Star Trek: A Runners Conviction

Problems at the dock

>>>Stardate 700905.1 Captain’s Log
    The Makashi begins her maiden voyage in the next coming hour, but I find myself in the position of lacking a first officer. I do indeed find it strange that they were unable to staff a new vessel accordingly, but I trust Starfleet to arrange a first officer who will not only compliment my abilities as Captain, but also her crew. My next log should be that of our depart.

   Captain Jinn sat back in his chair and gazed out his Captains quarters window and exhaled. He wondered the next time he would be back at the Academy. He spent the first couple of years of his life on a remote planet on the outskirts of the Alpha Quadrant, but his parents moved closer to the core and settled on Earth for a better life.
    Enrake could remember watching all of the ships coming in for drydock for hours. He would learn their flight patterns, their armaments, anything he could. He told himself he would become a Starfleet Officer. He was going to make a difference. He pushed himself throughout the entire span of the Academy to be the best in the class. Every time he failed, he succeeded three times as much. He would be a Captain. He would be the best.
    Crew began stepping away from the vessel and holding arms began to disconnect from the ship as its readiness got closer and closer to launch. Enrake shifted his eyes toward the replicator.
    “Computer, coffee please. Dark roast.” Within a few seconds, a stream of hot coffee and thick steam emitted from the replicator. Enrake reached for it and brought it up to his nose. Every good coffee needs a good smell. Enrake moved his head in disgust. “This isn’t what I call dark roast. I’ll have to have Lieutenant Barton look into the replicator when I have time.” He took a sip of coffee and continued to stare out the window. It wasn’t terrible, but he preferred strong coffee. He felt it brought out the full, bodied flavor.
    With coffee in hand, Enrake remembered when he was brought into Admiral Kennedys office after interviewing for the position of Captain for the U.S.S Makashi. He promised himself he would not use his telepathy to influence the decision or try and find out the answer beforehand. Enrake took his seat and exhaled sharply. He found himself staring down at the ground and had to force himself back up.
    “At ease, Commander. Why did you want to be a Starfleet Officer?” The Admiral asked, leaning back in his chair. Enrake thought for a moment. He raised his hazel eyes and spoke. “I wanted to make others better. I wanted to get the best out of everyone and give someone else an opportunity to succeed.”
    The Admiral smiled, approvingly. “And now? Did anything change?” Enrake shook his head to give his answer. The Admiral turned in his chair and faced his tall window. “I never thought I would get to this point. I was just an Ensign on his final corrective action wondering why I was even doing this. I never wanted to see space, I never wanted to fly to other planets, I didn’t even really want to help others. I just wanted to get off of Earth. Get away from the life I knew.”
    The Admiral stopped for a moment. “What changed, sir?” Enrake queried, curious now. The Admiral turned back to face Enrake, his droopy face jiggling. “I found out I was good at something.”
    Enrake seemed puzzled. “You see Commander, there are so many careers you can take at Starfleet, and yet so few you are good at. Possibly only one. They stuck me down in engineering, a place I had no experience in, and expected me to excel; I didn’t. It wasn’t until the First Officer came down to discuss possible career changes for me that I realized what I wanted to do.”
    “And what was that, sir?” The Admiral got a sly smile upon his face and reached for his coffee. “Always take your coffee dark roast. Only way to drink it.” The Admiral took a sip of his coffee and turned back to Enrake. “It wasn’t so much finding another career, but finding who would invest in you. I transferred up to security and was overseen by a gruff Vulcan by the name of Couven. Brilliant mind, colder demeanor. I learned so much from him, and it was an honor to take his place when he retired. I received my third insignia and a new rank. I rose to the rank of Commander in that position and was able to catapult my career from that experience.”
    Admiral Kennedy saw the puzzlement in Enrakes eyes and knew he was trying to figure out what the point of the story was. “You’ll understand later, Captain.” Enrakes expression shot up and his eyes got big. “Congratulations, Enrake. The Makashi is yours.”
    Enrake took another sip of coffee and smiled. With the crew gone from around the ship, it was time to depart. He turned around and spilt coffee all over his uniform and dropped his mug on the ground. In the doorway stood a tall, fair skinned Vulcan, standing perfectly still.
    “Jesus, how long have you been there??” Enrake barked, trying to wipe the coffee off of his uniform.
    “8 minutes and 23 seconds, sir.” He stated, very matter of factly.
    “Next time, please announce yourself, Doctor.” Enrake stated, annoyance in his voice.
    “Yes, sir. You wanted to see me?” The Doctor responded, almost ignoring the former part of the conversation. “Yes, have you acclimated yourself to the sick bay? Do you have eveything you need? Do you have any suggestions?” Enrake stepped forward, extending his hand to greet his Chief Medical Officer.
    “Yes, very much so. I find the sick bay to be very similar to the one on Vulcan. I should be able to find my way around, very well.” The Doctor accepted his gesture and grabbed his hand, shaking it. Vulcans were not known for their subtly though, and Enrake could feel his hand being crushed.
