Entering the office of the highest-ranking Starfleet officer, Lloyd Burton wondered how many times he would be making this trip since the recent re-structure among the senior members of the Starfleet Command Council. Fleet Admiral Hathaway, the Commander-in-Chief, had made some changes to the structure of the admiralty ever since Burton and his siblings had uncovered the Section Thirty-One sub-division of Starfleet Security on Mars. Two key players that contributed to its Martian operations were Admirals Black (the former director of Security) and Gardner. The latter had been Burton’s direct superior and would issue orders to a bulk of the fleet. With the revelation of his involvement in a black-ops site being ran without any authorisation from the government had forced Hathaway to change a number of his responsibilities. One of them had been her taking a more direct control of issuing orders to Starfleet’s assets beyond Sol. After a few days moving back on to Challenger, Burton had received a request to join the admiral very early in the morning to discuss his next set of orders. She would now be the one handing out orders to the captains who were involved leading in the war effort.  

Seeing Commander Astley, the admiral’s senior secretary, sat at her desk was a welcome sign that Burton was getting used to. “Good Morning Jane.” He greeted her and instantly he remembered the first time he had met her. She could be just as intimidating as her boss and had the strength of character to prevent anyone from accessing Hathaway too. Rumours that Astley was one of the strongest poker players in Starfleet had circulated around the officers’ lounge on more than one occasion.

“Good morning Lloyd,” Astley said as she looked up from her computer console with a smile. The older woman had a very flirtish side to her mannerism, something that Burton had picked up on recently and would play on when interacting with one of the most powerful commanders in Starfleet. “She’s ready for you.” She added as she gestured for him to enter the admiral’s office with a simple head movement in the direction of the door. 

Taking a deep breath, Burton wondered if what had happened recently had dramatically changed his relationship with the woman who was literally writing the Starfleet book. From the shock revelation of his father’s apparent fake death to the exposure and cover up of Section Thirty-One on Mars, he just wondered how much more he would be involved with Starfleet politics. Especially when it almost cost the life of his unborn sons when radicals were paid to make an attempt on Nicole’s life. Hathaway and he had started a cabal of trusted Starfleet officers that were working to remove the existence of Thirty-One. However the group was still small and in its early infancy. He had speculated that work would take time and would be harder to accomplish compared to the current war with the Romulans. 

Following on from the misty glass doors opening, Burton made his way towards the admiral’s desk where she sat. Hoping to hear that his orders did not involve anything that he had been dragged into in the past few weeks since his return home, he looked over to the older woman and smiled at her. “Good morning admiral.” He said, greeting the flag officer. 

Looking up from a tablet that was in her hands, she returned the smile at the young captain. “Good Morning captain.” She offered for him to take a seat in one of the armchairs on the opposite to her desk. “Tea?”

Nodding in gratitude, Burton accepted the offer. “Yes please.”

Hathaway went over to a sideboard that had a tray of mugs and other amenities to make a range of hot drinks. “I hear Challenger is fully crewed and ready to get underway in a couple of hours?” She said as she poured hot water into a teapot and gave it a quick swirl. 

“That’s correct ma’am. The last of the repair teams left last night and the final shipment of supplies arrived just before I departed this morning. We’re ready and eager to go.” Burton replied. 

“Excellent, I want you out there as soon as you have finished here Lloyd. The quicker we have Challenger back out there, the better I and others on the Command Council will feel.” Hathaway stated as she finished making Burton a mug of tea and one for herself too. She brought the two hot beverages over and handed the one she made for the captain to him. Walking back around to her chair, she placed the hot mug down on her glass desk and then sat back down.

“Thank you for the vote of confidence ma’am.” Burton said before taking a sip of the tea. 

Hathaway would normally have had a stiffer posture, but her relationship with Burton had changed in the last few weeks. She smiled in addition as she took a minor gulp from her drink. “My mother always said you cannot start the day correctly without a good cup of tea. She was always right.”

“I would certainly agree with her.” Burton added.

“How are the changes to your crew fairing up?” She enquired between sips. 

Nodding to assure her everything was positive, Burton answered her. “Commander Stanton has settled well into his new role as have the others. I’m still reviewing candidates for a permanent chief science officer, but Ensign Habiba is capable of standing in for a short amount of time.”

“Good, I am glad to hear it. So to business then,” Hathaway said as she placed her mug down on her glass and took one of the tablets that were pilled to the right of her and handed it over to Burton. “Your first set of orders is to undertake a search and rescue mission for two missing ships.”

“Oh?” Burton wondered as he entered his authorisation code into the tablet to access what Hathaway had issued him with. 

“The starships Armstrong and Discovery went missing yesterday.” Hathaway reported. 

“Discovery? As in Frank Müller’s ship?” Burton questioned. What he didn’t say was that it was his brother’s ship too. Thoughts of losing his younger brother, Roman, already made him feel nauseous. 

Nodding to confirm, Hathaway briefed him further. “Yes, Müller was leading a task group to Deneva to boost our defensive posture there when they were reportedly attacked by fifteen Romulan ships.” Taking a mouthful from her mug again, Hathaway paused as she explained what happened to Challenger’s sister ship. “We know the outcome of the attack was a victory for us as the rest of the task group eventually arrived at Deneva. A few of them were bruised but there were no casualties, however neither the Armstrong nor Discovery arrived with the task group. From what we know the Armstrong was sent back to inform us of the engagement, which they did. Captain Charan told us she was heading back to assist the rest of the task group and then we lost contact with her. We were told by Captain Farrell from the Windsor, that as the battle came to an end Discovery chased off one of the attacking Romulan ships. Farrell led the task group towards Deneva before telling us what happened.”

Burton was certainly confused to hear that his former roommate from Starfleet Training Command would do something that would be so bold and brash in chasing off an enemy ship, especially when it was already retreating. “Any clues as to where Discovery went or where they or Armstrong could be?”

Shaking her head in disappointment, “Unfortunately not. We have not been able to spare any of the ships from Deneva to help look for them, in case the Romulans attack there. I do not want to risk the colony’s security, especially since we’ve recently seen what has happened at Merak and Gault.”

Understanding the admiral’s cautious approach, Burton considered other implications to what she was commanding him to do. It was obvious that Starfleet, along with their coalition allies, were trying to avoid any more surprise attacks made by the Romulans. “So are my orders to find both ships and get them to Deneva if possible?” Burton guessed as he looked back down at the tablet in his hands. 

“Yes, if possible. I want you to do whatever it takes to find out where they are, what their status is and I am interested to find out why Müller chased after the last enemy ship.” Hathaway said and then turned around in her chair to access the small office cupboard behind her. It appeared she was pulling a small box out of a cabinet draw, she eventually turned around and handed it over to Burton. “This may also help you in dealing with the other captains out there.” She stood up and walked around as Burton investigated the small wooden box. “In agreement with the Command Council, we are adopting a new rank within the fleet. One that we think, in war time will assist further in establishing firm command structures.”

Looking at the box, Burton realised that it opened up. As he did this, revealed to him an intriguing object. Sitting on navy blue silk was a silver rank pip. Puzzled at what it meant and what the admiral was going on about, he looked up and realised she wanted him to stand up. 

Taking the pip from his hands, Hathaway placed it on his right shoulder in line with the other four, it now made a row of five. “Lloyd Burton, I hereby promote you to the rank of Fleet Captain.”

“Fleet Captain?” He repeated, perplexed what that meant as he looked down at his shoulder at the new addition. 

She nodded once to confirm again what he heard was right. “I’m planning to make some adjustments within the fleet, I want people out in the field who are capable of making decisions with their fellow skippers without having to wait for authorisation from me or a member of the Command Council. So instead of making a number of you commodores, we’ve come up with this rank that sits between captain and commodore. You’re our first one!”

“Thank you ma’am, I don’t know what to say.” Burton said with a sense of pride. 

She smiled at his humble response. “Just don’t try ordering your sister yet, I cannot deal with two of our captains having a sibling squabble.” She went back around to sit down behind her desk. “We agreed on the council that you were the right person, especially after all of the fleet action you’ve engaged with recently. It just makes perfect sense. We’ve already made Archer a commodore and once Columbia returns I will be promoting Hernandez too. But whereas they have been in command a lot longer, I cannot justify making you a member of the admiralty yet. So instead this position gives us that room to give us the best of both worlds.”

“Understood ma’am.” Burton said as he sat back down. “Is there anything else I need to be aware of?”

Hathaway shook her head, “No, not for now. Just find those missing ships and then we’ll talk further once you’ve completed your mission.” She extended her hand towards him. “Good hunting Fleet Captain Burton.”

Burton smiled slightly and shook his boss’ hand. “Thank you ma’am.”

Returning to the ship, Captain Burton found the entire trek quick and simple via the use of the new shuttlepod that Starfleet had given them. Instead of two shuttlepods, they now had four shuttlepods assigned to the ship. Newly promoted Lieutenant junior grade Jack Conrad had picked him up from Starfleet Command after collecting Shuttlepod Four from Starship Design & Construction Bureau (also known as the SDCB) in Sydney, Australia. 

“How does she fly?” Burton had asked his pilot where he sat in the rear of the cockpit. He was reviewing his orders again on the tablet that Hathaway had given him. He was trying to concentrate on what he was reading, hold a conversation with Conrad without being distracted by the possibility that his brother was now dead. 

Smiling in response, Conrad had kept his focus on piloting the ship through the Earth’s atmosphere. “Extremely well actually sir. The newer shuttlepods have been enhanced to deal with the war effort, they’re quicker, more manoeuvrable and have a stronger hull.”

Worried that he may ever find himself stuck in one of the smaller ships during a battle, Burton looked up and quickly laughed off his worry. “Well let’s hope we never have to find out how strong these hulls are.”

Eventually they docked with the ship and Burton was greeted by his yeoman in the launch bay. Harris stood in an almost attention posture as Burton approached him. “Welcome back sir.” He greeted his captain and instantly he noticed the additional fifth pip. 

Waving any remarks from Harris off with his hand, Burton indicated for them to leave the launch bay as soon as possible. He wasn’t in any mood to talk about that. He just wanted the mission to start as soon as possible. “Don’t ask about that.” Burton said as they, along with Conrad, entered the nearest lift. Conrad hadn’t noticed Burton’s fifth pip until Harris had pointed it out. 

“Do we get to celebrate whatever it represents, sir?” Conrad asked opposite Burton in the little cart they took them towards the ship’s bridge. 

Burton shook his head; he had looked back down at the tablet still in hands the moment he had got into the lift. He still focussed on reading everything that Starfleet knew. “No, we’ve had enough of partying recently, Jack. With marriages and promotions, I’m sure Starfleet would appreciate it if we got on with our jobs now.”

“Understood sir.” Conrad said with a slight disappointed expression.

Harris had been holding a tablet in his hands when he had met the captain in the launch bay. As the lift made its upwards journey, he handed the device over to Burton. “Commander Stanton wanted me to hand this over to you the moment you were here sir. The ship is ready to go.”

Burton stopped looking at his and smiled at that news before he looked over the tablet that showed a report on the ship’s ready status. Everything was in the green. “Glad to hear it.” He answered. Hearing Stanton’s name made him realise he would not be the only one dealing with the possibility of losing someone from this mission. He would have to tell his chief engineer and new first officer the bad news about Discovery, the ship that Stanton’s husband was the first officer and pilot to. They had only recently got married and now Stanton may have to face the prospect of being a widow at such an early stage in their marriage.  This war was already destroying families and would destroy even more before it was over. Just like every other conflict. 

Finally the lift came to its destination and Burton allowed for Conrad to depart first with Harris behind him. Looking out at the scene before him as he approached his chair, Burton found it odd to see how different everything now seemed with the bridge crew. With the loss of T’Plau and Levesque, the changes were more of a reality now more than ever. Replacing their Vulcan armoury officer was Lieutenant junior grade Rachele Cortez. She had been Burton’s second armoury officer when he first joined Challenger and had stayed on to be Callahan’s then T’Plau’s. She had shown since the ship’s launch that she was ready for the position, she was an excellent leader in the armoury department (everyone rated her) and she was quick with tactics. Something that Burton had recognised in her shortly after they launched. She was the right person for the job, his gut and brain told him that. Her sharp eye and quick reflexes in arming and aiming the weapon’s array was second to none.

Then after T’Plau’s replacement there was Levesque’s, or lack thereof. Burton had yet come to a decision on who he wanted to be in that position. His current second science officer, Ensign Martha Habiba, lacked what he was looking for in someone. She didn’t have the experience or even the leadership experience to lead such a large department on an NX-class ship. That said none of the candidates that he had looked through felt any better. As a result he had decided to wait on making a decision and would let Habiba act up for a short while with Stanton closely watching over her.

Walking over from his engineering station, Stanton made his way to meet the captain halfway. “Can I ask about that-” Stanton didn’t get a chance to finish his question off as he pointed to the captain’s fifth pip.

