Darion Stood staring at the bulkhead in front of him, after 3 long years at the academy he was finally about to set foot on his first deployment, well technically he was still at the academy, but he was being deployed as part of his final grading for the last year of his studies. He’d achieved the promotion to Cadet Sophomore grade something all cadets go through when they get to their final year. It was now his privilege to be based on Starbase Bravo as a Cadet trainee. Swallowing nervously, he looked around the confines of the runabout for a few more moments. All his belonging, little though they were being an actively serving Cadet in the Federation, had already been transported ahead of time while Darion and his fellow classmate attended the ranking ceremonies and received their respective orders.

 Darion smiled as he felt the runabout touchdown inside the Starbase hanger. Movement bustled from around him as various passengers prepared to depart and go through the arrivals process on Starbase Bravo, Darion was just one of many passengers that the station would have to process today, and only one of 5 new transfers to the station. It wasn’t surprising though. Starbase Bravo was a massive Guardian-class station and was in the Beta Quadrant supporting and coordinating the operations of the Fourth Fleet along the Romulan and Klingon borders. To boot the station had close to 100,000 population that would fluctuate daily with transfers, pass-throughs, and normal day-to-day traffic.

 The ramp hissed, snapping him out of these thoughts, as it began to open and fall away from the shuttle’s rear hull like a flower blooming Darion was hit with two new sensations hitting his senses. Firstly the air felt a little stale, not massively noticeable but detectable when stepping out of a sterile environment such as a ship with fully operating life support systems, and secondly, the light levels were a few lux lower than was normal. They had all received a status update from the Station’s operations team as part of their onboarding packs informing them that the Station was undergoing Routine upgrades to Bravo’s reactors that were ongoing for several weeks and that while the station has multiple reactors and many redundancies, It had been decided that the additional burden on the starbase’s power resources should be addressed and Operations solution was for a series of power prioritisation measures making non-essential systems routinely down-powered during the period.

 Apparently, Darion’s interpretation of non-essential and the operations department’s interpretation varied greatly on what non-essential covered. “All Passengers disembark, as you exit the hangar, please feel free to access the station’s computer should you need anything” the human female co-pilot announced with an air of finality that brooked no discussion or questioning. Darion didn’t blame her, it had been long enough of a flight for the passengers who didn’t have to be continuously alert for the duration. He too was shattered and could do with a comfortable bed.

 Stepping out he took a deep breath of the station’s air; he was already getting used to the faint staleness as it was barely detectable to him now. Darion was filled with a mixture of excitement and dread. He’d closed himself off somewhat to the feelings of others while on the flight as there was a Talaxian on board who did little to guard his emotions and Darion was finding it overwhelming. The Station shared that same unguarded raw emotion, but it was distributed over the entire station rather than concentrated in a single area. Taking a few deeper breaths, he calmed his mind. “Day one,” he said to himself as he headed towards the turbo lifts that would take him up to his new quarters. In the morning he’d introduce himself to the Ensign in charge of the Cadets and receive his orders going forwards. Today was the biggest step towards his career in Starfleet since he’d signed up to the Academy, and Darion was going to make it count.