It was a sunny morning, April, 2245. Captain Robert April stood up, looking across the bay from St. Simon's Island in Georgia. He had taken a week's leave before the launch of his new ship, the USS Enterprise, on which he had worked the last 2 years, readying the systems, based on the testbed vehicle, the USS Constitution, NX-1700, which had been launched with Daystrom's M-1 duotronic computer last year. He was a handsome man, not as young as he used to be, but his girlfriend, Sarah Poole, a native Georgian herself, loved him all the same. He intended to marry her after the shakedown cruise, hopefully in 2246. Born in 2210, he had met her while still a Lieutenant on the Republic, NCC-1371, after which the Constitution class was designed, sharing quite a few features. "Bob," came the soft voice of his girlfriend, clad in a new-style uniform skant, in medical blue. It flattered her figure, and with her long blonde locks falling across her shoulders, it completed the image just as April first met her two years ago back in San Fransisco. "Hi, Sarah," he smiled, as he took her in his arms, and kissed her. "Are you ready to go up? Launch is in about six hours." "The question is, are you ready? You spent the last two years personally supervising her construction, Bob. Starfleet had to practically order you to take a vacation before they'd let you captain her today," Sarah replied playfully. "I've been waiting for this for a long time. Let's go, Lieutenant Commander Poole," he smiled, as he kissed her again in the rising sunlight, the water reflecting the sunlight in a picture-perfect moment. ---- In orbit, the Spacedock greeted the new-style shuttle, which took the long view of the ship, the USS Enterprise, as the shuttle maneuvered itself into the portside shuttlebay of the spacedock, which had fourteen other shuttles already docked. The shuttle maneuvered itself onto a landing pad elevator to the side of the bay, which lowered the shuttle under the deck, and sealed it in, pressurizing the area, before the atmospheric indicator turned green, telling them it was okay to exit the shuttle. "Captain April, welcome to spacedock 03," said the Lieutenant, a young black man with a South African accent, as he turned to the passenger area of the shuttle. "Atmosphere secure. We can exit now, sir." "Thank you Lieutenant van der Pol. Make sure you get a good seat for the launch, alright?" April joked as he shook the Lieutenant's hand. "Wouldn't miss it for the world, sir," he smiled back as he opened the shuttle door, which slid open to the sides, and a ramp descended to allow egress. From the shuttle's elevator bay, the door to the outside beeped, and hissed open, with the spacedock in a state of excited busyness. Engineers hustling about in their red coveralls, enlisted crew moving cargo into containers for the engineering hull's cargo bays. Both port and starboard sides of the saucer held gangway hatches, enabling easy cargo ingress, ever since the NX-01. Even though transporters rendered use of the docking ports superfluous for most in-Federation travel, April appreciated having them. He still wasn't convinced of the safety of the Transporter. Both he and Lt. Cdr. Poole exited the shuttle's bay, and took a right, and followed the flow of traffic to the gallery, the lowest deck of the stardock, with a series of windows around three edges, enabling a grand view of the ship below, and her soon-to-be launch. It was a quick trip, when the turbolift opened, and the gallery turned to greet the two. Eighty dignitaries, admirals, ambassadors, and retired Starfleet officers greeted Captain April and Lt. Commander Poole with nearly a minute of applause. After several minutes of greeting, April came upon the one person who did not stand, an elderly man with a very familiar voice, who had to be over a hundred, accompanied by a female Vulcan, who herself was over a century old. "Captain Robert April, forgive me if I don't stand up to greet you, but I'm not as spry as I used to be when I was running a ship," the old man said as he extended a hand to April. April took his hand and shook it gently, "Not at all, sir. Wait, you're...President Jonathan Archer, aren't you?" "Former President," he corrected. "But that was a long time ago. I preferred just being a captain, truth be told. And this," he gestured to the Vulcan now beside him, "is T'Pol, who served as my first officer, and one of my best friends in the galaxy." "Peace and long life," she said, in the customary greeting, which was returned by April and Poole. She then did a very un-Vulcan thing, and shook both their hands, surprising April and Poole. "I didn't think Vulcans enjoyed physical contact," Poole said, a bit quietly to T'Pol. "Having lived amongst humans for so long, I have picked up some of their habits. A handshake tends to 'break the ice' as it were," she explained. "Such a bad influence, those humans," Archer chuckled lightly, his breathing a little troubled, as T'Pol put a breathing tube back into his nostrils to aid him. "We're honored you're here,..." April