Re-upload of corrected Chapter 1. Thanks to nthFounder for the help.
"I have never been to Mars," Renel Tahkeel admitted when the runabout appraoched Utopia Planitia which was in geosynchronous orbit to the red planet.
"How come you only tell me now?", Heex Tel asked surprised. "If you had said something, we could have come here a few days earlier and visited the main colonies."
"I've never been so keen on artificial environments. It's too red." Renel remembered the Bajoran waters that he grew up with.
"Just like Earth's oceans are too blue?" Lieutenant Tel joked.
Before Renel could agree, they had docked at the fleet yard and were asked to leave the runabout. They each picked up their heavy travel bags and entered the station.
"We're supposed to be on board at 14 hundred hours latest. I'd suggest we head there now so that we don't even have the chance to run late," Tel said and re-checked the transfer data on his PADD.
"Agreed," Renel answered, and they headed for the huge information board in the middle of the arrival area. "Transporter pad 4 will beam us aboard the Nadeshda. This way," the Bajoran said and pointed straight ahead.
They arrived at transporter room 4 and were greeted by an old, grey haired Tellarite. "Another two for the Nadeshda? One might think this ship is going to be overcrowded. Maybe that's how they make sure these days that at least some crewmen make it back. Now, off you go onto the pad, I don't have all day."
Renel and Tel looked at each other with an all-saying glance. What else was this Tellarite supposed to do all day but to beam the new members aboard the Prometheus Advanced class vessel? They materialised less than thirty seconds later in transporter room 2 of the Nadeshda.
A tall, human officer with long, brown hair tied in a ponytail greeted them. "I am Commander Davis, First Officer of the USS Nadeshda. Welcome aboard. Your names are?"
"Lieutenant Renel Tahkeel, service number CK-478-534."
"Lieutenant Heex Tel, service number LG-556-318-23."
"You have been assigned to quarters 11-Theta. Are you a couple?"
"Yes, Commander," Tel answered.
"No need to call me Commander as long as we're not on the bridge. Your quarters are on deck 11, Section 2. Each Section has another alphabet assigned to it. You'll get used to it. Just don't befriend anyone of the Klingon alphabet section," the human joked.
"Thank you, Commander," Renel answered with a shy smile.
The Lieutenants nodded and left the transporter room to look for their quarters. The turbo lift was at the end of the corridor and they made it to deck 11 without problems.
"I think we're in Section 1," Renel mentioned as he read the door labels.
Tel activated the computer panel at the wall and opened a cross-section of the ship. "We have to take the left corridor until the end. There starts the Earth-Greek alphabet." They walked for a while before reaching the correct quarter designation. They passed a lot of people who looked as helpless as they did. Half the crew was being re-assigned, so many people were as new as they were.
"I believe on Earth they say, "home sweet home"," Renel said when they had arrived and unlocked the quarters with the code given on their transfer file. The quarters were bigger than they had expected, especially because it was the first time, they would share one. There was living space on the left, an eating table in the back, the bathroom was to the right, and the bedroom to the left.
"I think now it's official," Tel said when he regarded the double bed. They stared at the bed for a while, realising that they were now an official couple officially sharing quarters.
"Let's go introduce ourselves to the Captain," Renel suggested.
The way to any bridge was the easiest to find on a star ship. You simply had to go up with the turbo lifts as far as possible. The bridge was not as dark as on the Intrepid-class ship they had previously served on, and the walls were also kept in a lighter tone of grey. The bridge was big, with the captain's chair in the middle, but empty.
"Are you here to introduce yourselves to the captain? Recent transfers?" a Risian woman at the security console asked. She was small, dark-skinned, but even with the bulky uniform one could see that she was very muscular.
The Bajoran and his half-Efrosian, half-Trill lover nodded.
"He's in his ready room," the woman said. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Taja Gohs, by the way. Chief of Security."
"Lieutenant Heex Tel, new helmsman for the alpha shift," Tel introduced himself.
"Nice, then I'm going to see you on a regular basis."
"And I'm Lieutenant Renel Tahkeel, nurse assigned to Dr Kirx'k," the Bajoran said.
"Then I hope that I won't see you too often," Gohs joked.
Tel and Renel proceeded to the ready room and entered when invited.
"Ah, our new helmsman Lieutenant Tel, and an addition to our medical crew, Lieutenant Renel," Captain th'Zasheelt recognised and stood up. "At ease," he added. Th'Zasheelt was a tall Andorian identifying with he/him pronouns in languages based on two main genders. His hair had a touch of grey instead of white, and his eyes looked tired because of his age, but were misleading because he was a fit as he had been when first assigned to the Nadeshda.
