The USS Ararat
Posted on Sat Jan 10, 2026 @ 5:07am by Lieutenant Raiden Kosugi & Lieutenant Commander Curtis Thibideaux & Lieutenant Annora Tessaro & Lieutenant Bronwyn P’ril & Commander Billie Jo Rhodes & Lieutenant JG Juanita Sanchez "Puma" & Senior Chief Petty Officer Alexander Rylan EMT-P & Petty Officer 1st Class Goldie Brown
2,058 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Chicken Run
Location: Dyson Repair Yards
Timeline: Ten days after Chicken Run
Curtis stepped off of the transport pad and made his way toward through the bustling warren that was the Dyson Repair Yards. He’d barely touched the surface of the station itself and he also had a role aboard the Yards…though that was minimal, still he’d need to get a handle on this as well.
But that wasn’t going to be today. Today he was going to dust off yet another small-craft, bringing her back into ordinary from moth balls to be useful once again.
The USS Ararat was a Wallace class light escort that had been heavily damaged two years ago and been back burnered continuously until the Yard birds had mostly forgotten her and Fleet had lain her up in Ordinary until they could replace her or find a use.
Curtis had explained that use to BuShips and shaken loose enough Yard time to get the Escort powered back up and gone through to be safe to crew and test.
Theoretically.
Curtis walked up to the blast door, keyed in the sequencing he’d been given and cycled himself into the ship. A wave of stale air hit him as power began cycling. They said it was safe, but that it needed work. The Yard didn’t have time for that, so it fell to Strategic Ops to crew the small ship and get her up to standards.
He keyed in his initial command codes and began touring the ship, making notes as he ensured everywhere was powered up. Curtis had an engineering tricorder vambrace on his left forearm, giving him a constant feed so he could keep an eye out until the rest of his volunteers showed.
Alex Rylan was the first volunteer to arrive. "Commander Thibideaux?" he said. "Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Alex Rylan reporting for duty as Independent Duty Corpsman. Doctor Karzen sent me. As my title suggests, I'm qualified to treat most things on my own, and I can call a base medical officer for the rest," Alex grinned. "If it makes a difference, I was MARSOC a while back and I've maintained my security clearance and my ability to hit what I shoot at."
Curtis turned and stood from where he'd been cycling through checklists. "Welcome aboard Senior Chief," he said, offering his hand. "Glad to have our medical staff fully reported aboard," he smiled."
"Glad to be here, sir," Alex replied. "With your permission, I'll go stow my gear and make sure we're all set as far as our medical needs for this trip."
Glancing at the information scrolling on his vambrace (now an independant read from the yard) and what his HUD was showing him from the Ararat, Curtis kept track of the diagnostics, pleased to see the readouts were the same. "Actually, I haven't stuck my nose into the medical compartment," he admitted. "The ship thinks there's atmosphere, gravity and a basic loadout of emergency gear has arrived. And the Yard computer agrees. Which is making me twitchy. The two rarely agree on much of anything, so I'll accompany you and just make sure someone didn't replace the whole thing with bobsleds." Typing a command into the wall display, Curtis activated a Follow me and began tracing his way toward medical. "
"Since it might come up," Curtis asked as they turned a corner and started up a ladder to the first deck, "What are your thoughts on emergency hologram doctor programs?"
"They've got their place," Alex replied.
"Diplomatic," Curtis said dryly as he pulled himself up more than climbed the ladder. "It's been suggested we put holo-emitters around so an auto-doc can lend a hand. I'm on the fence."
"An extra set of hands probably wouldn't hurt," Alex said. "But on a ship this size, do you have processing bandwith, space for the memory core? What about a dedicated power source? If the ship takes a bad enough hit, we might not have the power to spare for a hologram."
"That's the other part," we can likely do it by using frequency hopping modules scattered throughout the ship, which is part of the redundant, redundant backups for a vessel of this tonnage," Curtis commented as his arms crossed as his brain changed a few gears. "Maybe we'll experiment. Worst that could happen is the auto-doc recycles someone by accident. I read a couple of reports about that happening. Apparently, you should never let consumable reports get to a haywire hologram."
"Hey, y'all," a southern voice called from the bottom of the ladder. "I have some help."
A minute later, two women came into view. One was a buxom blonde in her early fifties, followed by a 20-something woman with short blonde hair. "I'm Billie Jo and this here is Goldie. A little bird told me you're needin' some help and Goldie here is in operations. Thought you might could use her help."
Curtis turned as the two women's comm badge tell-tails were picked up by his HUD and the computer registered identities and flash information, though he recognized Billie Jo by reputation. "Welcome aboard the Ararat," he said. "I'm Commander Thibideaux and this is Senior Chief Rylan. I'll take all the help I can get, Commander Rhodes. Thank you."
"I'm Goldie. Goldie Brown," the younger woman said, giggling. "I'm in operations. I work here at the repair yards, but I've been assigned to help you get the Ararat up and running. I can stick around after, if you need me."
"She's a good worker," Billie Jo assured Curtis. "There's a pilot on her way to the yards. I can send her your way if you still need one."
"Sold," Curtis smiled at the Yard manager. Ms. Brown, please help Engineering get the plant online and get us off shore-power." Turning back to Billie Jo, he said, "And sold on the pilot as well. We're short handed and I was going to have to steer if I didn't get a volunteer."
