"So who are you, exactly?" Chimea asked once they were out in the hallway. The other captain laughed. "My name's Tom Paris. My daughter is to be your helmsman." The name rang a bell, and Chimea searched his brain for what Wayan history he knew. "Paris....were'nt you on that ship that was lost in the Delta Quadrant?" "Yes, the U.S.S. Voyager. Its where I met my wife actually, and where Kalinda was born. The Flyer shuttlecraft design that your ship carries was designed on the Voyager as well. I'm very pleased that my daughter is going to be piloting the same kind of ship that she grew up on." "You must be very proud of her." Chimea could sense the waves of pride flowing from the man, but knew that he wanted to hear it. "I am. I hope that I've trained her well, she learned all her piloting techniques from me." "I'm sure that she'll be an excellent helmsman." Chimea and Paris exchanged smiles. They turned a corner and came upon a hatch. "Here she is!" Paris announced. The door to the ship opened, and a blur came running out. It attacked Paris, throwing its arms around his neck and giving him a loud kiss on the cheek. Once Chimea saw this, he realized who the blur was. His new helmsman. "I take it this is your daughter?" Chimea asked. Paris nodded. The small, lithe girl...woman... quickly came to attention when she saw that there was someone else with her father. "Kalinda, this is Captain S'vL Chimea. Captain Chimea, Lieutenant Kalinda Paris." "Pleased to meet you. Its nice to see someone with such close family ties." Chimea returned the sharp salute that Kalinda gave him. "The pleasure is all mine sir. You're a Dihlijan aren't you?" Chimea nodded, impressed that she was able to recognize his species. To most he looked human, but there were subtle differences that Kalinda had obviously picked up on. As he looked at her, Chimea realized that Kalinda was not human either. At least, not completely human. On her forehead, there were faint lines, suggesting protruding bone just under the skin. "You are of Klingon herritage." He guessed, and from her blush and the way she rubbed her forehead he knew he was right. "My mother was half Klingon." She explained. "Um, would you like me to give you a tour of the ship?" "I would like that very much." Chimea said. And so, the new captain of the U.S.S IDIC took his first steps on board.
"This is engineering. SuvwI!" Kalinda's voice rang throughout the engineering bay. In the middle of the vast room, the warp core pulsed. "SuvwI is the chief engineer. So far, the engineering crew is an...interesting group. They consist of a Klingon, a Juju, and a Ghauk." Even though two of the species were from his galaxy, Chimea couldn't bring a physical description into his mind. He was startled by a short white furry creature bouncing around a corner. It wore a yellow sash across its chest, and a communicator. It wasn't the Klingon, but then, what was it? "My name is Kupi." The small creature chirped. Its brown ears, nearly as long as its body, flopped behind him. "SuvwI and Cyasiior will be down in a moment." Even as the Juju spoke, there was a fluttering sound and SuvwI and Cyasiior came into view. Cyasiior was an incredibly thin being with large, butterfly like wings. She was carrying SuvwI down from the second floor of engineering. SuvwI was a rarity in and of himself. Again, Chimea wasn't too familiar with Wayan species, but as far as he knew Klingon's usually had very dark colored skin. SuvwI was as pale as his own. "Are you SuvwI?" Chimea asked. The Klingon nodded. "I see. How are things coming along?" SuvwI growled. "My team is not large enough. All I have is this rabbit and flappy thingy." The Klingon's words shocked Chimea for a moment, and it took him several more to come up with a reply. "I see. We'll try to remidy that as soon as possible." The captain turned to Kalinda. "I think I'd like to see the rest of the ship now and let them...get back to work." Kalinda tried to hide her smile and quickly led him out of engineering. There was a great deal of amusement at his departure. "You'll get used to them, I promise." Kalinda said. "SuvwI prides himself on being contrary, Cyasiior is very secretive, and Kupi also likes breaking all the normal rules of his people. But, they work together very well, and have managed to get engineering working pretty well with just the three of them." Kalinda seemed to be confident in the engineering team's ability, so Chimea tried to put his worries aside. "Where are you taking me now?" "To your quarters." Kalinda replied. "To show you where they are and also so you can change into your new uniform." Chimea had noticed that the crew of the U.S.S. IDIC wore a uniform that he had never seen before. There was the aspect of the tradditional black jumpsuit, but instead of having a stripe of color across the shoulders, it crossed across the torso. In cases where a jumpsuit was inappropriate, such as with Kupi, only the stripe was worn. And, Chimea had a uniform waiting for him in his quarters.
