Thompson and the Vesta

IC posts from the perspective of the Task Force Commanding Officer.

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Thompson
Chief of Fleet Operations
Chief of Fleet Operations
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Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 9:09 pm

Thompson and the Vesta

Post by Thompson » Mon Dec 19, 2016 5:06 pm

Only a few days into the journey and it was clear the expectations laid before the crew had set in. While everyone, for the most part had settled into the routine, having become accustomed to the new conditions, Yoshi had started to pace the halls. He was, as of yet, unaccustomed to being on the move again, having grown so used to the comfort of a research position. The crew was becoming accustomed to the sight of their Commanding Officer wandering the halls of the ship, coffee in one hand, PaDD in the other. Not that he had minded mind you, it had lead to him being approachable, junior members of the crew and even NCOs stopping him to chat. Morale was staying high, the crew was adjusted, and the ship was performing admirably. Only one thing was missing.

Captain Minawara had yet to meet his new Task Force Commanding Officer, and Star Fleet had dragged their feet on making it work. Then of course, Taylor Wood had been recalled and a new TFCO was dispatched, who had apparently just arrived in Iota. A Petty Officer had tried to direct him to another department to deal with it, to which Yoshi had responded “Make it happen, or I will have it happen.” Apparently, a two minute research into seeing a profile that had the word “Redacted” anywhere it had been enough to convince someone to make the time for the new CO.

Being that he had just been dispatched, nothing was available yet on the man, or even if it was a man, things were a little vague. So as he rode the Turbolift back to deck two to the bridge, he gave a read through one last time, to see if there had been an update. Taking a sip of his coffee, he tapped his toe to the beat of the lift’s magnetic movement. Slowing, then stopping, the doors opened and he walked out past the bridge crew and into his Ready Room. Placing the cup on the replicator, it cycled the confinement beam and the old cup disappeared and was replaced by a fresh cup. A few commands were punched mindlessly into the desk, and a holographic display formed at the front of his desk, the Federation Logo appearing for a minute, then replaced by the Task Force Logo. Now it was Yoshi’s turn to wait.

The flight to Iota Command had been one of the longer yet shorter trips Thompson had made to a new posting. The irony of the catapult was that the shortest part of the trip took the longest and the longest the shortest amount of time. Having been settled in he had a long list of this captains to get in touch with and reestablish command linkups. Having tried first with the Hephaistos and gotten a concerning “We’re busy shooting someone” reply from the comms officer John was pleased to get work now that the Vesta was contacting him.

Deciding to leave the Captain on hold for a month while he pulled up a few files to make sure he knew who he was going to be speaking too, John got himself comfy in the chair before answering the comm. “Hello Captain Thompson's Office.”

When the screen changed to show the younger man before him, Yoshi cocked an eyebrow, a little confused by the sudden appearance of a younger appearing man. Figuring he had been, once again, redirected, the Captain offered a short sigh and polite smile. “Good afternoon,” he added, “I was looking for Captain Thompson himself, would you be able to put me through?” While mildly annoyed at the diversion, he couldn’t be too surprised, the Captain had to be busy. The Chronal Regulator and the Phase Compensator were working remarkably to make the Slipstream Communication work near flawlessly.

“Ah of course,” the younger looking man replied. “One moment please,” he said as he stood and walked away from the view screen. Barely ten second later he returned and sat back down in the chair. “Hello Captain. What can I do for you?”

The Asian man’s face contorted into a look of confusion, then a donning realization. Clearing his throat and recomposing himself, Yoshi rolled his shoulders and straightened up in his chair. Taking a weird sip of the coffee, he nodded. “I do apologize sir, I didn’t expect… Well then,” he cleared his throat again and laced his fingers together and took a second. “A pleasure to meet you Captain Thompson, it is a pleasure to meet you, if not face to face,” he finally settled on. “I have been looking forward to getting a chance to talk, and discuss the Delta Quadrant.”

