Star Trek: The Journey Ahead.

[Curios_Gelatin]

Together they walked down through the decks, and throughout the ship Makar could feel the disquieted, fleeting gazes of the crewmen. He looked over at his escort, the aged Bajoran woman. She seemed to almost swagger as she walked— a powerful stride that should have seemed quite out of place with her age but instead made her seem all the more authoritative. Her face was hard around the edges but her eyes were quite mellow. Her hair, a dirty grey white, neatly cropped her face.
“Computer, locate Commander Howell.” Ajano asked, tapping the comm badge on her chest.

“Commander Howell is not on board.” The computer’s cool voice responded.

“Expand search to DS9.”

“Linking up with DS9 mainframe. Please hold.” There was a short pause, “Commander Luna Howell’s last known location is the DS9 promenade.”

Ajano gave Makar a smile.

“Now we’re getting somewhere.”

They walked past the docks and into the upper pylon port itself.

“I must thank you again Commander. It has been difficult to find any helpful soul today.”
“Sir?”

“When we attempted to contact the ship earlier some science officer cut off communications and refused to respond to our hails thereafter.”

Ajano seemed to find this amusing. She chuckled to herself as they entered the turbolift.
“Take us to the promenade. That would be Commander Nix. She’s not usually allowed near the communications panels.”

“I’ll see her reprimanded for it,” Makar swore. He paused and looked at the Lt. Commander again.

“I’m… surprised a Bajoran would offer me aid in my search, Commander. Ah, pleasantly
surprised, of course.”

“Why’s that sir?”

He gave her a puzzled look.

“Well I thought it was obvious that given Cardassia and Bajor’s… complicated history, your people would be quite adamantly against my authority. Or so I had pre-supposed.”

“The Bajorans serving aboard this ship have chosen to dedicate their lives to Starfleet, Gul Makar. If our superiors say you’re in charge, you’re in charge.”

“So you say, but things are rarely so simple.”

The turbolift stopped and opened up to the bustling promenade. They stepped in and gave the area a passing glance. There was no sign of the captain or the security chief as of yet. Ajano led the way.

“Why would the captain and head of security be on the promenade?” Makar wondered, more to himself than his company.

“Maybe the captain is meeting with the local operations division.” Ajano suggested.
“On the promenade? A rather informal meeting.”

“It was just a suggestion sir.”

Silence fell between them but did not last for long. As they passed the entrance to the bar, Ajano stopped. Laughter could be heard from within, and she seemed to recognize it.

“Is something wrong, Lieutenant Commander?”

“No sir. The captain and security chief are in the bar.”

“The bar?”

“Yes sir. The bar.” Once again Ajano was smiling mischievously as she waltzed into the bar and up to the second level to speak with T’kel and Howell. Makar, staring incredulously after her, didn’t budge until T’kel himself looked down and waved him over. Squaring his jaw the cardassian marched into the bar and up the stairs.

“I’ll have to be getting back to engineering now, Captain.” said Ajano, giving the captain a courteous smile.

“Understood chief, take your leave.” T’kel responded and took another sip of his drink. The chief engineer disappeared down into the throng of customers.

“You are Captain T’kel?” Makar began, expression almost livid. The captain seemed quite lax- drink in hand and all. Several drinks it appeared by the looks of the various empty glasses on the table- upon which also lay several forgotten data pads. Opposite him, Howell seemed a little more sober- in every sense of the word— but still quite relaxed, leaning back in her seat as Makar addressed them.

“I am. You must be Gul Makar,” the captain responded brightly. He then motioned to Howell and sat up, quite suddenly excited, saying “and this is my chief of security, Commander Luna Howell. Come, sit with us Gul, let me tell you about the time we were stranded on the planet Galnaia—”

“The ship is in utter disarray Captain, I strongly advise you return immediately.”

T’kel seemed surprised at being cut short.

“The ship is undergoing a full systems check Gul, if everything were going smoothly I’d be worried the crew aren’t doing their jobs.”

“Yes it appears the entire crew is quite busy, even you appear to be doing… what is it you’re doing, exactly?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” The captain grinned.