Enrake smiled through the pain and was relieved when his hand was released. “Do you care to join us on the bridge for our maiden depart, Dr. Voss?” The Vulcan nodded and followed the Captain from his quarters to the bridge.
Cutting edge, state of the art is the only thing that came to mind as they both walked onto the bridge from the port side of the ship. Everyone was at their stations, staring at Enrake. He did not sense any doubt from anyone on the bridge, but there was a lot of tension and anxiety. He couldn’t blame them, he himself had anxiety about what lies ahead. He took a deep breath and sat down in the Captains chair and overlooked a status report and any important news he needed to know from the console on his chair. Dr. Voss took his seat to the left of Enrake and looked out the bridge viewer.
   Enrake turned his focus to his helmsman and straightened out his shirt. “Are we ready to depart, Lieutenant Marley?”
   The helmsman nodded as he typed in coordinates and performed his pre-trip. The Captain hit the intercom button to communicate with the entire crew. “All, this is Captain Enrake Jinn and we are about to depart for our maiden voyage. There are a few of you who have served with me before, some that I handpicked, but there are many who are new and this is their first journey. Let us make it one of peace and new discoveries.”
He turned his attention back to the helmsman. “Take us out of here, Marley.” The helmsman acknowledged, and punched the button and the ship began to depart into the great unknown. After a few moments however, the starboard thruster sputtered, and quit. Enrake, noticing the change in acceleration stood up immediately. We’re not even out of the dock! He tapped the communicator on his chest. “Engineering, report!”
   There was a delay in their response.
   “We seem to be lacking acceleration sir, we are diagnosing!”
   “Thank you for the obvious, Barton! What is the ETA?”
   “Unknown, sir. We think it is a miscommunication between the thruster and accelerators. Should be up in 10, sir!”
Enrake closed his eyes and held his face. “You have 5, engineering!” He turned his attention back to the bridge.   “Marley, divert power from port to starboard and try and stabilize our flight. We need to keep this ship in the air until they figure it out.” He turned down to his console and it showed the transfer of power from one side to another. There was a slight dip as the ship stabilized and Enrake put a hand out to keep his balance. He could feel the spark of acceleration return to the thruster, but the connection was not complete; it was more of a misfire.
   “Engineering, report!” He yelled again, looking for an answer. It was really a matter of seconds, but it felt like an eternity for Enrake waiting for a response. He groaned and headed for the turbolift. Without turning around, he left orders for his head of security. “Mr. Matheson, you have the bridge!” He turned and faced the bridge and watched as the doors closed.
   He exhaled slowly as the lift accelerated towards engineering and wondered what must be going through the Admirals mind as all this was happening. You can’t make this up. The doors opened and he saw officers scrambling back and forth.
   Enrake locked eyes with Lieutenant Commander John Barton
who was in mid panic, trying to figure out the problem. Enrake threw his arms out. “Diagnosis, Lieutenant?” The irritation increased in his voice. He could tell John was struggling to come up with an answer, but now was not the time for a diagnosis. He needed this ship in space. Now.
   John began to open his mouth, but Enrake put his hand out and walked past him.
Enrake walked to the main engineering command screen and stared at it for a moment. He could hear knocking somewhere, but could not pinpoint it. He closed his eyes and locked in to a lone engineer, trying to reach a bouncing cable in a access point. Why would he focus on- With that, Enrake took off racing towards the access.
Unstable conditions made it very difficult to access the cable slamming all around the hallway, not to mention the possibility of fatal arcing. Enrake saw the man wanting to reach out and grab the cable, but Enrake grabbed his arm and moved him aside. He looked around briefly, then ran over to a console and stomp kicked it, knocking a large piece of metal frame out from under it. Grabbing it like a shield, he ran out to the hallway and extended it to the cable.
   The metal absorbed any electricity coming out from the cable and with his free hand he reached out for the cable itself. Making sure to keep the metal frame touching, he carefully guided the cable back to his port, and once it got within range, it magnetically locked into place and he could see the power being routed back to the thruster.
   “Jinn to Bridge.”
   “Go ahead, sir.”
   “Starboard thruster back online. Marley, prepare to transfer power back to the port side of the ship on my mark!” There was a pause in Marleys acknowlegement. Enrake stepped out of the access and closed the door and latched onto something.
   “Barton, engage thrusters, warp 7! And try not to screw this one up!”
The thrusters fired at the same time and the sudden propulsion almost knocked Enrake off his feet. “Marley, now!” The ship rocked back to being level and that final jolt flung Enrake clear across the room. His head banged against a hard wall and he slumped to the ground.
   After a rocky start, the U.S.S Makashi fired out of the atmosphere and into deep space.