Star Trek Madison
(The Beta Quadrant Chronicles)
(Disclamer I don't own anything Startrek, The Characters, Vessels, and Races created by me are only to be used by me unless asked for permission to use them. Please read and rate I want constructive critiscism)
Captains log Star date 22198.3
Today I meet my crew for the first time. Once I arrive onboard the Madison I'll be stuck with them for ten long years. Luckily I already know my first officer/chief science officer Branden Walowich. I served with him in command school and then he was my second in command onboard the Constitution A. I never thought it would happen but I'm taking a new command as captain of the Nova Class Starship Madison. 180 meters long eight decks and a crew of 80. She doesn't back the punch of a sovereign or intrepid but she's mine. End log.
Captain Steven Winnie looked out the shuttle's window. Most people would use a transporter to get to a starship but ever since his father was lost in a transporter accident. He had an acute fear of them. "Sir we'll be docking with the Madison momentarily: A young ensign said sitting at the helm of the shuttle.
"Thank you ensign" Was all he said as he continued to stare out the shuttle window at the Madison. She was a beautiful ship and she was his. He smiled at the thought. Five long years of work to get another command and it finally paid off.
Commander Branden Walowich walked around the bridge checking the consoles and watching the crewmen. It had been five years since he last saw the Captain and he felt it an honor to be serving under him. He was amazed he had been asked to be second in command on this 10 year mission to the beta quadrant. He sat down in the chair next to the captains and waited for him to arrive. "Permission to come aboard" He stood at attention along with the rest of the crew watching the captain exit the turbo lift. The man seemed taller than when they had last met or maybe it was the streaks of gray that ran through his hair. Something about him had changed he almost looked tired.
"She's your ship captain" He moved out of the way as the captain moved to his chair.
"I almost thought this day would never come" He said running his hand along the black leather chair. He stood in front of it then sat down. "It feels good to be back"
"Captain it's an honor to serve with you again. But I'm going to pop down to the mess hall for some lunch before we get underway"
"Go ahead" He said as the commander walked into the turbo lift and left.
Chief of security Lise O'Maere walked down the corridors of the Madison people starred at her whispering. She ignored them and continued walking. Many people would think her tall stature and sharp features is what would make them stare but it could have been her bad temper. Mostly it was the rumors that made them stare. It got around that her parents long lineage through Starfleet had gotten her to the rank of commander. Then others said that she did certain services for her teachers. They were just that though rumors and she ignored them. Lise turned into the mess hall and stopped walking, her jaw dropping. "You" She pointed to the man in the blue uniform sitting at one of the tables.
Branden Walowich looked up dropping his fork. "Oh no please tell me your not serving aboard this ship"
"Chief of security. And let me guess what you are the beaker scrubber for the chief science officer?" She said mocking him.
"Actually Mr. O'Maere I'm the Second in command and chief of sciences so I suggest that you move along and never take that tone with me again or I'll have you brought up on charges of disrespecting a senior officer" He smiled at her.
She glared at him before storming out of the room. She had grown over the years to hate that man from the day she met him at the academy. They both competed to get better grades then the other. Many of their teachers said that's why the excelled at their jobs.
Captain Winnie sat in his ready room as the chime went of. "Come in" He said going over some of the ship specks.
"How Dare you" Lise said pointing a finger at him. She looked like she had just drunken sourer milk.
"Calm down commander" He stood up. "Now then how dare I what exactly?"
"How dare you put HIM on the same ship as me. And worse you put him as my superior."
"Actually I was thinking the question should really be why are you raising your voice to me?" He fumed. "Last time I checked the dedication plaque to this ship had my name as the captain." He smacked his desk. "You will respect me or I will have you removed from this vessel. Need I remind you that it was MY offer to let you serve as my chief of security that kept you from being stripped of your rank"
She was shocked at what the captain had said she knew that somebody had stepped in and kept here from being kicked to the curb by Starfleet but didn't know who. "I'm sorry captain I was out of line" She almost winced at the idea of her being wrong.
"I thank you commander now please get back to the bridge we'll be underway in about 10 minutes" He pulled a small model Madison from the box next to his desk and placed it in the air he pressed a button and it hovered their perfectly above the desk. Then he turned back to the commander. "As I said lets get to the bridge and prepare to get underway"
"I see you've finished your lunch Mr. Walowich" He took his seat in his chair as the Commander stood up.
