Chapter 1:
A Great Experiment

Of course the crew had passed their time by training and studying for the eventual launch of their new ship. That was fine for them, but Floten had no way of training to be the commanding officer other than watch their simulations and drills. It had been a slow four and a half years.

Four and a half years! Floten thought about the number. It seemed to small.

Slowly sifting through his desk draws, picking up trinkets and the like, the aging man felt memories flood back. A chunk of ore he and Elena picked up on while visiting Risa on their only vacation. An old ribbon Loyst had given him in thanks for saving his life. Dozens of similar little objects filled the draws of his desk. For the past hour he had been picking each one up and laying it gently into a box for transfer to the Serenity.

A buzz at the door grabbed Zeth’s attention. He had not expected anyone to bother him. After all, the entire crew was packing or moving over to the Serenity.

“Open,” he commanded without getting out of his chair.

Walking into the room was a beautiful young woman. She had made a habit of visiting Zeth as if he were her father in a nursing home. But she was to old to be Zeth’s daughter, and he was, thankfully, to you to be put into a nursing home yet. Her beaming smile told Floten she was here for good reasons.

Before the young woman could say anything, Zeth exclaimed, “Tess, you should be packing! We need to be over there in what, three hours?”

“Four, Zeth. And I am already done. Never unpacked.” She giggled lightly and gave her commander a hug as he stood up. “I wanted to see how you were doing. I bet you were sitting there day dreaming.”

Guiltily, he denied it. “I have almost finished up in here. I never realized how blank the walls were, you know. Then again, I never noticed how big this office was. My new one is much smaller.” His new office was actually about half the size of the temporary one the Starbase had given him. But that was to be expected on a star ship. Room had to be made for systems and crew. Large offices were never necessary.

Tess reviewed the place and could tell her commander was no where near ready to leave. She didn’t doubt that he had been fumbling through his desk for hours, convincing himself that he was packing. But she also knew he did not feel ready to return to command. It had been five years since he broke down on the Orion, and he had not done a thing since. He was reluctant to leave Starbase 212 because that would mean having responsibility again.

Picking up an abstract, black sculpture from one of the book shelves, Tess remarked, “I remember when you got this. The Premier of Gorva III commissioned it as a gift to you. They were a strange people.”

“For giving art to someone? I didn’t deserve it, agreed, but it was a wonderful gesture. I remember reading somewhere that the symbols carved into it are a blessing of bravery.” He smiled as his pupil slid her fingers across the slight perfusions that he referred to.

“To bad it doesn’t work.” Her jab caught Zeth off guard. He failed to come up with a reply beyond staring at her in shock. Finally, she explained. “You are afraid, terrified. I can tell.”

“Of what,” he demanded.

“A lot of things. You are afraid to let go of the past. You are afraid to go on that ship. You are afraid to pack your things up!” She motioned to the shelf where she had gotten the sculpture. It was still full of knick-naks.

Floten hung his head and returned to his chair. Though the box on the ground next to it was halfway full, the top of his desk must have had just as many things scattered about it. He went back to the slow process of reviewing everything he owned, recalling all the memories connected to whatever he was holding at the moment.

Tess sighed, waved good bye, and left her mentor in his gloom. She was ready to scream at him, and new better than stay around when her anger was that great. Instead, she stormed down the hall, nearly bowling over an ensign she passed. Without stopping to see if the young woman was OK, Forta kept walking. She passed several other crewmembers carrying boxes to transport rooms through-out the starbase, or to shuttle bays a few decks below. They tried to acknowledge her, but Tess ignored them and continued on her way.

About half a kilometer down the corridor was the office of another officer preparing to move to the Serenity. Fury had almost emptied his property from the considerably smaller space when Tess arrived. She did not have to knock this time, however. The door was wide open.

The engineer, who also held the friendship of their captain, was the only other person going to the Serenity to have served on the Orion. He held the ear of Zeth. The massive man, who had spent nearly all his life in space, looked up at young Tess as she entered. He smiled at her gently put down the stack of PADDs he was loading into a crate.

“Well, hello little lady. What has you in such a tuss?” His deep voice was always soothing to those around him. He had perfected it over the years to help comfort those who came to him in need.

Indeed Forta’s cheeks were glowing red, and her fists were clenched tight. She had not known her anger was so visible. Quickly she tried to calm herself before saying, “Zeth. Do you know what he has been doing for the past three hours?” She answered before Fury had a chance to reply. “He has been sitting in that chair, digging through all that crap he has collected! He hasn’t even emptied that book shelf yet. He might be a third of the way done!”

Putting his massive hands on her shoulders and staring the young woman in her eyes, Mensk slowly explained. “He has been through a lot. Give the man a chance and he will get done. Trust me on this. I have known him a lot longer than you have. It is not easy for him to be doing this, getting back into the saddle.”

“He has been our CO for years now!” She refused to accept Mensk’s explanation, but her voice had softened quite a bit now.

“How has he commanded? All there has been to do for him is sit around and make sure everyone had what they needed. It is different out there.” He motioned toward his small window. “Out there, things are more complicated.”