began, searching for the right form of address. "Captain," he smiled. "Captain Archer," April said. "You're the one who took it to Starfleet to build this beauty," Archer said, gesturing to the ship below them. "The Constitution class was going to be put away for another five years, till you came along." "Yes sir," April replied. "I wanted this ship from the second I saw the Constitution pull out of Spacedock. And when I heard the name she was given..." "Our captain had a small part to play in that," T'Pol interjected. "It was going to be the Yorktown, but Commodore Marcus got a call from former President Archer, and made a request he couldn't refuse." "So I see," Robert April smiled. "Captain April, I still want to meet the rest of your crew," Archer said, changing the topic. "This here, is Lieutenant Commander Sarah Poole, who's to be my Chief Medical Officer," he said, with a gesture of his hands. "Pleasure to meet you," Archer said, shaking her hand gently as his advanced years allowed. "I'm honored to meet you...Captain Archer," she smiled. Her hair was done up in a bun by this point, as was regulation while on duty. "I've heard tales of your Enterprise, and it's what inspired me to join the service. To have two of your crew here at our launch is like a dream come true." "Well, we're glad the fleet finally brought another Enterprise into service. It took them long enough," Archer joked. "Perhaps we can meet the other senior crew," April suggested, pointing to several other officers who were conversing with other dignitaries. ---- After the greetings, and a short speech by Commodore Marcus, Archer took the stage, aided by T'Pol. "It has been nearly a century since the Starfleet has had a ship named Enterprise," Archer said, the microphone carrying his voice to the docked vessel, to Earth, and across the Federation as well. "Many changes have come to the fleet. Better uniforms, faster ships, and new allies," he scanned the crowd. "But what doesn't change is what drives us to seek out new life and new civilizations, boldly going where no man has gone before. What keeps us going ever farther into that undiscovered country. Never lose sight of why we are out here. We're here to discover, to explore, not to destroy or conquer. You will find new species and new wonders out there, and without a doubt, a new enemy or three. Starfleet is not only a military force, but a force for peace, and exploration of the wonders of the galaxy. This ship has the right name, and the right captain. I'm sure we'll be hearing about the Enterprise and her voyages for another century. I wish Captain April and his crew good luck, and may the wind be at their backs." The crowd stood and cheered his short speech, including April and his senior staff. After a row of handshakes, T'Pol took him out of the room and back to their executive suite, as the excitement had wearied him, but not before he could give the signal to launch a bottle of wine across the hull, an old earth tradition when launching vessels. The crowd cheered as the bottle shattered across the Enterprise's hull, while Archer smiled wearily. ---- Aboard the Enterprise, both turbolifts opened, bringing the senior staff to the bridge for launch. The 289 meter ship hummed to life as she powered her warp engines on for the first time as a commissioned ship. The buzz of the bridge was palpable as April took the center seat for the first time. "Clear all moorings," he ordered. "Mooring cleared and retracted," replied his helm officer, Katrina Pelzer, a lieutenant from Silesia. "Ship now operating under internal power only," reported the duty shift engineer to the left, Lieutenant Commander Mark Hohnadel, an engineer from Nova Scotia. He tapped a few touch controls, and a few buttons, checked the power levels, then reported, "All speeds available through warp drive. Impulse engines ready." "Lay in a course for Pluto," April smiled, hearing that his ship was ready for the mission of a lifetime. "Course laid in," replied the navigator, Lieutenant Jeff Daniels. "Thrusters ahead," April ordered, as the helm officer answered back the command, and the ship slowly exited spacedock. "Station feed in screen," he ordered, head leaning a little to the communications officer. "Station feed in window, Captain," replied Lieutenant Anika Meißner, as a picture-in-picture in the lower left of the screen showed the video feed from within the spacedock gallery, where the dignitaries were gathered, watching the ship leave the dock. A minute or so, and the ship was clear of the spacedock, when Pelzer called out, "We are clear and free to navigate." "Ahead one quarter impulse," the captain ordered. "One quarter impulse, aye," Pelzer answered. "Viewer ahead," he called. "Viewer ahead," Pelzer called back, removing the station feed from the corner. Minutes after they had passed the moon, Pelzer reported, "We have cleared Earth's gravity zone. Warp speed available." "Ahead warp one," April said, leaning forward. "Engage." ---- This is a slightly altered timeline, so see if you can spot the differences!
