New Beginnings

Posted on Thu Oct 2nd, 2014 @ 10:57pm by Lieutenant Commander Emiko Oda

Mission: Bloodpath
Location: Starbase 80 Main Dock
Timeline: Present

Emi barely had six hours to report aboard the warp shuttle Hyperion for the trip to Starbase 80. Three of them were spent deciding on what to bring, and what to leave behind. The antiques of course made the cut, as did a few books, a full trunk of clothes that was still woefully insufficient and of course the one item that mattered more than any other; the family sword.

Her possessions were transported up to the shuttle, while Emiko herself was transported to Starfleet Academy where she was able to pull a few strings and get her son Akira out of class for an hour. Another hour and a half in the security office updating her credentials and she made it to the shuttle with 30 minutes to spare.

The flight was long, but as a lieutenant commander they didn’t even think of putting her in the personnel bay. Normally it would be a seat in the forward section, but Admiral Clemens in personnel somehow accidentally on purpose let the shuttle captain know that she was a veteran of the Dominion War and Wolf 359, and since the latter group was very small in number by this time Emiko found herself in the VIP cabin that was normally reserved for captains and higher.

She didn’t complain, as the trip would take 40 hours even at maximum warp and a real bed, however small, was better than any chair. The trip was uneventful in addition to comfortable, and when they docked at Starbase 80, Emiko disembarked refreshed and ready.

Emiko took one last look in the mirror. “28? Maybe?” the almost 47-year-old woman asked her reflection. She had been promoted in Starfleet to lieutenant commander fully 18-years-ago, and except for the tiniest of lines at the edges of her eyes, she still looked essentially the same. Her body remained every bit as toned and conditioned as it had been and her skin was still youthful and smooth, which was something of an Asian stereotype, but no less true in her case.

At 5’2” and less than 100lbs, people often underestimated her, and that was just fine with Emiko who had relied on that underestimation to great effect in both military and law enforcement contexts in the past. Being assigned as chief of combat operations on a starbase it would likely mean that many wouldn’t take her seriously, which of course she would have to correct for them.

A starbase was the last thing she expected when she asked to have her commission reinstated. She didn’t mind the change in branch, but being confined to a starbase was another matter. She had joined starfleet nearly three-decades-ago with the desire to explore the galaxy, and while she did have some brief moments of such duty during her career, most of her time was spent in combat. Wolf 359 in 2367, the Jem’Hadar incursion in 2370, the Dominion War in 2373. It was the Dominion war that finally pushed her to resign her commission and raise her children away from Starfleet, but now they were both grown, and both Starfleet officers like their father had been and their mother was.

Checking her uniform one last time, Emiko stepped out of the small lavatory and left the small stateroom to join the hoard of young officers and crew. They were due to arrive at Starbase 80 shortly, one of what would likely be many shuttles carrying fresh academy graduates and in a few cases, veterans like herself.

She waited her turn and disembarked in order, showing her credentials to the security officer and then collecting her baggage. Check-in complete, she logged onto a nearby terminal and got directions to her quarters and then to the command deck.

Fifteen minutes after docking, she walked into main operations and approached a group of senior officers huddled over a holographic sit map.




Lieutenant Commander Emiko Oda
Chief of Combat Operations
Starbase 80