Star Trek: Starfleet The Early Years

Premise: Set during the time where Starfleet was just founded. The Vulcans are very apprehensive in letting Humans explore past what the Human race has already explored and colonized. These stories are the chronicles of the crew of one of the earliest Starfleet exploratory vessels.

Guest Stars:

Jonathan Anderson: Keith David

Admiral Hackett: Lance Henriksen

PROLOGUE

Earth Spacedock,

February 15th 2132.

No matter how many times he has seen the Earth from orbit, Captain YiZhong Tan has never grown tired of the spectacular and unspeakable beauty of seeing Earth from orbit. Just before he could get lost in the beautiful sight , a friendly voice which contained a thick British accent woke YiZhong out from his near dreamlike gaze he had on the Earth, "YiZhong, finish admiring the view ?"

YiZhong snapped out of his dreamlike gaze and turned around to see his mentor and good friend Commodore Jonathan Anderson and replied " No I have not Jon, just give me five more minute." Commodore Anderson gave up a big sigh before before joining YiZhong is staring out of the giant clear aluminum panel. Whilst staring out at the majestic view Commodore Anderson said to his protege, " It does not get old does it ? No matter how long and how many times we stare at it, we always find something new to appreciate about it." YiZhong just replied his mentor's statement with a nod of the head and replied "No it does not, I think can stare at it for the whole day."

"Come on YiZhong, we should not keep Admiral Hackett and the Vulcans waiting, you know how the Vulcans feel about people not being punctual." YiZhong realizing that he might just have caused both himself and Commodore Anderson to be late for their important meeting with Admiral Hackett and the Vulcans, YiZhong snapped out of his dreamlike state and replied to his mentor, " Sorry about that, we better get going then."

Commodore Anderson and Captain Tan then made their way to the Shuttle Bay to take the shuttlepod down to Earth to attend the meeting with Admiral Hackett and the Vulcan delegation on the grounds of Starfleet Command.

Starfleet Command,

San Francisco, Earth.

"Come on, you cannot be serious ?" Tan said to the Vulcan delegation in the room with an obvious hint of frustration in his voice . Tan went on " You cannot simply just stop us from exploring the galaxy because you think we are not "ready" for it." The Vulcan delegation looked at each other without the slightest hint of emotion before the head of the delegation, Ambassador Sovar replied the frustrated captain in a calm and unemotional voice, " We think that Starfleet is not adequately equipped technologically to engage in any form of deep space manned exploration due to the fact that Earth vessels has yet to break the Warp 2 barrier or have any adequate tactical system to combat certain "threats" that could be discovered in deep space."

Immediately after the remark made by the ambassador, Commodore Anderson replied the Ambassador's earlier statement with a hint of frustration as well just like his protege did, " Starfleet has made great strides in improving our ship defenses as well as trying to improve our warp drive, I think for a fact that we are ready to start deep space exploration missions."

Ambassador Sovar looked at Admiral Hackett and then turned back to look at Commodore Anderson and Captain Tan and offered a rebuttal to the growingly frustrated Commodore and Captain, " As I have said earlier on, it is not logical for Starfleet to engage in a deep space exploration mission at the present time as your ships do not have the speed or range to engage in a long term deep space exploration mission," Ambassador Sovar continued, "Furthermore, your weapon system is let us say, inadequate in dealing with the unknown threats that could be present in uncharted space."

Tan was about to offer a rebuttal to the ambassador before Admiral Hackett decided to step in to the conversation, "Ambassador, Commodore, Captain, I am sure that we can come to an impasse that can satisfy both parties." Ambassdor Sovar intrigued by the Admiral's statement raised one of his eyebrows before replying, "What sort of impasse do you recommend Admiral ?" Admiral Hackett proceeded to push a few buttons on his desk that brought the large display in the room online which contained various star systems and ships both civilian, Starfleet and finally Vulcan. " Earth ships has traversed a distance of about 90 light years, colonizing Alpha Centauri, Terra Nova and the Vega system." Hackett pressed a few more buttons on the desk which presented a possible path of Starfleet's first deep space mission and continued, " There are a lot of uncharted system and anomalies that has not been discovered within the 90 light years, my suggestion is that Starfleet's first deep space mission is to survey as much of the unexplored regions within the 90 light years."

Ambassador Sovar looked up to the huge display screen and then back to Admiral Hackett and stated, " I find your idea to be adequate, although I still think it is inadvisable for Starfleet to be engaging in deep space exploration while so ill prepared." Tan wanted to voice his objection but before he could say anything, a firm hand grasped his shoulder, it was Anderson who nodded in objection of Tan voicing any objections at the moment.

Ambassador Sovar adequately satisfied with the outcome of the meeting decided to leave, but before leaving the room, Sovar turned around and giving the Vulcan salute while saying "Peace, and Long Live." , and then Sovar left the room with his delegation. As soon as Sovar left the room, Hackett gave a huge sigh of relief and said,

"Finally that's out of the way." before reclining into his seat. " I cannot believe it, why are Vulcans still holding us back ?" Tan said while walking over to the protein resequencer to get a drink. " It is the best outcome we could have hope for, at least they are not stopping us outright." replied Hackett while looking at a PADD. Anderson looking out of the window to the view of the San Francisco bridge replied " I wonder when the Vulcans would finally let us make our own decisions when it comes to space exploration ?"

"Probably never." retorted Tan immediately before taking a sip out of his cup of earl grey tea.

"Gentlemen, we have been given the green light to go out and explore, and even though it is not what we had originally hoped for, we will make the most of it." stated Hackett with a charismatic voice. Hackett reached for a PADD and handed it to Tan before saying, " Captain YiZhong Tan, I hearby put you in command of the Starfleet's first manned deep space exploration mission, you would be given free reign in choosing your senior staff as well as your crew from anywhere within Starfleet. Be ready to leave within the next six months." Tan was shocked by his newest order and could only offer one response to the Admiral " Thank you sir, for this chance." Hackett offered a warm smile and replied, "Don't thank me, thank Commodore Anderson he was the one who put in the good word on your behalf." Anderson just smiled and nodded to the shocked young Captain. "Well Captain Tan, where do you want to start looking for your crew ? " asked Anderson. " In all honesty Commodore, I have no idea. I just know that it's going to be a long six months and I am going to start looking for people right now." replied a smiling Tan before exiting Admiral Hackett's office with a PADD in one hand and his tea in another. Hackett looked to Anderson and said, " That's one easily excitable protege you have over there Jon." Anderson replied full of pride" The perfect candidate for an explorer."

*Any feedback would be really welcomed as this is my first time writing in such a manner. Normally I write more academic papers.