I haven't come across a fan-fic focused on Robert April's tenure as the first captain of the Enterprise so I'm hooked. And the Archer/T'Pol cameo was a nice touch considering the circumstances. This is clearly an alternate universe. I'm not clear though if this is set in JJ-verse (Commodore Marcus) or if this is a different universe all together. My only nitpick here is with the name of your navigator. Does he do the news when he's off duty? Also I'd suggest you stick to only one way to abbreviate ranks.
I like it. Please continue! As for AU... I think that the NX-01 was a bit controversial too. We've still NEVER seen a whole lot of history about the NCC-1701's first years as a starship. Aside from a glimpse of Pike, it's a blank slate. So write your story!
brilliant so far, archer and T'pols parts i really liked, cannot wait for a continuation of this, we need some Robert April stuff
Captain's Log, Stardate 4529.6. It's April 19th, but Starfleet has us using a new-style Stardate, based on the percentage of the year that's passed. It makes sense, but real dates still work just fine. I don't see the need for changing what works. I know Starfleet isn't a human-only outfit, and hasn't been for about 80 years, so we should probably come up with something more accommodating to other cultures. They tried other Stardate formats before, with a two digit year, month, point day, but that was too human-centric for the Vulcans. Logical as ever. Ambassador Skon made a good point in proposing this system. We're two weeks out of Starbase, and tests of our systems have proceeded admirably. The final crew placements bring us up to a full crew of 420, one of the largest ships in the fleet. If all runs smoothly, I hear tale from Admiral Henderson that a few of the Perry-class ships will be refit into Constitution class in short order. There are rumblings over near the Klingon border, and bringing so many new ships over should help in case these border disputes ever go hot. Daniels got transferred to the Trafalgar, by request of Captain Hernandez, an old Academy friend of mine, which I approved. Her ship needed a good navigator, and it'd be a great promotion for him. Lt. Andrews will be taking his spot on the bridge. He's a good officer. Starfleet wants us to run our systems checks for another six weeks to test out the new M-2 computers before handing us a real patrol, but I believe the ship and crew are ready to get underway. ---- In the recreation deck, Lieutenant Matt Andrews looked out the portside aft windows of the large room which took decks 6 and 7, the sounds of the off-duty crew fading into the background. The footsteps came up and he found himself standing next to the tall captain. He snapped to attention. "Good morning captain!" he said, hand still at salute. Returning the salute, the captain smiled, and shook his hand, "Congratulations, Andrews. It took me a few hours to finally find you to tell you personally you're moving up to Chief Navigator." "Thank you sir. I got the notice from Lt. Meißner just about an hour after the Trafalgar left," he replied. "You deserve it. You're the best navigator on the ship, and we're going to need someone to help us write up how the new M-2 works with the navigation computers and the new warp drive. I hear this ship can get us up to warp 8 without breaking a sweat. You up for trying to break that?" April smiled at his new navigator. "You bet, Captain!" Matthews said, the eagerness readily heard in his voice. "Get yourself in uniform and get up to the bridge, on the double, mister, and we'll see about beating the warp speed record of the Constitution," April said, as Matthews saluted, and left in a half-jog that no doubt broke into a run once he got into the corridor. April chuckled to himself and looked out the windows, admiring the soft blue glow of the warp coils through the subspace field grilles covering them, imagining the immense space-warping power emanating from them, driving the ship past the so-called 'speed limit' of the universe. The streaks that appeared Doppler-shifted, which civilians often mistook for stars, were interstellar dust momentarily caught along the warp field bubble, but were nonetheless a beautiful side-effect of travelling at warp speeds. "Bob, how'd it go?" came the soft voice of Sarah, his girlfriend, and his CMO. "I take it you saw him," April smiled, putting his arm around her, as she reciprocated, her arm going around his waist. "It was hard not to," Sarah chuckled a little. "Let's hope he doesn't break a leg on the way to the bridge. You like it, don't you?" "I like a crew who's excited to go out and explore, sure," April answered. "No, I mean taking the personal touch, rather than just delivering a text message on a NotePad," she replied. "There's something to be said about the old ways. Technology is great, but it's people who matter, and going face-to-face is always better than a few bytes of data on a screen," April said in response. "Come on, let's get to the bridge and see how we do." ---- On the bridge, the Enterprise crew manned the stations, with science, communications, engineering, and environment manned, while the helm and navigation were making the final adjustments to the ship's course. "Lt. Matthews, let's