Cozy On Up

Posted on Sunday, 29 March 2020 - 10:56am by Commander DeVala Victrix Ph.D & Commander Soral & Lieutenant Ryan Rose MD & Lieutenant Raith Kolani

Mission: Operation: Overdrive
Location: USS Fontana | Deck 01 | Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: Early 2393

ON:

As soon as Lieutenant Commander Victrix stepped onto the Bridge of the Fontana, she was captivated by its crispness. Though the starship had logged several years of service the refit to the Merian class starship made it appear as though it had barely seen a day's worth of service. It was still docked with small little cosmetic details being tended to, but the Bridge was all set up. New seating, new flooring, new railing, and a small horseshoe incasing the command pit. It had that scent about it...the new ship smell. To some, it was a bit offensive to the nostrils, but to others, it was no different than a sterile Sickbay.

The interior designer was clearly not a Bolian, as there were not garish colours to complain about. It was by the book modern Federation. Neutral cool colours, primarily grays, beiges, and the slightest bit of black adorned the seats, the flooring, the stations, and bulkheads. The flooring of the Bridge was high traffic carpet like material, a dull office gray. The consoles a grayish beige, and the seats themselves a dark charcoal. She could see where past and present slowly met the future as the consoles clearly had an LCARS operating system yet an updated version. Victrix suspected some projection capabilities as well. She did know that there was an EMH and it had a broader range than the past with holographic emitters placed in crucial areas of the starship.

She walked across the empty bridge and headed for the Captain's Ready Room. There, she would be setting up shop for the duration of her mission. Immediately a more modern security feature stopped her in her tracks. The Ready Room doors did not just slide open. Near the access panel was mounted the security device. It immediately projected a noninvasive and perfectly safe hopefully laser grid onto her face...mapping it for facial recognition. She suspected there was also a retinal scanner component to it. It only took a matter of seconds. The grid was gone as quickly as it appeared across her face and the doors slide open...clearly she passed with flying colours.

The Captain's Ready Room matched the rest of the ship and the bridge. Charcoal gray flooring with a lighter gray trim, beige and black bulkheads, and a beige desk with a white top. The Ready Room had two viewing areas that spanned almost the entire length of the room, broken up by a bulkhead. One had a curved light gray sofa with a small circular white coffee table in front of it. Across from her desk were two grey chairs and behind her desk was her own chair albeit a bit more comfortable looking than the other two.

A food and beverage replicator were constructed into the bulkhead to an individual's right once they walked in. She ordered herself a coffee, a long black and took the mug with her as she proceeded to her desk. She set the coffee down and took a seat, breaking in the new chair and adjusting the height for a woman of her size and stature. She was prepared for business. This was her first time setting foot in her Ready Room and she would have to wait to truly enjoy it to herself as she had summoned three individuals to her Ready Room whilst she was in the turbolift: Lieutenant Junior Grade Raith Kolani and Doctor Ryan Rose. The prior was one she had personally requested to be the Fontana's Chief Operations Officer and the latter was a young physician who came highly recommended to fill the position of Chief Medical Officer. She had not yet met either gentlemen and was looking forward to meeting them both. The last individual whom she invited was her First Officer, Lieutenant Commander Soral.

The PaDD on the floor beside him beeped, reminding Ryan that he had a meeting with the CO. Time had gotten away from him. He quickly put down the charcoal pencil he'd been working with and dusted off his hands. The landscape sketch in front of him only half done. He grabbed his lab coat, then made his way to the bridge and the COs ready room. He sounded the chime, glad that he'd set that reminder, he'd made it right on time.

The door chime was pretty much the usual one Victrix had been used to. The pitch was slightly different, but it still sounded as Federation Starfleet as usual. The one thing that was different was when she replied "Come" that the damned thing would not open.

She stood up from her desk a raised her voice. "Hold on...I'm getting used to this ship," she said as she fumbled across the bare desk looking for some sort of control panel. The desktop illuminated and a small holographic projector activated on the desk. A wide screen of options was holographically displayed mid-air. She found what looked to the control to unlock or open the doorway. She felt a bit weird pushing her finger through nothingness, but it did the trick.

The doorway parted and allowed the man through. "I am so sorry about that" she said moderately embarrassed. "I'm so used to the physical LCARS. I'm just glad most of the ship looks to still use it primarily" she added apologetically.

She gestured to the replicator. "Please, treat yourself to something. The only way we're going to know if they've made improvements to the taste" she said teasingly.

Ryan smiled and headed towards the replicator. "Hot chocolate." He ordered. He hadn't treated himself to one in awhile, so he took her recommendation to heart. He took a sip. "It's actually really good."