Makar was not amused- his expression flat and his voice cold and stony.

“It appears that you are drinking. Gratuitously. While on duty.”

“With my security chief,” T’kel added, as if correcting him.

“My beverages are non-alcoholic.” Howell noted.

“Alright then my security chief is standing by while I drink gratuitously. Happy?”

Howell’s lips twitched into a smile for a moment.

Makar, whose semblance of patience seem to have finally worn through, took the data pads off the table and glowered down at the two at the table with a burning glint in his eyes.

“I have known your crew for less than two hours and already your ship is by far the most ridiculous display of ineptitude and insubordination I have ever seen. When you are done drinking away your duties and tire of idle conversation you will find me on the bridge of the Beyond. Where you should be.”

And with that the Cardassian marched out of the bar, data pads under his arm and a shock of patrons staring after him. T’kel and Howell shared blank expressions.

“I think I’m going to like him.” T’kel laughed loudly and took another swig of his drink.

“You always say that.” Howell snorted. T’kel spluttered as he unintentionally drank and laughed at the same time, causing him to choke out his laughs as he coughed and Howell— apparently pleased, chuckled under her breath.

 

[Cyfa]

You did it!! Explained Empok Nor, that is. And in much more detail than I expected (I expected a brief throwaway line or something) without losing anything to the story so far. Consider me impressed.

P.S. Makar's reaction to the ship and T'Kel is just how I imagined it!

 

[Curios_Gelatin]

You did it!! Explained Empok Nor, that is. And in much more detail than I expected (I expected a brief throwaway line or something) without losing anything to the story so far. Consider me impressed.

P.S. Makar's reaction to the ship and T'Kel is just how I imagined it!

Glad you liked it! Yes, I thought a throwaway line would be too much of 'What, why did they do that?' moment so I decided to spend some time and work out a way to weave it in a little more smoothly. Originally it was just a paragraph but Sgt_G pointed out it was still rather jarring so I stretched it out to about a page.

And yes I really enjoyed writing Makar's reaction to the ship and the Captain. Safe to say he's feeling very punished at the moment. xD

 

[Sgt_G]

Yes, that was a big improvement; glad I could help.

Makar feeling punished?? He found something that's broken and will try to fix it. How much happier could he be (even if he doesn't realize it yet)?

Remember: The captain runs the mission, the XO runs the ship.

By the way, I may have missed it, but is there a Senior Chief on the crew manifest??

 

[Curios_Gelatin]

Yes, that was a big improvement; glad I could help.

Makar feeling punished?? He found something that's broken and will try to fix it. How much happier could he be (even if he doesn't realize it yet)?

Remember: The captain runs the mission, the XO runs the ship.

By the way, I may have missed it, but is there a Senior Chief on the crew manifest??

A Senior Chief? I don't believe so. Is that a very prominent role? Could you respond on this thread please, I don't want to clutter the story thread with too many deviating responses.

I tried to cover the basic (and most recurring) Senior Staff officers in the first story, including Chiefs of Engineering, Security, Medical, the ships Counsellor, the First Officer and the Captain.

 

[Curios_Gelatin]

“Chief how can you stand for this?”

Ajano sighed a long, tired sigh. Below her a group of her own kind, a group of Bajorans, awaited her response. She peered down through the open panel at them as she worked. Their faces were meant to seem livid with fury but to Ajano, they looked more akin to the anger of a child’s tantrum than to true indignation.

“Hand me that Tri-corder, would ya’?” She asked, holding out her hand. There was a pause before one of the group went around to the counter and handed it to her.

“Aren’t you angry, Ajano?” the one who had handed her the Tri-corder— a young man whom she recognized to be Lieutenant Enda Bekor— whispered to her, “A Cardassian as first officer. The Cardassians aren’t even a part of the Federation.”

“No I am not angry, Enda. Starfleet does officer transfers with all kinds of aliens all the time.”

She tried to make it quite obvious that she was disinterested in the subject by sticking her head back up into the machinery but they were quite stuck on it.

