The Captain's First Inspection
(AKA The five times the inspection went wrong and the one time it went right.)
By: Terri J. Taber
Captain Terri Renee McCoy-Carter
Commanding Officer
USS Atlantis NCC-2350
Introduction
Captain Terri Renee McCoy-Carter pushed her flaming red hair past her Klingon brow ridges, and pushed it behind a delicately pointed Vulcan ear as her Chief of Security Officer, as one of her wives, Lieutenant Commander Samantha Carter, directed the shuttle towards space dock where their new lives would begin. The lights of the space dock at the Utopia Planica shipyards orbiting Mars glinted on her ocular implant, left over from her time with the Borg.
Terri had waited for this moment for years, command of her own vessel. It had been her dream ever since she was rescued from the dagger-like clutches of the Borg Collective by the crew of the USS Voyager almost twenty years ago in the Delta Quadrant of the Milky way galaxy.
"You seem nervous." Sam's singsong voice said, and Terri turned to her blond-haired wife. Sam hadn't even turned to face Terri and yet the woman knew how to read her like a book.
"What makes you say that?" Terri asked.
"One you are pacing…" Sam commented. "Two, you always fiddle with your commbadge when you are nervous."
"I do not." Terri started to argue, only to have her other wife chuckle, which was a strange sound coming from a mostly Vulcan female.
"Yes, you do." A'Sil, daughter of Tuvok, said, not looking up from her PADD as she said it. "And it is always with the hand that has the assimilation tubules still on it."
"Watch it…" Terri said sternly.
"You forget, my dear, I am not a member of your crew." A'Sil smiled slightly, a habit she had picked up from her half-brother. It was true A'Sil was not part of her crew, she was a civilian archeologist who was just joining them because she wanted to explore the Delta Quadrant, which was their ship's first mission.
A'Sil was where Terri had gotten the McCoy part of her name. You see, years ago, the Famous Mr. Spock and Doctor Leonard McCoy decided to stop sending barbs at each other and decided to have a meaningful relationship together. They had two sons, Ethan and James. (Named after their late friend, of course.) Ethan was the more controlled Vulcan of the two and James was as emotional as his godfather namesake. Ethan went on to become a third partner of Tuvok and T'Pel. Tuvok and T'Pel had two children, Sek and A'Sil. While Tuvok and Ethan had a son, Jonathan. The children, except for Sek, who was as Vulcan as they came, decided to adopt McCoy's human surname so Terri decided to take both of her wives' surnames when they married. It was better than being compared to the progenitor of her maiden name. Admiral Jean-Luc Picard.
It wasn't as if Terri didn't have a good relationship with her parents. Picard and Dr. Beverly Crusher were good parents, even if her mother was high a lot of her childhood. But she hardly knew her parents. She was taken by the Borg when she was a 10-year-old girl, during the battle of Wolf 359 and wasn't recovered until 9 years later when Voyager encountered a damaged cube, inhabited by only Borg children, Terri, or One of One, being the oldest of the children at age 19. So, she never really got to know her parents, but she did know one thing, she had always wanted to be a Starship Captain, just like her father.
"Hello, Earth to Terri." Sam was waving her hand in front of Terri's face. "You alive in there?"
Terri shook herself out of her thoughts and flashed a smile at her wife. "Always."
"You're going to miss it." Sam said as she pointed ahead of them.
Terri looked to where Sam was pointing before grinning Broadly. There, in drydock, was the USS Atlantis, registry number NCC-2350. Terri marveled at the sleek lines of the medical frigate. It was a different shape than the usual design for Starfleet medical frigates, but that was because this frigate was unique. It was a modified Prometheus class vessel. It had the multi-vector assault mode that the Prometheus class was known for, but it had a larger than average medical facility. It had to have these unique features because their mission was unique. When Voyager returned and reported about the phage the Vidiians faced in the Delta Quadrant, Starfleet Medical knew they had to help, so they designed this frigate to help the Vidiians combat the Phage and eventually cure it.
"This is the shuttle craft Galileo to the USS Atlantis, requesting permission to dock." Sam said over the comms.
"Galileo, we uh…. Weren't expecting the captain for another day." The gruff voice of William Zajac said over the comms.
"I arrived early." Terri frowned. "Is everything alright over there, number one? I want to do an entire departmental inspection as soon as I am aboard."
