All senior officers were called the conference lounge in four hours as requested, Alona showing up last. Everyone was standing when she entered the lounge. When she sat down, everyone else followed suit. Alona decided she would start the meets and greets.

"Hello everyone, I am Alona Benson, the new commanding officer for the ship and hopefully the duration of the trip" She said with a smirk. Smiles were returned to her. That is good, she wanted her people to understand she wasn't a hardass and to be relaxed enough to talk to her when needed.

"I was hoping to get everyones name and what they do on board the ship, I have already met Commander Kim and Leiutenant Drake, but everyone else I would like to meet" She looked to her left and nodded at the officer. "How about you start, name, rank, and what position you hold and maybe something about yourself" Alona said. The officer looked around the table, clearly not used to the attention, then cleared his throat.

"Viir-Keim, Lieutenant, and I am your Tactical Officer and Chief Security Officer...ma'am" he said. Alona was intrigued the moment she saw him when she stepped into the room. A Jem'Hadar working in Starfleet. She never thought that would ever happen. By the looks of it, Starfleet had a to tailor a special uniform for him to wear, mainly for the kestrel white tubes seen running through the fabric but also for his size. He is over well over 2 meters tall and very muscular, even for a Jem'Hadar. Full Lieutenant pips adorned his uniform. Viir-Keim looked around the table once more and nodded, "Before you ask, yes, I am the first Jem'Hadar in Starfleet" he said quickly. It seems he is not used to a female commanding officer, Alona smiled "That is good to hear, does the ships doctor have your synthesizer for the Kestrel White?" she asked. He nodded. "Excellent, how about you?" she said, looking to the officer to her right, a Vulcan.

"I am T'saal, Lieutenant jay-gee, I am your Science Officer ma'am" he said calmly. T'saal is tall, even for a Vulcan. Short, cropped dark brown hair accented his oddly blue eyes. He must have had some human genes somewhere within his family. He was the typical slim Vulan, but his physique hid his species true capablities. He looked to his right. Alona looked at the person he was looking at. A Bajorian, but there are Borg implants in her skin.

A liberated Borg, Alona remembered her from the dossiers she read. She had almost forgotten that she had some Starfleet firsts working aboard her ship.

The Bajorian took a deep breath, "Lieutentant Zari Bari ma'am, I am your Chief Engineer" she said (she pronounced it Zay-ree Bah-ray). Bari had neck length light brown hair and hazel eyes. She is very short and her small, lithe frame reminded her a young girl. Alona looked at her for a moment and smirked to herself, poor girl was shy, afraid of being judged as a Borg, not as an individual. Bari was chewing on her lower lip, still looking around the table but not moving her head much. Must of been hard going through the Academy for her but you wouldn't know just by her scores and recommendations from all of her former commanding officers about how much of a god-send she is in engineering. She should grow accustomed easily, after all, the Borg adapt. Alona nodded at her, "Please to meet you, Ms. Bari. From what I have heard about you and the miracles you can do with ship engines and systems, I am sure you will be wonderful" she said. C'mon Alona, you could do better than that.

Bari nodded and looked to her right. A calm and good looking Trill sat next to her. He smiled at everyone, "Lieutenant Commander Daro Radis, your communications officer ma'am. Just so you know ma'am, as well as everyone else, I am Joined" he said. To Alona, he was pretty good looking, slightly wild dark brown hair, calm blue eyes and a voice thats tinged with laughter. His jovial attitude fits the small, well placed laugh lines of his face. He had an average build with wide shoulders. Alona nodded. Keep his beaming to a minimal.

Recently, tranporters have been adjusted to accomodate Joined Trill. Earlier transporters bio-filter would register the symbiotes at parasites within the body and would connsistently purge it while the person was in the transporter buffer. Digital Death. Several symbiotes had died, thus Trill stopped using transporters until the technology advanced to be adjusted their design to accomodate the symbiotes.

