Setting the Course: Five Year Mission

Chapter One: Of TPS Reports and Interstellar Empires

Summary: After Terra Prime, Enterprise prepares for a five year mission beyond the boundaries of the Coalition while the Romulans prepare mischief.

Disclaimer: Star Trek: Enterprise and its characters are copyright CBS/Paramount. No copyright infringement is intended by the author of this story, which is solely for the purpose of entertainment and is not for profit.

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Chapter 1 - Of TPS Reports and Interstellar Empires

March 8, 2156 0848 - Enterprise Ready Room, en route to Andoria (Procyon VIII)

Jonathan Archer's mind was wandering.  The morning senior staff meetings usually bored him, and today's was worse than usual.  Enterprise was ferrying representatives from the United Earth assembly to Andoria for a "fact-finding" mission.  This mission was being sponsored by a group of Andorian companies; the itinerary seemed to consist primarily of snow sports and large amounts of Andorian ale.  Compared to the excitement of invading the Klingon empire or tracking down the Xindi in the Delphic Expanse, the last few months had been downright boring.

All members of the senior staff were present this morning.  First Officer Commander T'Pol was running the meeting. Chief Engineer Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker, Ensign Hoshi Sato the communications officer,  Ensign Travis Mayweather, the lead helmsman, Tactical Officer Lieutenant Malcolm Reed  and Dr. Phlox all displayed signs of terminal boredom.

T'Pol was going down the list of department readiness statistics "Science department, one hundred percent.  Life support, one hundred percent.  Armory, ninety eight percent.  Communications, ninety nine percent.  Medical, ninety seven percent.  Propulsion, ninety five percent."

"Hey, wait a minute" objected Commander Tucker.  "I gave you the stats for propulsion before the meeting.  The engines are purring like kittens. We're at one hundred percent."

T'Pol looked at Trip.  "That is what you wrote on your report.  However, you also informed me that one of the anti-matter injectors is off-line for maintenance and ten percent of the EPS grid is being cleaned.  Therefore, we are incapable of reaching full emergency warp, and I am marking propulsion as being only ninety five percent capable."

Trip rolled his eyes.  "Great. Thanks a lot, T'Pol.  You know that any time a department goes under ninety six percent readiness I have to file a TPS report.  It's not like we'll be needing full emergency warp on this milk run.  And I could get that injector and the grid back online in twenty minutes."

T'Pol replied, coolly.  "If you do not wish to file TPS reports, keep all of your departments above ninety six percent.  This maintenance could have been performed at Jupiter Station before we set course for Andoria."

Trip was getting agitated.  He was nearly shouting now.  "If I had let those grease monkeys at Jupiter Station do the maintenance we'd be at fifty percent readiness right now.  Besides, I need something for my staff to do or they're going to get out of training."

The eyebrow went up.  "'Grease monkeys', Commander?  I believe that is a new colloquialism."

Trip and T'Pol had been hit heavily the past year.  The short life of their daughter Elizabeth, created by the extremists of Terra Prime to try to show that Humans and extraterrestrials were basically incompatible, had affected them both deeply.  After Trip had returned from Columbia it had seemed that they were on their way to a closer, friendlier relationship, perhaps even too close it seemed to Archer.  Now they had returned to their previous continual bickering.  They were both good officers, but it was driving Archer nuts.

He shut them down.  "OK. Enough. Stop.  T'Pol, please mark propulsion at ninety six percent.  Trip, next time don't fudge your report.  We're way too close to headquarters to skimp on the paperwork."

The meeting resumed, and Archer let his attention wander again.  Too close to home.  Andoria was over eleven light years from Earth.  Before the Warp Five program and Enterprise, that would have taken sixteen months.  With Enterprise cruising easily at warp five, it would only take a month.  Oh well, maybe he could catch up with Shran and see if there were any types of Andorian ale he hadn't sampled yet.  He made a note on his PADD to make sure that Phlox made up plenty of his hangover remedy.

T'Pol was wrapping up the meeting.  "Does anyone have any new issues to raise at this time?"

It suddenly gelled for Archer.  "Yes, I have a new issue.  Trip's right, this is a milk run.  We've been waiting for months for Starfleet to assign us a real mission.  The crew's at 100 percent, Enterprise has never been in better shape mechanically.  It's time for us to get back to exploration.  It's what the ship was built for and what we were trained for, not taking politicians on junkets.

We're going to have to come up with our own mission.  T'Pol, I want the Science department to take the lead on this.  We're going to come up with a mission that will get us out of range of the bean counters and armchair admirals."

T'Pol came back immediately.  "The Vulcan Science Academy has a long list of interstellar phenomena they have wished to investigate.  I will look it over, select ten with the most potential for interesting results as well as farthest distance from Earth and bring those to tomorrow's staff meeting."

Archer knew what he wanted.  "T'Pol, that's not bold enough.  I know the Vulcan Science Academy.  We'll wind up cataloguing interstellar particles or tracking a Pycan space moth at sublight.  I want a mission that will go past the limits of our knowledge.  Beyond anything Earth or anyone in the Coalition has done before."

"Indeed.  Perhaps I will solicit suggestions from the crew, then.  The Human practice of 'brainstorming' can often produce 'out of the box' results.  I will, of course, apply a discount factor to Commander Tucker's suggestions, as his practice of exaggerating his readiness reports makes him unreliable."

Malcolm interjected before Trip could stop spluttering.  "Be sure to screen any suggestions from Corporal Romero as well."  A sly smile crept over his face as he continued, "I don't think any missions to Uranus need to be considered."

Hoshi nailed Malcolm with a glare.  Travis let a smile cross his lips.  Phlox spoke up "Even I could rule that out.  T'Pol, I'm sure Uranus has been thoroughly explored by Humans already."

Trip started coughing.  Archer suppressed a grin.  T'Pol lifted an eyebrow and intoned "Indeed."

Archer kicked them out of his ready room.  "Dismissed.  I'll take the conn this morning.  T'Pol, please get started on the brainstorming."

He could hear Trip grousing to T'Pol as they walked to the turbolift.  "Were you really going to make me fill out another damn TPS report?"

"I think one more to complete would not make a significant difference.  If memory serves, you have 84 outstanding, many of them dating back to our time in the Delphic Expanse.  Why would Corporal Romero be interested in Uranus?"

"Um, well, it's all in how you pronounce it, see..."  The turbolift door cut off any more grade school humor.

Archer sat down in the command chair.  The new lumbar supports were nice.

Hoshi started talking to Travis.  "You know, that's why I chose to work in Brazil.  It was the farthest place from my parents with interesting work."

Archer pulled up the latest UECAA water polo results on the PADD built-in to the command chair.  It was going to be a long morning.