“Admiral Hathaway has promoted me to the rank of fleet captain, that’s it and we are not celebrating it. We have jobs to do.” Burton hastily said, almost repeating what he had just said to Conrad and Harris. He felt guilty for almost snapping at Stanton. Taking a breath, he calmed down and asked his next question, “I hear we are ready to go Commander Stanton?”

Stanton, a bit shocked at the captain’s quick response in shutting down his question, nodded in reply. “Yes sir, we are all good to go.”

“Good, then I think it’s time to set sail and weigh anchor.” Burton ordered as he took his chair and Stanton returned to his engineering station. “Hail the dockmaster Lieutenant Hennessey and request permission for us to get underway.”

Hennessey acknowledged his orders and opened the channel to the dockmaster. He turned to look over at his boss and spoke up using the captain’s new rank to get attention. “Fleet Captain Burton, we have permission to leave.” 

“Lieutenant Conrad, aft thrusters at one half until we clear drydock. Then take us to warp.” Burton commanded. 

Conrad nodded in answer and slowly took the ship out of the Obama Repair Facility. The ship looked brand new, as brand new as it did on the day it first launched under Burton’s command. Moving away gracefully, the ship’s impulse engines came to life as it broke free from the tithers and soon was in open space.

“Heading sir?” Conrad requested.

“Set a course for the Deneva colony, warp four.” Burton commanded.

After tapping in a few commands into the navigation computer, Conrad said he was ready. 

“Engage!” Burton ordered and held on tightly as the ship lurched into high warp and out of the Sol System.

Hours later, Burton had retreated to his ready room to go over everything they would need to know about their mission. Once he was done he had called in his first officer to see him. 

Stanton was standing on the other side of the door when he touched the door chime and entered the room once the captain had told him to come in. 

“Michael, take a seat please.” Burton said from where he sat at his desk under the small window. 

The First Officer and Chief Engineer did as he was ordered. “So sir, what are our orders? Are we off to defend Devena?” He asked. It was rare for Burton to keep his crew in the dark about such things, so he was eager to know. 

Burton could read Stanton quite easily, it’s what made their professional relationship work so well in the last few months. It was another reason why Stanton made the best replacement for Levesque as First Officer. “Michael, we’ve been ordered to search for two missing ships near Deneva.”

“Oh right, which ones?” Stanton wondered. 

“Armstrong,” Burton said and paused. “and Discovery.”

The colour in Stanton’s face just vanished as he took in the news about his husband’s ship. “What happened?” He asked.

Burton pulled his chair closer to Stanton’s as he explained what Hathaway had told him regarding the Romulan attack. “The admiral is interested to know why Müller went off and chased that final Romulan ship. So we need to find them, in one piece.”

“Agreed,” Stanton said, “From what I saw of Captain Müller and the crew of Discovery they’re not ones who give up easily or are easily beaten. I’m sure they’ve survived this battle.”

Pleased to hear his first officer’s sense of hope, Burton smiled. “Knowing Frank Müller as well as your other half and my brother, I am sure they are out there up to something with an interesting story to share with us.”

“Then let’s find them and the Armstrong.” Stanton said, his colour starting to slowly return as well as his confidence and motivation. “Where were their last reported locations?”

Burton turned around and pulled a tablet off his desk. “Here,” He said, pointing to the device’s screen that showed a set of marked coordinators on a star chart. “Just outside of the Deneva system. Armstrong was sent to warn Starfleet of the attack, so we will start there. I want to use some of our new probes to assist with the search pattern. Can you coordinate with Habiba to do so?”

“Of course.” Stanton answered.

“I want the probes set up to look for the power signatures of both ships, so hopefully we will pick up something. We’ll need our long- and short-range scanners adjusted and let’s have Ned listening to the subspace frequencies too. We never know what type of calls we may pick up.” Burton added.

“Sounds like a plan captain.” Stanton said as he rose from his seat. “Anything else?”

Burton shook his head and stood up too. “No,” He placed his hand on Stanton’s left shoulder, “We will find Alex, Roman and the others.”

Smiling with gratitude, Stanton nodded. “We better as this was not what I had in mind with my vowels when I said for better or worse!”

Burton sniggered at that, glad that Stanton could keep a positive mind about the news. 

The intercom went off and Burton went over to his desk. “Burton here.”

“Sorry to interrupt sir, but you have an incoming call from the assistant commissioner of the Earth Cargo Services. She wishes to speak to you sir.” Spoke Lieutenant Hennessey in a serious tone. 

“Understood Ned, transfer her to my desk at once.” He looked to Stanton, “Can you inform the troops of what we are doing and issue out assignments?”

Stanton nodded and then Burton dismissed him as he waited for the call to come through.

Sitting alone in the mess hall with only a mug of coffee, Jack Conrad had not heard his friend approach him. When Luis Trommler eventually caught his friend’s attention, he knew straight away something was up. Placing the tray of hot food down on the table, Trommler perched forward as he sat down before talking.

“Jacky, are you okay? You look awfully grey.” He remarked. The MACO soldier had become close with the ship’s pilot in the last few months. The two had spent their recent R&R together, mainly surfing off the Gold Coast, Australia. As a result, Trommler knew the signs when his friend wasn’t his normal cheerful self. 

Conrad had been staring at his cold mug of coffee and instantly shook his head to stop his daydreaming to focus on his friend. “Sorry Trommo,” he said, “I got some bad news earlier today.”

The moment he heard those two fatal words, Trommler moved from the seat opposite to Conrad to the one beside him. “What do you mean Jack?” He asked with a concerned look.

“The Raven, she’s been destroyed.” Conrad explained and went on to share the news the captain had informed him of the former cargo ship that he had been a member of (for a long period of time) had been attacked by the Romulans. It had turned out that they and another civilian freighter had been targeted by a small attack force that had penetrated the Inner Core Territory of the Commonwealth and had struck several targets. Their demise came about when an allied task group had defeated the Romulans, but not in time to prevent the loss of all hands on the freighters. Conrad now felt empty, numb, lifeless. The loss of Captain Montague and his former shipmates made him sick to the stomach to think of. He couldn’t even think about the children who were also on the Raven when she was destroyed. Burton had shared that the government had issued an order to all civilian freighters to ensure all children were no longer on board because of the war. In fact President Littlejohn was preparing an executive order that would ban all children from being on long haul freighters, unless they had gained special dispensation from Starfleet. The order would cause chaos for families on those freighters but Conrad hoped that they understood the president’s reasons for it. He certainly agreed with it. 

Trommler got out of his chair and pulled his friend into a close hug. “I’m so sorry Jack.” He replied into his ear before pulling away. “My brother told me the other day that his husband has been on patrols in the inner core territory and has had to rescue a number of freighters from being attacked. The Romulans seem not to understand the difference between civilian or military targets.”

Pushing more tears away, Conrad smiled in appreciation for his friend’s sentiments. “When I agreed to join Challenger earlier this year, I didn’t expect to be joining to fight. I only wanted to make a difference and see the rest of the galaxy.”

Nodding in agreement, Trommler understood Conrad’s remark. “I’m sure none of us, even Captain Burton, knew that this was on the horizon with the Romulans. However, I genuinely believe we will make a difference by standing up for the one value humanity has always fought so hard for.”

Wondering what his friend meant, Conrad gave him a puzzled look.

“Freedom.” Trommler clarified with. “We should be able to travel this vast galaxy, in fact this entire universe and no-one should ever feel afraid that they will be prosecuted. What happened to the Raven was wrong and we will show those faceless scum that they will regret the day they attacked us and started this war. We’ve got to fight for the future.”

“I think I’d prefer just to go for pure simple revenge.” Conrad countered with.

Smirking at his friend’s attitude, Trommler nodded in agreement. “That works too.”

Slowly, carefully, gradually, Major Yu reached the door access button and tapped it to open the entrance to sickbay. Still holding her left shoulder with her right hand, she did her best not to move it too much to avoid any more agony. Stepping over the threshold, immediately she was confronted with the sight of Ro-fa Ben-Ami and Nurse Stewart putting up a collapsible bed.

“Are you planning to open a dormitory? The major asked sarcastically. 

Ben-Ami, who was holding to one end of the bed, looked over to the MACO leader and smirked at her friend. “Don’t worry Viktoria, you can join my sorority and help me recruit some members!”

Smirking back at the doctor’s witty response, “As long as we don’t end up sharing make-up tips, then I am all in!”

The three officers laughed more over their exchange before Ben-Ami told Stewart to go and get the pillows and blankets. Dotted around sickbay were at least eight put-up beds alongside the other beds that already existed. Yu could see that once again Ben-Ami was preparing for the worse with their current assignment. Once Stewart had left their company, Ben-Ami returned her attention back to the MACO soldier. “What have you done to your shoulder?” She asked as she grabbed her medical scanner from a nearby tray.

Yu went on to explain how during training with First Lieutenant al-Fayyad that her MACO deputy had ended up kicking Yu to the ground, which resulted in her landing awkwardly on the safety-mat. “I’m sure I’ve pulled something.” Yu added.

Nodding in agreement, Ben-Ami confirmed her diagnosis. “You’ve pulled a few muscles, nothing a simple relaxing agent wouldn’t cure to calm it down. Take a seat on one of the beds over there.” She instructed as she pointed over to the main ward area of sickbay. 

Walking over to the middle bed, Yu sat down and pulled her MACO jacket off, so the doctor (who was collecting the medication she would administer) could have easy access to her arm. Wearing only her brown vest, her tattoos running along her left bicep were on show. She had a series of coloured strips that encircled the width of the arm in the following scheme: white, yellow, green, blue, purple, red, brown, and black, each one acquired after acquiring the corresponding coloured belt level in Shito-ryu Karat. Above that on her shoulder, was a tattoo of a red maple leaf, representing her heritage, especially her former service in the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Mountain Police. 

“Here you go.” Ben-Ami said as she walked back with a hypospray in her hands. She rubbed the major’s arm before injecting the relaxing agent into the affected area. 

Automatically Yu felt the difference and rolled her shoulder backwards and forwards to knock off the pain she originally felt. “Thanks Kefira.” She said with gratitude. 

“How are things down in MACO land?” Ben-Ami asked as she took one more scan of Yu’s arm. 

“Fine, thank you. We’ve got a few new recruits that we’re trying to break in. I’m fortunate enough that we didn’t lose anyone after we got home.” Yu admitted.

Ben-Ami nodded, “It’s a shame that almost every department on the ship, besides mine and yours, has been affected by sudden crew changes. I heard that Sergeant Iyer remained with us, what happened to Roburn and Edro?” 

The mention of the two Ardanan boys that they rescued was a welcome change in topic of conversation. Most people on the ship spoke about the war and how it was affecting people they knew. “Both of them are living with Iyer’s parents in Lahore. I think they’ve got some more legal issues to deal with via the Foreign Office, but they’ve appeared to settle well especially with what they’ve gone through.”

Happy to hear that news, Ben-Ami smiled. “I had expected Rupesh to remain on Earth, what happened?”

“You’re not the only one, but before we left he spoke to me and said he felt he needed to return to active starship assignment as needed to fight for what he would be protecting for the boys to have.” Yu answered. “I get what he is saying, on top of that from what Khawla tells me, Rupesh’s parents are extremely wealthy and connected from their work so are able to access a range of resources to assist the boys in their transition to their new lives.”

“Let’s hope so.” Ben-Ami said and finished her scan. “You’re all good to go!”

Pulling her jacket back on, Yu smiled again in gratitude. “Thanks Kefira.” As he placed her arm into her sleeve she spoke up further, “Have you heard that the captain wants all of the senior staff and eventually the rest of the crew to begin further tactical training with the MACOs?”

Shaking her head, Ben-Ami groaned at the news. “No? Really?” She asked. 

“Yup,” Yu said, popping the ‘p’ at the end, “So shall I put some time aside for you tomorrow to join me in the training room?”

Rolling her eyes, Ben-Ami crossed her arms and nodded. Before she spoke, Nurse Stewart returned to the main area with a pile of blankets and pillows in his arms. “Can I bring my wonderful assistant too?”

Confused as to what she was referring to, Lieutenant junior grade Niall Stewart looked back and forth between the two superior officers. “Bring me to what?” he enquired. 

Chuckling as she made her way towards the exit, Yu answered Ben-Ami. “Don’t worry about him Kefira, his husband has him training already. You’d be right to follow his lead and join me tomorrow afternoon!”

Groaning at that, Ben-Ami agreed to it as Yu left with a wave and smile.

Stepping over to his superior, Ensign Theo Metaxas gave out a sigh as he held a tablet. “Lieutenant, do you have a moment please?”

Lying with her back on the floor of the main engineer, recently promoted Lieutenant Sakura Masuko was reconfiguring several power relays near to the main warp drive assembly. With a spanner in her mouth as she fiddled with the relays, she looked over towards Metaxas and took the tool out and placed it on the deck beside her. “Sure,” she answered as she pushed herself up and took the tablet from the young ensign. There was something about Metaxas that she could never say no to him when he came to her for help or guidance. His charming personality reminded her of her husband, Adam who served on the Lexington in the same position as she held. “What is it Theo?”

