Episode Four: A Dark Path

ON:

[Avalon Fleet Yards]
[USS Starfire]
[Bridge]

Richard gave a sigh of relief, as he sat down onto his new command chair. It had taken the most part of a month for the Fleet Yards to finally get to the point where the Bridge was even capable of sustained life within it without power suits. It had been awhile, for Richard, since he had last sat down in a real command chair. The new bridge was only a few days away from being complete.

Richard was excited to be able to get back out into space, sitting around the Fleet Yards with a busted vessel was not his idea of a good time. He wanted him and his crew to be out there across space striving to explore new worlds and safe guard the Rayean Sector. He couldn't do all of that without a Bridge. Richard smirked as he ran his hand across the arm of his new chair, it felt good to be back in it.

The Starfire and its crew had just heard a week ago that the United Federation of Planets had begun a review of the Delvian Confederation, the new nation formed from the Delvian Hegemony and Ordik Confederation, to become a member of the Federation. It had been a long War between the Hegemony and the Confederation, but finally, due to the epic help by the crew of the Starfire and her Captain, they had become a new country together in peace.

Richard had a full smile on his face at the thought of their last mission, and yet he had not heard back from Commodore Riskin on how Starfleet thought of the Starfire's successful mission. Richard leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes and dreaming of the days that might soon come when the Starfire would once again be out into the dark path to the stars beyond.

"Commander, sir, we have a message from Task Force Command sir," Ensign Tremble, the Starfire's new Operations officer announced, as he sat at the new Operations console in front of Richard. "Very well Ensign, I will take it in my new ready room," Richard responded, a beaming smile on his face at the thought of entering his newly remodeled ready room. Richard stood up from his chair and within a minute was walking into his new room.

It was almost exactly the same as his old one, except for a few new addition, especially the new wooden frame that ran around as the trim within his ready room, looking nice and old fashioned, just the way Richard had wanted it to look. Richard sat down at his new desk, an ancient oaken desk that he had had restored from an old museum he had remembered from his childhood back home on Earth. That museum, he had found out a week prior, was closing so Richard had taken it upon himself to request the desk and have it refurbished.

Now, sitting behind the newly refurbished desk, Richard turned on the display and accepted the new transmission from Task Force Command. Commodore Riskin came to life before him on the display. "Ah, Commander Marks, congrats are in order for you and your fine vessel, Commander. Job well done, not only did you bring the Delvians and the Ordiks together in peace, destroyed an uprising within the Ordiks brought on by the Romulans, suffered through the loss of crew and the destruction of your ship's Bridge, and still held a peace talk that not only brought the two nations to peace after centuries of war, but brought them together as one nation!"

The Commodore had a beaming smile on his face, as he sat in his own command chair aboard another starship somewhere across the light years of space, "Very well done, Commander, I definitely feel a promotion coming soon if you keep this up! Now, let us talk about your new mission!" Before the Commodore could speak again a tremendous shuttering noise came from the ship that the Commodore was on, making the entire screen, Richard was watching, shake. Sparks flew throughout the vessels Bridge, explosions began going off everywhere from within the small display screens view of the ships bridge, as Richard watched helplessly.

As the smoke finally began clearing from within the small screen, Richard looked on as Commodore Riskin was laying unconscious on the floor of the bridge. Richard wished he could change the direction of the display, but he couldn't. Then he heard voices in the background, but it was hard to make clear from the fuzziness that had occured due to the explosions around the console in which the Commodore had been at a minute before. The explosions had more than likely done something to the comms system inbedded within the console. Richard could make out, barely, shadows coming across the reflections of the fires alight around the bridge from his view.

The shadows moved around the Bridge, and then he saw pale colored hands grab the feet of the Commodore and drag him away from the console's view. Loud voices insued and then Richard heard another loud explosion and the display went blank, replaced with the Starfleet insignia. He couldn't believe what his eyes had just seen, he had probably just watched the death of Commodore Riskin, his Task Force's Executive Officer and the destruction of his vessel and probably the death of hundreds onboard the vessel itself. The thought of it was catastrophic.

