Chapter Three
Captain Jonathan Renolds sat in the Risan sun, basking in its warmth, watching his son Andrew build a sand castle with his mother a few feet away while reading a hard copy novel.
"Captain Renolds, there's a message for you from the Divination." A male attendant informed him.
"Oh, this better be good." Jon said getting up, and motioning to his wife Lindsey that he'll be right back. He got to the small building on the beach's tree line and walked up to a console where a familiar face appeared. It was his chief of operations, a young ensign named Peter Golden.
"Sorry to disturb you sir, but you have a message from an Admiral Matthews. He wants to speak with you, says it's urgent." He said.
"Patch it through. Admiral Matthews, good to see you. Any reason you're contacting me on my vacation?" He said, putting emphasis on vacation.
"Sorry to bug you captain, but I got some good news. I convinced Major Soul to accept your offer. Just thought I should let you know that he's on his way now. He should be in system in a few hours."
"Few hours? Think you could have given me some heads up?" Jon said with an annoyed tone.
"I apologise Captain…" Robert said just as someone in the background cut him off.
"Robbie! Dinner!"
"Sorry, the battle axe calls, Enjoy your vacation Captain. Matthews out." He said, as a Starfleet insignia replaced his face. Jon brought his hand to his face and let out a sigh and then walked back to where Lindsey and Andrew were.
"Hun, what was it?" Lindsey asked
"That was Admiral Matthews, he just thought that he should let me know that my new first officer was on his way and will be in system in a few hours. I got to head back to the ship." He told her.
"Think they could have given you a little heads up?" She said, almost reading her husbands mind.
"That's what I said. Anyways, sorry about leaving you two here, but I've got to go. I'll see you at dinner." He said, picking up his book. He bent over to give his wife and son a kiss and stepped off to the side and tapped his comm. badge. "Renolds to Divination, One to beam up."
The beautiful beach faded away in shimmering blue light to be replaced a few seconds later by the dull metallic grey of a transporter room.
"Welcome back Captain." said the young female transporter chief.
"Thank you. Ensign Langley, how's it going?" He asked.
"Fine sir. Looking forward to the end of my shift, Crewman Michaels thinks he can beat me at Spring Ball."
"Good luck." Jon said, giving a nod and walked out of the room towards the turbo lift. "Deck three."
Once off the lift, he walked down towards his quarters, getting nods from crewman on his way. While Jonathan thought that keeping a professional distance from his crew was a good idea, he didn't think that meant that he had to be a hermit in his office. He made a point to be well known by the crew. In fact, he was quite popular with them, especially with the Security department, having come up through the ranks in that department himself.
Jonathan walked into his quarters and quickly got into the sonic shower to get the salt-water residue off him, then got dressed in his Uniform and made his way to the bridge.
"Lieutenant Valco, no doubt you heard about how our new first officer is on his way, do you know what ship he's coming in on?" He asked his Chief of Security, a young woman named Halee Valco.
"I have sir; Major James Soul is on a civilian cargo freighter called the Soul Refrain. They just entered the system. Do you want me to hail them?" She asked. He gave a nod. A moment later, a woman in her early thirties appeared on screen.
"Good day Captain, I'm Kaydance Soul Mican, Captain of the Soul Refrain." She said.
"Good day to you too, Captain. Is Major Soul present?" Then something dawned on him.
"You're thinking correctly Captain, James is my kid brother, and yes, he is."
"Hello Captain." James quickly said.
"Its good to meet you Major. When can you beam aboard?"
"Actually, Captain, I would like to come on board via shuttle craft." James requested.
"Shuttle craft?" Renolds asked, just a little bit puzzled.
"James brought his toy with him." Kaydance quickly shot in with a smile on her face.
"It is not a toy." James said to his sister, sounding a bit annoyed, almost as if his pride was hurt.
"Alright, I'll meet you in the shuttle bay then. See you in a little bit, Divination out."
Captain Renolds waited in the shuttle bay and watched as the outer double doors for the hanger slide open and the small craft made its approach.
"Wow, a Dagger-class fighter, now I get where that toy remark came from." Halee said; who had come with the Captain to greet the new first officer. "I didn't know our new XO was a fighter Pilot."
"He's a damn good one, highly decorated too, one of the best that the Starfleet Marine Corps has had in a long time. I had to pull some strings to get him assigned here. And I owe him. If it wasn't for his squadron during the war, I, and a lot of other people wouldn't be alive today." Renolds said in response.
"He's cute too." Halee said to herself.
"What was that?" Renolds asked.
"Nothing sir." Halee said quickly, her face turning a light shade of red.
They both walked over to the fighter as the hanger crew rushed a ladder up to the cockpit. James climbed out and proceeded down the ladder. He took off his helmet and undid the top of his flight suit.
"Fine craft you got there." Renolds said, extending a hand for a handshake. "This is Halee Valco, Chief of Security and my Second Officer."
"Pleasure to meet you, sir." She said with a smile on her face.
"Pleasures all mine." James responded, shaking her hand and returning the smile.
"Alright then, I'll let you get settled in and you can meet me in my office." The Captain said. "Lieutenant, if you would show the Major to his Quarters."
"Aye sir, this way Major." She said, making her way out of the hanger.
"Just a second, I have to get something." James said as he walked over to a small compartment on the underside of his fighter, he opened it. On the inside was a small suitcase, and two phaser rifles that were obviously modified. James grabbed the case and closed and locked the compartment.
