CHAPTER 3 : And A Star To Steer It By (part 5)

The senior staff of the flagship was back on the bridge on the next day, ready to proceed with the next phase of the shakedown cruise. All reports and recommendations had been recorded, analysed and were now to be implemented upon. As sonn as Captain Kheren came to the bridge and sat in his central chair between First officer Redding and Chief Medical Officer 011 and 110, both chief of security Corcoran and helmsman Snow seated at the consoles before him greeted him almost simultaneously.

" Ready for transwarp 2, Captain, " confirmed the Inuit pilot. " On course to Space Station Echo 3, ETA  fourteen days, eleven hours forty-seven minutes. "

The Andorian in the command chair looked around once at his bridge crew, all calm and waiting before he brought his four oculars back at the large viewer in front of them all.

" Mister Snow... Transwarp 2. "

" Transwarp 2, aye Sir. "

As soon as he said it, the helmsman activated the controls and there was a brief increase in the pitch of the humming sound of the vessel around them, then a flash on the secreen before the view of the starfield resumed it's previous show of streaking stars looking like white points of light coalescing in front and then stretching into thin blue lights disappearing beyond every point of the screen's frame in glowing red. The strangely different yet slightly familiar view of the warpfield again mesmerized the officers despite the fact that it looked to them virtually unchanged from the previous one of a day ago.

There was no vibration, no sound, no feeling that the ship had jumped instantaneously from what was essentially warp 1 to warp 8 in one single increment, from the speed of light to five hundred and twelve times that same speed while still in Einsteinian space. All systems glowed green and every department was already confirming their current speed and status and checking the state of all instruments on board since the transition.

After a while, Captain kheren nodded as if to himself, stood up and straightened his uniform.

"Good work, people. I will await your reports and recommendations from this second phase when we reach Echo 3 in two weeks. In the meantime, those who will have completed their daily tasks may attend Lieutenant-Commander K'Leysha's presentations on her people and culture in the main amphitheater, or download it's recordings later on. This promise to be interesting and will be, in fact, our ship's first scientific survey of a new civilization. It could be also a good opportunity for several crewmembers to exercise with our current instruments and facilities their survey, study and related teamwork skills before we do actual field work with this vessel."

In typical Andorian fashion, Kheren was turning leisure time into training and study time, but everyone knew that such attendance was optional, not mandatory. Nevertheless, they also knew that the captain would be keen to notice those who would participate, as he was going to attend himself the conference of his chief science officer.

He nodded to his yeoman and the Amerind woman fell behind him as he walked out of the vast command center of the immense starship.

" I will be in my office. Number One, you have the bridge. "

Down in Engineering, Lt. Commander Joseph Sisko, saw the jump from transwarp 1 to 2 happen and sighed and shook his head. While the approximate time of this transition was known ahead of time, no one had informed him that it would be this exact moment right after the briefing. He had, in fact, barely made it back to Engineering to see it occur. They would have to work on their communication, he thought.

"Mister Surlac," he addressed the Vulcan Engineering crewman manning a nearby station monitoring the transwarp, along with Ensign Patricia Blakely and the Mayan Propulsion Specialist Ensign 'Kilani' Cooper. "What are the chances that our calculations could have been off prior to our jump to transwarp 2?"

"One in 1,243,212,394, Sir."

Sisko wondered how the Vulcan officer could always be so precise, but being a mathematics whiz himself, he had already calculated it to be around one in one-billion. Odds like that made him feel better that they would not incidentally blow up and produce a rift that at best would make warp travel in the sector impossible for over a hundred years.

"What are the chances they could be incorrect prior to our jump to transwarp 3," he then asked, "given that the jump occurs without our knowledge?"

"One in 23,179,042, Sir," the Vulcan replied again, stoically, without missing a beat. Clearly they increased exponentially at each transwarp factor, leading to a chance of one in eight-thousand that it would be wrong prior to transwarp 5.

