| May 14th, 2155
| Bridge, Discovery NX-04, Drydock, Earth Orbit
| 1000hrs

Curtis had pushed back the launch schedule as much as she could without feeling like she was going to be endangering the Tellarites on Deneva in order to allow as much time as possible to outfit the ship's systems. Even so, she knew that there would be a multitude of systems that had their components aboard but crowding the cargo bays and corridors with extra container cases. But the time to depart was now, and it couldn't be pushed back any further.

As the hatch to the bridge opened, she paused before stepping over the threshold. This was one area that had been completed in its entirety, even if only just. Gone were all of the plastic protective sheets; every screen was affixed and running. Even her chair had been installed at the centre. The sight was made more impressive by the presence of her bridge crew, each at their post as they looked over to her expectantly once the hatch was open. This would be a big moment for all of them - and for her as well. The first launch of the NX-04.

Stepping through the hatch and making her way briskly to stand in front of her chair, she got straight down to business and pressed the intra-ship comm. "Bridge to Engineering."

"Engine room standing by." Anziano's voice echoed over the intraship.

"Are we ready to get going, Lieutenant? I think we're all eager ot get on our way."

"Warp core stable, warp speed at your command but . . . . Have you ever heard of the myth of Phaeton, son of Apollo who wanted to drive daddy's sun chariot?"

"Don't worry Luís, we'll put some distance between us and Earth before engaging the warp drive. Bridge out."

"Aye. Thank you, Captain."

"OK, let's get this show on the road. Take her out." Christina lowered herself into her seat as she gave the order, shifting slightly to try and get comfortable in the unfamiliar cushions of the chair.

Cayne took a quick glance around the bridge to check everyone was where they were supposed to be and doing what they were supposed to be. They hadn't had a lot of time to run drills and preparatory exercises so he was pleased to find that everyone seemed to be handling it okay. As for Cayne himself, he ran through a few system checks on the weapons, mostly to make sure that they would manage to operate when needed. He still wasn't convinced.

Leo didn't have a lot to do; he had already confirmed that all of the ship's sensor platforms were operational and the standard scans he had performed - to look busy - reported nothing more than the usual background radiation and orbital traffic. Regardless, he was thrilled to be on the bridge for the launch. The little explorer inside him was positively giddy with excitement at the scientific significance of the moment; the launch of humanity's fourth warp five ship. A ship, and a mission, that would push the envelope of human knowledge of the universe and discover strange new worlds. The Chief Science Officer couldn't help but smile.

Up until that moment, Chloe had still be getting associated with her console. She had been on the ship for barely two days, and in that time she had managed to start unpacking and try to learn her way around the ship. It hadn't all been very successful. Now that they were ready to leave, the training wheels came off; she had a job to do. She affixed the comm receiver in her ear and opened a channel with dock control. She tried keeping her voice down to to limit noises to her little corner of the bridge. No need to disrupt everyone else. She was quite aware that she could talk loudly when not careful. "Discovery to dock control, requesting permission to disembark." She hated standard communications. There was no room for creativity.

"Permission granted, Discovery. You are cleared for departure," the voice from dock control reported back. The reply was filtered only to her earpiece, so it was entirely up to her to relay the message. "Have a safe trip."

"Thank you, dock control. Discovery out." Chloe closed the channel and turned towards her captain. "Captain, we have permission to depart."

"No outstanding parking charges, then?" Christina quipped, trying to settle her own apprehension at such an important event for her as much as the crew's. "Ensign, you know what to do."

"Yes ma'am." Allison Wood felt more nervous than most of the other officers on the bridge, as they had all at least been selected to be the most senior officers in their departments and were therefore the most qualified personnel on the ship to be doing the jobs that they were there to do. Though she was perfectly qualified to pilot Discovery, her original billet was as as relief helm officer. As Discovery had ended up leaving Earth too quickly for the captain to get a chief helmsman onboard, Allison and the rest of the pilots onboard would be sharing helm duties until Starfleet could get someone out to them - which might be a while considering the shortage of warp five ships capable of catching Discovery.

As she entered commands on her console to will the various umbilicals to detach, she pushed the throttle up, toggling the thrusters to ease the ship forward gently.

Leo activated a display screen and called up a portside view from the ship. He watched as the dock slowly drifted away and started sliding sideways out of view. Although the inertial dampers meant he felt nothing, he imagined the very slightest of movement as the ship got underway. As he watched, he wondered if those ancient sailors pushing off from docks in the Mediterranean bound for the New World got this same excited feeling in their stomachs.

While everyone was going about their duties, the doors hissed open and a short slender woman in civilian garb entered the bridge and stood to the side near the master systems display table to stay out of the way. It was Doctor Maya of Vulcan, the only alien aboard and easily the most unknown factor aboard this ship. Her large hazel eyes drank in the scene as she tilted her head to listen intently.

Once the ship was clear of the drydock superstructure, the helm switched from thrusters to impulse engines, propelling them away from the drydock, and from Earth.

"Set a course for Deneva, and engage warp drive. Increase speed to warp four when ready."

Wood nodded, bringing up a trajectory calculation for Deneva, and double- and triple-checking it to make sure it wasn't a single degree off. Then she unlocked the power controls for the warp drive and switched her left hand over towards the lever which fed through the commands to control warp speed. Slowly pushing it forward, she was keenly aware that this would be the first true testing of the warp engines of the ship as she called out their speed. "Warp point five. Point six. Point seven.... Point nine. Warp one." The viewscreen showed the bright flash that accompanied the transition to faster-than-light speeds, followed by the star-streaks of the speed that meant.

"Warp two," she continued, pushing the 'throttle' slowly higher. "Warp three. Warp three point five. Warp four. Holding steady."

"Astrometric systems are functioning superbly," Carpegiani reported as he watched the telemetry scroll down the display in the centre of his console. He glanced sidelong at the panel next to it and said, "Sensor suite ... needs some fine tuning while at warp, it seems. Operating within recommended parameters, but I know they can do better."

"All stations have reported normal," Cayne reported, checking the status readout on his display. The targetting sensors had reported a complete failure the moment the ship had reached warp four, but they had automatically restarted and were now showing normal - if not quite fully aligned.

"Good work, everyone," Christina said, smiling as she finally settled back into a more relaxed posture on her chair. "Now; on to Deneva."

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