Star Trek: Theurgy

Day 34 [1500 hrs.] Thirty-Hour Tour

February 15, 2021, 05:37:44 AM

[ LT Daniel Havenborn, Callsign: Salvo | Forward Compartment | Type-11 Shuttlecraft, USS John A. Warden ] Attn: @Brutus, @SummerDawn 

Daniel was sitting in the pilot’s seat of the Type-11 going through the pre-flight checklist as well as setting up the controls so that he had control of tactical as well as helm.  He was a TacCONN pilot after all so it’d be far easier for him to have control of both, not that he expected to run into any sort of combat during this mission but it was always good to be prepared. 

He sat back for a moment to think about how he had ended up here.  After his encounter with Ensign Louis and Ensign Valryk in the Stellar Cartography lab Daniel had met with his current lover Ensign Miranda Dove and explained what had happened.  She had understood of course, having a lover of her own.  It had been only eight days since they had begun their courtship together but there had been an immediate spark between them.

Miranda had what she considered to be exciting news, apparently the Theurgy sensors had detected a rare crystal, that was used in the creation of advanced holographic systems that couldn’t be replicated easily, located on Phaldos, so she had obtained permission to take a shuttlecraft out there to collect samples.  She had also requested Daniel as the pilot which had surprised him that Ravon had signed off on.  He had packed for a light trip, his sidearm, Aldean communicator, some PADDs and a change of clothes just in case their mission ran a little longer than the projected thirty hours.  Twelves hours to the planet, six hours to collect samples and then another twelve back to the ship, fairly simple in terms of his usual duties.

He could hear Miranda humming behind him as she was setting up the engineering console.  He knew that they were waiting on two more officers, a Lieutenant Junior Grade Kala Marika and an Ensign Kinzie Vass, the latter was incidentally Miranda’s lover and the two often worked alongside each other even though they were in different departments, Miranda being an Holo-Systems Engineer and Kinzie being a Junior Operations Officer.

“I’m so excited Danny, if we manage to procure enough samples I may be able to convince Commander Tiran to allow us to send a full team to collect as much as we can before we leave the system.”  Miranda said excitedly.  Daniel looked over at her and smiled.  “I’m sure we will.”  He replied as Miranda walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around him as best she could.  “I’m also excited for you to meet Kinzie, I really hope that the two of you get along.”

Daniel took her hand in his and brought it his lips and kissed the back of her hand.  “I have no doubt that we will.”  He said as she returned his kiss by kissing him on his head before she walked back to her console to finish setting it up before the other two officers joined them.

Re: Day 34 [1500 Hours] Thirty-Hour Tour

Reply #1 – February 22, 2021, 04:33:23 AM

 [Ens. Kinzie Vass | Now Boarding | USS John A. Warden ]Attn: @Havenborn @SummerDawn  
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Checking the chronograph strapped to her wrist one last time, Ensign Kinzie Vass entered the shuttle bay at an easy clip. Having previously served on the Bellerophon prior to its destruction and her subsequent rescue, Ens. Vass was continually surprised by the sheer size of the Theurgy. The joined Trill junior officer had seen a lot of ships in her lifetimes, but none were quite as large as Theurgy. Even the main shuttle bay was comparatively massive to the Intrepid-class vessels options, and Bellerophon had been no slouch. Shaking her head slightly and sending her strawberry blond waves back over one shoulder, Kinzie set the thoughts aside and focused on the mission at hand. 

Adjusting the strap of her bag, the Trill had to tamp down a sliver of nervousness. Usually, this sort of thing would be relatively routine on any normal starship. Sure, Theurgy wasn't normal, but they hadn't been shot at in weeks, which was something of a record these days, from what Kinzie had learned reading logs and catching up with her girlfriend, Miranda. But it was her girlfriend - or more accurately, the fly boy she'd recently shacked up with - that made the mission an odd ball affair for the girl from Operations.  Convincing Lt. Commander Stark to greenlight her assignment to go harvest potentially rare crystals had been surprisingly easy. The Ops Chief was something of a connoisseur of Artificial Intelligences, and there for by obvious extension, holography - at least in relation to the ships avatar, Thea. Once she'd read the report she'd put her stamp of approval on the mission, though she had remarked at the minor oddity of having a TacCONN pilot assigned to fly the craft.

