Jaune never understood the logic some Starfleet designers took to try and make their ships as comfortable as possible. One would mistake the ship as being a old earth cruise ship if they didn't know better. As he entered the bridge of the U.S.S Beacon he took stock of the situation.
Captain Ozpin must have been in a meeting of some sort and was not present on the bridge, Lieutenant commander Nikos, a fine Betazed tactical officer, was standing at the left-most of two tactical stations, that were placed on a lifted platform behind the Captain, First officer, and Second officer seats. An ensign he was not familiar with worked the right tactical position.
The rest of the layout closely aped the older style Galaxy-class ships, a large viewscreen at the front of the bridge, with two control seats where the conn and operations officers of a given shift sat. Even though the ship was not scheduled to take off for a few more days, the very easy to recognize form of the half Klingon Lieutenant, Lie Ren sat at the left main control station as he casually carried on in conversation with a young Ensign he was mentoring in the rotating right conn position.
The key difference between this bridge, and the older style Galaxy-class bridges, was that most of the carpet was replaced with some kind of dark patterned metal that, he was told, reduced slipping hazards. That and the carpet that remained, mostly around the command seats, was a white pattern that if one looked close enough, one could see the Starfleet delta patterns woven into the carpet.
Lining the back wall was a bank of all-purpose console stations, only one was active and it was receiving a feed from the Engineering department as Lieutenant commander Valkyrie, a very enthusiastic Bajorian engineer, was running a level two diagnostic on the ship's nacelles pending their launch. Jaune wondered why she was taking the extra level of care of a level 2 diagnostic when a standard level 3 diagnostic would have taken her less time. Jaune tried to keep from smirking when he noticed that she would occasionally steal glances at Ren on the other side of the bridge.
"So what's what's going on, I knew she had a bit of a thing for him. While she could have done this from engineering, I can see her wanting any excuse to come watch him work on the bridge…" Jaune thought to himself.
Jaune recalled himself thinking of a pair of old friends he once had some thirty-odd years ago in another life who pussyfooted around each other until he finally got them to own up to the feelings they had for each other. Of course, back then his name was Gabriel and he had yet to get into the habit of wearing his hair in a way that covered the spots that went up the sides of his head and neck.
Jaune is a Trill, one half of a pair of species that, if one is lucky enough like him, was bonded with a symbiote that can share the lives of its past hosts in exchange for being able to survive outside of the carefully tended environment put aside for said symbiotes. Jaune was the name of the Host, Arc, was the name of the Symbiote.
Jaune was fifth such host for the Arc Symbiote going all the way back to the late 22rd century. Which is how the young 30 year old was able to achieve his rank so quickly. Every host chosen to carry the Arc Symbiote was specifically chosen for their desire to join Starfleet.
Jaune however was something of an oddity as far as chosen hosts went, he was not, in any real way remarkable, except for his ability to get into trouble and an even larger ability to chase skirts.
That was as far as anyone needed to be concerned with at the very least.
Jaune's train of thought was broken when the First Officer, Commander Goodwitch got his attention "Ah Jaune, did you just get back from earth?"
"Yes Ma'am, I went to earth to make sure the last batch of crewmen managed to get on their shuttles in time." Jaune said, "Under the captain's direction of course."
"Naturally, were there any problems?." Commander Goodwtich asked.
"We almost had a couple lower deckers miss their shuttle. I mostly blame the assignments office as they were booking the last few postings with barely an hour to go before take-off." Jaune quipped in a dangerously casual tone as he took his seat on the bridge.
Commander Goodwitch reached for a Padd and pulled up records on the pair "I don't suppose that last-minute assignment had anything to do with your past history with Ms. Xiao Long would it?"
"The captain trusts my judgments when it comes to shifting assignments around. The Lieutenant is good with a phaser and scored third in her class in her security exam, and we already scooped up the first and second." Jaune said as he leaned forward and rested his hands on his chin.
"How many favors did she cost us?" Goodwitch asked.
"None surprisingly, she has a fair number of… well interesting reports tagged to her file that made her somewhat undesirable to most of the other captains recruiting right now," Jaune asked.
Goodwitch scoffed at the file "Then why are you making her our problem? We don't want troublemakers on the ship."
"She was a two for one deal, she came with the Ensign I was really trying to lockdown. I was told if we wanted to steal her sister away from Deep Space K7, we had to take Yang." Jaune said. "I also have five lifetimes of experience telling me that my Xiao Long is going to end up a damn fine officer one day."
"You also have five lifetimes of experience of spewing made-up bullcrap commander Arc," Goodwitch said with a smirk before the older women spoke up "I was so disappointed all those years ago when I learned my ethics instructor had made up half the stories she told to her class."
