"Aye, aye, Commander," Davies responded. Her fingers glided over the communications controls with practiced ease. "The dockmaster is standing by, Sir."
"Dockmaster, this is Warlord," Commander Kirk stated officially. "Requesting permission to depart." He nodded to the chief engineer. Tom nodded back with a wink. Even though he had taken ships out of docking stations at least a dozen times before, this one was actually getting exciting.
"Warlord, this is the dockmaster," came a disembodied voice over the bridge speakers. "Stand by to depart. We will retract the walkways and docking clamps momentarily." There was a brief pause. "Should we have the shipyard tug standing by just in case?" The dockmaster unsuccessfully stifled a chuckle.
You know," Tom started with a smirk, "we'll never get away from Cavelli fast enough." He shook his head.
Captain Velasquez appeared from behind the sliding door to her ready room. With a somewhat pained smile, she headed to her chair.
Stephen continued talking into the air, "Very funny, Cavelli. No, a tugship won't be necessary. Oh, and don't wait up. Once she clears her first speed test, we may be celebrating for awhile."
"If you overgrown children are through posturing, can we get on with this?" Captain Velasquez asked. She smiled and slowly shook her head.
The dockmaster came back on. "All docking systems are cleared. You're cleared for departure. Good luck, you guys. Dockmaster out."
"Thank you, Commander," the captain said with a smile. "I'll take the conn now."
"Aye, aye."
Lydia stood from her seat. Of all the moments she has enjoyed in Starfleet, addressing her crew for the first time was her favorite. She pushed her pain aside and gave a quick thought as to what to say. "Leiutenant Davies, put me on shipwide speakers." With a few keystrokes, Elaine nodded in compliance. "Ladies and gentlemen of the starship Warlord. We are about to make for our first test flight. We have all put in long arduous hours in preparation of this moment. Although there is much more left before this vessel is truly ready for service, take a moment now, if your position will allow it, to look out a window and savor this moment. Once this vessel leaves the dock, we are no longer construction teams with projects, we are a crew. That is all." The bridge crew took a moment to look at each other, smiling. With the departure of this starship, a new era in Starfleet would begin and the Dreadnaught Mark II would no longer be a concept, but a reality. The most advanced spacecraft in the history of the Alpha Quadrant would finally take its place in the heavens.
Captain Velasquez took a deep breath. Once she knew the shipwide communications had ended, she sat back down and faced her helmsman. "Helm, thrusters down. Clear our moorings."
Ensign Bristol spun around in his chair and glided it into his navigation panel. "Aye, aye, Captain," the young ensign announced with a Cockney accent. Tyler Bristol barely looked at the panel as he issued the commands to the ship. From the forward viewscreen, they could see two of the many spider-like legs of the giant docking structure surrounding the ship. Slowly, the legs seemed to rise up over the ship until they were completely gone from view. "Moorings, cleared, Sir." His robotic reply belayed his excitement. This was, after all, his first assignment as principle helmsman. Although he had taken many ships out of a docking station in a simulator, he had never taken one out for REAL. Unknown to the rest of the bridge crew, he had spent the last several days on the holodeck simulating this exact same maneuver. He had gotten quite adept at getting the ship out of her moorings just in time to single-handedly defeat a number of Romulan warships after the rest of the bridge crew had met with an umtimely demise. To his relief, he neither rammed one of the docking arms, as he did the first time he tried it, nor did he have to confront Romulan warbirds.
"Ensign, thrusters ahead to 300 kph until we have cleared the shipyard." The captain was all business now. Any hints of pain, discomfort, or fatigue seemed to have left her.
"Forward thrusters ahead 300 kph, aye." the ensign replied. The downward motion ceased. Slowly, the viewscreen showed images of various wreakages passing to the left, to the right, above, and below. There was a very somber feel to the bridge crew as they realized the majority of these hulks were the casualties of the Dominion War. It was because of that war the final hurdles to the Dreadnaught II project were finally cleared. The bridge was silent as they each paid homage to the thousands of crewmen who made the ultimate sacrifice.
"How does she handle, Ensign?" The captain asked.
"She's sluggish, Sir." Bristol answered, somewhat dismayed. "It's taking forever to get her to respond."
