Chapter three
Simon
Tarses was seated in the back of the pod, besides lt.commander
Jennifer Mantion. Her hair was short and blond, hanging about her shoulders, she had green eyes and had almost said nothing
since he had first seen her. So he decided to start a conversation and see what
happened.
«
When did you become involved with SI ? » he asked her.
She
looked at him, and said : « Five years ago. »
«
Five years... » he nodded. « How ? »
«
A friend was part of SI, I replaced him when he died
during a mission. »
«
Oh...I'm sorry. »
«
Thank you. »
She
said nothing more for a minute-and-a-half, so Tarses started again
: « Will this be your first time on a Defiant-class starship ? »
«
Yes. »
«
Oh...good, well...they're...very nice. »
Nothing...
This
was getting irritating for Tarses. He knew this type of person, they could be
as friendly as anyone, they just thought that speaking
too much was a waste of saliva.
The
pod shook slightly as it landed in the shuttlebay of
the Valiant.
Team
1 stepped out of the pod and an officer with a silver collar and no rank
insignia greeted them : « Welcome to the USS-Valiant,
sirs and ma'ams. You will be shown your quarters
immediately, the acting bridge crew has already set course for the Bryson
Nebula. We shall be there in precisely 5 days. »
«
5 days... » the captain repeated. « Very good...uh...mister... »
«
Mister Dsova, sir. I have no rank being a full member
of Starfleet Intel, sir !
« Okay... Well...why don't you show us our
quarters then ? »
« Yes, sir. Immediately, sir. »
A few more SI officers came towards the
Team and escorted them out.
* * *
The
quarters of the senior officers were all located on the same deck, all of them
next to each other. Due to the limited space on a Defiant-class vessel,
there were five dormatories for the other members of
the crew, each of them able to house ten crewmen. The belongings of the officers part of Team 1 were loaded on a few minutes after
their boarding of the ship and the Valiant was speeding through space.
Lieutenant
John Stevenson walked into Engineering which was only two decks lower than the
bridge. This bothered him a little...He was used to living on bigger starships, seeing his quarters had already given him slight
claustrophobia. But at least he didn't need to share it with nine other people.
He
sat down in his new chief engineer chair, adjusted it then stood up and checked
out the warp core. Swirling colorful mists of plasma
moved silently throughout the core. Stevenson had seen that this ship was the
first Defiant-class ship to use the warp core used in Intrepid and
Akira-class starships.
His
staff assembled around him, five people part of Alpha shift, Beta and Gamma
shift were both composed of six people and came later in the evening and early
in the morning.
«
Okay, guys. » Stevenson said. « I'm glad to meet you. I'm the new chief engineer : John Stevenson. I'd like very much that we get
along as fast as we can so that we can fix these babies also as fast as we can.
» he gestured at the warp core. « So, I've gone over the personnel files for
most of you and-honestly-you guys are the kings... »
A
few of them smiled and he continued : « Really ! I was
even surprised to discover that two of you were already chief engineers once
upon a time. Who's that ? »
A
young man rose his hand and said : « Mister Jacobs is
part of Gamma shift, he was also a chief engineer. »
«
Well, in any case I'm happy to have you on my shift, mister...
? »
«
...Guisan, Frederic Guisan.
»
«
Fred... Okay. Then...let's go to work ! » he clapped
his hands.
The
staff seperated and went about their business.
Stevenson let out a sigh of relief, he hated doing that, but he always did it.
It was good to have a staff that thought you were friendly and easy to get
along with. Like a teacher, the more the students liked you, the smoother the
class went.
He
smiled slightly to himself, satisfied of his introduction to the staff and went
to work.
The
bridge of the Valiant was different from the other Defiant-class starships that Janna Sutter had seen. The captain and
commander's chairs were-of course-in the center of
the bridge. The conn station, however, was on the right of the captain's chair
and had a small version of the viewscreen in front of it so that the pilot had
a good view of the situation. The Ops station was on the opposite side of the
bridge and the tactical station was at the front of the bridge where she least
expected it to be. The secondary consoles were at the back of the bridge, as
usual...
«
Commander Sutter, please take Ops. » captain
Janna
sat at Ops and studied the terminal. It was standard dispertion
of the buttons and controls. She would easily be able to find her way around
the console. The chair was a bit too high but she could adapt. She looked
across the bridge at Sylvia Burnel who was studying her console closely. After
a few minutes, Sylvia appeared to have memorized every single button on the
terminal, she closed her eyes and her hands flew over the console at a
maddening speed, although her fingers stayed a few centimeters
above the console Janna recognized a few button combinations...Obviously, this
Burnel was as good a pilot as her sister. Janna had met Agatha
Burnel at some soiree on Earth, she was supposed to be
one of the best pilots in Starfleet. Pilot tradition seemed to run through the
family, Janna was looking forward to see Burnel in action.
Simon
Tarses stepped into the sickbay of the Valiant. It was relatively large
considering it was one on a Defiant-class starship.
Tarses knew that this class of starships was made to
be more war-like and that casualties might come in bigger number on a ship like
this but this particular sickbay was very strange, the nurses and doctors moved
around in long clean white coats and wore sterilized skin-tight plastic operation
gloves.
Tarses
swiftly moved towards his new office, and dropped his bag on the floor.
Everything was white in this sickbay. The air smelled strangely of disinfectant
which was very, very peculiar. Modern sickbays and hospitals had things
against the strong smell of disinfectant. Tarses had only smelled this smell
during a holonovel which took place in a
twentieth-century hospital.
«
Doctor Tarses ? » a voice said.
Tarses
swiveled and saw a dark-haired woman standing at the
door of his office, she was garbed in the same way as
everyone else and even had a mask over her mouth and nose.
«
Yes, that's
She
walked to the front of the desk and pulled off her mask, revealing a relatively
young face. She smiled and put out her hand : « I'm
nurse Sharon Davies. »
«
Miss Davies, pleased to meet you. » he shook her hand and said
: « I'm curious, why does this sickbay make me feel like...like I'm in a
twentieth century hospital ? »
She
nodded : « I understand. It's because our facility
needs to be completely sterilized. Our work here is not like the one of
ordinary sickbays. »
«
Oh ? How so ? » he asked.
«
Well, for one, this facility was built to be mostly isolated from the rest of
the ship so we can handle biologically hazard materials without risking the
rest of the ship. Secondly, we preform some of the
best plastic surgery of the Federation in this room. We can even turn you into
a Klingon and fool some simple sensors to make you
think that you actually have the biological form of a Klingon.
»
He
nodded : « Impressive. »
She
left the office for a few seconds and came back with a white jacket and a small
package containing sterilized gloves : « This is for
you, doctor. »
Tarses
took the jacket and tried it on : « Perfect...Am I
supposed to wear this at all times? »
« Only when you are in Sickbay. And I recommend you don't
wear it outside of here unless you want to pass through a sterilizing shower
all the time. »
«
Oh...okay. » he smiled.