September 23, 2407
0930 hours
U.S.S. Dragonfly, Main Bridge
Utopia Planetia Shipyards
Mars, Sector 001
Captain Seth walked onto the bridge of the Dragonfly for the very first time. Admiral Roth was already there, in full dress uniform. The bridge was incredible. His first impressions left him with few words to describe it: dark, sleek, Imperial. The design harkened back to the days of the Enterprise-D where a large wooden arc stood in the middle, where it encircled three command chairs. In the center stood the captain’s chair, the highest of the three, where a bright light poured down and gave the chair an Imperialistic feel, or at least, a highly exaggerated sense of importance.
The two helm controls were literally pits in the ground: two egg-shaped holes in the ground, one on each side but both at the front of the bridge, each equipped with a console and chair. To use the controls, the helms officers literally had to jump into the chairs that stood inside the pit. The main viewer was huge. It wasn’t huge in the vertical sense, but it was in the horizontal sense. That was mainly because it consisted essentially of three screens, put side-by-side. The two side-screens folded in slightly, creating a general curvature to the whole viewer. The wider view was put in place to take advantage of everyone’s peripheral vision, which was very sensitive to movement. This allowed for faster reaction times when something unusual was happening outside the center of focus, which was usually the front. Whether that was the case or not, the wider screen just helped to really open up the view into space, which no one objected to. After all, the only thing better than one big screen, was three of them.
People started pouring onto the bridge. Among them were Starfleet officers, news reporters, Federation politicians. Captain Seth just wasn’t used to so much attention at one time. There were so many varied people now that Seth couldn’t tell if his own senior officers were among the audience or not. As he walked around the new bridge, a forward young girl of Brazilian descent in full uniform came up to him to introduce herself. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-two or twenty-three years of age.
“Captain, I wanted to be the first to welcome you to the Dragonfly. I am Ensign Ester Buiate. I’m your new helms officer.”
“Pleasure, I’m Captain Darren Seth,” he said, while shaking her hand. “It’s good to finally be here.”
“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be here and to serve under your command,” she said with charming, youthful enthusiasm. Her smile was girlish and flirtatious, which Seth immediately liked.
“I hear the navigations system for this ship has been completely reconfigured from standard design,” Seth said. “I hope you know how to fly this thing.”
“Absolutely,” she said. “The new system was part of my latest training at the Academy last semester.”
“You just graduated?”
“Yes, sir. This is my very first assignment.”
“You must have impressed Admiral Roth to be assigned to this ship.”
“I’d like to think so. Then again, the more experienced helm officers probably wouldn’t even know where to press the gas pedal on this ship anyway.”
“Confident, too. You know how to leave the dock on my order without scratching the paint?”
“Just say the words,” she replied.
The Admiral began walking to the center of the bridge, just in front of the main viewer to begin his speech.
“Ahem…May I have everyone’s attention, please? I’d like to make a few remarks before we send Captain Seth on his way. Today marks a momentous day for the Federation. It marks the end of fear, and the beginning of a new era of exploration. For too long following the great war we have cowered in fear. We have retracted our borders, we have cut resources towards our fleets, and have allowed enrollment of our young into Starfleet to dwindle. We have allowed public confidence in our great Federation to wane. This only puts us in more danger in the face of our enemies. No longer. Today, we re-discover the reason for being out here in the first place: to explore space. To learn and discover new life, so that we may learn more about our life here on Earth. With the launch of the U.S.S. Dragonfly, now the most advanced ship in the Federation fleet, we will again begin to test our mettle against the threats of the universe. The Dragonfly will be the first of many new ships in our mighty fleet, including those that will carry on the names of our most beloved and accomplished ships. And with each successful mission that is carried out by the Dragonfly and her crew, we will be closer to restoring faith into our mighty Federation.” He turned to Captain Seth, “So don’t blow up the ship on your first day, Captain. Understood?” A chuckle rippled through the audience at his comment.
“No promises, sir…” Seth returned.
“All hands, attention to orders. From Starfleet Headquarters, Office of the Admiralty, to Captain Darren Seth: You are heretofore requested and required to command the Federation starship, U.S.S. Dragonfly, signed Admiral Ethan T. Roth, Stardate: 63844.8.” Darren Seth gave a nod of approval. “Computer, transfer all command codes to Captain Darren Seth.”
“Transfer of command codes complete,” the computer responded.
“I relieve you, sir.”
“I stand relieved.”
There was only one more thing for the captain to do. “Helm” he said, looking directly to Ensign Ester as she sat eagerly at the controls, “Take us out.”
An applause rippled through the entire bridge as the Dragonflygracefully left the spacedock. It felt very smooth; not a single bump or rumble. It was a good feeling for Seth to get so much attention, but he was a little uncomfortable with all of the publicity. He got swept away shaking hands with reporters, officers, admirals, and weird civilians that Seth was unsure of what exactly they were doing aboard his ship.
Admiral Roth came up to congratulate Seth in person. “She’s all yours, Captain,” he said warmly. “You’ve earned it.”