The captain looked a little concerned. She turned back to her engineer. "What's the story with that, Kelly?"
Leiutenant Kelly shrugged his shoulders. "Well, Captain. Part of it is because the maneuvering thrusters are having a stink of a time pushing this kind of mass. The one thing Starfleet hasn't improved on much is thurster tech. Mostly, though, the delay is because the computer is too small. It's just not powerful enough to do all the thinking necessary to keep this ship running right. I've had to shut down some systems in order to free up enough processing power for us to move. I...ah... wrote that in the report I handed you last week, Sir."
"I remember now, Leiutenant. Thank you for reminding me." She turned back to her helmsman. "For now, Ensign, I guess you'll just have to tough it out. Once the new computer is installed, things should improve."
"It's okay, Sir. I can manage. Actually, we're just about clear of the shipyard." Bristol still sounded hopeful and upbeat.
"Great. Once we're clear, let's give these impulse engines a test. Take us to one half impulse power, Ensign." She nodded.
"What heading, Sir?" He asked.
"I don't really care, Ensign. Just point us in a direction that doesn't send us into something bigger than we are." She winked at him.
"Aye, aye, Captain." After a quick glance at the navigation computer, he plotted his course. "Heading 187 mark 033 at one half impulse aye." The acceleration was extremely smooth.
Velasquez turned to her first officer. "Commander, aft view."
"Aft view, aye." He pressed a button on his arm-mounted console. The viewscreen scene changed to show the Vega shipyard falling behind them quickly. "Now that's a pretty sight." He remarked.
"I agree, Commander." Velasquez stated. She turned to Tom. "Leiutenant Kelly, how are the impulse engines looking?"
Tom already had the engine readouts on his screen. The were all a bright green. "Impulse engines are working perfectly, Captain. Care to take her up a notch?"
"Absolutely. Ensign Bristol, increase speed to full impulse." Captain Velasquez said with a nod.
"Aye, aye, Captain. Full impulse." He slid his fingers over the impulse engine output bars all the way to the top. After a few seconds, the ship began to respond. "Point six, point seven, point eight, point nine...full. Captain, we're at full impulse power."
The bridge crew started to notice some minor vibration. Captain Velasquez turned back around to see Tom and his engineering station. A couple of the formerly green status bars were now yellow. "Tom, what's with the shaking?"
"The engines are starting to run a little hot." He tapped a few keys on his console, looked at some more readouts, then turned to the captain. "I think it's the computer. It's taking the computer awhile to calculate the coolant mix and get it into the engines."
The shaking began to worsen as the yellow status bars started turning red. "Do you think this will correct itself, or should we reduce speed?" Velasquez asked, some concern in her voice.
Almost on queue, the status bars lowered back down to their peaceful, green color and the shaking stopped. "That won't be necessary, Captain." Tom replied with a smile. "I think the computer finally caught up with us."
"You're confident that problem will go away with the new computer core?" Velasquez asked. She knew the answer, she just wanted it on the record.
"Yeah, it should. Actually, a lot of problems will get fixed once that baby's put in."
"Do you see any problems with proceding to our warp drive tests?"
"No worries, but I think we should take the impulse engines offline. I don't think we want the computer to try handling both propulsion systems at once."
"Noted," She turned back to the front. "Alright, then. Ensign continue at full impulse until we're out of the inner system. Then, we'll move to our warp test." She turned to face her first officer. The headache was back again... the pain relievers were having less and less of an effect for a shorter period of time. "Commander, you have the conn. I'm heading back to my ready room to finish my crew recommendations."
"Yes, Sir." Kirk replied in military fashion. He watched her walk into her ready room.
"Commander," Tom started, "We've got over an hour before we're out of the system. Would you mind if I head below and grab a bite to eat? When the ship started shaking, I thought it was my stomach rumbling." He rubbed his belly.
Everything seemed to be running fairly smoothly, Kirk thought. "Go for it. I'll need you back up here in an hour, though."
Tom stood up and pushed his seat back into the wall. "I'll be here." He let out a sigh. "Mmmm...I've been dreaming of a nice, thick burger with mushrooms and swiss cheese since yesterday.
As the turbolift doors slid shut with a hiss behind Tom, Stephen thought, "Oh, great...now I'm getting hungry."