Unusual Enterprise, Episode 2

Captain's Log, Stardate 2681.48

Our time at Starbase 12 has ended well, with the Enterprise in peak condition and her new crewmembers settling down well. Our new psychiatrist, the Betazoid Elorra Meller, seems to be fitting in well, and if her exemplary record is anything to judge by, she will be a valuable asset to the ship.

Starfleet has sent us to the Eridanae Vega system, just outside the neutral zone between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, to aid the crewmembers of a science vessel called the U.S.S. Harrington. The exact nature of the emergency is unknown, but we have been ordered to maintain maximum warp until we arrive.

Amy took a deep breath and straightened her new gold uniform one last time before the turbolift doors swished open and released her onto the bridge. There was a funny knot of tension in her chest as brief flashes of what happened to her last time she was her rushed through her mind, but she was not going to give up Bridge duty because of memories.

"Ensign Graham reporting for bridge duty, Captain," she said quietly, standing to attention next to the captain's chair.

Captain Kirk gave her a genuine, reassuring smile before replying. "Acknowledged, Ensign. Please take your station." She swapped with the young Ensign who had been standing at the Operations console, and let her fingers brush across the console. "Oh, Ensign?" She looked at the Captain. "Welcome back."

She felt herself turning crimson, and went to brush her hair out of her eyes. Except that it wasn't there anymore. Doctor Meller ("Call me Elorra," she'd said) had suggested a change in herself to ease her transition to Operations and bridge duty, so she'd gone to the ship's barber late one night and let him cut her hair. Her fringe no longer hung in front of her eyes, and her hair hung straight around her head, curling a little at the ends at jaw level. She'd even checked the regs for personal ornamentation, and an ornate silver clip from Trill was fastened just above her right ear.

Chekov looked over his shoulder and smiled at her, and her knees went weak. Then he registered what was different about her and his mouth went into a little 'O' of suprise and he flushed as he looked back at the console, unaware that she was doing the exact same thing.

Alright, she told herself. Work first. Work is important. Monitor power flow, check simulations...

And so began Ensign Amy Louisa Graham's first day on the bridge.

(Note: I'm taking inspiration for the Operations console from what Harry Kim does on Voyager. So... yeah. Let's see how this goes.)

 

After the Enterprise had departed from Star Base 12, Edward walked through the corridors of the ship. When he was just about to enter the turbolift someone called his name. He turned around and saw that it was Pam and both went into the turbo lift. She was happy to see him, because she had heard the news that Starfleet was sending them to the Eridanae Vega system, just outside the neutral zone between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Their mission would be to aid the crewmembers of a science vessel called the U.S.S. Harrington. During the conversation, he pressed the button to the third deck. The doors close and it started to moving.

“What kind of problems might we encounter on this kind of mission?”

Edward looked into Pam‘s eyes and said “It is possible that they are no longer in the same place. Or that we will get the message that it has been ransacked and destroyed by pirates.”

“Gosh, you sure see things from the positive side.” Pam smiled sarcastically. She does have a nice smile.

“Yes I know, but there is even a greater possibility that the rogues will keep the ship and because the passengers are no use to them they will kill them and throw them overboard. Now if you have some experience with these situations you know that these things happen.” he said gloomily.

“Sorry, but I haven‘t got any experience with this.”

When they left the turbolift Denner came towards them. Edward introduced Pam and she shook his hand.

“So, how’s your new job Chief of Experimental Technologies?” Edward asked.

 

Every now and again Amy would look up from her work and glance at Chekov. Sometimes he would already be looking at her, and other times he would look up as if he felt her attention. It was... disconcerting, but somewhat reassuring.

"Captain," Lieutenant Uhura said, breaking the silence of the smoothly running bridge. "I've isolated that error in the communications array. With your permission, I'd like to take Ensign Graham and see if we can repair it."

Amy looked over at the communications officer. Uh oh. That smile does not bode well for me.

"Of course, Lieutenant," Kirk replied. "Ensign, accompany the Lieutenant and follow her orders."

"Y-yes, sir..."

They were most of the way to Deck Five (and why Deck Five? Amy wondered) when Uhura pressed the stop button on the side of the turbolift and fixed her with that worrying, knowing smile that she had worn on the bridge.

"So, how long have you and Chekov been dating?"

If she'd been drinking something it would have sprayed all over the turbolift. As it was, she started choking and it took several solid thumps from the Communications officer before she could breathe again. "We're not dating!" she managed, and she knew her face was crimson.

