Disclaimer: I own all the people I said I own before, as well Lieutenant Tymar Halrinso, Dr. Rizux, Ensign Nobema, Dr. Keller, Bush, and Pearson. I also own the Crenarans. All the other characters mentioned by name do not belong to me. While Miral Paris is the creation of the makers of Voyager, her future self in this story is also my idea.
After this half-hour, Captain Larson decided to break the silence. He turned to Tom and said
"So, tell me about this 'Patrick Wood' person you mentioned earlier." said Larson.
"Oh, where to begin?" said Paris. "The guy is a genius."
"I could assume that." Larson told him. "His records at Starfleet indicate his IQ is close to 560 points. And yet he is not genetically engineered."
"That's one thing we can rule out as the reason for his extraordinary intelligence." said Tom. "At the end of his second year, he made his appearance in front of the Federation Council, and he gave them a report on the theories of the warp field and similar items. He enlightened them on a few variables and other things their prior knowledge had been oblivious to. He impressed them so much with his insight and how he had already learned all the Academy material required for all four years that they decided to let him graduate that year. He also won against a Vulcan, an Android, a Hologram, and a genetically-engineered person in six games of chess."
"I myself have never lost a game of chess." said Captain Larson. "I guess I shouldn't play Mr. Wood if I don't want my record to be ruined."
"Klingons would consider that to be a cowardly tactic, sir." Miral told her commanding officer.
"It is merely a precaution, Lieutenant." said Larson. "Say, speaking of Klingons, am I to understand that there will be at least two dozen on board this ship?"
"29 as of right now, sir." said Casey from the cockpit. "We have more than any other Federation starship."
"I wonder why that is." said Marquez.
"Miral and I know the reason." Admiral Paris told the flight controller, the engineer, and the captain. Then he went into the story of how Miral had been conceived during Voyager's last year in the Delta Quadrant, and their subsequent run-in with that Klingon battle cruiser. Miral's father had told her this story many times since the days when he and B'Elanna had tucked her in bed at night. At any rate, Tom told the other three about how the Klingons had believed that Miral was the Kuvah'magh, the Klingon savior who would restore order to the Klingon Empire. Upon returning home to the Alpha Quadrant, Admiral Janeway felt it necessary to address this belief to the Klingon High Command. Some of the Council had disregarded that prophecy altogether, but many of them, including Chancellor Martok, had taken time to ponder on the authenticity of the prophecy. In the end, almost half the Council believed that Miral was the Kuvah'magh after they had examined all the evidence. When they released this news to the public, many more Klingons started to believe in the prophecy. In the end, when Miral applied to Starfleet Academy, hundreds of Klingons followed her lead and did the same. As a result, almost all of them graduated successfully. Conveniently, the starship that had the most Klingons always seemed to be the one that Miral was on. But she actually appreciated the respect she had gained from her people.
"This is going to be one riveting command." said Larson. The silence resumed after he said that last statement.
Just before they arrived, Tom remembered something he had meant to address to Mike earlier. He took out a PADD and handed it to him, saying "I just recalled something, Mike. Most of the senior staff has been selected, but you're still in need of a First Officer, a Chief Engineer, and a Linguistics Expert/Communications Officer."
Captain Larson looked through the information written down on the PADD. Then he said "I think I may know where to find a decent communications officer."
Finally, fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the Utopia Planitia Shipyards. The USS Champion was in the center of all the vessels. It was the largest one there.
"If you want, come see the ship for yourself, Captain." Casey told Mike.
Larson stood up and stepped up to the huge window at the front of the cockpit. He was awed by what he saw. The Champion was larger than any ship he had ever seen. The circular saucer section was almost half a mile in diameter. Below it was the huge engineering section. There were three warp nacelles on the engineering section, and another two were on the saucer section; one on the right side and one on the left.
"Miral, let them know we're coming aboard." Admiral Paris ordered his daughter.
She nodded and opened the comline. She said "This is Admiral Paris' shuttle the Volvo to the USS Champion transporting Captain Larson. Request permission to dock."
Almost immediately, there was a voice that responded with "Permission granted. Please proceed to the main hanger on Deck 5."
The comline was closed and Larson said to the flight controller "Mr. Casey, bring us in."
"Bringing us in, sir." Casey reported as he made the necessary course adjustments.
The shuttle flew steadily towards the hanger bay. Lieutenant Casey carefully maneuvered the small ship and entered the hanger through the forcefield on the entrance. This type of forcefield allowed electrical objects and whatever was inside them to pass through it, but it was always held in place to keep the pressure in the hanger even.
