin slowed dramatically as it approached the USS Gagarin’s open hangar bay. Joran couldn’t help but appreciate the lines of the ship as she brought the runabout in. “Not a bad looking ship, no Akira…but she looks good.”

Sonia, now wearing her uniform with her hair braided, sat beside him, similarly eyeing up the ship before them. Her thoughts were focused more on the potential engineering challenges she would face aboard such a new ship. “She is, just hope I am up for the job.”

As the ship entered the hangar on manoeuvring thrusters, Tel just shook his head, “Come on, Jeden. You wouldn’t have been assigned to her if the fleet and your old CO didn’t think you were up to it. Throw yourself into it and you’ll do great.”

“Thanks,” she remarked in return as the runabout set down. She looked out into the bay and saw two figures waiting, “Guess we both throw ourselves in now.”

USS Gagargin – Hangar Bay

Thornton watched as the shuttle approached the hangar bay, “hmmmmm” as he turned his head toward the new executive officer as she stood beside him, pulling the unlit pipe from his mouth. “So ma’am, how’s your first couple of days been?” As he turned back toward the approaching shuttle, while also quickly scanning the row of fighters as maintenance crews popped open panels, performing their duties.

Jenn cocked her head at Thornton and raised an eyebrow. She mulled the question for a moment and then shrugged. “It’s been surreal, to be honest. My future has taken an unexpected turn over the last few months, and to be here is—” She hesitated searching for the right words. “Well, it wasn’t on my Bingo card. How about you, Commander?”

She gave the pipe a side eye and made a tentative sniff for the tell-tale hint of burnt tobacco. She couldn’t tell if he actually smoked the pipe. Filling her lungs with the cool air of the hangar bay, she could smell the tang of lubricants and the ozone scent of plasma discharges. She started to comment on it, but instead chose to let it slide. Everyone had their quirks, and not everything was worth making a captain’s mast out of it, and she wasn’t even sure if she actually objected to him smoking it.

“Well, ma’am, I’d have to agree with you. This wasn’t on my bingo card either. Figured I’d be on the Dragon for a few years, then maybe a second stint at the academy.” As he turned back to focus on the landing shuttle, pointing at it with the stem of his pipe.“Always liked them arrows.”

Jenn smirked. “I will take your word for it. My interests lie more in the macabre. But, if you’d like a detailed analysis of trauma sustained in medieval battlefields or the differences between the skulls of Homo erectus and ostropithecus, I’m your girl.”

“What do you think about our new chief engineer and squadron commander?” As he pointed at the two faces staring at them through the shuttle viewports. “Looks to me like they were not expecting to see us waiting to welcome them aboard.”

Glancing up at the other commander and resisted the urge to unleash a profanity-laced sentence.  New leaf and second chances… I need to leave that old Jenn behind. 

“I have yet to meet them,” she replied as an answer to both of Thornton’s inquiries.

Joran stepped out of the runabout, his large satchel containing his gear held in his left hand, and took a quick look around before his eyes settled on the waiting pair. He recognised both the Gagarin’s XO and his new Flight Commander the moment he saw them. Behind him, Sonia half tumbled out of the runabout as her bag snagged on the airlock door. With a quick movement, he caught her hand just before she fully lost her balance.

“No time for theatrics,” Joran said with a laugh. “You ok?”

Sonia just rolled her eyes at the comment before responding, “Yeah, bag caught. Thanks”

He nodded towards the XO and his new CO, “Shall we go meet the bosses?” To which Sonia just nodded as she straightened her bag on her shoulder.

Jenn raised a disapproving eyebrow and shot Sonia an impatient expression. She glanced at a PADD her finger touches setting off a series of electronic trills.

“Welcome to the Gagarin,” she said at last, without looking up from her device. With a final beep, she lowered the PADD to her side and levelled her gaze on Sonia. “Lieutenant, I trust you are better at engineering than exiting a runabout?”

Sonia stopped in front of Commander Douglas and stood at attention, slightly taken aback by her comment, “Very much so, Ma’am.” She held her position as she chastised herself internally for not paying attention as she left the runabout, too preoccupied with what the new ship held.

Joran smiled and put himself beside Sonia, “Go easy on her, Commander, she is damn good at engineering. We ran into some technical issues en route when the warp field collapsed when the emitters fell out of alignment. Lieutenant Jeden has us up and running faster than pretty much any other engineer I have seen.”

