Subject: FRONTIER: First bridge watch

Location: FRONTIER Bridge 
Stardate: 70620.0700 
 
Will Ramsay looked over the list of checks he had asked to be made.  
Everything showed green. He had personally inspected Engineering  
thoroughly, but found all to his liking. His wife and First Officer  
Caroline had long since stopped ferrying crew now that the  
transporter was powered up, and had found the time to perform a check  
on ship security and weapons systems. 
 
Personally he had not been content with the hastily-installed  
holodeck. The ship had been designed as a defence against the likes  
of the Borg, and was not suited for long missions. This was one step  
in making it more suitable for their current assignment, but it would  
help if the damned thing would work. There hadn't been much time to  
properly test it, and fine tuning would have to be done enroute. 
 
He was intrigued by the design though, which allowed for multiple  
simulations to be run, with a partition between preventing  
interaction between scenarios. The exit mechanism was far superior -  
if you were boxed in by two other sims for example, the program would  
temporarily cut a corridor through to the exit. There were limits -  
and four simultaneous programs seemed a safe one. 
 
They were still short a few crew members, these were due to arrive  
soon. Of those already on board, there were two which were...  
intriguing. His Ops officer, as he'd now found out, was a female  
android with a similar design to the Soongh-type androids. Created by  
Dr. Bruce Maddox, and outwardly a very attractive imitation of an  
early-20's woman, Joanna Houston was a very unusual android. 
 
Then there was McVyker. She had arrived with Houston from the  
Krakatoa, to assume a role in Engineering. Her race was completely  
unknown, although evidently it was humanoid. The first thing he  
noticed was that she was completely bald. Next the red eyes grabbed  
his attention, and for a minute he flashed back to that Terminator 2  
movie... but then came the memory of the 'real' Terminator which had  
tried to kill him (or had it really intended to kill Sam? He hardly  
knew anymore). He got the feeling it would not be easy to get along  
with her when this irrational fear got in the way. 
 
Her vision was in the infrared-red portion of the spectrum, which  
explained the red eyes, and she had almost half the normal sleep  
requirement for a human. But of course, she wasn't human. No denying  
that. 
 
The other engineer who had joined them was a tanned man with dark 
black hair. Neil Festore - partially he had been assigned to provide 
the necessary expertise to deal with Houston's hardware, having 
excelled in the field of cybernetics at the Academy. He'd even had 
opportunity to study under Dr. Maddox, but never met Joanna until his 
assignment to the Krakatoa. His involvement with the android appeared  
to have gone beyond his assigned role howvever... those were part  
rumours, part off-the-record remarks. 
 
He vaguely knew the medical team - Dr. Neil Sykes and Dr. Ruth  
Sampter - because of Caroline, who had been their boss until she had  
been moved to chief science officer. He had also seen themn at the  
wedding - hadn't Ruth been the bridesmaid? - and remembered they had  
been late. Another relationship? He began to see a bit of a pattern  
here, but what its intent was he had no idea. 
 
"Captain." said Houston suddenly. "Two additional crew members  
requesting to be transported aboard." 
 
Will noticed as he brushed past her to get a better look at the names  
of the new arrivals, that her posture changed slightly, as if she  
were uncomfortable. *This is one nitpicky android* he thought, *she  
even reacts to invasion of personal space*. Almost automatically he  
shifted to reduce that invasion, and muttered, "Sorry." 
 
He felt almost homesick as his fingers flew over Joanna's Ops console  
to access the crew roster. He noted the names of the officers and  
said, "Clear to transport aboard. Houston, is anyone currently  
manning the transporter?" 
 
"No, sir. We have only one expert transporter operator aboard. 
Engineering staff are to fill in for beta and gamma shifts. We are  
still short of one senior Engineering officer sir." Her tone was calm  
and factual, and Will could see this would take some getting used to. 
 
"Never mind, I'll take this one." he replied. 

 
Transporter Room 
 
Will tapped at the controls, activating the transporter as he ahd  
done dozens of times before. The familiar light shimmering on the  
platform, and then two Ensigns took form on the pad. 
 
The shimmering dissipated and they stepped down. 
 
Will took a moment to idnetify them from their personnel files. The  
tall blond haired man was Angus Murray, their Chief of Security,  
while the Trill next to him was Keanu Maren, destined to be Chief  
Science Officer. Ramsay mentally cautioned himself that not all  
Trills were alike, so this one might be nothing like Tellman Vran  
whom he'd left behind on the Regent. 
 
"Welcome aboard the Frontier, gentlemen. I must say we've been  
waiting some time for you. I'm Captain William Ramsay." 
 
"Ensign Kenau Maren." replied the Trill. 
 
"Ensign Angus Murray." was the response of his companion. 
 
Will tried to suppress a grin as he realised they would be moved into  
a higher alternate rank also, and how confusing that would be. He was  
about to mention that they should really chnage into the standard  
Frontier jumpsuit when Murray asked a rather interesting question of  
him. 
 
"Did you say Ramsay? You have a brother named Geordi?" 
 
"You know Geordi? From the Academy?" replied Will, his ears not quite  
believing what he was hearing. "Well, you've obviously been in good  
company. Okay, next opportunity you have, get rid of those starfleet  
uniforms. This is a non-Starfleet operation, as I'm sure you've  
heard, so everything's changing. Quarters are a little small, but  
everythings there. Oh... don't use the Holodeck yet, it's still being  
tested. Report for duty next alpha shift. Any questions?" 
 
Respectfully submitted, 
 
[Captain] William Ramsay, CO FRONTIER 
 
Sam M. Edwards