Coming aboard and problems with authority

Posted on Fri Jul 21st, 2017 @ 1:34am by Lieutenant Commander Victor "Vic" Miller & Fleet Admiral Donatella Figueroa

Mission: S01E01 - At the Brink of Night

Vic was back on a damn starship--the last place he wanted to be. He was also not in command--another thing he hated--and instead was Chief Engineer. He beamed aboard the ship, quietly making his way to check out the bridge.

The starship was still at the Tellar Repair Yards, the last place Fig really wanted to be. She wanted to be back out there cutting through the sea of stars and the blackness of space. The Captain of the USS Musashi was walking through the corridors and hell bent on getting back up to the Bridge when she stopped dead in her tracks. The unexpected sound of a transporter was soon followed with the shimmering glow of a form appearing only a few feet in front of her.

"What the hell!" she said taken a small leap backwards and the figure stabilized. Alien looking to her, she was quick to reach for the non-existent phaser. She was always quick to draw...too quick to draw in some cases and fortunately she was unarmed because she probably would have shot the son of a bitch who beamed onto her starship unexpectedly. What made matters worse was he was wearing a Starfleet uniform so chances were he was friendly-ish. "Good Afternoon, do you make it habit of just beaming onto a woman's starship?" she said crossing her arms judgmentally eyeing him and thinking what in the hell kind of interspecies breeding abomination made you?

She let out a frustrated sigh. "You could have just came aboard like everyone else...the docking port is pretty effective, just saying" she added. "So, who are you?" she asked.

Vic took one look at her and rolled his eyes, "Victor Miller, your new Chief Engineer. I go by Vic, I don't feel comfortable walking aboard a ship, I prefer transporters." He eyed her momentarily before he turned back around and headed towards the lift, one hand resting on a hidden Rigelian disruptor on his left hip.

"And armed nonetheless" commented Fig as she eyed the disruptor. "That's not Starfleet issued" she said stating the rather obvious as she kept up with the man and followed him. "You prefer to use those damn things? Aren't you afraid that you'll beam into a solid object like the bulkhead or between decks? Oh and don't get me started on the nightmares I've had about being beamed together with another person and fused together like some sort of Frankensteinian creatutre" she added.

It then hit her what the man had said. He was her Chief Engineer. "So, you are the new Chief Engineer?" she said putting and hand on her hip. "Captain Donatella Figueroa" she said identifying herself and extended her other hand as a welcoming sign. "My last Chief Engineer and I...uh we had some creative differences when it came to Musashi" she explained.

Vic knocked her hand away,and smirked, "I'm armed for my own protection, Captain. As for the transporters, if you find a competent officer none of that will happen."

"Let's hope you are competent then" replied Fig. "Because if I'm getting onto one of those damn fangled transporter pads, it will be the Chief Engineer at the controls beaming me down and beaming me up" countered Fig. "I'm not trusting some kid with that...THAT THING" she said rather sharply and aloud. "Putting some young pimple faced teenage Crewmen behind them controls like it is some sort of technological toy. It isn't a damn toy, it's a execution device in the wrong hands" she stated.

"That it is." Vic said, rather coldly, his hand still resting on his disruptor. "Tell me, who do you think gave me the ears." He was referring to the pointed ears of his father's people, that many people mistook for Vulcan.

She looked at them. "If I did not know any better, I'd wager Vulcan" she said but shook her head. "But they aren't quite right for Vulcan, so I cannot really feel comfortable waging a guess....and why do you feel the need to be armed on my starship?" said the Captain. "We are far away from the Klingon border and the Tellarites albeit a rather boisterous and argumentative people, are not about to give you or anyone else any trouble" she added.

"Rigelian." Vic said quietly, "my father is well known as a Rigelian pirate, my mother joined him not long after their marriage on Earth, and I'm the result. I followed my father into the pirating business at a young age and there are many within even the Federation who wish me dead."

Ah Rigelian she thought to herself. "Well, just don't steal anything from the starship and don't start any wars with the species we encounter and you'll be fine" said Fig. "Nobody is going to kill you on this starship except me by looks of it at least. Feels like I killed an Albatross along the way and have it worn around my neck" she added.

"I know the feeling." Vic said, lulling into an uncomfortable silence.

She looked at the strange looking man and smiled just a little. "Well, misery does love company, Number One" the Captain said looking at the man, using the term to denote him more than Chief Engineer, but as First Officer of the starship.

Vic blinked. "Number One? Are you serious?"

"Quite" she said crisply. "The Musashi is not going to be sitting around here longer than I have to. As soon as the repairs are completed, I want to be back out there raising hell and shoving my starship down the throats of every Klingon we pass" she said not mincing her words. "I do not have time to thoroughly vet several candidates to become my First Officer. So, let's get this out of the way. You can maintain your position as Chief Engineer, but you will be serving as First Officer as well" said the woman.

Another eye roll from Vic, of course... "Yes ma'am."

"Sir" she said looking at him. "I don't like ma'am. I'm not some woman with eight kids trying to get them into a shuttle and fly then to Luna for hoverball practice." She gave a small nod at him. "I put on this uniform like any other Starship Captain, male or otherwise. They offered me one of those colorful uniforms and even a skirt variant....not in my lifetime" she said dismissively.

Not ever she thought. "You can call me Fig when we are alone, Number One. I don't expect much from a First Officer except dedication to duty, commitment to the ship and crew, respect, and personal loyalty if we get to be on that level."

"There's nothing that I don't give 110% to on a starship."

"Good" Fig said simply. She then looked at his First Officer and then around at her starship. "Go pick a fight with the Tellarites and tell them to get my damn ship repaired. I want to be crewed and space ready by the end of tomorrow. They have us scheduled to depart in two and half more days...make it tomorrow" Fig said sharply.

"Dammit Fig, I'm an engineer not a time lord!" Vic said as he headed down to engineering.

Fig shouted down after the man. "You are a First Officer now. That makes you whatever I need you to be!" she said with a smirk on her face as she watched the man hustle.

"Right." Vic said, muttering something in Rigelian that the translators couldn't pick up.

 

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