Unlike Vass, Stark was unaware that Havenborn - whom she had been keeping in somewhat regular contact with of late - had started to 'court' Miranda, as the Martian man had put it. Natalie had made some introductions to Havenborn of some other officers that she thought might strike his interest, but had no idea of the intricacies of what was going to unfold aboard the John A Warden. Kinzie wasn't about to clue her boss in.

Besides, she told herself as she went over her mental check list of all the supplies she'd packed in her day bag (a change of clothes, some PaDD's with various technical documents on hand, as well as a repair kit, tricorder, head set and isolinear rods containing some of her favorite recipes), it was hardly as if anything was going to happen other than some mild awkwardness.  The Vass symbiont had been around the block quite a few times by now, and had seen relationships take all kinds of forms. It had certainly colored the woman's world view after she'd merged with Vass, to say the least, leaving her open to a wide range of possibilities. 

The most important possibility however, was getting her hands on some of those crystals. Stark had promised her an assignment to put the rocks to use if she managed to bring enough back. 

Stepping into the Shuttle through the aft hatch, Kinzie ran her hand over the tight braid of hair that snaked across the left side of her head as she found a bunk and dropped her bag on it. She thought she could hear voices up in the forward compartment and wondered if she were the last to arrive. Striding through the interior doors that seperated the aft compartment from the cockpit, Kinzie glided through, coming to a stop just past the Transporter control station, resting a hand against the support strut. 

Miranda was easy enough to spot, her dark curls and rich coffee complexion always drew the 'young' Trills gaze. She could also make out a man seated in the left hand seat at the front, with close cropped brown hair, and what looked to be a white tunic peeking out from under the standard black and grey uniform jacket. The white bands on the arm added to the impression taht the man was a TacCONN officer, and by process of elimination, Lt. Daniel Havenborn. She saw Miranda turn at her own station looking like she'd just sat down, her face a wide smile, which Kinzie answered.

But her words addressed the man in the pilot's chair, not her current girlfriend. "You'd be Lt. Havenborn then? The mission commander?" Vass asked, just to be sure, before elaborating, "Ens. Kinzie  Vass, reporting as ordered. I'll be handling Ops for this shindig."

Re: Day 34 [1500 hrs.] Thirty-Hour Tour

Reply #2 – March 31, 2021, 12:43:13 AM

[ LT Daniel Havenborn, Callsign: Salvo & LTJG Kala Marika & ENS Miranda Dove & ENS Kinzie Vass | Forward Compartment | Type-11 Shuttlecraft, USS John A. Warden ]   Attn: @Brutus, @SummerDawn 

Daniel looked up when he heard a female voice, he turned and saw Ensign Vass.  "I am."  Daniel said.  "We're glad to have you onboard."  He added as Miranda looked up at Kinzie and gave her a smile and a wink.  "Take your station Ensign."  He said.  He was looking forward to the time the three of them would be spending together.  Miranda hoped there would be time for the three of them to have an intimate moment together, she wasn't exactly sure how to go about it knowing that there was another engineer coming onboard. 

Kala hadn't at first been sure why an engineer was needed on a short run in a Type 11 shuttle, but when an engineer had been asked to go along with the science team to lend their expertise to investigate some crystals used in the holographic subsystems of ships like Theurgy, Kala had leapt at the chance. Holographics was of interest to her, and a chance to get off the Theurgy, get away from the shits storm that'd been the mission leading up to their arrival on this hidden world, and just relax on some sort of simple recon mission to investigate something science-y was a welcome relief for her. She wasn't the last to arrive, but she found a the engineers seat free and settled in. When Havenborn glanced over at her she smiled, "Lt Marika. I was assigned as the engineer for this expedition, or more accurately, I was the volunteer."

After a moment she turned her head to see Junior Lieutenant Marika enter and introduce herself.  Daniel turned to and nodded as Lieutenant Marika introduced herself.  "Good to have you aboard Lieutenant, we should be getting the all clear from Ops in just a few minutes, why don't you get yourself and your station set up."  Daniel said.

"Aye sir," Kinzie had managed to get that out of the way, and breeze past Miranda (Pausing to give her shoulder a happy squeeze) before taking the main ops station. Which happened to be the co-pilot's chair. The Trill was sure she'd have a moment or two with Miranda during the mission for something more than a little shoulder squeeze by way of a hello at some point. But with the Engineering Lieutenant showing up almost as soon as she was seated, Kinzie knew the time wasn't then.

Glancing over her shoulder, Ens. Vass turned to glance at the Bajoran woman and flashed her a brief smile. Then, addressing the pilot she said, "Preflight checks out, sir."