plot a course for New Rome," April called out. It was only 8 light years from their current location. "Course laid in, 63 mark 2, sir," came the response from Lt Matthews. His hands passed along the controls, changing the ship's plot. "Helm, prepare for warp speed," the captain called out to Lt. Pelzer. "Engineering reports all speeds available, warp reactor at nominal," she replied, her light brown ponytail swishing to one side as she turned to the captain. "Warp factor 8, Lieutenant. Engage," he commanded, as he leaned forward in his chair. Lt. Cdr. Poole descended the stairs into the command circle to stand by the captain, as the viewscreen showed the ship accelerating past every other Starfleet speed record from the past 40 years. Only a handful of test ships and the Constitution could've done this, and the Constitution was only officially rated for warp 7.5. "Time to arrive?" April asked over his right shoulder. "ETA in 5 days, 16 hours, 57 minutes," Lieutenant Commander Anderson replied. He was a tall man from Idaho, with dusty blonde hair and hazel eyes, and one of the best minds in Starfleet. "This would be a good time to test long-term warp field stresses on the hull and warp coils." "Indeed," April said, as a yeoman handed him a NotePad with department reports. He looked them over for a few minutes, tapping through a few pages, then signing for them, handing the tablet back to the young enlisted officer, a short blonde E-3, by the three slanted silver stripes on her shoulder. April tapped his intercom, reaching main engineering. "Engineering, Chief Taggert. How are your engines holding up?" "Humming like the engine on my classic mustang, sir," came the slight Canadian accent of his engineer. "How long do you want warp 8?" "How about a little over 5 days, Mr. Taggert," April smiled. "Five days? That's it? I could give you a week, sir," Taggert replied, in a mock-hurt tone. "These engines are the best in the fleet. I bet after a proper break-in, we could give you two weeks at warp 8." "I'll hold you to it, Commander. Bridge out," April clicked the intercom off. ---- Personal Log, Stardate 4531.16. Science officer recording. We've tested out our newer sensors pretty extensively over the past two and a half weeks that we've been underway, but our venture to New Rome should provide us a way to test our Universal Translator, and our comm officer's language skills. She reportedly studied actual Latin before joining Starfleet. ---- "Captain on the bridge," Meißner reported, as the first officer, Anderson, turned, looked back at the captain coming from the starboard turbolift, and exited the seat for the captain. "What've we got here?" April asked. "Ship adrift captain," Anderson reported, as he walked up to the science station. The large monitor over the station shifted, giving a schematic overview of the ship, and various power readings. "From the looks of it, the energy signature appears...Orion." "This far in? That's odd," April mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "What happened?" "Sensors scanning now, sir. Clarifying now," he said as he took a look at Anderson's overhead. The image got a deeper look at the ship, and he continued, "It looks like it has some old Earth technology from the turn of the century, older gravity plates and computers, but an Orion warp drive and power distribution systems. It's surprising it even held together." "Life signs?" April asked. "Forty-three, sir, all Orion," he answered. "Sir, the life support's not going to last much longer. They're leaking atmosphere and the impulse deck looks like it's got a microfracture. If we don't do anything we could be looking at a fusion reactor explosion." "Time?" "Thirty-eight minutes," Anderson reported. Tapping his intercom, April reached the transporter room, "Transporter Chief Figart, prepare all six transporters for immediate use in an emergency evacuation," he flipped the com to sickbay, "Sickbay, send the CMO to Transporter room 1 with a nurse, and prepare for 43 evacuees, "Security, prepare guards on all transporter rooms. Pelzer, take the conn till we return." Closing the com, he pointed to Anderson, and the engineer at the portside station, Lt. Craft, as he got up to the turbolift. "Let's take a field trip, gentlemen." ----
Again what you have written is amazing, looking forward to your next instalment, is there a chance when you have completed this that it's possible for a ebook form of this, once formatted and properly chaptered
