The Shape of New Ships
Printed From: USS Vanguard
Category: In Character
Forum Name: In Character Posts
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URL: http:/www.aerth.org/Vanguard/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=361
Printed Date: August/03/2026 at 1:27am
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Topic: The Shape of New Ships
Posted By: Cerys_Rowan
Subject: The Shape of New Ships
Date Posted: July/02/2026 at 5:26pm
Chief Science Officer, Lt. Cerys Rowan
Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards
58807.02, 1300h
The transporter room at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards smelled faintly of ozone, hot metal, and fresh polymer sealant.
Cerys Rowan had always thought shipyards had their own atmosphere. Not the carefully balanced, almost invisible air of a starship in flight, but something more unsettled. More alive. The air here carried the traces of new beginnings: newly christened serial numbers painted on ships, state-of-the-art science equipment being installed, and shuttle crews ferrying crates between drydocks like bees between flowers. It was a place where ships became homes.
Cerys stood on the transporter pad with her travel case at her feet, a specimen case under one arm, and a PADD clutched in her other hand. The PADD contained her transfer orders, departmental roster, laboratory allocation notes, and three increasingly terse messages about storage limits aboard Nova-class vessels.
The last one had included the phrase: Chief Science Officer discretion is appreciated.
Which to Cerys meant: Please do not bring a forest.
So instead Cerys had brought only one plant sample. And one moss-mimic glider.
The sample rested in a palm-sized stasis cylinder inside the case tucked beneath her arm. It looked, to anyone else, like a dark curl of lichen suspended in pale blue containment light. To Cerys, it was the beginning of a question she had carried for six years.
Bramble rustled from the breathable travel sling across her shoulder.
“Hush,” Cerys murmured.
The moss-mimic glider settled, briefly, in the sling.
The transporter chief, a gray-haired Tellarite with one tusk, glanced up from the console. “Problem, Lieutenant?”
“No problem. My luggage is just enthusiastic.”
The Tellarite snorted and stared at the green critter attached to Cerys. “Better than contagious. Last week, a commander tried to beam aboard with a self-replicating mega-virus.”
Cerys smiled politely. “Don’t worry. He is fully cleared under Starfleet companion organism protocols. And certainly not contagious.”
The transporter chief smirked and continued prepping his console.
Through the observation window, the USS Vanguard waited in drydock.
Nova-class. Compact. Purpose-built. Less imposing than the great cruisers and deep-space explorers, but there was something graceful in her small stature. She was not a ship meant to overwhelm. She was a ship meant to observe. And Cerys liked her immediately.
Her name was painted cleanly along the hull: USS VANGUARD, NCC-76381.
Her first assignment as Chief Science Officer.
The thought should have filled her with triumph. Instead, it arrived with a complicated mix of pride, nerves, and the sudden irrational conviction that she had worn the wrong boots.
“Transport lock established,” the chief said. “Vanguard transporter room two is ready to receive.”
Cerys straightened. Bramble made a questioning chirp.
The transporter chief activated the beam and, for one suspended moment, Cerys was nothing but pattern and light.
⸻
The Vanguard’s transporter room was smaller than the fleetyard station’s, but somehow warmer. Not in temperature. In personality.
The console gave a soft confirmation chime.
Transport complete.
Cerys stepped down from the pad.
No one was waiting for her.
For a moment, she simply stood there with her travel case, her specimen case, and Bramble pressed warm and curious against her shoulder. The absence of ceremony should have made the moment feel smaller. Instead, it made it feel more real. The ship did not pause for her arrival. It breathed around her: environmental systems humming, distant tools tapping behind bulkheads, turbolift doors whispering open and closed somewhere beyond the room.
Cerys consulted her PADD. Temporary access codes. Shipboard directory. Revised lab assignments. Quartering information. Her personal effects had already been routed to her quarters. The crates marked fragile had been placed outside Science Lab One pending her approval.
One of them, according to a terse cargo notation, was producing intermittent vibration.
“That would be the humidity regulator,” Cerys murmured.
Bramble climbed higher in the sling, his small side membranes flexing with interest.
“It is not a toy.”
Bramble looked charmingly innocent.
