Meeting in the Middle of Nowhere
Posted on Wed Jun 24th, 2026 @ 8:30am by Captain Connor Nolan & Lieutenant Commander Saori Takebe & Lieutenant Jennifer Richardson M.D.
2,119 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Preamble
Location: USS Venture, Enroute to Deep Space Nine
Timeline: Mission Day 2
The USS Venture had been undertaking a high-warp run to make up for lost time as it progressed towards Deep Space Nine. The journey for 13 days, would now take closer to 11. While such a move was taxing on a ships engines, the Venture was just out of a full refit, and the acting Chief Engineer had been clear that while this couldn't be sustained for a long stint, a short burst to make their rendezvous with the USS Malinche was in their eyes, doable.
For the last 5 hours, the Venture and, Excelsior Class, Malinche had been coasting along through empty space, on inertia and thruster power, beside one another, while the latter offload much needed additional supplies for the Venture's upcoming mission. As the Industrial replicators were transferred by cargo shuttle and via bay-to-bay tractor-beam transfers, the food stuffs, seeds and products of animal origin were transported onboard. Given the logistics, something the Venture's new Captain knew a lot about, taking the supplies on at Earth would have added another week to the mission profile.
The rendezvous, in the literal middle of nowhere, also allowed for 2 of Venture's Senior Officers to onboard earlier than Deep Space Nine. This included the Chief Science Officer and the vessels Chief Counsellor.
Lieutenant Commander Saori Takebe stepped off the transporter pad of the USS Venture. She took a long deep breath of the ships air. It seemed different to her last assignment. Her eyes met the transporter operator. She gave the young man a smile. "Thanks for the lift!" she said cheerily.
"You're welcome Commander," the operator replied back.
Saori gave him a grin and a warm expression as she made her way towards the door. "Oh," she said as she turned. "I'm Saori Takebe. And you?"
"Ensign Thomas Rollings," The young ensign replied.
"Well, it was lovely to meet you. Sorry to run like this. But I need to go and see our skipper." She gave him a small wave before making her way out of the door. The corridors of the Galaxy Class were spacious and far much luxurious than other starships Saori had been on. The warm cream and magnolia was a refreshing sight for her eyes as she made her way towards one of the nearest turbolift. Also, this ship was big, very big compared to other vessels.
"I'm going to get so lost aren't I?" she chuckled to herself as she took a step into the turbolift. "Bridge."
It didn't take long for the turbolift to arrive at the bridge. She stepped out and looked around in awe. Just as she had expected, and just like everything else on a Galaxy Class, the bridge was huge. It almost felt as if it was a bit too big. But it was busy and full of people all going about their duties. She took a few moments to quietly observe and look around, spotting the various stations.
Eventually as she wandered around she located the Captains Ready Room. She had no idea about who the captain actually was. So, she made sure her uniform was looking good, her coppery brown hair was perfect before reaching out and tapping the chime. 'Time to make a good impression Saori' she thought to herself as she awaited an answer.
As she had moved amongst the corridors, Jennifer pushed her duffle bag up on her shoulder, the thought dawned on her she had seen the female ahead of her a number of times at this point, the shades of copper through her hair standing out. She could have sworn she had seen the same woman on the transport but they'd not had time to talk at any point. Jennifer had preferred her quarters most of the time, trying to take the time to adjust to the changes ahead.
Stepping onto the bridge, the counsellor found herself hesitating a moment, realising the woman was now at the Captains ready room, her own same destination. The thought flashed through her mind. Just what I need, to be labelled a stalker and not yet even an hour into the new role
"Hi...mind if I join you? It seems we may both have the same objective here today." Jennifer smiled a little as she came to the other woman's side, hesitating until she was sure that the approach was welcome.
Saori was startled by the sudden appearance of someone right behind her. She jumped a little and took a step back. She placed a hand on her chest as she breathed faster. "You nearly gave me a heart attack..." Saori laughed. "But yeah, sure. Two birds one stone as they say." Saori said returning the smile.
The Captain set the PADD he had spent the last hour interrogating down on surface in front of him, and promptly propped his elbows up on the same surface, and sunk his head into the palm of his hands. The ships artificial gravity did the job of compressing his eye sockets against the palm of each of his hands, giving him temporary relief from the itch of fatigue he was feeling in his eyeballs.
His moment of self-reflection was interrupted by the chime of the Ready Room's door, some 8 feet away on the other side of the office. Nolan pushed himself back into the Chair, and acknowledged the chime.
"Enter" he said, as the doors lid open.
Jennifer indicated for the other woman to proceed her into the room, recognising that technically she was the gate crasher in this situation. It also allowed her moments to observe the Captain and try to gauge what she may have been in for.
Having caught up on the senior crew files during their flight, Jennifer was still a little taken aback by how young the Captain was. While they were close in age, his title was typically reserved for those older and with more experience. For Nolan, the counsellor couldn't help but realise the weight of responsibility on his shoulders must be that much heavier as there was more expectations on him to get things right.
Saori walked in alongside Jennifer. This was her first time on a Galaxy Class and she was surprised at how small the ready room was compared to other ships she had served upon. "Good Morning Captain," She greeted cheerfully giving him a big warm smile.
