New Arrivals
"I thought a battle ship would be bigger than that," commented Ensign Moore.
"It normally would be, Amber. But it's intended more for speed, though I'm sure it has substantial fire power," responded her friend, Chellie Sommerfeld.
"Yeah, but how do they balance five warp engines?"
"Thy don't," answered Chellie's fiancée, Lieutenant Tommy T. Tompkins. "Four are mostly used for speed and the fifth is used to power the weapons systems."
"Oh… So how many phaser arrays did you say it has?" Amber asked. She felt like she needed to know, after all she was the helmsman.
"Sixteen in four banks of four. One bank shoots only forward, one shoots port and aft, the third shoots starboard and aft, and the fourth shoots only aft."
"And four torpedo tubes, right?" offered Chellie
"Yeah. Three forward and one aft."
"Powerful for just a saucer section," Amber commented, turning to look at it out the shuttle window. She could almost see it fighting a much bigger ship and winning. Ever since her ship fought the Borg, she had been worried about Starfleet's ability to defend the Federation. "I wonder how big the crew is," she said to herself.
"About five hundred fifty," said someone at her elbow.
"Oh. Hi. Sorry I didn't see you," she said turning to talk to the young man.
"No apologies needed. I am just sorry to interrupt your thoughts."
"That's okay, they weren't worth remembering anyway. I'm Amber Moore," she said as she extended her hand.
"My name is Kent Corvig. I will be working on the space dock we are going to. I assume you will be on the Interceptor?"
"Yeah. It's nice to meat you Kent," she responded with surprise. She had never meat anyone like him, except Vulcans of course.
"The experience was agreeable for me as well."
"Oh, man. Oh, man," chanted the young communications officer. It was almost 0850 hours, and he didn't want to be late. "Oh, man. Oh, man."
As he reached the final walkway, he slowed his pace. He hasn't realized he had been running. The last thing he wanted was to arrive at the USS Interceptor late and out of breath.
"Hey! Careful!" said a very tall, very, very big man as he walked though the door, a little faster than he meant to.
"Sorry, sir! I didn't mean to run in to you, sir! I just didn't want to be late, sir!" he stammered as he stopped short.
"My fault, I shouldn't have been so close to the door. Call me Tony, Ensign…?"
"Corvik. Ensign Nathanial Corvik. Communications. Sorry it took me so long to get here, sir. My shuttle was running late."
"It's okay. Don't panic. You still have lots of time left."
"What do you mean, sir?"
"We don't leave 'til 0900, it's only 0750."
"What? Oh, yeah! I set my chronometer ahead so I wouldn't be late!" responded the very relieved ensign.
"Good. Now you need to report to Sick Bay for a physical and to the captain. If you like I can have one of my associates guide you."
"Please?"
"Okay then. Jen, could you show Ensign Corvik to his quarters then Sick Bay?" the Lieutenant yelled over his shoulder to a brown haired girl, who walked over.
"Sure. I'm Jennifer, but you can call me Jen," she said as they walked away.
"Lieutenant Sommerfeld to Sick Bay," Tony said as he tapped his com badge.
"Dr. Sommerfeld here, go ahead," it responded.
"Mom? There's an over eager ensign on his way. I can't tell if he's human or not, but he seems some what paranoid about what people think of him."
"Thank you, Tony. See you at the staff meeting?" she responded. She liked to know if an alien was coming for a physical so she could set up for it.
"Yeah. I got to go. New arrivals," he said as he tapped his badge again. Then, a new group came through the door. Fist up was a tall (for a human woman) re-head. "Amber? Amber Moore. What are you doing here?" he asked in a half teasing way.
"I'm here to fly this bucket of bolts," she responded sarcastically. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to keep you out of trouble, young lady," he responded with equal sarcasm.
"Mr. Sommerfeld?" came a familiar voice from behind Tony.
"Yeah? What can I do for you?" responded the lieutenant as he turned around. "Chellie? Chellie! What are you doing here? I thought you were on DS 12," he exclaimed excitedly, taking his older (but much shorter) sister in a big hug.
"I'm glad to see you too," she responded as she pulled herself out of his arms. "I was, but I came to see the launch of Tommy's new ship."
"Triple-T's here? This is going to be more fun than I thought!" Tony exclaimed as he caught sight of his good friend. "Tommy!"
As he went over to him, Tommy turned around and proclaimed, "Big-T! I didn't know you'd be here! Security, right?"
"And Hazard Team leader. At least 'til the real Chief of Security gets here."
They embraced and Tony showed his friends to Sick Bay for their physicals.
"Lieutenant Tompkins reporting for duty as Chief Engineer, sir," Tommy said to the gentleman standing in front of the captain's chair.
"Good, Mr. Tompkins. Your engineering station is over there," he said as he turned to point over at the right side of the bridge.
"Thank you, sir, but I wanted to head down to Engineering."
"Then I'll see you at the staff meeting at 0830, in thirty minutes," the captain responded without turning to him.
"This ship is a lot bigger than it looks," commented the young helmswoman to her escort.
"I know," he responded. Tony often wondered why Amber paid so much attention to him. He wasn't that hansom; at least he didn't think so. But you don't look a gift house in the mouth, he thought to himself.
He never would have expected that the attractive young redhead was thinking the same thing as they stood looking out a window. Why would he like me? I'm more than twenty centimeters shorter than he is and almost a year older. Why does he like me so much?
The silence, which was becoming uncomfortable, was broken when a voice came over the lieutenant's com badge. "Commander Sommerfeld to Lieutenant Sommerfeld."
"Tony here, go ahead."
"Tony, where are you? Are you still with Ensign Moore?"
"Yeah, why?"
"She still needs to report to dad and you have a staff meeting in two minutes."
"We'll be right there."