Calls From The Otherside Of The Universe

Posted on Sat Nov 10th, 2018 @ 10:11am by Commodore Ledeya ‘Ed’ Ehestri (*) & Christopher Byrne
Edited on on Sat Nov 10th, 2018 @ 10:12am

Mission: Cosmos
Location: Beta Antares Shipyards
Timeline: MD05 20:00
1739 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

It had been a long recovery road, and while Neil wasn’t entirely released to full duty, he was ready to get back to work. He had hope, however, a light duty restriction would have allowed him to get out of the Task Force meeting; but that didn’t pan out. Picking up his cane, which he didn’t need, he moved to the large desk area that faced outward. Being a single father of a five-year-old he was glad that whoever this call would interact with would get a nice view of the starscape behind him and not the clutter that dotted his private office, in his quarters.

Picking up Tess, he stood her up and with a light swat on the rear he spoke, “go, take your toys to the other room Daddy has a meeting…” he gently turned her to the hallway, “and for heaven’s sake put some clothes on.” Sitting down at the desk, he keyed in the access code hoping he hadn’t missed too much, but as it turned out no one was there yet.

“Story of my life,” he sighed as he waited for the others to chime in.

“Is this damn thing working?” Greg’s holographic program fizzled into existence in the middle of Harrington’s office. His back was turned from the Nogura’s commanding officer. Greg stood hunched over his desk, peering at the holo communicator. To Harrington, however, he was staring at intently at the man’s couch.

Harrington wasn’t sure what the man was attempting to do, but it was humorous. Neil coughed, “It is working Greg, however, I would suggest you turn around unless this meeting is going to be conducted from your…” he heard a shuffle behind him and censored his speech, “hind end.” He snapped his finger and pointed out of view of the holo communicator.

“Sonova bitch,” Greg muttered. He stood up and took a step back. “Computer reorient and reconstitute projection.” Farragut’s image winked out and snapped back into existence a second later. This time he was facing Neil and standing upright. He looked down at the cane and cocked an eyebrow. “I thought you were cleared for independent movement?”

“One last psych eval,” he gave a slight hint in his voice that he wasn’t looking forward to this, “they have to make sure this artificial, synthetic leg isn’t making me crazy or something.”

The final touches seemed to last longer than the entire building process of the ship. Now that he had everything set, the impatience began to set in a bit. Ryon tapped a few commands into the holocommunicator in his Ready Room. It still amazed him that just a few months ago he was administering his last Kobayashi Maru to the last eat batch of fourth years, now he was the leader of his own task group.

Momentarily, two figures popped into existence near the Bajoran Captain before disappearing. Sighing while making a mental note to have the construction crew take another look, he slapped the side of the imager lightly. Somehow that did the trick and the other two men appeared before him. “Am I interrupting?”

Ledeya Ehestri was pretty sure she was going to be late and almost sighed in relief when she saw only three other figures instead of four. She maintained her composure in the face of the three men and first impressions.

“Good Afternoon Gentlemen.” She greeted hoping none of them could see the fact her Office wasn't actually built apart from the console units. The Beta Antares Shipyards were very delayed in some of the areas of the ship, to say the least, but at least the holo communicator was working.

Neil nodded to both, he knew them by face only so this would be his first actual meeting. “Captains,” he nodded, “welcome to Task Force 72,” he gave a warm smile. “Hows is the ship building coming along?”

Before a response could be generated, a logo briefly projected itself in the air, of the VESTA PROJECT patch. A few seconds later, it was replaced by the image of Yoshi Minawara, the new Commodore stood from the small couch in his office, and stood close to the table. “Sorry I am late everyone, a few loose ends being tied up before we depart.”

Greg clucked his tongue and shook his head “Give him a Commodore square and he's already putting airs. Glad to see you and Captains Adamya and Ehestri join us.”

“Sir.” The only woman in the group nodded. It seemed to Ledeya that at least the three Commodores knew each other. She had barely spoke to Farragut before she had received her new orders and given her choice of upcoming refits to pick.

“Welcome to the team, Captain,” Greg offered with a tight smile. He took a look around, satisfied everyone was present, and clapped his hands together. “Right then, let's go around the horn. Who's first up to bat?”