Indicating towards the tablet, now in his superior’s hands, Metaxas went on to explain the issue he was having. “I’ve been working on that faulty set of transfer conduits, seven of them are back online. The eighth is still giving me some trouble.”

“Did you run a phase diagnostic?” Masuko suggested as she began to walk down the side of the warp drive towards one of the engineering computer consoles to bring up the information that Metaxas was sharing with her so she could see the problem for herself. 

Nodding and uttering the words that the test came back negative; Metaxas shared his frustration with her and she could understand why. 

Switching on the computer and loading up the correct display, Masuko reviewed the problem to see if a fresh pair of eyes would help the young third engineer. Not able to see what the issue was, she turned to her subordinate and shared the only possible solution she could suggest. “Take the eighth conduit offline and work up a bypass. I don’t think the captain would appreciate a ship-wide power loss during battle.” She handed him the tablet back.

His shoulders slumped, “That’s what I thought, it’s just so frustrating. I thought all of our repairs were completed at the Obama facility.”

“Unfortunately our repairs had to be rushed to assist other ships in the war effort. It’s no surprise we’re going to find a few issues.” Masuko remarked. She looked at him and saw he seemed quite deflated; the notion of war was starting to hit her engineering staff. “On top of that, if they completely repaired the ship then what would keep us entertained?”

Metaxas sniggered, “I’ll get on that by-pass straight away before Commander Stanton finds out.”

“Find out what?” spoke a familiar voice from across the room.

Turning towards the direction, both engineers smiled at the arrival of their department head and the ship’s new first officer. 

“Speak of the devil,” Masuko commented and she approached Commander Stanton with Metaxas. “We’re just dusting off the few bits and pieces that the team at the repair station missed.”

Stanton, who had barely set a foot in engineering since his promotion and their departure from the Obama Repair Facility, looked around the room. “Nothing too serious I hope?”

Shaking her head, “Nothing we can’t handle sir.” She answered and looked to Metaxas, “Theo please get to work on that by-pass while I catch up with the boss.”

“Aye ma’am.” Metaxas said in a happier tone and cordially nodded to his other superior officer. “It’s good to see you sir.”

Stanton smirked at Metaxas’ chirpier manner and watched as the young engineer went off to get on with his work before returning to his right-hand woman. “I was popping down to see how things are done here, but it seems you’ve got it all under control.”

Looking around the room at the work being undertaken, Masuko was pretty proud of how well the engineering staff had adjusted to the recent staff changes. “We’ve got it in hand, but I could use a second pair of eyes on the field matrix. The pattern’s bothering me, and I can’t figure out why.”

“I’ll take a look at it.” Said the chief engineer as he followed Masuko back to where she was originally working before Metaxas had bothered her. 

“Thanks,” Masuko replied as they approached another screen that had the issue she had been working on. 

Studying the readout, Stanton nodded as he saw the same problem that Masuko was seeing. “I see what you mean, let me try something.” He said and started tapping away on the keyboard under the screen. 

“How’s life on the bridge treating you then?” Masuko asked as she observed the work Stanton was doing.

Smirking at her question, Stanton answered her. “It’s not as fun as I thought it would be, but the captain’s got us busy getting us ready for this search for the Armstrong and Discovery.”

“I was sorry to hear that it was your husband’s ship that we’re going to be looking for.” Masuko said with compassion. “I’m sure the Discovery is keeping a low profile to avoid detection from the Romulans until it’s safe to let us know how they are.”

“There you go, all sorted.” He said and turned to look at the Japanese engineer. “Thanks Sakura, you’re right about the Discovery. I just know he’s still out there and alive. We’ll find him and work out what happened.”

Nodding in agreement, Masuko smiled at her boss. “I know what you mean as I feel the same about Adam. I’m certain he is safe wherever the Lexington is right now.” 

“I’m sure many of us are starting to develop a fifth sense about the status of our loved ones since this war started.” Stanton said as he came away from the station. “Keep up the great work Sakura.”

“We will sir, we’ll keep the ship intact so we can find Commander Rodham and bring him and his crew home safely.” Masuko said in a positive way. 

“I appreciate that lieutenant.” He started to walk away and told her to carry on with her duties.

The sound of the door chime going off did not disturb Fleet Captain Burton as he read over the contents on his screen. Ordering the person who was on the other side to enter his ready room, he took a sip from the mug that sat on his desk next to where his elbows were perched on. His chin had been resting in his palms as he read intently over the last communications from the Armstrong. He had not met its commanding officer, Captain Saina Charan, but he knew of her. She had previously commanded the Nova Scotia, which their chief of the boat (Senior Chief Petty Officer Dubois) had served on for some time.  From what Dubois had shared with the captain, she spoke very highly of Charan. Dubois had once said that she owed her career to Charan. The contents of his mug was still warm and he quickly finished as the door opened, allowing Ensign Martha Habiba to walk in. 

“Ensign, please take a seat.” He offered as he placed his mug down and turned his monitor off. He now gave his visitor his full attention. 

Smiling at the motion, Habiba thanked her captain and placed her hands on her lap as she sat down in the armchair that forced Burton to spin in his chair almost one-hundred-eighty degrees to face her. “Thank you sir.”

Copying her grin, Burton quickly composed himself as he knew he had to have this conversation with her. “Ensign, first off I wanted to thank you for stepping up to look after the science department since Commander Levesque’s departure.”

Bowing her head in a short gesture to show her gratitude for him recognising her work, Habiba thanked him again. “It’s been a whirlwind so far sir, but I appreciate Commander Stanton’s supervision and support.”

“Good, I’m glad to hear that Martha.” Burton said. “Ensign, I’m going to be upfront and honest with you. Commanding such a large department on an NX-class ship is quite the task, especially for someone who has not had any other experience based on a starship. However, I know that Captain Karim was eager to have you on board the ship based on your excellent recommendations from your instructors at Starfleet Training Command and your impressive test scores. For someone who took the intensive fast-track course and to get what you got was the reason why you were given the role of Second Science Officer on the third warp five ship.”

“I’m very proud of my accomplishments so far sir.” Habiba said in a tone that showed her trying to be humble. 

Nodding in agreement, “And I don’t want to ever belittle them either Martha. However with the war on, your current role of acting chief science officer can only be temporary and I hope you can appreciate why.”

Nodding in agreement, “I do sir, and I also understand sir that what happened on Delta between Commander Levesque and I has not helped with my career.”

Appreciating her candour, Burton spoke up with similar frankness. “And as I told you in this room several weeks ago, I would not pursue any disciplinary action against you based on recommendations from Commander Levesque. I also told you that the difference in being a Starfleet Officer is being able to remain focussed on the task ahead and keeping your head cool as best as we can.” He paused, “So with all of that in mind, I have been reviewing your record and from what I can tell, I think I have been too hard on you.”

“Sir?” Habiba asked, confused as to what he meant. 

Burton relaxed in his chair a bit, “Before the disagreement you had on Delta, your service to this ship was exemplary. I think back to the time when Commander Levesque was kidnapped by the Orions, you stepped up to lead the science department in our first mission. You did that with modesty and got the work done, in fact I gave you a commendation for it. Then after that you continued to work hard, in fact Commander Levesque had sung your praises on a number of occasions to me and except for one blip you’ve worked damn hard.” Stopping again as he considered his words carefully. “Your situation reminds me of my early career back on the Intrepid and the Charlton. Both of my captains took a chance on me then to develop me as an officer. If it wasn’t for them doing that then I don’t think I’d be here sitting you today as Challenger’s captain. So I want to take a chance with you Martha. I think the outcomes from Delta have impacted you hard enough and since then I think you’ve realised where things went wrong. Plus I cannot deny that you all were in a possible hopeless situation and as Sub Commander T’Plau would have pointed out – we are human. And being human means realising when we make a mistake, holding up our hands, taking responsibility and being able to move forward from there and taking what we learnt from it with us. I hope I am seeing that with you and I firmly believe now I will continue to see that in you. I also don’t think how unfair this has been on you with your relationships with your fellow crewmates. I hate to think that anyone under my command feels isolated.”

Tears started to form around her eyes, Habiba pushed them away and smiled in gratefulness for the captain’s words. “Thank you for saying that sir.”

Offering her a tissue from a small box he had on top of one of his cabinets, Burton continued with his little prep-speech. “Martha, I cannot offer you the full time position of chief science officer as it is a command level position. But I can help you take that next step in your career and get you on your way, if you’re up for it.”

Dabbing the tissue around her eyes and cheeks, she nodded to her superior officer.

Smiling at her response, Burton finished his speech to her. “Then Miss Martha Habiba, I hereby grant you field promotion to lieutenant junior grade, with all the commensurate responsibilities and privileges of that rank. I am officially making you our Acting Chief Science Officer until I am able to fulfil that role with an appropriate candidate. I will also be instructing Commander Stanton to add you to the group of other officers who have recently been promoted and for you to undertake the junior officer’s leadership qualification.”

“Again thank you sir, so much.” Habiba said with more tears and more smiling. “I really do appreciate this second chance you’re giving me and I promise to do my best.”

“That’s all I ask Martha.” He turned his chair back around and pulled a small box off his table and opened it before handing it over to the science officer. In it was a small black and silver rectangle pip. 

She smiled at the small object, she was overcome with a range of emotions as Burton took it out of the box and placed it on her right shoulder next to her single pip. “Congratulations Lieutenant Habiba.” He said as he shook her hand. “I’ll have the commander share the news with the rest of the crew shortly. Now return to your station on the bridge and let’s see if we can find those missing ships.”

“Aye sir.” She said standing up and thanked the captain one more time before leaving his office. 

Her departure was soon followed by the intercom going off. “Bridge to Fleet Captain Burton.”

Hearing his own new rank being used was still something Burton was not getting used to. Recognising the voice of his communications officer, Burton immediately tapped the nearby communications panel installed in his desk. “Go ahead Ned.”

“Sir, you’ve got an incoming secured call from Earth. It’s the Deputy Director of Starfleet Science.”

Further smiling at that, Burton ordered Hennessey to transfer the call to his ready room so he could talk to his former first officer and the mother of his unborn children. He hoped that the mention of it being a secured channel meant she was calling to deal with official business and it wasn’t anything to do with her pregnancy. 

Once the niceties had been exchanged and Levesque told Burton not to get himself worried about their unborn children, Levesque went on to share why she was calling him. “I heard about the mission that you’re on and when I found out which ships you’re looking for, I needed to call you Lloyd.”

That made Lloyd worry more. 

Elaborating further, Levesque clarified what she meant. “The Armstrong is my brother-in-law’s ship. His Captain Charan’s chief science officer and second officer. He joined the ship shortly after its recent stopover here on Earth. Originally they had been sent to do reconnaissance of the Barrens but those orders were changed to join the task group for Deneva.” 

“The Barrens?” Burton quizzed. 

“It’s a region of space just outside of Commonwealth territory constituting a subspace node, where no stars or celestial bodies exist. Starfleet Intelligence had Starfleet Science look into it recently to see if it could be used as a tactical advantage against the Romulans. The Armstrong was undertaking the preliminary survey for us.”

“Understood, which of your brother-in-laws should I be looking out for?” Burton quizzed. Levesque was one of four and her other siblings were all married. He had not met everyone in her family, except for her parents and older sister. 

“Cooper,” She answered, “Lieutenant Commander Cooper Walker, his Claudia’s husband. She is worried sick now.”

Understanding that once again there was someone else he now knew who would be affected by this mission, he told Nicole that he would find Cooper for her and let her know as soon as possible. Nicole thanked him and closed the channel. 

Pushing himself away from his desk, still in his chair, Burton wondered just how many people would sacrifice themselves for the good of all to defeat the Romulans.

“Captain’s starlog, October twenty-eighth, twenty-one-fifty-five. The crew have worked hard around the clock to prepare the ship for our upcoming search and rescue mission. Moments ago, we arrived at the last known location of the Armstrong and sensors have detected something I feared the most.”

Stood in horror and shock, Burton took a moment to digest what they were now witnessing from Challenger’s viewscreen. The twisted, burnt wreckage of the NCC-100 would be something that Burton (and he assumed most of his crew) would not forget anytime soon. Seeing the Daedalus-class ship destroyed was a reminder that this conflict would take Starfleet to a dark place, one that Burton had wondered if it would ever survive and return from intact. The burning hulk of the Armstrong’s primary hull, an almost perfect spherical shape, took most of the image up as it was cracked apart like a smashed eggshell. A single nacelle almost remained intact, but with numerous burnt marks across its cylinder housing. The ship’s secondary hull was blown to pieces across the starfield. It was obvious that the ship had taken a beating from multiple hits, scorch marks brazed the hull. Wreckage. That was all it was. Pure wreckage.

“Survivors?” Burton broke the silence as he looked over to his acting chief science officer, still grimacing at the dreadful sight. 