"You mean you two have been making doe eyes across the bridge all day and you're not even together? There's something wrong with that picture. Something must be done!"

"Can we just fix the error now, please?"

"There's no error," Uhura said with a smile that would have even made Kirk nervous. "It's the end of our shift anyway. One way or another, we're going to get the two of you together."

"Y-you're evil!" Amy gasped, and Uhura tapped the button to send the turbolift zipping down again.

"I know."

 

Quentin winced a little, he still wasn't used to talking to so many people. Crewmembers he'd never even met had delveloped the disconcerting habit of approching him in corridors to express thanks or sympathy. But at least he knew Ensign Duke. And he'd seen Medicae Pam before, in sickbay.

"Less exciting than you would think. Half of what we're supposed to test are new subroutines in tricoders, phasers, sensor arrays and so on. Last shift we spent half our time correcting focusing errors in the new deflector."

Duke grinned. "So why're you so nervous? It's just like what you were doing before."

Quentin shifted uneasily. "Well...it's..."

"Being in a postion of authority? Don't worry, you'll be fine. Have time for a drink? We were just heading to the lounge, we've still got an hour or two before we arrive."

"Thank-you, but I actually have an appointment. I've been supposed to see our new conselor for several days but work's been interfering and this is the only time left."

"Get your head sorted out, then," said Ensign Duke. "I'll hold you to that drink another time."

"Thanks. It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Pam. See you later Ensign."

With an apologetic smile Quentin stepped past them in to the turbolift and selected deck nine. After the doors closed he leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. Shaking his head slowly from side to side he wondered if he'd ever be able to talk to people without wanting to run for the nearest closet.

 

"Lieutenant, I don't care if you order me, I am not wearing that... thing!" Amy declared, backing up towards the door. She'd been able to tolerate Uhura's lewd suggestions, and had even considered acting on a couple of them, but she drew the line at wearing something like... that.

"You have to do something!" Uhura protested. "I can't take the thought of you two acting like that every day! And I'm pretty sure that if you wear this, he'll be all over you like that!" Uhura snapped her fingers to demonstrate.

The familiar tone of a ship-wide hail broke their stalemate. "All hands to Battle Stations!" Kirk's voice echoed throughout the ship. "Alpha Shift, report to the bridge!"

Without another word, Amy and Uhura ran for the nearest turbolift.

 

In the lounge they sat down at the table were Edward always sat when he was on duty. It was placed so that Edward could overlook the whole area. The lounge was very crowed today, because most of the crewmembers wanted to have a drink before they will go back to their duties. A black waitress asked what they want to order. He ordered a black coffee, and Pam wanted some juice because she was still on duty, so she wants to have a clear head.

While the black waitress was writing down their orders, something caught Edward his attention. Some further away two people were having a heated conversation. On closer inspection he saw that it was the head of the security Sam Hopkins and a person hidden behind a pillar. The conversation stopped when the black waitress walked back to the bar. About two minutes later, Sam Hopkins walked out of the lounge very drunk.

“What is it Edward?” Pam asked with a bit of concern.

“Oh, I just saw Sam Hopkins walking out of the lounge very drunk.”

“And?”

“Well… the thing is that he had a heated conversation with someone unknown.”

Edward stood up, and walked to the area where Sam Hopkins had the heated conversation, but he could not find anyone suspicions. After that he returned to Pam to say that he could not find anyone.

“Edward, perhaps you should go and look for Hopkins before he will do something stupid again.”

“Yes, I should go and look for him.” Edward said and gave Pam a hot kiss.

It was not hard to find him for Hopkins was lying drunk on the floor at the entrance of his own room.

“Yes, I can see that the booze was rich and plenty. Who were you talking to?” He said while he was lifting up Sam Hopkins.

“Mind you own business, filthy pirate captain.” Sam Hopkins said and pulled himself out of the grip of Edward. Then he walked into his room with an angry expression. Now returning back to Pam in the lounge he saw that the coffee and juice has been brought to their table.

“You have found Sam Hopkins?” Pam asked.

“Yes, I found him lying drunk on the ground in front of his own room. I tried to pull him up, but he just pulled himself out of my grip and walked into his room.” Edward said, as he was drinking his coffee. It was a good coffee.

Suddenly a familiar tone of a ship-wide hail and they heard "All hands to Battle Stations!" Kirk's voice echoed throughout the ship. "Alpha Shift, report to the bridge!"