"Well, I haven't been her in about ten years, young lady," Jaune said playfully, drawing a smile from the late 40-year-old human XO.
Just as the mood had hit the level of comfort that Jaune was aiming for, the doors to the ready room slid open and the stoic form of the older Captain Ozpin stepped out onto the bridge. Ozpin took in the view of the bridge for a moment before he started speaking. "We have orders, it seems we're are needed to patrol the former Romulan territories due to an uptick in Orion and Nauscian pirate activity in the last few months."
"That's a heck of a shakedown captain, are we sure this new crew will be ready for it?" Commander Goodwtich asked.
"We all carry the burden of proving to the federation the Jupiter class is a worthwhile addition to the Starfleet roster, we don't have the benefit of coddling the crew on this one." the Captain added. As the Turbolift doors opened and a short young-looking woman with orange hair stepped onto the bridge.
"Commander Polendina reporting as ordered sir" The young commander said with only a slight hint of mechanical tone in her voice giving away her true nature.
"Penny, punctual as always." the Captain commented.
"Of course sir, I take it we have orders?" Penny asked.
The Captain cleared his breath "Yes as I was starting to explain to the rest of the command staff, we have orders to travel to the Sierra Sector and assist Starbase 39 in our efforts to track down and suppress Pirate activity in the area."
"Sounds like a typical show of force then sir?" Nikos asked.
"Indeed, it's the hope of Starfleet if we deploy one of our new carrier's into the area, we could stand a chance of discouraging pirate activity in the area, at the very least get them to move on to greener pastures," Ozpin said.
"In other words, spook them and hope they become the problem of the Tal Shiar?" Jaune found himself asking.
"That's our hope yes, But with that being said, while it is good to hope, this ship was not made to hope for peace, it was built to protect the federation. Combat is expected." Ozpin added.
"I'll make it a point to brief my security teams then sir, in case we start getting an issue with borders." Nikos declared.
"The ship will be ready to fly within the hour sir" Nora had added.
"I'll make sure we have both fighter wings on standby and I'll set a few Patrol rotations to get a few of the newer pilots some time to get a feel for their fighters," Penny said.
"No one really answers to me, but we did have a new backup conn officer join, I'll spend some time with her to get her up to speed" Lie added.
"You'll have my recommendation for crew shift assignments in about thirty minutes, sir, I started working on it last night." Jaune finally stated.
"Everyone knows what to do, get it done, we leave Drydock in two hours." The Captain declared before he wandered back into his ready room.
Jaune watched the man enter his office carefully hiding the fact he was watching at all before he excused himself.
Jaune had managed to put a bow on his crew assignment report in a little over fifteen minutes. He figured he would have but he had a habit of giving himself a bit more of a grace window to endear himself with the command staff of any given posting he belonged to. He had then opted to unload his personal items from his previous assignment that had been sitting in a few small plastic crates in the corner for the last few days.
He didn't keep much, he had a model of a Constellation class ship he had carefully built and painted after his first assignment on one of the frankly antiquated vessels when he was fresh out of the academy. He also unpacked his prized Klingon Mek'leth. A one-handed two-foot-long short sword with a blade that curved outward away from the user and ended thick at the end of the blade, with a second blade that wrapped down like a handguard.
He practiced on the holodeck often with it, just as a form of exercise and to build the kind of muscle memory in the complicated fighting style that incorporated the sword, much like two of his prior hosts had.
The last item he had brought with him, was in a thick black case that was lined with a material to trick the scanners into thinking it was a musical instrument of some kind, the less said about it, for now, the better.
With a little over an hour left before take-off, he decided to indulge himself in a quick sonic shower and a casual bite to eat, a simple replicated Ham and Cheese sandwich. As he ate he openly wondered if there was any way he could talk the XO into allowing the forming of a Hydroponics bay if only so they could occasionally eat real vegetables.
Just as he was about to take off, he heard the ping-pong sound of someone asking for permission to enter, Jaune called them in and was surprised to see the faint red glow of a borg scope announcing the entry of one Ensign Rose.
"Uh, sir, are you busy at the moment?" Ruby asked.
Jaune thought over his answer for a moment "I'm due on the bridge in time for launch, but if you needed someone to talk to for a few moments I'm free."
"Thank you, sir, I… Well I'm just a loss as to what I should be doing right now, Commander Penny said that she didn't need me and to go unpack my belongings, but I didn't really bring anything with me." Ruby said
"You're looking for direction then? Well, Idle hands are the devil's playthings so they say." Jaune said as he reached over for a padd and started checking for anything the young ensign could be doing. "It says here that you're a bit overdue for your yearly physical."
"I… I'm sure that's not the case." Ruby said.