T-34 minutes ---- Captain April strode into the transporter room, taking a field jacket over the standard working uniform that the Lieutenant offered, a tunic that appeared golden under ship lights, and placed his type IV phase pistol in its holster. The lieutenant took her post back at the side of the transporter, opposite the Transporter Chief. Unlike a growing number of female officers, she stood with the traditional pants/shirt combination, which she felt more dignified. "Transporter targeting scanners ready, captain." "Excellent. Chief Figart, have we caught the ship in tractor beam yet?" April asked as he adjusted his jacket, having climbed up to the transporter platform with Sarah, Anderson, and Craft. "Aye sir," the Chief replied, with a nod, his silver parted hair catching the light of the room a little. "She's stopped tumbling and we've got a solid lock on what appears to have been the bridge." "Perfect," he gave a little smile. "Anderson?" "I've got a bag of about 200 transporter tags, just in case, sir," he replied to the unspoken question. "Never unprepared, huh?" he smiled back. "Alright Chief, beam us over." Figart nodded, and set the charge on the coils, then pointed to Lieutenant Marianne Williams, who engaged the targeting scanners, ensuring the crew didn't materialize inside any debris or other matter. She nodded. Figart slid the controls, engaging the transport cycle. All of 10 seconds later, the transport completed. "Godspeed, sir," Figart said. ---- The crew materialized safely on what appeared to be a turn of the century Earth bridge. It could best be described as an NX class bridge, an old style that lasted at least till the 2180s, before larger, more circular bridges came around. "Alright, Anderson, you and Doctor Poole go check out those life signs. Craft, you and I will try to find a way to access the computers and see what happened here," April said, putting business first. His officers nodded, and Lt. Cdr. Anderson and Doctor Poole left to check the life signs. Craft went to the aft of the ship's bridge, which was decorated with fabrics of various tints, most of which he had never seen before. "I take it the Orions had redecorated the ship," he chuckled to himself. "Is there a situation table back there?" April asked, as he maneuvered around to what would've been the science station. Craft took down some of the fabrics, which formed a semi-private room, to discover a rounded cushion, with wall cushions, supposedly for a person to sit upright in as much comfort as lying down. "No sir, it appears to have been removed in favor of a bed," he answered. "Check navigation, see if you can access any stellar database, tell where this thing's been," April ordered. "Aye sir," Craft replied. He didn't have the medical scanner, so he missed the minute traces of blood between the folds of the cushions. ---- The ship had a spheroid main hull, with a central staircase directly aft the main turbolift. It took a minute for Doctor Poole and Lieutenant Craft to get to the interconnecting dorsal, and another 90 seconds to get to the main cargo hold in the secondary hull. It looked...smaller than it should, as the two forced the door open. "Almost got it," Craft said, as he jury-rigged a quick battery patch to the door. Every starship door had an access panel, in case of power outage, where you could patch in a small power cell to power the door. It was a quick way to ensure rescue operations, but also prevent atmosphere leaks at the same time since doors would auto-close in case of power failures. "There!" The door hissed open, as he left the wiring exposed, and the battery pack sitting in the open panel, wiring and circuitry askew. Doctor Poole took out her bio-scanner, about the size of a large paperback book, as it took measure of the room, finding twelve life signs, and a read of the atmosphere, which was growing thin and stale without the atmospheric recyclers going. "Hello?" she called out, as Craft took her side, his phase pistol at the ready. "We're here to help. We're not going to hurt you!" Tense seconds passed as Poole walked towards the nearest bio-sign. It was small, whatever it was. A cargo container that had fallen on the side, had a lid cracked a bit. She slowly knelt down, and waved Craft back. Slowly Poole lifted the lid of the squared cargo container finding a scared little girl inside, clutching onto a ragdoll. "Hey there," she said in her kindest tone, hands open, "hey, you can come out now. No one's going to hurt you." The little girl shook her head. It was hard to see her in the shadow, but she was wearing ragged clothes, as if they were cast-offs or all that was left for the little girl. "What's your name? Mine's Sarah. Sarah Poole. I'm a doctor," she said, as she crouched forward on her knees. "I can help you get off this ship and somewhere safe and warm. Would you like that?" "Gaila," she answered softly, timidly. "I'm Gaila." "That's such a pretty name, Gaila. I'm here with my friend Danny. He's a whiz with electronics," Sarah pointed back at Lt. Craft, who had holstered his pistol and came into view, putting on his friendliest face. "We're here to help you get off this ship. It's been damaged. Will you let me help you?" Sarah held out her hand for a few unsure moments, but Gaila felt she could trust the human, and came out into the light that Craft had restored to the short cargo hold - a 50 x 30 room that was maybe a fifth the size of the stock holds on Daedelus class ships. Sarah took her hand and lifted her up into her arms, natural as could be, and Gaila held on, seemingly for dear life. Little tears came as the girl started crying. Sarah 'ssshhh'-ed her, standing, gently swaying with the girl, trying to calm her down, as she had done for her nieces and nephews before back in Georgia. As the girl stopped long enough to talk, Sarah got a good look at her, and saw she was an Orion, and with red hair too - a rare trait. "Gaila, can you tell me what happened?" Sarah asked nicely. "Billy