| Home
Characters Logs Specs Rules Join
|
"Getting
Physical"
Tarrah strolled through the corridors of the Republic with unashamed awe. Every sight and sound of her first starship assignment was destined to be exciting. Eventually she found herself outside the entrance to sickbay. Most of the crewmembers would be transferring their medical records from their previous assignment. But since this was Tarrah's first cruise, she would have to undergo a complete physical from the ship's doctor. And, since there was no time like the present, she entered... Sickbay was quiet, since most of the crew hadn't arrived yet there wouldn't be too many cases yet: all the better reason for Tarrah to get her exam out of the way now. She was still getting use to the feeling of gentle, nurturing physical examinations. She had several since coming to the Federation and they always differed dramatically from the rough and often brutal exams she had gone through as a young slave. Once the doors closed behind her, she saw the tall, good-looking man with the doctor's insignia standing by some lab equipment. That had to be the doctor. Her face turned down as she looked up at him; old seductive instincts died hard. "Cadet Tarrah reporting for an introductory physical, Sir." Dr. Finnley was in the process of setting up a piece of experimental equipment when the Cadet called for his attention. He didn't let her break his concentration, but stayed focused on what he was doing. Without looking up he pointed towards one of the bio beds and said, "Ah, yes, Cadet, I'll be right with you... Just have to get this to point eight... where'd I put that hydro-spanner?" Tarrah did as she was told. Even though modern medical physicals were much different than the harsh man-handling she had experienced in the past; in the Federation, with it's modern equipment, scanners would simply explore every inch of her body, inside and out. But there was still an invasive quality to the proceedure that gave it an extremely intimate quality. And that made Tarrah regard the doctor with some interest. She was impressed by the doctor's professionalism. How he remained focused on his work as she began to remove her uniform was impressive. Most human males were driven wild by her Orion heretige. The doctor made a few last adjustments to the instrument he was setting up, then laid the hydrospanner to one side. He pulled a small piece of cloth out of a pocket and began rubbing some of the mechanical grease he'd gotten on his hands. He laid the cloth to one side, walked to a scrub station and gave his hands a quick cleaning. Finally he turned back to attend to his patient. What he saw he was completely unprepared for. A vivaciously beautiful, and starkly naked, Orion woman was sitting quietly on the biobed, her uniform folded into a neat pile on the stand next to the bed. It took the doctor a few seconds to catch his breath and for his medical training to kick in. He'd trained at the academy in combat medicine, which required you to be able to work under all kinds of stress, and seeing her naked on the biobed was just another form of shock. Albeit a heartstopping one. Quickly, he grabbed ahold of a curtain and pulled it around the biobed area to separate his patient from the rest of the infirmary. "I'm sorry, Cadet! I... um... I hadn't realized you hadn't had an examination on a biobed before. You didn't really need to remove all of your clothing. Oh, and, normally we pull this curtain closed to allow the patient to remove their clothing in private," he gave a nervous laugh as he finished pulling the curtain shut. "There we go. Now, you said you're name was Tarrah?" In Orion he said, <A pleasure to meet you, Tarrah>. <Thank you, I'm sorry if I embarrassed you. Would you perfer that I put my uniform back on?> Tarrah was so comfortable being naked she didn't even think about other races reactions to it. She was just pleased that this time it wasn't associated with any inhumane treatment. The doctor stood with his head cocked slightly to the left as she spoke to him, and he ruminated for a second on the meaning of her words. <No embarrassment was had. You may do what pleases with uniform?> he smiled as he strung the words together. <You're very fluent in Orion, Doctor...?> Tarrah sat on the bio bed and waited for the Doctor to start examining her. "Actually, no, if that word "bichata" meant to ask if I spoke Orion very well. I'm able to comprehend languages relatively quickly, and Orion happened to be one which I've fleetingly come into contact with. I would be interested in learning more of it, it is a very beautiful language," he said. "Do you want me to lay down?" Tarrah said looking at the monitors above the biobed. Since she was completely comfortable with her nudity, the distraction of their conversation made her easily forget the inappropriateness of it. "Uh... yes. Lie down, please," despite his rigorous medical training, the doctor found this Orion woman to be decidedly disconcerting. He focused his mind on doing his job and being as professional as possible about what he was doing. "I suppose there are many things about your people you could teach me," he said as he brought the enclosing scanners up on either side