Part 1 of Chapter 1
1
Starfleet R&D Dr. John Hart looked out the window of his masterpiece. The USS Proxima was the first twin warp core vessel ever made by Starfleet. Out the window on the first engineering hull he could see the second engineering hull, the main deflector dish, the saucer section, the hull connection section, and two of the ships six sensor arrays.
The Proxima class starships were the largest ships ever to be produced yet, at nearly 600 meters long and 200 wide, they were almost twice the size of the standard Constitution class explores, and packed twice the punch. The ship had two large fighter bays carrying thirty Lightning class attack fighters and six non-combat shuttles.
Equipped with six photon torpedo tubes, twenty-eight phaser turrets, and eight pulse arrays, it was the heaviest armed starship in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.
Her dual core system allowed a four warp nacelle array instead of the Federation class rather inefficent design which was just a three nacelled Constitution class ship with eight more phaser arrays. This new arrangement allowed for speeds of over warp eight on the old scale or warp four on the brand new scale developed for the "transwarp" studys of the Excelsior project.
This ship was the best multi-role starship ever created, and with so much volume for labs, colonization equipment, cargo and weapon systems. The twenty-three deck ship was so large, it had more mass then the Romulan Vro'rath type warbirds.
Still in a modified drydock facility, the Proxima was ready to launch.
Captain Eric Land sat on the bridge of the USS Texas, a Miranda class light cruiser. He was a short Bolian whose skin was unusually light, almost white instead of blue. His bridge was a custom shaded blue toned bridge, after all blue was a sacred color to Bolians.
"Sovak, is the Proxima ready to leave drydock?" He asked.
"Yes sir, Admiral Nogura just sent us a order to escort her to Deep Space Station K-7." the young Vulcan replied.
"Thank you commander, lets get ready to go!'
Captain Gregory Nance stood on the rather large bridge of the USS Proxima, NX-1801. The registry number was one of the best parts of the ship, it was built exactly 100 ships after the USS Enterprise.
Nance was an tall human with a small amount of Vulcan in his blood. He had long blond hair, and not a single strand of gray. At 25 years old, he was the youngest captain in the fleet.
The captains chair was also very large. More like a throne, it was the only chair in the fleet to have a seat belt installed on it. The chair was a custom shade of light green, along with the rest of the bridge. It had a touch screen readout display, the first ever used on a starship.
The rest of the bridge was just as amazing. There was a large master systems display (MSD) right between the two turbolifts. There was no handrail like on other starships, instead, there were 2 stations to the left and right of the captains chair.
The ship also had touch screen controls, another first for a Starfleet ship. The main computer core was fast enough to process the touch data, and could pilot the whole ship, allowing it to be run by five crew members.
Even with those capabilities, the ship was run by a crew of 500, 200 more the the standard Constitution class starship. It was a big ship, in need of a large crew. In fact, the ship was so big that the Watchtower class starbases had to leave their bay doors open in order for it to dock.
Nance's main bridge crew consisted of his Executive officer and Communications operator Commander Barret Roberts, Helmsman Lieutenant Commander Sara Campbell, Science Officer Ensign Tenal, Tactical officer Lieutenant Andrew Grey, and Doctor Kenny Kassing.
Roberts was the exact oppisite of Nance. He was short, dark skinned and fearsome looking. Looks could deceive, he was the smartest XO in all of Starfleet, other than Spock, the Enterprise's XO.
His career was very decorated, he served on the Bombay, Stratagarrius, Excalibur, Federation, Farragut, Intrepid, Daedalus, and the Star Leauge. He had been known for unwavering loyalty, but would ignore a direct order if it meant the safety of the ship and it's crew. In other words, he was the epitome of a first officer.
Campbell was a purebread human woman with her long blonde hair led down, ignoring Starfleet's uniform code that called for a bun of hair. At only 23 yers old, she had risen through the ranks faster than any other officer in history. She joined Starfleet Academy at the age of 14, graduated at 17 and had moved just as fast in Starfleet.
Tenal was a rather young Vulcan, only forty years old. She had gone through the Vucan art of Kohlinar, graduated from the Vulcan Science Academy, and joind Starfleet 2 years later. A typical Vulcan, she was ready for any job other than singing campfire songs. She was very tall, so tall that the standard two meter doors to her quarters were heightened to 2.5 meters.
Andrew Grey was a very heavy Tellerite, who was born on Andor. He served as the Cheif of Security and the Tactical officer. The weight he accompanied with him was all muscle. He required himself and his security team be in the best physical shape possible. If underestimated, he could strike hard and fast.
Kassing was the person you would not expect to be a doctor. He was born with Turrets Syndrome, and was the most nervous person on the ship, execpt for when he was in sickbay. He hd been compared to Dr. Phlox of the original Enterprise that as in service before the Federation was founded.
Nance surveyed his bridge crew, all of whom he had been classmates with at the Academy.
"Captain, I am receiving a message from Admiral Nogura, he is coming aboard with our new Chief Engineer, and he will be staying aboard during our first mission." said Roberts who was standing at the comm console.
"Great, Barret come with me, we want to greet the Admiral with the best possible style. Oh, and Andrew, hide those cases of Romulan Ale so Nogura can't get a hold of any of the stuff." replied Nance, who had kept his crew on a first name, very casual basis.
In Engineering Hull B's fighter bay a luxury transport landed on a small pad which would normally house a non-combat shuttle. It was a large blue air tram with two impulse engines and a small cockpit. Out of the side door steped Admiral Heihachiro Nogura, and a young Lieutenant Commander.