Musings

Posted on Sun Aug 16th, 2020 @ 1:42am by Captain Rhenora Kaylen
Edited on on Thu Aug 20th, 2020 @ 12:42pm

Mission: Welcome Aboard!
Location: Starbase 234

Captain Kaylen Rhenora regarded the USS Liberty as she hung suspected in space as though a spider hung from a gossamer thread. She was a fine ship, Sovereign class, several years old now and just finished her first major refurbishment. The heavy cruiser looked brand new once again, the outward damage on her hull replaced by smooth unblemished hull plating. She was a beautiful ship, and would be a force to be reckoned with if so provoked.

Rhenora scrolled through the blueprints once more, memorising every detail supplied by the shipyards, bulkheads, forcefield locations, J-Tubes - every detail would find space in her mind. In a crisis it was those very details that could be the difference between life and death. The Captain couldn't help but draw comparisons to her previous command - the USS Sunfire. The mightly little ship still drew a smile on the experienced Captain's face - you always remembered your first command, it seemed to carve a special place in your heart and refused to leave. The desk job at Starfleet Command for the last several years had carved a less positive note in her heart. She had missed the call of space exploration terribly but knew that Command needed all the help they could get after the Dominion War. The Borg were still a looming threat that needed a skilled hand to play, and none of their plans seemed to be having much of an impact. Rhenora felt she could do more good back in space, dealing with things first hand rather than making the call from the comfort of an office in San Francisco.

Her next port of study was the crew manifest. It was still a work in progress as they were several days out from the scheduled departure date. Crew were still confirming their assignments and there were several traveling from some distance away to join the Liberty on her shakedown cruise. Those that had confirmed were a diverse group of experienced spacefarers, all having served on several starships before accepting the Liberty as their new home. Kaylen had no doubt they would be assigned their fare share of greenhorns, but she didn't mind. Experience could only be gained in space doing the work, not behind a desk back at the academy.

The Bajoran Captain raised the small thermos of coffee to her lips, savouring the bitter notes of her favourite drink - favourite next to spring wine of course. Coffee got her through the long days of little sleep, stress and the ever-evolving nature of space missions. Such were the burdens of command. Thank goodness for coffee.