Star Trek Lost Destiny
By Hemaccabe
Book I: Race of Death
Chapter 21 Next Mission
We had finished loading all replaceable consumables for the ship. We also got a cargo like the last, filling our cargo transporter room. This one had some care packages but was mostly building supplies.
We would be making a delivery to Outpost Six.
Since the last major incident, Star Base 3 had been massively rebuilt.
Outposts Two, Three, Four and Eight, which had all been destroyed, had all been rebuilt along the same lines, with minefields and other defenses in depth.
Space is big. No static defense can hope to stop an invading force, but the outposts could hope to detect and warn. They could also hope, for at least a short time, to deny the invading force complete freedom of operation. This could also buy the Federation and Starfleet valuable time to marshal our defenses.
In theory, the Romulans could simply go around the neutral zone. However, the main part of their Star Empire was on the other side of the agreed neutral zone. The Empire would have a massive job building infrastructure, moving ships and dealing with the logistics to do so if they wanted to go around. To the years of work and billions of Credit's worth of investment it would take to prepare such an option, the Federation could simply inform them we were extending the neutral zone and build a new outpost. We also both shared a border with the Klingons.
Unfortunately, such an effective strategy, developed with such thought and care by Archer and Sarek, was undermined by a Federation unwilling to put the few Credits necessary into maintaining it.
While the rebuilt Outposts were shining deterrents to a potential Romulan invasion, the other Outposts, One, Five, Six, Seven and Nine, were little changed from before the incident.
It also would never hurt to add a few more outposts to help extend and tighten the deterrent as they did so at a rock bottom price.
There was a very slow-moving program to rebuild the surviving Outposts to a higher standard. As Outpost Six was considered the most vulnerable, it had been selected to be first. I knew Nine was supposed to come next. After that, who knew which?
It might not matter, because while Two, Three, Four and Eight had gone up in less than a year a piece, Six was still under construction. Assuming no further action on the border and at this rate, my grandchildren might not live long enough to see all the Outposts updated.
Still, there was a hardworking Star Fleet Core of Engineers team working on Six right now. They needed their care packages.
My badly uniformed muse had to point out, "See, they're still just using you as a messenger."
My well-dressed muse replied, "We're still a new ship. We're still a new crew. You're still a very young Captain. There is nothing wrong with getting some time to figure things out. You're getting eyes on some valuable parts of the galaxy to season you. While Ticonderoga hasn't been sent to dice in the triangle and the Azure Nebula, she is on the Romulan Neutral Zone right now. She is part of Star Fleet's strategic reserve and deterrent."
When I got anxious, I'd just have the well-dressed muse repeat herself. She was convincing.
It was a very uneventful trip back and forth to Outpost Six.
The actual visit was pleasant. The Outpost crew still manned in the same old outpost from before the incident. The outpost had been updated to some extent but was still like an artifact almost back to NCC-101 Enterprise days. The all-female outpost crew was very happy to welcome our slightly more male than female crew for a visit. I noticed that David did not go down.
We also got an up-close look at the construction of the new outpost. As with most large-scale construction projects, it was amazing.
We had the engineers aboard for a dinner.
"Thanks for having us for dinner. We were curious about your new ship." The Lieutenant in charge, Green, mentioned.
"We'll have to let Chief Engineer Preston give you a tour after dinner."
Chief Kinnebrew did his normal good work.
During dinner I asked, "What is taking so long with the construction?"
Lieutenant Green answered, "I get that question a lot. When they were rebuilding, they had a crew of over a thousand working all shifts. We are six. We're doing all we can as fast as we can, but we can't be a thousand."
Which explained the slow progress. Hopefully the Federation would figure out how important this work was before it was too late.
My dirty muse had to add, "Probably not."
Our lives settled into being part of the Romulan Neutral Zone strategic deterrent.
"Endless military patrol." My dirty muse pointed out.
"Still learning and doing." My shiny muse replied.
At least the food was good. We were getting back to Rae's World so often, the synthesizers barely needed to be used and were used more as a convenience than necessity.
We were producing so much of the algae paste, which was the main ingredient of the synthesizers, that we were leaving care packages at outposts and on Rae's World. An outpost's old Life Support might not produce enough. The paste could also be used to make things like emergency rations and there was a firm on Rae's World that produced them.
There were ships where meals of real food only happened once a year and they could not remember their last shore leave. This was soft duty. I knew I should be grateful. We could be tracking ion storms on the galactic rim, conserving paste and not having seen port in years.
I was taking my regular orders from CinC RSE DNZ. I had received no papers indicating he was my commanding officer or that this ship was assigned to his command.
I had comm'ed Admiral Kirk about it in writing.
He replied in writing as well.
"You may remember that when departing Sol space, you asked for Star Fleet and myself to provide a sponsor for the ship. It would have been nice if, say, the Secretary of the Federation's wife Melania was available.
"At the time, I explained that it would be better if this ship kept a low profile for the time being.
"Unfortunately, there are a number of strategic and political considerations that still make this advantageous.
"You're doing a good job so far. Yes, you should listen to CinC RSE DNZ's commands. He knows what I want you to do. If you're concerned, you're also welcome to contact me."