and Amanda came for us and took us from the bad man, Ger Athvar. They stole his old ship, and when the bad man came, he told us to hide here where they couldn't find us," the girl said. "She's right doc," Craft said, as he took out his scanner. "The cargo containers are specifically designed to scatter most of our hand-held scanners. A routine cargo inspection wouldn't show anything out of the ordinary." "If she's here, then where are the others? We picked up 43 bio-signs," Sarah asked. "There are more back there," Gaila pointed to the wall. "Hmm....my scanner shows it as a solid bulkhead," Craft said, trying to adjust his scanner. "Try my bio-scanner," Sarah suggested. Craft pocketed his, and picked hers off the ground. Trying again at max power, he came up with obscure, but indeterminate life signs. "I'm getting something, but I can't get a direction or anything. Let me try good old fashioned elbow grease," he suggested, putting Sarah's scanner on top of one of several cargo containers, and pulling out his pistol. He adjusted it for narrow beam, high power, something he wasn't supposed to use it for, but found it worked in a pinch as a cutting torch. "Stand back you two. I'm going to open it up," Craft said as Sarah, still holding Gaila, stood back against the forward wall, while he started cutting the bulkhead. ---- "Captain, I've got a file here," Anderson said, as he pulled the navigation log. April came around and up to the console. "That's a long star route," April said, noting the lengthy path of the ship. "Yes sir, and tracing it back...it comes from the Orion outposts along the Klingon border. There's a big underground slave trade near Ajilon. I heard Commander Kirk on the Constitution talk about it while Captain Robau was finalizing his crew before his ship launched earlier this year," Anderson said, as he projected the star chart on the viewer, which was much larger than normal for a ship this size. Another customization. "This path takes it to Celes and Horst, taking the long way around the Orion system, and it looks like they were either heading to Earth or possibly one of the Terran colonies," April said, thinking aloud. "Which one?" Anderson chuckled. "After the Vulcans met with Cochrane humanity exploded, claiming planets the Vulcans had found. Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, the US, even Australia claimed a system." "Let's see what science has for us in the library computer," April said, memorizing the path of the ship so far. "Keep checking the Nav Computer, and send a copy of everything over to Enterprise. I want to let the M-2 computer have a crack at it." "Aye aye, sir." ---- Four minutes taken, and the ship was down to 25 left. The metal came loose as Craft let it fall, catching it in the middle with his hands. The ribbed metal gave him handholds to slide it out and to the side, making a bit of a scraping sound as he did so, but giving them enough room to walk in. "You got your flashlight handy?" Doctor Poole said, peering into the darkness. "Yeah," Craft answered, pulling it out of his pocket, a stand-up flashlight as Earth militaries had used for centuries now. He walked in slowly, scanning the area, as Sarah followed behind, her bio-scanner getting nothing concrete but echoes. The hold was doing its job. The two officers, with Gaila holding onto Sarah, walked slowly into the hole, finding the rest of the missing cargo hold, and the rest of the life signs. "Lieutenant, see if you can get us some real light," Doctor Poole said, as she let Gaila down. Gaila immediately grabbed her hand, afraid to let go. "Don't worry, honey, I'm not letting go," she reassured her little friend. Craft used his light, and saw the flickering control panel. He carefully walked over and examined it, seeing telltale signs of deliberate sabotage. Someone did this. He latched the flashlight to his field jacket, then set about reconnecting the wiring. All of twenty seconds later, the room's power flickered on. It took a few seconds for the lights to re-adjust, like the old CFCs took, here due to what Craft saw as two nearly incompatible systems trying to be forced together. Sarah gasped audibly at the sight: nearly 140 Orion girls, from 4 to 20, all huddle together, the same scared expression on their faces. "We have a bigger problem than we thought," Sarah said to herself. ----
---- "How many?" Robert April asked again. "We counted 137 total, sir," replied Doctor Poole in answer. "The cargo hold was designed to deflect, scatter, and confuse our scanners sir," Craft said into Poole's communicator. "There's no way we could've found all these Orions down here." "And they're Orion girls, all of them?" Anderson chimed in. "What're they all doing on this ship?" "From what we've pieced together from Gaila, the first little one we found, and the few others who've spoken up, two humans, a Billy and Amanda, were essentially 'stealing' them from Ajilon. They were trying to sneak them to a Terran colony world, so they could live free," Poole answered. "An underground railroad," Captain April said, putting the pieces together. "Sir?" Anderson said, confused at the leap. "In the 19th century, abolitionists in the American South would take runaway slaves from their