"Reunion"
Captain Spencer
Tarrah
USS Republic

“David!” the high-pitched voice echoed through the empty corridors.

The sound of his name made Captain Spencer slap his hand across the door of the turbolift, holding it open.  The sudden impact of the young girl, as she slammed into him, knocked him back into the lift so that the door could close.  The young Orion girl’s hug was practically suffocating, but he smiled and returned it affectionately.

“I’m sorry,” After a moment she pulled herself back and held him at arms length. “That’s ‘Captain David’ isn’t it?”

“Technically it’s ‘Captain Spencer.’”

“Bah!” She waved her hand in dismissal, “You have too many names.”  Spencer laughed.

“So how are you doing, Kiddo?”

“That’s ‘Cadet Tarrah,’ Sir!” She snapped her shoulders back, head high, in proud attention.

“Yes, Ma’am.” Spencer gave back a playful salute.   “It’s good to see you in uniform.  You look good.”   She wore the short skirt variation of the standard uniform with a cadet insignia and no rank.

“Thank you.  You look good as a captain, too.” She smiled up at him.  “I’m glad I was able to be serving you for my cadet cruise.” 

“’Serving me’?  You make me sound like a dinner dish.”  He chuckled.  Her grasp of Federation Standard was getting pretty good, but there were still occasions when she didn’t realize the implications of what she was saying.

“You know what I mean.” She slapped him playfully. 

“Don’t they tell you at the academy not to slap you’re captain?”  With no warning, he grabbed her and started tickling her until she squealed.

Just then, the turbolift doors opened on the bridge.   They quickly let go of each other, suppressed their laughter to more professional expressions, and gathered their composure before stepping out.  This was the first time seeing the bridge for both of them.

For Spencer, it was a strange sensation.  The awe and responsibility of what this room represented to him was frightening.  But on the other hand, there was something about it that felt... right: like he was coming home.

Every male head on the bridge turned to see the striking Orion girl as she stepped off the lift.  But when they realized that she was with the captain, they all quickly turned back to their duties.

Spencer tried to hide his awe as he crossed to the command chair.  Tarrah made no such attempt.  She gapped openly at this amazing room that was the center of the universe as far as starship operation was concerned.

Spencer examined the command chair, his chair, before sitting.  He typed in some command codes to insure that settings were to his liking.  Tarrah came to stand next to him.

“Do you require anything, Captain?” She asked formally breaking his trance.  He paused for a moment, simply reveling in the feeling of having a ship and a crew to help him do the work of the Federation.

“There’s a pile of paperwork on my desk.  Would you go down and start sorting it for me, please?”

“Yes, sir.” She said excitedly before scurrying off.   Spencer shook his head as he watched her hurry back to the turbolift.  Only a cadet could be so excited about being ordered to organize paperwork.
 
 

“The First Encounter…”
Captain Spencer
Dr. Finnley
USS Republic

Captain David Spencer tossed his bag in the middle of the bed.  The captain’s quarters were larger than anything he had been in since joining Starfleet.  He actually had a small office adjacent to his personal area and both contained large windows that showed the warp nacelles trailing behind the ship.

After a quick scan of the room, Spencer crossed to his desk and called up the command schematics.  He logged his transfer of command.  The automated response codes and sequences set his personal identifications and preferences were then loaded.  He could set standing ship orders later.

A ship like this was more than just the machinery, so the Captain quickly brought up a crew manifest and a listing of which crewmembers had already reported.  Witten had been with the refit for quite a while as was most of the engineering crew, only a handful of which would be remaining aboard.

The only other name that jumped out at him was Dr. Baxter Finnley.  Spencer had chosen the doctor based on his record and some personal recommendations, but he had yet to meet the man personally.  So, it seemed like a logical place to start.

Sickbay was just two floors down, so Spencer chose to access one of the service ladders.  Since the construction crews were still using dry-dock energy links, it was important to conserve turbolift energy as much as possible.

