I am so sorry for the super long wait! I was super busy and then I had writer's block and there has been a lot of stuff going on, but I will try to update more now that it's summer! Sorry about that, I hope you enjoy this new chapter!
Disclaimer: Star Trek and all of it's characters do not belong to me.
Maddy looked at herself in the mirror of the locker rooms. She had successfully found her locker and changed out of her cadet uniform into Operations red. Unable to put it off any longer or risk being late, she sighed and head towards the turbo lift. As she hit the button for the bridge, she took a deep breath. A small ding told her she had reached her floor. The bridge doors opened with a 'whoosh' and she nearly gasped aloud. The bridge was amazing. There were so many buttons and lights and screens. She immediately spotted Pavel and went over to his station. He was at work prepping the machine that he worked with. Not wanting to surprise him, Maddy gently tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and smiled when he saw her. He thought that she looked beautiful in her uniform, but he was too shy to say anything about it. "Hi Maddy!" he said enthusiastically. "Isn't the bridge amazing?" He looked absolutely in awe. She giggled a little bit from the giddiness, and from Pavel's reaction and nodded as she swept her gaze around the room. There were huge windows and people working busily at their stations. Sitting in the Captain's chair was Christopher Pike. Maddy had seen him around the Academy once and a while, but never "on duty" like this. She turned around as Pavel said, "Maddy, this is Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu. He's a pilot." She had her hand shaken by a tall Asian man sitting next to Pavel. "Nice to meet you Maddy. I'm Hikaru Sulu." "Maddy smiled. "Hi. I'm Maddy Chase. Nice to meet you too. " She looked around. Where was her station? As if hearing her thoughts, Nyota Uhura walked up to her. "Ensign Chase? Hi! I'm Nyota Uhura, You're a xenolinguist, right?" Maddy nodded. She knew Nyota but not very well, having only been in a few of her linguistics classes. "You're working by me!" Nyota said. Maddy smiled at her. "Thanks, I was wondering, since the station is in a different spot." She looked over the station's controls and found her earpiece. Nyota nodded and smiled. "Yes, because this is a flagship, the bridge set up is a bit differently. But you'll get used to it." She sat down next to Maddy and took up her own earpiece just as Captain Pike called the Bridge to attention.
"Ladies and gentleman, the maiden voyage of our newest flagship deserves a more pompous circumstance than we can afford today. The christening will just have to be our reward for a safe return. Carry on." he turned the captain's chair to the front, and addressed the entire ship. "All decks, this is Captain Pike. Prepare for immediate departure. Helm, thrusters." Sulu nodded. "Moorings retracted, Captain, dock control reports ready." he reported. "Thrusters fired, separating from space dock." Maddie watched as all of the ships departed from the docks, and prepared to warp. "The fleet's cleared space dock, Captain. All ships ready to warp." Captain Pike nodded in recognition. "Set course for Vulcan." he ordered. "Aye-aye, Captain. Course laid in." Sulu replied. Maddie took a deep breath. This was it, her first mission about to begin.
"Maximum warp. Punch it." said Captain Pike. Sulu complied, putting the ship in maximum warp–but nothing happened. Outside, all the other ships took off one by one, but the Enterprise stayed still. All eyes turned to Sulu, and Captain Pike did not look amused. "Lieutenant, where's helmsman McKenna?" he asked Sulu. "He has lung worms, sir, he couldn't report to his post. I'm Hikaru Sulu." he introduced himself. "And you are a pilot, right?" asked Pike. Sulu chuckled, albeit sightly nervously. "Very much so, sir. I'm uh, I'm not sure what's wrong here." Pike rolled his eyes a little. "Is the parking brake on?" he asked. "No," Sulu shook his head. "I'll figure it out, I'm just–" Spock interrupted. "Have you disengaged the external inertial dampener?" Sulu froze. He pushed a few buttons before straightening and saying "Ready for warp, sir." Pike was smiling now. "Let's punch it." Maddie watched as the stars seemed to bend, and the ship took off. "Engines at maximum warp, Captain." Sulu reported. Pike nodded, before swiveling his chair. "Russian whiz kid, What's your name? Cheikov? Chirpov?" he asked. Maddie smiled to herself at her station when she heard this. "Ensign Chekov, Pavel Andrejevic, sir." she caught Pavel saying. "Fine. Chekov, Pavel Andrejevic, begin ship wide mission broadcast." Pike said. "Yes sir, happy to." Next to Maddie, Uhura set down her earpiece and stood. "I'm needed down on the deck, and a lieutenant will be here soon to take my place. Don't worry though, I'm sure you'll be fine! I'll probably see you around the ship. Bye!" Maddie waved as Uhura got into the turbo lift and disappeared. She sighed. It would have been easier with her here, Uhura was easy to talk to, and Maddie was kind of intimidated about working with an experienced lieutenant. At least she had a few friendly faces here on the bridge. She turned to look at Pavel, and almost giggled out loud when she saw him struggling with the authorization code. "Ensign authorization code: 9-5-Wictor-Wictor-2." he said across the bridge. "Authorization not recognized." spoke the computer. Pavel looked frustrated, his Russian accent was getting in the way. He tried again. "Ensign authorization code," he started again, enunciating carefully. "9-5, Victor-Victor-2." the computer made a noise in confirmation. "Authorization granted." Pavel sighed, and began his transmission. "May I have your attention please. At 2200 hours, telemetry detected an anomaly in the neutral zone, what appeared to be a lightning storm in space. Soon after, Starfleet received a distress signal from the Vulcan high command that their planet was experiencing seismic activity. Our mission is to assess the condition of Vulcan and assist in evacuations if necessary. We should be arriving at Vulcan within 3 minutes. Thank you for your time." The transmission shut off, and Maddie sighed. This mission didn't seem too extreme, although you never know what can happen when you're in Starfleet. But whatever it was, Maddie thought that maybe-just-maybe she could handle it, and hopefully help. This was just the beginning.
Sorry, this chapter is pretty short, I just wanted to divide up the chapters the best way possible. With any luck, you can expect a new chapter soon. Sorry!