of her body. "I'll be happy to help you learn more if you want." she said innocently. "...Orion, I mean." "Besides," she continued, "I think your accent is really cute. Have you ever been to the Orion Sector, Doctor?" The doctor coughed to cover his choking. "No, actually, I've never been to the Orion Sector. I've been told it can get kind of rough..." She continued to hold still with her chest out and chin up as he waved the medical probe around her. The doctor checked a readout on one of the panels, made a final pass of the probe, then he clicked it back into place on his Tricorder. "Well, there you go. From the results of your medical scan, your body is the perfect example of an Orion female," he smiled at her. "Thank you, Doctor, you too." Tarrah replied reflexively. When she realized what she said, she got flustered as she reached for her uniform. "I mean, your male body... is perfect. Not that I... you know... you know?" She giggled slightly as she started to get dressed. "Ahem... yes... um, well..." the doctor floundered a bit. "Perhaps we'll see each other again sometime soon? I'd like to learn more Orion at some point... if you're interested in teaching me," the doctor pulled back the curtain after Tarrah finished dressing. She walked towards the doors to sick bay and turned around to give a little wave at the doctor, which the doctor returned, before the doors slid shut. The doctor looked around at his sick bay to see several nurses, techs and orderlies just standing around either staring at him or at the door where Tarrah had just been. "Alright alright! Let's get back to work. We've got to make Sick Bay ship shape before the ship general inspections!" The doctor left the sick bay in the hands of his first officer and headed to his quarters for a cold shower... "Ship
Shape"
If engineering crews were busy around the ship, things were even more frantic in the main engine room of the Republic. As soon as Captain Spencer walked in he was greeted to the sights and sounds of crewmembers working frantically to please their department head. Spencer stopped just inside the doorway and looked around for the source of their motivation. Finally he saw him through the mesh flooring on the next level up. "Well? Is this thing going to fly?" he called up. The large blue monster looked down at him over the rail and snarled. Spencer laughed as he went to the nearest ladder and climbed up to the level that Lt. Witten was already on. "Hows it going, Witten?" he asked when he neared the engineer. "It would be going better without the interruptions." The Andorian growled. "Im a Captain. Interrupting is my job." Spencer smiled as he looked around. "Oh itd be great if you were the only one bothering me." Witten rolled his eyes with sarcasm. Spencer suppressed a smirk at what might have been insubordination in anyone else. "I think it was easier to work on the Shapiro when we were stuck out in the middle of nowhere. At least then there werent any bureaucrats and quartermasters getting in the way of me doing my job!" Spencer's smile disappeared at the mention of the Shapiro. That memory still held ominous preconceptions about their upcoming mission. "The Shapiro was a good ship. It didn't deserve what it got." Witten had known Spencer long enough to hear the regret and fear in his voice. Unfortunately the big Andorian was much more comfortable working on machines, engines and mechanical components than he was trying to play around with emotions. He was an engineer, not a psychologist. So he made the best attempt at easing his friends anxiety as he could. "Yup." He said. Witten's discomfort brought Captain Spencer back to the here and now; the smile returned. "Well, it did it's job." "So what do you think of this hunk of junk?" he asked the engineer. Lights shining, through the overhead structures, cast shadows down onto the faces of Spencer and Witten as they moved to the next check point. "It fills many human requirements; state of the art from bow to stern, an improved warp field stabilizers, stronger weaponry power distributions...." Wittens' attention was stolen with a quick double take. "Ensign Moss! Do you hear that." "Ah, why yes sir" Moss punches a few numbers into his tricorder," That must be the Science team accessing engineering for test purposes." "And what are you planning on doing about that?" "Well, Lieutenant, Regulations dictate any remote team has permission, with Communications' approval, to run such diagnostics as they se......," Moss clears his throat," Right, I'll have them stop." Ensign Moss weasled himself out of the room into the main corridor. Witten huffed quietly and looked back at Spencer," And equipment diagnostics that can pinpoint a .0001% drop in energy flow. In short, theres a lot more here to break." Wittens deep voice grumbled. "Do you really think itll be falling apart that easily?" "You bet." Witten stated. "If ships didn't break, where's the challenge. Oh, and remind me to have a talk with that kid you have up on Communications." Captain Spencer smiled as they continued their inspection. Spencer
marked,"Perhaps you should work on being more approachable. People may
get the wrong impression and not realize what a lovable guy you are."