“It feels like they’re trying to provoke us.” Bekor insisted, “They must have known there were Bajoran officers serving aboard the Beyond so they sent their officer here as a message.”

“We’ll never be rid of them.” Another Bajoran agreed wholeheartedly. There were murmurs of agreement between the group. Ajano, giving the machinery around the area one last scan, was apparently satisfied and knelt down.

“Is that so. Hand me that panel, would you kid?”

The lieutenant started and handed her the section of wall paneling. She murmured a thank you as she carefully replaced it back to its proper place.

“Commander I don’t think you’re taking this very seriously.” said another, her voice quite high.

“That’s because there’s nothing to take seriously, ensign.” Ajano said pointedly as she hopped off the ladder. The group of young Bajorans followed her as she stowed her tricorder away and made down the hall of the engineering section.

“You can’t tell me something doesn’t seem off about this whole transfer.” Bekor said incredulously. Beside him there was a chorus of agreement.

“Commander you were part of the rebellion against the Cardassians so much longer than any of us. You know what they’re like, how they think—”

“What I know,” Ajano said quietly as she rounded on all of them, a hand raised to quiet them, “is that the occupation of Bajor ended almost twelve years ago. The Dominion war, six years ago. Bajor and Cardassia and the Federation are still recovering from both. No one wants to start a fight.”

The group eyed her reluctantly, knowing there was reason in her words. She hated to preach, but she knew she had their respect. She pursed her lips and begrudgingly began.

“We are Bajorans, but we are not just that. We are Bajorans of Starfleet, and Starfleet means working together despite past conflict. And it’s hard and takes a long time to get used to, and sometimes it feels like you’re doing the wrong thing but you’re not. You’re helping to make a better future, and that’s what matters.”

The group of Bajorans seemed to sulk now as reluctant mumbles of agreement gave way among them.

Ajano gave Bekor a gentle side hug and charming smile.

“And besides. There’s one of him, and a ship full of us. If he tries anything we have him outnumbered.”

At that she cheerfully strode away, leaving the group of young Bajorans to stare after her strangely.

 

[CeJay]

Ajano is a rarity in fiction these days. A level headed person who has every reason to be angry about the circumstances she finds herself in. Nicely done. Still, I'm certain hers aren't the final words spoken on the subject. The Cardassian first officer will remain a source of tension on board if for no other reason than the fact that his new captain couldn't be a more different person.

Still enjoying this story. Great stuff so far.

 

[Curios_Gelatin]

Ajano is a rarity in fiction these days. A level headed person who has every reason to be angry about the circumstances she finds herself in. Nicely done. Still, I'm certain hers aren't the final words spoken on the subject. The Cardassian first officer will remain a source of tension on board if for no other reason than the fact that his new captain couldn't be a more different person.

Still enjoying this story. Great stuff so far.

Well put! And thank you very much, I'm glad you're enjoying reading it.

 

[Curios_Gelatin]

Having by now returned to the Beyond, Makar made way to his quarters with the data pads in his hands, fuming. The bridge could wait. He needed some time to himself to calm down and analyze where to go on from this point. Coming to a halt in front of his own door he tapped a foot impatiently and rapped his fingers on the datapads as the scanner attempted to identify him. The panel at the center of the door flashed from amber to red.

“Records not found. Unauthorized attempt to access by / UNIDENTIFIED / CARDASSIAN / MALE / has been logged into the security mainframe.”

Makar clicked his tongue loudly and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He stood there for a few moments, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly.

“Computer to whom are these quarters assigned to.”

“These are the quarters of Gul Damek Makar of the reformed Cardassian Union, First Officer of the USS Beyond.” the even voice of the computer responded.

“Access Gul Damek Makar’s identification profile and calibrate with the facial and optical recognition software.”

For a few moments the lights flashed amber again. Then red. Makar exhaled sharply and spun around in anger.

“Unable to comply. Gul Damek Makar’s personal files have not been logged.”

Makar’s brow furrowed deeply, “Not been logged? But…”

He looked around himself at the residential hall and spotted an interface nearby. He strode up to it— pulling out a data chip from his pocket as he did— and began accessing the terminal.