"Uh, yes Ma'am, everything is fine." Zajac said, but Terri could hear the worry in his voice. "Permission granted; you may dock in docking bay 9."
"Understood." Sam said as she directed the shuttle to the appropriate docking bay.
The Bridge
Commander William Zajac
Executive Officer
USS Atlantis NCC-2350
Commander William Fredrick Zajac let out a particularly foul Klingon curse once the commlink had closed with the Captain's Shuttle. The ship wasn't nearly ready for an inspection, and it had been his job to get it ready before she arrived.
"You're doing it again." A voice said from the medical station next to him.
"And what exactly is that handsome?" Will asked as he looked over at his husband.
"You're fiddling with your commbadge." Doctor Jonathan "Jack" McCoy said as he looked over at his boyfriend and raised a delicate red eyebrow above dark skin. Jack's hair was a genetic quirk that came from the human side of his genome, he got the dark skin from his half Vulcan father Tuvok. For whatever reason, the recessive red hair human gene had asserted itself and become dominant to create the odd combination.
"I am not." Will said as he let his hand drop.
"Sure, you are not." Jack said stoically. "If it's not your commbadge it's your baldric, you're nervous."
As if by instinct Will adjusted his Klingon Baldric. Will was adopted by Klingons after he was found on an abandoned Borg sphere by a Klingon Bird of Prey a few years after the battle at Wolf 359. He was fully human but followed the traditions of the Klingons and was hence allowed to wear the baldric over his Starfleet uniform.
Will sighed, this was not going to go well. The ship wasn't nearly ready to leave the space dock yet. There were still a lot of issues that needed to be addressed and corrected before it was space worthy. William was supposed to get the ship ready before the captain arrived, but whenever he got one problem addressed another propped up. This morning it was the sonic showers being out of acoustic alignment. Lieutenant Miral Paris, the Chief Engineer, was down in engineering working on it but Will had not heard a progress report from her.
"I suggest you go down there and meet her." Jack said, "From what I remember about her being the XO on the Enterprise, she's not one to be kept waiting."
"Captain on the Bridge!" One of the crew called out and Will shot to his feet.
"That was fast." Jack whispered and he smiled slightly when his sister-in-law shot him a look.
"I expected you to be in the shuttle bay to greet me, Commander." The captain said as she made her way over to Will.
"Sorry, Captain, but there are issues that require my attention." Will said. "You made good time getting up here."
"When I saw the state of the shuttle bay, I knew I had to get up here." Terri said sternly, causing Will to wince. "What exactly have you been doing here, Commander, because it hasn't been getting this ship to leave next week?"
"Things haven't exactly been going smoothly, Captain." Will said. "The ship is not ready to leave the space dock. Nothing is finished."
"Well, you'd better make it ready." Terri said. "Reports from the Protostar say that the phage is getting worse. The Vidiians need this ship and her resources. Captain Chakotay needs our help."
"I will do what I can, Captain." Will said.
"Has Tom Paris installed the new command chair I ordered, yet?" Terri asked.
"Not yet, I am told that he is on his way with it." Will said.
Will cringed as the captain heaved a sigh of annoyance, he knew she wasn't happy with that answer. Tom was supposed to have brought it when him and his wife came to see their daughter off as the new Chief Engineer but Tom said there was a part missing for the reclining mechanism that hadn't come in yet.
"Come with me while I complete this inspection." Terri said, breaking Will from his thoughts. "Jack, you have the bridge."
"Not much to command while we are in space dock, Captain." Jack said.
"Then you shouldn't have a panic attack then." Terri smiled at her brother-in-law.
"Aye, Captain." Jack said as he walked over to the command chair.
"I expect you in sickbay for my inspection in thirty minutes." Terris aid.
"I'll be there." Jack said.
Engineering
Lieutenant Miral Paris
Chief Engineer
USS Atlantis NCC-2350
Engineering was a mess when the captain stepped in, and Lieutenant Miral Paris knew the inspection would not go well. The new transwarp drive wasn't even up and running yet and there were bugs in just about every system, especially the sonic shower acoustic system, it was still making people's hair stand on end when it was engaged. Miral pushed her long brown hair past her subtle Klingon brow ridges as sweat formed on her brow. Miral was only a third Klingon, and she was thankful she didn't get her mother, B'Elanna Torres-Paris's Klingon temper otherwise, what happened next would have sent her over the edge.