"Computer, send recording of that last transmission to Task Force Command," Richard voiced to the computer infront of him. Richard sighed and tried to think through the millions of thoughts in his mind. "Replay recording of last transmission," Richard said again into the computer, watching again the horrific scene, until it got to the part where the hands grabbed at the feet of the Commodore. "Computer pause recording."

Richard looked on at the hands grabbing the feet of Commodore Riskin. "Computer begin cross analysis of images from this recording and cross reference all images in this paused image to our database," the display changed to show the images rolling across the screne trying to match up with millions of other images that had once been recorded within the database of the ships computer.

Almost a half hour had gone by, Richard had already drank down a pot of earl grey tea and finally something stopped on the display screen with a chime. The hands of the assailants that had grabbed the Commodore had been matched, before him stood the menacing aspect of a Romulan officers image and beside it the images of the two hands. Richard slapped his combadge, "Marks to all senior officers, please report to the briefing room in ten minutes, we have a new mission."

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<TAG: Everyone, sorry that this had taken a little time, but i have had some crazy stuff going on in real life, been sick, crazy fourth of july week, and then busy at work and such, ugh. But im back so lets get going!>

Lt. James Palfrey
First Officer
USS Starfire
Shipping and Recieving, Avalon Fleet Yards.

On:

"Well, that's the last of them, Sir." The Petty Officer had scanned the last container.

"Yes." Palfrey replied.

The Petty Officer stepped away from the pallets of containers. "It's tough duty, Sir. I'm happy I don't have to do it."

Yes, it was. The Starfire had lost some good crew members. All he could do was send their bodies and personal effects home. In some cases just the personal effects.

It had been busy at AFY. Taking care of the dead, Handling the living and meeting the new crew members, some of them being sent to meet the Captain. The bridge was almost done, and when he could, James helped out the Ensign Tremble. Getting the Starfire ready for the next mission was work. But, work helped Palfrey to take his mind off the embarrassment of going into pon far in front of strangers. He should have made arrangements ahead of time.

His combadge beeped, "Marks to all senior officers, please report to the briefing room in ten minutes, we have a new mission."

Palfrey tapped his badge. "Yes Sir, I'm on my way."

Avalon Fleet Yards
USS Starfire
Main Bridge, Deck One

ON:

"Alright now let's try it,"Allison said into her comm-badge as she sat at the Conn on the bridge. For the past few hours she'd been there re-adjusting the bridge controls of the Starfire's new helm to bring it into sync with the ship's propulsion systems.

"Standing by Ma'am,"The Engineer monitoring the Impulse drives replied.

"Alright bringing us to half impulse,"She replied tapping furiously at the LCAR's panel. The ship didn't actually move as she brought it up to impulse, it was only a simulation run to make sure there wasn't any lag or over compensation being done by the new bridge.

"Looking good down here,"The Engineer said over the comm from deck ten.

"Same here,"Allison replied with a smirk. Maybe I'll get to do more than go from Point A to B for our next mission,She thought hopefully to herself as she readjusted the control format slightly to better suit her.

"Alright I think we're good then,"She told the engineer,"I'll send a report to Bluehouse if I have anymore problems, thanks."

"No problem Ma'am,"the Engineer replied breaking the connection.

Now to go check in on my department, Reed had better have been practicing how to monitor the subspace field geometry, She thought stretching her arms.
Just as she was standing up to leave her Comm badge beeped.

"Marks to all senior officers, please report to the briefing room in ten minutes, we have a new mission."

"About time,"Allison said to herself with a grin.She was already on the bridge, and not far from the briefing room, so she decided to walk slowly towards the briefing room. She stopped briefly to make sure her hair wasn't going crazy, and her uniform was prim and proper before continuing.

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