Stopped at the docking port entrance, Kr’Antren took a deep breath, ears twitching in excitement? Or was it nervousness? Or a combination of the two. This was in truth his first real command with an actual crew that were now his responsibility. Sure the Rhyndacus was a command and was a lovely Starship but everyone in Star Fleet knew that the Raven class commands are meant as a test bed of sorts. 

“Wwweelllll, she ain’t going to do anything if you just stand there, lad. Come on get on with it. I for sure am not stepping on board before you.” Lt Skagath prods his new Captain in the back with his swagger stick, typically he would not do this but seeing as his new captain also happens to be his godson and no one else was around he did not see the harm in it.

“You know we are going to have to figure this out, old man. “ Kr’Antren turned and faced Skagath. 

“Kr’Antren, I know when and when not to. You will not have to worry about that in front of the crew. Well except for that slip a few minutes ago, but let’s chalk that up to tellarite sport and I’ll talk to the rest of the staff about our history and ask them for the one time slip.”

“Sounds ok with me, just make sure it doesn’t happen in front of the crew. I have a feeling after that introduction of yours that most of the staff are looking up our bios and will silently let it pass or even condone it as long as the situation warrants it. “

“Yes, sir.” Kr’Antrem knew that this was a genuine gesture from Skagath not a sarcastic response and nodded.

Kr’Antrem stepped through the docking ring and as he officially entered the Osiris’s threshold he heard the tall tale bosun’s whistle announcing the arrival of the ship’s captain. As the lights went from a low power dimmed mode to full brightness, revealing that the ship was decorated in light tans with similar earth tones as accents. 

“Well Lieutenant, shall we make our way to the bridge. Guess that’s as good a place as any to start. “

Lt. Skagath walks over to a panel on the right hand of the entrance way and taps it. The panel comes to life showing a layout of the ship. “Always good to know where you’re at, especially on a new ship. Don’t want to be walking into the wrong quarters at night.” Kr’Antren raises an eyebrow at this with a slight smile on his face.” Don’t ask sir, it’s not something I want to remember.” Skagath shudders at the memory.

“Looks like the turbo lift is two intersections ahead and to the right from this entrance.” Kr’Antren starts to walk in that direction, however Skagath stays in front of the panel tapping the wall beside it with his swagger stick. “Captain, here is your first lesson from an old Chief, how many crew do you have onboard?”

Kr’Antren stopped and gave him a questioning look. “According to the roster we will have 200 give or take a few.”

“Uh ha, and who is responsible for them?”

“I am”

“Correct, so first lesson. In case you forgot. Your crew and ship come first. Soooo.” Taps beside the panel again. “Since no one is onboard, yet. And this is deck 6, which seems to be the main living space for the crew.” Skagath raises an eyebrow

“I should look to see what the living spaces of my crew are like, which also means checking out the mess areas and a few other areas so I have an understanding of how my crew will be living.”

Skagath lets out a slight chuckle. “Had me worried there for a second, Captain thought I was going to have to thump that noggin of yours to get you thinking again.”

Together they look through one of the enlisted quarters. Noting that it is a shared central space holding a latrine and shower area with a small communal “living room” with a bedroom on each side holding a single bed and a small but adequately sized living space. “Nicer than what we had when I was enlisted. Not sure if you noticed Kr’Antren but the walls have slots discreetly hidden in them for additional beds to be added in case of emergencies. Looked to me like one extra bed per room. That will be good to note in case we need the room.”

“I noticed, hopefully we never need to use them though. Let’s go look at the main mess hall. I saw that there are two smaller ones, one located closer to engineering and one located two decks down in the main work areas.”

They completed a quick walkthrough of the main mess area, one of the smaller gyms on this level and one of the holosuites. 

Finding the main turbo lifts they entered one of them, Kr’Antren took a note of its location on the deck. “Bridge”

Upon entering the bridge, again hearing the bosun’s captain entering whistle emanated from the computer. One of the first things he noticed was that he was slightly higher and overlooking the main bridge area. Skagath whistled in a low tone, almost as if afraid to disturb the moment of a captain seeing his bridge for the first time, as they entered slightly behind Kr’Antren. Stood beside Kr’Antren and took it all in. From this position they could see a seated console to the left and right of them, four stations to the left and right at the bottom of slight ramps each consisting of a group of three and a separate single station. At the end of the two sides flanking the view screen was a circular alcove with two doors in each. The main area was sunken into the floor by a couple steps, the usual three chairs placed against the back half of the circular floor basically just below the two consoles they noticed when they entered. The other half of the circle was centered by the usual double console of the helm and ops combo but one noticeable difference from the norm was that besides these were another console on each side separated from the double console by a small set of steps.