“Computer, entering data chip containing Gul Damek Makar’s personnel file. Please access and log through appropriate channels. Decryption sequence being entered using crew interface terminal number… two hundred and forty-six.”

“Processing. Please wait. Data entry approved.”

Makar removed the data chip and walked back to his door. The recognition hardware’s interface flashed amber, then green. Makar gave a relieved sigh as the door parted and slid open. He looked around his designated quarters. Standard. Bare. He had only brought a few belongings with him, none of which had been transported up to his quarters yet. Understandable with the mess the ship was at the moment.

He looked around as he went over to his bedroom and pushed down on the mattress. Comfortable. Everything looked comfortable and soft, at least compared to what he was used to. Cardassian ships didn’t put very much thought into the comfort of its crew but rather the efficiency and use of space, meaning crew quarters were often cramped and shared between more than one officer. As he looked around his quarters he wondered vaguely how such a vast amount of space may have been used otherwise on one of his own people’s ships.

“Computer are the environmental controls of this room isolated?”

“All personal quarters are allowed independent environmental factors subject to the occupants wishes.”

Pleased, Makar continued, “I see. Computer increase temperature to thirty-two degrees, and increase humidity by five percent— and dim the lights please. Dimmer. Dimmer. That’s enough.”

Makar hummed with satisfaction at the room, now pleasantly warm to him and certainly not as harshly-lit as the rest of the ship.

“It’s nice to see someone can take orders around here.”

He went over to a armchair and fell back into it. Then, resting the data pads in his lap, took one and began reading through the updated reports. He had almost five minutes of peace before he heard the intercom to his room sound. Makar’s stomach dropped and he looked to the door hesitantly.

Reluctantly he called out, “Enter.”

The door opened to a man with a jovial expression, dressed in rather strange looking robes and holding up a bottle and two glasses. Makar raised an eyebrow as the man came through the door— data pad still raised in his hand— and placed the bottle on the coffee table just in front of him.

“A housewarming gift,” he assured Makar, voice warm and friendly. Clasping his hands together gently the man looked around at the Cardassian’s quarters.

“I see you’ve already taken advantage of the environmental controls. Tell me, are they to your liking?”

“Who are you?”

The man peered down at Makar, eyebrows raised attentively. He seemed to realize something as he smiled and gave him a courteous head nod.

“Of course. We haven’t met yet. I am Attiel, the ship’s counsellor. I came down to welcome you, seeing how the senior staff are… quite tied up at the moment. I brought kanar.”

At this, Attiel sat down on the couch next to Makar and reached for the bottle. The data pad was still stubbornly raised in front of himself as he watched the counsellor.

“I’m on duty counsellor.”

Attiel didn’t seem bothered by this and uncorked the bottle, swiftly pouring the muddy looking drink into the two glasses he had brought with him.

“You know, I have never met a Cardassian who refused an offering of kanar…”

Makar watched him pour, the datapad in his hand lowering a few inches.

“...And I think the way things have gone today, you could really use a drink.”

He couldn’t argue that. The counsellor raised both glasses in his hands and offered one to Makar who— finally putting the datapad down in his lap— took it with some trepidation.

“It has been a… challenging… day.”

“Tell me about it.” Attiel gestured with a hand for Makar to continue. Instead the Cardassian gave the counsellor an apprehensive look.

“Counsellor I am not in the mood for a session about—”

“This is not a session,” the counsellor interrupted with a small tip of his drink, with voice cool, “we’re just two acquaintances sharing a bottle of kanar. Nothing more. You can talk about your day or we can talk about something else. Have you met the captain yet?”

A dark look glazed over Makar at the mention of the captain. He drank and took up a datapad again in his free hand.

“I’ll suppose you have then. You... didn’t like him.”

“This ship should be ready to leave in a few hours time but the captain is more than happy wasting away his time drinking with his security chief.”

“You don’t approve.”

“Of course I don’t approve! He should be the one overseeing these.” Makar flashed, smacking the datapad down onto the coffee table. His sudden anger didn’t seem to faze the counsellor, who watched Makar calmly.

