Captain Michael Dart tugged anxiously at the bottom of his uniform top to straighten it out before he stepped through the hatch located at the rear of the shuttle Pine Flat.  The small support craft sat out of the way, off to the side of one of the numerous shuttle platforms perched on the inner edge of the primary docking bay of Starbase 72.  Both the aft starboard and aft port sides of the Pine Flat were stenciled with the registry number NCC-75574, indicating it belonged to the modest compliment of support craft assigned to the USS Fresno.

Two officers were seated at the head of the craft.  Both of their uniforms bore the colors of Operations red, same as Michael’s.  A young, dark skinned human sat in the pilot’s seat, her long black hair tied back in a ponytail.  The pips on her collar indicated the rank of a Junior Grade Lieutenant.  Opposite of her sat a teal skinned Andorian.  She wore her hair cascading freely down to frame her face, its striking blue color an interesting deviation from the typical white hue one would expect.  The three solid pips visible on her collar told him that this was his First Officer, Commander Thalissa Zheen.  He could recall this name from the roster, at least.

As Micheal reached out to tap the panel that closed the rear hatchway, the door that doubled as a rampway gave off a soft hum that caught the attention of the two in the middle of their brief preflight checks.  Both heads turned to rest their gaze on the newcomer.  Michael gave a wry smirk.  “Well, looks like I’m the one who’s fashionably late to the party.  We all set, then?”

Michael’s XO offered an almost Vulcan-like raised brow at her Captain’s seeming lack of formal introductory platitudes.  The pilot just grinned back, finding herself beginning to mutter something amusedly before swallowing down the impulse.  She still received an icy stare from the Andorian seated next to her that seemed to be dredged up from the tundras of Andoria its self.  “Care to share that comment, Lieutenant…”

“Rix…  Lena – um, that is, Lieutenant Lenara Rix, sir.  Ma’am…”

Ah, so now Michael was matching that face to a name on his roster.  He should have done better to recognize it.  Although still somewhat junior in rank, this was his lead helmsman and pilot.  Naturally she would be the one to bring the shuttle over to pick up the good Captain and his First Officer.  Michael recalled from reading her file that she was working on her professionalism and showing promise.  That promise had even gotten her bumped up from ensign in order to encourage her to keep up the progress she had made just before her prior Captain had departed the ship.  Michael had gone further and selected her as his lead helmsman and pilot because he had also read she was pretty handy with a wrench, so to speak.  And due to the parameters of their assignment, he wanted everyone in key positions to have some intuitive Engineering experiences to fall back on even if that wasn’t the main focus of their role.  He concealed a pang of sympathy as her fumbling response only received a more narrowing gaze from his First Officer.  When it was apparent that further elaboration would not be forthcoming, Commander Zheen turned a questioning look to her Captain.  Michael just shrugged and grinned, gesturing casually back at her.  He was curious to see how she would handle this.

“Well let’s have it then, Miss Rix.  You were saying?”  The Andorian’s tone turned less frosty, more neutral once she could see that Michael was not going to match her intensity.  He quietly cringed at this, too.  Michael wasn’t looking to undermine his XO and he sincerely hoped that wasn’t going to be her first impression of him, he was just merely choosing to hang back and appraise the both of them.  Her intensity was supposed to compliment Michael’s more relaxed nature, which is why she had been assigned to him.  The criticism that Michael received in his command style before they had given him this commission was that while he demonstrated good leadership qualities as the First Officer of his previous posting, he wasn’t one of the boys down in the Engineering bay any longer.  The comment had stung somewhat, and he also knew that the real reason he had received this command was because his superiors wanted a Captain who had also had thorough experience as an Engineer.  They were going to give him the opportunity to grow into this role.  If the ship’s mission had been anything more than simply supportive and logistical tasks, he knew the offer would not have been extended.  He also knew that Commander Zheen had had a similar discussion regarding her leadership style, only hers was the polar opposite of his.  She had a firm hand developed over time as the Chief of Security in her last assignment.  But as her new role as XO was bridging the gap between the crew and its Captain, she needed to slightly soften that hand in order to be somewhat approachable.  It wasn’t lost on Michael that the intention was that they’d both rub off on each other.

“I apologize, sirs.  I suppose I was just thinking I was glad that our new Captain…”  The Lieutenant paused, clearly struggling with her efforts to phrase her sentiments in a respectful way.

