Starbase Bravo – Observation Deck – 15:30

James O’Shea stood on one of the many observation decks of the Starbase 4 looking out at the USS Mercy, an Olympic-class starship, that floated against the unending void of space. He shifted his shoulders and grunted in discomfort as he stood there feeling the heavy weight of the uniform on his shoulders. He knew it was all in his head just like the phantom tingling in his leg was all in his head. 

At the thought of his leg images flashed through his head; the firefight aboard the cargo hauler, shouts and screams, bodies of the crew and the pirates who attacked it, and searing pain in his leg. ‘At least I have a leg. Could have been worse,’ he thought. ‘That rehab facility was pretty fancy…’

Hoisting his large duffle onto his shoulder he sighed, “Time to go meet the outgoing security Chief.” he muttered as he turned and began to walk away but just as he was about to step onto the turbo lift he turned and gave the USS Mercy one last look.

‘Chief of Security on a Medical Frigate. This will either be a walk in the park or a disaster,’ he thought to himself before turning back and stepping onto the lift. “Guess it gives me time to settle in tonight before the briefing tomorrow.”

“Computer, Transporter Room,” he said aloud and the lift began to move through the station towards the nearest transporter room.

USS Mercy – Transporter Room – 16:10

O’Shea materialized on the pad and rapidly blinked to clear his eyes. He had found that doing so when the transport began gave cleared the bright light a fraction of a second sooner. Nothing to worry about here but one never knew what to expect on the other side of a beam-in.

In front of him, he saw a young ensign step forward, “Welcome aboard the USS Mercy, Lieutenant O’Shea. I’m Ensign Jake Blakely”

“Thank you, Ensign Blakely. It is a pleasure to be here and a good place to get my space legs, well leg, back ” he said with a laugh and subconsciously patted his right leg. Which caused the ensign to smile but he clearly didn’t get it.

“My orders are to report tomorrow but wanted to meet with Lieutenant Commander Caswell for a handoff as she is leaving tonight,” O’Shea said as he pulled out his PADD and double-checked his orders and associated information. “Get a feel for the old bird you know.” He nodded to the ensign and turned to leave. “I’ll see you around Ensign,” and walked out of the transporter room.

 USS Mercy – O’Shea’s Quarters – 16:30

O’Shea walked up to the quarters on deck 4 and checked the door panel and smiled when he saw it was locked.

=^=Quarters Sealed; Authorization required=^=

“Good, security systems seem to be in place….” He pulled out his PADD and flicked over his credentials to the door panel which turned green and flashed:

=^=Authorization accepted. Welcome Lieutenant O’Shea=^=

The door slide open and he stepped into his quarters and laughed. “I guess being Chief of Security has its perks,” he said as he looked around at the empty room save a desk, sofa and small table and a doorway leading to the bedroom. Stepping up to the sofa he dropped his duffle onto it and turned to leave. “Will sort this out later. Best go check in at the security office and Caswell to figure out who and what I have to work with.”

USS Mercy – Security Office – 16:40

After taking the turbolift almost to the bottom of the ship O’Shea walked into the security office on deck 28 and looked around. The room contained a semi-circular desk in the middle of the room and two other small workstations. Off to the right side was a small office and to the left was the security door to the brig. 

As he entered a woman stepped out of the office. “You must be my replacement, Lieutenant O’Shea, correct? I saw your picture on your file.”

O’Shea nodded and held out his hand. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Commander Caswell. I hope that I can fill your shoes and look after this ship like you have. I always wanted to thank you for responding to my request for an earlier meeting so I could get acquainted with the ship and any issues that I need to be aware of.”

Caswell smiled in response. “If you are anything like the individual your record illustrates then I do not think I need to worry besides it saved me from doing a full report as I need to ship out tonight myself. Please sit, there isn’t much to go over really; do you want a drink?” she said as she handed him a security PADD.

“No thanks. Had something right before I beamed over,” he said as he sat down. “So where do we begin?” he asked,  unlocking the tablet and pulling up the file display as the Lieutenant Commander sat down.

“At the top, I would think; hospital security and patient management. With the numbers of people this ship can get the procedures are slightly different.” Caswell said. “Best to review then and let you know what I have learned….”