“Well I know where I’m sitting.” As Skagath approached what usually is the Tactical chief console. Kr’Antren held up a hand. 

“On most ships you’re right. But not on the Osiris. Your going to be on that right hand console in the area below. I have found that I like to see who is talking to me without having to break my neck. One of those will be for your number 1 bridge tactical ops crew, the other will be an open console to be filled as warranted for what we have going on. “

Skagath looks at Kr’Antren smiles a big smile and a slight chuckle emanates from him. “More like your father than you realize lad, he had the same “problem”, said he didn’t like having people behind if they did not need to be there.” 

Kr’Antren nodded at this as it made perfect sense to him and how he felt about the same thing. Just something about having people behind you that heightened your senses and made you feel uneasy, especially if there wasn’t a reason for them to be there. 

Kr’Antren took a moment standing in front of the center chair, not quite wanting to sit in it just yet, He nodded as he accepted that this was actually his ship and it will hold his crew. Being in this spot made it all seem real finally.  

He took the three steps out of the center area and walked up the ramp on the left hand side. Entering the alcove at this end of the station and entering the door located it it he entered his new ready room, only this one was for him and him alone. Gone was the briefing table and everything that went with it, instead he entered what was a decent sized room that had a sloping wall directly in front of him with a corner couch under it and along the wall to his left, big enough for about three people to sit. On a small wall to his left was a small replicator built into the wall and around that corner he found a decently sized desk rounded to a curve slightly facing the couch. He did take a seat in this chair, noticed there was plenty of room and not feeling as scrunched in as he felt behind his desk on the Rhyndacus. 

He exited his ready room and reentered the bridge seeing Skagath sitting on the stairs in the central area. “Doesn’t feel right sitting in the seat yet. Your ready room I’m assuming?” As he nodded towards the alcove. 

“Yes, have you looked in the other doorways?” Pointing 

towards the other two alcoves. 

“I went into the one in that alcove” points at the one behind him to his right. “ closest to the stations, It led into a latrine. Which I was kind of happy to find.” Chuckles 

“Was waiting on you to look in the other ones. Though having been around a few ships, I’m going to guess that the other door leading behind those stations over there will lead into a small break room. Which means those other two doors should lead to a room behind the view screen which is typically set up as the command briefing room.”

Kr’Antren heads towards one of those doors, Skagath got up and followed him. Going through the door they entered into a room which as Skagath had guessed was indeed a briefing room situated with a panel on the back of the view screen wall and a table seating seven in the middle of the room with the “head” of the table facing that screen. Behind that chair is a sloping downward roof/wall, the window panels looked out on the saucer of the Osiris. On the wall of the room on the side they entered is a carved “half statue” of a Miranda class ship. Kr’Antren went and looked at this and realised that this must be the first ship of the name.  He looked around the room and then went and stood behind what would be his chair, took a second and then walked out the other door back onto the bridge. 

“Well Old man, I think I’m going to look around a bit and find my quarters, then go grab some of my stuff from the Rhyndacus and stay onboard tonight. You’re free to do what you want, the rest of the staff will be a day or two before they report onboard.” Kr’Antren walks over to one of the consoles and looks up where the captains quarters are located “hmmm looks like number one and I are on deck three. The rest of you are on deck 4.” 

Skagath scratched at his chin and beard “well I think I’m going to find and take a look at the security department area. That being part of my job and all, guess I should know where it is. Have a nice night lad, if you need anything just give me a yell.” Points at his combadge. 

“Will do, Lieutenant” gives a hint of a smirk toward Skagath. 

The next morning Kr’Antren woke a bit earlier than usual, went to a small gym on deck four he had found the night prior. Did his usual cardio routine followed by some weight training. Went back to his quarters, took a shower and prepped for the day. He then picked up his PADD that he placed on his coffee table the night prior and went up to the bridge.

Entering the bridge he was surprised to hear music, rather loud, filling the bridge area. Looking around he saw a rather tall Edosian in yellow, holding what looked like part of a console over the helm/flight control console area and another pair of legs sticking out from underneath. He realized that the two crew members had not heard the whistle and just as likely not noticed his entrance. He decided to take a seat in his center seat and waited. After sitting there for a few seconds something made the Edosian look up when he did he practically dropped the console he was holding up, luckily for the person underneath he had three arms or else the console probably would have ended up on someone’s head. Kr’Antren looked up from the PADD and raised an eyebrow. He watched as the Edosian LTJg said something to the person under the console, hard to hear just what was said due to the music being played. A few minutes later after having finished installing the console in its place another LTjg in yellow stood up, typed something on his PADD which was on the chair beside him. The music stopped as they both looked at each other.