Nolan looked confused for a second, quickly checked at the chronometer built into desk and let out a lungful of air, "Good Morning..." he assessed the two newcomers, piecing together who they where from their faces, rank pips, what he'd read in the personal files and the fact they likely just transported over from the Malinche. "Commander Takebe and Lieutenant Richardson. Welcome aboard the Venture. How was your journey here?"
Jennifer tugged on her uniform jacket, self conscious as she had grown so used to her own clothes versus the Starfleet uniform. The look of confusion on the Captains face allowed her to smile for a moment, as she stood at her colleagues side. "Malinche was certainly interesting Sir. I'm not used to ships of her size beyond the Nightingale but even then it was unusual to have children under foot unless they were wounded or accompanying fleeing families."
"And now look at us, here we are on an even bigger ship." he raised his arms to indicate he was talking about the entirety of the Venture, "There's plenty of families onboard the Venture, Lieutenant. Hopefully not wounded or fleeing conflicts, but instead joining us in exportation of the far flung sectors of the galaxy." Internally, Nolan was grimacing at how 'corny' that statement sounded, but that was the rhetoric that Starfleet wanted from its senior officers nowadays. The war was, after all, over. Starfleet was to be seen to be returning to its routes.
Jennifer smiled a little at the Captains exhuberence, wondering if there was a element of the workload starting to get on top of him or rather was this a trait of his. The woman stopped her thoughts for a moment as she realised she was begining to psychoanalyse rather than just living in the moment.
"It's unusual if I may say so; the decision to brings families were we are going to be in a different quadrant and far away from home. Do you mind me asking the rational behind it?" Jennifer tried to bring herself back to the room and present with the question.
"Families back aboard starships." Saori said. "Sometimes you have to love the kids running around, reminds us that we're not just a crew but a community." She smiled.
"Can I get either of you a drink?" he asked plainly, standing and walking to his own food replicator, "I'm going to need a coffee."
"A cherry flavoured water would be good Captain." At this point Jennifer looked at her colleague, both still standing as they watched their commanding officer. Between the exhuberence and coffee remark she was beginning to wonder.
"A strawberry milkshake please Captain," Saori replied giving him a polite mini-bow.
The hum of the replicator only cycled once as it produced all 3 drinks simultaneously. The Captain picked up the drinks for his visitors, and made the short journey to deliver the beverages to their would be consumers. He retraced his steps, grabbed his own coffee and returned to the comfort of his chair.
"I'm glad we were able to get you both onboard prior to arriving at Deep Space Nine. You'll have sometime to get yourselves settled and explore the ship before we're inundated with Bajoran colonists," he said as he watched the whisps of warm coffee vapours rise from his own mug.
"There will be some serious activity onboard," he noted to neither officer in particular, "Did either of you ever get to visit New Bajor prior to the war?"
Jennifer shook her head in responce to the question, her curiosity spiked. "I have to admit to being curious on how things look on the other side. Alot of my experience had me stuck on a colony and with the Gale we were dispatched to where the medical needs were during the war. Do you know what we can expect with the colonists we are transporting?"
He made a murmuring noise through sips of coffee, "I really don't know to be honest. The original colony was throughly destroyed by the Jem`Hadar. My briefing suggested that this is bring treated as a sign of rejuvenation and rebirth for the Bajoran peoples. I would imagine there will be a wide-spread sense of mourning too. The previous colony was apparently exceptionally beautiful. The Dominion glassed that site from orbit on their way to the Alpha Quadrant."
"I'll have the counselling team briefed so we are onhand to support the civilians. No doubt there'll be a lot of emotion between hope for a new future and excitement at experiencing the wormhole which is scared to Bajorians. But alot of negative emotions too around leaving their old home behind and the uncertainty of a new world." Jennifer mentally files away the information she needed as she glanced at Connor while she spoke.
"Can't say I've ever been beyond the wormhole, however I am looking forward to discovering new things out there." Saori replied with a smile.
"Oh, I'm sure we will find some wonderfully intriguing things that will named after you Commander." he let out a sincere, but quiet chuckle, before standing from his desk, "I suppose we better get moving again. I see you've both got your bags, therefore I assume you've not been to your quarters yet. Make sure to see the Second Officer and get squared away."
Jenni nodded her head and gave Nolan a small smile. In all honesty she wanted nothing more than to see her new working space, to settle in and start back to seeing patients but she also understood that Starfleet stood on proprietary also and certain steps were expected when joining.
"Aye aye Captain!" Saori said cheerfully.
The trio exited the Ready Room, and entered the ships Command Centre. It wouldn't be right to refer to the Bridge as the ships beating heart, that honour definitely went to Engine Room, but it was, in the Captain's opinion a close second. The bridge was alive with the Duty Officers going about their daily work. Nolan strode to the centre chair, which was quickly vacated by the Senior Duty Officer, as he moved across the bridge he gave a command to the Flight Controller.
"Helm. Crewman Kerara, resume course to Deep Space Nine. Warp 7. Engage."
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