Oklahoma Command
Star Fleet is a large organization, but it has only one job, one post, which captures the imagination. Commanding, USS Enterprise, USS Voyager, USS Infinity, USS Excelsior, USS Excaliber, it matters not the name of the ship, though some are more sought after than others, it is the adventures of those who climb to the heights of Starship Command that we lust after. Occasionally another job will catch our attention, but we all want to sit in the center of a starship's bridge.
Nearly every day in the Federation, someone is probably taking command of a starship. It may be for the first time, or it may be moving up to a better command. They are the lucky ones, the ones who have the chance to inspire us through their adventures and explorations. The moments before they take command are ones that we gloss over. We want to be boldly going where no one has gone before. We don't think of what might be going through those minds, petty or grand.
Those moments are here. We present four Captains on the day they take command of the USS Oklahoma, in four separate shorts.
The Oklahoma's First Commanding Officer
Captain Roy Pratt (cmdg. 2345-2346)
Captain Roy Pratt placed his hand on the back of the Captain's char. It's plastic packing cover had only recently been removed. The Oklahoma was his twenty-second and probably last command. Retirement was swiftly approaching for the silver haired Captain.
The incident that had doomed him to shake down captain assignments was deep in the past. His mistakes had prevented him from standing for promotions, indeed, he'd been lucky to remain in the Fleet. There had been a time when he had thanked the board for their decision that his actions were without malice, but could have shown better judgement. Since that day, Star Fleet had never placed him in any spot where he could show otherwise.
The Oklahoma was a ship of the line, a first rate. It was an honor to command one, and this would be his third ... but his command would end, like they all did, when she passed final inspection and was added to the regular duty list. Someone else, someone younger, someone untainted, would take this ship out, boldy going where Pratt had once dreamed of. He'd ruined his chances to seek what could be found, and now just had one last new ship, and his duty would be over.
Still, the ritual must be adhered to, one last time. His voice rose, and no longer the clear tenor of his youth, but a slightly hoarse one of age began.
"To Captain Roy L. Pratt, Star Fleet Construction, from Admiral Pavel Chekov, Star Fleet Operations, you are hereby directed and required to take command of the USS Oklahoma ...
The Oklahoma's Second Commanding Officer
Captain Alyanna Necheyev (cmdg. 2346-2362)
Captain Alyanna Necheyev looked at the orders again. She couldn't believe they would give her an Ambassador. With just five years seniority as Captain, it seemed to her to be a little bit much. She read it again.
"To Captain Alyanna Necheyev, commanding USS John McLean, from Admiral Aaron, Star Fleet Operations on behalf Admiral Szymanowski, Commander Star Fleet.
You are hereby directed and required on recept of this message to hand over command of the McLean to your first officer and take immediate transport to Star Base 12, where you will assume command of the USS Oklahoma, NCC-51890."
An Ambassador, just finished with it's shakedown, and it was Necheyev's. It was no Enterprise, but in Necheyev's view, there was no one worthy of the Enterprise. This, however, was the next best thing, a ship of the line about to embark on a mission to an unexplored sector.
She would be doing what every Star Fleet Captain worth their salt wanted to do. Necheyev would be following in Captain James T. Kirk's footsteps. When she was little she had seen the documentary on James T. Kirk. It had begun with his own recitation of the Enterprise's mission statement, with a montage of his ships. Necheyev could still hear it in her mind ...
... It was such a thrilling reading that it had echoed with every step from that day, all the way through the Academy. There Necheyev had learnt about the great captains, Kirk, Pike, Archer ... in her mind they were the giants. No one could match them. The best one could hope was to have the esteem of your fellow captains.
Captain Necheyev looked at the orders again ... a ship of the line on an exploratory mission ... someday, maybe she'd be in that company.
The Oklahoma's Third Commanding Officer:
Captain Ghazi Fahim (cmdg. 2363-2371)
Captain Ghazi Fahim was in a shuttle approaching his new command. It was an Ambassador Class Starship, the Oklahoma. That had not been what he'd expected. It was his third command. He'd commanded the Frigate Bahamut for his first command. It was small, but that was expected in a first command. After five years, he'd been promoted to command an Excelsior, the Vigorous. He'd met his wife there, and his daughter had been born on board as the ship had patrolled the far reaches of Federation Space. And now after eighteen years as Captain, Star Fleet had given him an Ambassador.