“I take it Cardassian ships are not so chaotic as this.”

“No military vessel I’ve ever served on has been so chaotic- not to even begin to mention the lack of discipline among the crew…”

“You feel the crew lacks discipline?”

“I’ve hardly been able to find even a single crewman who will listen to a thing I say.”

The semblance of peace Makar may have found alone in his quarters was now well gone. Clearly full of irritation now he took a longer swallow of kanar and glowered at the carpeted floor.

“I can understand that my people are not so well thought of, after…” Makar trailed off and seemed unwilling to speak, but then squared his shoulders and looked at the counsellor, “But that doesn’t excuse insubordination. Whatever judgment they may have of my people, I am still second-in-command aboard this vessel.”

“Have you considered that perhaps the crew needs some time to work past their impression of Cardassians?”

Makar pursed his lips.

“I honestly don’t have much hope their impression will change, counsellor.”

The counsellor smiled, “I do.”

He could only give the counsellor a skeptical look as he drank the last of the glass. Attiel stood up.

“Counsellor? You barely touched your drink.”

“You need it more than I do,” The counsellor chuckled as he walked over to the doorway, “we should talk again soon, Gul Makar.”

“What about the bottle?”

“Keep it. Perhaps you can invite the captain to share it with you, and you can reacquaint yourselves.”

At that the counsellor left. Makar looked at the bottle and then replaced it’s cork. He took the other glass— still quite full— and sipped from it, looking contemplatively around at his quarters.

 

[Curios_Gelatin]

Commander Nix, aboard the turbolift, was staring intently Doctor Stollan, who stood next to her with a med kit strapped across his chest. He was a fair amount taller than her, despite her being of average height, and seemed to be trying unsuccessfully to pretend not to notice the science chief’s severe gaze.

“I’ve never seen you before, who are you?”

Nix’s blunt question was met with a raised eyebrow from the doctor.

“I am chief medical officer Stollan,” they responded, and after a moment extended their hand towards Nix. Nix raised an eyebrow at their response and slowly took their hand to shake it.

“I thought Doctor Vela was chief medical officer.”

“She was called away to a family emergency back on earth.”

“Oh.” Nix seemed to contemplate this, then dismissively added, “never liked her anyway.”

Stollan gave Nix a strange look and opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by the turbolift opening. Ajano entered the lift. She looked irritated as her back met the wall with a thud. Stollan noticed the engineers hands were covered with various scrapes and minor looking burn marks. She made to order the turbolift, but seeing it was already headed towards her destination— the transporter room— looked at her two companions in the lift and nodded briefly in greeting at them.

“What’s eating you Ajano?” Nix questioned, grimacing at the chief engineer’s ruffled appearance.

“A power coupling blew out on the bridge,” Ajano grumbled as the doctor came over to her and took one of her hands, rummaging around the med kit across his chest with the other. She didn’t seem to notice this as she spoke, “a couple of juniors in operations got into an argument over whether or not it was misaligned and design specs and yadda yadda yadda and the thing blew out while I was trying to fix their mess.”

As she was speaking the doctor—dermal regenerator in hand—treated the burns and scrapes.

“Thank you doctor I… I haven’t seen you before.”

“Doctor Stollan. chief medical officer.” He took her healed hand and shook it briefly. Ajano frowned.

“I thought Doctor Vela was—”

“Family emergency.” Nix interrupted. Ajano raised her eyebrows and then looked back up to Stollan with a warm smile.

“Well it’s good to have you aboard doctor, I’m Ena Ajano, chief of engineering. Once we get things running properly I’m sure you’ll see it’s not always such a disaster around here— ah, Captain.”

The turbolift opened it’s doors. Captain T’kel and Commander Howell stepped in promptly.
He gave them a puzzled look as the doors closed and no one left the lift.

“Bridge, please.”

It was quite was starting to become somewhat crowded now. This turbolift was not meant to hold large groups of people and out of the five officers, three struggled to face the captain, meeting shoulders as they did.