With a nod, Ryon responded, “Pleasure to be here Commodore.” He had briefly met with Farragut in person during the rescue mission for the Yorktown. Captain Adamya had been integrating a few members of the Yorktown’s crew into his own fledgeling ship. The Rhea was just about ready to leave the dock for real this time.

Yoshi cleared his throat and proceeded. “I suppose I shall go first. Task Group 72-A is currently under normal operations. Nightingale is attending a medical conference on Risa, where apparently doctors like to go for conferences. Mercutio is headed to Starbase 621 I believe and will be helping with security operations along the Tzenkethi border. We’ll be heading away from Deep Space Nine shortly, Starfleet Security asked to borrow our sensors to try and track down some of the missing ships.” Clasping his hands together, the newest Commodore fell silent and waited for a comment.

“Security offer any leads, or are they just working you for sensor data?” Greg asked.

“Nothing concrete I am afraid. Believe it or not, the Argus Array might have detected signs of them, headed into a disputed region of the Badlands, but since it isn’t designed to track starships, and we didn’t realize it was them beforehand, we were unable to confirm the readings independently. We’ll be doing a pass near there, and cycling our deep space sensors to grab as much data as we can, but considering what we’re up against unless we go deeper into the Badlands than intended, we likely won’t find much.”

“Who’s up to bat next?” Greg asked, surveying the officers.

“I’ll go if that is alright with the rest of you,” the Bajoran looked around to the rest of the group to ensure that he wasn’t getting ahead of himself. Ryon tapped a few commands to send a status update of the ship’s construction status. “As you can see the Rhea is nearing completion.”

Giving those gathered a moment to look at the reports, Ryon moved on to the next topic. “We are almost all set for a trip to Risa ourselves,” he gave a smile and a nod towards Yoshi in reference to her mention of it earlier. “The Majestic is on schedule to launch after a refit in time to spearhead some peace talks. The Elysium is wrapping up a bit of R&R at DS9. Finally, Langley Station is on track to surpass expectations. The station has grown significantly from the dilapidated station it once was.”

“Taking some time to relax already Captain? Hard work sitting around, I know,” replied Yoshi with a knowing twinkle in his eye. The man had seen his fair share of stress at a station, most of it while ships were waiting to be built.

“Well, my tan has sadly faded from months stuck in a construction yard,” Ryon added, a teasing smile spreading across his face. The mission was a little more complicated than a vacation, but it was Risa after all.

“A relaxing trip to Risa sounds nice about now,” Neil suggested. “My crew could use a good break, from all the chaos.” Neil had been listening but not really paying attention, big meeting like this were the down side of the job; in his opinion. “The Nogura is almost finished with her repairs, but I doubt our new mission will be Risa,” he smirked.

“Only few can be so lucky,” Ryon quipped a bit. “It will be good to know the Nogura will be back in action soon.”

“And not a moment too soon. Alright Captain Ehestri that leaves you,” Greg said, turning his attention to the leader of Group B. “Where do we stand?”

The woman gave the group a slight smile before she started to explain about some of the ships in her task group. It was boring stuff really until she got to the Cassiopeia “She is heading to the Iconica Anomaly, an anomaly that only appears every 200 years. Starfleet are sending a special science team to study it and T’San’s crew is ferrying it there. The Orion is currently on peacekeeping duties along the border.” It was all pretty straightforward stuff. She didn’t feel the need to explain her own ship as she was barely a ship at the moment, more a husk waiting to be filled.

“Keep your people on alert, we still don’t know who managed to pull off the raid or what they’re planning to do with a squad of training cruisers and mothballs. Anything else to add from anyone?” Greg asked.

“Nope, we’re good here,” Replied Yoshi with a nod. “I do have some matters to see to myself,” he added and took a half step back. “All you, stay safe out there.” There was a pause, and then Minawara snapped out existence.

“No, sir. Nothing more from here. “ The woman in the group commented on glancing at something out of everyone's eyesight for a moment. “Gentlemen,” Ledeya said offering a nod to Harrington for there meeting after this one but she blinked away without another word.

OFF:

Commodore Gregory Farragut
TF72CO
USS Endeavour

Commodore Cornelius Harrington, III
TF27XO
USS Nogura

Commodore Yoshi Minawara
TG72A CO
USS Vesta

Captain Ledeya Ehestri
TG72B CO
USS Cosmos

Captain Adamya Ryon
TG72C CO
USS Rhea