Unfortunately, the adjustments came late for some. Alona remembered some reports where the hosts of the symbiotes had gone into a catatonic state or had commited suicide because they felt that they had killed the symbiote somehow, but had not died to many peoples amazement. It appeared that if a symbiote was purged while in the buffer, the transporter would finish rematerializing them with completely repaired tissues, something that no one had thought a transporter would do. However, as adjusted as the new transporters may be, most Joined Trill are still uncomfortable using them. This being the case, Starfleet now has transporter classes for Joined Trill cadets and officers to go through where to do a short site to site transport essentially transporting them across the room and back to get them used to using transporters.

"Noted, thank you Commander" Alona said. Radis smiled, and looked across the table to the Klingon sitting there.

The Klingon looked around the table quickly then nodded at Alona, "Greetings Captain, I am Ensign Kolaas, your chief helmsman and navigation officer" Kolos looked like your typical Klingon, however his long black hair was pulled back into a loose pony tail and he wore a Starfleet uniform. As allowed by Starfleet, on his uniform blouse Kolos had a few Klingon Defense Force awards and medals. Alona only recognized one: Advanced Starship Combat Piloting Badge with the batlh-duj slashes. The batlh-duj slashes are multiple colored slashes to indicate which class or type of ship he was an expert at piloting or ships he had served on as a combat pilot, she couldn't remember which. Alona didn't know what each color meant but he had at least five slashes that should could tell. Hopefully, one of those ships that he is a combat pilot for is something as big as Endeavour.

"Is this your first Starfleet assignment Mr. Kolaas?" Alona asked.

"Yes sir, however, this is not the first starship I have served on" Kolaas said. Alona raised her hand.

"Please, everyone, when you address me its either 'Ma'am' or 'Captain', so no more 'sir' if you please" she said.

Alona looked at Kolaas, "I understand, its a hard habit to get rid of Ensign, keep working at it" she said with a smile. She turned to the woman left of Kolaas.

"I am Doctor Jan Novana, your Chief Medical Officer ma'am" she said. Novana was a pure-blood Betazoid. More than once, Alona had heard some scuttlebutt about how beautiful the docter was. Now looking at her, Alona understood why. She had the almond shaped, black eyes of a Betazoid and astonishing auburn colored hair and high cheekbones. The only thing one might say was a blemish of Novana was her average build body and small bust. Alona remembered from Novana's dossier that she had been noted for being quite the empath and telepath at her other posts, however, most of her previous superiors stated that she an excellent physician and has a straightforward bedside manner, also that she did not use her mental abilities without permission. Her service record indicated she had been mentored by Dr. Beverly Crusher when she was teaching at Starfleet Medical, in addition, almost her entire career she had served on starships with a single deep space station to break the monotony. A good background for this kind of assignment.

"Doctor, I hear most of your previous assignments were on starships, what do you think of Endeavours sickbay?" Alona asked. Novana snorted and shook her head, "Captain, like other Sovereign-class starships, theres too many bells and whistles, some places have too much automation or not enough, not nearly enough bio-beds required for a crew of this size, an office that is too big for the duties I perform, and medical laboratories that about as useful as pissing into the wind in my opinion" she said. Alona heard the barely audible intake of breath from a couple of her officers around her.

'Thats right' Alona thought. Dr. Novana was renowned and remembered most by being similar to Dr. Leonard McCoy in the respect of speaking her mind and damn the consequences. According to Dr. Novana's service record, she had been reprimanded only once for it but her previous superiors found it refreshing for an officer to be so brutally blunt and outspoken. Alona agreed, it is refreshing. She nodded at Novana.

"I am sure you can correct those discrepencies then?" Alona asked. Novana smirked, she seemed to understand that Alona didn't mind her being able to speak her mind openly. "Yes ma'am, I think we can have them corrected before we depart the construction slip" Novana said.

"Construction Dock, Doctor" Drake said.

"Whatever" Novana said.

"Excellent, please see to it" Alona said.