Miral fiddled with her commbadge as she watched the doors to engineering open to admit the captain and the first officer and just as they did the acoustic converter for the sonic shower system glitched again, causing a high-pitched wail to fill the room for the fifth time that morning. She hated how the new Starfleet ships used one acoustic converter for all the sonic showers on the ship. On Voyager, her mother told her, they each had their own converter so that not all the sonic showers went out at once but the almighty engineers at Starfleet Command thought it would be easier to streamline the system by using one converter.
"Get that locked down now!" Miral yelled over the din of the sound, not noticing that the captain and first officer had entered the room.
"Yes, Ma'am." Lieutenant Sanders nodded before heading over to the converter.
"Attention!" Miral called when she noticed and her engineering staff snapped to attention, except for Sanders who could not hear the call as he was so close to the acoustic converter.
"As you were." Terri called over the noise, as she walked up to Miral. "Seems like you have your work cut out for you, Lieutenant."
"It hasn't been easy trying to get this ship in working order in the timeline Starfleet Command gave us, Ma'am." Miral said once Sanders had gotten the acoustic converter to quite down. "There are a lot of quirks to this new engine design and my mother had to leave for Quo'Nos before it was finished. It's her design, I'm only vaguely familiar with how it works."
"Well, you better get familiar, Lieutenant." Terri said sternly. "You're going to be maintaining this engine the whole way to the Delta Quadrant, and if you can't, I will find a new Chief Engineer who can."
"Yes, Captain." Miral said. "I'll have this engine up and running by tomorrow."
"Don't make promises you can't keep, Lieutenant." Terri said. "And I want the sonic showers fixed by tonight. I like a nice long sonic shower before bed."
"Yes, Captain." Miral said. "I'll get right on it personally."
Terri nodded her head before heading out of engineering with William close behind her.
"Alright, you heard the captain, let's get this ship ready to go!" Miral barked, time to bend a few noses, as her mother used to say.
Miral breathed a sigh of relief once the captain left. If she had had even a fraction of her mother's temper than she would be packing her things for a courtmarshal because the things that passed through her head when the captain was dressing her down would have been total and complete insubordination and the way the captain had acted just now told her that she wouldn't stand for that kind of insubordination like Admiral Janeway did with her mother.
Medical Facilities
Commander Jonthan "Jack" McCoy
Chief Medical Officer
USS Atlantis NCC-2350
Doctor Jonathan "Jack" McCoy fiddled with his commbadge in the mirror as he got ready for the inspection. With what happened on the bridge this morning, Jack knew that his sister-in-law was in a foul mood and this inspection was not going to help matters any. About half of the medical systems have yet to be installed and only a third of the Biobeds were functioning within normal parameters. For a hospital ship, it did not have the facilities to take care of the Vidiians' Phage problem, at least not to the extent that they needed in order to test the cure Jack had developed for it. Jack was alone in his office, and he allowed himself a sigh of exasperation, breaking his emotional control for a fraction of a second before letting his barriers go back up as soon as the doors opened to admit the Captain and Will.
"You have got to be shitting me." Was the first thing out of Terri's mouth when she entered the main sickbay and saw that half of the Biobeds were in pieces. "I suppose you have a 'logical' explanation for this?" She added air quotes with her hands to the word "logical" as Jack stepped out of his office.
"In fact I do, Captain." Jack said in the calm passive manner of a disciplined Vulcan. "It has been quite the task converting a Prometheus class vessel into a medical frigate. Bulkheads had to be removed in order to accommodate the extra hospital areas."
"Bottom line this for me, Jack, how long is it going to take to get these medical facilities up to the point where we can help the Vidiians accurately." Terri asked.
"No less than three weeks." Jack said matter-of-factly.
Terri groaned and put her fingers up to her Bajorian nose ridges and rubbed her nose in a frustrated manner.
"However." Jack said. "We do have all the materials needed in the cargo bays on board. I am confident that Miral's engineering team is up to the task of getting all the systems ready as we make our one-month trip to Vidiian space with the new transwarp drive."
"Miral can't even get the sonic showers working." Terri said in a frustrated tone. "Starfleet assured me that this ship would be ready."
"We will get it ready by the time we need it to help the Vidiians." Jack said. "You are stressing yourself out too much over this. You should relax."
"I am here for an inspection, not a check-up, doctor." Terri said sternly. "Get with Miral and come up with a concrete plan to get this done before we reach Vidiian space."
