[Cast No Shadow]

Lieutenant’s Dani Eales and James Amutu were already at their stations. They had exchanged glances but mostly only said a very brief “hello”.
The bridge was fairly big. The turbo lift was positioned in the middle of Dani’s post and James’s post. If facing the viewscreen, to the left would be James’s station, following that around the wall were more consoles and screens, the same applied for Dani’s side. After these consoles and computers, on James’s side, was the Captain’s ready room.
On Dani’s side after the screens, was the operations room for the senior staff to gather for mission briefing. After the briefing room were more monitors as the same for the other side of the bridge with the Captain’s ready room.
In the middle, were three comfortable seats. In the middle was the captains, to his right was his first in command and to the left would be the observer, but he didn’t have one on this crew. Each seat had 2 arm rests.
In front of this, would be the con officer’s area to pilot the ship with the viewscreen sitting before the con officer.
“Is this your first duty on a Starship then?” asked James.
“Yes, it is, a change from the anti-terrorist forces.” Responded Dani.
“That’s some background. It will take some degree of adapting I would imagine. How are you finding the switch?”
“Well, it’s more formal than what I was used to, but I guess I saw more of a future here than I did fighting terrorists.”
The doors of the turbolift hissed open. Captain Thomas tucker made his entrance. Dani or James just thought of him as another crew member, but looking closely at his pips, he was more than the average crew member, he was the Captain.
“Captain on the bridge.” James said as a smile grew on his face.
“Captain Thomas Tucker. You must be my operations officer, Lieutenant Amutu?” Thomas said as he shook his hand.
“That’s right, Captain.” James confirmed.
“Lieutenant Eales, again, it’s a pleasure. I’m sorry to cut this short, but I have a few things to organise in my ready room. Nevertheless, if you need something, just knock.”
“Yes, Sir.” Eales and Amutu responded.

The Captain’s ready room had been furnished just to his liking. As the door opened, he saw his desk with his computer all set up. To the right of the desk was a replicator and a few paintings. Although he would have liked a replicator directly behind his desk, he didn’t want to complain. To the far left of his desk, was a large space set with a large coffee table and four chairs surrounding it with a view out to space. It nicely blended in with the room’s décor. In fact, it was nicely rounded off with 3 steps to get to the coffee table. The set was pretty much on a small split level. Surrounding it, was glass.
Thomas sat in his chair behind his desk. He assumed this spot, the flag had been pinned down, it was his personal space. Sorting through the computer files, it had an up-to-date LCARS database complete with communication capabilities.

“Errr, yuck. The cream hasn’t been blended in property. It’s all stuck at the bottom of the cup. How specific do I need to be when presenting the replicator with a request for a cup of Italian coffee with cream? Am I that in-coherent?” those were the words of Ma’l Davis, perfectionist who wanted everything perfect. As he spoke, he scooped the cream out with a spoon. At least the replicators in the mess-hall of the ship provided decent cutlery.
Activity in the mess-hall was running rampant. People re-acquainting themselves with each other or just simply admiring the view through the window which ran from wall to wall.
“I guess it could be that, or you’re just expecting too much. Replicator’s aren’t magic you know. You should actually replicate the coffee and cream separately so you can blend it in yourself.” Responded Daniel Sheridan who was sitting on the other end of the table with a hot bowel of chicken soup.
“Oh come on, how long have these things been around for? Since the first Enterprise? By now you’d hope they have pretty well perfect.”
“Well the coffee itself smells ok. It has the aroma. I think the only fault here is that the replicator may not be familiar with your recipe.”
“Perhaps. So, you’re the engineer. Chief of engineering I should say. You certainly do have a burden of responsibility on your shoulders.”
“Well, after all these years of study, I’d hope to be somewhere with a certain responsibility. After all, I have support staff. I mean, as a con officer, you hold a great deal of responsibility too.” Proclaimed Daniel.
“I admit, I am nervous. But I’m sure those bugs will go away. I’ve been looking forward to this moment.”
“You have lots ahead of you. I mean, you’re a Bajoran who is an ex-terrorist against the Cardassian forces. You fought battles and I’m sure the renegade is still in your blood. With that, fitting in is going to be a challenge also. But I’ll be more than glad to assist there.”
“I fought the Cardassians because I looked good and hard for what they stood for. It made me angry what they were doing to my people. I was only standing up for my rights, something I believe in, if people don’t trust me because of my background and can’t see the reasons for it, then I pity their blindness.”
“I never made you out to be some dumb, common terrorist.”
“Well, you did call me a renegade.”
“Renegade isn’t necessarily derogatory.”
“Look, I don’t mean to slaughter the conversation, but, can we talk about something else. There are things I regret doing and I’m not ready to re-visit them as of yet.”
“It’s alright, I wasn’t going to get personal. But aside from all the duties, how did you find it farewelling family and friends?”
“Well, friends aren’t a problem, sure, we’re close but they’re not always going to be there for you. As for family, well, my older folks aren’t here for obvious reasons, and I’ve been in two relationships, no need to retrace the past there. Yourself?”
“Well, relationship wise, I’m single. But as for family, that’s pretty big. They all had a farewell party in honour of my departure. I’m going to miss them.”
“You’ll miss them? That’s good. It shows a real appreciation to family. No matter what, family are the most important above everything.”
“Good morning, this is Captain Tucker to all crew, could you please forward to your stations, we are set to take off shortly, thank-you.” The message relayed over the intercom system. It was time for the curtain to open on this drama.

