Star Trek Online

In the Shadows of War

Chapter 1

Stevaan looked up from his PADD as the turbolift doors slowly hissed opened. Very slowly. He shook his head slightly, enough to set his earring to jingling for a moment. He made a mental to have someone take a look at the door's actuators, though he doubted that there was anyone who could make it a priority. Once the doors had opened enough for him to get through, Stevaan stepped out and onto the bridge of the U.S.S. Bastion. As he strode down to the Captain's chair located at the center of chamber, he looked around and grinned to himself, as he did every morning upon first seeing the bridge. Even its current state of disassembly, Stevaan could not help but see, and hear, and almost feel the finished result in his mind. The soft chirping of the various workstations about the bridge. The murmur of crewmembers conversing with each other. And all of it underscored by the almost inaudible, but omnipresent, thrumming of charged power conduits and integrity fields. For now though, the bridge was eerily quiet. The operations and navigation systems were only accessible through temporary consoles that were for the most part silent. The work stations in the aft of the space had yet to be reinstalled at all. And with the Bastion currently in dry dock for refit, the ship board power levels were minimal.

Pulling himself from his reverie, Stevaan stepped over to the Captain's chair, which was the only piece of furniture currently on the bridge, and that only because he had installed it himself. Tucking his PADD into a thigh pocket of his work coveralls, he set down the small toolbox and hard case satchel that he had brought with him. Sitting, Stevaan produced a small cylindrical flask from within the satchel. Uncapping the flask, and using the lid as a cup, Stevaan filled the cup with a gently steaming golden brown liquid from the flask. After blowing across the surface of the liquid for a brief moment, he took a tentative sip. He tried and failed to contain the grimace that twisted the corner of his mouth. Even though he had programmed the recipe himself, including all the molecular variables of the individual ingredients, it seemed that the station replicators just were not capable of producing a decent cup of deka tea. Stevaan sighed to himself as he retrieved the PADD from his pocket. Being this far from Bajor, it was unlikely that he would be able to get a hold of fresh deka leaves. At least not at any rate he wanted to pay for them. He considered that he did have some leave coming soon, and perhaps he could make a quick trip back home. Pick up a number of comfort items to hold him over until he could make a longer visit.

Stevaan leaned back in the chair and started looking over the schedule for the day. Sipping at, and managing to tolerate, his tea as he read. There was plenty to do, most of it rather large in scale at this early stage in the refit process. Stevaan just saw this as meaning that there were plenty of smaller tasks for him to get hands on with, and put his personal touch on the ship. The refurbishment of the warp core ejection systems were slated to begin later that week, but Stevaan decided against that task, as the project manager tended to become agitated when he tried to jump ahead of the prescribed schedule and order of things. There were the emergency bulkheads on deck five, which had fallen two days behind on their install schedule. And delays were yet another thing which agitated the project lead.

Stevaan had just finished his cup of passable deka tea, and was about to move on to looking over tasks scheduled for next week, when he heard the soft and slow hiss of the main turbolift doors. A glance over his left shoulder allowed him to see a pair of black work boots step out of the lift and onto the bridge. A moment later and the boot's owner became visible as they strode down the gentle ramp, a human male, and over to where the operations station would eventually be installed.

Stevaan took in the human's appearance as he tapped slowly at something on the temporary operations console. He was a young man by Stevaan's guess, with dark wavy hair, and clad in dark green maintainer's coveralls, much like the set Stevaan currently wore. Though there the similarities between the human and himself ended. The crewman's coveralls appeared to be comprised entirely of wrinkled and slightly stained fabric. A state of being that seemed to extend to the crewman's personal grooming, as the young man's hair looked as if he had taken to it with a power tool of some sort, rather than brush or comb. Stevaan gave the back of the man's head a slight glare, but decided to let the minor transgression slide for the time being.

The crewman tapped at the console twice more then turned to leave. As he caught sight of Stevaan with his bleary eyed gaze, he almost miss stepped, but righted his footing and then stood in place. There was a brief pause as the young man seemed to be determining whether or not he was witnessing an illusion. As a hint of realization dawned on him, the man gave Stevaan a weak wave of his hand.

"Oh, hey. I, uh, didn't see you there."

Stevaan inclined his head slightly in return, a wry grin at the recognition of seeing someone that had not yet fully awakened from sleep. As he continued to watch, he clearly saw the crewman's focus shift downwards slightly. Stevaan let his PADD come to rest on his knee, and tried to keep a straight face as he could practically hear the young man counting in his head. Specifically, counting the insignia pips on Stevaan's shirt collar. Suddenly the young man stiffened , and then paled slightly, as his face dropped with recognition.

"Uh. I, uh – ahem. I mean, er, good morning Captain. Sir."

The man opened his mouth to say something more, but appeared to have run out of words. Stevaan held the crewman's gaze, and let the silence hang a moment longer than was probably comfortable for the young man. Then as nonchalantly as he could, Stevaan turned his attention back to the PADD in his hand with a curt nod.

"Good morning, Crewman."

The young man had obviously woken enough by this point to recognize the offered chance of escape, and he took it with all the speed that decorum would allow. Decorum, and the slow moving turbolift doors.

As the lift doors opened, the crewman jumped back slightly at the sound of voices from inside. The voices cut off suddenly as the doors finished opening. Stevaan was humored at the thought that it was due to the recently arrived occupants of the lift catching sight of the look on the dread stricken crewman's face. There came the sound of shuffling feet as the young man hurriedly moved aside to allow the new arrivals to exit, and then lift doors hissing closed once more. More than likely far too slowly for the newest occupant's liking.

