Eric exited the turbolift and had to think for a second, as this was new to him, instead of coming out on the bridge as usual on most ships this time he came out in the hallway that although short ran across the width of Deck one. “This is different.” as he looked at his PADD and got directions to his quarters. “Way different, quarters on Deck one. Going to be some weird intricacies to get used to on a ship the size of a Rhode Island.” as he made his way to his quarters.

“Computer, lights” as he stepped through the door and found a small but quaint room with a small living area, a bedroom to one side with his own bathroom attached, and an extra door to what he supposed was into his ready room. ”Nice, not as big as what I had on the Osiris but it will do.” He puts his duffel on the couch and exits the room. “Let’s see what else we have shall we” as he looked at the PADD. Going through the other door in the living room area put him into a small office space with a desk and a small sitting area. “Nice” Seeing the other door he stopped for a second and took a deep breath, knowing that on the other side waited his first command.

“Stepping through he found the lights to be dimmed and two people huddled around one of the large wall display consoles. Recognizing his new executive officer he walked over to see what was going on. As he approached, he could tell that the other person was a female of moderately decent height and build with what he supposed would be long hair, now pulled up into a tight bun.

“Everything ok, Austin?”

“Oh, hello Eric.” as he took his arm from around the seated female. “I was just showing the ensign a few things about the ship.”

“Ok, is she part of the ship’s crew?” as Eric offered his hand.

“Well sir, that’s what I” as he looked at her “Well, we wanted to talk to you about. You see… ummmm”

The Ensign accepted the handshake as Eric could not help but notice the earring, as most Bajorans in Starfleet did not wear theirs as a rule; he also could not miss the rock on her finger. “Oh, that wasn’t in your records Austin.”

She looked at Austin with a smirk.

“Ensign Tizor Cardawe, captain. Nice to meet you.”

“What this big oaf was trying to say was that we were waiting to talk to you when the time was appropriate.” she hands Eric her PADD “I well we would like to ask if you would consider me?”

“Eric accepted the PADD and went towards the center seat, looking at it he shook his head and stood instead. “Hmmmm, nice recommendations. Top five percent of your class at the academy. Doctorate in stellar cartography with additional bachelor degree in cultural studies. “He looked up at the two of them. “Explains the rank”

“Yes sir.”

“Eric looked at the officer in science blue in front of him. “Hmmmm, I am willing to take a chance here. I don’t have a science chief yet, and usually one of your rank would not be in consideration for the slot.”

She looked at Austin with a shrug.

“But I cannot overlook your education, now can I.  I am willing to take a chance if you are ensign. Be aware there will be others that work under you that technically out rank you and probably have far more experience than you have. However, I hate interviews and you were brave enough to take the first leap. Granted it was just to be part of the crew but I think this may work. Moreover, with this ships mission and the mission of the squadron “he looked over at Austin “I’m going to need to think and act outside the box and I’ll need officers around me that aren’t afraid to take a leap when others wouldn’t.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll do my best sir.”

“That’s all I ask ensign. We are not a very big ship, you two will have to figure it out. But I’m ok if you wanted to share the exec’s quarters.”

The two officers look at each other with smiles on their faces. “We will make it work, captain.”

“Good, now that we have that out of the way and I have two of my staff here. Let’s get this next part out of the way, shall we?”

“Captain?”

Eric looked around the bridge. “Got to make that title official.” as he picked up his PADD and held it flat in one hand placing his other hand on top of it.

To: Lieutenant Eric Mathisson

You are hereby requested to take command of the Federation vessel USS Aztec, NCC-75480 as of star date 240104.02.

Signed: Captain Kr’Antren, commander, Dragon Squadron

“Computer. I, Lieutenant Eric Mathisson assume all duties and responsibilities inherent in the role of Captain of the USS Aztec, NCC – 75480. Authentication code Mathisson- Zulu- Zulu- Yankee-six-six-four-one”

“Authentication code verified, welcome aboard, captain.”

“Computer, Mark Lieutenant Austin Rockholdt as Executive Officer, USS Aztec, NCC-75480, with all rights and privileges inherent with that position.”

“So Austin, how about showing us around the ship, plus it will give the ensign here a chance to get used to her new digs.”

“Sure, might as well start on deck one? Only eight decks so this shouldn’t take too long.”

“Nice little ship if a say so myself. Has everything a crew will need or want.” as the three of them made their way back up to deck one.

“That it does sir, we all kept to the bunk rooms during the shakedown cruise, felt wrong to use the rooms since we weren’t officially part of the crew. A bit tight in those bunks but not bad.”

“Better than those old bunk hallways the older ships used to have.”

