Ensign Varyn K’lev stepped out of the boarding gantry onto the Culver City, duffel bag in hand.  Waiting on the other side of the airlock was Ensign Ophelia Lotharys, fidgeting a little nervously.  Varyn smiled when he saw his old friend, a smile that turned quizzical glance when he saw her new insignia.  “Hey, Ophelia – and congratulations, I see!  If I’d known you were being promoted, I would’ve stayed for the ceremony.”

Lotharys smiled in return, a finger brushing the solid pip in her collar.  “I didn’t even know myself… a senior chief assigned to us, for a while at least, surprised me with it,” she replied.

Varyn rested a hand on her shoulder, looking her in the eyes.  “You deserve it, ‘Lia,” he said gently, using a shortened form of her name that he had first used during some of their study sessions at the Academy, a form that had become a more private thing between the two friends.

She nodded.  “Thanks, Var,” she leaned into him briefly, the two sharing a moment, then straightened as the duo began to walk.  “So, how was leave?”

Varyn chuckled.  “It was something, I’ll say that much.  Bunch of senior officers, weird watermelon-like plants, a Klingon obstacle course, and a ton of bloodwine…” he shook his head ruefully, “a lot, but it was a good time.”  He looked around at the Culver City’s corridors, far more repaired than when last he saw her.  “How’d things go here?  The ship looks a lot better than she did…”

Ophelia nodded.  “It was busy, but we got almost everything done.  Even the warp core initialization test,” she finished with a sideways glance, knowing he’d wanted to be present for that test.

Varyn winced, though his eyes indicated that he was not mad.  “Aw man, I missed that?”  He sighed, shaking his head.  “Did it go well, at least?”

“It did,” Ophelia replied.  “There were a couple of hiccups while calibrating the intermix ratios, but that was it, and they’ve been solved.”

“That’s good,” Varyn smiled with relief.  “But enough about that, did you get to take leave?  Let’s have some stories!”

The two young officers made their way on through the ship, swapping stories and laughing as they went.  Varyn first went towards the wrong cabin; with the ship more populated than it had been, his belongings had been moved from the room he’d left them in, as that room had been assigned.  However, Ophelia quickly set him straight, and the duo found themselves outside his new cabin.

Varyn invited her in, so they could keep talking while he unpacked and changed; a short time later, they emerged, the young Orion now wearing his uniform instead of casual attire.  The conversation carried them to the turbolift, and from there to the conference room; Ophelia – now Ensign Lotharys, as they were at work – had mentioned a staff briefing, slated to start imminently.

((Culver City – Conference Room))

And there they were, the senior staff of the Culver City.  Bong couldn’t help but sigh and just shrugged his shoulders.  Apparently Starfleet was this understaffed. It was a smattering of ensigns and  midshipmen, and Bong was about to inform the CO of his promotion to full Lt when he and Lotharys arrived.

Lotharys had asked Bong to ‘give’ the new Captain his promotion.  She thought it would be appropriate because in fact, it was an old communique, and had been made official already, so it didn’t matter who told him.  She also wanted to see the look on K’lev’s face when one of his former Academy instructors pinned the pips on him in front of his new senior staff.

Lotharys and K’lev walked into the room casually, mid conversation, both smiling. K’lev stopped in his tracks when he saw Bong.

“Welcome back sir…or should I say, Welcome back Captain K’lev.”  Bong smiled and took a few steps forward and handed him a PADD with the old communique about his promotion to full Lt on it.  He also reached in his pocket and pulled out a pip and handed it to K’lev.

“You can put it on yourself though, sir.  If I scratched you with a finger nail I could get charged with assault and battery of an officer, congratulations Lt.” Bong laughed.

Ensign – now Lieutenant, and also Captain by custom – K’lev was still processing seeing his old instructor again when the PADD and pip were presented to him.  He took them as though in a daze, looking at them and then back at the chief.  “Um…  wow…  Good to see you again, Chief Bong…”

Lotharys nudged him with her elbow.  “Put it on!” she said in a carrying whisper.

The nudge snapped K’lev out of his daze, and he quickly read the PADD before putting the new pip on his collar, looking at Chief Bong afterward.  “There, no need for charges; I’ll straighten it later.”  It was a little off-alignment, but not much.

Varyn then looked around at his team.  “So… um…  Staff briefing…” he started.  “Well, everyone be seated, and let’s get started.”  He sat at the head of the table, feeling a little like he was swimming in the seat.  Lotharys sat at his right hand, the others arrayed around from there.

Bong went to leave the room, and let the senior staff have their briefing.  Usually a command chief wouldn’t be at meetings like this, and if there was anything for him, the officers would usually just send the info to his PADD.  Usually, Bong would be in his office, doing paperwork and the like. Captains might sometimes give their Command Chief a secondary role, but on a Cali-class ship, they were usually glorified administrative assistants and -‘make work’ project supervisors.

“Chief?” K’lev called after Bong.  “Would you mind sitting in, at least for this one?  I’d like to hear from everyone on how the ship and crew are doing.”

Bong cracked a smile before turning back around, this was a good sign that Command may have picked a decent new commander for the Culver City. It was also nice to know that K’lev wasn’t phased by having one of his former instructors aboard, do the point where he invited him to stay.

“Sure sir….I’ve been giving Ensign Lotharys a hand with the paperwork and some other things while you’ve been gone, I might have some feedback to share. Thank you sir.” The old chief took a seat at the other end of the 10 person table, strategically so he could watch the young new team, and K’lev specifically while they had their first briefing.