Habiba was already looking in the scope, wincing as she glared at the sensor readouts. Nodding to confirm she had found something, she followed this with a verbal response. “I am detecting life signs on multiple escape pods. Not many, but they are there sir.” She looked up from the device and turned to face him. “I could be wrong, but I am picking up twenty-one survivors. All human.”

“Twenty-one?” Cortez repeated. She was at the armoury station and was sharing in everyone else’s disbelief. “The Armstrong had a crew complement of one-hundred and forty-seven when she left Earth.”

Shaking his head in astonishment at the large loss of life, Burton gave out his next commands as he sat down in his chair, “Let’s get them in straight away.” He truly hoped those that they found could explain what happened. He took a mild guess himself, that the Romulans finished off the ship shortly after it had fallen back to send the message to Earth about their attack on the task group led by the Discovery. “Any sign of the Discovery?” He pondered aloud.

Sat at the engineering station was his first officer and chief engineer, Stanton shook his head. “No sir, I’ve reconfigured our long-range scanners to detect their warp trail. I’m not picking it up at the moment.” He added. “I’m still looking.”

Not bothering to tell him to take a break, Burton knew that Stanton wanted to find his husband’s ship as quickly as possible and he could only imagine what thoughts were now racing through his head after seeing the remains of the Armstrong. They were the same ones he was having regarding his brother Roman. 

“Lieutenant Hennessey,” Burton said, grabbing the attention of his communication’s officer. “Send a secure encoded transmission to Starfleet with what we’ve found and that we are undertaking rescue efforts of the survivors.”

Hennessey’s fingers started to dance across the keyboard in front of him as he began working on the encryption device that Challenger had recently been installed with. The Special Projects Division within the Starfleet Corps of Engineers had created the device in an attempt to ensure that messages to and from Starfleet assets were secure to avoid any battleplans or important communiqué were not leaked to the Romulans. Each device was unique to the asset it was assigned to, as a result, even if the Romulans captured Challenger they would not be able to use it without breaking past numerous security programs to use. “Message sent,” Hennessey announced. “Captain, if it’s okay with you sir, I would like to liaise with Doctor Ben-Ami to prepare for the arrival of our very important guests.” 

Burton agreed with his protocol office and gave him a single nod. “Absolutely Ned. Have Major Yu and the MACOs assist too.”

Hennessey got up from his station and headed to the lift at once.

Turning in his own chair, Lieutenant Conrad looked up from the helm to the captain. “Sir, the Armstrong’s cargo haul appears to be intact still. Can I suggest we retrieve what is there before anyone else grabs it?”

Burton looked from his pilot to his first officer, “Is it safe to do that Michael?”

Showing some annoyance from being distracted from watching the long-range scans, Stanton turned to look at the short-range sensors. “I would say yes sir. We could use the transporter to bring most of the bigger equipment in.”

“I would like to volunteer to lead teams on the shuttlepods to do the rest sir.” Conrad offered.

“What about those who have lost their lives?” Habiba asked. 

It was one question that had run through Burton’s mind too. Do they collect them and return who they can find back to Earth? Without realising he had hesitated; he knew the answer straight away. “We bring aboard those we can recover.” He answered. “If that was us, I would hope that someone would have the decency to return our remains to Earth.”

“Their loved ones deserve that at least sir.” Cortez said in support. 

Habiba spoke up as she continued with her scans of the debris field, “I am detecting a number of bodies floating in space, they’ve all been exposed to the vacuum of space.”

That was hard to hear, Burton cleared his throat. “Let’s concentrate on finding the survivors first, then we will work on rescuing our honoured dead. However, we must find the Discovery too. Let’s get to work everyone.”

Two and half hours into their rescue efforts, Corporal Jenkins found himself working in sickbay treating the injured Armstrong survivors. Ben-Ami had placed him responsible for dealing with those with minor injuries that weren’t life threatening. While he did that, Ben-Ami and her nurses dealt with those that needed urgent care. 

He had heard his husband from across the room direct Trommler to carry someone over to Jenkins. Niall had been given the task of doing the initial assessments of those coming into sickbay and directing them to where they had to go. Trommler, like the other MACOs, was carrying those who couldn’t walk from the launch bay to sickbay. 

“Liam, hier ist your next patient.” Trommler announced as he carried a very tall and muscular man who wore a science blue uniform over to him. The man appeared to be in quite a daze as he almost dwarfed the German soldier.

Looking at the woman he had been treating, also in a blue science uniform, he spoke to her. “Ensign Avery, you’re free to make your way to our recovery ward.”

Smiling at him, the young African American woman smiled at him. She had identified herself as Ensign Tanisha Avery, the Armstrong’s second communications officer. Her thick black hair was crumpled up where she appeared; she normally had kept it in a bun. The injuries she had sustained were not life threatening at all. She had a number of bruises, cuts and grazes over her. Nothing that wouldn’t heal in a few days. He had cleaned up the cuts and covered them in plasters. “Thank you Corporal,” she replied in her friendly manner. 

“Luis, please would you take Ensign Avery to the recovery ward?” Jenkins asked his friend and superior officer.

Trommler just smiled at the woman and said in his German accent, “Ja.” He helped the officer he was supporting to sit on the end of the bed that Avery was getting up from. 

Picking up his medical scanner, Jenkins took a quick glance and saw why his husband had sent him this patient. Instantly he recognised the massive cut and bruise on the top of his forehead and the man was holding his right shoulder with his left hand. His shoulder was dislocated. 

“Hello, I’m Corporal Liam Jenkins,” Jenkins said as he finished his scan and pulled over the tray with the hypospray on it. “Welcome aboard.”

The man, who was a lot older than Jenkins (he looked as old as the captain) attempted to smile at the pleasantries but appeared to be in too much pain. Jenkins noticed the rank pips on his patient’s uniform and almost looked surprised. The man wore three pips, with the third one having a black centre. 

“You’re my highest-ranking officer to treat so far today, sir.” Jenkins said as he loaded the hypospray with an analgesic. The man only winced as he tried to nod in acknowledgement. He was obviously in a lot of pain. Quickly, Jenkins placed the hypospray into his patient’s affected arm and pressed the injector button. Relief appeared over the lieutenant commander’s face. “I’m going to pop your shoulder back in, are you ready?” Jenkins asked and just got a nod in response. “One, two, three,” He said and instantly pushed the shoulder back to where it should have been.

Another huge sigh of relief came from the man. “Thank you corporal,” He said as he slowly rolled his shoulder. 

Jenkins pulled off the gloves he had been wearing and put on a new pair as he decided he would deal with the massive cut on the man’s head. He got the gear he would need from his medical kit and started to clean the cut. “Don’t worry sir, we will have you out of here in no time.”

“What ship is this?” He asked, still wincing from Jenkins’ efforts to treat him. “I saw your ship drop out of warp from my escape pod, NX-class. Is this Enterprise?”

“Challenger actually sir.” Jenkins said as he started to place butterfly closure strips over the wound. “This is the N-X-oh-three.”

“Challenger?” He repeated and it was like a lightbulb had gone off in his head as he realised something. His eyes popped open as he spoke, “Can I see your first officer then? Commander Levesque, please. I’m her brother-in-law.” He requested. 

Pausing through his process, Jenkins (who was standing in front of the man) looked down at him. “Sir, Commander Levesque is no longer on Challenger. She left us and became the deputy director of Starfleet Science.”

He appeared surprised at the news and then just smiled. “Claudia will be happy,” He mumbled and then looked at Jenkins, “I’m sorry I didn’t properly introduce myself. I’m Lieutenant Commander Cooper Walker.”

“Well if you’re related to Commander Levesque sir, I can tell you now that you’re among friends here on Challenger. Commander Levesque is highly thought of here.” Jenkins offered as he placed the final strip on. “There, all done.”

“Thanks again.” Walker replied with and winced slightly with his right arm. “It still hurts.”

Taking out his medical scanner, Jenkins hovered it over the shoulder and then realised he had missed something. “You’ve got a broken collar bone sir. At the moment all I can do is strap it up and when Doctor Ben-Ami is available she can do her magic and fix it.”

Chuckling at the younger man’s bedside manner, Walker appreciated Jenkin’s optimism. “Are all the MACOs on Challenger this jolly?”

As he took out a sling to put on Walker, Jenkins replied. “We’re known to join in with the fun on the ship. I suppose because we were on Challenger from day one, just like the rest of the crew, we’ve integrated as one crew. There’s no division between those who are in Starfleet and those who are MACOs”

Walker appeared to snort at that comment. “Glad to hear it, on the Armstrong our MACOs kept their distance from the Starfleet crew.”

Appearing disappointed at that notion, Jenkins’ demeanour changed to reflect that. “Oh? Really? As I said, we’re a tight community here on Challenger.”

Walker allowed Jenkins to gently place his arm into the sling and strap it up. Once it was in the black arm sling, the pain seemed to subside dramatically. “Much better, thank you.”

“You’re welcome sir.” Jenkins said. 

Looking around sickbay, Walker appeared to be trying to see who else was in the room from his ship. “There was another woman with me in my escape pod. A lieutenant, called Hillary Payne. She’s the Armstrong’s second medical officer. Have you heard or seen her?”

Shaking his head in response, Jenkins told Walker he hadn’t heard of anyone of that name. “Perhaps she’s on the recovery ward?”

“I hope so.” Walker said. He took in a deep breath, “Is there any chance I can meet with Captain Burton?”

Jenkins looked around the room to see if there was someone else that could help him. Once he spotted Lieutenant Hennessey helping a young man in an engineer’s uniform into sickbay, he turned back to Walker. “I can speak to Lieutenant Hennessey for you sir. Do you not want to wait to see if your captain or anyone else on the senior staff survived?”

Shaking his head, Walker spoke now in a more solemn tone. “I’m the last member of the senior staff Liam. During the battle the bridge was hit badly which caused it to be exposed to space. I barely got out alive if it hadn’t been for Doctor Payne pulling me into the lift when she did. I was the one who ordered the crew to abandon ship, Captain Charan and the rest of the bridge were sucked out into space.”

“I’m sorry sir.” Jenkins said in an even more solemn tone. “I’ll get the lieutenant.”

Meeting the captain by the lift doors was not a long process for the communication officer. After making the call to the bridge for Burton with the news that Jenkins had shared with him, Hennessey had moved from sickbay to the centre of E deck to meet his commanding officer. The doors swished open to the right and Burton stepped off the cart. 

“Ned, where is he?” Burton asked as he marched down the corridor with Hennessey beside him. 

“In the recovery ward.” Hennessey said. “He is speaking to the others from his crew that are resting there.”

Heading down the hall and then turning down the first junction to his left, Burton followed the corridor as it curved. “Have we got all of the survivors?”

“We have all twenty-one on board. Most of them are okay, two of them are in intensive care while another one is still in surgery with Doctor Ben-Ami.” Hennessey reported. “Lieutenant Stewart believes everyone, besides those who are in a critical state, will make a full recovery. It will be touch and go with the other three.”

“Okay, can you make arrangements for them all to get quarters and speak to Chef Lawson to sort out a hot meal for them all.” Burton commanded as he approached the ward.

 “Already done sir. She’s already had some of her stewards bring food and drinks over.” Hennessey said as he followed his superior. He gestured with his left hand where Walker was, the captain instantly walked over to see Walker sat on the edge of the bed with a woman who was lying on it. 

Burton recognised the man’s face almost instantly. The captain had almost memorised it from the photos that Levesque had sent him as well as after reading his service record briefly. He had a strong jawline, broad shoulders and was tall. Levesque had commented that even though Walker was obsessed with weight training and sports, deep down (like her) he was a keen scientist. Unlike his service photo, which had him with short spikey sandy brown hair, Walker’s hair was now flat and dishevelled a bit. His radiant crystal blue eyes appeared drained too. The horrors of battle were evident in this man. “Lieutenant Commander Cooper Walker.” Burton said to grab the man’s attention. 

Walker turned his head and immediately smiled at the captain. “Captain Burton.” He said in a Californian accent and stood up, almost to attention.

Burton returned the smile and extended his hand to shake Walker’s, “Welcome aboard Cooper. I can tell you now that Nicole will be extremely happy when I call her later.”

Still smiling at the captain’s words. “Thank you, sir. I appreciate that and I hope me and what’s left of my crew are able to call our loved ones when it’s appropriate?”

“Absolutely,” Burton said, “Lieutenant Hennessey said that you reported that Captain Charan is dead?”

Nodding to confirm, Walker looked to the woman that was on the bed behind him. She copied his sad expression. “Unfortunately, yes sir. She and the rest of the bridge crew died when they were blown out into space. I would have been out there with them if it hadn’t been for Doctor Payne here pulling me to safety.”

Burton smiled and nodded to acknowledge the woman that Walker indicated too. “I am sorry to hear that commander. Captain Charan was an exceptional commanding officer, my chief of the boat served with her and has always spoken highly of her. My deepest condolences.”

“Thank you, captain,” Walker said humbly, “Regretfully, I did not know Captain Charan as long as some of the others.”

“She was one hell of a woman.” said Doctor Payne. The young American woman pushed herself up further on her bed. Walker instantly went to her side to help her with support as she made herself comfortable. “Starfleet has lost a lot of good men and women today, sir.”

