Departure

Captain's Log

Stardate: 87999.8

The Horizon has been tasked to answer the call for a peace summit transmitted by the Undines, at the other side of the Beta Quadrant, where opens the only naturally opened point of contact between our universe and their own Fluidic Space.

Our transwarp drive will allow us to reach this destination faster than most ships in Starfleet ever could; but the importance of this delicate, potentially hazardous mission may require us to stay out of contact and support in that unknown sector of space for an extended period of time, possibly longer than any other starship ever could manage to. Sending several ships to answer the peace proposal could be misinterpreted as a hostile response by this very paranoid species, forcing the Federation to limit contact with but one vessel; and that lone vessel would be exposed to as many potentail hardships and dangers as there are hopes and promises for peace and discovery. As with the ship, the crew would have to be exceptionally gifted, efficient and experienced in all areas of Starfleet operations, from diplomacy to scientific studies to tactical situations. When considering all those variables, only one starship could hope to attempt this momentous task.

The Horizon.

And so, with all systems checked, primed and ready, we are about to be on our way.

Captain's personal Log

All crewmembers and occupants have been thoroughly debrifed about the mission and everything it entails. Everyone was given the choice to commit oneself and possibly one's family to this long lasting, demanding, risky but challenging and promising operation... or to decline without loss of honor or merit and be helped in relocating. Starfleet officers of course routinely welcome, even seek such opportunities; but doing so far away from family and friends for such an extended period, or risking them along, is not something to treat lightly. But despite it all, less than ten percent of the crew complement and not even twenty-five percent of the ship's population chose to desist. To these we wish the best; to the others, we give our thanks.

Going boldly where no one has gone before; these words are but a Starfleet mantra nowadays. But in regard to what lay ahead of us beyond that next star to the right, those words ring truer than ever.We are going out to meet the wonders and the promises of the stars, to share peace and knowledge throughout this universe... and maybe now even beyond.

And I could not have wished for anything else... or with any better people.

Captain Kheren strode to the vast bridge of his ship and stood before his command chair, right between where sat Commander Redding his Executive Officer and one of the Bynar Doctors manning the medical command chair. Commander Oseno stood by the First Officer's side while Counselor Lyrya did the same near the tiny form of 110, as they both usually did. On his left, Chief Science officer K'Leysha sat at Science Station 1 with her assistant Norbert Baoule standing by at Science 2, while on the opposite side of the command center, Chief Engineer Solius monitored everything from the main Engineering station with Robert Baoule assisting him. And of course, right behind the captain stood Both Tyvya as bridge guard and yeoman Miramanee Blackbird, ready to assist the Captain in anything that would otherwise distract the rest of the bridge officers from their main duties.

Looking forward at the enormous viewscreen and her vista of stars spreading to infinity behind the saucer shape of Starbase Lotus, the Andorian could then look down at the rest of the officers manning their bridge stations; on the right, Alex Somers at tactical; on the left, helmsman Aguk Snow completed the last preparations for departure; and between and in front of them both, Elisha Leône got all green lights from every department of the ship.

They were ready.

"Starbase Flight Command confirms all clear for departure, Captain," reported Lyrya.

Arriving on the bridge Alex took her seat at Security/Tactical, she felt a little out of place as she was the only one wearing a green undershirt, but she fully expected to be referred to as Lieutenant Jg or Mr. while on the bridge, it was after all protocol. working at the Console she swivelled her seat around.

"Captain Tactical and Security reports ready and all green" She said.

"Thank you, Lieutenant."

Kheren focused his antennae on the young woman, hearing the rythm of her heart, smelling her body odor and registering her bioelectric aura that all allowed him to interpret her body posture and facial expression.

At his console S'Tan was not having a good time. Despite the similarities of the Romulan systems to Federation systems, the console was giving him issues. He had finally been able to enter through a backdoor, and set the A/MA reactor limits and control the coolant flow. All the while, Baoule was standing behind him, silently observing.

"Mr. Bawool, if you would like to assist me, I am running simulations when we eventually jump to Transwarp. Each time, I seem to be miscalculating the energy required from the cores and we explode. Which is something I'd prefer to avoid."

The bald, black man smiled broadly at the way his new chief mangled his name. Obviously he was finding it quite amusing as he did nothing to correct him and went over from engineering station 2 to station 1 in answer to the summon..

The Romulan ran the simulation again, and showed the numbers to his assistant chief. Baoule pointed out his error quickly. S'Tan may have passed the base engineering courses easily, but the fact remained: He had never monitored a real warp core before. Singularity Drives behaved much differently, and adding in the requirement to jump to Transwarp within the next few minutes was adding unneeded pressure.

He nodded to Baoule and reported to the Captain, "All energy levels are green, impulse is at full power. Ready for launch, Captain." 

"Understood, Lieutenant Solius. Ready us for warp speed, standby transwarp drive."

Then, after a short moment of silence, looking at the main viewer and the image of the docking pylon the ship was moored at outside of the starbase, his cranial appendages curved slightly inward as he addressed Somers.

"Lieutenant; have you ever piloted a starship out of spacedock?"

