A/N: A little bit of Crais history. This is his first assignment to a
command carrier as an officer. I thought it would be fun to explore our
Captain's early years as a peacekeeper.
Disclaimer: Henson & Co. own Bialar Crais and Larraque. I'm only borrowing them. The rest belong to me.
Rating: I'm gonna go with PG-13. I know my mind and know I have to at least rate it that high. I'll make a note if I change it.
Part 1
Officer Crais was one of twenty passengers on the transport. All were new reportees to the command carrier Xerrin. While he was one of the younger passengers he was the most senior. The rest were common soldiers, replacements for the strike teams. Crais was very nervous and had no one to talk to. He had heard many things about Captain Tainor. Tainor had been in command of Xerrin for nearly eight cycles. He expected nothing less than perfection from his crew and reacted poorly to failure. He was also one of the greatest strategic minds in the Peacekeepers. Crais looked forward to what he could learn from Capt. Tainor. He knew that as a gunnery officer he had a perfect opportunity to be noticed and further his career. After all, he had excelled on the frigate and had been highly recommended for duty on a command carrier.
When the transport landed they were met by Xerrin's second in command, Lt. Drall. "I am Lt. Drall, second in command, welcome aboard the Xerrin. This is a proud ship, with a proud heritage. Capt. Tainor is one of the most respected captains in the fleet. He expects each of you to do your part in order to uphold what the Xerrin has come to stand for. I expect nothing less than excellence. Serving here is an honor, perhaps the greatest that many of you will have in your careers. Dismissed." Lt. Drall turned and walked out of the hangar.
The Quartermaster stepped up, "Get your ident chips out and standby to be assigned your quarters." The new reportees lined up by rank, which meant Crais went first. "Officer Crais, gunnery. Your quarters are Tier 8, Delta Section, 316. Next."
Crais had memorized the layout of the ship before his arrival so he had no problem finding his quarters. It did not take him long to unpack, junior officers were not allowed much space and thus didn't have much in the way of possessions. After unpacking his gear he proceeded to his workcenter to report for duty. He walked into the main gunnery office. The only one in the outer office was a sergeant at a monitoring station. The sergeant looked up from the monitor, saw Crais, straightened up, "Can I help you, sir?"
"I am Officer Crais, newly assigned to the Gunnery Department." Crais tried to sound as confident as he could. He hoped none of his nervousness showed.
"The Gunnery Officer, Lt. Garrix, is inspecting the frag cannon charging chamber. You can go up there if you'd like, sir."
"Thank you, sergeant..?" Crais inquired.
"Tokan, sir."
"Sergeant Tokan. You will of course remember to use proper military protocol in the future."
"Yes, sir." Tokan sat at attention.
With that Crais turned and left. It took a while to get to the frag cannon charging chamber. As he walked there he continued to marvel at the sheer size of the ship. It was one thing to have know the dimensions, but to actually walk the decks underscored the enormity of a command carrier. When he arrived he still had to locate Lt. Garrix. The charging chamber was three decks tall, about that wide and twice as long. There were various catwalks and equipment that prevented him from seeing the entire chamber. As he walked into the chamber he heard voices coming from below and to his right. He headed toward the sound. As he came closer he was stopped by another officer.
"Authorized personnel only," the other officer said briskly.
"I am Officer Crais, newly assigned to the Gunnery Department. I have come to report in with Lt. Garrix," he replied matter-of-factly.
They could hear a voice come from underneath one of the power coils, "Look at this filth. It's unacceptable. Do you want to start a fire when we use the cannon?"
Another voice answered the first, "No, sir. I'll get the men cleaning them right away."
"I should say so, I suppose the others are probably just as bad." There was a pause. Crais assumed the other had answered with a nod. "That'll save me some time. I won't have to crawl under those."
"Excuse me, Lt." the officer interrupted.
"What is it Farkis?" Lt. Garrix responded in an irritated tone of voice.
"Officer Crais is reporting for duty."
"Officer Crais, huh? So High Command finally got off their eemas and sent me a replacement. About time," with that Lt. Garrix slid out from underneath the power coil, stood and tried to wipe some of the dirt off. Crais came to attention. She circled him with an appraising look. "So, you're my new officer?"
"Yes, sir. Officer Bialar Crais reporting for duty," Crais replied smartly.
"Well, Officer Crais, I'm Lt. Garrix, gunnery officer, but I guess you already figured that one out for yourself. At ease."
Crais relaxed and got a good look at his new supervisor. She was average height, light brown hair pulled back in the standard Peacekeeper queue, though it was slightly disheveled, emerald green eyes, and a slim yet athletic build. She had taken her jacket off to crawl around the equipment and Crais could see her arms and shoulders were clearly defined. This was one superior he would not mind taking a personal interest in him.