“Ok gentlemen, who wants to explain just what you were doing to my ship?” Kr’Antren looked at his PADD again and had a good idea of who he was talking to.

“Sir, I’m LTJg Eric Mathisson and he is LTJg Darame. We had not been informed that a captain had been assigned to the Osiris. As far as we knew we were the only two assigned crew as of yesterday. “

“Go on.” He looked them both over 

“Well sir, when we brought her to DS47. We had discussed volunteering to be part of her crew over the trip, hen we docked and found that are requests had been granted Darame came to me with an issue, sir.”

Kr’Antren looked over at LT Darame “ Well sir it was an idea had about making the consoles layout work better for me but still not affect their use for anyone else. Being an Edosian I have trained my mind and body to be able to “split” itself. Meaning I can use a part of my brain to control each arm. Basically I can, if I needed to, due three things at once and not miss a beat, so to speak. So normally the consoles are one continuous screen or maybe two. I had asked LT Mathisson if we could basically split the one into three. “

“Hmmmm make sense for your use, but how about everyone else’s?” He gets up from the center chair and walks towards the helm console. He reaches down and activates it, noticing that for him you could not tell a difference in how the console is normally laid out. He then proceeded  to run through a few quick diagnostic checks moving things around as a helmsman would normally do. Looking at the two LT’s  he powers down the console. Than looks at Darame and motioned towards the console. Lt Darame powers up the console and goes through the same basic checks that Kr’Antren did, he then using his left arm changes the configuration of just that panel and opens up what would normally be used by the helm to plot navigation points and map out their course. He then uses that same panel to switch to a stellar cartography layout and starts to run a test on that also.After a few minutes the diagnostics complete and he powers down the console. He turns and looks at Kr’Antren and LT Mathisson. 

Kr’Antren nodded his head and retrieved his PADD from his seat. “Welcome aboard Ltjg Darame and LTjg Mathisson. I’m Lieutenant Commander Kr’Antren. I was given command when my crew and I reported last night.” Typed something on his PADD.”LT’s I’ve already reviewed your files and read through several recommendations entered on your behalves and I just now confirmed the recommendations made to me by command. Ltjg Darame you are now my Chief Flight Control Officer and LTjg Mathisson you are now my Chief Engineer. LTjg Mathisson please don’t make any more changes to my ship without checking with me or my Number one first.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Lt. Mathisson, I made a request last night to command while looking over the roster slots. After reading up and researching the Reliant class and noting that many of its systems are based off of systems built for the Sovereign class I asked for some of the incoming engineering crew to have experience with those systems, meaning you should get some folks that have been on sovereigns in the past. Which I hope will help fill any gaps in the knowledge and experience working on those systems.”

“I would have requested the same, sir. But till you just told me I was not sure of my actual position in the crew.”

“Also, those three stations.” Kr’Antren points at the three stations on the starboard side of the bridge.” are yours. As the crew reports over the next couple of days, figure out who you want filling them. “

“Yes, sir” 

“Lt Mathisson, first off. How do you want to be addressed. Name? Rank, or the proverbial Chief title that most Chief engineers seem to like.” 

“Sir, as you probably read in my files I’m a mustang officer so when you say Chief I’m thinking of a Chief petty officer. So if you don’t mind Eric will work for me in most circumstances and rank in when it’s necessary.”

Kr’Antren nods at this. “Makes sense to me, I’m ok with it Eric. Just so you are aware you’re not the only mustang officer on the command staff. Our Chief of Strategic Operations is also a mustang. He’ll be the tellarite running around waving a swagger stick.”

“I’ll come down to engineering later today, wouldn’t mind getting a briefing on the systems and if there are any requests that need to be made either for personnel or equipment you can pass them to me at that time.” Held up the PADD “ I have the usual briefing and schematics but I want to hear what my chief engineer thinks.”

“Gentlemen, I expect that we should start seeing crew reporting as early as today. The command staff and the rest of the crew from the Rhyndacus should be coming over in the next couple days as I gave them 48 hours shore leave, but I have a feeling some may cut it short to come look at our new command. Staff is quartered on deck 4. You’ll probably get your room assignments any moment from the system. If you want to trade, that’s between you and the rest of the staff. Just make sure it is annotated and updated on the computer. Are there any further questions for me?” 

“Good, please make sure everything is cleaned up.” Points at the console. 

“Yes captain, it’ll be good as new” chuckles” won’t know we were even here.” 

Kr’Antren heads towards his ready room while the two lieutenants finish up their work on the console