After he had changed, Kalinda took Chimea to the bridge to meet the other three officers assigned to the shiop. As they entered the bridge, a Genisian rose from the captain's chair. "This is the OPS officer, Alexandria Articus. Nea Cha is our leading xenobiologist, and that is Dia, our nurse." "Hello Captain." The three women said in unison. "Welcom aboard the U.S.S IDIC." Alexandria added. She was obviously Genisian by the coloration of her hair. All Genisians had red hair, with about one or two inches of blond at the end. Dia was another matter all together. If Chimea was right, Dia was a species that was more legend and fact. An Ashdtiaewan if he wasn't mistaken. Wasn't there anyone normal on this ship? "A Dihjan!" He heard Nea Cha exclaim. "You've got to let me scan you!" "I beg your pardon?!?" That was certainly an opening line if he ever heard one. Nea Cha took his reply in stride. "I'm sorry captain, its my insatiable curiosity. Its why I got this assignment actually. I'm one of the top ranking xenobiologists in the Milky Way. My databases are the fullust anywhere. Starfleet command wants me to start a database on the Natut species. You are a Dihlijan aren't you? Your eyes are the right color, and your ears have that hint of a point at both the top and the bottom." "You are correct, I am a Dihlijan." Nea Cha smiled triumphantly. "Be careful around him laides, he's an empath. He'll read your feelings like an open book." Chimea protested slightly at the rough description. "If you know my species so well, you'll also know that we try to be as sensitive as possible to the feelings of the people around us. If any of you have a problem you can be sure that I'll do everything in my power to solve your problem." Nea Cha bowed her head slightly in apology, and the other three were pleased at his statement. Having a captain who cared so much about one's feelings could only be a good thing. Chimea walked down the slight ramp to the captain's chair and fingered the material. He had only served on one other ship as its captain, since he had, to most people, only recently graduated from the Academy. "How is the ship coming?" He asked, to no one in particular. "We're almost up and running." Alexandria reported. "This ship is completely built, technically, though we are still recieving shipments of supplies, such as phasers, replicators, medical equipment...and we are still horrifyingly low on personel." "Yes." Chimea looked to his left, where the first officer's chair waited for an occupant. They would not be able to leave dry dock until they had a full crew compliment. Chimea hoped it would be soon. He hadn't seen his home since he'd come to the Milky Way and joined Starfleet; he was eager to get home. The captain rose from his chair, knowing that there was little for him to do until they left drydock. Cha, Dia, and Articus returned to their posts, Kalinda looked as lost as he felt. She too, had nothing to do, as a parked ship rarely needed a pilot. "I'm going to go unpack my things...would you care to join me? I'll need some help if I want to get it all in one trip." Kalinda brightened at his suggestion, and they left the bridge together.
"When you said you were going to need help, I figured you would have more than three bags." Kalinda said as she helped the captain with his bags. "I don't carry much." He replied. "A few civilian clothes, and some personal items. I've never needed much else." Once they reached his quarters, Chimea opened his bags and began to make his quarters home. As he did not dismiss her, Kalinda hung around and helped him spread his things. "What is this?" She asked incredulously as she pulled out a small stuffed animal. The captain blushed. "It was given to me by my first girlfriend from the Milky Way.. She was a human that I met on Earth, and the relationship was....one of the best I'd ever had. Its a Siamese cat." "What happened?" Kalinda asked quietly. She could tell from the tone of her new captain's voice that something had gone terribly wrong. "She thought I was also human. My species is much like humans, I was surprised that Cha was able to detect the differences. When she found out....the relationship was over. She said that she couldn't believe that she had dated someone of an inferior species. That she felt that there shouldn't be interspecies relationships. That cat is all I have left to remember her by." Chimea took the stuffed animal from the helmsman's hands, and lovingly placed it on the bed. "I loved her and hated her at the same time." "That's must have been hard for you." Kalinda added. "You have no idea." Chimea replied. "I could feel her...hatred of me, hatred of what we had done...in my mind. It was so overwhelming, I could sense it even with my mental walls raised. That's how strong the feeling was." Kalinda had nothing to say. What could she say? Her captain had suffered a horrible injustice, but it had been a long time ago and he had obviously gotten over it. "So...what's this?" Kalinda now pulled out a set of chimes, Chimea told her that that was what they were. "My family are the Keepers of the Chimean Valley on my homeworld. These are one of the Sacred Chimes." Kalinda thought for a moment. "Chimes as in Chimea?" Chimea nodded. "I know, its redundant, but its a family name." The captain shook his head again. "You know what I mean." "Yes, I do. My parents love to tell me about the arguments they had deciding what their last name was going to be. It was a toss up between B'Lanna Paris or Tom Torres. Dad liked continuing the family name and Mom liked the alliteration. Eventually traddition won out and Mom took Dad's last name." "Your mother is B'Lanna Torres?" Chimea was surprised. "I mean, I knew who your parents were but I guess I didn't realize how important they were." Kalina huffed. "Believe me I know. My parents have been great supporters, especially my dad. But it is a big name to live up to." By this time, Chimea had finished putting away his things. "I'll show you to your office, then I should probably return to the bridge."