"As you probably heard I have been expecting you for quite some time. It's been a monen since I lost you predecessor. You'll be assigned to Delta cannon. You're going to have your work cut out for you. I've found that most of these guys require a good deal of supervision. Unfortunately, I've been forced to have the officer in charge of Gamma cannon keep and eye on Delta. As a result performance for both has declined. It'll be a good way to prove yourself. I want you to see if you can get Delta to outperform Gamma. I believe it's important to challenge my junior officers. Are you up to the challenge Officer Crais?"
"Yes, sir, I will not let you down."
She grinned at him, "Don't be too eager. You might find yourself making promises you can't keep." She turned to look at Farkis. "Officer Farkis, find Officer Grial and introduce Crais to her. She can explain his duties to him."
"Yes, sir."
She turned back to Crais, "I give you the rest of today to orient yourself with your work centers. I'm going to review your records and I'll meet with you in my office tomorrow after morning meal." She turned to the other who she had been inspecting the power coil with, "Now that we've got the power coils out of the way let's take a look at the phase rectifiers."
"Come on. Let's see if we can find Grial. Sorry about being short with you earlier. I'm Davin Farkis, assistant gunnery officer. We've been going through a pretty rough time lately. The frag cannon has been experiencing intermittent failure and the pulse cannons here aren't that reliable either. You may have noticed but Xerrin isn't exactly the newest ship in the fleet. You've really got your work cut out, though. The reason that you are here is because Delta cannon blew up and killed your predecessor. Good thing for him though. It was his incompetence that caused it to blow. Lt. Garrix would have seen him executed for it."
"I see what she meant about not being too eager," Crais replied gloomily.
"I wouldn't worry too much. Grial isn't much competition. Gamma group is pretty sharp and I think she's just gotten lucky. If you want real competition, out perform Bravo group. They're the captain's current embodiment of the perfect Xerrin soldiers. The Lieutenant's trying to get a promotion for Officer Larraque. I think it will come through soon. He's earned it. It will take you a few days to figure things out around here. Come by the officer's lounge after dinner and meet the rest of the guys. I apologize if I'm talking too much."
"No, it's all right. As you said it will take me a few days to settle in. I appreciate any insight you can give me."
"I just remember the day half a cycle ago when I first got here. I could have used someone to help me out. I vowed I would help the new guys out. After all, you guys in the gun mounts are defending my eema, least I can do is make sure you know which end is up. Well, this is Gamma cannon." They stepped into the control room. There was a tech working on a piece of gear on the workbench. They waited for him to finish what he was doing and look up.
"How can I help you, Officer Farkis?"
"We're looking for Officer Grial."
"She's in there sir," he replied as he pointed at a hatch behind him.
Farkis turned to Crais, "We give the techs a little leeway around here when they are doing repairs. It was the Lt.'s idea after she saw that by disturbing the techs we were actually increasing repair times by forcing them to acknowledge us the microt we walked in. The only one they stop for now is the Captain. There she is," he pointed and then shouted, " Farkis!"
She looked up, saw Farkis and Crais and walked over. She pointed at Crais, "Who the yotz is that?"
Farkis turned to Crais and said quietly, "Real charmer, huh?" He turned back to Farkis, "This is Bialar Crais. He's taking over Delta cannon."
"About bloody time. One person shouldn't have to run two gun mounts. I guess I'm supposed to show him around?" she sounded bitter.
"It would certainly help you in turning over control of Delta cannon. You know the Lt. won't turn it over until she's sure he knows what he's doing."
She sighed, "Come on, let's go over to Delta cannon and I'll show you around. Hopefully Sgt. Tibbons will there, he can explain it to you better than I can."
Crais was developing an immediate dislike to Officer Grial. He wondered how she had advanced as far as she had. She was clearly borderline competent and didn't appear to show any initiative. She wasn't interested in initiating conversation, so Crais just made mental notes about the parts of the ship they were traversing.
"Here it is, Delta cannon. This it the main control room and electronics repair station. Through that door," she gestured to her left, "are guns one and three. The other door has guns two and four," her embodied a complete lack of enthusiasm.
"I'm surprised that there is no one here."
"Delta mount is currently inop. They are probably working on repairs."
"Probably? You don't know?" he asked incredulously.
"I can't keep track of everyone who works for me, not with two gun mounts." She was being very defensive. She turned to enter the door on the left. When they entered the equipment room they saw two soldiers wrestling with the rest of Gamma group cheering them on.