"I'm Captain th'Zasheelt and welcome you aboard the USS Nadeshda."
"Thank you, Sir," the two officers replied in canon.
"Is it your first time aboard a Prometheus Advanced class vessel?"
They nodded.
"In comparison to the previous Prometheus class, our ship is bigger, accommodates more civilian personnel, and puts new emphasis on leisure activities. We have a theatre, whose production group you may join, and a botanist garden cared for by volunteers. Our ship is the first in a long time for a deep space mission which allows family on board. For my taste, we've had enough war times in the past decades. Were you around for the Dominion war and the Borg Invasion? You look pretty young."
"I had only just left pre-school when the war reached the interior planets," Renel explained.
"And I transferred to Secondary School the year the war ended," Tel admitted.
"My God, I think I am beginning to be old," the Captain answered with a smile. "Now we can finally be explorers again. We're set to depart at 19 hundred hours to the Bajoran wormhole. There is a welcome party in the messhole at 20 hundred hours tonight and I expect to see you there. Shifts begin tomorrow morning for you. You're both in alpha shift if I remember correctly."
They nodded and were dismissed. Until departure time, the couple discovered the ship and met other crewmen who had also just been transferred to the exploratory vessel. Renel left the group for a while to greet his new superior officer, a Denobulan Doctor called Vrez Kirx'k. Kirx'k was a round person, not only his body, but his face as well. He was busy shooing some repair technicians around in sickbay when Renel entered.
"Ah, you should be the new nurse I ordered," Renel was greeted by the Doctor. "I'm Doctor Kirx'k, recently promoted to chief medic. You'll find a lot of recently promoted personnel aboard. Advantages of many people leaving or retiring. Starfleet wanted fresh faces for this long-term mission. I am looking forward to it. Where had you been assigned to before?"
"The USS McCoy, an Intrepid class vessel."
"Oh, then you are already familiar with the emergency medical hologram. I won't activate him now, he hates doing introductions. Were you also on a long-term mission or just cruising the Alpha Quadrant?"
Renel quickly learnt that Denobulans were a very talkative species. He kept his answers short enough to still be polite and luckily found a way to excuse himself when one of the repair technicians asked Doctor Kirx'k to shut down the power to several instruments.
=/\=
Lieutenants Renel and Tel arrived at the welcome party about ten minutes later than the official beginning. They had not expected the messhole to be so spacious. It reminded Tel on Ten Forward which he had seen in the Enterprise holo-museum on Earth. The 22nd century Bolian music eased the atmosphere, and crewmen both new and old to the crew gathered with syntheholic and alcoholic beverages in their hands.
Lieutenant Commander Gohs spotted the new colleagues and waved them over to the table where she was sitting with first officer Commander Davis and a yet to Renel and Tel unknown red-uniform with pointy ears.
"Sit down. You know our First Officer Jenna Davis, and this is our Tactical and Weapons officer Adeeran Jo-Al," Lt Cmdr Gohs explained. "Jenna, Adeeran, these are our new helmsman Heex Tel," she said and pointed to the Efrosian-Trill, "and nurse Renel Tahkeel," padding the Bajoran on the shoulder who had just sat down next to her.
"Is it true that Bajorans have their last name first?" Lt Cmdr Jo-Al asked.
"Yes, indeed. My first name is Tahkeel," the Bajoran explained.
"Some sub-cultures on many planets have the same tradition," Cmdr Davis added. "It is common among Earth-Chinese people."
"Talking about traditions," Gohs picked up the topic, "you were telling us whether or not you considered switching pins," the security officer asked the First Officer.
Cmdr Davis smiled, looking at the small, miniaturised version of the Starfleet triangle logo pinned next to her communicator. "No, I think it would just confuse people."
"I'm sorry, but what does this pin mean? I have only seen very few officers wearing one" Renel asked curiously.
"These pins state the pronouns of our gender and corresponding preferred pronouns in English Federation standard," Cmdr Davis stated. "They are normally worn by species with more or less than two genders. Even though we have been recognising more than two gender identities on Earth for centuries now, our language somehow hasn't been able to adapt. The colours were chosen randomly, though, to avoid discrimination or stereotypes. My pin is French lime for female. I use she and her as pronouns. He and him is mint and they, them is thulian pink. There are also different forms of pins. I chose the general Starfleet insignia. You will also find adapted Starfleet insignia for Engineering, Tactical, and Science. The UFP logo is also allowed, as well as representations for each species."