Finally, the shuttle set down and docked in the main bay. After shutting down power to the shuttle, Miral said "We're here at last."
Larson was very excited at that moment. He was finally in the USS Champion herself, and she was his ship. His ship with a crew of his own to command!
The five passengers departed from the shuttle and headed to the doors leading to the interior of the Champion. Standing in the doorway was a Bolian officer. He had his hands connected together behind his back. When the group of five approached the door, he gave a light bow and said "Welcome aboard the USS Champion, Captain Larson."
Larson nodded at him and said "Thank you for that greeting, Lieutenant. You must be in the security branch of the ship."
"He is." Paris told him. "Captain Larson, this is Lieutenant Tymar Halrinso, the Champion's Security Chief and Third Officer."
Mike shook hands with the Bolian officer. He then said "I would take a shrewd guess that you will be accompanying me and the Admiral on my preliminary inspection of the ship."
"If it is no hindrance to you, sir," said Halrinso, "I would prefer to join you."
Larson shrugged and said "Be my guest." He turned to the people standing with him and said "Mr. Casey, Miss Paris, report to the bridge and take your stations."
They nodded and left the room. Miral whispered to her father "See you on the bridge" as she walked past him.
"I am glad you approve of my accompanying you, sir." said Halrinso. Then he added in "Because I am the one who is conducting the order of the rooms in your inspection."
"Well, why did you not say that in the first place?" asked Larson.
"Based on what Admiral Paris told me," Halrinso explained, "you like to be surprised in the most unusual ways."
Glaring over at Tom, Mike said to Halrinso "Lieutenant, if there's one thing you need to know while you are on this ship, it's that you should sometimes question what Admiral Paris tells you about your crewmembers' personal lives."
Tom just snickered at Mike's comment. Mike turned back to Halrinso and told him "I know that your people have a way of surprising people when they least expect it, but I would never expect them to joke like that."
"Captain, you may not know a lot about me," said Halrinso, "but there is one thing you should know: I do not tell jokes. Come to think of it, I sometimes wonder if I even have a sense of humor."
"Halrinso is a very practical security guard." Tom whispered in Mike's ear. "He takes his responsibilities very seriously and he tolerates no nonsense. And don't worry; he has a sense of humor. Sure, it may be poorly developed, but it is there nonetheless."
"Captain," Marquez declared, "I'll be accompanying you on your tour as well. If you have any questions as to the layout or operations of the ship, just let me know."
Captain Larson just nodded and said "The more, the merrier." He turned to Halrinso and suggested "Shall we begin?"
Halrinso held his hand down the corridor and said "This way, Captain."
The four men headed down the corridor to begin their inspection of the ship. They headed to Main Engineering first. The engine room there was a lot like that of the Enterprise-D and the Voyager. But there were three levels instead of just two. On each level, the walkways extended to the warp core in a few places. This was structured so that the warp core could be easily accessed from a terminal placed on the core itself. This was handy for making alterations to a certain part of the core in the event that just one part needed to be modified.
When the four men entered the engine room, Marquez did most of the talking:
"You see, Captain, in addition to our weapons and medicine, we have taken the liberty of upgrading our engines as well. Like the Galaxy-class starships, this ship has the ability to separate the saucer section from the stardrive section. In the event of that, we have a second warp core installed in the saucer section. It's smaller than the main warp core and only brought online during the saucer separation. It can't go higher than warp 5, but it is still quite effective."
Larson was most impressed by Marquez's extensive knowledge of not only the engine room, but virtually the entire ship.
When Marquez was finished explaining the engine room, he told Larson "As the Admiral told you earlier, Captain, you're still in need of a Chief Engineer. Between you and me, I would recommend Pearson over there."
Marquez gestured to a man around his age that was running a diagnostic on the plasma manifold. He said "Pearson is well-versed in all the operations of this ship, and he could tell you the location of all the buttons on any workstation in this room blindfolded. He is not quite familiar with all the engineering protocols yet, but I will see to it that he can cover them all."
"I'll be sure to include him in my list of nominees, Lieutenant." Larson told him.
A short time later, after inspecting many of the rooms, the four men made their way too sickbay. In sickbay, a crewmember with pointed ears was kneeling in front of a panel, working on a certain program. She was muttering under her breath as a Crenaran doctor came over to her. He asked her "Any progress, Ensign?"
"Not yet, sir." she told the doctor. "If I could only isolate the malfunction from the rest of the dataflow, I would be able to keep it out of the program."
The Crenarans were a blue-skinned species with a type of tusk protruding from the sides of their necks. Their average size was about that of a Human, and their hair varied in color. The Crenaran doctor on that ship had long black hair tied in a short ponytail.