"Always happy to help out," Billie Jo replied, grinning. "I love nothing better than to see a ship take flight. I'll leave Goldie with you and go look for that pilot. Lemme know if you need anything more." She waved cheerfully as she headed back to her office.
Having received her orders, Goldie smiled to the commander and went off to have a look at the operations department to see what needed doing.
"Alright, let's get to it. Thank you Commander, I owe you a drink or three." Curtis said as he noted Goldie getting right to work. "Let's shake her till we nearly break her...
Having temporarily handed off the department to Anson, Annora headed over to the shipyards to join the shakedown cruise of the Ararat.
"Afternoon Commander. Figured I'd stretch my legs a bit and get off station."
"Good afternoon, Lieutenant Tessaro," Curtis said, turning as the security officer appeared. "Welcome aboard."
"Alright, find your stations. Make sure they're yard ready and we'll get her underway. I'd like to warp away from the dock within two hours and get this shakedown underway. Let's be about it, shall we?" Curtis asked as he turned from the assembled officers and crew. "I'll be in Engineering then the bridge."
"Aye sir." Annora walked over to unoccupied station set against the wall to the left of the Command seat. Configuring it for a tactical station, she then took stock of the ship's armament. One torpedo launcher and 6 phaser arrays.
"Decent armament for a ship her size."
A tall blonde with bright blue eyes appeared. “Hi!” she said cheerfully. “Ensign Agnetha Olsen, engineering. Hey, this place isn’t too bad, is it? I mean, you know, for a small ship.”
Welcome aboard, Ensign, "Curtis said as his HUD auto-updated the manifest. "There is a whole Engineering bay begging for attention. We're still on shore power, though I did begin the spin-up procedures."
“Oooo!” squealed Agnetha in a tone reminiscent of a child getting a puppy for Christmas. “I’ll get right to work!” And she scurried off to see what needed seeing.
Raiden had been sent by Commander Letsul to take part of this endeavor. He stepped in through the hatch onto the bridge his keen dark brown eyes took in those who were there. "Reporting in for duty, Captain. I'm Lieutenant Kosugi, pilot."
Glancing down the ladder at another new face, Curtis waited for the pilot to join them and gestured toward the bridge. "Nice to meet you, Lieutenant. Thank you for volunteering. I've uploaded course data into the nav system, so you can focus on familiarizing yourself with the helm controls and prepare to get us underway."
Sitting in the command chair, Curtis checked over his boards and touched the 1MC/blower and said, "All hands. This is the Captain. Prepare to depart. We'll be at yellow alert until we're satisfied she's space-worthy. Thibideaux out."
"Lieutenant Tessaro, inform the Yard we are prepared to get underway. Engineering, how are we doing on the plant?."
The request was sent to docking control with a confirmation quickly being sent.
"We're cleared for launch sir."
“All systems showing normal,” reported Agnetha cheerfully.
Curtis checked his board and said, Very well. Single up all lines and cut us loose from the station. Helm. Maneuvering thrusters at ten percent till we're clear of the station. At that point, bring us up gradually working with Engineering to full impulse, looping us out into the outer spinward lanes. We'll exercise components, test shields and the like. The warp test will come once we're well and away from primary traffic, while still within the Station's Combat Air Patrol patrol loop."
The mooring beams that tied the small craft to the station flickered several times, then burst as the locks cycled aboard the station and the Ararat. The burst of energy causing the ship to drift clear.
Just then, a woman with brown hair, brown skin, green eyes, and a saucy smile strutted onto the ship. "I see I arrived just in time." She looked around. "My name is Juanita Angelina Guadalupe de la Vega Sanchez. But you can call me Puma."
Turning, Curtis glanced at the newcomer as he felt the power coming up through the soles of his boots and the viewer switched to show the Ararat as it departed the station, "Very well Ms. Sanchez...Puma. Welcome aboard the Ararat."
"Thank you. Now, where do you want me?" she asked.
Curtis didn't hesitate and pointed toward a the one mission ops station that was vacant and said, "For now, a another set of eyes monitoring helm, navigation and communications while we work her up. Cross check everything to make sure we don't run into another ship or bit of debris, and monitor comm's. We'll shake everyone and everything out as we go.
"I can do that. I have yet to hit another ship and I will not let this one do so today." Juanita was comfortable with all three stations. She strode over to the seat and looked over the controls to see if she needed to make any adjustments, then nodded.
Curtis could feel the ship's engines surge through the decking and the low chatter from the crew as they fell into un-accustomed roles within a strange ship.
Strangers in a strange land, so to speak. Most would fall back to familiar duty and tasks to make sense of a different situation, even for a brief one or two day cruise like this. Being new to DS 9 and the Pangaea system, he was finding himself constantly trying to find his way.
At least in the command chair of a small ship, he felt more comfortable.
Curtis intended to enjoy it.
END
A joint post by:
Commander Curtis Thibideaux
Strategic Operations Officer
DS5
PO1 Goldie Brown
Operations Officer
Dyson Repair Yards
Lieutenant JG Juanita Angelina Guadalupe de la Vega Sanchez "Puma"
Pilot/Helmsman
Deep Space 5
Lieutenant Raiden Kosugi
Pilot
Deep Space 5
Ensign Agnetha Olssen (NPC)
Engineer
Deep Space 5
Lt Annora Tessaro
Chief Security Officer
Deep Space Five
Senior Chief Petty Officer Alexander Rylan
Independant Duty Corpsman
Deep Space 5
Commander Billie Jo Rhodes
Director of Operations
Dyson Repair Yards
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