“Captain T’kel I assume? I am Stollan, Doctor Vela’s replacement—”

“Sir the crewmen in the dock are refusing to release my equipment,” Nix interrupted.

“Apologies Commander, I have a matter of some urgency—” Stollan attempted, his voice even and polite, to make Nix aware he had spoken to the Captain first.

“Look I’ve seen the datapads there’s nothing urgent about a couple of inactive dermal regenerators. I need my lab equipment set up by the end of the day so I can start making use of my field samples as soon as possible.”

T’kel looked from Nix to Stollan wordlessly as they argued between themselves. Commander Howell, at a loss, only looked at the turbolift’s monitor to watch their progress through the ship.

Meanwhile, Ajano patiently waited for T’kel to look over to her, and when he did, gave him a courteous smile.

“Captain there’s been a complication on the bridge, I could fix it myself but if you could approve a repair crew from DS9 operations over here within the next hour I think we’d save a lot of time.”

As T’kel opened his mouth to respond to the chief engineer he was interrupted.

“My equipment, Captain.” Nix fumed.

“It’s not just the dermal regenerators, Captain, one of the—”

“I’ve been waiting all day and I—”

The two seemed to forget the captain was there, instead bickering with each other as the turbolift opened to the bridge. T’kel edged around them as best he could and strode into the bridge. A group of engineers appeared to have generated a shield around a section of open panelling, the air bubble inside of it filling with thick swirling smoke.

The officers, noting the captain’s arrival stood at attention. He bade them a dismissive hand and they returned to their work. Gul Makar, who also appeared to working at an individual station gave him a side glance, to which the captain responded with a smile of a greeting as he went into his ready room. The senior officers following after him seemed more interested in whose issue was more important rather than the captain's attention.

He was only gone for a few moments before he returned, repinning his comm badge onto his uniform as he did.

“Gul Makar, Doctor Stollan, I believe some introductions are in order.” T’kel’s voice penetrated above the noise, which almost immediately lowered to a hum as bridge officers bade their superiors their curious attention.

Makar hesitated for a moment before straightening up and walking over to the captain— who stood with his fingers interlinked in front of him self— and the faced the senior officers.

“Please come along, let’s not distract the crew.” T’kel smiled as he led them to the observation lounge. Once inside each officer sat down, with T’kel at the head of the table.

“As you know I am Captain Rhydian T’kel. You’ve met Commander Howell and Lieutenant Commander Ajano, these are chief medical officer Doctor Stollan and chief science officer Leda Nix.”

“We’ve spoken.” said Makar, curtly eyeing Nix. Nix— leaned back in her seat with an impatient expression— raised an eyebrow, apparently not recognizing him.

“Doctor Stollan is here to replace Doctor Vela,” T’kel told the group pointedly, gesturing an open hand toward the doctor. Stollan, who had been eyeing the captain with some measure of disconcertment, snapped back to attention and looked back at the officers around the table.

“I specifically requested you doctor, I’ve found the time to read some of your journals on adaptive molecular genetics and I find myself quite astounded.”

“You flatter me, captain, when I received your transmission last week I was honoured at the opportunity.” Stollan responded quite graciously and bowed his head.

“I’m confident we’re safe in the hands of you and your staff, doctor. You’re having problems down in the med bay?”

“It appears there are some clerical errors in the system and some of the equipment appears to be non-functioning…”

“Ajano, can you get a group of your men down to sick bay?”

Ajano sat up and looked from the captain to the doctor weighing her thoughts.
“The entire engineering staff are on active duties at the moment, I don’t even have enough officers free to help me repair that coupling on the bridge…”

“Send down crewmen doing low-priority system calibrations,” Makar interjected.

“And I’ll see about contacting DS9 for additional support from their operations division for that blown coupling on the bridge.” T’kel nodded.

“My equipment, Captain.” Came the sour voice of the science chief.

“Is there any reason your equipment would be held on to?”

“The equipment the Commander is referring to is being retained because it was not registered on the requisitions manifesto.” Makar announced to the Captain.