K’lev nodded as Chief Bong took a seat.  “Thank you, Chief.”  He took a deep breath, then cleared his throat.  “Okay.  Let’s start with the ship’s status.  Ensign Lotharys has already told me the warp core initialization test went well, but let’s go through section-by-section, starting with Engineering.  Pelix?”

The young Tellarite consulted his PADD.  “Warp core’s good to go.  One of the coolant lines for the impulse engines’ fusion reactor is still giving us some trouble, but the others are fine; I’d suggest limiting to three-quarter impulse until we get it fixed.  RCS and docking thrusters are fine.  Navigational deflector’s passed all simulations, but we won’t know until we get out there if it’s fine or not.  ODN lines and EPS grid are stable, and the tractor beam emitters are installed, though we’re having some trouble with one of them.  All in all, though, engineering is ready to fly.”  Pelix put his PADD down.

K’lev nodded.  “That’s excellent news!  Next up, sciences; Ophelia?”

Lotharys smiled; having worked closely with Chief Bong during the repairs, she was confident, but that still didn’t completely drive off the nerves that came up when she was called on.  “Our sensor suite is up and running; it’s as calibrated as we could get it in dock, but we could probably further refine it during shakedown.  The main computer is doing wonderfully, as is our uplink to the fleet databases.”

“Very good!  Medical?”  K’lev turned to Hilava, who had been joined by the head nurse, a Bolian man, as well as Teles Ghimir, the counselor-in-training.

Hilava cleared her throat.  “Um, sickbay’s ready…. We aren’t treating anyone right now, and the biobeds are working.  We don’t have the new autosurgery suite yet, though; I’m not sure why.”

Ghimir jumped in from there.  “I haven’t had any issues raised to me about the crew, but I don’t know if the base counseling staff will send me anything.  They haven’t yet, at least.”

K’lev nodded.  “Well, we can always ask for any records before we sail.  And we definitely need to follow up on that autosurgery.  Thank you, Hilava, Teles.”  He turned his gaze to Midshipman sh’Livo.  “What’s the word from tactical?”

“Phasers should be up and running – the simulations say they are, at least – but I don’t think the base commander would like me for testing them in dock.” sh’Livo laughed nervously.  “Torpedoes haven’t been delivered yet.  Same with the small arms for security and away teams.”

K’lev sighed.  “Well, there are a bunch of ships in need of supplies, I guess…”  As sh’Livo began to look away, embarrassed, he held up a green-skinned hand.  “It’s okay!  I don’t blame anyone; it’s a messy situation we’re in right now is all.”

The young senior staff looked between each other as K’lev shifted his gaze to Ari Phillips.  “How’s the new merged helm/nav system working?”

Phillips smiled.  “It’s working pretty well,” they said.  “Controls are set up, and the tie-ins for the navigational charts are solid.  Helm’s ready to fly.”

K’lev breathed a sigh of relief; all in all, while Culver City wasn’t completely ready yet, she had come a long way, and probably wouldn’t need much more than some final fitting-out before she could return to service.  There was one last section, though, to check on, and so he turned to Chief Bong.  “How are things looking for you, Chief?  Ophelia told me you’d been covering Ops; anything still need looking after, including with the cargo bays and shuttlebays?”

‘Uh, everything is ready for launch sir, still some minor last minute things are needed in cargo bay 3, but we can deal with after we make way….and yes, I have been enjoying the chance to get back behind an ops console. It’s been about 20 years since had a duty shift as a bridge watchstander. It was fun knocking the dust and rust off sir.” Bong said with a nod.

K’lev nodded.  “Well, we’re all very grateful to have you aboard, Chief, to help us get ready to fly.  Which raises the next question: Ensign Lotharys told me on the ride up here that we’re expected at Starbase 400 for final fitting-out and a short shakedown; how soon are they expecting us?”

Bong checked his padd “On or before the first of next month sir. At warp 7.5 we can arrive in about 2  weeks, so there is a few days of wiggle room in there for us. I’ve send notes to all crew who are yet to arrive informing them to report aboard as soon as possible so we can depart on schedule sir.”

“Sounds good.  Should give us some time to shake down the engines a little before reaching the starbase, too.”  K’lev pauses a moment, then regards the room.  “Think we’re ready enough to request a recommissioning ceremony?”  He asks as an open question.

Bong smiled brightly. The kid was quick. Another good sign for the CC in his opinion.

After a few others had nodded in the positive, the old Chief chimed in “Indeed sir, I do. And Starfleet thinks we’re ready otherwise we wouldn’t have recieved these orders. I’ll send the relevant paperwork to your PADD, sir.”

Given the current state of things in the Federation, it likely wouldn’t be much of a ceremony, it would more likely resemble a rushed performative tradition. Bong himself probably wouldn’t even attend, he would be busy helping the crew get settled and ready to report for duty since they’d be leaving in just under 24 hours from now.

K’lev smiled.  “Thanks, Chief.  I’ll send the request to command, see if a little ceremony can be put together and stuff.  Well, we launch tomorrow, everyone; let’s make sure we’re ready!”

With that, the staff meeting broke up, the officers of the Culver City going about their duties.  Sure enough, a short recommissioning ceremony could be arranged, and was scheduled for the following morning, to be followed by the ship’s departure; K’lev requested any available hands to join, if their duties allowed.  Through the rest of the day, and into the night, final preparations for launch began, for the ship, as the old saying went, “sailed with the tide.”