Hope you like it so far. Let me know if you want me to go on. I know, I made myself a character. Hey, I'm not the only one. :evil
Disclaimer: Henson & Co. own Bialar Crais and Larraque. I'm only borrowing them. The rest belong to me.
Rating: I'm gonna go with PG-13. I know my mind and know I have to at least rate it that high. I'll make a note if I change it.
Part 1
Officer Crais was one of twenty passengers on the transport. All were new reportees to the command carrier Xerrin. While he was one of the younger passengers he was the most senior. The rest were common soldiers, replacements for the strike teams. Crais was very nervous and had no one to talk to. He had heard many things about Captain Tainor. Tainor had been in command of Xerrin for nearly eight cycles. He expected nothing less than perfection from his crew and reacted poorly to failure. He was also one of the greatest strategic minds in the Peacekeepers. Crais looked forward to what he could learn from Capt. Tainor. He knew that as a gunnery officer he had a perfect opportunity to be noticed and further his career. After all, he had excelled on the frigate and had been highly recommended for duty on a command carrier.
When the transport landed they were met by Xerrin's second in command, Lt. Drall. "I am Lt. Drall, second in command, welcome aboard the Xerrin. This is a proud ship, with a proud heritage. Capt. Tainor is one of the most respected captains in the fleet. He expects each of you to do your part in order to uphold what the Xerrin has come to stand for. I expect nothing less than excellence. Serving here is an honor, perhaps the greatest that many of you will have in your careers. Dismissed." Lt. Drall turned and walked out of the hangar.
The Quartermaster stepped up, "Get your ident chips out and standby to be assigned your quarters." The new reportees lined up by rank, which meant Crais went first. "Officer Crais, gunnery. Your quarters are Tier 8, Delta Section, 316. Next."
Crais had memorized the layout of the ship before his arrival so he had no problem finding his quarters. It did not take him long to unpack, junior officers were not allowed much space and thus didn't have much in the way of possessions. After unpacking his gear he proceeded to his workcenter to report for duty. He walked into the main gunnery office. The only one in the outer office was a sergeant at a monitoring station. The sergeant looked up from the monitor, saw Crais, straightened up, "Can I help you, sir?"
"I am Officer Crais, newly assigned to the Gunnery Department." Crais tried to sound as confident as he could. He hoped none of his nervousness showed.
"The Gunnery Officer, Lt. Garrix, is inspecting the frag cannon charging chamber. You can go up there if you'd like, sir."
"Thank you, sergeant..?" Crais inquired.
"Tokan, sir."
"Sergeant Tokan. You will of course remember to use proper military protocol in the future."
"Yes, sir." Tokan sat at attention.
With that Crais turned and left. It took a while to get to the frag cannon charging chamber. As he walked there he continued to marvel at the sheer size of the ship. It was one thing to have know the dimensions, but to actually walk the decks underscored the enormity of a command carrier. When he arrived he still had to locate Lt. Garrix. The charging chamber was three decks tall, about that wide and twice as long. There were various catwalks and equipment that prevented him from seeing the entire chamber. As he walked into the chamber he heard voices coming from below and to his right. He headed toward the sound. As he came closer he was stopped by another officer.
"Authorized personnel only," the other officer said briskly.
"I am Officer Crais, newly assigned to the Gunnery Department. I have come to report in with Lt. Garrix," he replied matter-of-factly.
They could hear a voice come from underneath one of the power coils, "Look at this filth. It's unacceptable. Do you want to start a fire when we use the cannon?"
Another voice answered the first, "No, sir. I'll get the men cleaning them right away."
"I should say so, I suppose the others are probably just as bad." There was a pause. Crais assumed the other had answered with a nod. "That'll save me some time. I won't have to crawl under those."
"Excuse me, Lt." the officer interrupted.
"What is it Farkis?" Lt. Garrix responded in an irritated tone of voice.
"Officer Crais is reporting for duty."
"Officer Crais, huh? So High Command finally got off their eemas and sent me a replacement. About time," with that Lt. Garrix slid out from underneath the power coil, stood and tried to wipe some of the dirt off. Crais came to attention. She circled him with an appraising look. "So, you're my new officer?"
"Yes, sir. Officer Bialar Crais reporting for duty," Crais replied smartly.
"Well, Officer Crais, I'm Lt. Garrix, gunnery officer, but I guess you already figured that one out for yourself. At ease."
Crais relaxed and got a good look at his new supervisor. She was average height, light brown hair pulled back in the standard Peacekeeper queue, though it was slightly disheveled, emerald green eyes, and a slim yet athletic build. She had taken her jacket off to crawl around the equipment and Crais could see her arms and shoulders were clearly defined. This was one superior he would not mind taking a personal interest in him.
