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Star Trek Atlantis:
The Maiden Voyage
By: Michael Mulhollon
The sliding doors opened and Captain Mike Riva exited his cabin, with pad in hand, and straightened his uniform as he walked and rounded a corner, “Hey Mike!” Riva jumped as Andor appeared right in front of him and after a quick sigh of relief Mike stated, “Andor, this is not the academy anymore. Please don’t do that again.” Andor’s antenna (even though they are short) perked up as he looked wide eyed and apologized, “Sorry captain. I forgot. It’s just been so long and sometimes I felt…”, “Don’t worry Andor, I’m not going to put you on report. Just remember we are now the highest ranking officers on the ship and this time people are now looking up to us and not the other way around.” Andor replied with a slight bow, “Yes captain.” They both walked together and Andor asked, “Have you met the helmsman and navigator?” Riva answered, while reading his pad, “No I have not.” Andor turned to him with a cautious look on his face and he spoke with concern, “I think you should. Especially since our navigator is a Gideonite and our helmsman is a……Capellan.” Riva stopped dead in his tracts, looked at Andor with wide eyes and asked seriously, “Are you kidding me?” Andor nodded, “No Riva. I am not.” Riva looked furious and almost stomped as he and Andor continued walking the light brown passageway and spoke as if controlling his anger, “The admiral no doubt really wants me to fail on our first mission.” Andor looked both shock and innocent as he asked, “But why involve me and Clark? We didn’t….” Riva cut him off, “Because you two are still fairly new from the academy and since he is Tellarite, just being my former classmates and friends at the academy makes you, to him, co-conspirators.” Andor’s antennae dropped down, like dying flowers, as he looked saddened and stopped before the turbo lift doors and spoke with sadness, “What are we going to do?” Riva overcame his anger, breathed and answered, “Our normal duties, of course. Hopefully this will end after our first mission and whoever in Starfleet we answered too is not a Tellarite admiral.” The turbo lift doors opened and after a couple of crewmen exited (one of them popped to attention as he walked by), Riva and Andor entered before the doors closed and Riva ordered, “Bridge.” And the turbo lift began to move up.
Riva and Andor stood alone in the turbo lift, as it moved up to the bridge and as they waited Andor looked at Riva, with a smile on his face, and asked, “Did you try one of holodecks?” Riva sighed and answered, “Unfortunately Grumbly made sure to keep me VERY occupied with my reading, so no.” He looked at Andor with curiosity, “How is it?” Andor laughed, “It’s good! Really good! Mr. Musk certainly has improved the holodecks from the former Enterprise -D to be up to date like the rest of the fleet. At least he kept the passageways and computer arch’s in the holodecks the same (visually).” Riva asked, “Did you hear anything from our Chief Engineer regarding our engines?” Just as he was asking the question the turbo lift slowed down, stopped and as if to answer his question, the doors opened to reveal Chief Engineer Clark standing as if at ease and when he saw Riva he smiled and said, “Exactly like the Nebula class starships!” He entered, stood to the left of Riva and when the doors closed the lift resumed moving upwards and he continued, “At first I was worried that like the saucer section, they were going to grab the warp core from another wrecked or unsalvageable starship, but proved me wrong!” Riva smirked, “Glad you like it. I take it you familiar with the warp core and systems after two weeks?” Clark replied, “Yes, actually more familiar since we have been delayed by a week.” Andor looked at Riva with a puzzled expression, “Mike, why has our departure been delayed this long?” Riva answered, “That’s the question I will answer first in the observation lounge.” The turbo lift stopped, the doors opened and Riva took a deep breath before exiting and taking in the view of the bridge of the Atlantis.
The bridge of the Atlantis looks the same as the refitted bridge of the Enterprise-D before it crashed landed on the surface of Veridian III, but with subtle changes as Riva stood just outside the turbo lift. The one change he noticed is the command chairs are not the same color leather but instead looked dark brown, as according to his reading material from Musk that the original chairs were removed and are now in one of the preservation hangers in the Atlantis to be delivered to the Starfleet Museum to preserve and show the history of the eight year voyage of the Enterprise-D, under Captain Picard’s command. The same can be said to the consoles next to the XO and to the left of the captain’s chair’s and the seats and consoles of ops and navigation. The floor, also instead of being mainly dark grey is now light skin brown (almost white) to give the bridge a more brightful appearance and he also noticed the window ceiling is completely restored to again show space above, once the Atlantis exits out of dry dock. Riva’s attention then returned and he walked behind tactical and passed through a set of sliding doors and into the observation lounge and noticed his senior staff and Musk are standing and talking to each other. When they noticed Riva they stopped talking and Riva said, “Good afternoon, please take your seats.” All nine staff members and Musk (as the desk in the observation room is extended to add two more seats and the room to compensate for the enlargement) sat as Captain Riva took his place at the end and faced Andor, Clark, Cait’A, Tonga, Fabron, Lucius, Mendel, Thrall, Belok and John Musk III (with Admiral Grumbly in the computer screen on the wall behind Riva) and spoke with a look of concern, “I’m sure you are all wondering why our launch is delayed by a week and for that I believe Mr. Musk can answer that.” They all turned to John Musk III and with ease he answered, “There has been some issues with my companies equipment being taken apart on the planet that required extra labor and time to figure out the problems and fix them as they are being taken apart and loaded on board. We even had to modify the already built hangers in the Star Drive section in order for the equipment to fit inside.” Clark spoke in a firm tone, “My staff had to delay training in order to help you Mr. Musk and resulted in our department being delayed for readiness.” Musk nodded, “As for that I am sorry, but we are now ready.” “Good Mr. Musk, I’m now more than confident that Captain Riva and his crew are ready to get underway.” As Grumbly spoke, Riva and everyone else in the room looked at him as he continued, “The starships Galileo and Executor will also join you on your journey to Mars and for any assistance you may need, which after two weeks I believe you won’t. Right captain?” Riva replied, “Yes admiral.” Grumbly smiled and gave the usual Tellarite laugh before saying, “Good! Have a safe and interesting journey captain, Mr. Musk!” And his image disappeared and everyone looked away and Musk stood up, “I myself will leave to make final checks and preparations of my equipment for the journey.” He looked at the captain, smirked, “Bye captain.” Riva smirked and nod as Musk turned and left.