"Oh good," she said with a smile. "The coffee isn't that bad either...actually worth tasting rather than just quickly swallowing down and hoping for the best," she said jokingly. She studied the man for a brief moment. His uniform sort of was a dead give away. "You aren't dressed to be handling ops. So, I'll take it you are Doctor Ryan Rose?" inquired DeVala.

He blushed just slightly, embarrassed that he'd forgotten to introduce himself to the CO. "Yes ma'am." He rubbed a hand on the bottom part of his lab coat, only managing to get a bit of charcoal on it, instead of curing his slightly clammy palm. "It's good to be on board, and nice to meet you." He recovered his equilibrium quickly. He'd made worst faux pas and first impressions, he'd live.

Lieutenant Commander Victrix smiled. "Nice to make your acquaintance, Doctor Rose. I'm Lieutenant Commander DeVala Victrix, Commanding Officer for the time being at least. This is a special assignment for me" she said gesturing him to have a seat. "You came rather highly recommended. A lot of colleagues have spoken rather fondly of you over the years. I had a decent look over your personnel file and saw you have a surgical background. That definitely will be of great service to a small starship like this one."

Ryan took a seat. "Thank you ma'am. Yes, I have a background in surgery, but I'm happy to take on the role of CMO along with surgical duties. Could I ask about the special assignment?"

She laced her fingers together and smiled broadly before looking at the doorway and then back at the physician. "Did you have a speciality outside of surgery that is?" she inquired. "You can ask, but I don't want to sound like a repeating comm signal. I invited the Chief Operations Officer as well and the First Officer. Once they arrive, I'll be happy to address that matter with all of you."

"Of course." Ryan nodded his understanding about not wanting to repeat herself. "To answer your question. I have a second in paediatrics. It doesn't get as much use as I'd like, but I stay abreast of things with the help of the EMH."

Victrix nodded. She found it interesting that the CMO had seemingly taken a liking to the emergency medical hologram, or at the very least found use for him.

Having arrived several hours ago, Raith had made sure that he was familiar with the various decks of the ship and also where to find the main departments of this new Starfleet class. After serving on two Vesta Class starships, he was getting his head around this new Merian Class vessel and enjoying himself...even when he got lost.

Having received the call from Lt. Cmdr Victrix, Raith made his way back to the nearest Turbolift and had requested the Bridge. Once he arrived, the young officer was a little taken aback by how new the Bridge felt, let alone the rest of the ship so far. Despite the Fontana finding itself at the ned of a refit, she looked great.

He took a brief walk around the Bridge before fiding the Ops station and made note of that. Once he was happy, Raith made his way over to the Captain's Ready Room and pressed the door chime, waiting for entry.

This time, Victrix knew how to get the damned doors opened. She used the projected screen above her desk to do so, allowing the doors to open for whichever man had arrived next. As it would turn out, it was the Chief Operations Officer. "Lieutenant Kolani, I presume?" said Victrix greeting the man with a pleasant smile. "Please, come in. Grab yourself a drink and have a seat. Lieutenant Commander Soral should be joining us shortly."

Raith smiled as he shook hands with Lt Cmdr Victrix. "That's correct, Raith Kolani, that's me," he said. "It's a pleasure to meet you and to be aboard." Taking up on the offer, Raith ordered himself a Ginger Beer & walked back to the table to take a seat. He nodded to the other officer in the room.

Soral walked onto the bridge pausing all of a few seconds to take it in. He'd had no ambition of being in the position that he was in now but nonetheless there was an odd sensation when he thought of it. He'd been on the ship moving his things in and then he'd taken it upon himself to find the sweet spot of the ship. It was one that all ships possessed and usually, it was about halfway in between the gravity generator and the bowel plate. This was a spot where there was zero-G and he could float freely, a private meditation chamber as not many used it.

Having found it he'd been on his way to the bridge when he'd gotten the call to come to the Ready Room. He made his way there and pressed the chime returning his hand to his back where it clasped his other wrist in the standard Vulcan way.

Taking a sip of his drink and preparing a PADD that he'd brought with him, Raith looked up as he heard the door chime signal.

DeVala Victrix made a shushing sound and smiled. "Don't tell Security how many people I've let in here. I fear I'm getting awfully close to the safety guidelines on capacity occupancy" she said as she proceeded to pull up the projected LCARS and cause the doorway to part, allowing Soral in. "Commander Soral, I believe you've already met Doctor Rose," she said gesturing to the man. She then gestured to Raith "Lieutenant Kolani, our Chief Operations Officer."

He tilted his head to the side giving the usual Vulcan salutation for new officers, "Your service honours us Lieutenant Kolani." He looked around and his left eyebrow rose slightly. "Commander I do believe that we are pushing occupancy guidelines a little." He gave a nod to doctor Rose. "Doctor."