"Going
up"
The small couch table was occupied with books when Marie entered her new quarters aboard the USS Republic. A large bag was sitting on the floor and the lower bunk had been claimed already, probably by someone who thought they would be staying by themselves for the duration of the mission. A peek at the cover of the nearest book revealed that Marie's roommate must be a nurse, or something like that. Ah well. What fun to be cooped up with new people every year. Marie felt restless. She dropped her duffel on the top bunk and left, intending to find out what other sorts of people she would be dealing with on this ship. *** Humming to herself she entered the turbolift, not realizing immediately that someone was already standing inside. Captain Spencer glanced out of the corner of his eye at the young woman standing next to him. He didn't immediately recognize her, but that wasn't too surprising since many of the records he had gotten were still rather incomplete, and her rank insignia designated her as an ensign. Spencer hadn't really gotten through many of the junior officers of the ship yet. But on the other hand, he had gone over the bridge crew... "Are you heading to the bridge, Ensign?" he asked as he switched off his PADD and pinned it under his arm. To meet the one and only captain aboard was unexpected, albeit not surprising - sooner or later there would have been no way around it. "That I am," Marie said and stood next to him as the lift doors closed. "Sir." She gave him a sidelong once-over, deciding that he was good-looking but that she would hold off on a final judgement until she had seen a little more of his performance as captain and as a person. She wondered if he had read her complete file yet. "If I'm going to be the navigator I suppose I better make sure my station is functioning properly." She smiled lightly. "Right?" Captain Spencer's mind raced, navigator... ensign... slight French accent... This had to be Ensign Larron. Hers was one of the missing personnel files, he hadn't even seen a picture of her yet. He struggled to make sure that his confusion wasn't visible to the junior officer. "Very good initiative, Ensign Larron." He nodded his approval. Marie suppressed a grin at his attempt to pronounce her name - hardly anyone without a knowledge of French could, but at least he was trying. She was also amused at how seriously he reacted to her statement, so with an equal, albeit fake, seriousness she replied, "Thank you, captain." Inside, Spencer sighed in relief that she responded to the name. It was nice when he was right. "So have you found any other requirement that you need to meet yet? Is there anything I can help you get?" Despite his piles of paperwork, Spencer was starting to realize just how useless he was at this point. A Captain of a ship at spacedock was destined to be a fifth wheel. "Anything you can help me get? How about single quarters?" Marie was only half-joking, knowing well that she was being somewhat uppity but wanting to see Spencer's reaction. "Or a pool table for the crew lounge." "A pool table?" Spencer couldn't help but laugh, "Have you ever seen what those balls do when you lose gravity during some sharp maneuvering?" He caught the glimmer in her eye that reflected his own amusement. She was obviously toying with him. It only seemed fair that his crew would be testing him as much as he tested them. His instinct was that he was going to enjoy the challenge of this fellow officer. "And what makes you feel that you need single quarters?" Spencer turned to face Marie directly as he leaned against the turbolift railing. "Are you having problems with your current roommate? Or do you have some special plans that would require privacy?" "Now now, that would be telling, wouldn't it?" Marie answered, raising a playful eyebrow. It briefly occurred to her that she might be going a little far with her CO, but as long as he was game... "And my roommate... I haven't even met her yet, but I know she likes books. Lots of them. But I'll live. Everyone has to make concessions, n'est-ce pas? I'm sure life's not always perfect for a captain, either..." "You have a gift for understatement, Ms. Larron." Spencer stood back up, but his grin remained, "But at least we don't have to deal with the horrors of literate roommates." He snuck a sidelong glance at her once again. "I'll see what I can do about the quarters, I'd hate to have my chief navigator dozing at her post due to