| Author | Message | ||
     Captain Jarod Bentall |
Bentall stood on a transporter PADD, having just beamed down to the surface of Reorsa. He should have been there three weeks ago but a massive failure of systems aboard Blackrazor had delayed his arrival. Blackrazor was repaired and off again under command of her new Captain and his ex-lover. Stepping of the padd he exited the transporter room and wandered down a empty corridor. He stopped and looked at a computer map on the wall and turned right and continued down another corridor until he reached a door. The door was labelled "Construction Offices - Project Athena". "Construction offices?" Bentall asked aloud to the empty corridor. "I'm a starship captain..." Sighing heavily he entered his newly aquired security code and stepped into his new office. Looking around he saw numerous computer consoles with varous personnel working away at them. He saw engineering, tactical and security, medical, marine and other command level officers walking back and forth talking to one another. All told there was about fifty people in the big office. Though to call it an office was a touch misleading. It was more of a hangar / warehouse then anything. The far end of the building was open to a huge flat outdoor space. Jarod was beginning to have an idea of what was going on. "Excuse me sir, but are you Captain Bentall?" came a female voice from behind him. Turning to face the voice Jarod looked into the face of a young Lieutenant. "I am. And you are?" "Lieutenant Jennifer Vercetti, Sir. I'm your new assistant sir." she replied, a touch nervous. "Alright Lieutenant. Take me to my office and tell me what I'm doing here." "Yes sir. This way please." Lieutenant Vercetti replied as she headed for the large opening at the back of the building. Many of the officer's looked at him as he went buy and nodded, some with looks of curiosity, others with looks of annoyance at the brief interupption of their passing. Jarod ignored them all as he followed the Lieutenant to his office. Once inside he sat down behind the desk and indicated that she should sit as well. Placing a number of PADD's on his desk before him she sat and waited for him to get comfortable. "Alright Lieutenant. I'll be honest with you, I don't know exactly why I am here. I'd rather be in the command chair of a ship, not overseeing what looks like a construction site of some sort. So I apologize for being blunt but get to the point. Any technical info will be on these PADD's which I'll read later."" The Lieutenant blinked in surprise at his no nonsense demeanor. "Yes Sir. Project Athena sir, is a construction site as you indicated. But it's for the construction of a ship. USS Athena, NCC-740104. She's been commishioned on orders from Starfleet back in the milky Way which is why she has a USS designation rather then a RSS like the other ships built here." She swalloed and then cleared her throat. "You, Captain Bentall, are to be her CO upon completion." Jarod sat back stunned at the last statement. Starship CO's rarely if ever got to oversee construction of their own ship. "Alright Lieutenant, you've got my attention. What class of ship and what is her overall mission going to be?" She smiled slightly. "Heavily modified Akira class sir. Primary mission will be exploration and scientific." Jarod blinked. Exploration and scientific usually did not go hand in hand with an Akira class. He voiced that concern to the Lieutenant. She nodded in agreement. "That is normally the case sir. But as we are in a largley unexplored galaxy, Starfleet felt it would be a good idea to modify a war ship into a mixture of both so she can handle herself if the need arises. The abnormally large launch bay will also be suited for launching two or more scientific missions at once in any given sector. Will speed up the exploration and mapping missions." She paused to take a breath and then continued. "If needed she can return to rejoin the fleet and serve as a fighter carrier as well." Jarod nodded unable to keep the grin off his face. "So all those people out there are working on her design then?" "Yes sir. We'll construct the basic fram down here and then launch her into orbit to complete construction. We figure it will take about 14 months once we get started in earnest." Jarod stood and moved to the large window in his ofice overlooking the planet bound construction yard. "Thank you Lieutenant. That will be all. I'm going to spend the rest of the day reviewing the technical specs and meeting the design team. Please arrange for a staff meeting for 0800 tomorrow. Dismissed." Lieutenant Vercetti rose. "Aye Captain. 0800 tomorrow then." Jarod didn't turn to watch her leave. He just kept looking out the window with a large and foolish grin on his face. |