Andy Davenport's Phoenix Saga - Phoenix Rising Part 1

The Phoenix Saga is a multi-part original fiction set in the Star Trek universe. It was written by my good friend Andy Davenport, and I've agreed to host it here for him. Here is Part 1:

2380.
ALPHA FLYER, EARTH SPACEDOCK.

The interior of Earth Spacedock made the Alpha Flyer seem like the size of a gnat in comparison to its size.
The Flyer was dwarfed further still by the close proximity of assortments of starship classes, docked in their berths, awaiting the possibility of being the first to have retrofitted the new quantum slipstream bubble core, and relevant engineering upgrades.
The Vesta Class U.S.S Phoenix already had the bubble core installed, so if this mission was a failure, she would be retro fitted with a standard warp drive.
The two nervous, anxious pilots went over their final launch checks, again, & again.
Lieutenant Markey felt like he was going to hyper ventilate with the high expectations of the mission at hand.
Whilst Lieutenant Commander Dantuma confidently worked over the quantum field regulators, Craig couldn’t understand how he could be so calm.
Here they were, about to launch in a super shuttle installed with the latest prototype quantum slipstream drive, with the fate of the mission resting on their broad shoulders.
If this mission wasn’t a success, the Starfleet higher ups were going to assign the slipstream project to the history books, alongside the transwarp great experiment.
Trying to control his breathing, and return to an air of calmness, he gazed over to the delegation looking on from an Observation Lounge.
The Lieutenant new that his mentor, and Captain of the project, Simon Hodgkinson, was watching with great anticipation, expectation, and faith.
Duco carried on working with an air of calm & cool collectiveness, as Craig regained his composure.
“Commander, how do you do it? Here we are about to make history, and you just carry on as if it is just another gaseous anomaly mapping mission!”
Duco stopped his test runs of the diode pulse initiator, and turned to face his co-pilot.
“Although I appear calm, inside I am completely the opposite. A good Starfleet officer though cannot show this hand in situations such as this. Would you follow a Captain who wasn’t confident or portrayed an air of confidence in their abilities to lead? I wouldn’t! So, in answer to your question, my cool exterior covers a quaking interior. But then, I’m only human.”
Craig smiled, no longer feeling alone in his trepidation, as they strapped themselves in ready for pre-launch countdown.

THE HIKARU SULU OBSERVATION LOUNGE.
EARTH SPACEDOCK.

In the Observation Lounge showing the view of the 5th & final Alpha Flyer, to be commissioned, Simon found himself anxious, excited, and slightly bored, all rolled into one tumultuous emotional overload.
The excitement & anxiousness threatened to overwhelm him, what with witnessing the culmination of the project he oversaw.
Ever since the U.S.S. Voyager returned, Starfleet wanted to reverse engineer, and perfect the quantum slipstream technology that had been acquired.
Working alongside such living legends had been an honour, and yet as the failure of this final test mission promised cancellation of the project, he felt honoured to have been a part of what one day others might deem a historical chapter in Federation & human history.
Even more so, he decided to keep the company of a legend at the delegation, rather than the stuffy elite such as Admiral Jellicoe, & President Bacco.
At first glance, the legendary company he kept at his launch ceremony was an everyday Chief Engineer to the untrained eye.
Yet, the El-Aurian, Ken Mumford had experienced centuries of engineering marvels & failures.
One of those was Ken’s participation in the testing of transwarp prototypes during the late 2270’s to mid 2280’s, which, an accident had led him to be time displaced.
(Although for a while he was presumed missing, and ultimately announced dead).
Most notably, the engineering whiz now found himself the beck & call of every top engineering project throughout the Federation, and Captain David Gold of the Starfleet Corps Of Engineers had badgered him so many times to join his crew, Ken had lost count.
As Chancellor Martok approached Simon, Ken muttered to him; “If there’s one thing i will always have difficulty adjusting to, it’s sharing a drink with a Klingon, without them wanting to take your head off!”

VESTA CLASS U.S.S. PHOENIX.
DRYDOCK 5.
McKINLEY STATION.