"Enough fire power?" Halee said, crossing her arms, looking somewhat impressed. I just smiled like a kid in a candy store. "Ok, if you would come this way."
We walked down the corridor, which had dull metallic grey bulkheads and blue carpet.
"So, what do you think of the Divination?" Halee Asked.
"It's small." I said in response.
"Small?" she said with her head cocked to one side, causing her shoulder length brown hair to dangle down.
"My last ship was a modified Sovereign-class ship that was designed to carry two fighter squadrons."
"Ok, I see where you're coming from." She said as we walked on to the turbo lift. "Deck Three."
The ride was quiet, but thankfully short, one of the benefits of a small ship James guessed. Once off, we walked down the corridor and finally got to my door.
"This is your quarters, the captain and his family are two doors down, and my quarters are just after that." She said as she entered in her command code into the door panel to open it. James walked into the center of the room, and looked around. He had smaller quarters on the Majestic, it might take a bit to get used to a larger room.
"You can come in if you like, Lieutenant."
"Call me Halee; everyone does, except the raw recruits."
"Sorry, The Corps was a little bit more formal." He sat the case he grabbed down on the table and took out the spare uniform he packed along with some pictures of his family and friends.
"If you'll excuse me for just a second." James said walking into the adjoining room to get changed.
Halee walked over to the case and picked up one of the photos. It was of James, Amanda, Matthew and Erin the last time there were on Risa. Halee was startled by a hand reaching into the case grabbing a small box.
"I'm sorry sir, I was just…"
"Curious? Its ok, I don't mind." James said taking out a small silver oak leaf, the rank insignia for a Marine Major, and attached it his collar. "I'm sorry if I scared you. I did some deep cover work during the war. Old habits die hard."
"I'm ok, not many people can sneak up on me." She said. She stopped for a moment then asked a question. "Can I ask who's in that picture?"
"Yeah, that's my brother Matthew, his fiancée Erin, her sister Amanda, and me." I said taking the picture from her. I touched the face of Amanda and sat it down on the table. "It was the last photo taken of us when we were all together. Amanda and Matthew were both killed in action."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry." She said, feeling bad about asking.
"It's ok; now, I have to meet with the captain." James said, breaking the small silence.
"Yeah, I've got to get back to my station."
They both walked out and made their way back to the bridge. Halee walked up to the security station and sat down. James stopped and looked around.
"The Captains office is through that door." Halee said pointing to the door just left of the view screen. There was some small chuckling from some of the other bridge crew, but a cold stare from Halee put a stop to it.
"Thanks." He said walking up to the door and pressing the door chime.
"Come in." said a voice that came from inside. James walked in and saw the captain sitting on a couch reading an old-fashioned hard cover book. "Ah, Major, have a seat." He said, motioning to the chair in front of his desk, while getting up and moving to his chair on the other side.
"I just wanted to let you know that everything's has been sorted out, your transfer to Command has been approved and you are now officially assigned to the Divination. There is just one more thing to take care of." Renolds said as he got up and walked over to the replicator and pressed a few buttons. With a small hum and flash of blue light and he walked back to his desk with a small box in hand. "By order of Starfleet command, I hereby promote you to the rank of Full Commander with all the rights and privileges therein. Congratulations." He said, handing the box to me. I open it to see three small pips inside.
"Stop by the quartermaster to pick up new uniforms. Do you have any questions?" Renolds asked.
"Not really, but on the way here, I noticed that the crew seemed pretty casual, especially on the bridge. I'm not really used to that." James said in response.
"I would have guessed as much, since you're a marine, you must be used to a pretty formal atmosphere. That's most likely my fault; I don't keep the same professional distance from my crew as other captains do. Anyways, I was meaning to ask, do you have any dinner plans this evening?"
"Not really, I was just going to be doing some unpacking then stop by the mess hall for some dinner."
"Well, cancel them; you're having dinner with my family tonight. I think my wife would want to meet the man who saved my life."
"I'm honoured, sir, but about that. I was only doing my job."
"Well, that may be true, but if you and your colleagues didn't have to do what you did. You were ordered to retreat with the rest of the fleet that day. You saved a lot of lives. Drop by my quarters at 1930."
"I'll be there."
"Ok, now, its time to introduce you to the rest of the bridge crew." Renolds said walking out onto the bridge. James was met with a small round of applause.
"This is Ensign Marion Andrews, Flight operations officer." Renolds introduced.
"That was a nice landing you made, hands on too, not bad." She said, getting a firm handshake from the fellow pilot.
"Lieutenant Commander Amber Fox is our Chief Science officer." That name rang a bell in James' mind. Amber was Erin's friend during the academy and they had hung out on a couple of occasions. She was capable of drinking any marine under the table, and played a mean hand of poker.
"It's good to see you again James. Maybe we can meet up later, catch up on old times?" She said, shaking my hand.
"I'd like that."
"You two know each other?" Renolds asked.
"We were in the same academy class." I answered.
"Interesting; now, you've met Halee, and last but not least, this is Ensign Peter Golden, our Chief Operations officer."
"It's good to meet you sir, I look forward to working with you." Peter said, shaking my hand.
"Now, there are only two more senior officers you need to meet, I'm sure you'll meet up with our chief engineer later, but now, you have an appointment with our Doctor." The Captain said, reminding me of it. It is Starfleet regulations that all new officers report to Medical for a physical.
"I know, I know, I was planning on going there later on. But I guess I'll go right now." I decided, and I made my way onto the turbo lift.