"Yes captain it was great but Starfleet has given us the go ahead to leave space dock"
"I see well then Ensign Blare take us out at 1/4th impulse"
"Aye captain" Mr. Blare ran his hands over his panel then the ship lurched forward slowly. The sound of umbilical cords snapping of the ship and docking clamps releasing. "Captain we've cleared space dock"
"Incoming transmission from Starfleet command"
"On screen" The main view screen changed from black to the face of Admiral Robert L. Strongin. "Hello admiral nice of you to see us off"
"It's nice to see you again captain. We at Starfleet command wish you and your crew the best on this mission."
"I thank you Admiral and I hope to see you at the return party in 10 years"
"I'll bring the Romulan ale" He winked. "God speed to you captain" The screen winked off as the admiral disappeared.
"Well then Mr. Talin set course for the wormhole. And Mr. Blare prepare to jump to warp 7 on my mark."
"Aye sir" They said in unison. The captain sat all the way back in his chair.
"It's been a while scents I've been able to give this command but Ensign lets go" The ship gained speed before disappearing in the glimmer of warp.
"Captain we're approaching the worm hole" O'Maere said looking at her panel.
"Mr. O'Maere raise shields and transfer all extra power to them." The ship flew closer to the wormhole. "Mr. Blare take us out of warp and approach the wormhole at full impulse"
"Sir all extra power is now to the shields" Lise said
The captain hit the ship wide communications button located on his chairs control panel. "All Hands this is the captain speaking were about to enter the worm hole. Brace yourselves it may get rough." He released the button. "Also commander set the ship for red alert" He said a second later the bridges lights dimmed and red security lights flashed throughout the ship. Automatic restraints in the chairs activated holding everyone in place.
"Captain the ship is at red alert. Shields are ready I would say now is as good a time as ever to go in." Commander Walowich said though calm looking his hands were gripping the arms of his chair so hard he had white knuckles.
"Your right Commander" He looked back towards his helmsman. "Take us in at full impulse" He watched the main view screen which was showing them the wormhole. It slowly got large until they were only a small ways away. Tension swept through the bridge crew or maybe homesickness as they realized that in about 5 seconds there'd be no turning back. A second later the Madison was pulled into the worm hole flying quickly through space.
"Captain we have a problem"
"What is it O'Maere?" He asked worry flew through every inch of his being at those words.
"Theirs a power drain in the forward shields" She said.
"I see…" He tapped his comm. badge. "Captain to Lt. Commander Butcher"
"Butcher here" The Chief Engineers voice rang through the room.
"Butcher we have a power drain in the forward shields I need you to locate and eliminate the problem." He said.
"Yes captain give me 2 minutes" the comm. went dead.
"Captain the shields are continuing to drain. Their at 85 percent power, 82 percent, still dropping."
"Damn it Butcher hurry up" He said hitting his badge again.
"Captain I've located the problem a power conduit that wasn't properly put together while we were in space dock ruptured. I'm going to fix it now but you've got to give me time."
"Butcher you've got about 3 minutes until we have a big problem"
"Shields at 70 percent"
"Transfer auxiliary power to them then" He gripped his chair harder with each passing second his knuckles white.
"Auxiliary power transferred sir but until that conduit is fixed were going to just keep loosing power to the shields." As the shields dropped the stresses from the wormhole began to take their toll on the ship. "Sir Shields have just dropped to 50 percent and theirs a hull breach on deck 2…section 5."
"Fix the breach. Was their anybody in that section of the deck?"
"No captain nobody" The comm. badge beeped.
"Butcher to the captain I've just finished repairs on the conduit power flow should be restored." The sound of her replacing a panel could be herd.
"Thank you Lt. Commander if you'd be kind enough to send a repair team to deck to deck 2 section 5. Their was a hull breach and I need it fixed" He said.
"Captain Shields are at 80 percent and rising" The ship left the wormhole 10 seconds later. "Wormhole is destabilizing behind us"
"Cancel red alert commander" The lights went back to normal and the restraints deactivated.