One project that took the edge off was uniforms. Once upon a time, Star Fleet uniforms were a lot more comfortable. Now Officers had the formal and dress uniforms, and nothing else. I did some research. As far back as the twentieth century, there had been another, more comfortable level of uniform, called "Duty." When Kirk was on his Five-Year Mission, they had worn a duty uniform almost exclusively. I didn't want to spend the rest of my career in a formal uniform. I wanted to bring that duty uniform back.
Every out and back gave us a day or two on Rae's Planet. Kiki, Rachel and I researched materials available. They had several booths where they provided some lovely materials.
Kiki asked, "Are you allowed to just go around changing the uniform?"
So, I gave her the answer my research had provided. "Regulations describe what the uniform should look like. However, the regulations specifically give me, as Captain, the right to select which uniform the crew is required to wear. Hence when you have heard me order formal or dress uniform.
"The regulations also give me broad discretion in the operation of my ship. Essentially, I'm allowed to do anything I haven't been specifically prohibited from doing. If you haven't noticed, our ship has been operating in a sort of grey zone. I think we should take advantage."
We settled on a particular material, it was a lovely pre-shrunk cotton. It felt light, breathed, but was still substantial and felt good against the skin. The problem was the three colors we liked, came from three different booths.
So, I had to engage in my first formal diplomacy of business negotiations. The two booths not providing the cloth were worried they weren't going to be paid.
All it took was for me to say, "I assure you. You will be paid." And the negotiations concluded.
For Science and Medical, Kiki had selected a really gorgeous royal/sky blue. For Engineering and Support, Rachel had a tougher time. At first, she liked a really bold red. Unfortunately, it clashed with all the maroon and plum in our uniforms badly. She finally found a really dramatic crimson that worked well.
For me, finding a gold was hard. I didn't want a yellow or a tan, or, worst of all, mustard. Finally, I found something that had an almost metallic rose gold.
"Wow, that gold really works for your eyes." Kiki opined.
We got material and started to make uniforms in my quarters.
We also worked on pants. Culottes pants had been part of the Star Fleet uniform for a long time. They had even been part of the Five-Year Mission Duty Uniform. To be honest, I had never liked them.
When I researched back to the original Earth Fleet uniforms, they had practical, comfortable pants. Somehow, those uniforms had grown up to be the enlisted jumpsuit of today and we officers had been stuck dressing like medieval harlequins.
We argued on and on about the pants. We were pretty sure we liked something like the tops on the Duty uniforms from the Five-Year Mission. For pants, Rachel and I liked something loose and Kiki wanted something tight.
Kiki explained, "I don't like it. It's not going to allow me to be feminine."
It might have been two against one, but somehow, despite both wanting something loose and practical, Rachel and I never liked the same thing.
Then one evening, as we worked, Rachel picked up my clip tablet. "Hey, what's this?" She asked.
I looked, it was uniforms from the original Earth Fleet and Enterprise.
"Oh, I was just looking at those for pant research." I explained.
Kiki looked and went, "Ooh," in an interested way.
Suddenly Kiki and Rachel both liked something. I looked again.
We hadn't been thinking of a jumpsuit, but if the jumpsuit fit?
We wouldn't do something exactly like the original jumpsuit. Ours would be updated a bit. The top would be in department color and the bottoms would be in basic black. Rather than zipping up the middle, it would retain the formal uniform's buttons on the right shoulder tunic construction. Still, they would have round cuffs at the ankle. The whole thing would be less fussy then the original. We also deleted all pockets and the back straps above the waist and made those below more discreet.
When we sewed up a prototype, it just got better. If one wanted looser and more comfortable, one could have that. If one wanted tighter and showier, like Kiki, one could have that. What was really amazing was how fast one could get into and out of them.
I spent a substantial portion of my day dressing. With all the workouts I did and the need to always look fresh, I had to change uniforms and dress in fresh uniforms frequently. The formal uniform took a lot of dressing time.
I could jump into this jumpsuit and be on my way in less than half the time the formal took. I could really find uses for that time.
I also liked that even though we deleted all above the waist pockets, they still had plenty of very practical pockets in the pants.
The jumpsuit still anticipated a collar, which would be in basic black. If one was warm, the collar could be a dickie. I expected most would wear the shirt version, though sleeve length was also discretionary. If one was cold, the under suit could be a full set of long johns, perhaps insulated if one was really cold.
That left the boots.
The pointy toed harlequin boot was a legacy of many Federation member species feeling pointy toes were stylish and dignified. To my great chagrin, one of the leaders of this opinion was Vulcan. My grandfather, Ambassador Sarek, was all about the pointy toes.
These awful boots had been kept in inventory for over forty years by consistent technological improvement. The two big changes were auto-custom fitting and easy replacement. Auto-custom fitting was a simple system that would now be able to measure one's feet in three dimensions and produce boots custom fit for the person. This went well with an automated system that would make fresh new boots in a manner similar to way the food synthesizers made food and recycle the old boots at will. It was still a bit of a chore, so most people didn't do it more than once a week.