The Crenaran doctor sighed and said "Figures this would happen right now. I just heard from Crewman Bush that the Captain arrived twenty minutes ago and he's making his first inspection of the ship. Fine time for this program to get a glitch in it."
"Don't worry." said the Ensign with the pointy ears. "I'll have this program up and ready for him."
"What program?" said a voice from the doorway. The Crenaran and the pointy-eared Ensign looked at the entrance. There was Captain Larson.
Upon seeing the Captain, the pointed-eared ensign rose to her feet and stood up straight. Larson, Paris, Halrinso, and Marquez entered sickbay. Mike approached the Crenaran and shook his hand while grinning widely. He asked him "How are you doing, Doctor Rizux?"
"I'm doing quite fine, Captain." answered the Crenaran.
"Science Officer and Chief Medical Officer's Assistant." said Larson, admiring Rizux's achievements. "You got yourself a sweet deal."
"Naturally, sir." said Rizux.
"I read in your report that you already knew Dr. Rizux before you came on board, sir." said Lieutenant Halrinso.
"That is correct, Lieutenant." said Larson. "He and I met when I was serving aboard the Bradford."
Halrinso led Larson over to the pointy-eared Ensign and told him "This is Ensign Nobema. She's our Operations Officer and Transporter Chief."
She shook hands with Larson. When they finished their handshake, he said "You're a Romulan?"
She nodded and said "Yes, and I am pleased to meet you, sir. I want you to know I am very proud to be a member of the senior staff on a prototype starship."
"It's a pleasure to have a Romulan on board." said Larson agreeably. "It's a sign that perhaps someday the Neutral Zone will become a shared territory after all."
Nobema grinned and focused her attention back on the panel. While she worked, Larson asked her "So, what was that program you were referring to?"
"Well, Captain…" Nobema began, "it's something that…" she paused while she made a slight adjustment to the coupling relays, and then continued with "something that I think you'll like, sir."
Then there was a beeping sound that indicated she was successful in deleting the glitch in the program. She stood up, said "Here we go" and activated the program.
A holographic person materialized in the middle of sickbay. Larson turned to the person, but was not as interested as one thought he would be. He assumed "An EMH?"
"Not just any EMH, sir." Rizux corrected him. "This is the latest in the series."
"It- I mean he- is the prototype of the Mark XV series." Nobema informed the Captain. "Starfleet Command felt it appropriate to assign the first of the latest model to the Champion-class prototype. He'll be our Chief Medical Officer full-time. Here, let me show you how he functions in relation to us."
She pressed a few buttons on the wall and everyone in the room focused on the EMH. He sprang to life. He started by yawning and rubbing his eyes.
"He yawns?" Larson whispered to Nobema.
"They felt it to be ideal that he seem more realistic." she enlightened him. "We've programmed him to yawn, sneeze, and cough at random intervals. We've even programmed him to stretch when he yawns every once in a while."
Larson raised one of his eyebrows, indicating that he was fascinated by their programming. The EMH then turned to him and said "Ah, you must be Captain Larson."
"You are correct, Doctor." said the Captain as he held out his hand.
"It is a pleasure to finally meet you." said the EMH as he took Larson's hand and shook it. "Dr. Keller, at your service."
When their hands came apart, Larson looked at his own hand in amazement. He said aloud "His hand… it actually feels warm."
"My body is programmed to emanate small amounts of heat as the Human body does." the EMH explained. "Ensign Nobema felt that it, too, would make me seem more real."
Larson looked at Nobema and gave her an approving nod. Then he turned to the EMH and asked him "'Dr. Keller?'"
"Ever since the Mark IX series, all EMH units have surnames to go with their titles." Nobema explained. "It is just one more way to make them more like organic beings."
"Do you have a first name, Doctor?" Larson asked Keller.
"Not yet, sir." said the EMH. "All EMH units are allowed to select their own first names. It is a privilege few organic organisms have."
Admiral Paris was clearly fascinated as well. He said "I remember back when we were stranded in the Delta Quadrant. We were stuck with an EMH Mark I for our entire journey. He was an exemplary physician, but he would never shut up. Worse yet, I was stuck as his assistant for the last four years."
"There is no need for worry, Admiral." said Dr. Keller. "You will find me to be a lot more realistic and easier to get along with than the Mark I series."
Larson said to Nobema "Ensign, keep this up and you just may get promoted to Lieutenant in our first month out of port."
"Thank you, sir." said the young Romulan officer. "I look forward to it."