The side of Ryan's lip rose just a little, in a hint of a smile. He nodded back to the XO. "Sir." Then he turned his head toward the Chief Operations Officer, who he had yet to meet. "Lieutenant Kolani. Good to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Commander," Raith said. "Welcome on board this fine vessel."

"Don't be afraid of a little cozy intimacy, Commander Soral" replied Victrix. "I don't bite...usually" she added standing up from her seat behind the desk, and gesturing Soral to take it. "It's a bit tight in here, but spacious compared to an escape pod."

"Not by much sir and depending on who is in the pod with you and their body mass....or hazard rating." He said as he thought of his trip with the Chief a few days ago. He shook his head at the offer indicating that he was fine standing.

Soral moved over to the side out of the way in the corner. He was glad the ops chief was here as he needed to speak with him. He also had a request of the CO and he hoped to speak with her after this meeting.

"So, now that we're all cozy together, I'll be honest to say that I'm looking forward to seeing what the Fontana can do out there, with a new crew aboard," he said in excitement.

"Indeed," Soral added. "I do, however, highly caution against over excitement. There is an understandable adjustment period while we learn of one another and how we shall function and integrate as a team. It is logical to temper the excitement at least until we have learned to adapt."

Lieutenant Commander Victrix, amused by her First Officer subtly chuckled at his caution. "We will not have much of a luxury to adjust. In fact, I'd like to get out of the shipyard sooner than they would like, but we have quite the journey ahead of us" she said as calmly as she could as to not arouse too much excitement. "I know that Engineering is well underway getting everything ready. They can take care of the hardware, just fine, but I'll need you to make sure our software and essential systems are up to snuff, Lieutenant Kolani" she said to the Chief Operations Officer

Raith nodded, understanding Lieutenant Commander Victrix's urgency to get underway. "I understand completely, Lieutenant Commander," he replied, picking up the PADD he had with him. "From the various reports I've been reading up on since I came aboard, it's obvious that the refit team have done an incredible job in such a short time. With this in mind, I'm confident that I'll have a pretty easy time of making sure that software and essential systems meet the required specs before we go adjusting them for any specific future mission parameters."

"Doctor, how are we looking with Sickbay?" she asked, knowing that the USS Fontana was still waiting for crew arrivals and that supplies and other cargo were still being brought aboard for their launch.

Ryan gave a brief report. "Engineering has fixed the power fluctuations we were having. We are waiting on some crew and a few more supplies. But we are up and running."

"How are the medicals with the new staff proceeding doctor?" Soral asked.

"Just a few stragglers, nothing of note in terms of health so far, and the crew that haven't arrived yet. I'm still missing a head nurse, and I haven't seen mention of a counsellor yet?"

Soral checked his PaDD. "I understand that we will be getting a ship's psychologist. She is en route." He picked up PaDD that had been on the desk. "This is the bio."

"Thank You." Ryan took the PaDD, but simply slipped it into his pocket. He could read over the bio later.

Soral tapped in comments and updates into his PaDD as they delivered it. Soral was pleased to hear things were going well. "Commander," she said turning to Victrix, "When do you anticipate launch?"

Victrix smiled. "Fleetyard has given us an anticipated completion of our refit in approximately twelve days" she answered. "However, I cannot afford to sit around here twelve days waiting. I fought for extra personnel allocated towards the Fontana and gave them a deadline of six days" she explained. "I am hoping that they can meet my demands and get us out of here in six or less. We're going to have to go to the USS Camelot to pick up another member of this crew. Unfortunately, that's going to take us into some very inhospitable space, and I plan to use our slipstream drive to cut that journey down."

"A very logical plan." He said as he made notes. Soral turned to the other two in the room.

"Can Medical and Ops be ready in six days." It wasn't so much a question with his tone as a note to both departments.

Ryan nodded. "Yes sirs. We'll be ready."

Raith smiled. "Now that I have a challenge, I'll be ready before then," he answered, already knowing he was going to like this assignment.

Soral gave a nod and turned to Victrix deferring to her for the next step.


Lieutenant Commander Victrix nodded "You certainly have a challenge set before you. Hopefully, we all can meet our individual challenges coming our way" she replied. She stood from her seat, "More information will be sent to you individually and there will be a meeting of the Senior Staff before we launch" she added. She gave a nod to Soral. "Dismissed, gentlemen" she finished and thought about the mountains she'd have to climb in order to get out off the fleetyards within six days.

END:

Lieutenant Commander Victrix
Acting Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Commander Soral
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Kolani
Chief Operations Officer

Dr. Ryan Rose
Chief Medical Officer