“There wasn’t any time to put in a requisitions request— it would have taken days to process and we’d be gone by then.” Nix seemed indignant.

“It is standard procedure, Commander.” Makar responded curtly.

“Gul Makar is right Commander. We need to document everything we bring aboard. I’ll talk to the requisitions officer and see what we can do about speeding up the process.”

Nix, quite obviously dissatisfied, sighed, but gave an acquiescing nod. Then she started up again, her tone rather non-committal this time.

“Oh and… some of my officers are finding it difficult to move around the equipment themselves. I’d rather they do it but at the rate they’re going at I’ll be lucky to have even that equipment today.”

“Use a transporter.” Makar stated, his voice again dry.

T’kel shook his head, “No, by the looks of the transporter rooms when we boarded the ship they’ll be transporting personnel around and onboard for at least the next few hours. Commander Howell.”

“Captain.”

“Get a detachment of your team to go down to the port and help move Commander Nix’s equipment.”

“Understood sir.”

The captain looked around at each of his senior officers.

“Is there anything else I need to know about? Alright. Dismissed. Let’s try have the ship ready to leave within the next four hours.”

They stood and gave the captain a short nod before filing out of the observation lounge.

“Gul Makar.”

Makar stopped and turned to face the Captain slowly, clasping his hands behind him as he did.

“Captain T’kel.”

“I noticed there seems to have been a dramatic decrease in panicked ensigns running about, I’m assuming that’s your doing.” T’kel gave the cardassian a warm smile.

“Most of them were being complete nuisances running about. I assigned them minor duties and created a communal update channel for each division, which senior officers can now access via comm link or the computer interface.”

“Excellent,” responded the captain, quite pleased.

Gul Makar didn’t seem satisfied at T’kels gratitude and made to leave.

“It is adequate. If you have no more need of me, I have some other system adjustments to make—”

“Wait, Gul Makar.”

Makar—very quietly inhaling deeply with some impatience— faced the Captain again.

“I just want to say I’m glad to see our cultures banding together in the spirit of exploration. I look forward to working with you during our time together and I’m certain given enough time the crew will come to see the best Cardassia has to offer through you.”

There was a beat of silence while Makar weighed the Captain.

“You… certainly have a way with words.”
“So I’m told.” T’kel gave him a sheepish grin and walked over to him. He held out his hand to Makar. Frowning uncertainly as he removed a hand from behind himself, Makar cautiously took it and was a little taken aback when the captain gave it a vigorous shake.

“I also wanted to apologize, I must have given you a bad impression back on the station.”

“It… certainly was not a good impression, no.” Makar pulled his hand quickly back behind himself.

“I imagine this must all be very different from a Cardassian operation.”

“Quite so.”

“A bit of a culture shock if you will.”

“More than a bit, captain.” Makar said dryly.

“Really? I’d be interested in discussing the subject further sometime, when things calm down. Perhaps over a drink?”

Makar thought back to Attiel’s suggestion of reacquainting himself with the captain.

“...Perhaps.” Makar said briefly. T’kel gave him a wide smile and a forceful pat on the shoulder as he began to leave the observational area.

“Let’s get underway then, shall we Gul Makar?”

Makar turned to follow.

“...Yes, Captain T’kel.”

 

[Curios_Gelatin]

Some hours later the USS Beyond, approved for departure, had cleared DS9 and was well on it’s way to the wormhole that would take them more than halfway across the galaxy and into the Gamma quadrant

Captain T’kel had taken his place upon the Captain’s chair of the bridge, which was now a hub of lowly buzzing activity. Beside him stood Makar, looking over the crew’s work with a stony expression. T’kel watched him for a few moments, glancing between him and the First Officer’s seat.

“You may have a seat, Gul Makar.” T’kel told him jokingly.

“I prefer to stand, Captain.”

T’kel threw up his hands in a non-committal gesture.

“Time to wormhole approximately four minutes, 30 seconds Captain.” Called a ensign from one of the forward interfaces.

“Excellent. Call all senior officers to the bridge, ensign.”