slave masters up north so they could live free. Back then, the south was under one party rule till the rise of the Republicans, an anti-slavery party, which made the southerners feel like they needed to secede to save their so-called 'peculiar institution,'" April explained. "I hate slavery," Anderson said with a bit of anger in his voice, "of any kind. This or indenture or debt or anything else. My ancestors risked their lives to free slaves from the south." "Me too. No man...or woman...human or Orion, should be forced to be a slave for anyone else's pleasure," April said, the determination in his voice rising. "Sir, officially, the Orion's don't have slaves and are neutral. Being here and stealing cargo would be violating their rights as a neutral trading partner with the dozens of planets here. It could precipitate a war with the Orions, or the people they were trading with," Anderson said, doing his duty as first officer. "But unofficially, Orion women are sold at auction across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants," April said, his contempt evident as he spat out the words 'sold at auction.' "Wait, weren't Orion men really the slaves?" Sarah asked through the comm line. "I heard that when I was reading Archer's logs," April said. "That was one of a number of lies told by the Orions to confuse humans at the time. Three Orion women found a way to amplify their natural pheromones artificially, and formed their own breakaway syndicate. The Orion Syndicate found them, and eradicated the problem. But things just got worse for Orion women. They were pretty much courtesans before, but after, they became what we call them today - animal women. The syndicate used what those sisters did and amped up the need for contact, but left the pheromones at normal levels. Any Orion woman is now only as dangerous or seductive as any human woman could want to be." Sarah's only reply was a chuckle, before she spoke up, "Question remains, captain - what do we do with these girls?" "Did anyone find Billy and Amanda?" April asked. "No sir, not yet," Sarah replied. "We went straight for the life signs." "We can't leave them here in a dying ship. There's no time. Give them tags, and beam them to Enterprise. We'll set up temporary quarters for them in our cargo holds," April answered. "Have Lieutenant Meißner ready cots, mess kits, food, water, real clothes, and some blankets and pillows. Get your medics ready to meet them at the transporter rooms, and have security escort them to the forward cargo bays. It's the only place large enough for them." "Aye sir," came the reply in unison from Poole and Craft as the channel closed. "Get down there and help them, Anderson. I'm going to finish up here, then join you as soon as possible," April ordered, a friendly hand on his first officer's shoulder. "Aye sir," Anderson nodded as he stood up from the nav console and left the bridge. ---- Captain April finished uploading everything to his portable scanner. He took a look around, then saw a doorway, to what would've been the captain's ready room. In this era, they were just off the starboard side of the bridge. The door was jammed, so he pulled out a battery pack from his field jacket, and removed the panel. After a few seconds tying it in, the door opened. The sight that greeted him was horrible. Two humans, buried under collapsed bulkhead. It was obviously the two humans who stole the ship. April closed his eyes and said a silent prayer for the two. "I'm sorry," he said silently to them. They were wrapped in each other's arms. "We'll try to make sure these girls get to safety." April looked around, and saw a few NotePads, with about a hundred or so names. He glanced over them, and tucked them in his field bag. April pulled out a transporter tag, and placed it in their hands. "Enterprise, medics, beam up tag 15. No autopsy," April said solemnly into his communicator, as the transporter took them. ---- "Alright everyone, please take one transporter tag each!" Sarah said as she passed out the tags. They were signal boosters and unique identifiers that helped with salvage operations, but in this instance, a rescue operation. "We're going to take you over to the Enterprise, and we'll get you food, clothes, and to safety!" "But Ger Athvar told us all we were good for was slavery, that we're just animals," an older girl chimed in. "What's your name, sweetie?" Sarah asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Kirana," she replied. "That's a pretty name," Sarah smiled, giving her a transport tag. "But he's wrong. You're just as capable as any man or woman. You can be anything you want to be. You could be a teacher, librarian, doctor, lawyer, or even join Starfleet and see the stars!" "Really?" "Of course!" Sarah said with a smile. "No one determines your future but you. You are free to choose. You don't have to enslave yourself to anyone or anything." "I think I might like that," Kirana said quietly with a smile. ---- Captain April came down to the hold with twelve minutes to spare. "What have we here?" "Captain," Doctor Poole saluted, which April returned. "We found 137 Orion girls, aged 4 to 20 in the hold, most hidden behind the bulkhead that Lieutenant Craft cut through. We've tagged