USS McKenzie: Out on Patrol

Reading the final crew manifest, Captain Riker glanced around the ready room once more, stood from his seat and headed towards the bridge. The doors to the bridge opened with a woosh and, glancing around, he noticed all senior officers were at their respective stations. Heading over towards the Captain's chair, Riker sat down and adjusted in his chair. He had been Captain for a week or so now, but the McKenzie was finally ready to embark on her first mission under his command. Pressing the all comms button, the Captain addressed the crew.

"Attention all heads, this is the Captain. In just a moment, we will be heading out on patrol of the Hromi sector. Our first mission together will be a patrol of space along the Romulan border, so we all need to be ready for anything. Over the past week, I have met every one of you and I have absolute faith in your abilities. You were born to wear the uniform of Starfleet, every single one of you. Whatever the future holds for the McKenzie, I have no doubt in your abilities to face it. I expect nothing less than excellence and know you will all deliver. All stations, report ready."

As Riker leaned back in his chair,  the Ops station beeped a few times and Lieutenant Simmons looked up from the station.

"All stations report in, Sir"

Lieutenant Argyle also turned to face the captain.

"All security stations report in, Sir, ship is ready."

Nodding in response to the reports, Riker pointed towards the view screen.

"You have your coordinates, helm. Take us out."

As was his duty as exec, Schaell Scyshyllyss went through the whole launching sequence with textbook accuracy.

"Sstarbase lotuss, thiss is the McKenzie requessting permisssion to depart."

"This is starbase Lotus flight control; clearance for departure through spacedoors 3 confirmed. Fair winds and good tides, McKenzie."

"Lieutenant Commander, Clear all moorings," the Saurian ordered.

"Magnetic clamps deactivated," confirmed Elisha Leône, now assuming the position of the helm officer. "We are floating free."

"Ahead thrusters,"

"Thrusters at full, aye," answered the alluring green-skinned Orion woman.

The sheer size of the starbase made the tiny starship's movement look majestic, despite the fact that it was rising to a speed of five hundred kilometers per hour. It took it mere seconds to go through the immense sliding doors of the space city.

"We have cleared spacedoors," stated Leone. 

"Full impulse," Schaell said.

In as short a time as it had taken to emerge from the starbase, the vessel rose to a quarter of the speed of light, leaving it far behind in the blink of an eye. Yet again, the sheer vastness of space made it look like a ceremonius flight.

"Heading zero mark fifteen, sstandard cruising sspeed."

"Aye, Sir."

With a soft hum the engines flared to life and the McKenize entered warp headed for the Hromi sector.On the main viewer, starlight stretched from blue to red lines before a sudden flash of light turned them into the familiar moving lines and dots of faster than light travel.

"Warp 7; ETA with Neutral Zone, twenty-one point twenty-five days," confirmed the helm officer.

Schaell nodded to his commanding officer, standing at his right to his full towering height over everyone, his bald head almost touching the ceiling, as there was no exec seat on the spartan bridge of a Defiant class starship.

Looking up at his first officer Captain Riker nodded in approval.

"Well done, Number One."

Schaell simply nodded to receive the compliment.

Looking around the bridge, Riker continued.

"We have a few weeks travel time. I say we give the crew a few days to get acclimated to their new routines, schedules and roles and then we run some training and drills. Just enough to keep the mind fresh though, Commander I expect you to craft a good scenario and training schedule. I want the crew involved, but I also want them skilled and trained above their job requirements."

The Saurian again acknowledged with a nod.

"Ssince thiss sship has no holodeck for ssimulations, we will have to implement training "the old fasshioned way"; right at their sstation during our journey while junior officers handle routine work; catasstrophe sscenarios for Engineering and Medical, intruder alert drills for ssecurity, deficiency ssimulations for opss, ssenssor problems for Sscience, sspace combat ssimulations on the main viewer for navigation and tactical... with your approval, Ssir."

Smiling Riker responded.

"Old fashion way eh? Old fashioned is the type of training I grew up on. I like it. While training is very  important, I always thought there should be a bit of fun to it as well. Perhaps some friendly competition, or using senior officers as intruders to train junior security. That kind of thing. What do you think?"

"Competition is the very basiss of ssurvival, wich in turn promptss adaptation and improvement. Having experienced officers sshare their experience with junior ones in ssuch a fasshion will do well, esspecially with Humans who are naturally inclined to both compete and sshare. A puzzling arrangement... nevertheless true. I will follow your apt ssugesstion, Captain."