It was a rare occasion for Kira Markos to be seen on the bridge away from Sick Bay, but during the past couple of weeks everyone was working multiple shifts due to a shortage in crewmembers. In light of his recent promotion to Lt. Commander, Captain Osagawa had asked Kira to take a shift on the bridge near his side. Kira knew that his recent promotion would entail some new responsibilities, but he didn't know this would be one of them. Only a few departments had the luxury of excess personnel, and with two doctors on board Captain Osagawa must have realized that only one of them was needed to cover Sickbay. Kira wasn't alone in his cross-training experience, Carter was pulling a shift at the Helm and Nige was simultaneously monitoring the Tactical and Security displays from his station nearby.
At this moment all eyes were trained to the main viewscreen as the USS Knight nudged its way towards the edge of the galaxy. Very few Federation ships had ventured out this far into space following the recent advent of Transwarp technology. In fact, the Knight would be the second ship to have this particular area of space grace its viewscreens. Their mission was simple, find out what happened to the USS Howard Carter, a Constitution class starship on a mission much like that of the Knight's. A little over a week ago the Howard Carter had sent a message back to the Federation informing Starfleet Command that it had discovered a device that bore a striking resemblance to something called "The Guardian of Forever." Shortly after delivering that message, all communication between Starfleet and the Howard Carter ceased without explanation.
As the rest of the bridge crew was busy milling around completing their duties, Kira wondered what he was supposed to be doing on the bridge. Everyone else around him had a sense of purpose as each of them completed their assigned duties. Kira, however, was at a complete loss. Never picturing himself in a position of authority, Kira had never seen the use for taking courses outside of his medical curriculum like Basic Command, Tactical, and Helm Control. Truth be told, without the use of the autopilot he couldn't even fly a shuttlecraft. But in addition to his additional duties, and as a requirement for his advancing in rank, Kira was also given some study materials from Starfleet Command that would teach him how to run a starship. Lt. Commander Carter and Lt. Nige were helping Markos to make sense of most of the material, but it wasn't easy reading. Right now he wished that he'd paid more attention to the section on the chain of command.
In the middle of his trying to look busy, Markos heard the Captain voice a simple order. "Sensors out to maximum range. Let's see what we're getting ourselves into."
Carter bounced into action and began punching the panel before her with deliberate precision. In response to her motions the panel began to display a mass of information on her personal screen. After a cursory look Carter began to summarize what the sensors were displaying. "Zinak Globular Cluster... approximate stellar population of 150,000 stars... approximate diameter is 165 light-years... Hmm. This is interesting. The heavy element percentage is rather high for a globular cluster -- 35% above normal. That's probably why it was possible for the ancient civilization the Howard Carter found to evolve here."
"And speaking of the Howard Carter, Commander...." prodded Osagawa.
"Aye sir. Scanning," Carter pauses for a moment to let her fingers dance across the panel, and then replies, "Got it Captain. A Federation distress beacon bearing 097 mark 23, range 78 parsecs, ETA is 14 hours at warp 12."
"Good work. Set course, warp 12. Execute!" commanded the Captain.
"Aye sir," said Carter. At her direction, the great starship pivoted about to face its new heading, and in a transwarp blur disappeared deeper into the cloud of giant orange stars of the Zinak Cluster.
Fortunately for Markos, his extra shift was over after another hour. As the relief crew entered the bridge Kira tried not to appear like he was trying to bolt toward the turbolift. Carter and Nige must have noticed his expression and they finished up their duties and quickly joined him, leaving the ship in the hands of the night crew. As the doors closed on the three passengers, Kira finally lets his nervousness subside with a heavy sigh.
"What was that for? You did fine!" replied Nige to Kira's quiet sigh.
"What I did was tried to look busy while actually accomplishing nothing. I still don't have a clue as to what I'm supposed to be doing in that chair."
"Nige is correct, whatever you did, it must have worked. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary," interjected Carter as she struggled to control a small grin that was beginning to take shape. "Although I did notice that you seemed overly preoccupied with your chair controls," she quipped as she cracked a small smug smile. "I might want to have Brock check on the servo motors after what I just witnessed."
"I couldn't help it, they were the only controls that I understood!"
At this remark, the three of them broke out laughing. Nige was the first to recover and asked, "I guess we'll be talking about basic command controls over dinner tonight?"
"Although I hate to miss this conversation," Carter said with a grin, "I can't stay out too long. I'll be flying the Griffin over the planet surface when we arrive at the Zinak Cluster."
"We won't keep you out past your bedtime. After all, both Nige and I will be in the throes of mastering the bridge chair seating controls while you are out and about," said Markos.
As the turbolift doors opened before them, the three passengers exited and headed towards Ten Forward. After their arrival each of them ordered something from Owen, and found a place to sit and converse near the large windows. The conversation mostly concentrated on bridge protocol and tactical functions, but it did stray across a rabbit trail or two. As the evening wound down each of them packed up their trays, exited Ten Forward, and bid each other good night. After all, tomorrow was another big day.