A New Ship And New Starts

"Bridge to Ensign Jae"

"Jae here"

"We are approaching the Enterprise. Report to the transporter room"

"Acknowledged... Jae out" and the tall, beautiful and striking officer took one last look around her temporary quarters before picking up her bags and pulling her larger case behind her outside into the corridor. Jae had recently graduated from Starfleet Academy with high honours over all of her courses but was proud of one simple fact - her Cadet Cruise. Whilst travelling in the Vulcan system, the Eagle had been attacked by pirates and had killed or injured the senior officers on the Bridge. Whilst others had been tending to themselves and others, Jae had assumed command, organized damage control parties, had medical teams dispatched to the worst areas before returning fire on the pirate vessels. Once they had been destroyed or driven off, she had tried to bring her crippled ship back to Vulcan while sending out distress calls. One of the ships that had responded was the Enterprise under Captain Picard who had to resort to a direct order to make her leave Eagle's bridge and seek medical treatment herself. Afterwards, at the investigation, Picard had praised her quick thinking and use of tactics that managed to save most of the crew and the ship. He'd said to her that when she graduated, he would ask for her to be assigned to the Enterprise.

"Ensign, the Enterprise is ready to take you aboard" Jae's thoughts were shaken by the crewman on duty in the transporter room.

"Thank you, crewman" Jae pulled her cases onto the pad before standing still. "Energise" and the transporter room faded and was replaced with the one on the Enterprise. A lone human male stood behind the console who loomed back at the young woman. "Permission to come aboard, Sir?"

"Granted, Ensign. If you want to leave your things there, I will get somebody to bring them to your quarters. The captain wants to see you on the bridge"

"Aye, Sir" Jae replied which brought a chuckle to the man before she left the room and searched for a turbolift. It took her three attempts before she was on her way.

# # # # #

"Come" a voice said and Jae opened the door and walked into the ready room to see Captain Picard sat sipping tea from an ornate china cup. She walked to a foot and a half of the desk and came to attention and saluted her new Captain.

"Ensign Tracee Jae, Sir, reporting for duty"

"At ease, Ensign" Picard gestured to one of the chairs which was she took. "Ensign, despite what the Academy might teach you, I do not expect or require you to salute a superior officer when you report to them. If you did, I expect that we would all need our arms replaced. Now, on to business... I see that you graduated with high honours in security, sensory suite usage and in engineering"

"Yes, Sir. My Uncle back home used to restore old equipment and I used to love watching him work. When it came to deciding what I wanted to do at the academy, I went with what I knew"

"Which was a good choice given what happened aboard the Eagle" Picard read from the desktop computer which displayed her records. "I did note that you got into a fight two months ago"

"Is this on the record, Captain?"

"No, Ensign, its not"

"Sir, the other cadet made a comment about Captain Chelsea that I took offence at - I promise I will not do that again, Captain"

"It hurt you that much to be hauled up in front of the Commandant herself?" Picard glanced at the PADD before looking back at the newly arrived officer.

"Captain Chelsea died in my arms, Sir, and the other cadet said she died like a coward. I know I should have just ignored it, but the pain was still raw in my mind and I had a sort of mental flashback. The campus psychology people helped me to address the lingering stuff…" Jae blushed red and looked away briefly in guilt.

"Mmm…" Picard was silent for such a long time that Jae thought about reminding him she was still there. "Very well, Ensign – welcome aboard the Enterprise. Have you reported to Sickbay?"

"No, Sir. The transporter operator said I had orders to report to you directly"

"It seems like Chief O'Brien is playing tricks on the new recruits" Picard chuckled. "Report to Sickbay to check in with the Chief Medical Officer and then with the Quartermaster for your room allocation. They should also have a schedule set up for you to meet with your divisional officers. Dismissed"

"Aye, Captain" Jae stood to attention for a moment, then turned and left the Captain's ready room. Once the doors had closed behind her, she took a deep breath, let it out slowly and then entered the turbolift to her left.

'Please state destination' it spoke softly.

"Sickbay" and the there was a gentle humming as the car set off for the headed destination.

#

Half an hour later, after the standard examination and after checking in with the Quartermaster for her assigned quarters, Jae walked along a corridor of Deck 17's crew quarters section trying to find her assigned cabin. As she checked off each number from the PADD she carried along with her bags and case which had ended up at the Quartermaster's office, she felt a tingle of excitement at the sort of person she might be sharing with. Because of her status as a low ranking officer, she would be given a cabin to share with another Ensign – at least it would not be as bad as the dorm rooms on cadet training ships such as Eagle or Atlantis.

