Hc Svnt Dracones

Posted on Sat Jul 27th, 2024 @ 12:36am by Lieutenant JG Katie Kellerman & Lieutenant JG Kally Kellerman & Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen & Lieutenant JG Rala

Mission: Doing What We Do Best
Location: Transport Ship/Chimera Transporter Room 2

The door hissed softly as it opened, admitting Rala to the courier ship's transporter room. A handful of others were already gathered inside, waiting to be transferred to the U.S.S. Chimera. She settled the strap of her duffel bag more comfortably on her shoulder as she moved to join them, glancing around the small crowd and wondering if any of them had a better idea of what to expect than she did.

"Who cares how big they are?" a blonde girl's voice said among the din. "We get our own quarters!"

"It would be nice to have a friend over without having to share an alcove," a second blonde said. She looked over and did a double take at the final arrival. "Hi!" she said, grinning. "Transferring over as well?"

"Or do you just enjoy carrying luggage and wanted to join in?" the first blonde said, grinning.

"Can't you, behave?" the second blonde said, turning back to the newcomer.

"Yeah, transferring to the Chimera," Rala replied, doing a bit of a double-take at the two identical young Humans.

"Oh! Same!" the second blonde said, grinning. "I'm Katie, this is my sister Kally," she said, by way of introduction. "She thinks she's funny."

"And she thinks she's our mother," Kally said, smirking, then giving the newcomer a once-over glance. "I've never met one of your species before. What's your name? Where are you from?"

Rala extended her second right hand toward Katie in greeting. "I'd be a little surprised if you had; I'm the first Draakri in Starfleet. The Federation only made first contact with us about ten years ago. Call me Rala."

"Oh wow," Katie said, shaking her hand. "You must have gone sprinting to the academy even faster than us." Katie gave a giggle while Kally let out a snort of laughter.

"Tell me about it," Kally said. "We were off of Gault as soon as we could sign up. Given everything that's been going on, I'm not surprised the Federation is fast tracking admissions. Although, personally, I say the more the merrier." She grinned at Rala. "What's your area of expertise?"

"It's...kind of a long story, but I've always loved seeing and learning new things. Once I knew Starfleet was an option, I couldn't imagine doing anything else." She glanced at Kally. "I was in Engineering on the Thunderchild; just moved over to Operations."

"Oh, fantastic!" Katie said brightly. "I'm Engineering's new computer specialist! We'll probably be working together!"

Rala was about to respond when the Bolian behind the transporter console spoke up. "Ready for transport. Please take your places."

Shifting her duffel bag again, Rala stepped up onto the transporter platform and moved to one of the rear pads, her claws clacking softly on the hard surface.

The twins stepped up as well, their duffel bags over their shoulders. Kally gave the Draakri another glance and Katie elbowed her. "Stop!" she scolded.

Kally smirked as the transporter took them over.

Rala held her breath as the tingling of the transporter beam took hold. Intellectually, she knew it wasn't necessary, but she always felt like she should. A moment later the tingling faded, and the transporter room was replaced with a much newer one.

"Pretty stylish," Katie said, looking around.

"Yeah, not bad. Well, we should get a move on," Kally said, looking at Rala. "Good meeting you!"

"See you on duty!" Katie said as they stepped into the corridor. "Oh good, Deck seven. Sickbay should be down this way.

"You really think this ship is stylish?" Kally said as they walked away.

"I mean, it's a nice looking ship," Katie said, looking along the corridor.

"It looks like any other ship," Kally said. "I defy you to point out a ship that doesn't have a corridor like this."

Rala followed the twins out into the corridor and paused as they headed off, apparently having at least some idea where they were going. Rala herself had never been on a Luna-class ship before, and had never gotten around to studying the deck layout.

She turned to one of the dormant LCARS panels that lined the walls and placed a hand on it to activate it. “Computer, Lieutenant Junior Grade Rala transferring to U.S.S. Chimera. Have I been assigned quarters yet?”

”Affirmative,” came the reply.

“Show me.”

The screen changed to show a top-down view of the ship, which then filled in with a deck plan with one room highlighted.

Rala made a note of the deck number and the turbolift nearest to the highlighted quarters. Looking up and down the corridor she was in and not seeing a turbolift in the immediate vicinity, she turned back to the panel. “Nearest turbolift to this location?”

The deck plan changed to show the deck she was on. A blinking dot in a corridor next to a transporter room showed her current location, and a turbolift was highlighted a short way down the corridor and around a corner.

She removed her hand from the panel, and the screen went dark.

---------------------

Perhaps two minutes had passed before Rala stepped into her new quarters, commanding the computer to raise the lights. She stood just inside the door for a moment, taking it in. It was larger and nicer than her Ensign’s quarters on the Thunderchild were, but still nothing special. A bed, a pair of comfortable-looking chairs next to a small table, a closet, a chest of drawers, a replicator, and a desk with a computer terminal on it.

Rala took a deep breath before dropping her duffel bag on the bed—she’d unpack it later—then sat down at the desk and activated the computer terminal. She pulled up the ship’s schematics and crew manifest, and spent a few minutes familiarizing herself with them—something she should have done while in transit on the courier ship—then double-checked that her combadge was properly linked to the Chimera’s comm system.

She tapped her combadge. “Lieutenant Rala to Lieutenant Commander Espersen.”