Jaune flipped the Padd around to show Ruby the screen "It says so right here, it's doubly important for you as former borg. You run a higher risk of health complications from those implants in your body. Your Borg Nanoprobes in your bloodstream for example need regular checking to make sure they remain dormant and don't risk re-assimilating you."
"I have lived with that for half my life sir, I am well aware of the risk my own body presents me sir," Ruby said with a clear hint of bitterness in her voice.
"Then you won't object to me walking you down to the Medbay?" Jaune said, "You just got on board and I don't want to risk you getting lost along the way." He added with a warm smile.
Ruby ran a couple fingers through her hair nervously "I… I mean that's your right of course sir."
Jaune nodded and said, "Follow me, ensign, I'll show you the way." As he led her out of his room towards the medical ward of the ship.
A brisk ten-minute walk later Ensign Ruby and Commander Arc arrived in the med bay of the ship, a handful of holographic nurses was making themselves busy while the well-aged, stout, and heavily bearded form of the Tellarite doctor, Doctor Port welcomed the pair in.
"Do you believe this nonsense, I have an entire doctors ward to run and they staff me with Software of all things, not even Zimmerman made holograms either, some knock-off garbage that they cooked up at Daystrom no doubt." The Doctor protested
"Doc, I already told you this gripe of yours needed to be taken up with the corp of engineers not the overworked third in command," Jaune said holding back a chuckle.
"Anyways, it's a bit early for patients don't you think, did this one manage to injure herself already?" Port asked.
"Nothing like that, she's just overdue for some bloodwork to make sure her implants are not acting up," Jaune added as she nudged the ensign forward.
"I know she's a consenting adult Commander but surely you can think of a better excuse fo-" Port said as he paused "Oh wait never mind, sorry miss, it was a poor joke."
"It went over my head sir," Ruby said.
"Then roll up your sleeve and well take a vial of blood to ex-" Port started
"Take two vials, we want to be sure doctor," Jaune said
"Are you saying I can-" Port started to protest
"Take two vials…" Jaune said again more sternly.
"Fine then, if you insist we need to take two vials then I'll assume you'll be kind enough to explain where you got your medical degree later on Sir" The Tellarite scoffed sarcastically.
"I'll be more than happy to later, doctor," Jaune said as he leaned back and watched the doctor work.
Ruby, for her part, appeared to take it well, making it a point to look away as the doctor drew blood from her. Jaune didn't take her for being squeamish about needles but given her past with have things stuck in her, he could understand.
Setting the two vials into a complex blood scanner he checked both of them in order "I do believe you're being paranoid, she doesn't have a single solitary non-dormit nanoprobe in either sample here."
"Very good then," Jaune said. "Ms. rose. You're free to go, I'll mark it off here that you aced your physical and we can call it good."
Ruby smiled "Yes sir, I'm going to go drink an OJ now or something."
"Take it easy and, if you want a good view of the outside when we take off, stop by the lounge on deck ten." Jaune said, "The view is quite impressive."
"Yes sir, thank you sir!" Ruby said as she left.
Jaune watched as Port started to reach for the blood samples after Ruby left and snatched the pair of vials up "I'll dispose of these for you on the way out, I'm sure you are busy, and I do owe you one for indulging my paranoia today."
Port waved him off "As you were sir, as you were" as Jaune left the Medway.
It was not long afterward that the time was finally here, the Beacon was ready for launch, in ten forward, Ruby and her sister next to a window enjoying drinks as they watched the ship unmoor from its dock at the Utopia Planitia space yard.
Weiss was in astrometric monitoring local space to make sure other ships and small craft were maintaining a safe distance from the colossal vessel as it lurched forward.
Blake was stationed on the bridge at one of the rear consoles helping direct traffic and making sure all compartments were properly locked down and prepared.
Jaune Arc sat with a satisfied smirk listening as the captain called out Ren at his conn station to make minor adjustments to the course and heading to ensure a clean departure from the docking moors.
Nora was in engineering monitoring the larger than normal warp core for any possible defects unusual activity that could stall the launch.
All the pieces were in place. Captain Ozpin stood up as they cleared the last of the docking moor's massive pylons that were previously holding the ship in place as he bellowed out his first order.
"Mr. Lie, Set course for Starbase 39, warp factor five, Engage!"
So the fun part of writing a story that borrows from two fandoms is having to have two separate Wiki's open to make sure your not misspelling things. Then finding out you still did so somehow. So I think this will cover getting both sets of main cast members introduced with a little bit about the characters, I would imagine I'm going to try and give characters their own chapters to flesh out their personalities as we go, I know this wasn't quite the race mixture that Rakis3059 suggested, but we were on the same page about Pyrrha at least.
So now that the cast and crew are introduced, and that the Beacon has it's first assignment, lets see how long it takes them to break the ship, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all next time.
Also if you can, watch lower decks, I haven't laughed that hard at a show in a while.