"Engineering as well." Kala remarked from her station. She'd already got her station setup when she'd settled in to her spot for the trip. Glancing over the systems there was nothing out of spec, just as she expected for a Federation shuttle in well maintained condition. She'd monitor the entire flight, not that she expected much to happen until they made planetfall and investigated these crystals science was interested in.

Daniel looked over at Miranda who gave him a nod and he smiled back at her before turning his attention towards the console in front of him.  He tapped the console a few times and felt the shuttlecraft lift under its own power.  He exchanged words with the Flight Ops controller and then set course out of Theurgy's main shuttlebay.  Flying a shuttlecraft was much different than the lighter and more nimble attack fighter he usually piloted but it didn't take long for him to adjust to the heavier ship profile.  "Twelve hours to destination begins now.  Full Impulse."  Daniel stated to no one in particular as he input their destination and increased their speed.  He activated the Aldean Light Cloak which would render their shuttlecraft indistinguishable from other Aldean craft at least at impulse it would, going to warp could potentially break their disguise  and their mission parameters only allowed for warp travel as a last resort.

Feeling the ship leap forward into full impulse was as smooth as it ever was, not that Kinzie had a ton of shuttle experience under her belt. Some of her previous hosts did, however, and she quietly compared those memories with the ones she was making now. All while keeping an eye on the ops station, watching the sensor read out of what lay ahead, noting the momentary scrambling of her readings as the ships light cloak kicked in, before the onboard computer compensated. "Power levels adjusted for our cloak. Systems nominal."

Once the systems were fine and the autopilot set properly, there wasn't much for Kala to do for the next twelve hours, at least duty wise. They had the roam of the ship and she wasn't about to stay welded to her seat the entire time. She glanced over the other three officer's from her spot in the aft port side seat. "Well, somebody's got to break the ice, and you three seem to know each other." she quipped.

Daniel smiled.  "You're right, though I only really know Ensign Dove, and I have just met Ensign Vass and yourself Lieutenant Marika."  Daniel said as he made minor corrections to their flight plan, he knew that the autopilot could do that but he rarely if ever used the autopilot function even in his own fighter.  He had been bred to be a pilot and he'd be damned if he'd let a computer do his job for him.  He could hold a conversation and keep them on their flight plan all at the same time.  [b["Well as you can tell I'm a TacCONN Pilot, Ensign Dove and are romantically involved which is how I'm assuming she managed to convince Commander Ravon to allow me to be the pilot of this mission."[/b]  Daniel said as Miranda chimed in.  "I may have played the 'we never get to see each other' card."  She said with giggle.

Kinzie rolled her eyes at that and looked over her shoulder at Kala. "See, it's funny the Lieutenant puts it that way. That was the same card I think Miranda played to get me assigned to this mission. We've had a thing for a while," she wagged her finger back and forth between Ens. Dove and herself. "Other than that, we're often frequently paired together for work assignments anyways. Overlapping fields of professional focus. I'm Kinzie Vass, by the way."

Miranda giggled.  "I may have pulled some strings to get two of my lovers on the same outing, sue me."  She said.  "This is supposed to be a simple mission, and since it's nice and long plenty of time for us to socialize and get to know each other."  Miranda added as she winked at Kinzie, she definitely had plans in the works for Danny and Kinz, but she was going to have to figure out how to work around Lieutenant Marika being here now.  Miranda looked over at the other blonde woman.  "I am looking forward to working with you though Lieutenant Marika."  She said.

Kala nodded, groaning inwardly a bit while trying not to show that. She'd volunteered for what appeared to be a little love triangle, a tryst of sorts. She didn't doubt there were crystals, she knew the mission wouldn't have been signed off without a good solid reason but it seemed she was going to be working alongside a threesome of sorts. She put a smile on though, "Well, If the three of you need privacy at any point let me know okay?" She looked over to Miranda Dove, "Same, though I have to ask Miranda, your mother works on Mars right? At the Shipyards?"

The blonde haired Trill had been about to comment back to the lieutenant about offering her the same, privacy at any point she wanted it. Kinzie could only imagine how awkward this whole situation was going to be for the Bajoran. But the question caught her off guard and instead of speaking up she tilted her head to the side and turned in her seat to look over at Miranda.

"Yes she does."  Miranda said.  "She was just recently promoted to be the director of the Dauntless project."  She added, referring to Starfleet's new starship design that was about to go into production, while she hadn't had any contact from her parents she did keep up with the news from the FNN.  "Why do you ask Lieutenant?"