As the lift departed, two newcomers came walking into Stevaan's field of view, and stopped a few paces in front of him in the center of the bridge. Stevaan did not recognize the Rigelian Ensign out of hand, as there were far too many officers about, between the Bastion's refit crew, and that of the standing crew of the shipyard. The officer in the lead though, he recognized almost by her stride. Everything about Lieutenant Commander T'Sha spun from her innate sense of order and total lack of humor or frivolity. She kept her hair trimmed very short and straight as wire. She wore a neatly pressed standard duty uniform, even on construction duty. Her expression was one of the most dour Stevaan had ever encountered in Federation space. And even now, stood so straight as to imply someone had welded her spine into place. In short, she was the most Vulcan Vulcan he had ever met.

"Captain Daar. Might I formally request that we begin to conduct these morning briefings in your quarters aboard station? Your unannounced arrivals are beginning to have adverse results on crew performance and efficiency."

Stevaan gave T'Sha a broad and earnest smile as he rose to greet her.

"And a very good morning to you, Commander. Sleep well?"

One of T'Sha's eyebrows hitched slightly at the corner, and she turned her head slightly as her expression became even less amused, surprising Stevaan that such a thing was possible.

"My rest was sufficient to my needs, yes Captain." T'Sha paused to glance down at the PADD in Stevaan's hand, then returned her gaze to his. "Am I presume that you have found yet another – what was you called them – pet project to direct your attentions toward?"

"I think I may have come up with a thing of two Commander." Stevaan said with a slight gesture to his PADD.

T'Sha was as abundant with self-control as any other Vulcan Stevaan had ever met, but after almost six months working around her on a daily basis, he had begun to master interpreting the little things about her. In this case, it was the ever so slight shift in her shoulder position and the even more subtle raising of both eyebrows. To an unfamiliar observer, the Lieutenant Commander may as well have moved at all. To Stevaan's trained eye, it was the equivalent of a heavy despondent sigh garnished by with a sardonic eye rolling. Discovering that Commander T'Sha's level of annoyance was already hitting peak levels first thing in the morning, Stevaan turned his attention back to his PADD. He started searching quickly for an entirely different task form those that he had already considered. To distract from the fact that he was doing this, he tried to engage T'Sha in conversation.

"Don't worry Commander. It's nothing to invasive. You know me, happy to be doing some work."

T'Sha's posture returned to its normal level of rigid perfection, though she spared the briefest of curious glances in Stevaan's direction, and then gently cleared her throat.

"Indeed, Captain. In the intervening months since you – joined – this refit project, I have become well versed with a great many of your idiosyncrasies. This is why I am quite certain that any assertion of mine that your skills and experience would be of greater need anywhere else will continue to be ignored."

Stevaan looked over to T'Sha with a glance. He still bore his genuine smile, though his eyes narrowed slightly, and he felt one of his eyebrows raise before he could stop it. T'Sha noticed both actions, but her only response was with a raised eyebrow of her own, highlighting the inquisitive look she now wore. A curious countenance, as if she were totally puzzled by the sudden appearance of Stevaan's mild glare. Stevaan took his turn at clearing his throat.

"Yes. Well. A Galaxy-class starship is a rather large vessel, and the refit is the perfect time to get a feel for all the Bastion's little nuances. Learn her quirks. Maybe even put my own personal touch on a system or two along the way."

Once more, T'Sha's eyebrow popped up above her eye, though this time the look on her face was more disbelieving than inquisitive.

"Quite. As I understand it Captain, you have personally touched most, if not all, systems on board already."

Finally the cordial smile melted from Stevaan's face. T'Sha seemed to be behaving even more confrontational than usual. As confrontational as T'Sha was likely to get at any rate. He slapped the back of the PADD against his open palm a few times as he considered whether the Commander was being revengefully aggravating or simply did not realize she was coming across that way. In the end, he decided it didn't matter. After all, the Bastion's refit was her project, as assigned to her by Starfleet. As such, the project was hers to command and direct as she desired. Having a superior officer suddenly getting directly involved in the day to day activities would give any subordinate cause to feel undercut. And in this case, with the superior officer being a former engineer and the future captain of the ship in question, it was no surprise that it was causing enough tension to make even the most impassively logical Vulcan snappish.

Stevaan turned his attention back to the PADD once more. He skimmed quickly over the schedule for the day, looking for a job that might help signal his desire to not make things difficult on T'Sha, but without coming right out and saying it. He looked for some task that would need few hands to accomplish. Something in a remote location of the ship that would keep him out of the way of T'Sha and her people. Stevaan's finger stopped its meandering path of the PADD's display suddenly, and he allowed himself the smallest of self-satisfied grins.

"Well, Commander. For today, I was thinking of putting my personal touch on the new structural waveguides on Deck 11. Would that be acceptable with the schedule?"

Commander T'Sha's brow furrowed, and her head actually tilted slightly to one side. Stevaan manage to stifle a grin at the thought of how well he had thrown the Vulcan off beat. T'Sha regained her composure quickly though, and clasped her hands behind her back as she nodded her head.

"Yes, I believe it is. Assuming of course you are rated for SIF hardware and associated systems, of course."

"Commander, I would wager that I was tearing down my first SIF generator before you even entered the academy." Stevaan answered with a proud smile. "As it happens, structural engineering is one of my specialties."

Before T'Sha could respond to this boast, as it seemed she surely intended to, she was interrupted by a deep voice from the back of the bridge.

"And it is but one of many specialties you have, that I am aware of."

T'Sha and the Rigelian Ensign suddenly snapped to attention. Stevaan recognized the voice instantly without even turning around. In a formal and clipped tone, T'Sha curtly informed him of what he already knew.

"Admiral on the bridge."