The MACO officer lifted her red-haired head slowly, blinking her wide eyes. Without turning, she answered with a nevertheless firm voice.

"Never, Sir."

Kheren exchanged a stare with Helmsman Snow who then vacated the pilot seat to stand by it with an inviting smile to the woman sitting at his right. The captain looked straight ahead.

"Take her out, Lieutenant Somers."

"Aye, Sir."

The athletic woman slided fluidly into the vacated seat and looked at the new console before her. She had enough tactical experience to understand immediately what this was all about; the captain wanted to know if she could be counted on to handle ship steering if her main pilot would be otherwise unable to. Alex had basic training in piloting like any Starfleet officer and sizeable experience with flying shuttles of all kinds; but there was a whole world between a craft a few meters long and a starship over a kilometer in length. Fortunately, they were not docked inside the starbase as most starships would have been; the Horizon was simply too big, even for Earth Spacedock, let alone Starbase Lotus, hence why the flagship was docked at an outside pylon, towards outer space. The risks of a wrong maneuver were quite minimal here... so it was obvious the commanding officer saw it as a perfect time to examinate the capabilities of his newest bridge officer.

Challenges indeed, Somers recalled from her meeting with the Andorian. 

"All ship stations and starbase flight command confirm green status for departure, Captain," she announced after reviewing the unfamiliar yet well laid-out console before her, marvelling at the efficiency and practicality of it's design. No wonder since legendary Tom Paris, former ace-helmsman of the famous USS Voyager, had a hand in the design of this vessel. "Thrusters and impulse nominal, all speeds available through warp and transwarp drives."

Kheren did not take his fixed stare away from the main viewer and the stars blinking back at him.

"Thrusters, Lieutenant Somers."

She didn't know why but several people around her let out a sigh of relief. Then she recalled what she had read on her way to Starbase Lotus and her new assignment. The last time Captain Kheren had ordered a ship out of spacedock, it had been at full emergency impulse; a breakneck maneuver that alone would have cost him his command, hadn't he been able to use Starfleet General Orders to fully justify his action at the board of inquiry following the later loss of his ship in the Azimuth Horizon anomaly. This time though, it looked as if Captain Kheren for once would strictly follow launch regulations.

After all, it was a well known fact that Andorians never did anything without a sound reason.

With a nod, the MACO woman put her hands on the steering controls. 

There was a sudden jerk throughout the entire vessel, shaking everyone in their seats, anyone standing having to stumble or brace onto the nearest console or bulkhead to regain their balance.

Alex bit her lower lip and frowned. She was used to small, tactical crafts and she had expected this immense hulk to be slow moving and cumbersome, steering like the antique galeons of her seafaring Earth ancestors; instead, the mearest touch gave an instataneous response from the colossal structure as if it was but a nervous stallion waiting for the merest opportunity to bolt. As she adjusted herself, she then noticed that Aguk Snow had already put a hand on the console to steady himself before she touched the buttons... and that the captain had not voiced any surprise or annoyance at all. He was still looking at the stars as if nothing had happened; but she knew his attention was all on her. And so was that of Snow who, also looking at the stars, leaned fractionally near her to whisper in a reassuring tone of camaraderie.

"I know the feeling."

In truth, he was refering to his first piloting duty on board the late command of Captain Kheren, the USS Artemis; when he had been assigned to the late, great Lotus Fleet explorer, an seventy-year old refitted Ambassador class cruiser,  he had expected to fly an old, ponderous bucket of bolts... and had almost crashed it in the starbase doors on her first flight out, so responsive was the revamped controls and systems of what outwardly looked then like an antique. No one had really noticed because they were at the time hurrying to an emergency rescue operation and with their captain killed in a sabotage attempt, forcing then first officer Kheren early into his first command; no one hat is but Kheren himself.

But Captain Kheren never held a mistake against anyone under his command if they showed the integirty, competence and resolve to correct themselves. And this is what Aguk Snow knew what the Andorian wanted to know about his new bridge officer.

Somers showed herself quite up to the test. This time, her hands were moving delicately and precisely over the controls and the image on the screen moved slowly and gracefully before their eyes while nothing was felt under their feet.

"Thrusters at full, moving away from docking pylon at one thousand kph," reported Somers, her voice betraying nothing of the sound made by her heart. "We have cleared docking zone."

"Full impulse," ordered the Andorian in the center seat.

There was only a slight hum heard and the stars on the screen barely shifted before their eyes, even as they accelerated to a quarter of the speed of light.

"We have full impulse speed, all systems nominal," now announced the red-haired officer at the helm. "We have cleared traffic area."

Several seconds went by and Kheren said nothing. Everyone was at their post, doing their job; yet, Alex felt like each of the two thousand individuals on board were watching her, even through bulkeads dozens, even hundreds of meters away. But she had been looking down at a rifle muzzle pointed at her often enough to keep her cool and again use this much lighter stress her current predicament as fuel for her reflexes.

"Warp 1."

It was now obvious that Kheren was testing her basic piloting skills and let her be familiarized with the Horizon's helm position, so that he would know what she would be capable of during the mission; and so would she. The captain was not taking any chances with this assignment, or with his ship... or her.