“That they have.” Burton agreed.

“We’ll make sure their sacrifice was not in vain.” Hennessey assured. 

Payne just nodded in agreement. “You won’t get any argument from any of us, lieutenant.” She paused before turning to Burton, “Captain, please say we’re not leaving anyone behind.”

Shaking his head, “No we won’t be. Now we’ve got all of you here safely on board, we are now working to recover those who were lost when the Armstrong went down.”

“Their families will appreciate it sir.” Walker remarked. 

Burton smiled at the commander’s words. “Commander, my crew will do whatever it takes to make you all comfortable here. I will make them available to help you all.”

Payne looked at Walker, almost giving him a signal to say something. He did. “Sir, I’ve spoken to everyone here and we don’t want to sit out any more than we need to.”

Confused at what he was getting at, Burton asked for clarity. “What do you mean?”

Looking around the room, where everyone who had been part of his ship, Walker answered the captain. “When we get the approval from your chief medical officer, we would like to join your crew and help out.”

Smiling again, this time at everyone’s courage and conviction. Those words and the sense of camaraderie in the room overwhelmed him. “You all honour your fallen shipmates well.” He said to everyone, they were all now looking at him. “We would be honoured for you all to join our crew, but I need you all to understand that we were also sent out here to find Discovery too.”

Looking from Burton to Payne and then back to the captain, Walker spoke up. “Well sir then I am sure we can help you with that. We detected Discovery flying past us before the battle was over. We only survived from complete destruction as the Romulans left us for dead to chase after them. If we could recover the records from the Armstrong, we could show you the direction they were heading.”

“That sounds like a plan to me.” Burton said and extended his hand towards Walker one more time as an official gesture to welcome him on board Challenger.

Shuttlepod One

Flying Shuttlepod One slowly and carefully through the debris field, Conrad was working hard to concentrate carefully to avoid his small craft coming into contact with anything else. Behind his right shoulder at the auxiliary controls was Ensign Metaxas. “I’ve got our next fish on sensors,” He reported after several bleeps had come through on his console. “Looks like a caseload of photonic torpedoes.”

“Are you certain?” Conrad asked as he reduced power to the engines. He wanted their momentum to glide them in now.

Confirming his readings with an affirmative yes and that they were safe to approach the payload of unused torpedoes, Metaxas sent the coordinates to Conrad’s helm station.

“I see them.” Conrad said and brought their engines back online. “I’m not sure our grapplers will keep them entirely safe as we move them out of the field. We may need Challenger to do a direct transport of them.”

“I was wondering the same thing.” Metaxas said, “But this is precious gear here that we don’t want anyone else having their hands on.”

“Agreed,” Conrad said as he moved them gently towards their target. “By the way Theo, great work on the search algorithm.”

Metaxas smiled in appreciation for his colleague’s praise. He had devised the program they were using to search the debris field to find useful parts and gear to salvage. “Thanks Jack.” He paused talking while he finished off his final scan. “Jack, do you mind if I ask you a question?”

Smirking a bit, Jack found some ounce of humour within me. “You just did.” He leant over and took the engines offline by flicking a switch on the right-hand console. “Go on Theo, what’s on your mind?”

“The war,” He answered bluntly. “Just seeing the Armstrong like that makes it all seem much more real.”

Solemnly, Conrad agreed. “Yeah it does.” 

“Sorry Jack, I didn’t mean to-” He stopped and started to get flustered, “I mean I shouldn’t have said anything, especially since…well you know…” Metaxas trailed off, not knowing how to stop himself anymore.

“Are you talking about the Raven?” Conrad asked and didn’t give the engineer a chance to respond, “It’s okay Theo, I’m still coming to terms with it. But you’re right. Seeing this all does make it all more real. I won’t lie to you and not say I’m not scared. Truth be told, I am frightened.”

“Me too.” Metaxas admitted. “Let’s change the subject.”

Spinning in his chair and giving his friend a smile, Jack spoke up. “We’ll get through this, let’s just concentrate on doing our jobs well and that’s all that can be asked of us now.” He turned his chair back around.

Theo smirked. “That extra pip has definitely given you some wisdom!”

Conrad burst out laughing, “Thanks, now let’s get to work on those torpedoes.”

Not realising that the work she had agreed to do would become so hard to undertake on both a physical and emotional level, Martha Habiba pressed on. Wearing an EVA suit and standing at the auxiliary transporter console, she had rigged up the station to give her access to the primary short-range sensors while she and Lieutenant Masuko undertook the grim job of beaming on board the dead crew of the Armstrong. Using a similar search program like Metaxas had created to search the wreckage for salvageable parts, Habiba had put together a way of trying to identify the bodies that were floating in space. They had started their task of transporting them on board, then with help from several MACOs, who were then carefully placing the bodies in body bags, those that they found were being moved to Challenger’s morgue. Those involved were wearing their EVAs to avoid any contaminants that the transporter’s bio filters couldn’t properly identify. It was an added precaution that Doctor Ben-Ami wanted them to take. 

By now their work had become almost mundane. Habiba would identify the coordinates while Masuko would use the primary control interface to lock on the transporter beam and bring those they found on board. Their grey, lifeless bodies looked like something out of a horror movie. The expressions of shock and being terrified were etched into each of their faces as some sort of realisation that they were meeting their peril. The coldness of space had almost frozen them into that locked look. 

“I’m only picking up one more body out there.” Habiba said with dismay over the suit’s inbuilt communication system. 

Masuko looked over to her. “Really? We’ve been at this for almost three hours and we haven’t recovered the entire crew.”

Looking at the scans below, Habiba shook her head in disbelief. “I don’t think we will find them all. We’ve got to assume a good number of them were caught in the explosions when the ship was torn apart from being destroyed by the Romulans.”

At that point, the MACOs who had been assigned to this duty arrived. In their own silver EVA suits, First Lieutenant al-Fayyad and Sergeant Iyer made their way over to where Habiba was standing with the Second Engineer.

“Lieutenants, how are we doing?” al-Fayed asked. As the deputy detachment commander for the MACOs, Khawla al-Fayyad was known for her level-headed approach and was a seasoned officer. It was the reason why she volunteered to help with the task. She had seen dead bodies before, she had said it didn’t bother her, but Habiba wondered if she was covering up the truth. Iyer on the other hand had mentioned a similar thing, but every time they beamed somebody else up it sounded like he was saying a short prayer for them. 

“I think we’ve got one more to go.” Habiba answered.

“Not to come off as disrespectful, but in some ways that’s good. The morgue is almost full.” Iyer mentioned. 

“Let’s not leave them out there any longer.” Masuko ordered as she was the highest-ranking officer there. She moved back to her station and tapped in the coordinates that Habiba sent over to her. Eventually, she pushed the transporter controls upwards and once the lock was confirmed she pulled them back down again. 

The entire group did not move, as the body that appeared within the transporter alcove was none other than Captain Charan. Saina Charan laid on the transporter pad, her eyes were closed and she seemed more at peace than anyone else they had rescued. It was almost like she had accepted her fate and went with some sort of dignity. 

“That’s…” uttered Sergeant Iyer and stopped as he didn’t know what to say. 

“…Captain Charan.” Finished Habiba. 

The view of a Starfleet captain dead was quite an image. Charan had become a well-established officer in the fleet. She had commanded more than one ship and was one of the first women to have multiple commands under her belt. A true scientist at heart, she was known for her work in the United Earth Space Probe Agency first before transferring over to Starfleet. 

Clearing her throat, al-Fayyad broke the solemn atmosphere slightly. “Come on Rupesh, she doesn’t deserve to be left there. Let’s get her to the morgue.”

“I’ll inform the captain.” Habiba said.

Nodding in agreement, Masuko logged out of the system. “I’ll get a team up here to de-containment the area before we start to use it again to bring on board bigger gear and equipment that Jack and Theo find.”

Habiba spoke to the captain over the intercom and informed her of their final discovery. He only replied with a sombre ‘thank you’. Once they were completed the group made their way towards the decon-chamber to ensure they were not infected by any unknown parasites or infections.

Finally, after almost four hours of intense triage work, Kefira Ben-Ami sat down and took a moment to breathe. Ripping off her protective gown and the gloves she wore, she closed her eyes for a moment. 

Around her sickbay and finally calmed down. Being the chief medical officer of a starship during wartime was not a role she had ever considered finding herself in when she joined Starfleet. Even though she had served in the Israeli Defence Force, what she had experienced today was something quite different. Even Challenger’s dealings with the Carreons a few months ago didn’t compare to this. She pondered if it was because these people they had been treating today were not part of Challenger, on some level she can remember her old medical professors saying about how treating those you are closer to is completely different to those who are complete strangers to you.

Disturbed by the arrival of a friendly hand, passing her a mug of hot black coffee, Ben-Ami looked up to see Chef Lawson smiling down at her.

“Thought you may like a small pick-me-up.” The chef offered.

Taking the mug instantly into her hands, Ben-Ami thanked Lawson and after blowing on the mug took a sip. The warm contents soothed her mind and body for a moment. The doors to sickbay opened and walking in was her right-hand man, recently promoted and married Lieutenant junior grade Niall Stewart. She had pulled his leg and asked if he and Liam had planned to hyphen their surnames, he had just laughed the comment off.

“Everything okay Niall?” She called over and placed her mug down on the side bench. 

Nodding in acknowledgement, he too was wearing his scrubs and was pulling off a pair of gloves as he walked in. Chef Lawson approached him with the last of the hot beverages, offering him a mug of tea. Their head cook knew most of the crew’s preferences now. She was an angel in disguise. 

Taking the hot drink after throwing his gloves in a nearby waste bin, Stewart made his way over to his department head and sat down opposite to her on the nearby stool. “Everyone in the recovery ward is comfortable. Lieutenant Hennessey is working on getting them all some quarters.”

“Good, we may end up needing more space if we have to provide medical assistance to the Discovery.” Ben-Ami marked as she leant back further in her chair. Rubbing a slight twinge at the back of her neck, she continued to speak. “Liam did extremely well today. I overheard the captain singing his praises again.”

Stewart grinned with pride. Looking over at the last remaining patients in sickbay, he asked her how they all were. “Are they going to be okay?” He added.

“They will be,” Ben-Ami replied. “I’m expecting them all to make a recovery.” She looked over at him.

“I noticed on my way in that the decon chamber is in use.” Stewart said in between further sips of his tea.

“Yes, the team who were recovering the bodies from space finished their task a few moments ago. Just to be on the safe side I had them all go in and do a full cycle.” Ben-Ami said, picking up her mug from the side she looked at its black contents before swallowing some of it again. Afterwards she sighed and spoke in a remorseful manner, “The last person they pulled out was Captain Charan.”

“Wow, really?” Stewart sounded surprised. “I’m sure Commander Walker would be interested to know that. The survivors have been talking very highly about her. She sounds like quite the legendary woman.”

“I’ve heard similar tales too,” Ben-Ami stated. “She was apparently Fleet Admiral Hathaway’s first chief science officer on the Emmette.” 

“She should have been Enterprise’s captain,” spoke a familiar French voice. 

Looking over to the doorway, now entering was Senior Chief Petty Officer Dubois, Challenger’s chief of the boat and quartermaster. Both Ben-Ami and Stewart smiled at the woman as she walked across the bay, with a data tablet in her hands. 

“What do you mean chief?” Stewart asked her. 

Dubois smiled as she spoke fondly of her old captain. “Charan had been offered a spot on the NX-program but declined as she wanted to remain out in the field. If she had entered it I, and many others, are certain she would have beaten Archer to the big chair.” She smiled, “I heard the news about them recovering her.” Pausing again, Dubois composed herself. “Ro-fa, I was hoping I could see her?”

Ben-Ami gradually shook her head, trying to persuade the quartermaster otherwise. “Ghislaine, you know that’s not a good idea. Her body has just only entered the morgue. We’ve not done full body scans yet to determine if it’s safe for you to see her up-close.”

“Please Kefira,” Dubois said as she pushed back a tear, “I owe that woman so much. She saved my marriage and my career.”

Relenting after understanding the chief’s intentions, Ben-Ami nodded. “Okay, can you give me at least an hour to get changed out of these scrubs and for the morgue checks to be in place so it’s safe for you to enter.”

Dubois nodded in acceptance. “Thank you Ro-fa,” She said. “I’ll be back soon.”

Chef Lawson, who had remained quiet during this time, looked at the senior enlisted officer. “Ghislaine, why don’t you come and join me in the mess hall for some delicious chocolate ice cream that I made this morning.”

Smiling at the invitation, Dubois accepted the offer. “Sounds like heaven, thanks Montana.” She replied and then looked back at the doctor. “I’ll be back soon.”

Ben-Ami just smiled in support and watched as the enlisted woman leave sickbay. She looked at Stewart, both of them appeared exhausted and deflated.

