Assembled for the first time

Cl.01.05 – Lieutenant Commander Susannah Faulckner was a human female officer of 32 years old. About three months ago, Captain Aelyn had approached her about a position she wanted filled. At the time, she was serving on the U.S.S. Claymore under Captain Jake Wilkinson as his chief helm officer. Admiral West had played a key role in arranging the assignment on the Claymore and once again he had played in important role in getting an assignment on the U.S.S. Callisto. In fact, in her senior year internship, she already served under the Admiral, who was a Captain at that time. Aboard the U.S.S. Ben Nevis, which Daniel West was commanding at that time, she had learned what it was to be a Starfleet Officer. Now that she had approximately ten years of experience under her belt, she felt extremely proud to be able to add the responsibility of second officer to her resume. Apparently the Admiral and Captain Aelyn had confidence in her ability which would warrant her new position. After she had agreed to take the position, she made her way to Earth, where she looked up her family in the Southern regions of Ireland before she reported to San Francisco fleetyards. Now that the ship was in space for about a month, she was really happy to come to the realization that the next step in her career had been a good one. The crew had welcomed warmly and the brand new ship offered all the comforts she needed, a lot more than her previous vessel which was a smaller Sabre class starship. Commander Li-Kobrrei who was going to be her direct superior and mentor in the Starfleet command course program was, in her eyes, a capable officer from which she could learn a lot.

“Have the shuttle’s impulse manifolds checked again. I want to be sure that they are safely overhauled before I check that box.” Susannah said to the subordinate crewman who had come up the helm console in the front of the bridge to hand her the report. “I have a scheduled senior class briefing in about a minute or so but afterwards, I’ll come down to the shuttle bay to perform the inspection.” She handed the PADD back to the Deltan petty officer who nodded and left the bridge.

“Commander, we’ll be assembling the briefing lounge in about 5 minutes.” The sound of the Efrosian first officer sounded stern. Before replying to his notion, she looked at the chronometer that indicated that the meeting would start approximately 15 minutes earlier than planned. She nodded, logged out and made way for a junior helm officer to take her place. She then looked at the operations and tactical consoles which were currently manned by the senior officer who needed to be present at the briefing as well. “Lieutenants.” She said as a reminder for them to follow her into the briefing lounge. The Vulcan and Caitian officers also logged out and followed her.

They all took a seat in one of the chairs along the V shaped table. As they were seated more officers started to walk in. Commanders Nayru and Denaris were engaged in some kind of scientific conversation while they seated themselves. Not much later Lieutenant Raa entered through the other door. The Pahkwha-tanh strategy officer was a peculiar one. He remained pretty seclusive while the rest of the crew seemed to enjoy spending time with each other. Susannah made a mental note to spend some time in getting to know the dinosaur-like fellow officer. Lastly the Kaminoan Joobr entered the room. Raa perhaps was an odd sight but Joobr was even more peculiar looking. He was one of the first Kaminoans that entered Starfleet Command after their planet became a full member of the Federation in the year 2385. He was about 150 centimeters long, which was pretty small for most humanoid species. He had a long neck that made a V-shaped curve downwards to the structure that was his head. He had large compound eyes, two slits as nostrils and a wide mouth. His relative long arms had long hands which three fingers each. His legs were short and stout while his large feet had three toes each, like geckos have on Earth. After her first encounter with Joobr, she had looked up information on Kaminoa and it appeared that they were a amphibian species that were able to breath both in air and water. They seemed to be sleeping while fully submerged. “Commander.” Joobr greeted her as he passed her. His voice had a high frequency tremor which sounded quite funny in her opinion. It still cost Susannah quite some effort not to burst into laughing each time she heard him speak.

“Good morning all.” About a minute later, Commander Kobrrei entered the briefing room while he started to hand out PADDs to each of the senior crew. “We have a new mission. The full details can be found on the PADD. I suggest you read them through as we wait for the Captain to explain the most important details.” As soon as Li finished speaking, the briefing room grew silent. All of the officers were focussed on what was downloaded onto the PADD. As he brief was read, Calyssa entered.

“Good morning.” She started. “As you might have already heard, we have set a course back to Earth. We are to report to Earth because we are expecting a committee comprising of Federation ambassadors and high ranking Admirals. They will be joining us for about three weeks as we take the ship back to The Reach. We are to show them what the Chozo expedition is all about in order to allow the Federation and Starfleet to know what we are doing. At this time there are too many questions and rumours about what we are doing and that should end.” Calyssa had been circling the table as she spoke. Now she decided to sit down. “It is our mission to let them see that what we are doing is perhaps one of the most important and exciting missions that Starfleet currently is undertaking. Additionally, they are really eager to see their new Azura class ship in full action. I have been told that we will receiving instructions as soon as we reach the solar system. In the mean time, Commander Faulckner, I am placing you in charge of the team that will see to the needs of our VIP guests. Make sure that they are assigned to comfortable quarters and that their every need is met.” Calyssa noticed that Faulckner seemed excited with her new job. “I’ll prepare the entire ambassador deck for the group.” Calyssa nodded. “Good plan. I want you to work with Kobrrei to come up with an interesting itinerary for our guests. Have it ready before we reach Earth.”

“In the mean time, we still have to continue our shakedown procedures. I have tasked Commander Kobrrei to see whether the itinerary and the shakedown tests can match in such a way that we don’t lose too much time with this. You can expect updated shakedown schedules first thing tomorrow morning. I expect all your cooperation to make this work.” She said, making eye contact with each of her senior crew for a brief moment. “Are there any remaining questions?” It remained silent. Calyssa nodded. “Well then, let’s get to it!. Dismissed.”

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