"Well we made it here in one peace" Walowich said
"Barely. I can't believe they didn't double check that conduit before putting it in." The captain stood fairly angry at the situation. "Commander Walowich you have the bridge I'm on my way down to engineering" He entered the turbo lift. "Deck 7"
Lt. Commander Jessica Butcher stood up from the conduit panel grabbing her tool box she walked back down the hall to main engineering. Her brown hair pulled back in a pony tail. She turned to see the turbo lift opening and the captain stepping out. "Captain what brings you down here?" She asked smiling.
"Wipe that smile off your face Lt. Commander I want to talk to you." He said rather aggravated. "What the hell was that your job is to make sure everything is running perfectly we've just left dock and a conduit broke?"
"Captain theirs no need to yell at me" She said irritated. "Every ship fresh out of dock has bugs loads of them and it just so happens one of them showed itself. Don't blame me I just keep this ship together I didn't build it" She kept her voice down trying to respect her superior. "And anyways captain some of the parts were using are recycled from older vessels. The dominion war has left Starfleet with little to work with"
"I'm sorry for getting testy Mr. Butcher. This is the first command I've had in five years and dying isn't on my list of things to get done. Just please get the rest of the ships systems working properly. We don't need something worse happening."
"Aye captain I still don't know why Starfleet didn't put her through a shakedown cruise before we left"
"Well Commander they didn't have time to do it. They needed to get someone into the beta quadrant before any of our enemies could influence the habitants of it to their side"
"I see captain well if you don't mind I've got to finish putting together the transporter room"
"Wait the never finished putting it together."
"Well they did but I pretty much tore the place apart making sure nothing would go wrong with the transporters and now I've got to put it all back together."
"I-I see well then commander good bye" He turned frustrated with himself for overreacting. Though who could blame him he couldn't mess up again. Better to come off as a complete ass and keep your crew safe then to become lenient and screw up.
"Captain" She watched as he turned. "It's nice meeting you" As the captain walked away she headed to the transporter room it looked like someone had come through and ripped the panels apart. That is to the untrained eye but as she surveyed the room she saw how each thing would go back together. She went to the main control panel and began working.
"Excuse me Lt. Commander Butcher?"
"Yes" She asked turning around she saw that the doorway had been filled with the figure of Commander Walowich.
"I just wanted to say high it's been a while since I've seen you"
"Three years to this day Branden I'm surprised at you I didn't think we'd be serving together again." She gave him a light smiled trying not to stare at his green eyes, or maybe it was his black hair. Then she returned to putting the panels back together.
"I think its only right to warn you that we've got to keep it professional this time around." He said before turning and leaving.
"That ass" She mumbled "Three years of not seeing or hearing from him and he tells me I've got to keep things professional. Why if I could I'd shove this hyper spanner so far up his ass he'd be tasting steal for the rest of this mission."
Back on the Bridge the captain sat once more as Mr. Walowich entered. "Ahh Commander you'll be happy to know we've already detected a new solar system and were on our way their. Our scans show that theirs one M class planet with two moons and three additional planets rich in dilithium"
"I see captain are their any forms of life on the M class planet?"
"We are currently unable to tell sensors aren't calibrated for that kind of long range scanning yet" Assistant Science Officer Albert Donald sat at the science station examining the data coming onto the screen. His blue skin and blond hair gave away what species he was.
"Captain we're entering the Solar system now"
"Take us into the planets atmosphere so we can begin our surveys" The Madison had been designed to stay inside atmospheres of planets for extended amounts of time.
"Aye captain entering atmosphere now"
"Captain were getting something on the scanners their seem to be buildings down their and on the southern continent theirs a large ship yard for building starships."
"We've struck intelligent life on our first try" The captain smiled.
"Actually captain were detecting no life signs what ever did live here no longer does"
"Are you sure theirs nobody down their?" Walowich said. Moving over to the science station about to take control
"As far as these scans can tell us" A beeping noise started at the communications station.
"Captain were receiving a message"
"On screen" A humanoid of about 7 feet in height appeared on the screen he had brownish purple skin and no eyes. He had no hair and was wearing a simple tunic.
"This is Lord Protector Arlin of the Arulian alliance please leave this solar system immediately or else you will be fired upon"
"Lord Protector this is Captain Steven Winnie of the United Federation Starship Madison if you'll let me explain we are here on a peaceful mission of exploration we mean you no harm."
"I repeat leave this solar system immediately or else you will be fired upon"
"Captain I'm detecting two vessels launching from the ship yard they are on a pursuit course with our ship."