"Nice." Kala commented. "I worked with her  a few times while I was working out of the fleet yards on earth, mostly collaboration on materials design for projects like Dauntless. You were in the academy still if memory serves." She realized that made herself sound older then she was, "We're roughly the same age, I'd worked at the shipyards just out of the academy."

Miranda looked a little puzzled at the female Lieutenant's age comment but decided not to pursue that thought.  "Yes I was, the Theurgy was my first posting and so far it hasn't exactly turned out the way I had expected.  Although it did introduce me to two lovely people."  She said as she nodded at Daniel and Kinzie.  Daniel was loosely paying attention to the conversation as he kept watch, once they were out of the patrol zones and surrounding areas he'd relax a little, thankfully the cloak was working perfectly and hid them well.  Miranda looked back at Kala for a moment.  "I think I remember seeing you during one of my visits home."  She said giving it some more thought, her mother had often invited members of her team back to their residence on Mars for home cooking.  Although at that point in time she had been more invested in her latest boy toy and her studies.

“Somehow I think the Theurgy hasn't been the posting anyone expected. I wasn't even assigned to Theurgy, my ship wound up in this mess thanks to a trip through a nebula. Didn't expect to wind up fighting the Borg and some horned devil race that had a hate for Starfleet, hell of a first assignment." she remarked. "We did, I've been to  Mars a few times, and she insisted I stay for supper. Last time was during exams, you were pretty focused."

"I don't think anyone expects to fight the Borg."  Daniel said as Miranda nodded in agreement.  "Yeah, I don't think exam time was easy on anyone."  She said with a pause.  "Except maybe Daniel, who's not Human."  She giggled, Daniel meanwhile just shook his head and continued focusing on his station.

Kala was confused. "You'll have to explain that. He's human right? And last I checked Martians, Alpha Centauran all count as human."

"She's making fun of me because of my genetics."  Daniel said with a sigh.  "I'm an ex-Neo-ECON cadet, I was genetically enhanced to be a pilot and one of my enhancements is a near eidetic memory making it easier for me to learn and thus do well on exams and tests as well as in simulations and learning new systems."  He added as Miranda winked at Daniel.

"Neo-ECON? Oh, the Martian Separatists. Okay." Her visits to mars she'd met the odd one working at the yards. She looked at Miranda, then at Daniel, and shrugged. "If I can happily date a Caitian, who am I to argue?"

Daniel nodded.  "More isolationist than separatist really, the Neo-ECON had established the domed cities on Mars before colonists from Earth landed."  Daniel stated, although he left out that it was often disputed about who had actually landed first, he had looked it up and even Federation records were a bit spotty about their first landings.  Miranda perked up at mention of a Caitian.  "Oh, who are you dating Lieutenant?"  She asked.

Kala listened to Daniel's explanation. "Wasn't entirely sure the specifics, just figured they're a separate government so there was some sort of split in the past." She looked over at Miranda, "Right now? Nobody. I was dating a Caitian named M'erah when I was working at the shipyard. Kinda hoped it'd have gone further but when he was transferred to SB74, the relationship fizzled. Then I got sent into the field."

Daniel nodded as he refocused his attention to the flight controls.  Miranda understood what that was like, during her time at the Academy she had had a few relationships.  "Ah, do you have your eye on anyone onboard Theurgy?"  She asked.

"Can't say I've really looked all that much. Been here all of a few weeks, still getting settled into the routine of the Theurgy." Kala admitted, "I've spent more time the last few weeks laying friends to rest then I have hanging out with them."

Daniel looked over at her.  "I know what that's like Lieutenant, not many members of the Resolve are still around and my Grey Wolves were all but decimated before we joined the Theurgy."  He said sadly as Miranda placed her hand on his shoulder.  She knew that it always bothered him that he could do nothing to save his pilots except for a mere handful of them.  Daniel grasped her hand for a moment before placing it back on the console.

"Hoping that things will settle down a bit so I can at least breathe. Though given what I know of Theurgy, this is one of the few times we can take a breather and actually relax." And she really hoped she'd get a chance to unwind, actually rest despite the amount of work engineering had. And she had to admit, a chance to relax with a guy, spend time together was a wonderful idea, if she could find a guy.

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This JP Brought to you by the letter S and the writers Brutus, Havenborn & SummerDawn

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