"Understood." Jack said as he raised a red eyebrow at his sister-in-law in regard to her attitude.
"I want a report with a plan on my desk by tomorrow morning." Terri barked before heading out of sickbay.
"Sorry handsome." Will said as he pecked Jack on the cheek before following the captain.
Operations
Lieutenant Commander Harry Kim
Chief Operations Officer
USS Atlantis NCC-2350
"Damn it!" Lieutenant Commander Harry Kim snapped as the comm system went down for the third time that morning. He ran his fingers through his short hair as the door to the operations room opened to admit the Captain. "Captain!" Harry snapped to attention and bonked his head on an overhead console. "I didn't realize you were onboard the ship already."
"You would know I was coming had the comm system been up and running." Terri said sternly.
"Sorry Ma'am, I think it is a problem with the EPS conduit behind this station." Harry said. "I was just about to check out the Jefferies tube."
"Harry, do you know why you haven't made it past Lieutenant Commander in the time I went to the Academy and got promoted all the way to Captain?" Terri asked.
Harry fiddled with his commbadge before he answered. "I don't, Ma'am."
"Or why in the seven years you were in the Delta Quadrant Janeway never promoted you, but Tom Paris was demoted and repromoted in that same time?" Terri asked.
"No, Ma'am."
"Let me give you a bit of advice." Terri said. "You need to take initiative. You always do things yourself instead of delegating to one of the junior officers. You've been a senior officer for twenty years, Harry, learn to delegate or you will never make Captain."
"I'll keep that in mind, Captain." Harry said.
"Now, I want that comm system up and running within the hour or you might as well get off the ship." Terri said. "I need a chief of operations that can get a job done and get it done right by delegating the work."
"Yes, Ma'am." Harry said.
"And Harry?"
"Yeah."
"You've known me since I was a teen, call me Terri."
"Yes…. Terri." Harry said almost calling her Ma'am again.
Terri smiled slightly before heading towards the exit.
Captain Terri McCoy-Carter
Commanding Officer
USS Atlantis NCC-2350
Terri stepped out of the operations room and a rather stern looking Andorian was standing there.
"Can I help you?" Terri frowned at the unknown person in a black uniform and a black Starfleet insignia badge.
"Captain McCoy-Carter." He said. "We need to speak… Alone."
Terri frowned. "Meet me in security." Terri said as she turned to Will. "Tell Sam I will be there soon."
"Yes, Ma'am." Will said before walking off.
"This way." The Andorian said.
Terri frowned as she followed the Andorian.
Black Ops unit (Section 31)
Colonel Vorian
Military Black Ops Commander
USS Atlantis NCC-2350
Colonel Vorian led Terri to a black door on deck seven. The door was ominous looking, and it was at the entrance to the whole deck which was supposed to be for extra hospital beds. Vorian could tell that the genetically forced mixed species Captain was already not liking what was going on.
"What is this place?" Terri frowned. "I have studied the schematics of this rebuilt ship, and this was not on it."
"There is a lot about this ship you don't know, Captain." The Andorian said as he placed his hand on the panel next to the door and the black doors slid open.
Terri stepped into the room after Vorian and looked around. There were about 100 bunks of beds in the room with people of various species milling about.
"Captain on Deck!" Vorian called and the hundred or so people ran to get into formation next to their bunks and snapped to attention.
"What the hell is this?" Terri said in a demanding tone that Vorian found to be disrespectful, but then his boss told him she would not be happy about this.
"Our orders." Vorian said as he handed her a PADD.
Vorian waited until the captain had fully read through the orders they were about to speak when she looked up before the Captain spoke first.
"Oh hell no…" Terri growled as she shoved the orders back at Vorian. "I will not have a section 31 military unit on this ship of peace and mercy."
"You have no choice; the deck has already been built to accommodate our men and our fighters." Vorian said, matter-of-factly, unable to understand the captain's objection to the orders. "The Vidiians tried to attack Voyager and harvest the crew's organs on multiple occasions. I do not see why you do not see the prudence in this measure Starfleet is taking."
"Because I want nothing, I repeat, NOTHING to do with Section 31." Terri yelled. "They have tried to do harm to me in the past by trying to figure out how exactly the Borg altered my genome when they assimilated me!"
"You have no choice." Vorian said calmly. "These orders were signed by the President of the Federation."
