Taking The Tour

Posted on Mon Feb 17th, 2025 by Lieutenant Commander Samuel Bancroft & Lieutenant Amelia Baird

1,124 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: M01 - The Hooke
Location: Main Engineering, USS Hooke
Timeline: Present

Sam had made certain his family was settling into their new quarters before leaving for main engineering. He'd never been aboard an Intrepid-class starship before now, so some of it was curiosity. Engineering certainly would have been much larger than anything aboard the Eisenhower. He was immediately surprised by the size of main engineering when he entered the space.

Sam walked toward the warp core, it was already swirling and active. That told the Lieutenant that they were going to be departing from the drydock slip at any moment from now. He pressed his hands down onto the railway that separated the warp core from the rest of engineering.

"May I help you?" Lieutenant Baird appeared from inside her office, she had been back and forth much of the day as the ship prepared to depart the drydock slip. Amelia had spent some time in her office getting her belongings that went in there, including her technical manuals, in place.

Sam turned, "Sorry," He quipped. "Lieutenant Baird correct?"

Amelia nodded, "I'm glad to see you've done your homework Lieutenant," She said to him. "Though I admit that I don't recognize you. May I ask why you're in my engine room?"

Sam simply nodded, "Sorry," He told her, "Lieutenant Samuel Bancroft, the ship's new Chief of Operations. I wasn't trying to disturb your engine room or anything like that."

Amelia's expression shifted to a more gentle one, "Sorry Lieutenant Bancroft I didn't realize you were aboard yet." She replied. "At first I thought you were one of the engineers from the shipyard," She admitted. "I wasn't trying to imply that you don't belong here."

"No offense taken," Sam told her. He looked around, "Why would you be concerned about engineers from the shipyard being in here? I can see the ship is already preparing for departure."

"That," Amelia told him, "My engineers have all reported aboard the ship and have taken over the preparations for departure. We're just waiting for the station docking authority to grant us permission to leave the docking bay. If you want I can show you around? I'm assuming you've never been aboard one of these."

"That's correct," Sam told her. "My last ship was a Steamrunner-class ship. Which is much smaller than this. I'm sure you have seen one of them before right?"

Amelia grinned, "Yeah the ship I spent a summer on board during my training away from the Academy was a Steamrunner," She crossed her arms, "What ship were you on before this?"

"The starship Eisenhower," Sam told her. "It wasn't a very ideal environment to keep my family on board, so when the opportunity to transfer somewhere else came up I took it."

"I've never been aboard the Eisenhower," She admitted. "The ship I was aboard was the USS Carthage which I don't even believe to be commissioned still."

"Lieutenant, drydock control wants to know if we're ready to separate from shore power?"

Amelia heard the voice behind her before turning and facing the crewman that had spoken, "Let them know we're ready to separate from shore power," She then looked toward Sam once more. "Come on I'll show you around it won't take very long main engineering isn't that large."

Sam shrugged, "Okay," He answered. Sam followed behind her while looking around at the same time. There were a number of things that he found himself confused about because the layout was vastly different than what he was used to on other ships. It was somewhat difficult to understand why Starfleet hadn't made their ships more similar on the interior.

Amelia nodded and led him to a row of panels where two junior officers were working. "This is where we control the warp core," She told him. Unlike aboard a Galaxy class ship, the Intrepid wasn't designed with a central table. "You said you have a family?"

"A wife and daughter," Sam answered, "My wife is one of the civilian scientists on board."

Amelia was interested, "The Captain has a daughter on board too, Paige I think her name is." She looked over at Sam, "How old is your daughter?"

"Twelve," Sam answered, "Her name is Kate," He wondered if the Captain's daughter was the same age. If they were the same age then hopefully they could become friends or something. "Do you know how old the Captain's daughter is?"

"No sorry," Amelia answered, "Though I think she's pretty close to the same age as Kate. I'm going to guess that Kate isn't used to being on a ship with other children on board?"

"She was the only one on the Eisenhower, her friends were people she met doing school over subspace. This ship actually has a small classroom for her to do her studies in, instead of being stuck in our quarters all the time." Sam replied. It was certainly his hope that his daughter would make some friends besides the ones from her subspace school days.

"She was stuck in your quarters all the time?" Amelia asked.

Sam shrugged, "Not all the time but pretty close to that. There wasn't much for her to do on board the other ship. It wasn't exactly designed with family life in mind. We thought about having her go live on Earth instead so she could have more space, but that never happened." He liked to think that Kate wasn't as miserable on board the ship, but he never really bothered to ask.

Amelia frowned, "It's a hard choice I'm sure," She told him. "I don't have kids mainly because this lifestyle and kids don't always mix. Perhaps someday I'll consider them. For now though," She shook her head and left it at that. "Now then," She changed the subject, "You've already seen most of main engineering. My office is right over there." She pointed.

Sam nodded, "I haven't tried finding the office I'm supposed to occupy." He told her, "I probably should go try and find it."

"It's on deck six," Amelia told him. "I've already studied the layout of the ship."

Sam nodded again, "Deck six," He replied. "Got it." He started for the exit from main engineering as the crew finished getting the ship off shore power. "I'll be in my office then. It was nice meeting you."

"You too," Amelia replied.

Sam then left her to her own devices. He made a mental note to ask his daughter eventually whether or not she'd met the Captain's daughter or any of the other kids on board yet. Hopefully she wasn't just sitting in their family quarters doing nothing at all. Hopefully his wife, and her mother, had gotten her to leave for a short while.

 

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