Beta Shift

Posted on Sun Jun 30th, 2024 @ 11:33am by Lieutenant Ayana Hillis & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Lieutenant JG James Phoenix

Mission: The Andromeda Strain
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Current

James walked with haste throughout the corridor from his quarters towards the turbolift. He had ten minutes before he needed to be on the bridge for Beta Shift. The Lieutenant felt like he was going to be late even though the bridge was a hop, skip, and a jump away. He was probably going to get there early, possibly before everyone else.

Upon entering the lift, Phoenix waited for a few seconds to see if anyone else was going to enter the turbo-lift.

The lift shifted slightly on its track buffers as a tiny Asian girl barreled into the tube at full speed and happily waved.

"First shift of beta and I guess I got to check in at the bridge OH I see you're heading the same way at least it's not going down or to the aft of the ship that would have been bad and time consuming YOU KnOw? Hehe yeah. Like taking an express elevator to hell but at least that's not happening or anything like that I wonder though just what we will do up there they probably won't need me long other than the briefing and the situation report and the OH MY GOD I FORGOT MY PADD but that's okay it's backed up to the memory core and I can pull it up when I get there." Kate struggled to breathe as she seemed a slight bit anxious.

Jon was on the bridge. As was his custom Once he relieved the captain, he sat in the center seat. early. He double checked the status report to get a head's up on anything that needed to be done as far as maintenance or fine tuning of systems. Today had nothing like that on the schedule and he was reading the reports from the Andromeda and waiting for the rest of Beta shift to arrive.

Kate walked in all smiles with everyone else and skilled to a seat next to Jon.
"Hello, Sir!" She chirped happily while grabbing at a console on the desk to be prepared to take notes.

Jon looked up from the PaDD he was reading, "Lieutenant Kono." He replied. "I see you aren't suffering any aftereffects from your promotion party."

Phoenix had been relatively quiet since he entered the turbolift before Kate. He had been attempting to conserve his energy since he had only awakened roughly an hour prior. He was alert now; he just didn't want to fall asleep on bridge duty.

As James entered the bridge, he snickered internally at Jon's comment. After he nodded to everyone else currently present, he took his place at the secondary tactical console since Lieutenant Hillis would be taking her place at the primary tactical and security console.

Kate was impressed that they had tactical consoles in the ready room. The ship was prepared for everything. She leaned back in her seat and nodded to Jon.

"I drank a whole bunch of water last night to counteract the ---," Kate looked to Phoenix and shook her head while squinting. "Ardi? Was it called? Yeah..." She turned her head to Jon and nodded, "A big bottle of ARDI."

Ayana exited the captain's ready room and made her way to the tactical station, taking over there. She noted that Phoenix had already arrived. "Very good Mr. Phoenix. Captain and XO both like punctuality" she said with a small smile.

"Thank you, ma'am," he returned the smile and nodded. The Lieutenant began to configure his console to his usual settings after he had logged into it just a few seconds prior.

"Lieutenant, please confirm that the security details have been completed and all personnel will be ready upon our arrival into the hostile sector" Ayana said as she continued to run her system checks. "All tactical and defensive systems ready commander" she offered to Jon.

"Thank you, Ayana." Jon answered after Ayana made her report on the state of the Washington's security.

"Most of my responsibilities haven't changed since I was already the department head for Intelligence. I plan on looking through sensor data and historical accounts if this general area from any ships, federation or otherwise. I'll perform passive data retrieval of course. Nobody will ever know why or where the access came from unless someone orders me to specify request data from anyone nearby. So, probably won't be getting much outside of the sensors." Kate playfully walked her fingers across the edge of the desk and made it look like a person was jumping off a cliff with her hands as she finished her sentence.

"Read the Andromeda reports Kate. They should help you get a general feel for the situation." Jon suggested.

James tapped a few buttons on his console after Ayana's order. "The security details are being finalized as we speak, and all security personnel are confirmed to be ready" James confirmed.

"Very good lieutenant. I'll look forward to seeing it within the hour" Ayana replied.

"Yes ma'am" James smiled before continuing his duties while waiting the final reports for the security details.

Kate swayed from side to side in her seat as she looked around and watched everyone plan away as she pulled her legs into the chair and started taking notes away into the PADD she borrowed.

Jon smiled to himself as Ayana and Phoenix talked. Ayana would make sure James was up to snuff and if he wasn't she would correct that in short order.

"Commander, we are ready to launch the probes into the sector" Ayana noted to Jon.

Jon nodded at Ayana's statement. "Very good Ayana. Launch the probes and stand by to receive their telemetry." He looked out the main viewscreen. "Let's find out what's out there."