A Meeting of Minds

Posted on Sat Sep 26th, 2026 @ 7:10am by Captain Alistar McKeon & Lieutenant Marcus Kane & Commander Kenneth Hunt & Commander Isabella dei`Silvisi & Lieutenant Megan Hawthorne & Lieutenant Kimora Reeves

1,812 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: New Horizons

The conference lounge on the Helvetia seemed slightly larger than Alistar had remembered from serving on Intrepid class ships in the past, but he dismissed it and simply took his seat. He had called for a senior officer briefing in order to discuss the standing orders that he had recently received from Starfleet Command. Knowing that he had a few minutes, he leaned back in his seat with a padd and read over the orders, just to keep the details fresh while he waited for everyone to arrive.

The corridors of the Helvetia were filled with officers, their presence appearing almost chaotic. Isabella walked through it all with a measured purpose, a padd in her hand. Reaching the conference lounge, she paused only long enough for the doors to acknowledge her presence before they parted. Stepping inside, she noticed that Captain McKeon had already arrived and quietly noted that he was reading a padd with the unmistakable concentration of someone reviewing details for what was certain to be an important briefing. The room itself remained largely empty, save for the quiet ambient lighting and the view port beyond the table that framed Utopia Planitia in the distance.

"Captain," Isabella said quietly with a warmth in her voice that was tempered by the professionalism expected of a senior officer. "I hope I'm not the first one here."

"Looks like you got the gold, I gain the silver!" Meg's voice said from behind Isabella. She held out a hand to the woman dressed in teal. "Hi, I'm Meg Hawthorne, your resident fix it girl."

Isabella turned at the cheerful voice behind her, momentarily surprised by the enthusiasm that cut so effortlessly through the formality of the setting. For the briefest of moments she simply regarded the woman before a small smile found its way onto Isabella's face and she accepted the offered hand with a firm but gentle shake.

"Commander Isabella dei`Silvisi," she replied as she released the engineer's hand. "Chief Science Officer. It's a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Hawthorne."

"Please, Meg is fine." Meg smiled at the woman. "We're all going to be friends here. Calling each other by ranks seems so impersonal!" Her smile turned into a grin.

Alistar had glanced up from the padd, but Hawthorne had spoken first so he simply waited for a pause before he nodded. "Lieutenant Hawthorne, Commander Silvisi," he said. "Please have a seat. The others should arrive soon."

"You got it Cap!" Meg said giving him a wink and finger guns. She grabbed the nearest chair, spun it around and slid down into it.

Isabella felt a small grin tug at the corners of her mouth as she raised her eyebrows. Hawthorne seemed to be almost too cheery and energetic, perhaps a contrast to the majority of Starfleet officers she had served with. With an even stride, she walked to the table and set her padd on it as she eased gracefully into a chair.

The door opened as Commander Hunt entered alongside his wife, Lieutenant Reeves. Before arriving. they had considered walking in one at a time to avoid any type of conversation about them being a married couple. But in all honesty, it made no sense trying to hide the obvious. Taking their respective seats, they looked at the unfamiliar faces around the table.

"How's everyone this morning?" Kenneth addressed the group.

Isabella greeted the newly arrived commander and lieutenant with a friendly nod before she spoke. "Good morning," she said. "I'm eager for us to be underway. Sitting around and waiting for orders is perhaps one of the most boring things I can think of for a Starfleet officer to do."

"Tell me about it," Kimora agreed. "Though I am grateful for the additional time to get everything needed onboard and to the various departments."

The doors opened and allowed Marcus to enter the briefing lounge. He moved easily towards an empty chair and sat down, giving everyone a huge grin as he did so. "Morning, everyone," he said.

Alistar nodded at the gathered officers. Some, he knew only from one or two meetings, while he had served with Isabella Silvisi before. However they had all come to be on the Helvetia, they were here. "Everyone, I want to thank you for coming," he said. "I hope everyone has had time to get familiar with the Helvetia and her systems, because we've received our orders."

Looking around the table, Commander Hunt's face lit up. He was not one for sitting around waiting and was eager to help show Starfleet Command what this crew was more than capable of doing. "This is the news I've been waiting to hear."

Alistar tapped the padd on the table in front of him. "Starfleet Command has assigned us to conduct charting and exploration duties in Sector LV-426. The nearest port of call is Deep Space 3, but the station itself is over 5 weeks away from the sector's edge at maximum warp. So we will be more or less on our own."

Kimora raised an eyebrow. Being in an unknown sector with backup nowhere nearby. Honestly, she was surprised that a new, untested crew would be given this as a first assignment. "How long are we to be out there?"