The bridge had now filled with crew operating their stations. Even the consoles along the walls were being occupied. Ensign Davis took his seat at the con. Commander Beckanim looked around the bridge, ready more than ever for the mission. The Captain’s ready room door hissed open. He stood in front of his chair on the bridge.
“Captain on the bridge” Commander Beckanim said as the crew stood to his attention.
“Thank-you number one. Well good morning to you all. This voyage marks the beginning of many things to come. As a new crew on a new ship, we are set to cross a new threshold in search of the USS Voyager. Just as I am, I hope you’re all honoured to be taking this mission and most of all, to be a crew of the USS Supernova. Starfleet is satisfied with this fine crew and so am I. It goes without saying, when I meet Captain Janeway for the first time, she will be pleased with our efforts also. So without further delay, let the odyssey begin. Ensign Davis, when you’re ready, take us out slowly and set course for the Exata Wormhole.” This brave, patriotic speech delivered by the Captain followed by a thunderous clapping. The crew returned to their stations, Ensign Davis took at seat.
Ma’l started tapping his console, setting destination and speed. The thought of travelling through Romulan space sent a shiver up his spine, as it did for the other crew members. At Ma’l’s fingertips, the Akira class ship slowly disconnected itself from the docking ring of Deep Space Nine drifting away.
“Captain, we’re at a considerable distance from Deep Space Nine. Course layed in, Sir.” Reported Ensign Davis.
“Set speed for warp 5.2. Engage.” Executed the Captain as he sat down.
A few more taps of the console by Ensign Davis and the ship was away.

Engineering had a busy morning needed to prepare the ship for what was to be ahead. Lieutenant Sheridan fussed around the floor of engineering, checking up on things. Climbing up the scaffolding staircase surrounding the warp core, he checked that power was being regulated throughout the ship, tapping consoles here and there.
“Sir, I was wondering, I’ve needed to replace a coupling on one of the consoles below, the thing is, it could just blow again, the one that blew looks very new.” Said one of his engineering officers.
“I recommend you check the power allocation. It could be overloading, Ensign.” Suggested Lieutenant Sheridan.
“Understood, Sir,” said the Ensign.
Daniel climbed to the top of the scaffolding overlooking the entire work force of engineers. He was like the king of the throne. He was a proud engineer. What threw him off though was a few crew members wheeling containers of weapons to stations. There were a few weapons, almost like they were preparing for a war. But they were order that the Captain made Daniel aware of, so he couldn’t complain. A few things worried him about this. Firstly, just how dangerous wast he mission going to get? Maybe the Captain was very protective of his crew. Secondly, the last thing Daniel wanted to deal with was a few loose triggers in his staff.

Captains Log: Well I’ve met with some of the senior officers whilst on board and I’m confident that this crew has a future. I still worry about the irrational decisions Lieutenant Eales might make in the heat of fire, but for now I’m just going to throw all caution to the wind.
Currently, we’re heading for Romulan Space on the co-ordinants that Starfleet gave us. The part we’re entering is very out of the way and very low-key. We can’t be too careful though, we should prepare for anything, I have security teams working around the clock for any unforseen consequences that lye ahead. End log.

The padd on Thomas’s desk was filled from border to border with information of the territory of space that him and his crew were venturing into. Apparently, there is very little activity there, along the way, they shouldn’t encounter any star systems, it’s a dead zone.
The chimes of the door rang.
”Come in.” Thomas prompted.
Lucy Beckanim, his first officer walked in and took a seat.
“Captain, do we have time to talk?” asked Lucy.
“Yes, what seems to be on your mind?”
“Well, it’s just…I’m still feeling uncomfortable about this mission. I just sense that the closer we get to Romulan space, the closer we’re bound for disaster.”
“Lucy, I know this mission is hard, but, you’ll need to hold up. You’re on the same ship as everyone else. But I’m here for when you want to talk.”
“Thank-you, Captain. Maybe it’s just my sheltered upbringing. I never was exposed to any harmful, I didn’t have any fears. Now that I’m out in the wilderness, I can’t help it feel alone. I feel cold, lonely.”
“Lucy, like I said, we’re in this together, we need to help on another.”
“Ensign Davis to Captain Tucker.” Said Ma’l in Thomas’s communicator.
“Yes, Ensign?”
“We’ve arrived in Romulan space.”
“Proceed, Ensign, I’m coming out.”
A shiver just ran up Lucy’s spine. Was this the beginning of the end? The time had come to find out.

Thomas made his appearance on the bridge. “Report”.
“I’m detecting a few ships in the area, but they haven’t found us yet, not one of them are closing in on our position.” Reported Dani.