HIs office felt incredibly empty, as empty as the ship felt. He wished he knew who his first officer would be. It probably wouldn't be anyone he knew, and they would need to get to know each other before they were stuck together in a dangerous situation. S'vL Chimea wanted someone he could trust at his side. But who would it be? Chimea activated his desktop monitor and sent a breif message to Starfleet command. The reply told him that he would have a first officer within a week, and hopefully by that time they would also have several more crew members. Chiema would just have to be patient.
Chimea was asleep when the attack happened. The red alert alarm blared in his quarters, jerking him out of his sleep. It took him less than a minute to slide into his new uniform, within the next five he was on the bridge settling into his new captain's chair. "Status report." he demanded. Both Neko and Cha were pecking away at their boards, as well as a new face that he didn't recognize. "Who are you?" The woman at the security station looked up. She had a hardened face, and looked every bit the warrior. "I'm your new chief of security." She replied. "Lieutenant Jana." "Any last name to go with that?" She shook her head. "Nope, just Jana." "Alright then. "Lieutenant Jana, what the hell is going on?" "The dry dock is being attacked. I'm not familiar with the ship's design, Nea isn't either. And she should know." Chimea sat in his chair, digesting this new information. "On screen." The image of the offending vessel flashed onto the veiw screen. Chimea ground his teeth, feeling extremely annoyed. He knew who they were. "They're called the Maklchie. A warrior race. I'm surprised though that they are so far out of their territory. Can we move away from the drydock?" Kalinda already had her headset on, connecting her to the ship's sensors. "Almost. We're just waiting for the last docking clamps to release." "As soon as they do move us away." Chimea ordered. Kalinda replied, "Aye captain." Within moments the ship surged beneath them, and the image of the walls of dry dock fell away from them." As they watched, horrified, the dry dock exploded. Chimea felt the wave of fear first, then heard Kalinda whisper hoarsly, "Dad!" "Do we have any idea why they attacked the drydock?" Chimea asked the women on his bridge. They all shook their heads. "How many other ships got away before that thing exploded?" Jana quickly tapped several commands into her console and came up with an answer. "Three other docked ships got away, and about eleven shuttlecraft. We can fit at least four shuttlecraft in our docking bay." Chimea was impressed by how his chief of security was already able to anticipate his questions, even though he would have asked his operations officer for that information. "Hail them." Chimea waited while Jana opened a channel. "This is Captain Chimea of the U.S.S. IDIC to all shuttlecraft. We can either beam you aboard or bring aboard your shuttles. Does anyone need immediate assistance?" The seconds ticked slowly by as they all waited for a reply. Finally, a weak signal made its way through. "This is Captain Paris on the shuttlecraft Calipso. Permission to come aboard?" Chiema could hear Kalinda sigh with relief and knew his helmsman would be able to do her job better if her father was safe on their ship. "Permission granted Calipso. Docking bay two is at your disposal. Jana, what's the status of the Maklchie ship?" Jana scowled, giving Chimea the impression that he wasn't going to like the news. "They took off as soon as the dry dock exploded.'The security officer reported. "They took off towards the Galactic Portal." "As soon as Captain Paris is on board, set a course to follow them." Chimea directed his officers into action. Lieutenant Cha gave the next status report. "The shuttle has docked, and the other shuttles are being picked up by the other ships. Admiral Picard has ordered us to chase the Meklchie ship." "Tell him we are going to pursue the Meklchie ship, and that we will meet back up with him at Starbase 283. Then, get whoever's on that shuttlecraft working the ship. We got a lot of empty spaces and the more they can fill, the better."