But when he got to Deck 4, there certainly didn’t appear to be any lack of energy.  Medical techs and engineers were swarming around sickbay; moving, connecting and testing some of the newest, state of the art medical equipment.  In the center of the turmoil a young man in doctor scrubs was coordinating the madness.  Spencer recognized him as Dr. Finnley from his records.

Just then a nurse stumbled past with a large awkward monitor of some kind.  The Captain jumped over to help her with the heavy piece of equipment.

Finnley had been in Sickbay for just under an hour by this time, and he had commandeered as many staff as were available to help get the equipment set up in sick bay.  He knew that the first little while of setting up a ship was a very hectic time, and that every department would be putting demands on the staffing resources.  He figured; if he could get in a bit early, he'd be able to get Sickbay up and running before the rest of the departments would be available to divide up the resources.  And besides that, it was always a good idea to have somewhere functional to treat injuries incurred in moving and lifting heavy equipment.

After directing an Engineer into setting up the biobeds, the Doctor turned to see an individual stumbling under the weight of a large piece of equipment, behind which his upper torso and face couldn't be seen.  "Oh, please be careful with that.  That monitor is part of a very advanced bioscanner unit, and dropping it is probably more than you are worth, crewman.  Here, let me help," he went over and grabbed a hold of the other side of the monitor, and the two of them edged it over to where he wanted it and set it gently onto the floor.

“Not only that, but I’d hate having to fill out the paperwork.”  With the monitor safely on the deck, Spencer smiled as he stood up revealing the captain’s bars on his shoulder.  “Dr. Finnley, I presume?”

The doctor did a double take as he realized who he'd just admonished about the sophisticated piece of equipment.  "I asked Witten for a few engineers to help set up the equipment... I really didn't expect him to send the Captain...” The doctor looked over the Captain, noticing he wasn't too much different looking from his personnel record photo: Tall, rugged, and nearing his forties.  The doctor stuck his hand out in the Captain's direction.  "Dr. Baxter Finnley reporting for duty, sir."

“Captain David Spencer” he shook the doctor’s hand.  “I see you’ve wasted no time getting sickbay up to speed.  Nice work.  How do you feel about it?  Have you gotten everything you asked for?”

"Almost everything a ship of the line could want.  I've arranged to prepare this sickbay for most contingencies that we might encounter on our tour.  Of course, this sickbay will never be able to rival the kind of facilities we'd find on a Starbase, but my job's to patch up as much as I can, and if you need more intensive treatment, to make sure you survive the journey to Starbase.  I have, of course, added a few extra pieces of equipment to the manifest to help us deal with distress calls while we are on tour.  Oh, and I've dedicated that section," he points towards a segregated portion of the sickbay, "to Medical Research.  I'm hoping to coordinate with the Science department on a few projects I've got in mind.  There are a couple of really juicy proposals that the Daystrom institute is looking for lead researchers on."

“Looks to me like you’re doing a great job.  I didn’t mean for this to be an official inspection, I know you still have a lot of work before everything’s in place.  But it does look like you’re going in the right direction.  I’ll be looking forward to seeing it when it’s done.”  Spencer noted the doctor’s ponytail and smiled as he remembered his recent conversation with Ensign Calloway.  Well, if he could was as efficient at doing his duty as he was proving to be, he saw no reason to make an issue of it.

"What, not hanging around to finish helping us lugg this equipment around?" the doctor asked with a sardonic grin, "Ah well, the burdens of command, I suppose.  Little opportunity for honest exercise through manual labour.  I guess I'll see you on the Bridge once I've gotten sickbay up to speed and sent some of these crew back to be reassigned to other departments for set-up."

“Well, Doctor, I won’t interrupt you any longer.” Spencer began to head toward the door.  “I know you have just as much to do as I do.  Let me know if there’s anything else I get you before we leave dry-dock, alright?”

