Beyond the Union Gateway

Posted on Thu May 19th, 2011 @ 4:25pm by Master Chief Petty Officer Daniel Brooke

Mission: The Ties That Bind
Location: Various

The USS Arizona had been traveling for nearly two weeks, at first under impulse power and then later under warp speed, with the destination of the Union Gateway clearly in their sights. In the span of those two weeks, the Arizona crew had managed, thanks to the help of the borrowed crew of the USS Casey, to bring the ship into a serviceable condition once more. It was far from perfect and several decks were still sealed off from regular use thanks to the level of destruction brought upon the ship; it was simply holding together at the moment and more work still needed to be done. As the ship entered the Union system, the large Iconian gateway looming in the void of space awaiting a ship to grant passage to, it was clear that their journey was coming to an end.

=Bridge, USS Arizona=

Commodore Nathan Cowell sat on the bridge of his ship, staring out at the view screen as the USS Arizona made her way toward the Union Gateway. Unlike other Gateways found by the Federation, the Union Gateway acted more like a wormhole, with no visible apparatus that might alert someone to its presence. Sensor scans, however, revealed the area of space where the Gateway opened rather easily, since free flowing chroniton particles weren't exactly common in the middle of a star system normally.

"Helm, distance to contact?" Nathan asked.

"Two minutes, Commodore," Ensign Paul Akron, the recently promoted Chief Flight Control Officer announced quickly.

Nathan nodded and swiveled around to face Lieutenant Junior Grade Elizabeth Marion, who was once more manning the Mission OPS console near the rear of the bridge, "Activate the pulse, Lieutenant."

"Aye," the woman remarked and activated the required sequence. The Arizona's main deflector dish complied with the commands the Operations Officer had given it and a small blueish beam lashed out at the void, the area suddenly exploding in a beautiful array of blues and greens. When the torrent of color settled down, the view of the Starbase which was to be their new base of operations came into view, the only obvious sign that they were only looking through a distortion in space was the small ripples that every so often tarnished the view of the Immense-class station.

"Take us through the singularity, Mister Akron," Nathan ordered, settling back in his chair. Ens. Akron nodded and silently complied with his Commanding Officer's request, launching the Prometheus-class vessel into the event horizon. A small shimmy and a few light jarring motions were the only sighs the crew could feel that might have alerted them to the changing in location from the Beta Quadrant to the Delta.

Almost immediately, Nathan could hear the tactical console bleating as a hail began to come through.

"Commodore, we're being hailed by the station," the tactical officer at the console reported.

"On screen," Nathan ordered.

The screen shifted from the now pristine view of Starbase 900 to that of the Main Operations Center of the station. The face that greeted Nathan was that of an older man, probably just reaching his fifties. By the collar insignia, it seemed that he was the station's Command Master Chief, which meant the rest of the welcome wagon on board was busy.

"Master Chief," Nathan greeted curtly.

"Commodore Cowell, I presume. How can we assist you?" the Master Chief asked.

"Need a berth, need repairs, need supplies, and need some R and R, how much of that can you spare?" the Commodore explained.

"We have everything on your list, sir, and you're welcome to all you can handle. I'll have you cleared for the primary docking bay immediately. I'll have our Operations department send you the approach vectors immediately. Anything else, sir?" the man replied.

"Nope, I think that does it for me. See you when we dock," Nathan said, waving for the Tactical Officer to cut the link off. The screen went blank and Nathan stood up.

"Mister Akron, make sure you park us in the right spot, I don't want to have to move just because you can't follow directions. Once we've gotten settled in, I want the crew put on rotating shifts, twelve hours of duty, thirty six hours of leave time. No exceptions to the rule. Everyone on shift right now will finish out a twelve hour day, then I don't want to see a soul who worked back here for a day and a half. Understood?" the Commodore ordered before trudging off to his Ready Room, "I'm going to start filling out requisitions, no one comes in my office unless they outrank me."

With that, the old man disappeared, leaving the crew to fend for themselves... something they were perfectly capable of doing.