Kalinda activated the warp core, the four nacelles sliding into an x formation. Then they glowed with a bright blue light and shot the ship into high warp. The turbolifts opened and two men came in, Captain Paris and a lieutenant commander. "Could you use first officer?" Captain Paris asked humorously. Without waiting for Chimea's reply, he plopped himself down into the first officer's chair. "Do you have any idea of why they destroyed the dry dock?" Chimea asked Captain Paris. The older man shrugged. "The admirals and I have a theory, but its nothing we can discusss now. You'll find a full report in your database." "Captain, um, captain Chimea, we've lost track of the Meklchie ship. I'm not sure if they went into the Galactic Portal or not. They've totally disappeared." Jana reported. "What do you want us to do?" Chimea made his decision quickly. "Take us to Starbase 283. Lieutenant Paris?" "Aye Captain" Chimea was impressed by how unaffected Kalinda was with her father's presence. Of course, she was tied into the ship at the moment, so much of her concentration was centered on that. Chimea could feel the ship slow and turn as Kalinda Paris directed the ship to the opposite direction.
The next several hours passed without incident. As they reached the end of the fourth hour, Starbase 283 came into sight. Kalinda docked the ship with a little help from the starbase's tractor beams, and with a loud THUNK the ship became attached to the outer hull of the starbase. Captain Paris stood and straightened his uniform. "Let's see if we can't find you a first officer eh?" A warm smile was combined with his words and Captain Chimea found himself liking his new helmsman's father. Perhaps he would find a new friend in this man. He followed the other captain to the turbolift, which took them to the air lock.
Behind the airlock stood two people, a man and a cat girl. The man was a disheveled human with black hair and mischevious eyes. He stood about six feet tall, and had the smell of vodka on him. The cat girl had a tail nearly as long as herself and had long black and white fur. Her green eyes were calm and sensible, making a sharp contrast to the man who stood beside her. �Lieutenant Commander Cadiraea reporting for duty sir.� She said. Chimea recognized her species as Cataruke. �I am your new chief officer of your interspecies communications department.� Chimea nodded as his new officer described her position. �You�ll be working closely with Lt. Cha. She�s the head of our xenobiology department. And who are you?� The rougish man looked up, brushing his hair out of his eyes. �Commander Boris Broflovsky. Your new first officer.� As the man spoke, a thick Russian accent reverberated through the airlock. �Are you drunk?� Chimea asked, his voice coming out a bit harsher than he had intended. Broflovsky shook his head. �I am perfectly sober sir. May we see the ship now?� Chimea nodded, as he turned to go back into the ship he saw Captain Paris trying to hide a smile. �Reminds me of myself at that age.� He whispered to the Natut captain. �I hear he�s a pretty good first
officer though. Good luck.� Captain Paris headed back into the space station while Captain Chimea, Broflovsky and Cadiraea boarded the ship. Chimea gave his two new officers a description of the ship. �The IDIC is an Intrepid class ship with fifteen decks. Our crew isn�t at its full capacity yet, though we have most of our heads of staff. We are still waiting for a doctor, although we do have a nurse. We will probably be staying at Starbase 283 until our crew is more complete. This is the bridge.� Chimea stepped out of the turbolift and moved to the side so that Broflovsky and Cadiraea could see the bridge. Commander Broflovsky whistled his appreciation, although Cadiraea mearly nodded. Broflovsky took his time walking down the ramp to the command section of the bridge. He looked over his chair before sliding into it, enjoying the feel of the material. A smile slid across his face. �Acceptable.� �Lt. Cadiraea, this is Lt. Nea Cha.� Lt. Cha was still on the bridge, working at one of the science stations. The Trill looked up from her work station, giving the cat girl a brief glance. �A Catatruke. Lemme guess, interspecies communication.� Cadiraea was surprised at this. �How did you know?� �Well, with you abilities to morph into other creatures and your telepathic abilities, you species are verywell adapted to interspecies communication. Nice to meet you.� The Catatruke was still slightly flustered. �No one knows that much about our species. Where did you get your information?� Cha smiled as she went back to her work. �I visited Natalis for a short while, and did I report on your species for the Federation. You�ll find it helps to know more about a species than how to communicate with them if you want to do business. Take a seat, we�ll get to work.� Chimea left the two women to their work, and moved to his chair. �She�s a pretty ship.� Broflovsky said to him as his captain sat. Even though the man seemed like he would be trouble, Chimea could sense a loyal and good naturedspirit. This was going to be interesting.
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