Chapter 9

Officer Exchange

Captain Chang Hirozanru waited for the Cornerian exchange officer to show up. It had only been a few hours ago that he received word back from Admiral Picard that they had started an officer exchange program with the Cornerian Government.

A few minutes later, a young Cornerian entered the bridge from the Turbolift. She had the appearance of a Lynx. A humanoid Lynx, anyway. She was wearing the standard Cornerian officer's uniform. Standard, unless you didn't count the mercenary Star Fox logo embroidered on her jacket. Chang could see she was the flirty, skilled-but-cocky type of person, judging by her stance when she walked onto the bridge. That, and her stride was full of confidence. An admirable trait.

"Miyu Lynx, reporting for duty Captain Hiro." She said in a formal tone.

"At ease, Miss Lynx." Captain Hiro said. "Welcome aboard."

"Thank you, sir." Miyu replied. "General Peppy has briefed me on the situation. So, with all due respect, where is my assigned station?"

"Over there, where Icheb is currently. He's been having to substitute for the Tactical officer's duties recently." Hiro motioned over to the Tactical station next to the Helm.

Icheb got up out of the Tactical station's chair, vacating the station so Miyu could take over. Miyu sat down at the station, familiarizing herself with the Lcars control system. Hiro got up out of his chair and went over to the tactical station as Miyu sat down. Hiro was going to give her an overview of the Tactical station.

"Okay, so these are the main phaser bank controls. You press this to power up the arrays. And this is the torpedo launcher controls. The bars above both the photon and phaser arrays controls the yield of the weapons, so the higher the bar is, the more yield the weapon has..."

# # # # # #

Marcus did his best to cap his nerves as he waited for the shuttle to take him from the Cornerian dry dock to take him to his new post: The USS Tokein. The memory of the incident on Corneria was still fresh in his mind. Okay, he thought to himself. No pressure, just the first actual assignment with the Federation. Don't think about Captain M'Raia and the incident. Don't think about the awkwardness of the situation, don't think about how much pressure you're going to be under on this posting, don't think about the sarcastic, embarrassing remarks of her tactical officer… Too late.

The Federation shuttle's engine hum jarred him from his thoughts as it landed. It was shaped teardrop-like with pylons for the warp engines. The Federation engineers called them "Nacelles." The shuttle was pointed at the nose, and the back large for cargo and boarding, with some sort type of micro-fusion engines on the sides.

The back of the shuttle opened. Inside was Ensign Nick Wilson. Marcus recognized him from the shore leave group with M'Raia. That, and Peppy had given him profiles of the senior officers of the Tolkein.

"Marcus McCloud?" Nick asked as Marcus stepped on board the shuttle.

"That's me." Marcus answered.

"Ensign Nick Wilson." Nick shook Marcus' hand. "I hear you will be the exchange officer filling in for the helm?"

"Yeah." Marcus answered as he sat down in one of the shuttle's chairs. "Never flown anything that big, though."

"Don't worry." Nick said. "Tolkein's actually quite easy to fly. I should know, since you are filling my position while I'm in this officer exchange program. She's a beauty, too. Galaxy-class, Venture refit. Recently got the Bio-Neural circuitry upgrade, so she's really responsive. That, and a maximum warp speed of 9.26, that is if you don't count slipstream or trans-warp. Don't worry, you be good to her and she will be good to you."

I just hope her captain is as forgiving, Marcus thought as they took off back towards the Tolkein. A little while later after they broke through Corneria's atmosphere, they flew through space in orbit. A few moments later, they caught sight of the Tolkein, with the Apache, Artemis, and Enterprise. As they got closer, Marcus was in awe: The Tolkien was huge! Only the Enterprise seemed comparable in size!

They started to dock in the Tolkien's main shuttle bay. M'raia was waiting near the launchpad, with Lieutenant Robin Alan and the Tellarite main engineer he was briefed on beforehand named Nugrog Clahk.

"Well, time to meet the family. Again, welcome to the family Marcus." Nick said.

# # # # #

Marcus stepped off the shuttle to meet with M'raia and the others. He could feel the butterflies going through his stomach as he began to approach the Starfleet entourage.

M'Raia smiled at Marcus, as she looked over the datapad she was holding. "Ah, Mr. McCloud. Welcome aboard the Tolkein. I see you are slated to be our acting Helmsman during the duration of this assignment. You've already met my Tactical officer and Security Chief, Robin Alan. I would also like to introduce you to my Chief Engineer, Lieutenant-Commander Nugrog Clahk."

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. McCloud." Clahk shook Marcus' hand. "So, what do you think of the Tolkein, so far?"

"She's quite… Gorgeous, I must say." Marcus said.

"Yes, I quite agree. Now, take good care of her, and try not to push her beyond her limits or I might be tempted to break your legs."

"Uh..." Marcus was hesitant, surprised by the intimidation.

"Hey! Just kidding… No, actually not kidding. Don't push her too hard. She may look like a giant tough slab of tritanium, but she's actually quite the delicate flower." Clahk finished as he pinned a Starfleet Combadge onto Marcus' vest. "Just tap this if you need to contact anyone on this ship. It's a communicator. Also, don't forget: General Peppy's being given a tour of the ship. I'll send you some diagrams of the decks so you can show him around. Don't forget to stop by Engineering!"

With that, Clahk went on his merry way back to Engineering.

Marcus was stumped. "Uh… Does he do that to everyone?"

"Oh, don't mind Clahk. He does that with all the new helmsman that come aboard." Robin said. "Anyways, I am the tactical officer of this fine vessel. My only request is that if we ever get engaged in combat, which I'm sure we will, just help me make sure I hit my targets. After all, nothin' like teamwork to make the dream work!"

"...And on that note, let's get back to our stations." M'Raia said. With that, the set off for one of the turbolifts to the bridge. "Don't worry. I'm not too demanding of a commander. Just do your job right the first time, and everything will go smoothly."

Robin chuckled in the background as they got in the turbolift. "Oh, ain't that the truth..."

M'Raia gave Robin a glare of warning. "Deck one." She said.

The turbolift began to rise through the ship, going up through the different decks.