round 9 Lieutenant Kaitlyn Falcon - The Nickel Tour

[Sedrin Belasi]

(( Docking Port; U.S.S. Albion ))

::After ensuring that her clearances were accepted, and after a long walk along the gangway, Kaitlyn arrived at Albion’s airlock.::

::Albion was a strikingly beautiful ship. As an Excelsior-refit, she was one of the few ships in Starfleet with a hull color other than battleship grey, sporting white with turquoise trim. Her engineering hull projections hinted at space for additional equipment, and her additional pair of impulse drives and beefed up warp nacelles gave Kaitlyn the hope that she’d have better agility than most older starships.::

::Kaitlyn knew that one could do a lot with an older design. Her father had led a team conducting extensive refits of the U.S.S. Yorktown and U.S.S. Lexington, both 23^rd Century vintage Mk3 Constitutions-class. The result was a pair of ships with classic styling and capabilities on par with an Intrepid. Not bad, all things considered.::

::The airlock door opened as Kaitlyn approached, an older looking human man in a yellow accented uniform waiting to greet her. He extended his hand, his voice sounding both gruff and respectful.::

Jemeth: Welcome aboard, Ma’am. I’m Master Chief Jemeth, Engineering Department Master Chief.

::Kaitlyn took his hand and shook it.::

Falcon: Pleased to meet you, Master Chief.

::Jemeth gave a small wave-off.::

Jemeth: Just call me ‘EDMC’. It’s faster. Anyway, you ready for the grand tour?

::Kaitlyn smirked, but nodded as she followed through the inner airlock door. Both doors slid shut behind them.::

Falcon: No random ensigns around to task?

Jemeth: They’d probably get you lost. ::Smirks back.:: Nah, I recognized the name.

::Kaitlyn paused a moment, checking her brain to see if she’d missed something. Jemeth… Jemeth… Where might she had heard that before? She took a guess.::

Falcon: Served with my sister?

::That gave her about a fifty-fifty shot at being right. After all, of the four members of her immediate family who were in Starfleet, two of them were her sisters.::

Jemeth: ::Nods.:: That’s right, Ma’am, back when she was CHENG around here. After she transferred, I ended up getting assigned to Albion’s refit, and stuck around on the old girl once we were done.

::Jemeth led the way into a nearby turbolift, Kaitlyn following closely.::

Jemeth: Bridge. ::Looking to Kaitlyn.:: Not sure if you had the time to check every nook and cranny, so I figured I’d show you the highlights.

::Kaitlyn nodded. Much as she’d love to crawl around the place, she knew she probably shouldn’t lose herself to it.::

Falcon: Sounds like a plan to me. I’ll get around everywhere soon enough.

::The ‘lift soon deposited them on the bridge, Jemeth grabbing a PADD off a nearby console as they passed. He shook his head.::

Jemeth: I’ve gotta have a word with the duty section about leaving their stuff lying around… Still, convenient for us. ::Taps out a series of commands, then holds it out to Kaitlyn.:: Here. The inspection results you requested.

::Kaitlyn accepted the PADD with a smile, her face then snapping into ‘business mode’ as she reviewed the data. It was just like reviewing a shipping manifest back in the day.::

::As she read, Jemeth continued.::

Jemeth: The last refit took her back to stock, mostly, at least. She started life as one of the Enterprise-B variants, then got a host of upgrades for the Dominion War before Intel got their hands on her.

::Kaitlyn nodded. Hull, engine, and shield upgrades were in line for that. Torpedo capacity was decent. Albion didn’t have the newer burst or pulse fire launchers, but they’d get the job done. Phaser capacity looked good, putting her on par with an older Galaxy-class. Made sense for the war.::

::Still, that ‘mostly’ caught her interest. Kaitlyn’s eyes shifted to look at him.::

Falcon: ‘Mostly’?

::Jemeth nodded.::

Jemeth: Yeah. As far as I’ve been able to figure out, they couldn’t remove all of the tech the Intel spooks stuffed into this ship. Either that, or they wanted to keep it available in case they ever needed to take her back again. A lot of it was ‘retired-in-place’, just pulled all the connections from the ship and erased the info on how to operate it from the ship’s computer.

Falcon: Wouldn’t it all stand out?

Jemeth: Not if they build it into other equipment that’s still running. ::More quiet.:: I’ve spotted a few grav generators with empty computer connection ports on them. When have you ever seen a grav generator with an expansion slot?

::Kaitlyn gave a slight shake of her head.::

Falcon: Never…

Jemeth: Exactly. Now, I have no idea what might be here, and I’m nowhere near curious enough to start poking around to find out, but I figure someone on board ought to know besides me. ::Normal volume.:: So, shall we continue?

::Kaitlyn nodded again, Jemeth moving further into the bridge as he started presenting the various control stations for her inspection.::

::Albion… Strikingly beautiful, with some equally striking secrets hidden within. Kaitlyn wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it, truth be told, but she knew two things for certain.::

::One, she needed to tell Leo about this ASAP.::

::Two, she would have to be VERY careful about what she touched…::

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Lieutenant Kaitlyn Falcon

Chief Helm Officer

Starbase 118 / USS Albion

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