Getting Underway

Posted on Mon Jun 29th, 2020 @ 10:49pm by Captain Dyllon McMahon

1,098 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: The Saga Begins
Location: Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards
Timeline: Prime

Observation Deck, Ganymede Drydock

The crowd gathered around the viewport, watching as a bottle of Chateau Picard 2376 made it's way towards the Ganymede. From this distance it was barely visible, but a zoomed in angle was playing on large consoles around the room. The room erupted into cheers as the bottle shattered against the side of the ship, the red wine looking suspiciously like Human blood splattered across the small hull panel. Dyllon joined the applause, smiling assuredly at the gathered crowd.

As the group dispersed to make their way to the refreshments, Admiral Bennington approached, followed closely by a Human female brunette, wearing the pips of a Vice Admiral.

"Lovely speech, Captain. Do you think she's ready?", Bennington reached out his hand to shake Dyllon's.

Dyllon smiled, "She's as ready as she'll ever be, Admiral. We've got a few kinks to work out, but once we hit the Vulcan system, it'll be slipstream drive all the way to Deep Space Nine."

"That's good to hear. I didn't get a chance to introduce you earlier. Kathryn, may I introduce you to Captain Dyllon McMahon. Dyllon, this is Rear Admiral Janeway."

Dyllon reached to take her hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Admiral. Your work and the work of your crew made this drive a possiblity."

"The pleasure is mine, Captain. Having the slipstream drive in mainstream service will open a lot of doors for the Federation." Janeway replied.

Dyllon raised his glass of synth-champagne, "To opening doors". Janeway and Bennington both raised their glasses, and repeated "To opening doors."

"If you'll excuse me, admirals, I need to excuse myself from the rest of the party. I'm needed back on the Ganymede to make final preparations." Dyllon gave a slight bow, and walked to an empty corner of the observation deck.

"McMahon to Ganymede, one to beam up"

Main Transporter Room, USS Ganymede

Dyllon materialized in, and immediately saw the face of an angry Klingon woman.

"Out of the question", he said immediately.

"We need to delay the launch!" she pleaded.

"You're overreacting!" he continued walking through the doors into the hallway. E'Lor followed.

"We need to run more simulations on the slipstream drive!" E'Lor asserted.

Dyllon stopped and turned to face her. "There are fifteen admirals sitting in the observation lounge, along with reporters from multiple news agencies, including the FNN! One way or another, they need to see the Ganymede fly out of drydock, and jump to warp. We aren't going to test out the slipstream drive until we get to Vulcan. At shadown speeds, that's 12 hours away. I'm assuming the conventional drive is fully operational?"

"Yes. That was ready last week." E'Lor replied.

Dyllon sighed. "Good. Now, get down to engineering, and make sure this launch goes off without a hitch. Then, hop onto running those simulations all the way to Vulcan."

With that, Dyllon turned back around, and headed for the turbolift.

Main Bridge, USS Ganymede

"Captain on the bridge!" a random ensign shouted as Dyllon stepped off the turbolift platform.

"As you were", he said as he made his way to the Captain's chair.

K'Rah'San stood up from the chair, and waited for Dyllon to take it. "Kept it warm for you, Captain."

Dyllon sat down with a sigh. "Status report?"

K'Rah'San replied, "All stations report in ready... well, except Engineering..."

"We've already spoken" Dyllon interjected.

K'Rah'San continued, "I'd like to get in some more weapons calibration. Phasers are fully functional, and we are fully stocked to torpedoes, but I can't guarantee we'll hit what we're shooting at"

"Plenty of time to do that once we're underway. It'll be a bit before we leave Federation space."

K'Rah'San nodded and took his place in the seat next to Dyllon.

"Well, let's not keep the brass waiting. Ops, retract moorings and activate running lights." Dyllon ordered.

"Aye, sir" the Ops ensign replied.

Dyllon looked towards the front of the bridge, at the Vulcan sitting at CONN. "Lieutenant Ovik, once moorings are cleared, proceed at one quarter thrusters."

"Acknowledged, Captain" the helmsman replied.

"Moorings cleared" the Ops ensign announced. In response, Lt Ovik keyed in the commands, and the ship began to move forward out of drydock.

"Mr Ovik, once we clear drydock, proceed on heading 033-mark-17 at half impulse". Dyllon tapped his commbadge, "Bridge to engineering, do we have warp power?"

A female voice came over the comms, "Yes, Captain"

The ship lurched forward and port as it picked up more speed.

"Mr Ovik, lay in a course for Vulcan, Warp 1." Dyllon ordered.

"Course laid in, Captain. Helm stands ready" Ovik replied.

"Alright, let's get it done" Dyllon said.

The familiar whine of a warp drive activating filled everyone's ears, and the view screen, which had a moment ago been half-filled with the horizon of Mars, was now a streaking starfield.

"Warp 1 and holding, Captain" Lt Ovik reported.

"Alright, step us up to Warp 2"

Fast Forward 24 hours: Captain's Quarters.

The ship shudders, and the red alert klaxons start going off. "Captain to the bridge".

Dyllon wakes from his short rack time, and taps his commbadge. "Report!"

K'Rah'San's voice comes over the comms, "We've dropped out of slipstream."

Main Bridge

Dyllon steps off of the turbolift, his overshirt open. "Are we under attack?"

K'Rah'San shakes his head.

"Then stand down to condition green. Where are we?"

Lt Ovik turns his chair to face the others, "We're just outside of the Bajor system. We were prepared to drop out of slipstream in 10 minutes, but the conduit collapsed."

Dyllon tapped on his commbadge, "Bridge to engineering. Why aren't the stars moving?"

Commander E'Lor's voice came over, "We hit a spike in phase variance, and the safety systems kicked in. I'll have to take the slipstream drive offline for a few hours to reboot, and then we need to run more simulations before we can try again."

Dyllon sighed, "Understood. What about conventional drive?"

"The abrupt drop from slipstream knocked the warp coils out of alignment. It'll take 4 hours to get the warp drive back online."

"Acknowledged."

Lt Ovik added in, "Captain, with that estimate, and accounting for maximum impuslse velocity and the warp speed restrictions within the system, we should arrive at Deep Space Nine in approximately 5 hours, 17 minutes, 37 seconds. We will miss our scheduled arrival time"

Dyllon looked puzzled, "That didn't sound approximate."

"I'm accounting for multiple variables, Captain." Ovik replied.

Dyllon made his way to his chair, and sat down. "Alright, then. Proceed at maximumm impulse. Ops, inform DS9 that we will be a little late..."

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