That did not make SIsko feel good at all. Unlike the Vulcan, his stomach turned at that thought. While still very unlikely, it would be better to have a chance of 1 in infinity, i.e. no chance, assuming their calculations were exact. They were not difficult, especially to experienced and intelligent officers such as Surlac, Blakely, Cooper, and himself, they just needed to be verified, preferably by each of those four officers. "We need to improve those odds," he said, rhetorically, and contacted Commander Redding.

"Sir," he said over the comm to Redding, who currently had the bridge, "Sisko here. We need to be informed in Engineering prior to any increase in the transwarp factor so that we may double... or rather... quadruple-check our calculations and give the green light. At least until we have the calculations for each transwarp factor preciously hard-coded into the computer. At that point, if anything is off, the computer will prevent the increase automatically."

Redding gave a little chuckle "Mr. Sisko, do you know what happened to the chef that worried over every little ingredient of his main course? he ended up burning the soup and ruining the meal." He ended it sounding serious.

"Don't burn our soup Mr. Sisko but proceed at your discretion, we'll keep you informed, Redding out." He smiled to himself and took a breath. Although It might not have been apparent he was a bit nervous. Transwarp seemed to be inherently dangerous in so far as never being consistently reliable. In every phase of it's development it ultimately failed, with his command of the USS Response being forefront on his mind.

There wasn't any proof that the Transwarp device caused it's disappearance and In fact they had been using it successfully for nearly two years, but it was none the less gone.

No, not this time he said to himself This time I wont let it go wrong

"Aye, Sir," replied Sisko with a concerned frown before closing the channel.

Just after he did, Chief Petty Officer Arthur O'Hannigan said, "Bah, I suppose he'd prefer we weren't paying attention and let the ship explode. All you were trying to do was keep an eye on things!"

At that, Sisko turned rapidly, and bearing his full height up as he approached the young crewman, said, "That is our superior officer and this ship's Executive Officer you're talking about," he barked. "Show some respect!"

The wide-eyed young Scottish officer was initially taken aback at the order, but shamefully nodded his head and said, "Aye, Sir, you're right. I'm sorry."

His voice becoming calm, Sisko added, "But you can be sure I will not stop paying attention to our transwarp drive, until it is fully and reliably tested." He then looked around at the onlookers, who were shocked to see the outburst from the normally passive and mellow Sisko. "Well, we clearly have work to do. This isn't a Parrises squares match to gawk at. Get to it, people!" he said, before marching off into the Chief Engineer's office.

                                                      *     *     *

Two weeks at a constant sustained speed of warp 8 would have been detrimental to any starship but a few of the very latest and fastest ones; here, with the use of transwarp propulsion to achieve and maintain it, it barely registered the same wear and tear observed on a vessel which would have been cruising at a snailpace of warp 2.

That achievement in itself was already quite impressive, even to non-engineers. But this was in truth like hors-d'oeuvre to the plat de resistance; the actual implementation of transwarp speed beyond the standard warp threshold. And this is what awaited them next; if the propulsion system worked as expected, they would go again the same distance, this time towards space station Deep Space 9, but in mere hours!

There was therefore a renewed sense of trepidation aboard when the three-armed, three spired circular form of space station Echo 3 loomed on the main viewer. Everyone knew that, on the next day, pending any recommendation from engineering, operations or medical to the contrary, they would be on their way into the history books.

And then beyond.

" Space Station Echo 3, this is the USS Horizon, " announced Captain Kheren when communication was established; "request permission to dock. "

" USS Horizon, this is space station Echo 3 flight control, " came back the cold, feminine voice on the speakers that could have been that of the computer. " Permission granted. Please proceed towards docking pylon 1, thrusters only. Station tractor beams will take you in from there. Welcome Horizon. Enjoy your stay. "

" Thank you Echo 3, " finished the Andorian before lowering his gaze to the helm station before the command dais. " Take us in, Mister Snow. "

" Aye, Sir. Reducing to one quarter impulse power on approach to station standard orbit vector, " answered the copper-skinned pilot.

The commanding officer of Lotus Fleet's flagship then stood.