"No problem, Captain."  Spencer gave a small wave as he turned to leave.  "Oh, and I'll see you for your first physical sometime this week?" the doctor spoke just as the doors to sickbay slid shut, leaving the Captain on the other side...
 
 

"Arrival"
Lieutenant (j.g) Fitzgerald
USS Republic

After two weeks of travelling from one end of the Federation to the other, Jonothan Fitzgerald finally found himself on Earth. It seemed like an eternity had passed since he recieved his orders while still aboard the Agamemnon. At the time, the Agamemnon was charting star systems on the fringes of Federation space.

The helmsman had to catch a ride with the USS Sheffield as far as Teller. Then he had to wait for a day before a civilian transport could take him the rest of the way to Earth. And spending a day in a Tellerite hotel was certainly an ... interesting experience.

But now he was here, and was about to board the Republic. After checking in with command, he headed for the nearest transporter pad.

"Destination, sir?" the transporter chief asked as Fitzgerald arrived.

"USS Republic," he replied with a rather goofy grin as he handed the chief the coordinates. "New assignment."

"You and a hundred others, Lieutenant," the chief replied as she input the coordinates. "I've been beaming up crew for the Republic all morning. Please step on the pad."

Jonothan stepped up on the transporter pad as the chief hailed the Republic from her console. "Republic, one beaming aboard."

And then, just as he was about to say something to the chief, Jonothan felt the tingling sensation as the transporter hummed to life. A moment later, he found himself in the transporter room of the Republic. He had arrived.
 
 
 

"Dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s"
Captain David Spencer
USS Republic

Tarrah had done an amazing job of organizing the PADD’s on Captain Spencer’s desk.  They had been sorted into piles depending on their subject matter; personnel, equipment, informational briefings, general orders and fleet procedures.  All of which would have to be gone through and completely studied before the Republic would be able to depart.

And so, Captain Spencer had taken several of the personnel requisition statements and roster reports with him to the officer’s mess.  The mess was still sparsely stocked and pretty much deserted as the ship’s compliment still enjoyed the benefits of Earth cuisine while they could.  Sounds of nearby construction echoed down the empty halls to the dining hall.  As he forked globs of salad into his mouth that were decidedly too large to be ettiquetely proper, he scanned the names of crewmembers that had arrived, those due to arrive any minute and those that would be coming later.

Lt. Commander Tomoe d’Veccio had finally been slated to arrive.  Spencer had mixed feeling about his new first officer.  He had only met her briefly a couple of times in meetings on Earth.  Her academy record was pretty shaky, nothing that should have sent her into Starfleet’s Command training program.  A little further digging provided the information that her father was Senator d’Veccio.  Undoubtedly that had had some influence on her Starfleet career.  Spencer shuddered at the idea of a “spoiled brat” acting as his second in command.  The last thing he needed was to be holding her hand and listening to her whine when the going got tough.  But she did have some excellent recommendations about her initiative during her time aboard the Aeon Cluster Outpost.  She had apparently excelled in her study of Romulan transmissions.  Spencer decided he would have to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Fitzgerald and Larron were to be his main bridge crew in the positions of helm and navigation respectively.  There wasn’t much specific information on the careers of either of them.  Their files were still rather incomplete, as were several other crew reports, the Captain decided he would have to make a point of getting Starfleet to forward complete dossiers on them as soon as possible.  With the mass of paperwork that had flooded aboard, it was inevitable that there would be some holes in the information he had been supplied.

Everything about the ship had a scary, half-finished quality to it.  But on the other hand, there was a thrill in seeing how quickly it was all coming together.  It was only a couple of days now until they’d be ready to depart.  And all of the excitement, fears, thrills and anxieties of that moment continued to build in the new captain.

Spencer pulled his attention back to the file on the PADD in front of him.  There was actually something very reassuring about having the workload he had ahead of him right now.  It gave him something to focus his energies into.