The ship's First Officer was on the bridge doing a command watch when the call came. A few faces overheard the name and might've been confused if not for the obvious courier ship that had just dropped off new crew before moving on. He opened a comm channel on his end with the command chair's armrest control. "Espersen here. Welcome aboard, Ms. Rala."

“Uh—Thank you, sir,” Rala said, slightly taken aback. “I was wondering when you’d have a few minutes to talk. It’s not urgent, but I’d like to ‘get the lay of the land’, so to speak.”

The Commander stood and nodded to the next most senior officer on the deck, who got up from their station to take the command seat. "No time like the present, Lieutenant. I have an office on Deck 2. Report there immediately." He closed the channel and made his way to the lift to go down one level. It wouldn't do for him to be late to his own meeting.

Rala was again slightly surprised; she hadn't expected the meeting to happen immediately. "Aye, sir; on my way," she replied. "Rala out."

She double-checked the terminal for the exact location of his office—not that Deck 2 was very big, but it was quicker to look it up while she was sitting there than wander around looking for it. Then she stood up, straightened her uniform, and headed for the turbolift.

---------------------

It wasn't long before Rala stopped in front of Espersen's office door and keyed the chime.

"Enter," he called out while standing behind his desk. The door opened and to say he was surprised was an understatement. He had read the files of the new arrivals, of course, and thus knew what to expect, and he had had plenty of encounters with non-humanoid Starfleet officers, but seeing Rala in the flesh was vastly different than what he might have expected.

What surprised him most was that he had not crossed paths with her at the Academy. Most young officers had passed through his classroom at least once, but not her. But at least it meant that she was starting from scratch with him. No preconceived notions on either side.

"Welcome aboard, Lieutenant," he said.

“Thank you, sir.” Rala took a few steps inside, making sure her tail was far enough past the threshold for the door to close behind her, and regarded the man standing behind the desk. He was slightly taller than she was, with greying hair that implied he was of an age with several of the instructors she’d had at the Academy, but with the build of someone who clearly worked to maintain their physique.

She abruptly became aware that all four of her hands were fidgeting, along with her tail, and made an effort to still them. “Forgive me if I seem a little out of sorts; I always get nervous when moving somewhere new. It should pass in a few days, when I’ve gotten used to the new environment and at least started getting to know some of the people here.”

"That's perfectly normal," he replied. "Every posting is different, every command structure unique. You'll find your place, like you said, in a few days. Though this ship's crew might be unusual compared to your last assignment."

Rala gave a small nod of acknowledgement. “The...unexpected promotion is also playing a part,” she said, her fingers briefly touching the shiny new black-centered pip on her collar. “I did catch some rumors on my way here about the Chimera being somewhat strange, but I didn’t really get any details. Would you be willing to fill in some of the blanks?”

That she didn't know meant only one thing: that she was a legitimately competent officer sent because that's what the Chimera needed. The XO's relief was palpable.

He decided to be honest with her. "You may find that quite a few of us on board are...let's diplomatically say 'rough around the edges'. Officers and enlisted crew who are perfectly good at what we do, possibly great at what we do, but for whatever reason not wanted on other ships. Maybe we crossed someone, maybe we're just unrefined, maybe we screwed something major up along the way. But however it happened, Admiralty decided to put us all here together on this ship. And somehow it's worked." He looked at the PADD that had Rala's file on it. "You're not like that, I understand. A unique sight in Starfleet, but that's not the excuse to come here. I suspect Starfleet Command listened to the Captain's plea for crew who weren't rejects and troublemakers and sent you. Is that a fair assessment, Ms. Rala?"

Rala listened, nodding thoughtfully as he spoke. His description reminded her of the sathirri clans back home; groups of random wanderers with no prior relation to each other that would occasionally sprout up from seemingly nowhere and grow in numbers until it was no longer feasible to remain nomadic, at which point they would either find a place to settle indefinitely or gradually disperse. She hadn’t expected to find such a group when she’d left her homeworld, let alone wind up joining one, but thinking about it now, the idea wasn’t entirely unappealing.

At his question, she took a second to think, then said, “I can’t speak with any certainty as to the reasons behind the transfer, but that seems plausible.” After a short pause she added, “Although...that may not be the whole story.”

Commander Espersen sat behind his desk and leaned forward. “Tell me more.”

Rala took a deep breath. “This is only speculation, but one of the other Ensigns I worked with on the Thunderchild was...shall we say less than friendly toward me. They have family higher up in Starfleet, and if someone told me they had some strings pulled to get me transferred, I’m not sure I’d be surprised. Perhaps a case of...oh, what is the phrase? ...’Killing two birds with one stone’?”

Alexander nodded. “Starfleet is supposed to be a meritocracy but politics never truly goes away. Unless there was a reason for him to be unkind or impatient?”

Rala shook her head. "If I ever gave him a reason to be a jerk, it was unintentional and no one ever pointed it out to me. I don't think anyone there really liked him all that much." She looked down at her hands; they were fidgeting again. She forced them back down to her sides and looked back up to Espersen. "Is there anything else you wanted to know, sir?"

He shook his head. “That will be all for now, Lieutenant. Get settled, check in with your department head, and do your best out there. Dismissed.”

"Aye, sir," Rala said, giving a sharp nod and turning back to the door.

Once she was back in the corridor and the door had closed behind her, she let out a small sigh of relief. Maybe this new posting won't be so bad, she thought as she headed back to the turbolift. At the very least, it ought to be interesting.