Self tour

Posted on 23 Aug 2026 @ 10:14pm by Commander Catherine Herrington, MD

1,703 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Quiet Between Pulses
Location: USS Balam
Timeline: Directly following the meeting with Vice Admiral Kitan

Directly following the meeting with Vice Admiral Kitan, Commander Herrington made her way to the docking port where the USS Balam was currently stationed. A frigate that had been given a few upgrades and tweaks to fit their mission parameters “overseen by Division Twelve, no doubt” Catherine said with a slight smile as she entered the empty turbo lift and went back to looking over the specifications and deck listing of the Diligent-class USS Balam . A quick and agile little ship, with a smaller crew compliment than she was used to, but the defensive and offensive capabilities were on par with most.

It wasn’t long before Catherine was checking in with security and transferring her command codes and access to her new assignment. “Commander Catherine Herrington, ships First Officer and Physician” the newly transferred officer said wearing a smile on her face.

After a quick stop by her quarters to drop off her belongings, which consisted of a few outfits but mostly clothes to work out in, shoes that included her uniform boots, some pictures of her family and a few other personal items, Commander Herrington decided her next stop on her self tour of the ship would be the bridge. There was a turbo lift right out side her quarters so it only took literal seconds to get to it. “Bridge” she requested from the computer and less then a second after the computer beeped in acknowledgement and the lift started moving.

Stepping onto the bridge the Commander took in the layout. There was a single chair in the center of the bridge, facing the view screen. With the helm station between the view screen and the officer of the watches chair, usually the Commanding Officer. Catherine stood at the tactical station, which was directly behind the Captains chair. She looked around the auxiliary stations that line the sides and rear of the bridge. Only interrupted by doors that lead to things like to the turbo lift and the Captains ready room. “Is there something I can help you with” a voice came from behind Catherine, she notice a few officers working at one of the consoles at the rear of the bridge when she entered but she said nothing as they were busy. She shook her head and smiled at the Lieutenant wearing the golden color of operations or maybe an engineer. “I’m fine Lieutenant. I was just checking up on progress but it seems you have things in order” Commander Herrington gave a quick nod and made her way back onto the lift.

Deck two didn’t take long as it was mostly senior staff, VIP and guest quarters. Catherine made note of the counseling office. She knew that if a counselor was assigned to the crew that they would probably want to do evaluations on some of, if not all of the crew. There were also some of the ships research labs on deck two.

“Deck three” Catherine said as the doors to the lift closed. Deck three was another residential section of the ship, these were standard crew quarters. On the Balam junior officer would share quarters with another member of the crew and these quarters would have modular bunks. Catherine took a few moments to speak to a few of the staff stocking the last minuet supplies in the galley and mess hall. Deck three also contained the work out areas of the ship and the recreation and morale areas of the ship that were equipped with holosuites.

While not the most experienced or educated when it came to matters concerning engineering matters the Commander did decently in a pinch, for a doctor anyway. Deck four, which was the deck Commander Herrington just stepped onto, was engineering and fabrication central. Main engineering which is where the warp core was housed. Engineering was the department that kept the ship moving and the Chief Engineer was the individual in-charge of the engine room, so it only makes sense their office is located on the same deck as engineering. Damage control and all the fabrication equipment and labs were also located on deck four. The Chief Engineer hadn’t arrived quite yet but Commander Herrington got the attention of an Ensign and ask “how are things going down here, Ensign?”

The young man looked at Catherine, confused “doctor I’m really busy.”

“Yes I’m the ships physician” Catherine brushed her hair back off her shoulders “but I also happen to be the Balam’s First Officer. Commander Catherine Herrington and I would like a quick status update before the Commanding Officer arrives for launch” she tilted her head and waited for the Ensigns response.

The Ensign caught himself staring at the pips on the doctors collar. “I… I apologize ma’am” he stumbled around his words a bit. “I have a PADD here” he pressed a few commands into it and gave it to Catherine. “As you can see there Commander. The engines are passing diagnostics with flying colors as well as most of the systems. We had to put in a little extra work on the sensors, especially the long range sensors but we did manage to work out those kinks. Still a lot to do if you don’t mind ma’am.” The young engineer put a hand out for his PADD and stood there in silence with a smile on his face.

Giving the Ensign the PADD back, she gave a nod “good work, Ensign. I do wsnt you to pass along to that we are launching early, as in this evening.”

The young Ensign cracked a nervous smile and started shaking his head “yes ma’am I’ll be sure to pass that along. We are going to have to speed some things along” he said as he turned and started punching commands into the PADD, mumbling to himself and walking toward the back of engineering.

Commander Herrington took more time to get to know the layout of deck four, it was important that she knew it in case there was a medical emergency. Doctor Herrington found that there seemed to be more injuries on the engineering decks then any other. Of course it was importing for the medical staff to know the entire ships lay out, just like several of the other departments.

Deck five was the location of the shuttle bay and all the things that were needed for the shuttle bay. Mission equipment was stored on this deck. The drones and probes launch control area was located not far from the shuttle bay. There weren’t many people working deck five right now so no one stopped her to talk and it didn’t take long to see as the shuttle bay took up much of the deck.

Catherine decided to skip deck six and move on to deck seven. She wanted to end her tour in sickbay and start her work and getting the sick bay set up and organized how she liked. Deck seven was the science deck, which she wanted to be quite familiar with as the science and medical department often work in tandem. Of course there were all the typical science labs, Astrometrics & Sensor Analysis Suite, Subspace Phenomena Lab, Xenobiology Lab, Temporal Mechanics & Quantum Analysis Room. The Balam had a few changes to this deck over every other Diligent-class vessel. There were secure Division 14 research labs and a large area assigned Division 12.

The Balam has eight decks but it felt like deck eight was the largest as the Commander explored the deck. The long range sensor array were located on deck eight and just to name a few of the other areas, secondary operations, security post, the brig, armory and cargo bays just to name a few. She said “hello” to a few of the officers she passed as she made her way back to the closest turbo lift.

This time Catherine gave the order of “deck six” and remained silent during the trip, looking over the sickbay specifications, equipment list and seeing if they lacked anything important. If the sickbay was missing anything she would make every attempt to get it aboard before the Balam launched. Walking into the main doors of the sickbay, Doctor Herrington smiled as the lights came on to reveal the place she lived out her passion, taking care of people. She was happy walking around the row of bio beds, supply areas and diagnostic equipment. The Balam’s sickbay was state of the art. It had the latest surgical suites, intensive care units, and isolation wards. There were a few labs dedicated to the medical staff on deck six including the neurological and physiological evaluation lab.

When doctor Herrington was done with the tour of the final deck she made her way back to the very quiet sickbay. She ran her hand across the bio bed feeling the softness of the material it was made from, making her way to the replicator she ordered “Raktajino, extra hot, sweet” and within second she had her beverage. She found her office and took a seat behind her desk. Catherine took a sip of her beverage and activated the console that was available in her office and started checking on her sickbay staff. Some of them had already arrived and as far she could tell the sick bay was in good order. She would send out messages and let everyone know we would be launching later in the day and asked if anyone would be willing to cover it and she would join them if she was needed in sick bay or when she could leave the bridge post launch.

Lucky for Catherine two of the nurses volunteered to help cover sick bay with in an hour of the message being sent out. “This may be a great staff to work with” she said softly to herself. She would make her way to the bridge shortly to be there when the Captain arrives but for now she would drink her Raktajino and review medical files until it was time to go to the bridge or needed else where.

 

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