"Cabin 5041" she gave a little mental cheer as she pressed the door chime to be let in. A few seconds later, the door opened and revealed a blonde haired human woman in command division red.

"You must be the new roomie" she said. "Ensign Tess Allenby" she shook Jae's hand.

"What gave it away?" Jae asked as she walked into her quarters on the Enterprise for the first time.

"The newness of the uniform… And the bags" and Jae knew right away that she was going to get on well with Allenby. "There are three of us to this cabin, but we have separate rooms and just share the middle section. Pam is on duty, but she'll be off in another twenty minutes then we can get to know you better"

"Sounds good" Jae agreed. She put her bags and case in the room Allenby indicated was unoccupied before sitting on a chair in the sitting room space. "I was expecting to share with just one person" Jae said, "But three is just as good".

"I think this was built as a family room, but then they realised it was inside crew quarters land… Much easier to stick up a few more bulkheads and do a little re-wire" Allenby said. "So, anyway, what brings you to the flagship?"

"I met the Captain while I was on the academy training ship. We'd been attacked by pirates, the officers on the Bridge were killed, dying or badly injured so I assumed command and took one out and drove the others away. I wouldn't leave the Bridge until Captain Picard gave me a direct order to go to the Sickbay. At the debriefing after we got to Vulcan, he said he was impressed a mere cadet could do what I had done and wanted me on his ship when I graduated"

"So you were on Eagle" Allenby nodded thoughtfully. "That means I am in your debt"

"Huh?"

"My brother was an engineer on it and was killed in the attack. If it was not for you, we'd have had no body to bury"

"I… erm… Well, I didn't…" Jae started stuttering. "What can you tell me about my divisional officers?" she asked. "Or about the flagship in general"

"Worf is a bit of a hard arsed guy, but that is just his way and it gets results. Part of the reason is that he is a Klingon, has a warrior attitude and likes to recommend arming the phasers when meeting a ship. Still, he's a good guy and got us out of a lot of trouble when in combat. My only problem is that he is only a Lieutenant which is odd when you think he is head of security and the tactical officer. As for Commander La Forge" Allenby was cut off by the door opening and admitting another blonde haired woman.

"Ah, the fresh blood has arrived" she laughed as the doors closed behind her.

"Tracee, this reprobate is Pamela McKnight – another helmsman like myself" Allenby smiled.

"Tracee Jae" Jae introduced herself. The three of them talked and Jae got to know them as much they did the same about her. The nervous young woman decided that, out of the two, Allenby was the slightly quieter as McKnight appeared to be running on some kind of sugar rush – though she was assured she could be perfectly behaved when on duty. Jae instantly understood what that meant as she'd been on something like it after the incident aboard the Eagle. Deciding on an early night before meeting with the Chief Engineer in the early part of the morning shift, she bid her new crewmates a very goodnight and went to her cabin when she dug out her favourite pair of fluffy purple pyjamas got into bed and was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

A/N:

Well, as most of you will know, I am horrible at writing first chapters, but I think that will do for now.

This will be the first story involving the character of Ensign/Lt Jae played by the magnificent, talented and all round good egg, Tracee Cocco. As her Star Trek character did not appear to have a first name mentioned on screen or in script, I have given her the name of her actress as I have done for Ensign McKnight.

The plot of this story will be to tell how she starts her life on the Enterprise, becomes a much liked and respected member of the crew and, in order to do that, I will be moving a few Season 4 episodes to series 3, place Jae on the Bridge during the events of BoBW and kick Wesley "I am a boy genius and want everybody to know it" Crusher off to Starfleet Academy earlier. To be honest, it was either that or get him involved in a terrible accident involving the transporter, Data's pet cat Spot, a Bat'leth and a photon torpedo…

Over the next few chapters, we'll see Jae settle into her life on the Federation Flagship and tell her friends the full story of what happened aboard the Eagle on her cadet cruise. For those wondering, the ship is canonical and was listed on screen as a Connie. I take the view, as do others, that Starfleet keeps its older ships around to provide a sort of practice run for life on a Starship for cadets - the officers being those on light duties and those waiting out their time to retire on full pensions and benefits.

I just hope that not only you, but Miss Cocco likes the story as well

Live Long And Prosper

Pixel