Dr. Kurt Coey wasn’t much for fanfare of any kind.
Rather than be under the brilliant glare of the spotlight, he preferred to shy away from it.
Although, circumstances always led to the extreme opposite.
A routine training & integration of the medical staff, along with a tour of the medical facilities by the CMO of Starfleet Medical, Beverly Crusher, had suddenly become anything but routine.
As he muttered to himself, and paced around whilst the state of the art medical facilities had their first impromptu test, he occasionally interjected his advice to the unseasoned, yet brilliant staff.
‘Oh no, it had to be us that was the closest available starship. None of the other shiny new contraptions have any medical facilities up to standard, let alone yet to be installed. Even Spacedock medical facilities are having a refit!’
As he continued to pace, he chuckled at the fact that it was Monday, and the engineers were making their final equipment instalments tomorrow. The irony was there that if Drex had had his mishap tomorrow, there would have been plenty of facilities available to attend to him. But oh no, it had to happen today.
‘I told Councillor Drex, not to try the cooked meats. The Klingon stomach can only process raw meat at best. But he insisted a true warrior is fearful of nothing. Damn, that Klingon pride.’
This time his muttering had become loud enough for his staff and Crusher to hear, in turn causing one of the medics to make the wrong incision.
As alarms rang, and with Crusher looking on, the unseasoned surgeon who lapsed in concentration, panicked.
Smugly, Dr. Coey, calmly interjected between the hubbub, and showed them the redundant organ.
‘See? Klingons are warrior bred. They have a back up for everything, including if their heart stops. The other one should kick in about five....four....three....two....one....’ The monitors’ alarms ceased, as the regular heartbeat registered on screen.
Kurt turned to Crusher, and made a thumbs up gesture, as a general smile of relief washed over her face.

ALPHA FLYER MARK V.

Everything was going according to plan as Craig & Duco were escorted at high impulse to the edge of the Sol system by the Federation flagship.
Conveying their thanks as the gargantuan Sovereign class vessel warped out of view, the officers returned to the business at hand.
As Duco conveyed instructions to Craig to input navigational co-ordinates, Craig froze.
“Are you out of your mind? The mission states that we are to attempt a quantum slipstream jump to Vulcan, where, if successful, we will wait to rendezvous with the Captain Hodgkinson.’’
The Commander laughed.
‘’Earth to Vulcan for a slipstream jump is like throwing a stone across a pond. We need a proper test of the drive. As the senior ranking officer i say let’s give the higher ups a surprise at what this vessel can do, and go visit our Klingon allies!”
There goes my fast track to command, thought Lieutenant Markey, as he readied the ship for warp speed.
“Punch it.’’
In the blink of an eye, the flyer jumped from high impulse to warp one, and climbing.
It was hardly noticeable as the super shuttle increased its speed, and as warp five approached, Craig initiated the chroniton integrator followed by a diode pulse, swiftly initiating the drive.
Triumphantly the Lieutenant announced; ‘’Quantum slipstream threshold broken!”

VESTA CLASS U.S.S. PHOENIX.
DRYDOCK 5.
McKINLEY STATION.

The alarm had been ringing for a constant 5 minutes, filling the room with its ear splitting tone.
Yet, even as it shrieked annoyingly, no one acknowledged it to terminate the noise.
After a moment longer, the clock went into snooze mode, ready to emit its high pitched alarm in another five minutes.
The familiar beeping noise heralding a communication pitched through the quarters speakers.
“Bridge to Lieutenant Walker.”
Kirsty shot up into a sitting position immediately, with the rigidity of a Borg drone, whilst the voice continued to address her.
“The Ship’s Counsellor Room has had its delivery of the final furnishings and equipment, the only thing is there is no Counsellor present to direct the workers and engineers.”
This time the v’tosh ka’tur Vulcan Ensign Sodak awoke sharply, realising that he too was late for his Engineering shift.
“Sorry, Captain, I’m on my way’’ she sheepishly exclaimed.
On the gleaming new bridge of the U.S.S. Phoenix, Captain Simon Hodgkinson grinned mischievously at his first officer, whilst taking great enjoyment from awakening the late reporting Lieutenant.
“Oh, and Lieutenant, give Ensign Sodak a motivational nudge as he should have reported for Alpha Shift a half hour ago. Hodgkinson out.”
As Kirsty hurriedly prepared herself, she found herself cursing the ships sensors for embarrassingly locating Sodak, and cursed the Captain for his warped sense of humour.

EL CAPITAN.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, EARTH.