It was not fair.
He had worked hard. His ships had survived and returned to port every time. Fahim was a soldier, ready, willing, and able.
It was not fair.
He'd shown his diplomatic skills, aided in the discovery of several scientific finds, and even suffered through shuttling notable duties. Fahim could be what they needed.
It was not fair.
He had a family, a daughter, and a wife. He deserved more than this Ambassador, this second rate ship of the line.
It was not fair.
He'd applied for better, and had recommendations from all his former Commanding Officers, but he hadn't gotten the ship. He hadn't gotten the one command that really mattered, the one ship that while you're in that center seat you can do things.
It was not fair.
They'd given it to a Captain with twenty-five years seniority. A Captain who wasn't worthy of the Galaxy Class Starship. A Captain who had lost his first and only command.
It was not fair.
The ship was to have families on board, lots of them. His wife thought it would be good for his young daughter. Fahim wasn't sure, but the ship should have gone to someone with a family, who knew what families were like. Not a confirmed bachelor who practically married his ship.
It was not fair.
He had everything they said they wanted, everything they asked for. Multiple commands, diplomatic experience, and even a family, and the man who had gotten it had none of that, really.
It was not fair.
Ghazi Fahim deserved the USS Enterprise, not Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the stuck up Frenchman.
The Oklahoma's Fourth Commanding Officer:
Captain Shawneela Osanna (cmdg. 2371-)
Shawneela Osanna was in a shuttle pod approaching the USS Oklahoma. An Ambassador Class Starship, the predecessor class of the Galaxies, she didn't know why she rated such a ship for her first command. Most Captains got frigates, your Constellations, Intrepids, Mirandas, and Oberths, for their first commands. Having served five years as First Officer of the Galaxy, and having been Second Officer of the same ship before that, she supposed that the Admiralty expected her to be more used to a larger ship command than one of those small ones. She certainly didn't rate a Galaxy.
Osanna knew she had been rather highly rated by her Captain and his Commanding Officer. While she didn't like to read too deeply into her evaluations, she did read them. She and her former Captain had been a good Command Team, leading the Galaxy to a solid record of successes during her five years as First Officer.
Ossana didn't see herself as something special. There were other First Officers rated as well or better than she was that she knew. None of them had been woken up late at night and offered command of an Ambassador Class Starship. Especially not one where they had just forty hours to report to.
Osanna wasn't sure how she should handle her command. She'd heard that her predecessor had run the Oklahoma on a very strict line, insisting on perfection. Considering that he'd been promoted to Admiral for it, and her ship was used to it, continuing that trend wouldn't be too bad of an idea. She wasn't bringing a single new officer with her to the Oklahoma. Her command staff would be the same as Fahim's had been.
There was a problem with being the strict distant Captain. It contrasted and conflicted with Osanna's empathic and telepathic talents. She had great control over her telepathic talents, but her empathic talents tended to reach out and let her know about a person's feelings when she least wanted to. Some of Osanna's friends at the Academy had thought that would make it essential for her to be that distant commander. Osanna knew better. She needed a sense of her ship, the community that she had to take charge of.
Community, that's what she had to get into, be a part of, to make her command work. While it wasn't a Galaxy, the Oklahoma was a family-enabled ship, and that gave her some ideas. She wanted her crew to see her as approachable, likeable, yet in charge and commanding.
Osanna had no idea how she was going to do that. Family-enabled wasn't the same as the Galaxy-Classes' family-designated status. The little data she had said there were only a dozen children on the Oklahoma, compared to the three score on the Galaxy. She had to build up trust, not just in her immediate staff, but among her crew as well. Those dozen children where as good a place to start as any, if she wanted to seem approachable, Osanna thought.
As the shuttle settled on the deck of the shuttle bay, Osanna drew her thoughts together. She reminded herself that it wasn't going to be an easy job, but she had accepted it. It was time to take command, to sit in that center seat by her own right.
The two tone welcome rang out, and a new Captain stepped out of their shuttle to take command of a Federation Starship. It was a new beginning. It might end as a legend, tragedy, or triumph. Today it was impossible to tell. Time would tell that story, and history would record it.