Sat in the rear compartment of the bridge, Michael Stanton kept his focus on the situation room’s table console as he manipulated the long-range sensors further. He was so focused on his work that he didn’t see Lieutenant Cortez approach him and offer a mug of coffee to him.

“Sir?” She said, interrupting him.

Looking up, he saw the Puerto Rican armoury officer standing before him. She held a warm friendly smile as she placed the mug on the table beside him. Stanton mirrored the smile in gratitude. “Thank you Rachele.” He took the hot beverage and almost gulped its contents in one full swoop. Coming up for a short breath, he ultimately finished the whole thing. “Amazing, I needed that.”

“That’s understatement sir.” Cortez stated as she took a sip from her own coffee. “I noticed you haven’t left here for a few hours now sir. How’s the work progressing?”

Shaking his head in response, Stanton sounded more annoyed at his work then at her. “It’s taking longer than I expected. Keeping the long-range sensors tuned into the Discovery’s energy signatures is limiting the reach they can do.”

Cortez walked further into the pit that the situation room was located in to peek at the work that Stanton was doing. “Sir, permission to speak freely?” she asked in a lower tone.

Nodding just in response as he stared back at the large screen that hung on the back wall. 

Clearing her throat, Cortez spoke up. “Sir, we are all worried at how personal you’re taking this.”

Stanton looked back at her almost immediately. “What’s that supposed to mean lieutenant?” His response was very uncharacteristic of him. Harsh in fact. “Would you not be taking such a matter personal if that was your loved one lost out there? Even the captain is struggling with the notion that he may have lost his younger brother.”

Holding her ground, Cortez remained strong in her conviction and voice. “With all due respect sir, yes I know what it’s like to lose a loved one. My wife, Sasha, died during the Xindi attack when their swath ripped through Venezuela. So, I know the pain and angst you’re going through, by wondering what’s happened to them.” Her eyes became slightly watery, “For days, I sat in my dorm at Starfleet Training Command, waiting to hear if she had been one of those who had been lost. That was one of the darkest days of my life and I find it hard to forget that time.”

Feeling like a complete fool, Stanton calmed down and sat on one of the stools by the table. “I’m sorry Rachele, I shouldn’t have snapped like that. I do appreciate your concerns.” He paused. “It’s just…” He couldn’t find the words to finish his sentence. 

“Hard.” Cortez said for him. “It is and it doesn’t get any better, especially when you see images like the wreckage of the Armstrong. Your mind is probably thinking you’ll see the same soon enough, so you’re holding on to some sort of hope that won’t be the case.” She took a breath, “I just want to say to you sir, that I am happy to listen, and I get it.”

Smiling in appreciation, Stanton thanked their new chief armoury officer. “I can see why Lloyd wanted you running the armoury department now.”

“Please sir, don’t put any more pressure on me. I just hope I don’t muck up the amount of faith you’ve all put in me with this job.” Cortez responded with. “Can I help with the search?”

Nodding in gratitude, Stanton showed Cortez what he had set up and what tasks needed to be done.

Working on the salvage parts that they had found in the debris field of the Armstrong was not a job that Jamie Harris had expected to find himself undertaking today. However, when the chief of the boat had placed a number of the enlisted crew on the job, Jamie hadn’t thought anything about it. The captain was busy dealing with the survivors, so he knew his administrative skills would come into play when cataloguing the gear they were finding.  

Challenger’s main cargo bay was becoming full, with most of their things being stacked up as high as possible. A few of the forklift trucks were busy rearranging so extra storage could be made. Walking past one, Harris noticed a MACO soldier bent over a pile of equipment he and others had said were not worth trying to salvage and their parts would be used as spares. 

“Hey, can I help you?” Harris called towards the man who had his back to him. He noticed his rank on the sleeve of his brown t-shirt. “Private-?” 

Turning around quickly, the young man who had short smart shaped brown hair looked surprised at being caught. His expression reminded Harris of a child being found with their hand in a cookie jar. “Rafferty, sir.” He said as he stood up. 

Looking at the young MACO, Harris did not know him. “Are you new to the ship?”

The younger man just nodded, appearing nervous that he had been caught doing something wrong by a superior. Smirking at his innocence, Harris introduced himself. “I’m Crewmen Harris, the captain’s yeoman.” He extended his hand out towards the MACO.

Rafferty shook Harris’ hand. “It’s nice to meet you sir. I’m Private Harvey Rafferty, I joined Challenger after its return from Delta Four.”

The mention of that planet made Harris roll his eyes. “Count yourself lucky not to visit there, private.” He said after letting go of the young man’s hand. For a MACO, especially one that was extremely slim, he had a firm handshake. “So, as I originally asked, can I help you with that?” He asked, gesturing towards the pile of broken bits and pieces.

“Well I’ve already fixed three hand-scanners and one computer tablet.” Rafferty defended. “I was told the pile was with rubbish and a pastime of mine is tinkering and repairing bits and pieces. Sorry sir. Please don’t report me to the captain.”

Smirking at the man as he crossed his arms against his chest, Harris shook his head. “I won’t, but if you’ve fixed all of that in a short amount of time are you sure you should be a MACO and not an engineer?”

“I like being a MACO sir, sorry.” Rafferty said. 

Understanding what that meant for the young soldier, Harris decided to let him carry on. “Well anything else you find that is fixable, please do fix away!”

“Aye sir. Thank you, sir!” 

Harris shook his head at how eager Rafferty sounded as he left him to get on with his own work.  He wondered if he ever came off that keen when he joined the ship? Time had changed since he had joined Challenger, that was certain.

The early morning start had not been the best choice that the captain had made since the start of this mission. He had hoped that by getting up early that he could have an hour of peace to himself while he worked out in the gym, followed by a run around E deck and then have a shower. Once he had done all of that he would treat himself to breakfast. The plan he had made in his head was meant to help him remain focussed fully on this mission. However he found himself doing something completely different now. 

By the time they had finished late last night, they still had yet to find any trace of the Discovery. Thankfully, Lieutenant Commander Walker had remembered the vague direction he had seen the ship head towards, but it wasn’t enough. Stanton had come up with a different idea. If what Walker had seen on the Armstrong’s sensors was true, then if they could retrieve the logs from the fallen ship it would give them what they were looking for. Finding those logs would be another barrier they had to overcome. Searching the debris field to find the data recorder (aka the ship’s black box) was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

It was now past oh-nine hundred hours and Burton had made his way down to the cargo bay to assist with the scavenging of the remains of the Armstrong that they had brought on board. Instead of his early morning exercise, he hadn’t been able to get the idea that their next clue was sitting in the rubble. He was eager to find his brother’s ship sooner rather than later. 

Crewmember Harris, his yeoman, approached him. The younger man looked a lot grubbier compared to how fresh and clean he had been hours before. Harris had agreed to join the captain after they had grabbed a quick bite to eat from the galley for breakfast. “Captain, none of our teams have found anything that even remotely looks like part of a data recorder.”

Sighing in disappointment, Burton, who had a scanner in his hand, closed it shut and placed his hands on his hips. “Commander Stanton reported the same thing from the bridge too. Nothing out there yet.”

“We may have to accept sir that it may have been destroyed when the ship exploded.” Harris offered shyly. 

Knowing that without that data their search for the Discovery would be even more difficult than it was right now. It was not impossible, just goddamn difficult. Burton took a moment to think his next move through. Sitting down on the deck floor and rolling his sleeves up further, he indicated for Harris to join him. “You may be right Jamie.” He said in a low deflated tone. “We need to be on the move soon, before the Romulans decide to return to this area and we’re their next target.”

Before Harris had a chance to reply, he stopped himself as he looked across the bay and saw something that caught his attention. “Sir, the data recorder from the Armstrong, it’s as big as a probe right? I mean it sometimes can be stored within a probe like device?”

Nodding in response, Burton confirmed Harris’ question. “Yeah, why?”

Harris suddenly got up on his feet and jogged across the bay to what he was staring at. Burton got up and followed him. 

“Harvey,” Harris said to the young man in the MACO uniform who stood by a pile of junk, “that pile of rubbish we went through yesterday, where did you put it all?”

Burton had not met the young man; he was obviously one of Yu’s new recruits. His uniform jacket was lying on the floor and he wore only his brown undershirt and the standard issue MACO combat trousers. Like Harris and Burton, the young soldier was covered in dirt too. Instantly Burton read the man’s surname tag: Rafferty. The young MACO soldier pointed in the direction of a huge container where there were a number of tablets, hand scanners and other technology in it. The words: ‘fixed items’ were scrawled across the side of the container. Noticing the captain, Rafferty instantly stood to attention.

“At ease,” Burton said before checking on the man’s rank, “private.” 

Relaxing a bit, Rafferty looked between the two men wearing the gold striped command uniforms. “Err,” He stammered with, “is everything okay sir?” He asked Harris, swiping the sweat that appeared across his forehead. He ended up smudging the grime further. 

Harris, who was now pulling out everything from the huge container, had his head inside the bin. Like a child trying to empty a parcel sack at Christmas, he was quick to remove items he was not interested in looking for. He mumbled something back about something he had seen the private working on the day before. “Eureka!” Harris eventually shouted as he struggled to pull out a large item. 

Racing over to help him, Burton finally realised what his yeoman had found. “Oh my,” He said as the two men put it on the ground. “their log buoy.”

Harris smiled in delight at their find. Turning to Rafferty, “Private, did you actually fix this?”

Nodding, in a wary way as he was now worried he had done something wrong. His eyes were bulging out in panic and fear. “Yes…sir.”

“Did you access any of the data on it?” Burton asked as he took out his scanner and started to work on the buoy.

“No?” He answered, worried that he may have answered incorrectly. “Does that have the data recorder in it?”

Looking back to the young MACO, “Yes it does,” Burton said, “well a duplicate version of it. On Starfleet ships we have the data recorder that is meant to survive the ship’s destruction and a log buoy that we can launch that does the same thing.” His scanner beeped at him. “Private, you may have just saved the crew of the Discovery.”

“I have?” Rafferty questioned, still confused about what he had done. 

Nodding to confirm, Burton looked over his scanner one more time. “It’s there and intact.” He said to Harris and looked over his shoulder to the private, “Go get me Commander Stanton. Well done Mister Rafferty.”

“I just knew they had done something like this.” Stanton said as he read the sensor logs they had finally accessed in the past five minutes and began reviewing what had transpired. It was the first time that Stanton had smiled in days. Smirking at what his husband and his crewmates had done brought some sense of hope to Challenger’s new first officer. 

 “Are we certain?” Burton asked behind his chief engineer.

 “Absolutely.” Stanton answered and turned to face his captain, “At warp five we can be there in thirty minutes or so.”

Stood around the situation room with several others, the chief engineer and captain had assembled their senior staff along with Lieutenant Commander Walker to go through what they had found from the Armstrong’s debris field. Still standing, facing the large aft screen, with both arms crossed against his chest, Burton turned his head only to look at his pilot. “Jack, lay in a course and engage at warp five at once.” He ordered.

Conrad nodded in confirmation and moved in a flash to get across the bridge and into his chair at the helm. Within seconds the ship was moving again and entered high warp.

Turning properly around to face everyone else, Burton looked at his senior staff. “The Barrens, why am I not surprised to see such a trick coming from Frank Müller.”

Looking confused at his remarks, Ben-Ami spoke up. “What do you mean by that captain?” She asked. 

Glancing over to his doctor, Burton explained his remarks. “Müller is known for his risky approaches in tight situations. He’s always been like that, ever since he joined Starfleet.”

“But to fly the Discovery into the Barrens can be hazardous sir. The Armstrong only spent a few days in it before we were re-assigned. Even then we had to be super careful.” Walker stated from the opposite side of the situation table. “It’s a pilot’s nightmare if they don’t know what to look out for and it can affect a ship’s systems if they’re not careful.”

Looking at his first officer with a smirk across his face, Burton kept his arms crossed against his chest. “Knowing the pilot and chief engineer from Discovery, I’m sure together they knew what they were doing. As I said, Captain Müller is known for taking risks.”

Everyone worked out what the captain was implying at. His own brother and Stanton’s husband were excellent in their roles and with the type of man Müller was, Burton was riding on some sort of sense of hope that they were alive and well. 

“Well this isn’t the first time that Starfleet ships have been in the Barrens. How did the Armstrong survive?” asked Lieutenant Cortez as she looked to Walker for answers. She had remained almost quiet until now since their meeting had started.

“We recalibrated our sensors to ensure we were aware of any anomalies that the subspace node created.” Walker answered.

“Wait a second,” Yu placed her hands up to stop everyone. “What’s the Barrens first?”

Smiling at his MACO’s unit commander question, Burton answered for her. “It’s an area constituting a subspace node, where no stars exist within one hundred light years.”

“A subspace node is a “bubble” of curved spacetime, resulting in an area of space that becomes devoid of any stars or other stellar bodies.” Habiba added.

“So it’s completely dark?” Yu questioned. 

“Effectively, yes.” Burton said. “Cooper, were there any other changes you made to the ship?”