“Not to worry Captain,” John started with, a smirk on his face showing this wasn’t the first time he had made another Captain uncomfortable. “Good genetics go a long way. Nevertheless good to meet you as well and please John will do when we aren’t at anything formal. How’s the Vesta treating you?”

“Very well John,” replied Minawara, “then if you will, Yoshi is fine as well. As for the Vesta, she is a good ship, running smooth and steady. We’re already finding some of the weirder kinks of the ship, and some odd traits that were not expected, but that’s the nature of these ships. Something new will always have its own personality.” The Captain placed his mug down and asked in return, “How was the flight to Iota? I hear the Catapult is an experience.”

“That it is for sure. Nothing like being flung across the galaxy, though I must say when I first heard about it I had serious concerns about keeping the catapults safe from capture,” he added with a frown. “Mind you both seem to be the most fortified positions in Starfleet right now.”

“Makes sense, without the Catapults, most ships would be completely cut off from returning to the Delta Quadrant, supplies would come at a premium. Worst of all, should anything happen, we would become a delivery ship pretty quick,” mused Minawara again. “I remain surprised the Romulans or the Klingons haven’t made a massive fuss about the Catapult yet. It would give us a severe tactical advantage, should war ever break out again.”

“Agreed and with all the extra tension being generated in the northern regions of Federation and Romulan space I wouldn’t be surprised if the stink came soon,” John surmised. “Regardless though that’s no concern of ours. We get to focus on exploration and first contact… or second contact in a lot of cases.”

“I have my intelligence people working out our most likely contacts from Iota. Hirogen, Republic of the First Worlds and possibly the Malon have all come up as people we may encounter. Also, we are a few months away from the Antarian Trans-stellar rally, according to Voyager’s logs, and we’d like to be present for that race, enter a ship even.” Glancing down at the PaDD on his desk, he followed with, “Although, I feel the Republic may be our first concern. A true first contact could give us a powerful ally in this region.”

“The race would be ideal to help build up relationships and may even be a way to make a contact with the Republic.” John took a moment to pull up his maps and recent intelligence. “As for them as an ally the option is certainly there. They appear to be the biggest player around and it would be nice to have those trade avenues for supplies we need. Unfortunately we don’t know much about them yet. Mostly just that they operate on the surface like the Federation, inviting new worlds as they grow and expand.”

“Well, once the Vesta arrives, we’ll make it a plan to good time on the new drive, put it through some paces and see what we can find. We’ll be making a brief stop in the next few days at the Galactic Core, grab some detailed scans of the centre here and get a real feel for our Galaxy, before we continue towards Iota. It will be a good chance to cool the drive and expand our knowledge.”

Keying in a few commands to the desk, he looked over a few other notes quickly. “It does look like there is heavy plasma activity in an area that the Republic operates, Its a bit of a stretch for any ship at warp to make at decent time, but should that storm pass through there, should we be on stand by for aid?”

“Yes please do. I’ll let the other ships in the area know as well just incase you need any help. I’m sending you a list of disaster relief equipment already in stock at Iota so if you need it give me a shout,” John informed Yoshi as he typed into his console and sent off the databurst. “We are well supplied at the moment but we don’t have many ships out here yet. If the storm does hit use it to make friends for us Captain.”

“I will make sure to stop over as soon as I can then John.” That had been all the notes that the man had hoped to touch on. “Is there anything else you need to discuss?”

A shake of the head accompanied the reply, “Nothing else from my end. Anything else you need from me?”

“Nothing on this end then. Keep the porch light on, we might be coming in a bit late,: said the Captain with a smile and a bit of humour. “Other than that, we will update you once we have arrived in System.” With a nod, the display went dead and Yoshi picked up the coffee and downed what was left. Finally he felt settled, it was odd how a short talk could do that to someone.

=====
Captain John Thompson
Task Force 37
Commanding Officer

Captain Yoshi Minawara
USS Vesta
Commanding Officer

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