If one got a fresh set of boots at least once a week that were perfectly fit to one's feet, it made many of the boot's weaknesses less prominent. Still, regulations allowed quite a bit of personal discretion in terms of boot choice, allowing individual officers to purchase boots they liked better. Admiral Kirk, when he was Captain Kirk during his Five-Year Mission, during his fight with the Gorn, was wearing non-standard boots he had probably purchased himself for comfort and function.
Still, these improved technologies meant that even though the boots were terrible, Star Fleet had judo'ed themselves with better technology keeping the boots just good enough to stay in service for decades.
We came up with an extremely hardy simu-rubber soled, round nosed, cloth boot with a multi-environment waterproof shell, that had a tread optimized for K-alloy decking, though it would handle other flat surfaces well too. We tested them on a variety of surfaces against the current standard boot and always won. The sole would be cushioned for better wear. We would be able to use the same auto-custom fitting and easy replacement. We also added, really Rachel added, a set of auto-tensioning laces. So, we could jump in these shoes and they would then tighten themselves to the perfect fit. Since the laces took some effort to make and couldn't just be re-synthesized, we added an all-weather flap to cover them.
The new shoe's top would go up easily under the ankle-length pant cuff but not up the calf.
The first time I put my feet in a pair of the new prototype shoes, I swear I wanted to sing.
All the time together for uniform design also left time for talk.
That day, David had walked me to the mess, and we'd had a cup of tea after evening workout. David brewed the tea as he always did. He had some sort of touch with Darjeeling which just made the tea taste wonderful. We'd talked about minor matters.
"I've been doing research on Rae's World." He confided.
"That's excellent. I love to hear that the ship is fulfilling her charter as a vessel of science and discovery. Still, what's to discover about Rae's World?" I had replied enthusiastically but curiously.
"Rae's World is an unusually perfect M-Class world. Particularly for a planet with no native sapient species." David answered obscurely.
"So?" I asked.
"Many worlds fall into the category of being an M-Class, or Earth-like and suitable for human and human-like habitation. But it's a broad category. Some are better than others and Rae's World is better than most. Most worlds that are as nice as Rae's World have had some terraforming already. You've probably already noticed how pleasant it is to be down there?" David explained with a question.
"Yes, I have. It's amazing. I have life support use the transporters to swap the air on the ship every time we go. It leaves Ticonderoga smelling crisp and lovely for days."
"If I can get a sense of what processes led Rae's World to be so congenial, it could improve current terraforming techniques." David explained.
"Why this interest in terraforming?" I asked.
"I've always been interested in terraforming. That project was all about terraforming. How it could be done faster, better, easier. In the end, it was too fast and too easy, which is what made people scared. I also cut too many corners for it to be stable. Still, it was all about terraforming. I think the lesson is that we can't cut corners. We have to make the long climb of knowledge. When we succeed, then we'll be ready for that kind of power."
It was so sexy when he talked about responsibility that way.
Later, I was in my quarters working with Kiki and Rachel on the uniforms. It was our normal evening in. Rachel made coffee. Kiki would make plates of snacks. We would discuss important matters of the ship or gossip like hens depending on your point of view. I admit I was distracted. I was thinking about David.
Rachel started. "I know that look. Captain Saavik, you are thinking about a man!"
I know I must have turned bright green.
Kiki then joined in, "Ohhh she is! Who is it? Who is it? You have to tell!"
I was so embarrassed. I think Rachel decided to ease up on me as she could tell.
"It's okay Saavik, you're allowed to be a person too."
Kiki then volunteered with a predatory smile, "Is it someone on Rae's World? I like to find someone with really exotic looks. Then I get 'em in the sack and make them buy me a meal. I like someone really tall and lanky best."
Rachel said, "I find I like old officers best. That wasn't hard to come by when I was newly minted ensign, but this ship is an incredibly barren wasteland! Soon, I'll be too old for them to seem old!"
They continued sharing notes which was very amusing, and I thought.
How did I feel about David now? I'm sure I could work with him as a gifted colleague. He was an unreasonably proficient scientist to have as Chief Science Officer on such a small ship. He was an excellent backstop for Rachel on scan and would also be available for Rachel if there was any problem with our fussy, very bleeding edge computer. He was also an MD and a great backup for Kiki should that be necessary.
What would a relationship between the two of us look like now? As his commanding officer, it might seem like it was completely inappropriate. I had too much power over his career. However, that was hardly the case.
We both knew that he was hardly invested in Star Fleet for a long career. Further, if he filed a complaint against me for some sort of relationship abuse, it would be far more damaging to my career than his. He wasn't a doe-eyed new enlisted. Still, it could damage morale if it was perceived that I had favorites.
Which avoided me thinking if I wanted him back that way. My body wanted him back. A lot. Did I still love him? Had I ever loved him? I thought I did.
I did choose to go to Dreadnought. I could have forsaken my career to go to Walter Reed with him. Stayed with him through his recovery. That's what a loving person would have done. Maybe that's why he didn't want me anymore and that was the crux of it. I had written to him at Walter Reed, he had only responded and only half-heartedly. It didn't matter if I wanted him back if he didn't want to come back. The real question was, did he want me back?
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