Jenn levelled her gaze on Joran, “Well, you aren’t shy, but it’s concerning that you feel you need to speak for her. Do you fear she might say the wrong thing?”  Then she turned to Sonia and looked her up and down. “Relax, Lieutenant. You stand like that much longer, you’re going to pop a vein or blow an artery.

Jenn shot them both a stern smile and shook her head.  “You two get your things and get settled. The captain is likely to call a briefing at any time.  And no, before you ask, I don’t know either.” With that, the ship’s XO nodded to Thornton, turned on a heel, and walked out of the fighter bay, returning to her reports.

Sonia turned and glared at Joran, “Couldn’t keep your mouth shut, could you?” She paused when she realised Commander Thornton was still present and quickly added, “Sir.”

Joran sighed, “Yeah, kind of stuck my foot in that one, didn’t I? I’ll make up for it at some point.”

Sonia just shook her head, “Well, I’ll have to deal with it one way or another. I will go stow my bag and head to engineering to get myself acquainted with the ship.” Without waiting for a response, she adjusted her duffle bag and turned towards the door leading out of the bay and heading off to her new responsibilities.

Thornton approached, running a hand along the runabout’s fuselage. “How was your flight, commander?” Placing the pipe back in his mouth, as he looked between his new squadron commander and the row of fighters. “Walk with me, Commander.” As he patted the runabout and started towards the fighters.

Joran watched Sonia leave for a moment before turning back to Thornton. “The flight went well, better than when I arrived on the Altai and was ambushed by a Breen warship. So all in all count complain.”

Approaching the first fighter, having removed the pipe and now using it as a pointer. “So, Commander on your way in, how long were you in the seat before you landed in my shuttle bay?”

Joran shrugged, “These Arrow-class runabouts basically fly themselves, but I put her through her paces, though it wasn’t the first time in one. I also had the Lieutenant run through a few drills to gauge where she was at.”

Thornton ducked under one of the wings and stuck his head into an open panel where he saw an engineer scanning something. “Probably a smart idea, drilling the lieutenant.” As he nodded at the engineer and ducked back under the wing. “Most of your pilots are assigned to other sections as their primary duties. Captain’s call, not mine.”

Joran shrugged, “I can see the reasoning behind it. The Gagarin is a smaller ship. She isn’t a carrier, so we need to spread people out.”

“Indeed, though I want two valkyrie crews on alert standby, along with one aspera crew on ready standby for this mission. We’re not sure what we are heading into, and I, for one, do not want to get caught with our pants down.”

“Seems a reasonable plan. Every ship should always have a couple of ships ready as a reactionary pair if something happens unless they keep a pair in the air, but that is not really practical for a ship this size,” Joran said. He looked back at Thornton, “What did you mean about being in the seat? Did you mean on this flight out or in general?”

Thornton replaced the pipe in his mouth, looking at the commander standing beside him. “I meant on this flight, what I need to know, Commander, is if this ship, this crew, myself and the captain could count on you? If an emergency arose, if the mission dictated, could you jump into that cockpit and fly another mission? Could you ask your crews to do the same?”

Joran let out a short snort, “The day I am not ready to jump into the cockpit is the day I am dead.” He ducked under the nose of one of the fighters and absently conducted a pre-flight walk around as he spoke, “If you need me out there, then I am out there flying cover, scouting, whatever, I will be there.” He looked at Thornton with a hard gaze, “I expect nothing short of that from my squadron either. It is how I ran them on my other ships and how I trained them at Starbase Bravo.”

“Good, anything else and you would have been flying that arrow back to Montana Station.” He pointed at the runabout behind them as he started toward the nearest turbo lift at a brisk pace.

“I’ve slotted you in as the 2nd shift FCO/helm, unless the captain has other plans that she hasn’t told me, that will make you the ranking officer on that shift. As my squadron commander you’ll report to me and we report to the captain. If you need something, tell me, and by god, I’ll move heaven and earth to get it for you. Understood?”

“Completely,” Joran remarked.

“I lead by example, Commander, as such I won’t ask you or your crews to do anything I’m not ready to do myself,” he looked at Joran with a raised eyebrow and tapped his foot on the deck as they entered the turbo lift.

“Have to say I have had commanders who don’t, so it’s appreciated.”

”Bridge”

”No time like the present, let’s go meet the boss.”

Joran let out a sigh, “No time like the present.”