USS PATRIOT: Various ("Leaving the Nest")

From: Katie T (kayteese_at_gmail.com)
Date: Sat May 12 2007 - 05:58:43 PDT


=/\=
"Leaving the Nest"
(Continued from Rahul's "Prepping Before R&R")
=/\=

Location: SFA
Stardate: 2.70511.2205
Scene: Sevlock's Office

The day after the holodeck simulation, Ginny was called to Lieutenant
Sevlock's Office. The half-Vulcan instructor was seated behind his
desk when she entered the room and looked as unemotional as a statue.

"Cadet LaGrande, your performance during the simulation was
satisfactory," he stated. "You are hereby authorized to move onto the
second phase of the training, which will take place in the field." He
handed her a padd. "These are your orders."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Ginny said formally as she accepted the small device.

"Cadet LaGrande, you are dismissed."

And that was it. No word of congratulations, not even a "well done".
No "good luck", either. After four years at Starfleet Academy and the
first part of Advanced Command Training, she was rated as
"satisfactory".

Ginny shrugged mentally, then executed a sharp turn and left Sevlock's
office. After all, what else was there to expect from a Vulcan?

=/\=

Scene: Memorial Gardens

In the Memorial Gardens Ginny found a secluded bench off one of the
main walkways. On her way out of the ACT Building she had met her
class mate Cochrane Stephens who told her that he had also passed the
first phase of training and received his assignment. Ginny could not
recall the name of the ship he had been assigned to (or maybe he
hadn't told her?), but they had wished each other well. Now she was
curious to find out where her own orders would lead her.

After activation the padd first displayed her official transcript of
records and training evaluation. Then came her assignment and
itinerary.

Ginny briefly checked her grades and then, with barely restrained
curiosity and excitement, skipped directly to her assignment. "USS
PATRIOT," she read out half loud. "Nova-Class Destroyer. Crew
complement of 500. Commanding Officer: Captain Helice Jones." There
were more details about ship specs and the crew roster, but Ginny
quickly scrolled down and searched for one important bit which at
first seemed to be missing. Finally she found a note at the very end
of the document. "Position assignment to be determined by commanding
officer after arrival."

The partial Caitian cadet sighed. She hoped for an assignment in
engineering, but she also knew that ACT cadets had to be prepared to
serve in any capacity that a CO determined. She had heard rumors about
other cadets being assigned to department head positions for the
second phase of their training, an image which made her smile with
incredulity. **Oh, sure. And the *real* department heads will be
looking over their shoulders, checking their every moves. They'll
probably be posing as one of the assistant department heads, or maybe
technicians. In any case there's no way anyone would be assigned like
that without supervision.**

Ginny liked the fact that the ACT training gave her the chance to
prove herself in a department head position much sooner than the
average SFA graduate could ever hope for, but at the same time she
wondered about this - in her opinion - blatantly transparent plot
which was designed to make her think that she would actually have some
real responsibilities during the training phase. It couldn't be. It
was hard enough for some seasoned but low-ranking officers to accept
it when a fresh ACT graduate was placed in a department head or
assistant position and started giving them orders. Those same orders
coming from a cadet still in training must then seem like bordering on
insubordination. All the same, Ginny hoped that the PATRIOT crew in
whichever department she would be working were a friendly lot from
whose knowledge and expertise she could benefit.

Cadet Eugenie LaGrande checked her itinerary and found that she was
supposed to make her way to STARBASE 1 where the PATRIOT was expected
in two days. The ship was coming back from a mapping mission in the
Karashi Nebula, which sounded like a fairly boring and routine task.

**With any luck,** Ginny thought, **my training will be a tad more
exciting than that.**

=/\=

Location: SB1
Scene: Docking Port
Time Index: Two days later

Ginny stepped from the short range transport which had shuttled her
from EARTH to SB1 and immediately inquired where the PATRIOT was
docked. It wasn't too far away, and within ten minutes she had reached
her destination. A member of security stood guard at the hatch and
inspected her orders, then invited her to go aboard.

As Ginny took the first tentative steps inside her new home, she felt
an immense feeling of excitement. Curiously enough though, there was
also a tinge of sadness about leaving EARTH after four years. She had
never before stayed that long in any one place, and although it had
been very hard in the beginning, she had come to really realize the
meaning of "home" in the end. Her time at SFA had quite literally help
to ground her in ways she had never thought possible, and she felt
sorry now about losing that feeling again.

She consciously straightened. **Time to make a new home somewhere,**
she smiled to herself and confidently moved forward.

=/\=
NRPG: Hi everyone, I look forward to writing with all of you and
meeting your characters! This post gets Ginny aboard, and she'll start
exploring and possibly/hopefully meeting members of the crew in my
next.

=/\=

Katie T.
Cadet Eugenie LaGrande
ACT Candidate
USS PATRIOT

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