Alex activated the warp controls and the familiar sudden streaking view of stars preceded and followed the blinding flash of the light barrier being suddenly broken as they reached the speed of light.

"Warp 1," she confirmed ouloud in a calm, professional tone. She felt a smile of satisfaction creeping to the corner of her lips but kept it down. But it was hard not to feel elated at being in control of so much power under the tips of her fingers.

"Implement steady acceleration to warp 8, standby  transwarp drive."

The smile faded faster than it had threatened to come to her lips. Warp speed was familiar enough; but transwarp speed, no one except those that had been aboard this ship before her had ever experienced; and from the report of the maiden voyage of the Horizon she had read, it hadn't gone all that smoothly. And that was under the hands of Aguk Snow, one of the very best helmsmen in all of Starfleet.

Taking a quick breath, Somers followed the captain's orders, not even blinking once the whole time as she reported their status in real time.

"Warp 2... warp 3... warp 4... warp 5... warp 6... warp 7... warp 8; cruising speed holding steady, Captain. "

The time had come. Again, sitting like a statue, Kheren never moved his silvery stare from the star view before him and his deep, soft voice resonated with echoes of calm confidence accross the silent bridge, several long seconds later.

"Transwarp 2."

It took a moment for Alex to make the calculation and understand the test. Transwarp 1 was exactly the same as warp 1; warp 1 to the cubic power, just like warp 1 was the speed of light to the cubic power, hence both being one times one times one the speed of light. The same way, transwarp 2 was warp 2 to the cubic power or two times two times two; warp 8. Except for the breaking of the warp treshold and the corresponding different visual computer representation of their astounding travel speed on their main viewer, they should not feel the transition; if she handled the helm right.

Alex took a breath again, blinked once then pushed the controls.

The far away humming power of the warp core sufddenly rose like in those old historical files of the first Constitution class cruisers accelerating. A very faint tremor under their feet betrayed the awesome power now coursing throughout the titanic starship. On the screen, there was a new flash, just as if they had again just broken the light barrier. Then, the stars streaking toward them seemed to come from a coalesced center right in front of them, streaking by while shifting from red to blue in a dazzling display of bright colors that mesmerized her for a moment. Seconds went by and no one spoke; they all knew this was a wholly new esperience for her and they recalled themselves how they had felt the first time they has known that they were beyond any velocity scale experienced before. But finally, the MACO Lieutenant brought her mind back to her task.

"Transwarp 2, Sir."

This time, she could not retrain the smallest of smile on her lips as she contemplated the transwarp field streaking before her eyes. They had transitionned from warp to transwarp with barely a shudder of the deckplates.

"Steady acceleration to transwarp 4," simply answered Kheren.

This time, Alex managed the helm controls with a newfound confidence. Not only in herself, but in her new ship... and in her captain.

Transwarp 3... " she then reported after a moment and a new explosion of light before their eyes, moving the center of coalesced stars seemingly a bit father away from them on the computer-generated image. There  was again another flash and a new distancing of the edge of infinity before them and then she finally said: "Steady at transwarp 4, Captain."

"Thank you, Lieutenant Somers. Well done. You might wish to use our travel time to implement some tacitical simulations at transwarp velocities from your station. Mister Snow, you may resume your duties."

"Aye, Sir," they both answered, exchanging a smile as they took back their assigned seats.

"ETA, Mister Snow?"

"Sixty-nine point sixty-two days, Sir."

It took a moment for everyone, not just Alex Somers, to fully grasp what had been said; they were going to cross about fifty thousand light years in barely over two months! Any other starship would have taken about a century to travel the same distance!

"And we'll have to go through the Mempa sector," the Inuit helmsman added with a grin.

"How long before we cross it?" asked the Andorian.

"An hour, captain. By the time their sensor grid notice us, identify us and launch any interception at us, the Klingons will only be able to take over our residual warp trail."

Kheren stood up and straightened his uniform, nodding to Counselor Lyrya as she opened a shipwide channel. 

"Now hear this; we are underway to the outer edge of the Beta Quadrant. The Federation has entrusted in us the hopes and dreams of universal peace, prosperity, learning and brotherhood with another universe, another sentience... without compromising the safety of those we represent. You have all volunteered for this momentous task and you will do your best to succeed. And we will succeed... because we are the crew of the starship Horizon... we are Lotus Fleet. All departments, you have two months to brief yourselves with the particular of our mission and prepare for the unexpected. make those months count. Captain out."

Turning towards his ready room, Kheren showed his chair with a callused finger to Redding sitting at it's right.

"You have the bridge, Number One."

As he went to his office, followed briskly by his Amerind Yeoman, Tyvya lowered herself slightly toward him as he passed by the turbolift where she stood guard.

"Nice speech; you're getting good at this... Sir."

"Power down, Lieutenant," Kheren abruptly whispered back.

None of them smiled, their faces couldn't. But Kheren's antenna were swaying in annoyance as those of his wife curved in amusement. 

As for very Human Miramanee Blackbird, it took all of her Starfleet training not to giggle; but the smile on her face was enough to be noticed by her captain and the look he sent her as they disappeared from view behind his ready room door stiffled it soon enough. Almost.