“Yes, sir”

“And that stops now, Austin. This ship is too small for all that. With only a crew of 95 we will be working close to each other every day. So unless the situation calls for it. It’s either Eric or captain.”

“Works for me.”

“That goes for you to ensign, though in your case I think Captain will be a bit more politically correct.” he said with a smile.

“Yes, captain.”

“Good, now that we have that out of the way. We should start seeing crew reporting on board over the next 48 hours. Tizor I’m going to appoint you as the Deck officer till we get some more folks on board.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll go to the docking portal right now.”

Eric nodded. “I’ll send the updated crew list to you as I get it.”

Tizor nodded as she gave a quick hug to Austin as the two others exited the turbo lift on deck one.

——————————————————————————————————————

“Ladies and gentlemen, our first mission is twofold. The first is to rendezvous with the Dragon in the Suelaiktnor system. The second is to conduct a system survey. The first part speaks for itself; the second will be briefed by Ensign Cardawe.” Eric said from his position at the head of the briefing room table. “First though a few notes on the ship. As you all know we are currently, about 90 present staffed. It was the best that the task force could do at this time with having to fill vacant slots on ships that lost crew members during the lost fleet operation.” he looked around the half-filled briefing room.

“Unfortunately this mean we are down several key positions, one we can easily fix.”

“Computer, activate the EMH.”

“They watch as a middle aged human male with brown hair and a bit of a rough beard appears in the room. “Please state the medical emergency.”

“No emergency doc, though we do have a situation that we hope you can rectify.”

The EMH looked around the briefing room.

“Everyone looks healthy to me. I see no signs of trauma or sickness.”

“Doc, check your crew records.”

The EMH blinked several times. “Oh, you do not have a chief medical officer on board.”

“Ding, ding… Give the doc a prize.” Austin said from beside Eric.

“So do you think you could fulfil the role if we adjusted your settings and parameters, you already have access to the entire ship and you do have a medical staff assigned. You would be the chief medical officer and counted as part of the senior staff. “

The EMH looked around the room and then back at the captain.” I would be ok with filling in until you find someone. “The EMH chuckled “I was going to say better qualified but with the entire federation medical repository up here” he pointed toward his head “I would think that would be a bit of a reach.”

“Welcome to the team then doc, have a seat.”

“So that leaves us with no tactical or security officer, which on a ship of this size would be one and the same person. I was thinking of having our operations officer play double duty. However the ones we were assigned are all junior or fresh out of the academy and our mission is going to dictate that someone with some experience fill the role. So what Austin and I came up with is that we will rotate some of the operations and security officers that we did get, through the role, to see if anyone displays the knowledge and the mettle to fill the seat.”

Eric looked around the table once again and then nodded toward Ensign Cardawe. ”You’re up, Ensign.”

“Yes, sir.” as she stood and approached the room’s view screen situated along the left wall.

“The Suelaiktnor system is an eclipsing binary system with four planets. We know that one of them is an M class. According to reports, the population on the planet is circa earth year 2100 and has not developed warp technology. However, the system sits inside of the Breen confederacies controlled region.”

“I’m guessing this means we have no way of knowing if the Breen have interfered in their development or not since the last time anyone surveyed the system, am i correct?” Austin asked as he looked at the view screen.

The ensign nodded as she pulled up a picture of the planet. “That is correct, which is one of the reasons why we have been tasked with this survey. The other being that if the population has not been interfered with would the planet be a candidate for an observation team. Some in the science community are interested in this one.”

“Hmmmm, so near the 22nd century technology wise. Chief, I see you asked the Task force about a Refractive shielding system, were you able to get through the red tape on that.”

Ruzguzee nodded “With Captain Kr’Antrens help we were able to procure they system and I have had the team focused on its installation for the past 36 hours. Most of it was plug and play, but we will need to test it out, maybe with the Dragons help, so we can work out all of the glitches. “

“So no going near the planet till after we meet up with the Dragon?”

“Yes, sir. In addition, we were able to procure the system for them. The captain felt that with our squadron mission profile that it might be good to have fitted on both ships.”

“That being said sir, our sensor suite should be able to get us all the information we would want from a distance.”

“Chief, will the shielding hold up under scrutiny from the planet if we were say at the other end of the system.”

“Yes, sir, we estimate it to be 85 percent efficient, getting it up to full efficiency would make us nearly invisible on sensors unless you were looking out the nearest window you probably wouldn’t see us.”

Eric nodded. “Anything else to add ensign?”

“No, sir. I’ll be sending out the briefing on the system after this meeting is finished.” as she retook her seat.