"As you probably heard I have been expecting you for quite some time. It's been a monen since I lost you predecessor. You'll be assigned to Delta cannon. You're going to have your work cut out for you. I've found that most of these guys require a good deal of supervision. Unfortunately, I've been forced to have the officer in charge of Gamma cannon keep and eye on Delta. As a result performance for both has declined. It'll be a good way to prove yourself. I want you to see if you can get Delta to outperform Gamma. I believe it's important to challenge my junior officers. Are you up to the challenge Officer Crais?"
"Yes, sir, I will not let you down."
She grinned at him, "Don't be too eager. You might find yourself making promises you can't keep." She turned to look at Farkis. "Officer Farkis, find Officer Grial and introduce Crais to her. She can explain his duties to him."
"Yes, sir."
She turned back to Crais, "I give you the rest of today to orient yourself with your work centers. I'm going to review your records and I'll meet with you in my office tomorrow after morning meal." She turned to the other who she had been inspecting the power coil with, "Now that we've got the power coils out of the way let's take a look at the phase rectifiers."
"Come on. Let's see if we can find Grial. Sorry about being short with you earlier. I'm Davin Farkis, assistant gunnery officer. We've been going through a pretty rough time lately. The frag cannon has been experiencing intermittent failure and the pulse cannons here aren't that reliable either. You may have noticed but Xerrin isn't exactly the newest ship in the fleet. You've really got your work cut out, though. The reason that you are here is because Delta cannon blew up and killed your predecessor. Good thing for him though. It was his incompetence that caused it to blow. Lt. Garrix would have seen him executed for it."
"I see what she meant about not being too eager," Crais replied gloomily.
"I wouldn't worry too much. Grial isn't much competition. Gamma group is pretty sharp and I think she's just gotten lucky. If you want real competition, out perform Bravo group. They're the captain's current embodiment of the perfect Xerrin soldiers. The Lieutenant's trying to get a promotion for Officer Larraque. I think it will come through soon. He's earned it. It will take you a few days to figure things out around here. Come by the officer's lounge after dinner and meet the rest of the guys. I apologize if I'm talking too much."
"No, it's all right. As you said it will take me a few days to settle in. I appreciate any insight you can give me."
"I just remember the day half a cycle ago when I first got here. I could have used someone to help me out. I vowed I would help the new guys out. After all, you guys in the gun mounts are defending my eema, least I can do is make sure you know which end is up. Well, this is Gamma cannon." They stepped into the control room. There was a tech working on a piece of gear on the workbench. They waited for him to finish what he was doing and look up.
"How can I help you, Officer Farkis?"
"We're looking for Officer Grial."
"She's in there sir," he replied as he pointed at a hatch behind him.
Farkis turned to Crais, "We give the techs a little leeway around here when they are doing repairs. It was the Lt.'s idea after she saw that by disturbing the techs we were actually increasing repair times by forcing them to acknowledge us the microt we walked in. The only one they stop for now is the Captain. There she is," he pointed and then shouted, " Farkis!"
She looked up, saw Farkis and Crais and walked over. She pointed at Crais, "Who the yotz is that?"
Farkis turned to Crais and said quietly, "Real charmer, huh?" He turned back to Farkis, "This is Bialar Crais. He's taking over Delta cannon."
"About bloody time. One person shouldn't have to run two gun mounts. I guess I'm supposed to show him around?" she sounded bitter.
"It would certainly help you in turning over control of Delta cannon. You know the Lt. won't turn it over until she's sure he knows what he's doing."
She sighed, "Come on, let's go over to Delta cannon and I'll show you around. Hopefully Sgt. Tibbons will there, he can explain it to you better than I can."
Crais was developing an immediate dislike to Officer Grial. He wondered how she had advanced as far as she had. She was clearly borderline competent and didn't appear to show any initiative. She wasn't interested in initiating conversation, so Crais just made mental notes about the parts of the ship they were traversing.
"Here it is, Delta cannon. This it the main control room and electronics repair station. Through that door," she gestured to her left, "are guns one and three. The other door has guns two and four," her embodied a complete lack of enthusiasm.
"I'm surprised that there is no one here."
"Delta mount is currently inop. They are probably working on repairs."
"Probably? You don't know?" he asked incredulously.
"I can't keep track of everyone who works for me, not with two gun mounts." She was being very defensive. She turned to enter the door on the left. When they entered the equipment room they saw two soldiers wrestling with the rest of Gamma group cheering them on.
Hope you like it so far. Let me know if you want me to go on. I know, I made myself a character. Hey, I'm not the only one. :evil