The corridor beyond the transporter room curved gently away in both directions. There were protective covers still on some wall panels. Crew moved with the careful speed of people still learning a new ship’s angles. A pair of engineers passed carrying a panel between them. Someone in command red ducked around an open diagnostic junction. A medical technician stepped aside with a crate of emergency supplies.
The Vanguard was not fully settled yet. Cerys could feel it.
She followed the directory toward Science Lab One. The ship’s compactness became apparent almost immediately. Here, everything seemed close: transporter room, turbolift, science lab. A small ship. A ship where everyone would learn everyone else’s habits quickly.
A ship where a Chief Science Officer could not hide within the nonexistent arboretum.
Cerys touched the specimen case under her arm, and her mentor’s voice sounded in memory.
The unknown is easier to face when the people naming it remember to be kind.
Professor Arlen Vey had said it to her on a rain-heavy afternoon at Starfleet Academy, after a first-contact ethics seminar had gone badly. Cerys had been twenty-one, exhausted, and furious with a visiting instructor who had referred to a newly encountered photosynthetic-based organism as an “environmental hazard” before anyone had determined whether it possessed consciousness.
She had argued with him. Too sharply, probably, and certainly too personally.
Afterward, Professor Vey had found her in the Academy arboretum, sitting on the floor beside a tray of Vulcan mushrooms and trying not to cry. He had not told her to calm down. He had not told her she was wrong. Only after several minutes of quiet work had he spoken.
“The unknown is easier to face when the people naming it remember to be kind.”
At the time, she had thought he meant kindness toward new life, like she had been trying to defend. But later, she understood he had also meant kindness toward those who were scared, or arrogant, or mistaken. Especially toward the young officers so desperate to be right that they forgot to be gentle.
Cerys had written the sentence on the front cover of her botanical journal. After Professor Vey’s death, she had vowed this would be the value she led others by.
Professor Vey’s final research samples had been distributed among former students and colleagues. Cerys had received the small dark curl of living lichen now tucked beneath her arm. It had been collected from a protected ecological preserve on Thaleos Minor, where certain plant colonies appeared to adapt not only to climate, soil, and light, but to the emotional rhythms of nearby caretakers.
Most researchers dismissed that interpretation as poetic overreach.
But Professor Vey had not.
And neither would Cerys.
The doors to Science Lab One parted at her approach.
The room beyond was still half-unpacked. Workstations waited in standby mode. A diagnostic frame had been left open near the primary analysis table. Several storage compartments were tagged for review, and outside the lab entrance sat the crates Cerys had packed earlier that day.
Sure enough, one was humming.
Cerys knelt beside it.
The humming crate was easy to identify. It bore a fragile tag, a botanical quarantine seal, and a note in her own handwriting: Humidity regulator. Do not stack, shake, invert, freeze, or argue with.
Bramble leaned forward from her shoulder and sniffed.
“No,” Cerys said softly.
He chirped.
“No.”
Cerys set the specimen case carefully beside the crate and rested one hand on its lid. For a moment, she simply listened to the Vanguard around her.
She was really here.
Chief Science Officer.
The title still felt too large. But perhaps responsibility was supposed to feel that way at first: unfamiliar enough to respect.
She glanced down at Professor Vey’s sample and thought again of his words.
The unknown is easier to face when the people naming it remember to be kind.
Cerys had brought that lesson with her, along with one fragile plant sample, too many crates, and a moss-mimic glider already testing the limits of Starfleet regulations.
It would have to be enough.
She opened the humming crate. The regulator whined once, offended, then settled into a softer vibration.
As Cerys stood, the turbolift doors behind her slid open, and a Drokari woman in a gold uniform stepped into the corridor.
Cerys recognized her immediately from the departmental rosters she had studied on her PADD.
Lieutenant Commander Shirik Lektar, Chief Operations Officer of the USS Vanguard.
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Replies:
Posted By: Shirik Lektar
Date Posted: July/03/2026 at 8:09pm
Shirik's PADD chirped at her, alerting her to the fact that another crew member had beamed on board, the new Chief Science Officer. Consulting her console to see the officer's location, she saw that they had gone straight to one of the ship's many science labs. Scooping up her PADD, she went to go introduce herself. She hoped this one was not like the one on board the Sulu, which had nearly killed her and half the crew with her incompetence.
