"In a few moments, you will be boarding a transport that will take you to your ship! Please line up along this wall and wait for further instructions!" she gestured where the crew should go. They complied. "Will the executive officer, Captain, and Admiral please line up in the back of the line for security purposes! Thank you!" Aaen was the eighth or ninth in line.
The intercom activated. "Transport Alpha-Charlie-India, standing by for immediate launch." a male voice echoed through the room.
"Roger that, Alpha-Charlie-India," Metta replied. "Crew coming."
"Copy."
She led the crew through the jet bridge and then boarded the transport. The transport got clearance to depart. After a few sharp maneuvers putting some distance between Starbase One, the transport's warp drive activated. In what seemed like seconds, the transport's captain ordered the transport out of warp—
Aaen found himself speechless, silently agreeing with the flood of awe throughout the cabin as he looked wide-eyed at the Magellan through the main viewscreen. The image from the briefing was a hilarious understatement of her sheer size. She seemed like she must have been a whole astronomical unit (AU) in diameter; the briefing suggested she was closer to a mile or two in diameter. Good enough, Aaen decided.
The transport docked within a minute on one of the runabout pads. After the pad lowered into the station's second innermost ring, the crew offloaded and followed Metta through a brief light-lined maze to the main circular entrance to the bridge. The door was closed; a biometric palm scanner was the only key. Aaen noticed the heavily armed and armored security forces doing scans of the corridors and other various areas of the—station—and he relished the sounds of beeping computer terminals, and the atmosphere circulation system. He half started wondering if the place was literally alive or not. The Voyager is huge and had a cosmetically majestic quality inside and out—this place seemed more like it was its own fleet.
Metta opened the door with a scan of her right hand. The door rolled open like bolts in a safe door. "Three at a time!" she gestured for the first three to walk toward her, and then she gestured for them to proceed to her right. Aaen couldn't help but note a firm rumbling sound rolling through the environment ahead, and then through the corridor; Aaen noticed there were more subtle expressions of awe, and then a fourth individual—Admiral Daymont? Aaen wondered—gave directions as to where they were supposed to sit.
Two more groups boarded, and then Aaen was at the head of the line. He felt a surge of anxiety coursing through him. He couldn't wait to see the bridge!
"Go ahead," Metta said.
Aaen walked around the corner. He stopped cold in his tracks, awe-struck. Walking onto the Magellan's bridge was like walking onto an amphitheater—one that gave Aaen the immediate impression that Magellan meant business. The beast was sleeping, but its strong but subtle mechanical heartbeat could be felt in the deck plating. He admired the smaller black and gold Spacefleet Command logo behind the Admiral's station at the back of the bridge, the tall main viewscreen at the front, and the array of carefully aligned crew stations on both sides; the colorful wall and overhead lighting clearly identified the space station's alert readiness. Right now the station was on the lowest readiness level, meaning all was generally well; the station's defensive systems were not powered. The only way that would change is by order of the onboard Admiral, Captain, or supervising Admiral of a given theater of operations at Spacefleet Command in the event of a fleet-wide alert. The last time something like that happened was when outposts along the Romulan border and the Federation border suddenly were destroyed. Both sides denied having any responsibility for the lost outposts. The real culprit later made itself known when a Spacefleet vessel sent a distress call reporting it was under attack by a 'Cube-shaped' vessel on routine patrol near a distant Federation colony. Which the Enterprise-D was later sent to investigate after Spacefleet Command lost contact with the colony. After investigating, evidence was found the Borg were in Federation space. Hours later, Captain Picard of the Enterprise-D signaled Admiral Hansen at Spacefleet Command that the Enterprise had engaged the Borg. Aaen thought it interesting that he and fellow crew members were standing on the bridge of a space station equipped with Borg technology. He was curious to see just how fast the space station would travel when the transwarp drive was activated. He grinned at the knowledge that he, as the station's helmsman, would be able to activate that engine drive system. He couldn't wait for that order to come. The Major, by rank, who chose the job of Admiral on the station would be the one to give that order. Lucky.
Aaen was directed to his station at the top-right of the bridge, closest to the bridge entrance. He took his seat and watched as the rest of the bridge crew loaded onto the bridge and were directed to their seats in about two minutes, Aaen guessed. Two yeomen stood on opposite sides of the bridge as Admiral Daymont entered last and then took position next to the Admiral's computer station. The executive officer boarded and took his position towards the center of the bridge, two seats in front and below of the assigned Admiral to the bridge.
"Alright, everyone! Your command crew will soon be boarding the bridge. It is customary and tradition to stand out of respect when the captain and then the Admiral enter the bridge! When the captain boards, please follow her instructions!"
The captain entered moments later, standing behind her station immediately to the right and slightly below the Admiral's computer station.
"Admiral to the bridge!" she authoritatively declared. The bridge crew stood up sharply and watched as the Admiral walked behind Aaen to her computer station and then faced the main viewscreen.
"Crew, at ease. You may be seated," she said.
Training on the bridge controls took about twenty minutes by listening to a brief recording. Aaen's recording lasted only three or four minutes and covered how to log into each of the three different computer stations associated with his job on the station, and detailed how to control the ship's heading, speed, an overview of the station's thruster controls, and the translight drive. He was eager to try that. He patiently waited for the rest of the bridge to finish over the next ten to fifteen minutes. When that finished, Admiral Daymont stood at the bottom of the bridge holding a small writing platform at his side in his left hand while looking up at the rest of the bridge.
"Alright, Admiral, Captain, and crew, training's finished. It's time for you to get underway. Get to your destination as quickly as you can, and remember to stay in communication with Spacefleet Command. Admiral, Captain and crew, good luck!"
Multiple crew members responded with a 'thank you' as Admiral Daymont walked up a short series of steps near Aaen's station and then off the bridge.
Moments later, a voice filled the bridge speakers.
"—'er, Engineering to the bridge, is anyone up there? This is Chief Engineer Lieutenant Watson down here on deck fifty in main engineering! Can anyone up there here me?" a 30-something or 40-something-year-old male voice said over the intercom.
"Yes, Chief Engineer, this is the Admiral. We can hear you. You're loud and clear." a young woman about eighteen or ninteen years old, Aaen guessed, with light brown hair dressed in a similar crew uniform—hers was uniquely a shade of blue over black—under a white cotton labcoat with the word "Doctor" entered the bridge. She kept her hands in her labcoat pockets on what Aaen guessed was her Medical Scanner and undoubtedly an ample supply of multi-colored field medicine, all stamped with the letter 'M'. She started casually walking around the bridge in an irregular path asking various crew members how they were feeling. . . .
"Oh, that's great to hear, Admiral. It's a pleasure to have you on board, sir!"
"I'm a ma'am."
"Oh, yes, of course! Sorry about that, ma'am, we get a lot of different commanders around here. Thank you for not demoting me to janitor duty!"
"You're welcome, Lieutenant Watson. Just . . . don't let it happen again."
"Absolutely and roger that! Admiral, if it's not too much for me to ask where are we goin' today? Spacefleet Command hasn't told me anything about our mission today."
"It's largely classified, but we're heading into deep space to provide security for a special science experiment for the Federation."
"A 'science experiment?'"
"Yes."
*****
Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."
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