Crossing his arms across his chest, the tall scientist thought for a moment. “I’m sure we powered down non-essential systems to avoid attracting any residual energy discharges and reconfigured the main deflector too.”

Stanton nodded in agreement, “That makes sense.” The engineer looked to the captain, “I expect Captain Charan must have read what happened to Enterprise when they were last in the Barrens.”

“What happened sir?” Hennessey asked from the other side of the table.

“The Barrens is where they took Doctor Emory Erikson to originally test his theories on a new transporter, in fact it was a pretence for him to rescue his son who had gotten trapped within the node.” Stanton explained. “His son kept on rematerializing on the ship and causing damage to their infrastructure until they were able to properly rescue him.” Looking at Walker, the engineer asked another question. “Did Armstrong encounter any such anomalies?”

“Nothing similar to what Enterprise encountered, we were met by a few gravitational anomalies however we only surveyed the outer circumference before we were recalled by the Command Council to join the task force at Deneva. We barely scratched the surface.” Walker reported. 

Looking over the sensor logs one more time, Burton placed his hands behind his back as he issued out his orders. “Okay, I want this ship ready to enter the Barrens by the time we arrive. Commander Stanton, oversee the modifications and Lieutenant Cortez, place the ship on tactical alert.”

“Sir, one more idea, if you don’t mind?” Walker offered.

“Go ahead Cooper.”

Pressing a few buttons on the situation table he brought up a schematic of some sort of network. “Before Armstrong left the Barrens, I had worked on a plan on how we could survey it for what Starfleet Science wanted us to do. I had modified a number of our probes to act as a massive sensor network, with the ship being the main hub for it. I noticed in your cargo bay you’ve recovered a number of those probes. With a few modifications, I believe some of yours could be refitted to do the same. We could use the network to assist in finding Discovery. If Captain Müller is someone who likes to take risks, he may not make it easy for the Romulans to find him, which may make it hard for us too.”

Reviewing the idea briefly, Burton was impressed with Walker’s plan. He looked to Habiba and Hennessey, “Martha, Ned – work with the commander to get this done. The rest of you let’s get the ship ready for The Barrens.”

“I’ve got to admit Commander Walker, this is an ingenious design of linking the subspace radio and sensor array together.” 

Stood reviewing the main console in the sensor array monitoring bay on G deck, Hennessey looked over to the science officer from the Armstrong who just smiled in response to show his gratitude. Praising the science officer on his modifications would significantly help them find where Discovery was hiding.  The two men were working alongside Habiba in making the changes to the ship’s sensors. The room they were in was one of the smallest rooms, it was designed for only one technician to inhabit when required. It oversaw the operations of the large circular sensor array that sat on the ventral side of the ship. Now all three officers were working quickly to get a plan ready by the time they arrived in the Barrens.

 “Do you think we’ll find them?” asked Habiba from where she worked. The acting chief science officer was sitting on the floor making changes to the cabling into the main sensor array.

Still inputting in the new coding, Walker nodded. “In theory it should work, I can’t take all the credit for the changes.”

 “He certainly can’t.” spoke a new voice, who had just entered the small room. 

Turning to look at who it was in the doorway, neither Hennessey nor Habiba recognised the woman. She was almost the same height as Habiba, had short blonde hair, styled in a pixie cut. Her dark blue coloured eyes almost matched her Starfleet jumpsuit. With the rank of lieutenant and wearing an engineer’s red, the woman appeared to be in her late twenties. Her thick northern American accent was apparent too. Walker appeared to know her and walked over. “Colleen!” He said as he gave her a brief hug. “I didn’t know you were out of sickbay?”

After letting go of her superior officer, the friendly woman nodded to confirm the news. “Doctor Ben-Ami allowed me to leave, as long as I promised to perform light duties!” She explained. “I heard from Tanisha you’re attempting to duplicate our Watchtower Protocol?”

Both Habiba and Hennessey looked at each other, neither knew who this woman was or what she was going on. Hennessey cleared his throat to grab Walker’s attention. 

It worked as the science officer turned around to introduce the woman. “My apologies, this is Colleen Malone, Armstrong’s second engineer.” He said and then pointed to the two other officers. “Colleen this is Martha Habiba, acting chief science officer and Ned Hennessey, chief communications officer.”

Shaking both their hands, Malone smiled at them both. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Intrigued by what Malone meant earlier, Hennessey pressed for answers. “So this modification isn’t the good commander’s little baby then?” 

Smiling between the two men, Malone answered. “It was his, in all fairness, but both Tanisha and I worked on it with him.” 

Nodding in agreement, “I can’t take all of the credit.” He explained. “In fact most of the coding is Colleen’s work and I believe Tanisha used a Vulcan code too.” Turning to her, “So are you able to help us with it all?”

“Absolutely,” Malone responded as she made her way over to look at the main console in the room. “Looks like you’ve got most of it almost there.”

Hennessey smiled in thanks. “I have to say lieutenant, I’ve never seen a programme written before that allows the sensor array and communication systems to work so well together before.”

“Thank you Mister Hennessey.” She replied as began to type away at quite fast speeds. “I enjoy a challenge, be it technical or mathematical or anything to be honest.”

“She’s one of the finest engineers I’ve worked with.” Walker said as he returned to his work.

“Then we’ll need to keep her as I know Commander Stanton likes miracle workers.” Hennessey remarked. 

Snorting slightly, “I don’t think they’ll be room here for me. I can’t see how another engineer would be taken on board an NX-class.”

“We are fully crewed,” Habiba remarked. “but there’s still room. I can’t see why the captain can’t keep you all here.” She looked at Walker, “It would save him trying to find a new chief science officer and,” she looked back to Malone, “I’m sure with Commander Stanton taking on his new responsibilities as first officer that Lieutenant Masuko would appreciate another pair of hands in engineering.”

Walker looked over to Habiba, “Martha, don’t you want the science officer spot?”

Shaking her head, she answered honestly. “No, I’m not experienced enough. You should apply for it, sir.”

Walker looked to Malone who just shrugged her shoulders at the notion of them staying. She wasn’t bothered about it right then. 

“Let’s get this protocol sorted.” Walker instructed and went back to his work. 

Sickbay was slowly going back to normal, so when she arrived back after the staff meeting Ben-Ami was pleased to see that her deputy was finally sitting down at the workstation working and not having to treat so many people. However Lieutenant Stewart was not alone. He appeared to be talking to a tallish woman who wore the uniform of a science officer from the Armstrong. She had the rank of a lieutenant junior grade and appeared to be in her late twenties, maybe her early thirties. It was definitely someone that she had not treated.

 Hearing the doors open, Challenger senior nurse (with his guest) looked up. Stewart smiled instantly, “Welcome back ma’am. How was the meeting?”

“Productive thank you Niall. We think we have a solid starting point to begin our search for Discovery.” Ben-Ami remarked before looking between Stewart and the other woman.

Realising he had not introduced her, Stewart snapped out and gestured with his hand towards the beautiful woman to his side. “Ro-fa Ben-Ami, please meet Doctor Hillary Payne. She was the Armstrong’s second medical officer.”

Smiling at a fellow physician, Ben-Ami extended her hand towards Payne. “A pleasure to meet you Doctor Payne.”

“Likewise Ro-fa,” Payne said, greeting the senior doctor. “Ro-fa? That’s Hebrew for doctor, correct?”

Smiling at the younger woman’s impressive knowledge of Ben-Ami’s heritage, the Challenger’s chief medical officer confirmed Payne’s remarks. “Yes it is. I was born and raised in Israel; I prefer to use that vernacular than the standard title of doctor.”

“Oh I love it.” Payne said, “Did you study in Israel?”

“I studied medicine at the University of Tel Aviv before heading to Oxford University to study for a doctorate in psychology.” Ben-Ami answered.

“I told you she was amazing!” Stewart said proudly of his boss. “Along with that she’s with the Interspecies Medical Exchange, she’s talented!”

“The IME? I considered joining them before joining Starfleet.” Payne said. 

Amused at the woman’s energy and eagerness as a professional, Ben-Ami felt like Payne was genuine. “Well if you ever change your mind, I am sure I can put in a good word for you to be involved in some of their work.”

Surprised at that comment, Payne grinned. “Oh wow! Thank you so much Doc-” She paused as she corrected herself, “Ro-fa. That is so kind. I really came in just to see how the others who were recovering are doing. I am sorry for interrupting your work. I know how annoying that can be.” Payne looked back at her crewmates who were all lying asleep on the beds behind them. 

“I’ll call you when they wake up.” Stewart offered.

“That’s very kind, thank you Niall.” Payne said and looked back to the chief medical officer. “Ro-fa, you have one hell of a nurse here.”

“Oh, I know. He will make an excellent doctor one day!” Ben-Ami said. She had said it to him before, she only hoped that one day that Stewart would go on to get his doctorate. 

“Nurses do make the best doctors,” Payne agreed as she made her way towards the door. “It’s so nice to visit a well-equipped sickbay. I’ll see you both later.”

Watching her leave the room, Ben-Ami turned back after the doors closed and looked at Stewart. He had an expression across his face that she could only describe as a child who really wanted a certain toy. “What is it Niall?”

Considering his words for a second, the nurse took a breath and then answered. “I know it would lower my standing in sickbay, but I think we should ask Captain Burton if we could keep Doctor Payne with us.”

Intrigued at what he was thinking, Ben-Ami started to put away a nearby crate of medical supplies that needed to be stored away in the nearby lockers. “In what capacity?” She asked. 

“Second Medical Officer.” Stewart said as he followed her round and assisted with the supplies. “I know officially I’m meant to be the deputy here in sickbay, but I think with what has happened so far this with this mission and what happened with us with the Deltans that another doctor wouldn’t be such a bad idea. You wouldn’t be so overwhelmed when we are dealing with mass triage and it means we could do a lot more with her. I never understood why a Daedalus-class ship has a second medical officer but we don’t.”

“It’s down to the fact they have more crewmembers than we do.” Ben-Ami said. “However, I do think you make a good point. How would you feel if we expanded our team and you lost position as second in command in here?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Stewart was honest in his response. “It wouldn’t bother me ma’am.”

Ben-Ami considered the idea for a second. “Okay, I will go review her record and then speak to the captain about it. Even if she’s with us temporarily, it will make a difference.”

“Agreed.” Stewart said, feeling victorious with his point.

Ben-Ami paused and turned to look back at him, “I’ll do this, but I want you to seriously consider undertaking your doctorate.”

Rolling his eyes a bit, Stewart shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not sure ma’am. There’s a lot going on and with the war effort. I’m not sure I’ll have the time to do it.”

“You have your degree Niall and if Doctor Payne joins us then I can use the time to train you. In fact Doctor Payne could assist too with mentoring you.” She remarked. “I could use my contacts at the IME to have her appointed as a long-distance professor and have your training done by them remotely.”

Tempted by the offer, Stewart took a sigh. “Okay, let me talk it over with Liam and I will let you know.”

“By the end of the week.” Ben-Ami said sternly but still teasing him. “Or I will ask the captain to transfer you back to Starfleet Medical.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” Stewart said in a mocking tone.

“Don’t push me!” Ben-Ami threw back as she walked over to the workstation to see what she could do with Payne joining the crew. Nevertheless she was satisfied that she won another round of winding up her senior nurse. 

While he waited for them to arrive in the Barrens, Lieutenant Conrad had put some time aside to quickly review what the database had about this region of space. He wanted to know what to expect when he flew the ship in. He found the work a welcome distraction from thinking about the Raven for once. There was nothing really important that stood out for him that he didn’t already know about this unusual region of space. So when the navigational sensors told him they were approaching their destination, the pilot spoke up. “Captain, we are approaching the edge of the Barrens.” He said.

Burton, who was sitting in his chair, looked up from the tablet he was reading with the plans that his crew and their new guests had put into place. “Drop us to impulse then Jack.” He indicated. 

Acknowledging his orders with a simple nod, Conrad did as he was told and slowed the ship from light speed to sub-light speed. The impulse engines took over from the warp drive, pushing the ship across the threshold into the subspace node. The ship started to shudder slightly.

“Report?” Burton asked.

Glimpsing over at his sensors, Conrad answered the captain. “As expected, some gravitational turbulence sir.”

“Armstrong went through the same thing when we first entered.” Lieutenant Commander Walker announced from where he was standing at the science station. He was just behind where Lieutenant Habiba sat. 

“Are we ready to execute the sensor network?” Burton asked everyone who was involved in the work. 

“All systems are green from here sir.” Stanton announced from the engineering console. “I’ve shut down non-essential systems and the deflector is reconfigured to the specifications we got from the Armstrong’s black box.”

“The communications array and subspace radio are ready.” Hennessey said next. 

“Probes are ready to be launched sir.” Habiba reported from the science station. 

Walker made his way over to the situation room; they had decided earlier to use the aft compartment of the bridge to coordinate their efforts with the sensor network. Talking to an engineer from the Armstrong that he had introduced to both Burton and Stanton earlier, the tall science officer said they were ready from their end. 

“Well then,” Burton said, turning to his armoury officer, “Launch the probes Rachele.”

