Cl.01.11 – A man of medium length stood by the large window of his rather spacious office. With two fingers of his right hand, he stroked the short but tough hairs in his beard that was turning grey slowly. He was proudly wearing the uniform of a Starfleet Admiral with the ranks of a Vice Admiral on his chest. He was reading through a report while a message from the stations OPS center was received. “Admiral, we have received word from the U.S.S. Sagitta. The U.S.S. Callisto has successfully made the jump. They will be here in less than 30 minutes.” The voice of the station operations manager came through clearly. Admiral West tapped his commbadge and acknowledged the message. He sighed, coming to the realization that it was now crunch time. In about half an hour, the docking rings of his station were going to be swarming with security personnel and press while the dignitaries’ safety has to be guaranteed. He left his office and walked to his aide who was seated behind a desk, a few meters outside of his office. “I’ll be off to greet the President and his team. Take messages as I will not be answering them today.” The aide nodded and with that, Daniel headed to the docking ring. Standing in the completely translucent turbolift cubicle, he made sure that all necessary arrangements were taken care of. “West to Commander El Azar. Guests arriving in less than 30 minutes. Make sure that your personnel is standing by.” He has put his chief of security under a lot of pressure to properly arranged security on his station with so much dignitaries roaming the large station’s corridors. Though he was absolutely sure that Rivendell was a safe haven, he did not want to leave anything to chance. Thankfully the human with Arabic heritage shared his point of view. “They are already standing by, Admiral.” Daniel chuckled and nodded his head. “Perfect, Commander. Don’t let me down on this one.” “You can count on me, sir.” The turbolift was still descending to the docking rings while Daniel continued to check up on his senior staff. “The U.S.S. Callisto has received priority docking clearance. They will be docking in 15 minutes.” The OPS manager reported when Admiral West finally arrived on the scene. “Excellent. Where will they be docking?” “Docking portal 5, Admiral.” He again nodded. “Swell, have the team of stewards stand by.” “I’ll take care of it, Admiral.” “West out!” Dan closed the comm link by tapping his commbadge. He hurried his way over to docking portal 5 which took him quite some time to reach because of the massive dimensions of the station, having to walk around the immense bio dome that formed the inner core of Rivendell.

“Hello, love. How are things down in the hospital.” A swift and quaint kiss on her cheek as a sign of affection between the Admiral and his wife, the station’s hospital director. The black haired Betazoid female was glad to have a moment to see her husband a minute or so before they usually meet at the dinner table later that day. “How’s Kathy doing this morning?” “Well, she is having a blast at school today. According to her teacher, she is doing quite well in maths.” Daniel smiled. It made him awfully proud to hear good things about his daughter. “Nervous?” Angeline asked Daniel. “Sane tension.” Daniel replied, sighing once, deeply. From the distance, the two could see a  Federation starship with an unknown configuration getting larger and larger. As the U.S.S. Callisto neared the station it slowed down to thrusters in order to safely dock with the station. Daniel looked at the beauty of a ship and he applauded the brilliant design that included the advantages of several successful ship classes into a smart design, perfectly able to fulfill its role as a tactical exploration cruiser. It took quite some effort and an elaborate lobbying campaign to get one of the brand new Azura class starships assigned to his cause. Seeing her finally arrive at Rivendell made him a proud man. Like previous classes such as the Aquarius and Vesta class, the Azura class was fabricated using a lighter coloured hull alloy. The support struts between the saucer section and the secondary engineering hull, as well as the saucer’s lateral sides were coloured in anthracite grey. Daniel quite liked the new design style that the Engineers in the Sol sector had come up with for the last few classes of ships. Though the Azura class was not equipped with a sensor pod like the Luna class, she still carried a state of the art, sophisticated sensor array on an elevated plateau on the dorsal side of the saucer. Her weapon complement was formidable. Aside from an increased torpedo complement, the ship was equipped with an experimental type of phase turrets, something he was dying to see being used in real time. Though not visible on the outside, most impressive of all was the trinity of independently operating warp cores that, in unison, created such a powerful warp field that would guaranteed high warp speed for a considerable longer period of time. That along with replaceable nacelles, much like the Intrepid class, made the Azura class perhaps the fastest in the fleet. Looking at her he must conclude that the ship was an absolute stunning beauty to look at and it made him feel almost jealous of not being able to command her. But if there was one Captain in his team who he thought was suited to command her, it was Calyssa.

“In love, are we?” Angeline prodded him with her elbow, trying to snap him back to attention. “Ships like that make me wonder why I ever accept a promotion into Admiralty.” He said, stepping up to the docking portal as the airlocks were sealed. Several minutes later the portal opened and after at least 30 security officials came pouring out, the dignitaries came out, one by one, each being followed by at least 3 members of the press. Captain West-Nayru followed the Admiral in his wake as she was selected to be part of the welcoming committee on Rivendell station. “Remind me again why we did this?” Daniel whispered to his wife. “Your Excellence, may I be the first to officially welcome you to Rivendell Station.” Angeline noticed how the Admiral and the President greeted each other by a firm shake of their hands which lasted uncomfortably long, allowing the press to take all the necessary pictures. “May I ask you to follow my stewards to the conference lounge?” Okeg smiled and nodded. He followed the rest of his cabinet. Now that the dignitaries were walking away to the conference section of the station, Daniel had a minute to greet Captain Aelyn who had now exited her ship. “Damn it, Calyssa, you are a lucky woman, do you know that?” Daniel shook her hand. “You should be damned proud of a ship like that.” “I am, I sure am.” Calyssa smiled. “How was shoreleave.” The Admiral asked his subordinate. “Something that I should have done years ago. Invigourating, but glad to be back in perhaps my most exciting assignment of my career. What that ship can do is simply astounding.” “I believe you, Calyssa. You can tell me all about it later tonight at yet another banquet.” He smiled. “I am already looking forward.” Calyssa replied, trying not to sound too cynical.