"You don't have to fire on us we'll leave peacefully" He said the image seemed to go blurry for a second"
"This is Lord Protector Arlin of the Arulian alliance please leave this solar system immediately or else you will be fired upon"
"Captain the ships are charging weapons and targeting our engine room"
"Commander red alert. Mr. O'Maere charge weapons. Ensign Blare take us out of here" He said he felt the ship turn as the image transformed into a view of space again.
"The ships are still pursuing" The ship rocked as they were hit by an enemy phaser.
"Captain Shields are at 95 percent and holding" The ship rocked again but more fierce this time around.
"Set phasers to disabling and aim for their impulse drives. Put the pursuing ships on screen"
"Yes sir" The image changed once more this time to a view of the two pursuing vessels they were light brown and relatively small. Each had two warp nacelles. It looked like the main hull was sitting on them like a sled almost. A phaser shot hit the lead ship towards the back end an odd thing happened though the ship was hit and the blast made it clean through the hull the ship began breaking apart and before the other pursuer could stop it ran into the debris from the first.
"I thought I said to set phasers to crippling" He yelled looking at O'Maere.
"Captain I did set them to crippling"
"Then why did they blast clean through that ships hull?" He asked in anger. "Do you know how many people that probably killed?" He couldn't believe how things were shaping up at this moment two vessels of a new species killed.
"Actually captain the destruction of those ships caused no deaths" Walowich said he had by now taken over his post at science.
"What do you mean?"
"It seems that those ships were also unmanned. I think that the reason our phasers even set to cripple destroyed them is the species known as the Arulian are no longer alive" Commander Walowich stopped for a moment. "I think that they wouldn't listen to what you said is that was probably an automated defense system used to protect the planet that was never shut down. It would explain why the message just repeated itself why there are no life signs and why those ships were destroyed so easily. Their probably extremely old"
"I see what you mean" The captain sat in his chair. "I'm Sorry Commander O'Maere I didn't mean to get testy with you" He said.
"Yes well captain you did and now if you don't mind I'm going to get something to eat" She said storming out of the bridge. She entered the mess hall walking to the replicator. "Stuffed cabbage" She said grabbing the tray as it appeared she sat down.
"Can I sit here?" Lt. Commander Butcher stood in here gold uniform waiting for an answer.
"Fine by me" She said pushing a chair out for Butcher.
"I wanted to ask people have told me you know the captain from during his first command right?"
"Yes I do I was just a security officer back then"
"Well than you can answer my question why is it he's always about to go off the deep end?"
"Well if you must know he's just worried. This is his first command in five years and he's still in shock he got it"
"Wait why?" Butcher asked she looked horribly puzzled
"Well the Constitution was ordered to patrol a colony by Relis V when we arrived we found out that a horrible virus that threatened the solar system had swept the planet but it had been contained to the planet as long as no ships left. The captain told the people his best medical officers were looking for a cure and not to leave the planet. Sadly they didn't listen a small patrol tried to get by us and the captain couldn't let them go because they may have been infected."
"He attempted to contact them but didn't get a reply and when we scanned for the virus we couldn't penetrate their hull so the captain had no choice he fired on them. All three ships got destroyed because they wouldn't stop. Starfleet launched an investigation as it turns out the ships were carrying medical supplies and couldn't reply because their communication systems were down we couldn't penetrate the hull with our scans because of what they were made of. Captain Winnie lost his command because Starfleet felt he had been trigger happy. I think he did the right thing myself I mean what if it had been the virus?" She asked stopping Butcher looked shocked at the news.
"You mean he did what just about any Starfleet officer in his position would have done and lost his command because of it?"
"Yah well their was a lot of controversy over the hole thing and colonists wanted justice so to make them happy they and save face they used the Captain as a scape goat" She ate the last of here food. "Don't look surprised Butcher I mean what do you expect Starfleet's just an extension of the Federation and the Federations all politics politicians will do anything to save face even trash talk one of their best officers"
"But that just doesn't seem right"
"You just got the rank of Cheif Engineer didn't you?" She didn't wait for an answer. "One thing you'll realize is a lot of the interpretation Starfleet does isn't right get used to it that's life no use loosing sleep over it." She stood up throwing her tray into the recycling shut. "Nice meeting you though" She smiled walking out the door leaving Butcher their to her thoughts.
(Thats it for now I hope you liked it)