She made her way to the science lab and as the door whooshed open she stood there for a moment as her violet gaze came to rest on their newest crew member, an appraising look. "Lt. Rowan," she said by way of greeting, her expression as neutral as any Vulcan's. "I am Lt. Cmdr. Lektar, Ops Chief. I see you've already locate one of the science labs. There are 8 aboard, plus Astrometrics." Her glance fell to her PADD. "Your quarters will be on Deck 4. Do you have a preference as to starboard or port side?" she looked up.
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Posted By: Cerys_Rowan
Date Posted: July/04/2026 at 2:26pm
Cerys straightened a little too quickly, nearly catching her head on the open crate.
“Lieutenant Commander Lektar,” she said. “Cerys Rowan. Though you’ve established that already. Uh…Excellent start from me.”
She offered what she hoped was a professional smile.
“It’s very good to meet you.”
Cerys glanced at the crate, then back to Lektar.
“I did mean to report in before putting down roots in the lab, but the cargo log said one of my crates was vibrating, and in my experience that’s either a humidity regulator or the beginning of a small administrative disaster.”
She tapped the crate with her foot, and let out a nervous laugh.
“Regulator, thankfully. Much less paperwork.”
Her eyes brightened despite herself.
“And eight science labs plus Astrometrics is! I mean, that’s… so exciting! I was actually wondering if any of them have been repurposed for something unexpected?Hydroponics experiments, perhaps? Or a forgotten stellar cartography project that no one’s quite sure how to shut down? I’ve always thought ships develop their own little scientific ecosystems over time.”
She caught herself.
“Sorry. I do tend to get a bit carried away when it comes to lab allocation. The lab is practical my second set of quarters.”
Cerys gave a small, self-conscious smile.
“Starboard would be lovely, if available. But I’m not fussy. I only require modest quarters, basic storage, and, a bit of space for a contained habitat. Nothing large, just enough for a small arboreal companion named Bramble. He’s quite well behaved. Mostly.”
From inside the crate came a soft, inquisitive chirp.
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Posted By: Shirik Lektar
Date Posted: July/04/2026 at 2:41pm
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"Vibrating?" she raised an eyebrow and eyed the crate in question. "I trust any samples you've brought aboard have been properly catalogued in the ship's manifest and been pre-approved to bring on board? Nothing dangerous or infectious?" her eyes squinted a bit suspiciously for just a moment before she made a note on her PADD. "You have a... pet?"
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Posted By: Cerys_Rowan
Date Posted: July/05/2026 at 3:05pm
Cerys’s smile flinched for about half a second.
“Yes. Absolutely. Samples are all properly catalogued, pre-approved, and accompanied by an alarming amount of documentation.”
She shifted the specimen case under one arm.
“They are all non-infectious and non-sentient as far as current testing indicates. One of them is… scientifically interesting, which is not the same as dangerous. Usually.”
At the word pet, Cerys glanced toward the crate.
“Ah. Yes. Though pet is a rather imprecise term, isn’t it? A bit old-fashioned. Bramble is a registered companion organism.”
A soft chirp came from inside.
“On his native world, moss-mimic gliders are common domestic companions. Rather like dogs on Earth, if dogs were arboreal, photosynthetic-adjacent, and less interested in fetch. They bond socially, respond to tone, seek proximity during stress, and...”
Cerys stopped herself.
“Sorry. You asked whether I had a pet, not for a comparative xenobiology lecture.”
She cleared her throat.
“He is fully screened, not dangerous, and not meant to be in the crate. That last part is new.”
Cerys gave Lektar an apologetic look.
“I can provide the clearance file. It’s very thorough.”
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Posted By: Shirik Lektar
Date Posted: July/05/2026 at 3:13pm
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"Hmm." Shirik tapped in some more notes on her PADD then looked up once more. "Does it fly?" she asked, eyeing the crate once more. "You realize it won't be allowed to roam the ship. It must be in your quarters at all times unless being moved, in which case it must be in a proper container or restraint device." She tapped in a few more things. "Your quarters will have double occupancy, so you can use the extra sleeping area for your.. companion. If you need the bed removed, let me know and I'll arrange it."