With each grasp and foothold, Lieutenant Reza Babai & Commander Andrew Davenport, were itching closer to breaking the free climbing record of El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park.
With each movement upwards, inching closer to their goal at the top, the banter became more & more competitive.
“You know, for someone who has very little memory of his life, you sure do make climbing this mountain look as easy as riding a bike. You sure you haven’t done this before?’’ Rez, (as his friends called him), questioned.
Andy, focused at the task at hand, and trying his best to ignore his future ship mates jibes, laughed; “Don’t do a James T. Kirk on me now, as i don’t have a pair of standard issue hover boots!”
As they reached the top, out of breath, they sat down and rested, taking in the spectacular view.
Rez’s thoughts changed to the pending assignment on the Phoenix, and the change, he felt that they both needed.
Leading Starfleet Security at the Quantum Slipstream Complex in Montana had become very routine & mundane, whilst he knew that the years of rehabilitation & re-integration into Starfleet, had reached a point for Andy.
A new mandates of exploration into the four quadrants was just the kind of fresh starts he felt they both needed.
He relished the thought of heading out into the Alpha Quadrant, re-establishing links with previously visited civilisations & Federation members, as well seeing if the really was anything more to re-discover in the most explored quadrant of all.
Although Rez couldn’t help but feel sorry for his colleague Andy, what with having to rebuild his life after affecting events.
Perhaps the Alpha Quadrant five year mission would jog his memory, especially considering it was a territory he was so familiar with.
As they took in the scenery & had a moment to compose themselves, Andy’s communicator chirped.
“Davenport here.”
The familiar cheery voice of Captain Hodgkinson filtered through the unit’s speakers.
“Gentlemen, congratulations on breaking the free climbing record. No doubt that when you remove yourselves from El Capitan, that a media frenzy awaits you. Well, sorry gentlemen, we are bringing the launch forward to tomorrow.
I would like all senior staff to meet me in the Observation Lounge, at Drydock 5, McKinley Station, for drinks this evening.
We’ll have an informal discussion.
O, officers Dantuma & Markey won’t be able to make it, but that’s a story i will convey to you later.
Congratulations again, gentlemen.
Hodgkinson out.”
Andy chuckled and wondered what mess Duco & Craig had gotten themselves into now.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE.
DRYDOCK 5.
McKINLEY STATION.

After relaying the details of the upcoming mission, and the misadventures of the Alpha Flyer, the senior officers decided to call it a night.
Their first mission was to facilitate a peace treaty on Ardana, & assist with the de-commissioning of the sky cities.
Following that, after letting them stew in the Federation Embassy on Q’onos, the Phoenix would collect the Alpha Flyer & officers Dantuma & Markey.
Swirling the synthehol in the glass tumbler, he couldn’t help but be amazed at what had been achieved in such a short period of time.
He was surprised at himself for returning to Starfleet & staying
But the history making assignment that he and other Captains had been given was what Starfleet was all about, and reason enough to stay.

The swirling of the tumbler of synthehol seemed to have a hypnotic effect on the Captain, but none so more as the vision outside the gargantuan window’s of the Observation Lounge.
The Work Bee’s, Sphinx Pods, & other auxiliary craft were finishing their final snagging jobs, whilst on the inside of the starship, the same occurred. Yet, as he watched the frenetic activity, he pondered the journey that he had taken to get to this moment.
The past three years had been a whirlwind; from the opening of the Quantum Slipstream Complex, (on the site of the famous Warp 5 Complex), and dissecting the advanced alien technology that the returning U.S.S. Voyager had acquired, to the laying of the keel of the Phoenix at the San Francisco Fleet Yards, in Sausalito.
Today was even more of a whirlwind, what with the announcement of Starfleet assigning 5 starships per quadrant, on 5 year missions returning to the age of discovery enjoyed by James T. Kirk.
Then, to cap off the announcements of vessels assigned, he was chosen to be Captain of one of those ships. The newly christened, Vesta Class, U.S.S. Phoenix, was to be his chariot.
Captain Hodgkinson couldn’t help but wonder that the vessel had been aptly named, especially with the Federation rising from the ashes of war over the past few years.
Peace had been enjoyed by all, and a new era of exploring the farthest, outermost reaches of the Alpha Quadrant had begun. As he quickly downed the remaining drops of synthehol, he toasted silently to the ship; “To the re-discovery of the final frontier.’’

He was restless and knew sleep wouldn’t be forthcoming, and with that in mind, he decided to request a Travel Pod, and journey over the ship from bow to stern.
Not as an examiner, but this time as an awed onlooking officer; as if about to receive the first Captaincy of a vessel.
Taking his glass back to the bar, he made his way to the transportation hub.
Goosebumps formed on his neck, and he shivered as if someone had walked over his grave, as he quickly whipped on his jacket.

A silent, shrouded figure monitored the Captain, and noticed a quickness in his step, as if he had seen that he was being followed.
But that wasn’t possible, as the stalker had a near perfect shroud, and was invisible but to the most advanced of sensors.
Reaching for his communicator, the speaker uttered an alien command;
“Dach ma chek.”