a long sleepless night of page rustling." He said with a wink. Marie could catch herself just before her jaw dropped. "That would be -" She hesitated and looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes, curious if he was indeed serious. Such a reaction from him surprised her, and she began to wonder what else he might agree to if asked the right way... "You're right," she said, straight-faced. "My performance level drops significantly if I don't get enough sleep, gym time, or martini." "Yeah, I know what you mean, I'd be a wreck if it wasn't for the captain's personal masseuse and jacuzzi." Spencer said with a dead-pan expression. He realized he was being pushed and decided to just roll with it. He was really enjoying her spunk. "Personal masseuse and jacuzzi?" Marie shook her head, incredulous. Compared to her CO on the Bornholm this one was so much fun. "So that's how you spend your free time..." "Something tells me that I'll be spending a lot of my future time sharing verbal parries and thrusts with my chief navigator and her rapier wit." He smiled. "And to think I wasted all this time training with foils." "Wasted?" They seemed to have the same hobby. How fascinating. Marie smiled. "No training is ever wasted. I should know because I've been doing the same thing and I generally only spend my time doing something worthwhile." She cocked her head and regarded him assessingly. "What would you say if I challenged you to a fencing match? Why stay verbal when we could get physical?" "Consider your challenge met, m'lady." he said with a slight bow as the turbolift doors opened. "I'm sure it will be a most enjoyable challenge." Marie
responded with a nod of graceful acceptance before they stepped out onto
the bridge. She was already beginning to like this assignment.
"Freedom"
Spencer was exhausted by the time he returned to his quarters. It had been a long, tiring day of meeting with crewmembers and supervising last minute changes and adjustments to the ship's requirements. As soon as the door closed behind him he sighed with exasperation. Immediately, he pulled off the outer jacket of his uniform followed quickly by the white turtleneck. Both were tossed on the nearest chair he could find. As he reached down to pull off his boots he noticed the light leaking out from under the bathroom door. He quickly pulled off the boots and quietly made his way over to his desk, not taking his eyes off of the door. Now that his attention was there, he could hear soft rustling of movement inside. In his mind, he ran through the maintenance schedules for the day. While work crews were all over the ship, there shouldn't be anyone in his quarters at this time of night. Rumors of sabotage and terrorism plagued the launch of any new starship and it was impossible to keep those thoughts out of his head as he reached for the secret compartment under his desk. The touch pad, coded to his handprint, popped quickly open and eased out the phaser that was hidden inside. Spencer quickly made sure it was set for a high stun setting and advanced toward the door. As he got nearer, he could hear the faint sound of humming. He didn't recognize the tune. He readied the phaser and reached to activate the door, when suddenly the door opened from inside. "Oh!" A very naked Orion woman stepped out, finishing the final touches to her hair. She was almost as startled at his presence as he was at hers, "I didn't hear you come in." Spencer stood stunned for several seconds. "Excuse me," she pushed past him and climbed into the bed, "I'm cold." "Tarrah? What are you doing?" Spencer finally stammered. "I'm getting ready for bed." She wiggled as she snuggled up under the blanket. "But what are you doing in my bed?" Spencer absentmindedly waved toward her with the phaser. "Don't you want me to be here?" She pouted and buried her chin in the blanket. "I... Tarrah! That's... Why aren't you in your own quarters?" He finally realized that the phaser was still in his hand and turned to set it aside. "I don't have any quarters." This startled the Captain's attention back to her. He had delegated Tarrah to supervise crew cabin placement. She had been responsible for assigning herself a room. "Why not? How could you have forgotten yourself?" "I thought I was going to stay with you?" Tarrah sat up, letting the blanket fall to her lap. "Why would you think that?" Spencer turned away, the image of her bare breasts blazed into his mind. "David, it wasn't