them, and all but 20 are aboard Enterprise now." "Excellent, Doctor. Let's get these last few survivors before the ship comes apart," April said, as he signalled the ship. "Enterprise, beam us all back." Moments later, the four officers and the rest of the survivors came back to Enterprise. April switched on the wall monitor as he descended from the platform. He saw another rupture across the main hull sphere. He quickly tapped the comm panel. "Bridge! Cut tractor beam and get us out of here! Warp 2 once we're clear!" "Aye sir," came Lt. Pelzer's voice as the comm line cut. "Sarah, take care of Gaila there. Have your medics check everyone out, make sure they're all hale and whole. Craft, take everyone's scanners, and pick out what you can from the records. Anderson, find the best route for us to get back to Earth that avoids the busier space lanes. We'll need to talk to Starfleet directly on this," April said. "I'm going to help get supplies ready for our visitors." ----
Interlude ---- 2364, Enterprise D ---- Captain Picard clasped his shoulder rank stripe, adjusting his dress uniform's jacket. These were imminently practical uniforms, and much better than those dreadfully uncomfortable jumpsuits Starfleet had tried out several years prior. He tugged the jacket, making it straight and smooth, befitting a Starfleet officer. His cuffs bore the four gold officer stripes of a captain over a black cuff. He took a final look at his uniform, making sure it looked right, in the full length mirror in the guest office at Utopia Planitia Shipyards. The door chimed. A young ensign stepped in and saluted. "Ensigns Jenssen and Craft reporting to escort you to the commissioning ceremony, Captain." Both wore skirts instead of pants, which was an option that was most often taken during ceremonies. "At ease ensign," came the well trained English accent. Picard, though French by birth, was schooled for a time in England, and his English reflected that. He grabbed his combination cover, and turned to face the ensigns, saluting them back. "Let's proceed. The ship won't leave without her captain." ---- Along the wide corridor, an eight-foot wide corridor used for shuffling large equipment and crews, Picard walked with the two ensigns, soon picking up Lieutenant, JG La Forge. "Good morning captain," Lt. La Forge saluted. "Good morning, Lieutenant. Walk with us," Picard replied, returning the salute. La Forge also had his dress uniform on, red as with Picard, though the cuffs only had a gold and thin gold stripe to reflect his rank, though he did have several medals adorning the front. "I'm honored to be chosen as part of the senior staff of the Enterprise sir," La Forge finally said. "It was my pleasure, Lieutenant. I hear your command tour concludes this year, and I wanted to put your engineering expertise to good use. MacDougal's our chief, but she could use a hand once your command tour ends," Picard continued. "I'll do my best, sir," he replied. "You always do, according to Captain Hudeck," Picard smiled, as he adjusted his combination cover. "Ensign Jenssen, you're from the Netherlands, right?" "Yes sir," she replied with a nod. Her natural red hair was done in a bun, as was regulation. Her green skin belied her original heritage as an Orion. "I was born in Amsterdam, but grew up in Nieuw-Holland before joining Starfleet. It was a big change going from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands to Nieuw-Holland." "I can imagine," Picard continued. "It was a big shift for me going from the countryside of France to the schools in London and Oxford in the United Kingdom, at least, that of Great Britain and Ireland." "You're from Amsterdam?" La Forge asked. The accent fit, but he didn't know there were Orions in Amsterdam. "Yes sir," she answered. "I visit every so often when I can. Ensign Craft is my cousin. One of her ancestors came across a ship of Orion refugees and adopted my great grandmother." "Well, maybe we can see the Rijksmuseum next time we get back to Earth," La Forge said, hoping to show off his Dutch pronunciation. "I look forward to it, Lieutenant," Jenssen said, keeping it professional. Ever the consummate Starfleet officer. "Here we are," Captain Jean Luc Picard said, as they came upon the first observation lounge, overlooking the newest Galaxy-class vessel, the Enterprise D. It was on external power, but the ship was as majestic as they had all been told. The curves, the lines, all melded together to create a ship large enough to be at the forefront of Starfleet exploration. The Lieutenant and Ensigns were speechless, and Craft gasped in amazement. "The USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-D. Galaxy class vessel, 2108 feet in length, 42 decks," Picard said aloud, with a sense of awe at the size of the ship, especially in comparison to his last vessel, the Stargazer. La Forge let out a low whistle and said, "She's a beauty, sir. I look forward to taking the helm on that ship." "We have thirty minutes before the ceremony," Picard said, in a tone La Forge understood as a finishing up their detour. "Let's not keep the admirals waiting. It's been twenty years since an Enterprise has sailed the stars. It's time she sailed again." ---- End Interlude ----