" Mister Sisko, complete transwarp analysis and recommendations for next T3 phase. Lieutenant Leône, review and report on all systems status. Doctors 110 and 011 and Lyrya, please conduct a quick survey of crew status before we go... beyond the barrier. Lieutenant Corcoran, full ship's standard security conditions while we are docked. Mister Oseno, this will be the time for you to get any supply you might believe you need to complete full operational preparedness of the Polaris. Number One, please see to our proper docking procedures. Then, compliment the crew on a job well done so far and plan a quick 8 hours shore leave for every shift before we go out again."

"Understood Sir" Elisha Leône acknowledged as the captain clearly verbalized his expectations to each senior officer. She had already completed a second status sweep of all ship-wide systems and was just finishing to compile the results. Her intent was to have this updated synopsis completed and turned in to the captain before they completed docking procedures, but it would now be an unofficial race against time. 

"Aye Captain," Jureth replied before turning back to his console.

When they all acknowledged his orders, Kheren went to the turbolift.

" I'll go meet the station's commander and report to him and Starbase Lotus about our current progress. Good work people. "

And with those words, he disappeared behind the sliding doors of the lift, yeoman Blackbird and security officer Tyvya on his heels.

As the turbolift doors closed behind the captain Jureth pulled up the internal sensor feed from the Polaris that he had previously linked to Horizon's computer. The sweeps were clear of all foreign objects and no unauthorized personnel had attempted to access any of the ship's systems. Jureth was so absorbed in the console readout that he took no notice of his fellow Bajoran Variel Palos arriving on the bridge. Only when the intelligence officer approached him did Jureth realized he was there.

"Commander Oseno,"

Jureth practically jumped from his chair. "By the Prophets Variel, don't do that!"

"Do what Sir?"

"Sneak up on me like that!"

Variel smiled, he had learned long ago to control the weight of his footfalls. It was something he had learned the hard way in his early intelligence assignments.

"I apologize Sir...I'll try to be louder."

Jureth half smiled at Variel's remark even though he was trying not to.

"What can I do for you Lieutenant?"

"I just wanted to let you know that I've prepared extensive intelligence briefs on both the True Way and the Dominion for the captain. We're going to be in their neck of the galaxy for awhile."

"Is there anything significant in them?"

Variel shrugged "Not much, both groups have been relatively dormant. Its mostly dispositions of known assets." 

Jureth nodded "Feel free to submit them directly to Captain Kheren, but make sure you copy Commander Redding and myself."

"Aye Sir, I will do that."

"Is that really why you came all the way to the bridge?"

"You got me," Variel said in mock surrender "I'd like to ask you about something."

"You can walk with me then, I'm going down to the Polaris."

Jureth locked his console and rose from the chair and with Variel behind him entered the turbolift. As the lift began to move Jureth turned to the younger Bajoran.

"So, what is it you need?"

"I want to ask you about Commander Redding."

"What about him?"

"What is your opinion of him?"

"Dedicated, capable, approachable..the qualities of a good first officer in my opinion."

"How much do you know about him?"

"Not much, I'd only met him at the commissioning ceremony."

Jureth wasn't sure where this line of questioning was going, but he was willing to tolerate it to see what the intelligence specialist was getting at.

"That's not true, you met Neil Redding aboard the USS Lotus as well." 

Jureth's eyes narrowed "So you know."

Variel nodded "Only because I received a brief from Temporal Investigations and my superiors at Starfleet Intelligence. Just a few hours ago actually." 

"I see..why would they feel the need to brief you?"

"They wish me to keep an eye on him."

Now Jureth understood, but he was also concerned about something else.

"Lieutenant, I'm going to ask you a question, and I am ordering you to give me straight answer or so help me I will ask the captain to leave you on Echo Three."

"I will answer it if I can Sir."

"Are you here to spy on this crew?"

"No Sir," Variel replied "I am here as your intelligence specialist. The orders to observe Commander Redding only just now came in."

Jureth now had a dilemma, did he inform the captain? Would the captain tell Commander Redding? Oseno felt a loyalty to Redding based on his experience with him aboard the Kang, and he also knew Captain Kheren would not like having an active intelligence operation aboard his ship.

"Lieutenant, after I finish with the Polaris, you and I are going to see the captain."

Variel said nothing, only nodded as the lift arrived at its destination.

***