08-04-2026, 01:46 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-04-2026, 01:51 PM by Hallowette Maxas-Darl.)
"You're not just a crew. You're my friends. I want my friends with me when I face the unknown." Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Some mornings conversation lingered between stations - polite smiles and gentle looks underlying the minutiae that otherwise punctuated the simple boredom that came with long periods of the routine. Others settled almost immediately into the familiar cadence of acknowledgements, sensor updates and the soft chorus of LCARS tones that accompanied a ship steadily going about her work. Since being assigned her permanent duty on the command deck, Hallowette had slowly come to notice those subtle differences - Perhaps every bridge developed its own personality over time. If so, Artemis' seemed to reveal itself more in small moments than grand ones.
She lifted her head slightly as the turbolift doors opened. Lieutenant Harriman stepped onto the bridge carrying the unmistakable aroma of fresh coffee, her expression suggesting she was already mentally sorting through the beginning of another watch. Hallowette couldn't help the faint smile that tugged at one corner of her mouth as the tactical officer realized just a heartbeat too late that the chewing gum accompanying her coffee had made the journey to the bridge with her. The quickly deflated bubble was almost comically discreet.
Hally politely pretended not to see it, smiling at her fellow officer as Carol relieved the watch at the primary tactical station.
It was a strangely comforting thing, really. Starfleet officers were often remembered for impossible rescues, impossible decisions and impossible odds, but most days were built from moments like this instead. A cup of coffee grabbed before shift. A forgotten piece of gum. Someone arriving a minute early to review another officer's log before quietly taking over a console. It was in those ordinary habits that people stopped being uniforms and became shipmates, and given enough time, if you were fortunate, they eventually became friends.
Her attention drifted back to her own display as Artemis slipped from warp into the waiting silence of another unexplored system. Fresh telemetry blossomed across the operations display in orderly streams, automatically sorting itself as Science began their scans. Communications routing adjusted in anticipation of the probe launch while tactical systems settled into their quiet vigilance, content simply to watch unless called upon.
Everything seemed to happen at once, yet, in quiet confidence never felt hurried. Hallowette found herself appreciating that more with every passing week. There had been a time when flying the ship had occupied nearly all of her attention, the universe narrowing to stars, vectors and graceful corrections measured in fractions of a degree or a micron of a second. Now, as her duties increased, so did her perspective. She still loved watching the stars streak by through the viewscreen, but she had come to enjoy watching the bridge itself just as much. The way dozens of individual responsibilities blended so naturally together that it became difficult to tell where one officer's work ended and another's began.
There are far worse places to spend a life than here.
With one last glance across her displays, she looked toward the center of the bridge. "Commander Sovar," she said evenly, "operations is synchronized with Science's telemetry. Communications reports standing by for probe deployment whenever we're ready."
Some mornings conversation lingered between stations - polite smiles and gentle looks underlying the minutiae that otherwise punctuated the simple boredom that came with long periods of the routine. Others settled almost immediately into the familiar cadence of acknowledgements, sensor updates and the soft chorus of LCARS tones that accompanied a ship steadily going about her work. Since being assigned her permanent duty on the command deck, Hallowette had slowly come to notice those subtle differences - Perhaps every bridge developed its own personality over time. If so, Artemis' seemed to reveal itself more in small moments than grand ones.
She lifted her head slightly as the turbolift doors opened. Lieutenant Harriman stepped onto the bridge carrying the unmistakable aroma of fresh coffee, her expression suggesting she was already mentally sorting through the beginning of another watch. Hallowette couldn't help the faint smile that tugged at one corner of her mouth as the tactical officer realized just a heartbeat too late that the chewing gum accompanying her coffee had made the journey to the bridge with her. The quickly deflated bubble was almost comically discreet.
Hally politely pretended not to see it, smiling at her fellow officer as Carol relieved the watch at the primary tactical station.
It was a strangely comforting thing, really. Starfleet officers were often remembered for impossible rescues, impossible decisions and impossible odds, but most days were built from moments like this instead. A cup of coffee grabbed before shift. A forgotten piece of gum. Someone arriving a minute early to review another officer's log before quietly taking over a console. It was in those ordinary habits that people stopped being uniforms and became shipmates, and given enough time, if you were fortunate, they eventually became friends.
Her attention drifted back to her own display as Artemis slipped from warp into the waiting silence of another unexplored system. Fresh telemetry blossomed across the operations display in orderly streams, automatically sorting itself as Science began their scans. Communications routing adjusted in anticipation of the probe launch while tactical systems settled into their quiet vigilance, content simply to watch unless called upon.
Everything seemed to happen at once, yet, in quiet confidence never felt hurried. Hallowette found herself appreciating that more with every passing week. There had been a time when flying the ship had occupied nearly all of her attention, the universe narrowing to stars, vectors and graceful corrections measured in fractions of a degree or a micron of a second. Now, as her duties increased, so did her perspective. She still loved watching the stars streak by through the viewscreen, but she had come to enjoy watching the bridge itself just as much. The way dozens of individual responsibilities blended so naturally together that it became difficult to tell where one officer's work ended and another's began.
There are far worse places to spend a life than here.
With one last glance across her displays, she looked toward the center of the bridge. "Commander Sovar," she said evenly, "operations is synchronized with Science's telemetry. Communications reports standing by for probe deployment whenever we're ready."