“Thank you, Admiral. That was quite a speech. Better than I would have made.”
The Admiral laughed. “I’ll be sure to tell that to my ghost writer, but thank you, anyway. Go ahead, look around. Take the time to get to know your ship.”
“I will, she looks…incredible. Will you be staying for a while?”
“No, I have duties to attend to back on Earth. I’ll be heading back to the U.S.S. Rhino shortly, after we’ve made our way around Jupiter.”
“Are you sure? Once we leave Sector 001 we won’t be back for many months.”
“It’s alright, really. It’s yours now. Once we’re all off the ship, feel free to take her around. After a little shakedown time, you’ll soon be receiving your orders for your first mission from Admiral Kim.”
“Very well then, Admiral,” he said. Seth shook his hand once more. “I look forward to it.”
“Good luck, son….”
In that moment, Seth had realized what the Admiral had really been wishing him luck for; as the Admiral turned, Seth could see a swarm of reporters moving towards him. Seth backed away cautiously, but they were moving in very fast.
“Captain Seth, how does it feel to be the first to command a completely new Federation ship in nearly ten years?” one asked.
“How do you respond to calls from captains and admirals that you are too young for the job?” asked another.
“How do you respond to accusations that your actions as first officer on the Chicago at the last diplomatic conference caused the collapse of the–”
“Uh…look, one question at a time…” Seth hated the press. He immediately became overwhelmed by the legion of reporters, and turned to the Admiral for a little help. But like a whisper, he had already disappeared from the bridge.
***
The Dragonfly had finished a quick trip around Jupiter and back and most of the reporters and guests had left the ship. All of the commotion of launching the new ship was now gone, and he felt free to finally get settled into his new ship. The first room he explored was his new Ready Room, which was likely going to be the captain’s second home. It wasn’t particularly large, but it was very comfortable. It had plenty of room to put in those model starships that all of the captains seem to do, that is, starships that the captains used to serve on. But unlike most captains, Seth only had one ship to display. He took out the one model of the Chicago and placed it on the counter. It looked a little lonely all by itself, but it would suffice.
The captain sat at the chair of his desk, both of which seemingly floated in mid-air. “Green tea,” the captain muttered, “hot.” A light on the desk lit up, and the cup and tea materialized in front of him. But it wasn’t necessarily the fancy light show like in the old days. It looked more like the cup and tea ‘grew’ from the desk. Darren always wondered what would have happened if he stuck his fingered in the middle of the cup while it was being replicated.
Darren sipped his tea silently. Not quite the strong matcha flavor that he had grown used to on Earth, but it was flavorful enough and it soothed his nerves. It was a perfect alternative to coffee in the afternoon, but today, he drank it because it simply helped him to feel at ease. He decided that it was time to make himself at home.
Darren Seth was born in a small town in California, near San Diego. He was the son of a very famous and ‘wealthy’ man who worked in intergalactic trade. He could remember that he would almost never see his father, who was a famous workaholic, spending sixteen or seventeen hours, seven days a week at work. His father frequently traveled, particularly to Ferenginar, which was still the center of the Alpha Quadrant for trade. At thirteen years old, Darren decided that he simply couldn’t stomach his father’s way of life, and saw little purpose in what he was doing. He packed his bags and moved to Tokyo, of all places. But the truth was he just wanted to get as far away from his father as he could, short of leaving Earth. His father in fact had been too busy to even notice that his own son had fled the country, which was actually perfectly fine with Darren. The less contact that he had with his father, the better, as far as he was concerned.
It was during his time in Tokyo that he developed a different taste for life, and not just by changing from drinking coffee to green tea. Rumor had it that he may in fact have been part of the underground crime syndicates, but it was a history that Seth rarely spoke of nowadays.
On Earth, or Paradise as some call it, all of one’s basic needs are taken care of: food, water, shelter, medicine, education, among other needs. But for Seth, it was not enough for him to just “get by.” He felt the need for more. Following his high school graduation in Tokyo, Seth decided that he wanted to enroll in Starfleet. He had moved from small town to big city, and he was ready to tackle space. He moved to San Francisco, and over the next several years, studied with machine-like relentlessness to pursue his goal of commanding his own starship. He wanted to be the youngest captain in Starfleet.
Seth finished his tea, and put down the cup back on the replicator on his desk. The computer sensed that it was empty, and immediately disintegrated it, which looked like it cracked into smaller and smaller pieces until it disappeared. Seth decided that it was time to explore the rest of the ship: sickbay, engineering, Ten Forward, and even his own quarters. It would take him essentially the whole day to see them all. And then there was his senior staff that he had to meet. How come none of them were on the bridge?
Seth left his Ready Room, and proceeded towards the turbolift. But before he even reached it, he could already hear a beeping sound coming from one of the computer panels.
“Captain Seth,” Ensign Ester said aloud, “there’s a ship approaching us, sir. Off the starboard bow.”
“Oh? What kind of ship? Federation?” he said, moving closer towards the main viewer.
“Yes, sir. It looks like someone’s here to give us a send off.”
“Who is it?”
“It’s… the Excelsior.”
