Wind in Her Sails

Posted on Thu Aug 31st, 2017 @ 10:24pm by Captain Tim Williams & Lieutenant Commander Vincent Holt & Lieutenant Commander Jean Reynard & Lieutenant Griffen Tanol & Lieutenant Kevin Barnaby & Lieutenant Ryan North & Ensign Jonathan Forrest

Episode: The Deuterium Argument [Rebooted]
Location: USS Highlander - Bridge
Timeline: MD01 0700hrs

Tim was so excited for this day that he felt like a giddy schoolboy. The refit work was finally complete, and Commander Bralt and the last of his yards crew had finally vacated the ship last night; after months in drydock, the Highlander was ready to move again, and with an awesome new faster-than-light propulsion system to boot.

He tried to keep his composure as he strolled out onto the bridge for what would be their first journey on this ship for some, but a complete relocation of their explorations for everyone, as they had all bid their farewells to the family and friends they'd be spending longer than usual away from, as the ship journeyed into the Delta Quadrant. It wasn't Tim's first visit to that Quadrant, nor the Highlander's, as both had spent time there prior to his appointment as Commodore several years ago, but even then they had just been on the cusp of the Quadrant, whereas the new Graviton Catapult Starfleet had built was capable of hurling them much further in, with an identical one to allow them to return in equally swift fashion. The Highlander had been fitted with slipstream technology back then too, but it was primitive by comparisson, and required the networking of multiple ships computers, all travelling within the same corridor, and after the mess of a trip, Starfleet had benched the technology until it could perfect it for single-ship applications.

"All right then," he called out, clapping his hands together as he made his way towards his chair at the centre of the bridge. "Let's get this show on the road, shall we?"

Holt sat in the XO's chair, cracked the knuckles on both hands, seemingly also excited by the goings on.

"All Sections report status in either Go or No Go," Vincent said, with a PADD ready to recieve more detailed reports as they came to him, "Set alert condition Blue."

Ryan looked up from the science station and glanced over at his commanding officer. The refit had taken longer than expected but, here they were, finally ready to get back to the business of exploring the unknown. He couldn't wait. He gave his sensors and station a once over again just to make sure that things were ready. He would hate to miss something just because he was too busy oggling at the new tech that had been installed.

Kevin stood at the Tactical and Security Station, he made sure that everything was double checked before their departure. He had a full inventory of Ships Torpedo Magazine and a full diagnostic of the Defensive systems. But in truth he was a little excited about the Delta Quadrant. He'd never been there before. 

"Engineering is ready to go Captain." Grifs voice filtered through the speakers on the bridge as she stood in the center of engineering staring at the upgraded warp core. "Slipstream drive is registering as 98 percent efficency and the warp core is ready to step in if needed."

Tim stood and listened as each of the department readiness calls came in. Given that such reports were usually only called for on the bridge like this during launches or at the start of important missions, the resounding reports of 'Go' only served to heighten his anticipation.

"All Sections stand ready sir," Vincent said, noting the time taken to have the departments ready on his PADD. 

Tim lowered himself into his seat as the last of the reports came in, pleased to hear everything going smoothly, even with the huge array of systems that had been upgraded over the past several months. "Jean, let's rid ourselves of this drydock's shackles, shall we?" he said, once all the reports had been made.

"Aye, sir," Jean said, turning to the rear side of his console and sending a message to docking control. A few seconds passed before he turned back to the captain. "All moorings retracted and we are now on internal systems. Planetia control has cleared us for outbound lane six."

"Jonathan; take us out and set a course out of the system - best speed you can manage, without scraping off a fresh coat of paint on the dockyards," the captain ordered. "Then set a course for the Cygnet system."

Jonathan's hands, which had been hovering over the helm consoled waiting for the Captian's command lowered them and let them dance lightly on the screen. As they began to pull away using the Highlander's thrusters he said, "Of course sir, but you know, the ship is still going to be considered used, the minute we pull away from the Staion."

Tim smiled. "Ensign, this ship hasn't been considered new since you first started school. She's still got plenty of new tricks to show us," he said, pride in his ship evident.

Everyone watched either the viewscreen or their instruments as the ship navigated its way out of the busy traffic of Utopia Planetia, and angled away from the busy shipping lanes around the Sol system. Once they were sufficiently clear, Tim continued with his instructions; "Whenever you're ready ladies and gentlemen; engage the slipstream drive."

"Inertial dampers and structural integrity fields at maxmimum," Jean reported. "Primary and secondary deflectors configured for slipstream travel."

"Interal and external sensors calibrated for slipstream initiation," said Ryan. "Calculations are complete for slipstream travel and verfied with navigation." 

"Shields are stable and ready for Slipstream." Kevin called from Tactical. "Ready to divert any additional power when needed."

"We're good to go down here whenever you are." Grif said as she stared at a status report screen at the edge of the mian console getting a feed from all the systems involved with this rather monumental and tempermental moment. "Warp core is dumping as much power into the eps systems as it can handle for whatever we might need."

Jonathan's eyes were constantly shifting from his console, to the viewscreen, to the others sitting at their stations. He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, then closed his eyes for a brief second or two. When he had opened them, he said, "Engaing in five, four, three, two, one."

As the helmsman finished his countdown, the Highlander shot forward into the slipstream tunnel opened by her newly-upgraded deflector array, and began her accellerated trip towards the next stage of their journey.