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Posted By: Cerys_Rowan
Date Posted: July/06/2026 at 9:45am
“Not exactly, no. Moss-mimic gliders usually can glide between canopy layers. Bramble was born with a membrane malformation, so he doesn’t fly so much as…fall gracefully.”
A small chirp came from inside the crate.
“Very gracefully,” she added, as if she was correcting the record on behalf of a friend.
She nodded quickly toward Lektar’s PADD.
“And yes, absolutely. No roaming. Quarters only unless contained or properly restrained. I understand. The last thing this ship needs is an arboreal incident in a Jefferies tube.”
Cerys glanced toward the crate, then back to Lektar.
“The extra sleeping area would actually be ideal for his habitat. If the bed could be removed, I can set up a contained climbing frame, environmental unit, and rest enclosure. All secured, and minimal power draw.”
She hesitated, then gave a small, hopeful smile.
“Since you know the Vanguard better than I do, Sir, is there anything about the ship I should learn quickly before I start making myself useful?”
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Posted By: Shirik Lektar
Date Posted: July/06/2026 at 10:05am
"Indeed," she agreed about the Jefferies tube.
"Very well, I'll see to the bed's removal as soon as I can." she paused then, and said, "Yes, actually. Although this ship has many science labs, it lacks an arboretum. Assuming you would be agreeable to it, I propose utilizing one of the two configurable science labs on Deck 4 for this purpose. As the head of the Science department that decision would be up to you." She watched Cerys expectantly as she waited for her answer.
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Posted By: Cerys_Rowan
Date Posted: July/06/2026 at 11:15pm
For a moment, Cerys simply stared at her. Then her expression changed entirely.
“Oh!”
It was not a very Starfleet answer. It was barely an answer at all. But there was such unguarded delight in it that she had to catch her breath.
“Yes!” she said, perhaps a little too quickly. “Yes, I would be enthusiastically agreeable to that. Alarmingly agreeable, actually.”
She cleared her throat and tried to reclaim something resembling professional composure.
“I mean, provided it doesn’t compromise the ship’s research capacity or environmental load, of course. But a properly designed arboretum could serve as more than a pleasant room full of leaves. It could support botanical study, atmospheric monitoring, limited xenoflora trials, crew morale, low-stimulation recovery space…”
She stopped herself, and thought how much Professor Vey would have already liked this new ship.
“So yes. As head of Science, I’d support converting one of the configurable labs into an arboretum. Gladly.”
She tilted her head slightly.
“If Operations can provide the environmental tolerances, power limits, and any hard no’s, I can draft a proposal that is mostly reasonable by the end of the day.”
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Posted By: Shirik Lektar
Date Posted: July/06/2026 at 11:20pm
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She raised an eyebrow at the unexpected enthusiasm of Cerys' response. "Very well. Send your proposal, and I will see to rearranging or removing any equipment as necessary on Lab 1. There is a certain growth environment I wish to set up there for a plant of my own I would like to cultivate."
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Posted By: Cerys_Rowan
Date Posted: July/09/2026 at 9:05pm
An almost mischievous look spread across Cerys’s face.
“I’ll get started on it right away. Thank you, Sir. I promise I’ll try not to make you regret it - at least not immediately.”
The mention of another plant immediately piqued her curiosity.
“You’re cultivating something as well?”
She caught herself before the question could multiply into a full interrogation.
“No - that can wait. We’ll both have plenty of time for botany once the ship is underway. I’ll restrain myself. For now.”
She nodded gratefully, a spark of excitement still lingering in her eyes.
“And… thank you. I have a feeling I’m going to like serving aboard the Vanguard.”
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Posted By: Shirik Lektar
Date Posted: July/09/2026 at 9:51pm
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Shirik opened her mouth to reply, but then merely nodded. "Indeed. We can discuss it later. I will return to my duties, crew are coming on board and supplies are being sent over, so I have much to do. No doubt you will as well, setting up the many science labs."
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