Star Trek: Harmony

by PrincessLunas Assistant

2. Soarin

"So...ummm.....this is my new office, Princess.....I mean Captain!' Fluttershy says in a slight nervous panic as she shows Celestia around the one room office. It was a half circle room with white steel-like walls. The entrance was at a flattened off part of a rounded side. On either side of the entrance was a door were two large rounded glass walls that filled in the round side of the half circle room and gave a view into the second floor of the medical bay. The flattened off end of the half circle had a desk and large black chair a few meters from it. On either side of the room were shelves for books, or anything of equal size. There was a replicator to the right hoof side the desk. It was mounted in the wall and could be used to replicate nearly anything. Two large metal chairs sat on the other side of the desk. Fluttershy hopped up in the chair behind the desk and scooted it forward so she could access the computer console on it with her forehooves.

"A few of my bridge officers were late today." Celestia says as she hops up in one of the metal chairs in front of the desk.

"Oh...I'm sorry. " Fluttershy squeaks apologetically.

"I will let this slide today, but if any time in the near or far future one of bride officers is late they'd be better be very sick. Is that clear?" Celestia says with as much authority has she could muster.

"Yes! Yes, Prince-I mean Captain." Fluttershy squeaks out with anxiety induced speed.

"I hope you and the rest of the ponies who knew me on Equestria will stop calling me Princess soon. On this ship: it's Captain. On Equestria it's Princess or Captain or Celestia." Celestia states as she gets off the chair. She glides her hooves over the carpet slowly as she heads for the door. As the door opens to her combage's signal, she looks back at Fluttershy. "Has Luna been around sick bay yet?"

"Oh! Ummmmm no." Fluttershy says looking up from some light reading on the computer monitor. "Last I heard she's been helping a bit in engineering. According to one of the human crew men who came from engineer because he burned his hand: she wants to learn about the ships impulse drive and warp core. Something about emergencies and the lack of a crew in certain situations."

"Skeleton crews?" Celestia asks standing a few feet from the door.

"Yes, ma'am." Fluttershy says drifting in and out of focus with the conversation and some reading material on her console.

"Well 'better to be safe than sorry' applies I suppose." Celestia says as she leaves the office.

_______________________________________

Celestia's walk to engineering was quite peaceful.. Many of the people and ponies she passed by were friendly and happy to see their new captain in good spirits. They'd pass by with a "Hi, Captain!' or "Good day, captain". Celestia would smile and return the greeting or a similar one. Upon reaching the main engineering.....well saying room would be an inferior term.....palace probably suits it better. The warp core sat quite comfortably in an room about three stories high (Each floor was about 10 feet from floor to ceiling), the core was much like an Intrepid class's ship's warp core. However, the Harmony's warp core was, of course, larger in size due to redundant components (backups) and increased capacity for warp plasma. The warp plasma in the core had a sort of redish,blue glow unlike many starfleet warp cores. The plasma was visible through the protective shielding that surrounded the tube-like structure that held it.

About sixty to one hundred crew members work in the engineering room on a daily basis. That number easily escalates to one hundred and fifty or near two hundred in emergencies. Since the Harmony had a majority of ponies in it's crew, Celestia preferred to have her loyalest crew in high places. With that in mind, it is easy to understand why Celestia appointed Soarin, one of the Wonderbolts, as head engineer. When starfleet had made all of the ponies who wished to serve aboard Harmony take Starfleet Academy courses Soarin and most of the Wonderbolts excelled in mechanically challenging courses. Celestia had taken note of this and decided that Soarin would make the best head engineer due to his "Succeed by any means necessary" attitude.

Thus far she had been correct. Upon entering Engineering, Celestia was given a front row seat to Soarin explaining the maintenance needed to keep the plasma manifolds operational to a crewman who didn't quite understand what his current task was. Celestia waited patiently for him to finish. Once he had dismissed the crewman and resumed his normal duty, Celestia approached.

"Good day, Soarin." She says walking up to his right side when he was at a console in front of the warp core.

"Good day, Captain." He responds, not looking at the Captain but simply reading out status of the warp-core on the console.

"Ah, finally someone who calls me 'Captain' instead of 'Princess' " Celestia says with a smile. "How is the core thus far?"

"Behaving as it should." Sorain says with a polite smile. "Since this ship has that new-ship smell still, this core has no malfunctioning parts, no re-fueling is needed, there is literally nothing wrong yet and that annoys me! There is currently very, very, very little to do for me and the rest of my staff. I read the statuses I'm reading now about ten or fifteen minutes ago."

Celestia laughs lightly. "Sounds exciting." she says with a friendly grin. "I'm sure once we reach our objective you'll have a bit more to do."

Author's Note:

These chapters should get progressively longer as the story continues. I am trying to pump these out with some speed to not only induct everyone into the story but also to build up interest. These opening chapters are the free sample of a good food that gets you to buy the box :)
And yes I openly admit to using that strategy. I believe that small opening chapters can act as sort of "Sample" chapters. Give you a feel for the author's style and how he/she is using the personalities of each character. As you will see in my other stories I also prefer these small chapters for different types of stories because they can be distributed quickly and give the reader something he/she can read in one quick burst instead of (In the case of "I must leave my computer or phone now!") remembering where they were in a gigantic chapter. I had to do that once when I was going on a date and had recently found a story who's chapters were generally 10,000 words plus. I had to get ready for said date when I was at about the 5,000 word mark.

Comments

[PrincessLunas Assistant]

3081949 Ah sorry about that. I type quickly and seem to need re-read more than I usually do :)

[Quantum_Shift]

Since this ship still has that new-ship smell still,

Redundant bits are redundant. Choose one and stick with it.

[PrincessLunas Assistant]

3085569 Thx
Had I known that I had done that I would have corrected it on the spot. Now that I am aware it is corrected.

[PrincessLunas Assistant]

3085793 Ah good I need more resources. Some of the sights I've looked up are quite....vague. And appeared to use incorrect calculations for things like Stardates.

edit "sights"? Forgive me for typing at 4am. I meant "sites"

[kofiddleboy]

Also, just wondering about the ship design. Is it like the Odyssey class, but with moving nacelles? 1,000 is waaay to many to share a design with Voyager, who only housed around 150.

[JAPH]

Wait, you have Celestia and Luna serving here? Who’s running Equestria? Who’s controlling the Sun and the Moon‽

[Smug Anime Girl]

Too many exclamations in the blurb. It's annoying.