Isabella sat quietly for a moment after the captain finished outlining their assignment, her fingers resting lightly against the edge of her padd. The designation of the sector alone was unfamiliar enough to pique her curiosity, and the mention of extensive charting duties had already set her scientific mind racing through possibilities. When Lieutenant Reeves voiced the question that was undoubtedly on several minds around the table, Isabella glanced toward the captain before speaking.

"The fact that we will at best be five weeks from the nearest support facility suggests Starfleet expects us to operate with a significant degree of autonomy as well as be almost entirely self sufficient on our own resources," Isabella said quietly.

"Does Starfleet have any idea what's out in that sector?" Hunt inquired.

"Starfleet Command has ordered us to take up initial exploration duties, at least until other ships can be assigned," Alistar said. "At best, we're looking at being there for maybe a full year. As for what's out there, the records show that at least two probes were dispatched about 80 years ago. I'm still waiting for any data they may have transmitted to be sent to us. So, needless to say we're going to be the first Starfleet ship going in."

Kenneth nodded with a smile. Clearly, he was excited about the prospect of a full on mission of exploration. "Surprised that Starfleet waited this long to send a ship out there. Should be plenty to keep everyone occupied."

Meg raised a hand, as if she was asking a question at school. "Ooh ooh. Can we run some speed tests? I would love to see how fast I can get her upto. Yeah, I know, you're all thinking 'Its an Intrepid, its fast' and all. But Lets really put her through her paces. Right?"

Kimora looked over to the Chief Engineer, raising an eyebrow. In all honesty, she was a bit curious on just how fast they could push this version of the Intrepid class. "I'm kind of curious as well."

Alistar raised his eyebrow just a bit as he thought over Hawthorne's request. However unusually it had been brought up, he secretly had to admit that the newer Intrepid class ships had outperformed the original series. The newer Intrepid II class, of which Helvetia was the newest and most advanced, in theory could possible outperform all others. A younger version of himself would have instantly jumped on the chance to prove his ship's capabilities. Now, however, he hesitated before he answered.

"Are we talking warp speed or sublight?" he finally asked. He already knew what the Helvetia was rated for, but he had to admit that knowing the ship's limits might be a good piece of knowledge to have one day.

Both Kenneth and Kimora shared a look, surprised that the Captain could possibly be considering the request. Though it was exciting, sublight was more of an emergency situation. But if you never used it, then how would you be so sure it was any good when the time came?

"Perhaps when we get to our destination, we could test out sublight," Hunt suggested. "One minor test to see how things hold shouldn't be a problem."

"We would be over five weeks from any assistance if something did occur if we waited until then to conduct the tests," Isabella pointed out. She was more than a little surprised that the captain would even consider such a request, and she couldn't believe that she was the only person who was concerned about what could happen. "I understand the need to know the limits of the ship, but perhaps we could conduct such tests under safer conditions."

Alistar rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment before he nodded. "I agree that we need to test the ships systems, but I also agree that we should be cautious. So, when we break orbit tomorrow, we'll conduct a test run of the sublight drives first. The Helvetia is rated for point eight cochrane, so we'll field test the impulse drive at point eight C for ten minutes, then throttle back down to standard sublight speed. For warp, we'll hold at the maximum speed of warp 9.98 for ten minutes, then throttle back to warp 8 for an hour. After that, we'll drop out of warp and conduct a level 5 diagnostic on all engine systems."

Kimora jotted everything the Captain was saying down on a PADD. It was good to have the opportunity to push the Helvetia before getting way out there on their own. This would give operations and engineering to make any necessary adjustments. "That should give us all the stats we'll need."

Isabella nodded thoughtfully at the Captain's idea. The soundness of what he was proposing alleviated her concerns, at least for now. "I would like to conduct a full testing of all science systems and sub-systems, as well," she said. "Fortunately, I believe that we can do this without interfering with any other department."

Marcus leaned forward in his seat. "Since we're testing all shipboard systems, I hate to bring it up but I feel that we should test the tactical systems as well."

Alistar nodded. "We'll make a stop in the Zetar System," he said. "It's a red dwarf solar system with five planetoids and a large asteroid field. We can test the weapon systems there." Looking around the table, he nodded once more. "We'll be departing tomorrow at 0900 hours. If no one has anything else, we'll dismiss and start getting the ship ready to depart."




Commander Kenneth Hunt
Executive Officer
USS Helvetia

Lieutenant Kimora Reeves
Operations Officer
USS Helvetia

RSS Feed