Vorian watched as the captain fiddled with her commbadge as she considered the options, which Vorian knew that she had none.
"Fine…" Terri said, a low grumbled was in the captain's voice as she said it. "What did you mean by fighters, Starfleet doesn't have fighter ships." Vorian watched as the captain frowned again.
"Follow me." Vorian said as they held a hand out to direct the Captain to the fighter bay. Once they entered the fighter bay Vorian watched as the captain's eyes opened wide. "We do now."
"You're going to turn this ship into a warship." The captain growled.
"If the need arises." Vorian said. "We have now way of knowing if the Vidiians will accept our help or not. Starfleet Command and the President feels we need to be prepared when we go to encounter them once again."
The captain lapsed into silence, considering her options carefully as Vorian watched.
"I will have access to this deck anytime I want." The captain said sternly. "No exceptions."
"I have already been granted permission to give you full section 31 clearance again." Vorian said.
"Fine but I am never stepping foot inside a section 31 facility again." The captain growled. "Good day, Colonel."
"Good day." Vorian said as they watched the captain practically sprint towards the exit of the deck. They watched her go and wondered if the captain would really be as much of a problem as Admiral Ross thought. She seemed to agree to their presence there without much of a fight. Vorian turned to the troops and gave them the hand signal for "at ease."
Vorian wondered what they would find when they reached the Delta Quadrant, but they knew their orders and they wouldn't let even the Captain stand in their way.
Security (AKA the one that went right)
Lieutenant Commander Samantha "Sam" Carter
Chief of Security
USS Atlantis NCC-2350
Lieutenant Commander Samantha "Sam" Carter was worried about her wife. When William Zajac arrived without the captain for the inspection Sam knew something was wrong. When Will explained about the stranger Andorian with the black suit and badge Sam wanted to go find her wife. Black badges meant only one thing, Section 31 and anything with Section 31 was bad trouble. Sam paced her office as she waited for her wife to arrive if she arrived.
When the door finally opened, Terri looked more stressed than Sam had ever seen her. Will had told Sam that the inspections had not gone well and as the day went on Terri had gotten snippier and snippier. Jack told her that Terri had bit his head off about the condition of the medical facilities when it wasn't her brother-in-law's fault. She was going to have to do some damage control when she saw the look on her wife's face.
"What happened?" Sam asked as she went to her wife's side.
"Section 31." Terri whispered. "They have placed a military unit complete with combat fighter craft on deck seven."
"I was wondering why even my security clearance couldn't access deck seven." Sam sighed. "Why are they doing this?"
"They think the Vidiians won't be grateful for the help we are trying to give them." Terri whispered. "It's a way for Ross to get his talons into me again, even gave me back my Section 31 clearance and somehow he got the president of the Federation on board with this."
Sam sighed, the things that Section 31 and more specifically, Ross had done to Terri when she returned with Voyager and joined Section 31 after her academy days, were unspeakable. Sam hoped the new chief counselor arrived soon because Terri was going to need her.
"But that didn't happen till the end of the day." Sam said. "Why were you so snippy with your senior staff during the inspection?"
Terri sat down in one of the chairs as she fiddled with her commbadge nervously. "Picard called me before we left Deep Space 9." Terri said. "He gave me some tips on handling command. With how rocky our relationship has been since I returned with Voyager it just rattled me."
Sam pushed a lock of blond hair behind a pointed Romulan ear. "Why didn't you say anything to A'Sil and I?"
"I didn't want to ruin this for you." Terri whispered.
Sam sat down next to Terri and cupped her face in her hands. "Don't ever keep stuff like that from me. Picard is one of your triggers, you shouldn't hold that in so that you explode at your crew."
Terri nodded before turning to Will. "I owe you an apology, Commander."
"Think nothing of it." Will smiled warmly. "I'll chock it up to new command jitters."
Terri smiled at him before turning back to Sam. "Please tell me there is nothing wrong with Security."
"Nothing that I saw." Sam said. "We have a full complement of phaser rifles and hand phasers. The weapons systems appear to be fully operational, including one hundred photon torpedoes."
"I swear, Starfleet thinks we are going to war, not on a humanitarian mission." Terri sighed.
"Let's just go to our quarters and have some lunch." Sam smiled. "Worry about Starfleet and Section 31's agenda later.
"Alright." Terri smiled at her wife. "Thank you."