"Oh, I see," Renel said. "This is actually quite useful."
"It is interesting how a planet that has accepted more than two gender identifications as well as fluid gender identifications for centuries has not managed to come up with proper pronouns yet," Lt Cmdr Jo-Al observed.
"Aderaan grew up on Andor where they have four natural genders," the Risian Gohs explained.
Both Renel and Tel looked confused.
Jo-Al noticed and began to explain, "my forehead ridges are not very prominent so many people assume I am a Vulcan with an odd skin colour." His skin looked indeed too green-grey to pass him off as a Vulcan. "I was born on Chaltok V, a planet within Romulan space. The Dominion attacked my homeworld when I was four. The Federation came to help but they could not do much. I lost my parents and was then adopted by a Vulcan-Andorian couple who could not have kids on their own. That's why I grew up on Andor."
There was a silence when neither Renel nor Tel knew how to respond.
"After the Dominion War had ended, I had hoped that the Romulan Star Empire and the Federation would come to a longer-lasting peace. The time of the Tzenkethi War was not the best for a Romulan growing up deep in Federation space."
"But now you are here, and we are glad that you are," Lt Cmdr Gohs said and put her hand on Jo-Al. He gave a shy smile which proved that he definitely was not Vulcan.
"Talking about growing up," Cmdr Davis said, "where did you grow up, on Efrosia or Trill?" she asked Lt Tel.
"Neither. I was born on Centauri VII but moved with my parents to Bajor for re-construction efforts after the occupation when I was 4. Tahkeel and I know each other since high school, and we went together to the Academy. It was only on our last assignment on the USS McCoy that we became our couple."
"Oh wow," Gohs replied with a grin. "That did indeed take you a while."
"What about you all? Any of you taken?"
The three of them shook their heads.
"Though we do ship Adeeran and K'Deel," Gohs said with a laughter.
"K'Deel is the most annoying person on this ship… the whole quadrant," Jo-Al replied and rolled his eyes while sipping a blue liquor.
"He is Vulcan," Gohs explained. "And they hate each other's guts."
"Speaking of the devil," Cmdr Davis said and waved to a Vulcan who had just entered the messhole.
He sat down next to her. "This is our chief engineer, Lieutenant K'Deel," she introduced him, and then added, "these are two new additions to our crew. Helmsman Heex Tel and his partner nurse Renel Tahkeel."
"It is acceptable to meet you," the Vulcan replied. His skin was rather ochre, with small eyes and black hair.
"Nice to meet you, too," Tel said.
Gohs took over the word again, "K'Deel is from the Vulcan island of Zatara. It has the most beautiful nature. In contrast to Vulcan mainland, there are many flowers and trees."
"Lieutenant Gohs visited my hometown several weeks ago for a security training. It does indeed have a richer flora and fauna than the mainland. The soil, however, is still red due to its rich iron content. And before you ask, yes, all the people on this island have eyes like mine. It is as natural as on the Andorian continent Geshon, the Bolian countries of North-Taloonga or East Asia on Earth," Lt Cmdr K'Deel said.
"I wasn't going to ask, but thank you for the information," Renel replied.
A barkeeper approached the group. Tel, Renel, and K'Deel all ordered beverages. When the Andorian barkeeper left, Cmdr Davis informed them: "This is Zenta zh'Zasheelt, one of the bonding partners of Captain th'Zasheelt."
"Oh, I had no idea his family was on board," Renel said surprised.
"His Shen-bonding mate is a kindergarten teacher and his Chan-bonding mate is a warp core specialist. Their two children, a thaan and a chan, are also aboard," K'Deel informed them.
"I wonder if I would want my children aboard a starship when I have some," Gohs wondered out aloud.
"We're an exploratory vessel," Jo-Al reminded her.
"Yes, but we're flying into regions of space we don't know much about. We are surely going to encounter species that are not so friendly," Renel countered.
"The Galaxy class star ships were the first to allow civilian family members on board. Crew efficiency rose by 23%," K'Deel reminded them.
"But then the wars broke out. First the Dominion, then the Borg, the Tzenkethi coalition. We're living in uncertain times," Jo-Al said.
"Let's put aside all uncertainties and be hopeful for our exploratory mission at hand," Cmdr Davis said and rose her glass. "To the discovery of unknown region of space and new first contacts."
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