Star Trek: Dream's Legacy
Book 1
Chapter 1
The construction facility hung in orbit above the beautiful blue, green and white orb of Earth, the third planet in the Sol System. And moored in the dry dock attached to the bottom of the station was the starship known as the both famous and infamous SNO-Enterprise. While not quite the largest ship constructed for the Nexus eXtreme Warp Challenge, it was still close. It was fashioned after the refit Star Trek Enterprise and Enterprise-A, but it still had a flair very much all its own. And it was a good deal larger than the fictional famous original ship of James T. Kirk. It had been a miracle that the SNO had been able to officially claim the name for their ship before any of the other competitors had been able to. Or that the UN had approved it.
The Enterprise was the pride and joy of the Spacenauts Organization, though between it, two orbital construction facilities and a advanced new experimental ground-to-orbit electromagnetic lift system, the company was basically bankrupt. If it weren't for the quick thinking and long term planning of the companies founder, president and owner, they would have already gone under. But thanks to special super funds and company savings, workers and bills were still getting paid and things were still moving along. But that could only last for so long before even that money was gone. And if they didn't get the chance soon to prove that their technology and ship worked, all of their investors would pull out, effectively shutting down any future hope of the SNO getting back on its feet.
SNO president Josh Keith was acutely aware of that as he flew around the Enterprise in a small shuttlepod, inspecting the latest changes to the ship's hull. During the past 6 months since the ship had been completed, while they waited on the UN to decide if they could start their trials early, the SNO had not been idle. They had already performed a couple of upgrades and modifications to the ship, trying to ensure they had the best chance possible of winning the challenge. Just recently new hull plating and armor had been installed, the particle generators in the phaser banks upgraded and the warp coils and reactors re-plated.
Keith flew the pod past the inside of the starboard nacelle pylon, slowing and inspecting the new plates recently installed there, seeing if the seams were satisfactory. Once he was sure they looked good, he moved the pod forward to the starboard side of the neck. There had been a report that a new plate might be loose, but it all looked good to Keith. Also being the Enterprise's main engineer and designer, he would instantly know if something was wrong. But if he thought something was fine, you knew it was good.
After taking a few minutes to fly a circle under the saucer, inspecting the bottom of it as well, Keith turned the pod back toward the main bay docks above the ship and hailed the construction bay control center.
"Orion Station Bay Control, this is shuttlepod OSD-103 Atlantis. My inspection run is complete and I am returning to the main docks now. Tell the crews the ship has passed this inspection and is in tip top shape. Congratulations are in order."
"Understood, shuttlepod OSD-103. Proceed to Dock 7A, Port 3."