easy for me to get assigned to you. I did it because I wanted to be here. If I was going to serve someone I wanted it to be you. Most of my class got sent to the Enterprise for their cadet cruise. But I wanted to be here." Tarrah was obviously beginning to get upset. "That's great, I'm proud to have you here. But that doesn't mean you have to sleep with me." "It doesn't? But, I made sure I was assigned to you specifically" "No, Tarrah, you're not a slave anymore." Spencer turned to face her. "You're free. You have to realize that things are different now." "I'm free?" "Yes. You're free. You're not living the life of a slave. I'm not your master." Spencer put a hand on her shoulder. "Does that mean that I don't have to do what you tell me to do?" "Well, no. I'm still you're Captain." he let go of her as he began to, once again, feel his discomfort building. "But I can go where ever I want and do what ever I want?" She asked. Her big green eyes looked up at him innocently. "Well, no. You still have your duty and responsibility. But look Tarrah; you can't sleep with me. I'm the Captain. It would be wrong." "So I'm not free to do as I please. And if you're telling me who I can't have sex with; is that really any different than being told who I have to have sex with?" "Of course, it is! It's..." Spencer began to find that he was becoming confused with his own arguments. "Your romantic life is yours now. You can... be with who ever you choose... But I'm not who you should be... " He rubbed his head, it was starting to hurt. "Look, Tarrah, it's late. Tomorrow's going to be a long day. You might as well stay here tonight. In the morning we'll make sure you are assigned some quarters of your own. Alright?" "Yes, sir." She said with a pout. Spencer felt a twang of guilt at her subservient answer. "Get some sleep, Tarrah." He stepped over to make sure she was adequately covered with blankets before crossing over to the other side of the bed. As an afterthought, he grabbed his turtleneck and put it back on before climbing into bed next to her. Two hours later, Captain David Spencer, still fully dressed, lay stiffly in bed with his eyes wide open; staring at the ceiling. His yeoman slumbered peacefully next to him. The warmth from the sleeping nude Orion girl radiated through him and emphasized her closeness. Eventually,
Spencer found sleep in the outer room curled uncomfortably in a reclining
reading chair that sat in front of the window. His uniform jacket wrapped
around his knees as a makeshift blanket.
"First
Impressions"
Jonothan was roaming the ship, familiarizing himself with it's layout. He felt rather out of place as he strode the corridors and peaked into rooms, as though he were an outsider. But, he had only beamed aboard that morning and this was all part of settling in. He made his way to the officer's mess, starting to feel a little hungry. Upon entering the mess, he immediately saw another officer seated at one of the tables with a stack of paperwork in front of him. He immediately decided to say hello. On his way to the officer, he grabbed a pear from a bowl of fruit on a bench and took a bite. As he approached, he saw the rank insignia of the officer. "Captain Spencer?" The captain looked up from the file he was going through; Lt. Jg. Jonothan Fitzgerald. And there he was in the flesh. He smiled at the irony. "Mr. Fitzgerald, how nice to meet you. Have a seat." He gestured towards a chair across the table from him. "Have you eaten?" Spencer gestured towards the pear the younger officer was eating. Jonothan looked at the pear and then back at the captain with a smile. "This'll hold me over till the next meal," he said before taking another bite. "As luck would have it, I was just going over your record. Unfortunately, Command is still working on getting me all of the details so it's still a bit vague. But from what I have been able to piece together, it seems as though you're very comfortable in space, is that true?" "Well ..." he began, but stopped to swallow some pear. "Space is very much in my blood. I was born out there and my family has been involved in space travel for around two hundred years. For all my life, it's just seemed ... right, for me to be here." Spencer had put all of his reports aside to focus completely on the conversation with Jonothan. He knew that he could learn a lot more from a little personal contact than he ever could from some data in a file. "So what do you think about