As they ensign carried out the order T'kel leaned forward in his seat, eyes glimmering with excitement.

“Have you ever been to the Gamma quadrant Gul Makar?” he asked, voice almost a whisper.

“I have, on several occasions.” Makar responded, eyes now focused resolutely on the viewing screen.

“I envy you. I was stationed near Betazed during the war. I’ve seen the vids but I’ve never actually travelled the inside of the wormhole myself. I’ve been told it’s an amazing experience.”

“It is… quite impressive.” Makar offered, recalling the few times he himself had carried out scouting missions that required passage through.

The turbolifts doors opened and officers filed through Among them, Nix sauntered in with a brooding expression and stood on the overhead level.

The Captain, apparently unable to hold in his excitement, stood up and walked a few paces forward closer to the view screen.

“Isn’t it exhilarating? We’re about to jump a half a galaxy away.”

Gul Makar kept his stony gaze steadily ahead, and said nothing. He certainly did not feel exhilarated. He felt utterly horrified at the idea of being so far from Cardassia, from his friends, from his people. Today he would be leaving his homeland for the foreseeable future, and from what he had gathered about the Federation’s famed long-term, deep space missions is that more often than not the ship didn’t make it back in one piece, if it made it back at all.

“With the state of this ship's crew we’ll probably be dead within the first few months.” The science chief noted sullenly.

T’kel laughed loudly, “Oh please, chief, if you really had no hope you wouldn’t need so much equipment. Out of all of us you’re probably the most thrilled to be here.”

Nix allowed a small smile to curve up her lip as she leaned onto the bridge’s banister.

“10 seconds and closing Captain.”
T’kel swerved around and fell back into the Captain’s chair. He leaned back and placed his hands along the arms.

“Half-impulse ahead, ensign, on my order.”

Before them appeared what looked like a distortion, then a fissure which loomed beyond them and seemed to burn. In less than a fraction of a second, the wormholes arms, great bodies of light and colour crashing and swirling like the great waves of an ocean opened right before their eyes. For more than a few moments the entire bridge was stunned into silence. T’kel— his eyes reflecting the light of the awesome phenomenon before him— leaned forward in his seat.

Then, smiling, said in a quiet but clear voice ,“Engage.”

 

[Curios_Gelatin]

The daily updates will be stopping until I finish writing the next story. Thank you to those who have been reading The Journey Ahead until now! I hope you're enjoying it thus far.

 

[Count Zero]

I've only caught up today. It's indeed a bit dialogue heavy but I'm enjoying it so far. Hopefully, the wait won't be too long.

 

[Esirprus]

I am still impressed both with the writing and the characters. It has great potential! I'm about to read page 3 now. Looking forward to it!

 

[Esirprus]

I think you're doing an excellent job! I still find the characters full and believable and T'kell's history coupled with that of Betazed during the war is perfect! Can't wait to see what happens next!

 

[T'Girl]

At different points Stollan is referred to as he or him, at other points as them or their.

Which is it?

 

[Curios_Gelatin]

At different points Stollan is referred to as he or him, at other points as them or their.

Which is it?

He or him. I'll avoid that in the future, although they/them is unisex I understand now it may be confusing to use both interchangeably.

 

[Curios_Gelatin]

I think you're doing an excellent job! I still find the characters full and believable and T'kell's history coupled with that of Betazed during the war is perfect! Can't wait to see what happens next!

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!

 

[Curios_Gelatin]

I've only caught up today. It's indeed a bit dialogue heavy but I'm enjoying it so far. Hopefully, the wait won't be too long.

Yes I'm trying very hard to turn up on the descriptive text in the next chapter. That's part of why it won't be here for a while yet. Stepping out of my comfort zone of dialogue!

 

[Curios_Gelatin]

Thinking about converting this story into a comic since I always love an opportunity to try drawing new genres. So for the meantime, since the second chapter has been mostly worked out, I'll be creating a comic version of the first chapter.
I'm making the first few panels now. When they're done, I'll post up a link here to the thread on the Fan Art section.
If I really enjoy working on it as a comic instead of a written piece, it will continue as a comic.