Alona looked at last to to the human sitting at the opposite end of the table from her, her uniform was crisp, even for a M.A.C.O. Officer. Just from her looks, Alona could tell she was competent and held herself to high standards to which she probably held her own people to those same standards. A Brunette, cut to neck length or at least thats what Alona assumed, was tied into a bun so tight, it looked like it hurt, piercing hazel eyes and a sharp chin. To Alona, Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Reed appeared quite plain, but, she thought thats how Reed wanted to appear to people, plain and unassuming until you got a phaser blast to the back or a vibro-knife in the throat.

She knew that M.A.C.O. personnel are not to be trifled with and were quite good at their job. They had fought in every war the Federation had gotten into, from the early Klingon Wars to the Dominion War. M.A.C.O. were generally never really assigned to a ship because Starfleet felt that security personnel on board a starship should be adequate enough to handle repelling boarders to away missions that required tactical handling. Whenever M.A.C.O. were assigned to a starship, it was considered pretty serious to have such intensely, specially trained combat personnel on board. She understood that fact and had planned to use the infantry accordingly.

Reed looked around the table once and in a clear voice introduced herself. Reed had a commanding voice and a commanding presence, the same as Alona. She hoped she wouldn't have to butt heads with her. "Also, no, I am not related to the LT Reed of the NX-class Enterprise, a completely different family" she added.

"Colonel, how many M.A.C.O. have been assigned to the ship?" Alona asked.

"We're a company short of a full battalion, but thats because of space and on board housing constraints, so three companies, which comes to 225 troops" Reed answered. Alona nodded, "Any of them have specific skill sets or certain gear requirements such as armored vehicles or perhaps special forces?" she asked.

Reed shook her head, "No ma'am, we don't have any armored vehicles nor any special operations personnel on board, however, of the three companies we have, two are plain infantry, the other one is a mixed specialties broken into platoon sized groups: EOD, Powered Armor Commandoes, and Electronic Warfare Specialists"

"Powered Armor Commandoes? I never heard of those before when I've dealt with M.A.C.O." Alona said.

"The Powered Armor Commandoes are a relatively new type of trained personnel within M.A.C.O. They aren't special forces, but they do have advanced combat and tactics training and M.A.C.O. uses them for surgical strikes, search and rescue, seek and destroy, and reconnaissance missions. The powered armor has many functions but mainly acts as armor, an exo-skeleton, and an enviromental suit all in one. It has a shitty personal shield system and a practically useless pulse phaser shoulder cannon, so obviously, theres some problems with it"

"Think you could fix those problems?" Alona asked.

Reed shook her head, "No ma'am, not without seriously damaging or hampering other systems in the suits, most of which are conveniently tied together" she said.

"I see, thank you Colonel, now before we depart this this meeting, I would like a status update from all departments" Alona said.

Three weeks later...

Captains Personal Log, Stardate 67856.4. Today we get underway. The last of the crew are aboard and the last of the non-replictable supplies have been stowed. I am not sure about this experimental test of the transwarp conduit that we're to transit through, namely because I worked on some of the experiments. I remember adamantly rejecting the idea to test out the system until all the calculations were correct, regardless, I guess it is a good idea to have a Warp Theorist commanding the ship thats going through the test conduit. What has been keeping me up at night is the location of the conduit, what the fuck was going through Starfleet Commands' head when they decided to hide some of our stuff inside Romulan space?

The Endeavour had been at Utopia Planetia for a year and eight months, overhaul of her systems from when she was recalled took the longest time to complete, taking almost a full year. The overhaul was required, due to that Sovereigns are an aging class. After the first Sovereign-class ship departed the construction docks for the first time in 2367, it was understandable to have her overhauled.

In 2384, Starfleet Advanced Starship Design Bureau uprated the class into its third and final generation. At the same time, Starfleet stated that construction of the ships would end in 2390, the Endeavour was the one of the last three Sovereigns built. While the class is no longer being constructed, most of them are still in service being operated throughout the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Quadrants. The ships were also still receiving LCARS updates, general systems updates, refits, and maintenance.

