- At the Starfleet Academy campus on Trill (flashback: 2387.11.08)
- At the USS Polaris, in the Copernicus Ship Yards, orbiting Luna. (flashback: 2391.03.06)
- In Deasian space, approximately 2,7 light years away from the planet Helteka in the Andari system, in the Gamma Quadrant, at a position roughly 1000 light years from the wormhole.
Summary:
- 2387.11.08
Arek Enere, the future host of the Vox symbiont, tries to study comparative genetics but is happy when he is interrupted by his cousin.
- 2391.03.06
Leo Montgomery, an officer on board the USS Polaris, got ready to transfer to the USS Atlantis, a new Akira class vessel built at the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards in orbit of Mars. Only minutes before he left his ship, he found out that another Polaris officer was being transferred to the Atlantis: an Ensign with the name of Zoë Vil.
- 2392.07.12
For the moment, the L'tari Convoy was safe from enemy attacks. In order to ensure the convoy's safety, the convoy's leader, Aid Master Traa, asked Captain Torn to escort the convoy to its destination: the decimated planet Helteka. In addition, many of Traa's officers had died during the recent pirate attack. Because the crew of the average convoy vessel consisted mostly of volunteer civilians without any experience, Traa and his convoy were in desperate need for experienced officers to command the ships.
After careful deliberation, Captain Torn decided that the Atlantis had to help. It was decided that the Atlantis would function as lead vessel in the convoy, and that the command vacancies on several of the convoy ships would be filled by officers from the Atlantis. The prospect of commanding a space ship is in itself a daunting one, but when the crew learned that they would be virtually without backup from the Atlantis, it became clear that this was not going to be an easy mission.
Fortunately, new crew had arrived via transwarp runabout. Among them was Lieutenant Circe Pilkington, Chief Counsellor and former Second Officer of the Atlantis. The new crew didn't even have time to get some rest after their long and tiring journey, for they were immediately assigned to key positions on the convoy and on the Atlantis.
While most of the crew of the Atlantis was busy getting ready for convoy duty, some officers found time to take care of other things, too: with the help of Doctor Dupre, Lieutenant Rofellian continued his investigation into the recently discovered cases of Orion whisky. Having come to the conclusion that the whisky was made on board the Atlantis itself, he now has to find where on the ship the whisky was made, and by whom.
Earlier the same day, in Astrometrics, Crewman Norman used Ensign Nikki in a twisted scheme to get the woman he loved, Denise, to love him as well. He reasoned that by kissing Nikki, he would make Denise so jealous that she would show more interest in him. The plan worked, and Norman and Denise spent time in bed together, at the expense of Nikki.
Nikki, reassured in her belief that all men are pigs, meanwhile assisted Doctor Thomas in repairing a radiation leak on deck 19. The leak had caused ruptured lungs in several crewmembers and had to be closed.
Not much later, when most of the crew was in the process of transferring to the Deasian convoy ships, Captain Torn made a rather unnerving discovery: someone had painted the walls of his ready room orange! The search for the culprit is still on, but it may very well be the case that the guilty person is already on one of the convoy ships.
When the first Atlantis officers set foot on the ships they were to command, they witnessed first-hand the damage caused by the constant pirate attacks and by the continued strain placed on these old ships. Many of the more heavily damaged vessels looked like they could fall apart at any moment. The scary truth is that looks, in this case, are far from deceiving.
=/\=USS Atlantis Status Report May 2006=/\=
Stardate:
- 2392.07.12
Locations of the (crew of the) USS Atlantis:
- In Deasian space, approximately 2,7 light years away from the planet Helteka in the Andari system, in the Gamma Quadrant, at a position roughly 1000 light years from the wormhole.
Summary:
- 2392.07.12
Several convoy vessels now fell under the command of Starfleet officers. While trained to cope with difficult situations, they found themselves challenged by the responsibilities of command. Not knowing the crew or the ship they had been assigned to, the new commanders of the damaged convoy vessels first had to earn the trust and respect of those under their command, while at the same time trying to repair their ships as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Needless to say, the task was far from easy.
None of the convoy ships had escaped the previous pirate attack unscathed, but some were more damaged than others. One of the more damaged ships was the L'tari 13. Under the leadership of Lieutenant Montgomery, the ship was quickly repaired and the warp drive brought on line. Not long thereafter, however, Montgomery and the rest of the Starfleet crew on the ship were forced into escape pods. Having jettisoned these escape pods, the mutinying crew of the L'tari 13 left the convoy to set a course back to Deasia III.
The crew of the L'tari 13 was not the only crew who felt uncomfortable with the mission to Helteka. On board the L'tari 17, designated "Jatmey", the Starfleet doctors learned that this mission of mercy came at a price: the Deasian Empire shipped so many resources to Helteka that many citizens on the Deasian home planet were starving.
Each convoy ship also experienced problems of their own. On board the L'tari 23, which was named "T'Rinna", Commander Velden and Ensign Andrusia discovered that their only working warp nacelle was so badly damaged that it would overload if the ship stayed at warp for longer than six hours. In order for the convoy to remain together, all ships would therefore have to drop out of warp every six hours. In addition to this discovery, Andrusia found himself staring down the barrel of a phaser which was held by a stowaway Deasian. The situation was quickly diffused when Andrusia charged the Deasian and took away his weapon.
Throughout the convoy, Starfleet officers noticed that life on board a Deasian convoy ship was very different than life on the Atlantis. Yet even though the Atlantis didn't suffer from malfunctions, breakdowns or falling floors, Captain Torn did have problems with his ready room. Or rather, the colour of the room. It did not take long for the Glitch to come forward and announce that painting the Ready Room orange had been hir work. S/he had believed that it would please the Captain, and did not understand the anger Torn was displaying. In response to this incident, Torn appointed the EEH and Bart the Bartender as Glitch's caretakers -- in effect, he made them hir parents. Not programmed to be a mother, the EEH quickly took her distance, but Bart took up the challenge.
As the Starfleet crew on the convoy vessels and on the Atlantis struggle to keep the convoy running and to solve any problems, the launch date approaches... The time is at hand for the convoy to leave their current position and head for Helteka.