“Isn’t such a god damned hard-ass, eh crewman?”  Michael finished the thought bluntly.  Might as well put an end to the awkward situation, he didn’t want anyone feeling uncomfortable.  He smirked as both of them gave him a wide stare.  “I’ll just work on that, then.  But don’t you think you can get away with murder, I have the Commander here to keep you all in line so that I can worry and fret over our assignment!  And I’ll be counting on it!”  There we go.  Insert stoic and firm Captain response.  He clapped them both on the shoulder before leaning forward to rest a hand on the backs of both seats, electing to remain standing behind them.  “Now let’s dust off this pad and check out my ship!  Give me a good pass at her before we get in, that’s the whole reason we’re not just beaming right over.”

He could sense the both of them relaxing a bit as they resumed tapping away at the consoles in front of them.  In a few seconds, they were lifting off and steering towards the center of Starbase 72’s vast open docking chamber.  It was his First Officer who spoke up next, as she turned to their pilot.  “You’ve served on the Fresno for the whole time since you left the Academy, didn’t you Lieutenant?”

The pilot nodded in confirmation as her fingers played along the console.  Her demeanor was more relaxed now that the ice was broken and the Commander’s casual conversational olive branch was extended.  Michael found himself nodding in approval of his First Officer’s pivot.  “That’s true, ma’am.  Started out clueless and doey-eyed, but I settled in and she’s home, now.” the Lieutenant was saying.

“What can you tell us about her?” Thalissa pressed on with her inquiry.

“Well,” Lenara replied, pausing to deftly dance them under an automated maintenance drone that had strayed a little close to their trajectory.  “I mean I could spoil the cheesy awestruck moment we’re supposed to be having with this flyby with a boring history lesson if you really want it.” she joked.

“Well, it’s less about the cheesy crap and more the practical reason of I just want to get a good look at whether I just inherited something that’s been beat to hell or not.” Michael quipped back with a smirk.  He liked this kid’s direct wit, she was going to make it hard on him to play the stern Captain.  “So yeah, regale us with the boring history lesson, if you would.”

“The Fresno is in top shape, sir.  I can assure you of that.”  This was said somewhat tersely.  Good.  She had pride in the ship she was flying, he could tell he’d lightly struck a nerve.  It implied to Michael she was at least serious where it counted.  “But to be honest, it’s not like our assignments have ever gotten us too far off the rails.  Do you know what she was named for, sir?”

“Sure,” Michael replied.  “All the Californias are supposed to be named after cities.  California was some territory on a 20th century Earth map.  So all the ships of our class are named after cities and towns that were in its borders.”

“Right.  It was called a state, part of a country that was made up of several united states.  I think that was even their name.  The United States.” Lenara explained.  Her knowledge impressed Michael.  There was definitely more to this girl than just impulse and whim.

“The USA.” Thalissa chimed in.  “I’ve read some of your world’s history.  Their flag was on a lot of your early spacecraft.  The USA, and some sort of NASA emblem.”  The Andorian awkwardly spelled out each letter as opposed to pronouncing the abbreviation phonetically.

“Oh, here it is, sir.” Lenara spoke up.  The Lieutenant pointed as they passed over an Excelsior-II class that had been obstructing their view.   As they rounded the bend of its saucer section, the Fresno came into sight.  The little ship sat all squat looking, a saucer that roughly resembled a Galaxy-class.  But two stout little pylons jutted down from the saucer instead of a drive section.  Those pylons supported the two nacelles of the ship.  A drive section and its deflector dish sat awkwardly between the nacelles, connected by further framework rather than be attached directly to the saucer as it was with just about every other class of starship.

“She’s in pretty good shape, considering her age.” Michael commented offhandedly.

“Well sure, sir.” Lenara continued.  “It’s not like we get a whole lot of action in these ships.  As I was saying, Fresno wasn’t just a city of California.  They provided the state and a lot of the surrounding states with agricultural goods.  Fresno was ‘the breadbasket of California’, as their motto went.  And so that’s why our ship was named so.  Because up until now, our method of supporting the Federation was to focus on colonies who needed agricultural support.”

Michael nodded.  “Yeah, now that she’s been given over to me I’m aware all of that equipment is being changed out here at the starbase for stuff that meets more heavy engineering needs.  But a lot of Fresno’s agricultural work was more than just horticultural, it was helping remote colonies fix and deal with malfunctioning agriculture equipment.  Since we need more engineering ships than we currently have after that whole Underspace debacle, and there’s been newer classes of ships out there now to take on the agriculture needs of the Federation, this is an easy and sensible conversion.”

Thalissa nodded in confirmation of both of their commentaries.  “Well, it doesn’t seem like our own mission profile is going to put us in harm’s way very much, either.”

“I would hope not.” Michael agreed.  “I’ll be fine if our only peril is whether or not we can figure out how or why something’s stopped ticking.  I’ve seen enough, she looks pretty good.  Take us in.  I’m ready to get settled in.”