The bridge of the Kelvin was quite, far more quite than George liked, but the serenity of the moment brought a smile to his face. His thoughts drifted to Winona and their approaching child. He had wanted to know the sex of the baby from the very beginning, but the woman was stubborn, with an iron will he had not yet learned to crack.
"Commander can you please take a look at these readings" an ensign requested, breaking George's train of thought.
"Of course Ensign" George replied as he bound across the bridge to the woman's science station "What have you got for me?"
"It's gone sir, for a moment I thought I had detected some kind of energy signature in engineering sub section four" She replied as her hands moved over the controls, "Right there" she pointed to a sine wave representing an unknown energy signature.
"Hum, cross reference it against the science database" George requested, intrigued.
The woman set to work and George watched as images scrolled across the monitor "No match" the Ensign finally replied "But it may just be a glitch on the sensors array"
George thought for a moment, he had received a request from Mr Bester, the chief engineer, a little earlier for help moving plasma couplings in that section, into storage. George had already sent a requisition to supply staff to move the crates, but decided he might as well kill two birds with one stone "Keep scanning the area, I'm heading down to that section, alert me if you get any more anomalies" he ordered.
"Yes sir" the ensign replied.
George quickly made his way to the Turbo lift and keyed in his destination. In a few short seconds he emerged from the Lift and made his way to the crates, they were much larger than he had anticipated. Looking around for help he saw what looked like a young ensign fumbling around the corridors "Ensign!" he called out "Can I get a little help here please"
George watched as the figure froze for a moment, then thought he saw the man clothing change color before it stepped into view. George looked upon the ruggedly handsome Ensign, the mans blue eyes mirrored his own. "How can I help you sir?" the man questioned standing to attention in front of George.
George smiled at the man "Relax ensign, no need to stand to attention" he replied, "I just need a little help moving some of these crates over to engineering section 4. I'd use the transporters but the Chief says they tend to depolarize the couplings"
The ensign nodded and immediately picked up a crate cause George to look at the man in shock "Son what the hell are you doing?" he shouted "Those things must way over four hundred pounds do you want to get injured" he finished as the Ensign dropped the crate causing the couplings to spill over the floor.
"Sorry sir, I didn't realize how heavy the crate would be" The ensign replied as he bent down to start collecting the dropped couplings.
George thought for a moment and finally decided it would be best to wait for the supply staff, he helped pick up the last of the couplings before turning his attention back to the ensign "Just be a little more careful in the future" he smiled "I'm going to assume you're fresh out of the academy, you don't want to be injured on your first tour" he laughed before reaching out a hand "I'm commander Kirk" he offered.
The ensign took George's hand and shook it firmly "Ensign Shepherd" the man replied with a smile.
"So Mr Shepherd, we'll just leave the crates here for the supply staff to take care of, in the mean time why don't we head up to the observatory and get something to drink?" he offered.
The man nodded in reply.
&
George took a seat by the huge observation window and pulled his glass of Jack and Coke towards him. It was almost 1700 hours, his shift, for the most part, being over for the day, it was time to relax. Shepherd had joined him and the pair sat in silence looking out at the vast horizon of the universe.
"So where are you from?" George enquired of the young man.
"Earth" the man replied simply.
George laughed "Oh come on you could be a little more detailed than that" he replied.
Shepherds forehead creased in thought for a moment before replying "I'm from California, small town called Sacramento" the ensign finally replied.
"Small town?" George questioned "Don't they have a population approaching 4 million now?"
Shepherd laughed "It's a small town, at least in my books, considering the population of most cities nowdays" he replied.
George raised an eyebrow "Well then, I guess you'd consider my home town a small village" he stated.
"You mean the entire state of Iowa?" The ensign smiled.
George shook his head at the Joke.
"Sorry Sir, I read the bio's on the command staff before my posting" the ensign explained "Congratulations by the way"
George raised an eyebrow "Congratulations" he echoed.
"Your wife Winona, she's pregnant with your first I believe?" Shepherd replied.
George smiled "Yes, and thank you"
"I'm sure he will turn out to be a fine addition to Starfleet" Shepherd commented.
He? George thought to himself wondering if this ensign had somehow figured out the sex of his future child. He then shook the comment off believing it was just a generic term used to describe his baby. But what if he was having a boy? A son to carry on his legacy, George smiled.
"Senior staff report to bridge immediately" an alert sounded.
George turned to Shepherd "I'll see you around Ensign" he smiled before leaving the observatory and heading for the Turbo Lift.
&
"What do we have?" George questioned as he strode onto the bridge.
"Destress call from Sigma 5, they are under attack by Klingons" an Ensign reported.
"We are on route at maximum warp" The Captain finished "But we're still sixteen hours away at maximum warp".
"Bridge to Engineering, can you get us anymore power?" George questioned over the com link.
"Aye captain, I can punch us to warp 6.5 but not much more without damaging the engines" Bester replied.
"Do it" the Captain ordered.
George turned to the Captain "Even at that speed we're still 7 hours away, the Klingons will be long gone by then" he announced as his attention was drawn away by ensign Shepherd entering the bridge and taking a seat at a science station.
"It will have to do, we can't go any faster" The captain replied, returning Georges attention to the situation at hand.
"Sir, someone is accessing primary deflector control, they appear to be re modulating the warp field!" a shocked helmsman announced.
"What!" George replied in shock.
"Lock them out, now!" the Captain ordered.
"I can't" the Helmsman replied "Sir, We've just jumped to warp 9.997 ETA to Sigma 5 in 37 seconds"
"How is that possible Mr Bester?" the Captain shouted over the com link.
"I don't know Captain, we've never broken the warp 7 barrier yet alone eight or nine" Bester responded.
"We'll figure this out later, right now we're about to deal with Klingons" George stated firmly as he took a seat at tactical control.
"Full power to shields and weapons" the Captain ordered as the ship catapulted out of warp.
"Single Klingon war bird, it's breaking off contact with the outpost and heading this way!" George shouted.
"Hailing frequencies" the Captain ordered.
"Negative captain they are refusing our hails" the communications officer announced.
"They are firing" George announced as the ship rocked from the impact.
"Return fire, disable their vessel!" The Captain shouted.
George nodded his head as he targeted the ship with the phaser banks. Deadly streams of red and blue energy struck the war ship destroying the vessels shields.
"Sir the Klingons have lost shields and weapons, they're making a suicide run at us!" he shouted as the tiny vessel barrelled towards the larger federation ship.
"take it out!" the captain Ordered.
Twin balls of torpedo fire lanced out obliterating the tiny ship, its wreckage bouncing harmlessly off the shields.
"Vessel destroyed" George announced.
"Status on the outpost?" The captain requested.
"Outpost shields are failing, major structural damage most of it is exposed to space sir!" Shepherd announced from his science station.
"Kirk, prepare an away team" The captain ordered.
"Aye sir" George replied and made his way to the rear of the bridge turning to Shepherd "Shepherd you're with me" he announced.
Shepherd stood up and followed George into the Turbo lift.
"Time for your first rescue mission" George smiled "I want you to head down to engineering get Bester and 3 engineers, I'll be heading to medical and will meet you in transporter room 2" he ordered.
"Yes sir" Shepherd replied as the Lift came to a halt before the medical bay where George stepped out.
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