As a third generation Sovereign, the Endeavour had four more decks than her predecessors, was 10 meters longer, 20 meters wider, 12 meters taller, and had a larger crew compliment of 885. First and second generation Sovereigns normal crew compliments were 700. The extra decks were for expanded scientific and exploratory studies, extra housing, more modular science labs, and expanded torpedo magazines.

Alona looked around the bridge, then sat in the Captains Chair. Harry sat next to her smiling, obviously he was excited and ready to get underway as well. Alona looked at one of the arm rests of her chair and gently patted it, "May we have the hindsight to know where we've been, the foresight to know where we're going and the insight to know when we're gone too far" she murmured. It was a personal tradition of hers that she would say as the ship was leaving dock, however, the order she was about to give was probably going to be remembered for a while.

"All stations are reporting online, manned, and ready for departure. Captain, the ship is ready to get underway" Kim said, not looking away from his console.

"Very well, Mr. Kolaas, detach all imbelicals, close and seal airlock 4, and release the docking clamps" Alona said.

"Aye, ma'am" After a moment of entering commands in, a loud clunk was heard. The docking clamps had been released.

"Captain, Utopia Planetia traffic has cleared us for departure, we'll be using exit corridor 7" Radis said.

"Excellent, ahead one-quarter impulse Mr. Kolaas" Alona said, silence followed her command. Kolaas looked up from his console and back at Alona. Kim looked at Alona, grinned and looked back down at his console, T'saal glanced at Kolaas for a moment, and Radis smiled into his console.

"Is there a problem Ensign?" Alona said after the brief moment of silence.

"Captain, regul-" Kolaas began.

"I know the regulations Ensign, now, ahead one-quarter impulse" Alona said, looking directly into Kolaas's eyes.

"Aye, Captain" he said and turned back to the conn, "Engines are ahead one-quarter impulse" obviously he was uncomfortable carrying out her order.

"What's wrong Mr. Kolaas? Enjoy this moment, you are part of history. As soon as the nacelles are clear of the dock, accelerate to three-quarters impulse and take us into the corridor" Alona said.

"How is manuvering the ship at these speeds a part of history?" Kolaas asked.

Alona giggled, "That's because no one has taken a ship out at those speeds since James Kirks' time"

Kolaas glanced back again, "Is this some sort of Starfleet tradition?"

"Some Captains would do things like this when they departed the docks, something to remember them by, like pulsing the warp field or performing the Picard Maneuver right from the dock. Many would get reprimanded, but...its just something for them to remember us by" Alona said with a grin.

"I see, we're in the corridor ma'am" Kolaas said, he was concentrating on piloting the ship.

"Good, do you think you can maneuver the ship around the traffic ahead of us at these speeds?" Alona asked, clearly she was questioning Kolaas's capabilities, well at least that's how he would view it.

"Captain, this is a simple task, of course I can"

'He's too easy' she thought, "Good then, get us through this traffic, I want to be in the cleared warp zone ASAP"

"Aye, Captain"

Amazingly enough, Kolaas more than confidently piloted the ship past two Galaxy-class ships, several Akiras, a few Nebulas, and another Sovereign. Some of the ships were maneuvering out of the way but to Alona, it seemed like the Endeavour practically danced past all of them. 'This ship, theres something about it, I can't seem to put my thumb on it, theres also more to that Klingon's piloting skills than I first realized 'she thought. All the while Utopia Planetia was ordering them to slow down immediately. "Send them an acknowledgement Mr. Radis, if they keep asking or telling us to slow down, keep acknowledging them" Alona said with a grin. They entered the Cleared Warp Zone less than five minutes from when they departed the slip, a new record according to Alona.

"Thank you Mr. Kolaas for that wonderful helmsmanship, plot us a course to the Neptune, warp five" she said, then after a moment, "Engage"