The First Order

Posted on Wed Feb 19th, 2025 by Captain James Cohen

1,067 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: M01 - The Hooke
Location: Ready Room, USS Hooke
Timeline: Present

James had barely sat down behind the computer console in his office when he'd opened the channel from Starfleet. The Federation logo slowly transformed, revealing the image of a dark skinned Human Admiral from Starfleet Command. It would have been easier for the Admiral to come to the ship unless this was urgent. "Hello Admiral." James said to the man on the other side.

=/\="Captain Cohen," Admiral Daniel Beckett replied with a grin on his face. The three pips on the Vice Admiral's collar clearly visible to the Captain. "How does it feel being in the center chair of your own ship?"=/\=

James had met Admiral Beckett three years earlier when James was still an Executive Officer. It was a Starfleet Gala that was held on board the Galaxy-class starship Dale. That had been a strange mission indeed and something James would much rather push out of his memory.

The Dale was hosting a Klingon and Cardassian ambassador from their respective empires. The two ambassadors had gotten quite intoxicated and fought each other. Admiral Beckett was still a Rear Admiral and had also gotten quite intoxicated. James was in the brig when the three of them sobered up enough to apologize to each other.

James could only hope that after those events Admiral Beckett had sworn off alcohol. He was indifferent about the center chair right now, "I'm still breaking in the chair Admiral," James admitted. "I hear you have orders for the ship?"

=/\="Yes Captain," Beckett replied. He'd hoped that James had forgotten all about the little events at the Gala all those years earlier. Daniel didn't bother to ask the Captain if he'd remembered. "A day ago the Novans discovered some ruins on the northern continent. They were in the process of potentially resettling the original colony location when they stumbled across them.

"Originally the Novans thought these ruins were from the original colony itself and began to excavate them. The Novans have now requested help from Starfleet in this endeavor. That's where your ship and crew will come in Captain. It should be a relatively easy mission Captain."=/\=

James knew better, anytime someone said something should be simple it turned out to be the opposite. He wondered what Beckett wasn't telling him, "Admiral missions are seldom simple." He found himself saying out loud. "I get the sense that there's something you're possibly not telling me."

=/\=Beckett grinned, "There's nothing I'm not telling you. I've sent the mission parameters to your personal terminal for you to review. I understand the crew will be on board soon," Beckett said. "Once the remainder of your crew come aboard you are to set course for Terra Nova and lend them a hand. Any questions?"=/\=

James didn't have questions for the Admiral. He did have quite a few concerns and wondered if they wouldn't be better off going to the shakedown range on the other side of the Sol system instead. "Admiral, I have some concerns." He pointed out, "This crew is pretty green and if this turns out to be more complex..."

=/\=Beckett raised his hand effectively silencing the Captain, "Captain I know your crew is pretty new. We don't have any other ships to spare for this and you are well within a good position to arrive there. If things get complicated I have faith in your abilities to work through any problems that may arise. Do you not have faith in your crew?"=/\=

James shook his head, "They are smart enough that I think it'll be fine. I would just prefer if the situation allowed for my crew to get their feet wet before being thrown into the deep end is all." He added. James wondered if his crew could handle this tasking. He took a breath, "We'll head for Terra Nova as soon as we've gotten the last of our crew aboard."

=/\="Very good Captain. Beckett out."=/\=

The screen went dark and James leaned all the way back into his chair while also rubbing the bridge of his nose. The crew would probably be better served not going into the deep end. He took a breath and got up so that he could look out his window. Below the ship, once he got to the window, was the planet Earth.

It was hard to believe that just over ten years earlier they had been at war and the Federation still had a manning issue in Starfleet. The recruitment numbers following the war had gone down quite a bit and there were a number of reasons for that. James had served during the Dominion War and he was perhaps one of the only officers on board with that in his past.

He looked at the planet and wondered if Starfleet had forgotten about the war. James eventually shook his head trying to get that thought out of his head. Certainly they hadn't forgotten about that. He walked back over to his computer console and dispatched a message to the bridge that as soon as the last of the crew and supplies were aboard to set course for Terra Nova at warp eight.

James mentally calculated that it would still take them several days to arrive where they needed to be. Perhaps that was why the Admiral had mentioned for them to leave as soon as the crew were on board. James shook his head and sat back down behind his desk. "The Admiral said this should be a simple mission but I have my doubts." He mumbled while beginning to research Terra Nova.

James had no experience with the system, though he remembered from his history lessons that Terra Nova was colonized long before the Federation had existed. There had been bad blood between the Novans and Terrans, or those who still lived on Earth. That bad blood had long been resolved and now Terra Nova was a proud member of the Federation. He'd never been there before now.

James took a deep breath and hoped that the Admiral was right. This would be a simple mission that wouldn't take them nearly as long to handle as it would to get there in the first place. He opted to talk to his senior officers as soon as his research was done and that part didn't take nearly as long as originally thought.

 

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