Tess slipped through the engineer’s calloused hands and dropped onto a small couch built into his office wall. She sighed and closed her eyes. It had been a stressful past few weeks on everyone, and she had always looked to Floten for strength. It angered her to not be able to find any there.

“Why don’t you head on over to the ship. I bet you could find something better for you to do over there than try and help old men stop being old men. You haven’t tried to date since you get here. Go find yourself a nice young man, for God’s sake.” Mensk’s comment hit the mark.

Pulling herself up, Tess thanked Mensk and drug herself out the door. She decided to get the trip over with and beam aboard the Serenity. In the very least, she could help Commander Calps with the pre-launch sequence. When she was gone, Fury finished up his packing and paid his own visit to the Captain.

When the door to Floten’s office slid open and Mensk stepped in, he saw the captain sitting at his desk staring at a picture. It didn’t take a hint for the old engineer to guess what the picture was of. He decided not to take his friend’s attention from it and stood quietly in the middle of the office waiting. After a few moments passed, Zeth lifted his head to see who had come in and why they had not said a word yet.

“Oh, hello Mensk,” he said with almost no enthusiasm behind his words. Returning his eyes back down to the picture, he asked, “What can I do for you?”

With a steady, measured tone Fury said, “My pants are on fire and there is a Romulan spy building a bomb in my hair.”

“Alright. Have Ophidian handle it.” The disinterest in Floten’s voice was not encouraging.

Now, with a bit more anger in his voice, Mensk said, “You are not listening to a word I am saying. You are sitting there sulking over that woman.”

“What? I heard you! And why can’t I think about Elena from time to time? It is my mind.” He was as offended as when Tess started throwing around accusations.

After ripping the picture out of Zeth’s hands and tossing it carelessly into a box, Fury began to shove things into the various crates the quartermaster had supplied. Floten sat in his chair, frozen by surprise. He could not believe what his chief engineer was doing. Yet he could not seem to pull himself out of shock and stop the assault on his reminiscing. Within moments, the contents of his desk were tossed into the box beside it, and Fury was sealing it up.

Next, he began to rip things off the book shelves. Before the could grab the sculpture Tess had looked at only a short time before, however, Floten had recovered snatched up the black clay blessing. His face was painted with shock and anger at his long-time comrade, but he was having great difficulty finding words. Finally, after a few moments, he was able to focus his thoughts enough to ask a question.

“Why?”

“Because you need it. Zeth, I have known you longer than anyone else here. I was there when she left you, when you got that sculpture, and when you broke down. You need to pull yourself together, and if you can’t do that and pack at the same time, I’ll pack for you.” Mensk’s face was like stone, but his eyes penetrated Floten deeply.

Zeth placed the sculpture into its crate gently and looked up at his friend. “I have it. Thanks.” His blue eyes where shimmering now. It seemed like a hose had begun to pour onto his eyes, and soon water would spill over in the form of tears.

Fury left after that, knowing full well he would have to do more for his captain later. But at the moment, he would develop the resolve to get his job done. Besides, the chief engineer would be needed to help finish the pre-launch sequence.

The bridge was a mess of panels and electronics. It had not been as important to the completion of this starship as it might be on others. For the Serenity, they key component was its unique trans-universal drive system designed to fold space-time into a simple short-cut. Thus, even hours before departure, it was nearly impossible for the young but tempered Tenchie Calps to stroll across it without entangling his leg in some fiber-optic cable.

Finally giving up on patrolling the bridge as he read reports, the commander collapsed into his chair and propped the PADD he was reading against his display. It was filled with expected information. Almost everything was ready for action, people just needed to get organized. It was not exceptionally troubling to Calps. Hell, that was what the shakedown was for!

Tenchie had been helping put the final touches on the ship all day. The excitement of finally being back out in open space had driven him to new levels of activity. It had been years since he last served on an active starship, flying between the stars. When the relativity young officer agreed to enlist on this new venture, he did not realize how long he would be stuffed on a space station for so long, waiting for his new ship to be completed. A young, ambitious man never thinks about those matters.

“Commander, we need you to sign off on the torpedo shipment.” It was Lieutenant Odrade, a young and vibrant woman who scared Tenchie to no end.

Accepting the new PADD, he reviewed the information. “Have you visually accounted for everything, Lieutenant?” He did not feel like risking any trouble over missing torpedoes.

“Aye, Commander. All weapons are present and accounted for. I double checked, sir.” She had been standing at attention since arriving, which left Tenchie with an uncomfortable feeling. This woman was more formal than most of the crew, but she was also the last senior officer to arrive.

Pressing his thumb against the pad next to Odrade’s, he said, “Very good, lieutenant. You can have your crew begin assisting the engineers if there is nothing else left for them to do. We need to clean this bridge up before the Captain gets here.”

She saluted and retreated from the bridge, most likely to find her security officers and have them begin piecing the wall paneling into place. When she was gone, Calps immediately felt more relaxed. He returned to the task of reviewing reports on ship readiness, and made a summary for the captain to read upon his arrival. With all his exuberance, the young man then began to help clean up the bridge and pursue many other tasks through-out the ship.