“What in the name of the Devil’s Bowels!” Edward cursed and both they ran to the bridge to find out what was happening.

 

The ship lurched just as the turbolift opened, and Amy and Uhura were almost thrown onto the bridge. Bracing herself against a couple of clearscreens, Amy made her way to the Operations console, swapping places with the pale-through-terror Yeoman who took it during Beta Shift.

"What the hell kind of ship is that?" Kirk hollared over the chaos, grabbing his chair for balance as Chekov and Sulu executed an interesting evasive maneuver that made the bottom drop out of her stomach.

"It bears significant resemblance to a Klingon Cruiser," Spock yelled back, "but does not match any configuration I am familiar with."

She turned her attention to the console, and blinked. There was something oddly familiar about the design of the Klingon vessel. She brought up the latest set of configuration updates and ran the specs through.

"It's a K'tinga class warbird!" Amy yelled, ducking as a nearby console sparked. Why can't they design consoles that just shut down when they overload? "It's a new kind of heavy cruiser with cloaking capabilities!"

 

Edward and Pam were just inside when Amy yelled, "It's a K'tinga class Warbirds! It's a new kind of heavy cruiser with cloaking capabilities!"

“Captain, I have just pick up an incoming message from the Klingons, shall I make contact?” Uhura asked”.

“Not yet, what can you tell about this new kind of heavy cruiser?” Kirk asked Amy.

While Amy told the captain about the new heavy cruiser, Edward heard his communicator. He turned around, mumbled his apologies and walked out of earshot. Then he pressed the button of his communicator.

“Edward Duke here, what’s wrong?”

“Ensign Lo Fat here. I think you have to see this, sir?” he heard a fit of nervousness in Fat’s voice. “It’s about the Chief of Security.”

“What, he can’t hold his liquor, so I have to wipe his mouth, and send him to his room as a bad boy? Edward said sarcastically. “Where are you by the way?”

“Uh...no, sir I am now at his place, and you really have to see this.” Now he heard a bit of fear in the voice of Lo Fat. “I have some other bad news as well.”

“Alright, spit it out. What is wrong with the Chief of Security?” Edward asked.

“Okay, sir, I have just found the dead body of the Chief of Security in his room. He has been murdered!” Ensign Fat yelled.

“Crap. Stay put and do not let anyone in. I will report to the captain at once, and then I will come to you at the crime scene.”

“Yes, sir.”

Edward walked to the captain, and said to him “Captain, I have just heard that the Chief of Security has been murdered. Do I have the permission to solve it?”

Suddenly Uhura call out “How could I miss this! It seems that someone here on board already made contact with the Klingons!”

“When did this happen, and where?” Kirk asked.

“That was a hour ago, and it came from...the room of Chief of Security!”

 

Amy briefly considered thumping her console with her head, but decided against it. Doctor McCoy would go ballistic if he heard about it, and he always did. It never rains... she thought with a frown.

"Ensign Duke, I'm putting you in charge of the investigation," Kirk snapped. "I expect a preliminary report as soon as possible. Uhura, answer that Klingon hail. I want to know what the hell is going on here!"

"Klingon Warbird, this is Captain James T. Kirk of the Federation starship Enterprise. You are in violation of Federation space. Explain yourselves immediately."

A Klingon face appeared on the viewscreen, his forehead heavy with wrinkles and his self-satisfied smile filled with sharp teeth. "I am Koloth of the Klingon Warbird K'vrin," he said. "And I am pursuing a treacherous spy."

Crap.

 

Quentin's head was still ringing from an impact against the ceiling of the jefferies tube that he'd been in when when the ship proformed it's sudden course alteration. He had been attempting force closed a particularly recalcitrant access panel and still considering the results of his meeting with the counselor, when the hooting claxon had nearly caused him to jump out of his skin, and Sulu's subsequent manuvers had tossed him to all six points of the spacial compass. Rubbing his head as he climbed back out into Main Engineering, he almost lost his feet as the deck under him lurched sideways.

Simultaniously hating Sulu for his radical flight path, and grateful to him for keeping the ship from being damaged, he tried to focus on his duty at hand. Squelching thoughts that had started on how to improve the inertial damping and gravity generation systems, he remembered that he was supposed to head up to the ET Moniter Station that had been newly intergrated into the ship behind the bridge. Pausing only briefly to allow the doors to open, he sprinted for the nearest turbolift.