the Republic compared to the other ships you've served on?" The Captain tried to keep the sound of a test out of the question. "She's bigger," Jonothan replied immediately. "Much bigger. The Powell, my first assignment, was only a small patrol ship and very cramped. The Agamemnon wasn't a whole lot better." He took another bite of the pear. "And from what I've seen, the Republic's a great ship. I can't wait to fly her." "I'm glad to hear that. It's nice to know that your helm officer respects the ship he's flying." Spencer took a moment to wipe his mouth with a napkin, suddenly more aware of his dining etiquette. "So, Mister Fitzgerald, should I assume that things were a bit more casual on the Agamemnon?" Jonothan considered this a moment and gave the captain a quizzical look. "Captain Garrison ran the ship like any other in the fleet ..." he replied. "With all of the military protocol?" Spencer raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Like calling your captain 'sir'? I'm just curious." Right there, the penny dropped and Jonothan suddenly became a little uncomfortable. "I ... I'm sorry, Captain," Jonothan replied, shifting in his seat. "Garrison insisted on 'sir' when giving orders, but not while off-duty. I didn't realize ..." Spencer buried his face in his salad to hide his smile at the young officer's enthusiasm. "Relax, Lieutenant. That's a fair policy, I'm not completely 'by-the-book', but you do have to be careful about first impressions. And my first impression is that you're going to be a top-notch helmsman for the Republic. Make me proud and we'll make sure to throw out some of those pesky formalities." Jonothan immediately relaxed as the captain finished speaking. He smiled and nodded as he stood up, "I will, sir. It was good to meet you, Captain," he said. "I'll let you continue with your paperwork." "Lieutenant!" Jonothan turned back to the Captain. Spencer simply nodded towards the pear core that Fitzgerald had left on the table. The Helmsman snatched up the remnant of his snack and quickly disposed of it. Spencer
smiled as the energetic officer left the mess hall.
"Touch
the Sunshine"
Tomoe hefted the last of her stuff, a standard-issue duffle bag, onto her shoulder and headed for the airlock. Everything but the last few essentials had been sent on ahead to her new quarters on the Republic, and there was nothing left to do. The crew of Launch Bay 17 had thrown a perfunctory goodbye party for her, but Tomoe knew they weren't particularly sorrowed to see her go. Her assistant, Lt. Mallorn, would be taking over the management of Launch Bay 17 at Starfleet Command Jupiter. And she, yes, was off on a new adventure. For the first time in 8 years, she would be aboard a starship again, exploring the vast reaches of space, making contact with exciting new species, boldly... Tomoe drew herself out of the melodramatic train of thought as she reached the departure bay. Handing her bag over to a fresh-faced young ensign, she stepped aboard the shuttlecraft that would take her to Starbase 1, where the Republic was about to leave drydock. Due to finishing her duties at Jupiter, Tomoe was scheduled to arrive a bit later than most of the crew for the Republic's first voyage. She hoped it wouldn't make a bad impression. Thanks to the miracle of warp technology, the shuttle reached Earth after little more than half an hour, affording Tomoe plenty of time to get settled before her scheduled sleep cycle. "Do you want the full flyby, 'Commander?" queried the nervous young man at the helm of the shuttle. "No thanks, I'll have plenty of time to get acquainted with her later," Tomoe smiled. "Just drop me off." As requested, Tomoe and her trusty duffle were deposited shortly in the airlock of the USS Republic. She touched the intercom button. "Lt. Commander d'Veccio requesting permission to come aboard?" A male voice responded, "Permission granted, 'Commander. We've been waiting for you." The light above the inner airlock turned green and the door slid open to accomodate her. Tomoe found her own way to her quarters and deposited the duffle among the other various boxes and bags waiting there. She'd organize the stuff later - for now, it was time to explore and meet the people she needed to see. First and foremost on the list was Captain Spencer. If they were to be working closely together, it would be important to establish a good rapport early on. Tomoe grinned to herself and headed for the bridge. |
