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Apr. 5th, 2007 03:08 pmRosamund Garza submitted her first report on spacedock procedures as a second year cadet, and found her calling. It was an unusual calling in a fleet where everyone wanted to be Boldly Going, but she had little competition for postings, so she was enocuraged to be different. And she was good at it. Every spacedock and related facility she worked at improved in short order. New protocols were introduced on her watch. The difficult tasks of launching new ships and upgrading old ones were codified (if not simplified). And when the massive Earth Spacedock Facility was completed in 2274, Commander Garza was the only person for the job.
Twelve years later, Commodore Garza had become a welcome face to many in the fleet and in the shipyards. She treated every ship that passed through the ESF - usually just called "the Spacedock" - as if it were her own. She took pride in seeing the next generation of starships take their first steps from her facility, and could look back at pride in having traveled (if briefly) on the Soyuz, the Miranda and the Excelsior, and was counting the days till the Constellation arrived from Luna. She didn't envy starship commanders, coped well with ceremony and bureaucracy, and loved the view of Earth.
Bot some days, she received strange orders. Such as the instruction to remove all insignia on the new Yorktown that indicated either name or registration number. That had never happened before. At frist, she assumed that the old Yorktown, one of the few surviving first generation Constitution ships, had been granted a reprieve. But that made little sense. The new ship was only a few months from service, awaiting a shakedown crew and some final interior modifications. Still, she never questioned orders, and set two teams to the simple if tedious task.
Even more puzzling was a memo from Admiral Cartwright himself, reassigning the shakedown crew. No replacements were named. So Garza was left looking out her window onto the nameless ship without a crew. She could only speculate as to what was going on. Had some branch of Starfleet Intelligence taken command of the ship? For all she knew, she would get orders to open the doors and look the other way. (She'd heard the rumors of such events, after all.)
It was the third memo that give a hint, and only a hint. This came from Cartwright again, and only suggested that a crew be ready at short notice to apply the proper insignia and name on the former Yorktown in approximately two weeks' time. Coincidentally, she heard that the long-delayed and long-awaited court martial for the crew of the Enterprise would be held at about the same time. And that it would now be conducted by the Federation Council.
She kept quiet. But she was sure where things were headed. And was glad. Jim Kirk had earned something more than just a pat on the back, and there was precedent for reusing names, many times. But she would wait and see if this hint as to Kirk's fate were not just wishful thinking.
Twelve years later, Commodore Garza had become a welcome face to many in the fleet and in the shipyards. She treated every ship that passed through the ESF - usually just called "the Spacedock" - as if it were her own. She took pride in seeing the next generation of starships take their first steps from her facility, and could look back at pride in having traveled (if briefly) on the Soyuz, the Miranda and the Excelsior, and was counting the days till the Constellation arrived from Luna. She didn't envy starship commanders, coped well with ceremony and bureaucracy, and loved the view of Earth.
Bot some days, she received strange orders. Such as the instruction to remove all insignia on the new Yorktown that indicated either name or registration number. That had never happened before. At frist, she assumed that the old Yorktown, one of the few surviving first generation Constitution ships, had been granted a reprieve. But that made little sense. The new ship was only a few months from service, awaiting a shakedown crew and some final interior modifications. Still, she never questioned orders, and set two teams to the simple if tedious task.
Even more puzzling was a memo from Admiral Cartwright himself, reassigning the shakedown crew. No replacements were named. So Garza was left looking out her window onto the nameless ship without a crew. She could only speculate as to what was going on. Had some branch of Starfleet Intelligence taken command of the ship? For all she knew, she would get orders to open the doors and look the other way. (She'd heard the rumors of such events, after all.)
It was the third memo that give a hint, and only a hint. This came from Cartwright again, and only suggested that a crew be ready at short notice to apply the proper insignia and name on the former Yorktown in approximately two weeks' time. Coincidentally, she heard that the long-delayed and long-awaited court martial for the crew of the Enterprise would be held at about the same time. And that it would now be conducted by the Federation Council.
She kept quiet. But she was sure where things were headed. And was glad. Jim Kirk had earned something more than just a pat on the back, and there was precedent for reusing names, many times. But she would wait and see if this hint as to Kirk's fate were not just wishful thinking.
