"I wouldn't have missed this for the world," Tom replied with a smile. He calmly walked to his remote engineering station and sat down.
"Captain," Ensign Bristol started, "We've got another three minutes before we're officially beyond the inner boundary of the Vega system, but we're already clear of stellar objects. We could go to warp at any time."
"I like your thinking, Tyler. First, though, I need you to perform a thorough long-range scan of the area we're going to. As long as we're in the Vega system, we're protected. Once we leave, we're liable to run into traffic. Remember, we want to keep this ship a secret for now."
"Yes, Sir..." Bristol raised an eyebrow, wondering why he got the job of performing a long range scan, when that ability wasn't on his console. Another question dawned on him. "Where are we going, Sir?"
"Good question," Velasquez replied. "Just take the heading 3-4-9 mark 1-1-0. We'll only go a couple of light years. Then we'll turn around and head back. Remember, we need all-stop from the impulse engines. They'll need to be powered down in order to start the warp drives." Her right leg started twitching ever so slightly. She covered it up by crossing her legs and letting it kick back and forth.
"Understood, Sir. Full-stop aye." He moved his hands over the engine controls and initiated the counter-thrust sequence. That would power down the impulse engines and slow their momentum to a complete stop.
Commander Kirk got up from his 2nd officer's seat and moved to the tactical console. "I'll take care of the scan, Tyler." He said.
"Thank you, Sir." Ensign Bristol replied as he continued punching orders into his own console.
Realizing she had inadvertently assigned two different duties to the young ensign. "Good idea, Commander," she said, trying to rescue herself. There was no getting around it. The continual medications and lack of sleep were beginning to affect her. Even worse was the fact the medications were losing their potentcy. She was going to have to tell her second in command... and soon. She could tell he was suspecting something.
"Captain, we're at all-stop...finally." Bristol stated with a smirk.
"Captain, I'm reading an all clear on our flight path," Stephen added.
"All right then. Ensign Bristol, alter course to heading 3-4-9 mark 1-1-0, speed warp one."
"Setting course, heading 3-4-9 mark 1-1-0 speed warp one, aye." Tyler replied in standard, military fashion.
"Engage." the captain ordered. A few seconds later, the distant stars began to swirl around the viewscreen as the great vessel re-alligned itself to the new course heading. All at once, the pinpoints of light began to elongate into lines of brilliant reds, blues, whites, and oranges. With a flash, the stars were back to their original shapes, but flying to the edges of the screen.
"Confirmed, Captain," Ensign Bristol said. "We are at warp one." The bridge crew began to cheer.
The captain raised her hands to silence the bridge crew for a moment. She turned to her chief engineer. "Tom, how are the engines?"
Tom was already looking at the readouts. "Everything's green, Captain."
"Excellent. Commander, is our traffic lane still clear?"
"As far as the sensor can see, Captain."
"Okay, let's kick it up a notch. Ensign, increase speed to warp three."
"Speed to warp three, aye." With a few motions of his hand, the vessel obeyed. It took several seconds for the engines to increase their output, but they did. Again, the ship began to shudder.
The captain turned back to her engineer. "The computer again?" She looked as the temperature guages for the engines peaked into yellow again.
"Pretty sure of it, yeah. Let's give it a sec." This time, no one looked overly concerned. Just as last time, the temperature went back down to normal levels and the shuddering stopped. "So, the latency problem isn't just for the impulse engines, but the warp engines, too. I bet if we gradually increased speed, the computer could keep up."
"Well," Velasquez responded, "we'll hope there's no need to escape anywhere quickly for the next three weeks." She shrugged her shoulders. "Still, all in all, I'd say this was a very successful series of tests. I finally feel like we're in a starship. My congratulations to everyone. Leiutenant Kelly, please relay my gratitude to your crew as well."
"I will do that, Sir... and thank you." He bowed his head. While he tried to be professional about his thanks, deep down, he wanted to jump up and down and scream. In all his years in Starfleet, this moment was one of his happiest.
Leiutenant Davies motioned to the captain. "Sir, I have a message from the Vega shipyard. Our next group of crewmembers have arrived early. They've already been offloaded to the shuttles. They'll be at the station in ninety minutes."
"I guess we should go and greet them. Thank you, Leiutenant. Ensign Bristol, reverse course and take us back to the shipyards." She said with a rather pained smile. The pain relievers were already starting to wear off, but she dared not take any more yet.
"Bringing her about, Captain. Reverse course to the Vega shipyards, warp three. Course laid in, Sir." Ensign Bristol proudly announced.
"Engage." She said simply. With absolutely no sense of movement or turning, the vessel doubled back on its course and headed back. After a long sigh, she turned to Commander Kirk. "Commander, this old body could use a nap. I'm heading to my quarters. We're a good two hours from docking, so I think I'll take advantage of that. You have the conn. Call me just before we dock, please." Her smile seemed warm and pleasant, but a little forced.
"Yes, Sir. Will do. Enjoy your rest." His voice slowed and lowered. "You've earned it."
She stood up and put her hand on his shoulder. "Thank you, Commander. We all have." With that, she slowly headed for the turbolift.
Tom and Stephen shared concerned faces as the sliding doors of the turbolift closed behind her, but said nothing.