It had been some weeks since Chief Bong’s arrival, and Culver City was well on her way to restoration.  In truth, she was nearly ready to return to service; her hull breaches had been patched, her plasma conduits repaired, and her ODN relays were humming with data.  Her crew was continuing to come aboard, albeit slowly; it was likely that she would launch with no more than half a crew aboard, but more than enough to run her.

Ensign Ophelia Lotharys made her way through the corridors on deck 4, PADD in hand as she went through the list of repairs to make sure everything had been completed; so far, all was in order, though some areas could still have stood some cosmetic repairs and a good coat of paint.

So far, so good, the young Trill thought.  A chirp from her combadge interrupted her.  “Bridge to Ensign Lotharys,” came a voice.

She tapped her badge.  “Lotharys here, go ahead.”

“We’re ready to do the final diagnostics and test startup on the warp core, ma’am” – she winced at being called ‘ma’am’ – “if you would come to the bridge?”

Lotharys nodded.  “On my way,” she replied, then closed the channel.  Varyn had wanted to be here for this, she thought.  I’ll have to tell him after he gets back from leave.

A short walk, followed by a short turbolift ride, found Lotharys stepping onto the bridge from the port-side turbolift shaft.  Culver City’s bridge was now fully-rebuilt, repainted, and even recarpeted in a simple-yet-classy yellow with blue and grey accents.  The center seat – just one, now, instead of the old three-seat command well – stood empty, as did the helm and tactical stations, but she found Chief Bong at Ops.

“Afternoon ma’am,” Chief Bong turned to face her as the Ensign arrived and stepped out onto the bridge. Bong had been manning the Ops console for this shift since they were so short on watchstanders.

“Hey Chief, nice work on that requisition list, thats all useful stuff that we can’t replicate.”

“Thanks, it was nothing problem, put it together after dinner last night.” The old veteran smiled and motioned his head towards the centre seat.

A midshipman who had the conn then informed Lotharys, from the Engineering station where she had been working, that they had recieved orders from Starfleet Command, ordering them to depart the next evening for final fitting out at SB 400.

“Hmmm, Captain doesn’t even arrive back for a few hours.” Lotharys looked over the padd the midshipman had passed to her.

She continued “What? They want us to leave 30 minutes after the last of our crew is due to arrive onboard?”

Bong started laughing “I’ve already begun the preparations Ensign…the next 30 hours is going to be pretty hectic…we should prepare a briefing for when the CO returns.” he switched back to professional mode after the brief chuckle.

Lotharys looked towards the center seat; hesitant to take the ‘Big Chair’ even in dock, she moved instead to sit at her Sciences station, starboard-side-aft of the center seat.  The bridge was only partly manned; aside from Lotharys, there was the midshipman at Engineering and a yard supervisor at the auxiliary station against the aft wall, and Bong at ops. But they had lots to do and little time.  She swiftly ran through her own checks, then pulled up the test feed before nodding back to the middle-aged Vulcan man at the aux station.  “Go ahead,” she said simply.

The yard supervisor tapped his combadge.  “Soton to Engineering.  Begin power-up sequence on my mark, and transfer ship’s power to the warp core.  Five…  Four…  Three…  Two…  One…  Mark.”

On her display, Lotharys watched as the engineering team – those aboard at the moment from the crew, supported by yard workers – began to bring the warp core online.  It took a short time to dial in the matter-antimatter intermix ratio – the initial ratio was a little too lean, and a nervous crewman accidentally over-corrected before it was swiftly fixed – and properly program it into the computer, but within five minutes the intermix chamber was stable and Culver City had full power available.  Lotharys released a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.  “Great work, Chief Soton,” she said, smiling to the supervisor.

Soton nodded.  “And to your acting senior officer; I was told he oversaw much of the work in engineering personally.”

Lotharys looked away for a moment, then back.  “He did.  I know he wanted to be here for this, but he’ll be happy that it went so well.”

Soton studied the readouts a moment longer, then tapped his combadge again.  “Soton.  The test is complete; shut down the warp core.”

Over the next few minutes, Culver City’s warp core cycled down, her power supply shifted back to the station’s grid.  Lotharys stepped away from her station and returned to her rounds, a spring in her step now with the successful test.  The warp core initialization test was the last major systems test Culver City required before pre-release yard inspection, which could now be scheduled; she made a quick note to Chief Bong, asking him to schedule the inspection for the following morning, before their departure for Starbase 400 for final fitting-out and shakedown.  That done, she made her way to her quarters for a much-needed night’s sleep.