Gavin Jeffreys? He used to be one of my teachers at the Academy. What in the hell is he doing out here? This was one of the many questions in Garek Loran's head. Another thing that readily occupied his attention was of his friend, probably soon-to-be non-Lieutenant Jon Valdago. Garek had secretly helped Jon get off of the Virgo in an effort to get him closer to his family in the Alpha Quadrant. Well, at least one part of his idea had worked. He was able to get Jon off of the Virgo. Now, what would happen to Jon. Or to himself?
Shaking these questions off, Garek entered one of the many turbolifts that was in the observation deck of the bottom docking bay of the station. "Control center," Garek stated as the doors closed.
<Your request cannot be carried out.>
"What the... Computer, Operations Center."
<Your request cannot be carried out.>
"Why not?"
<There is no 'Operations Center' on Supply Base 901.>
"Then what do you call your center of operations for the station?"
<The Bridge.>
"How nice." Garek rolled his eyes. "To 'The Bridge' then."
After taking a look around the control center of the station, Garek entered the turbolift again. "Computer, what are the assigned quarters for Lieutenant Commander Garek Loran?"
<Lieutenant Commander Garek Loran is assigned to room Alpha 2 on Deck 6 of Section 1.>
Funny. I thought those were reserved for command crew. "Computer, verify quarter arrangements."
<Arrangements verified. Data has not changed.>
Shrugging, Garek pressed a button on a control panel in the turbolift, and the car sped away.
The doors to Garek's quarters opened, along with the customary hiss. The lights were deactivated, but Garek could easily see the reddish orange plasma swirls of the Briar Patch outside his windows . Pressing a control key near the door, the room lit up to reveal a somewhat more spacious quarters then what he had on the Virgo. He entered into what was the main living area. He could see an office to his right, and the bedroom to his left. A translucent door was against the back wall of his quarters, near the walkway to his bedroom. Through there, he assumed, had to be the bathroom.
Garek tossed his bag onto a nearby couch, and took a look around, entering each room in his new quarters, and taking a look around to get a feel for his new environment. He noticed that the quarters were rather warm. "Computer, lower the room temperature by another 2 degrees Celsius." It took a moment, but the room became cooler and more to his liking. A beeping started to emanate from a personal viewer on the desk in his main living room. Garek walked over to the corner where the desk was, and pressed a button on the viewer.
The familiar UFP symbol appeared with "SB901" flashing beneath it. The seal was then replaced by a "cover sheet" with an outline with information about the station. Major topics were the station as a whole: operating procedures, command crew, personnel files, etceteras.
Figures. More paperwork... pressing another key, Garek quickly scrolled down the list of topics the report covered, and began going over the crew manifest. Alot of the personnel that would be working onboard were new recruits, many on their first assignment. He was able to note many seasoned veterans, however. Suprisingly, he found himself as one of the crew as having a, "highly experienced background." Garek laughed at the idea of someone calling him "highly experienced" and continued reading.
Another two grueling hours later, Garek finished nearly two thirds of the report. He then closed the viewer, saving the rest as "bathroom reading" material, and made his way out of his quarters. His next destination would be the main bay again, to move his spacecraft.
"Deck Officer!" Garek yelled out at a yellow clad crewman shuffling around quickly between different workbees and shuttlecrafts. The shuttlebay in the bottom most section of the station effectively "lined" the massive open "air" bay in which Galaxy, Ambassador, and other respectably sized ships would come in and dock. The magnetic containment, or MAGCON field was the only thing that kept the vacuum of space from sucking the air out of the shuttle bay.
"Aye sir!" the deck officer yelled back, over the whining of the start up of a workbee's engines.
"I need to know where the Lambda Flier is assigned to dock."
The crewman pulled out a type of modified PADD from his pant leg "cargo" pocket and began reading it over. "The Lambda Flier has been assigned to docking collar 1 on Commerce Pylon Alpha sir."
"Thank you crewman." Garek made his way over to the Lambda Flier which was sitting next to a runabout. Garek walked in through the rear access panel and closed it up. Making his way forward, he then entered the cockpit and sat down in the pilot's chair, powering up main systems. "Lieutenant Commander Garek Loran to docking controller. Docking controller come in please."
[This is Chief Gregory Edwards, Lieutenant Commander.]
"Chief, I'm going to be making my way out of the main docking bay to Commerce Pylon Alpha."
[Understood Sir. Fly safely. Docking Control out.]
A light began bleeping, signaling that the Lambda Flier had received clearance to leave the bay. Ever so slightly, Garek engaged the anti-gravity thrusters. He then retracted the landing skids and moved forward on thrusters. Clearing the MAGCON field, the Lambda Flier picked up momentum and moved forward, passing through the massive space doors to the bottom docking area. The doors always remained open, unless the station was under attack, at which point they would be closed. At least that's what the report he had been reading about an hour ago had said.
Garek pulled into a high arc that brought the station into clear view in his forward viewscreen. The place, no matter what he had heard before, did look better on the outside. The fresh coat of gray paint along with Federation markings made the station look better then some previous ones he had visited. Making a slight performance for anyone that might be watching, he brought the Lambda Flier into a lazy barrel roll, and then maneuvered his way over to docking collar 1 on Commerce Pylon Alpha. Carefully, Garek lined the access port of the shuttle up with the extendible sleeve of the docking collar. Engaging the autopilot, the Lambda Flier steadied itself as Garek linked up with SB901's computer. He then began maneuvering the docking sleeve up to the Lambda Flier's access port. A few moments later, a thud was felt, and a beep was heard from one of the console's indicating that he had hard dock.
Shutting down the Lambda Flier's systems, he was thankful that he had installed the universal docking port on the rear of the shuttle. This would allow him to dock at stations that didn't have a shuttlebay. That, and he wouldn't be occupying any shuttlebay space that could be used for better purposes by another shuttle. Garek walked to the rear of the vessel, and pressed a button. A moment afterwards, a green light lit up, and the rear access port to the Lambda Flier opened, revealing the passageway that led to the door of the station.
Stepping out, the door to the Lambda Flier sealed behind him and locked into place, awaiting his next return. Garek walked down the walkway, and pressed a button at the other end. Another moment passed, and the door on the base's end opened, admitting the engineer. The door closed behind him, and a display screen above the door acknowledged the Lambda Flier's existence with the vessel's name, ship commander, and duration of stay onboard. Garek then turned his attention to Commerce Pylon Alpha's promenade. Most of the storefronts were yet to be opened. Some of the empty spaces were listed as "SOLD", indicating that merchants and entrepreneurs would eventually be setting up shop in these nearly completely empty halls. For now, however, they station was quiet, and no major engineering problems had been reported. Continuing to look around, Garek made his way back to Section 3 of SB901, and from there, back to his quarters for some more reading.