The armoury officer nodded as she pressed the trigger that launched the multiple probes from the forward torpedo launchers as well as the aft ones. 

A number of them all fired out from Challenger, each probe had its own destination and would keep a close proximity to the ship. 

“Cooper, activate the network when you can.” Burton commanded as he watched the probes move away at higher speeds from them. 

Working alongside Malone at the controls, he pressed several buttons and Walker spoke up again. “Watchtower Protocol is active and we are getting clear signals back from the probes.”

“The entire network is responding to our commands sir.” Hennessey added. 

Turning his chair to his science officer, Burton looked at the young woman. “Martha, over to you. Begin your scans for Discovery.”

Gulping slightly, Habiba turned around in her chair to look down her scope as telemetry came in. “Nothing yet,” She said.

This job was going to take some time. The bridge just fell silent as the ship moved further forward into the Barrens. 

It was interesting to see the game room quite full that evening. It may have had something to do with the fact that Chef Lawson had set up two tournaments, one for pool and the other for darts. Most of the crew that were off duty were enjoying the evening’s entertainment. The captain had insisted that they carry on with such things to support crew morale. As a result the chef, who was also the ship’s morale officer, had organised for that week for everyone (who wanted to be involved) a tournament each night. Tonight’s activities were well underway. 

Sat in the corner on a round table, having a drink of whiskey was Major Yu alongside Lieutenant Hennessey. The two senior staff were out of their uniforms and wearing civilian clothing. Hennessey was in a simple black top with grey jeans on while Yu wore patterned sepia and grey shirt dress that had a black and gold belt hanging from her waist. As the games continued on in the background, the two shipmates were talking privately when they were interrupted with the arrival of the ship’s chief medical officer. 

“Kefira,” Yu said after noticing the doctor’s appearance. “We missed you at dinner!”

Smiling at her friends, Ben-Ami appreciated the sentiment. “I do apologise, I wanted to show Doctor Payne around this place.” She indicated to the woman who stood next to her. “Ned, Viktoria, this is Hillary Payne. Our new second medical officer.”

Ned stood up to shake the other doctor’s hand. “A pleasure to meet you.”

Copying the communication officer’s action, Yu did the same. “Welcome on board.” 

Payne, who was obviously the youngest among them all, thanked the two of them after Hennessey got a chair for her and Ben-Ami to sit down and join them. 

Yu looked to Ben-Ami as the doctor sat down, “So has the captain made it official that the survivors from the Armstrong are joining us?”

“It looks like he plans to do so.” Ben-Ami answered as she straightened out her dark ruby red blouse she wore. She had tied her hair up into a bun and wore black leggings too. “Apparently his new rank gives him authority like a commodore to approve transfers in a critical situation.”

“Well that’s one way of describing the war.” Hennessey remarked before he looked at Payne. “It’s good to have you all with us though doctor.”

“Thank you lieutenant, but please call me Hillary.” Payne said smiling. 

“Then it’s Ned from me.” He said, copying her smile.

“And Viktoria,” Yu added. “You will become very comfortable here on Challenger. The crew has been through a lot in a short amount of time, but there’s always room for more to join the family.”

“That’s lovely to hear.” Payne said, still grinning. “Umm, Ned, you may meet one of my colleagues and a good friend of mine from the Armstrong soon.”

“Oh who?” Hennessey inquired as he took a swig from his glass. 

“Ensign Tanisha Avery, she was our second communication officer.” Payne answered. “Commander Walker said that you had lost your deputy to a promotion among the officer-exchange program with the coalition?”

Chuckling a bit, Hennessey responded to her. Erik Larsen, his former right-hand man, was a gifted individual, so he had been surprised when he had heard that the Scandinavian man had joined a non-Starfleet ship. “Yeah, Erik couldn’t pass up the opportunity to serve on a Vulcan ship under the command of our former chief armoury officer. So what’s this Ensign Avery like?”

“Very good actually, especially in a crisis.” Payne said. “She’s resting still in her quarters, but I’ll get her to meet with you soon.”

“Are there many still recovering?” Yu asked Ben-Ami.

Shaking her head, the doctor spoke up. “No, thanks to the efforts of Hillary and the others we were able to discharge the last of the Armstrong survivors to their quarters a few hours ago. Most of them will be returning to duty tomorrow morning, some need another day of rest.”

“So does anybody know yet if the captain has made Walker the new chief science officer yet?” Hennessey wondered.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Ben-Ami said after one of the stewards had brought her a drink of arak and Payne a glass of sauvignon blanc. The older doctor took a sip from the drink and smiled. “that said I’ve not been on the bridge since the staff meeting.”

“I think I had heard that the captain was going to ask him once we’ve found the Discovery.” Yu said, “I think he wants to give Habiba a bit more time in the spot to give her some experience.”

“I take it we’ve not found any trace or clue to where the Discovery may be?” Payne asked the other three senior staff.

“Nothing,” Hennessey answered. “Though if Captain Müller is creative in hiding as we were told this morning, then I don’t think this will be a quick thing.”

“Let’s just hope we’re not stuck here anymore than we need to. I do not like seeing no stars out there!” Ben-Ami remarked as she indicated towards the void that they could see from the large curved rectangular windows.

“I don’t like it.” Mumbled Jenkins through a mouthful of food.

Pushing his dinner around on his plate with his fork, Stewart wasn’t completely paying attention to his husband. He was exhausted from the amount of work he had to do recently since they saved the crew of the Armstrong. 

Realising he was being ignored, Jenkins swallowed what he had put in his mouth and reached for his serviette and dabbed his mouth. “Damn, that Ensign Reddick from the Armstrong is pretty fine. I may see if he’s single and have my wicked way with him.”

Stewart just nodded and again not listening, said “Sounds like a plan Liam.”

Taking a gulp from his water, Jenkins couldn’t believe how his other half was not paying any attention to him. “Well once I’ve finished with him, I may start on Raftery as he is closer in age to me. He looks quite flexible too.”

“Sure.” Jenkins just said as he pushed more of his food around the plate and then yawned. 

“Niall,” Jenkins said, placing his glass of water down on the table and nudging his husband slightly. “Did you hear any of what I just said?”

Snapping out of his slumber, Stewart shook his head and looked to his beloved. “Sorry, what Liam?”

Chuckling at the response he got, Jenkins rolled his eyes. “You’ve not heard anything I’ve said, have you?”

Stretching his neck, Stewart admitted to his lack of attention. “No, sorry Liam. What was your saying?”

“Besides my plans to dominate the latest additions to the crew?” Jenkins rhetorically asked, he then went back to his original remark. “I said I don’t like it.” He indicated towards the large rounded rectangular windows that looked out from the crew lounge, the MACO enlisted soldier explained his statement further. “Not being able to see any stars is just weird. It’s eerie.”

“Yeah, yeah it is.” Stewart said uninterested and took a mouthful of his food. 

Realising just how tired his husband was, Jenkins just smiled at him. 

“Excuse me sir, do you mind if I take this seat?” spoke an unfamiliar voice.

Looking up both Stewart and Jenkins were met with a friendly face of a young armoury officer holding a tray with the same dinner they both had, chicken and pesto pasta. Jenkins smiled straight away as he recognised the broad-shouldered man. “Ensign Reddick, I was just talking about you to my husband.”

“Oh, good things I hope?” He asked back.

Stewart glared at Jenkins and back to the young ensign before him. “Please join us,” He said after realising just how busy it was in the crew lounge. “Adrian, isn’t it?” He asked black haired man. 

As he took his seat, Reddick nodded in acknowledgement. “Yes sir, but my friends call me Adi.”

“Well welcome to Challenger Adi.” Stewart said as he became more focussed on their guest compared to how he was a moment ago.

“Thank you sir.” Reddick said as he began to tuck into his meal. “This is good,” He said in between bites. “You’ve got a great chef!”

“Chef Lawson has saved us too many times from being forced to eat Starfleet ration bags.” Jenkins remarked as he finished what was on his plate. “Her chocolate cheesecake is to die for too!”

“Oh great!” Reddick said as he reached for his glass of iced tea. “The chef on the Armstrong cooked the same thing each week. Rarely did the menu change.”

 “Well Montana won’t disappoint you in what she plans, every day there’s a selection.” Jenkins said, “Anyway ensign, how are you adjusting to your new life here on Challenger?”

Looking around at the crowd, as if he was about to share a secret, the young armoury officer spoke up. “I love it! Don’t get me wrong, the Armstrong was a fine ship and I had my own quarters, but Challenger has a lot of cooler gear that is new to play with! I feel like a kid in a toy store!”

Realising that his husband had met Reddick beforehand, Stewart wanted to find out from where. “When did you two meet?” He asked.

“Earlier on today,” Jenkins answered. “Adi wasn’t injured and he helped me with some of the Armstrong crew while you and the good Ro-fa were busy with the critically injured.”

“I took the advanced first aid course at Starfleet Training Command, never thought I would ever actually put any of it into practice.” Reddick added. 

“Oh, okay.” Stewart said, wondering if he should worry about his husband racing off with the armoury officer. He couldn’t deny that he was handsome, in a rugged way. “So tell us a bit more about yourself Adi, where do you call home?”

“East London.” He answered, “My folks were originally from Lagos but moved to London before I was born. I hear a bit of an Irish twang in your voice sir, am I right?”

“You are, I’m originally from County Kilkenny but, like you, my folks moved to Britain when I was six. I lost some of my accent in my teenage years, but it comes back here and now.” Stewart said with pride. 

“And it’s goddamn sexy when it does.” Jenkins said as he finished his last piece of pasta and chicken. 

Reddick coughed at that remark, a bit surprised at hearing such a thing between a Starfleet officer and MACO soldier. 

Smirking at the ensign’s reaction, Jenkins smiled further. “Don’t worry Adi, we’re married.” He raised his left hand up as well as Stewart’s too to show their identical silver rings.

“Oh, wow.” The armoury officer said after wiping his mouth with his grey napkin. “Congratulations. How long have you been married?”

“Ten days.” Stewart replied. 

“That’s amazing!” Reddick said. “Where was your honeymoon?”

“This is our honeymoon.” Jenkins teased in reply.

“No it’s not.” Stewart corrected him with, “when we return back to Earth we’re planning to visit the South of France for a week.”

“Sounds romantic.” Reddick remarked. “If you two don’t mind, I overheard that Challenger needs a new second armoury officer?”

Nodding to confirm, Jenkins spoke up. “I believe so, Lieutenant Cortez held that post before her promotion. Why are you thinking of applying?” 

“Yeah I am,” Reddick said. “I held the same post on Armstrong. I don’t want to leave this amazing ship.”

“We don’t blame you, so if we can help just tell us.” Stewart said and yawned again. 

Rolling his eyes again, Jenkins took hold of his husband’s hand. “We’ll definitely help, but I think I need to get our senior nurse to bed before he infects the rest of the crew with his exhaustion! Adi, it was nice to meet you. Let us introduce you to Lieutenant Cortez tomorrow at breakfast.”

“That would be great, and I appreciate your time tonight.” He said, shaking both men’s hands.

“Any time and sorry I can’t stay up any longer.” Stewart said after shaking his hand and yawning again. “You’ll love your time here.”

“Again, thank you sir.” Reddick said towards Stewart and then shook Jenkins’ hand. 

“I like him.” Jenkins said as he put his arm around his husband’s back as they left the crew lounge.

Stewart looked down at Jenkins to see if he was being playful. “Behave now Mister Jenkins-Stewart, you’re a married man.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t look!” He countered back with as they left the crew lounge which was followed by a heavy elbow nudge by Stewart.

Considering that they had been scanning for almost the entire day, Lieutenant Habiba was surprised she hadn’t nodded off. Her eyes were feeling heavy. Nevertheless she persisted. She was trying her hardest to show to Burton that his trust and faith in her was correctly placed. Knowing that she may not remain acting chief science officer for long, especially with the arrival of Lieutenant Commander Walker who had years of experience being a department head, she still wanted to prove a point. 

It was now getting late and most of the night shift had arrived. The Gamma Watch Officer, Lieutenant Commander Rosa Sandoval, had made her way over to Habiba to see how the science officer was doing. “Burning the midnight oils are we Martha?” The American Mexican officer enquired with a genuine and warm smile.

Realising she was perhaps pushing herself too much, Habiba looked up to her superior officer. “Perhaps I should call it a night ma’am.”

Sandoval continued to smile in response. She was a little bit taller than Habiba, had broad shoulders and her black hair was cut very short. “Get yourself down to the mess hall for something to eat and then get some sleep. I’m sure the captain would appreciate it if you were fully awake when you returned for the alpha shift.” Sandoval added. “Don’t worry, I’ll take over for you until Kastrovich arrives.”

Agreeing to give in and to make her way down to her quarters for some well-deserved rest, Habiba began logging out of her station. “When Nikolai gets here, tell him I’ve had to re-modulate the link between us and the probes more than once today to keep the sensor resolution above ninety-five percent efficiency.” 

“I will, now Martha please go home. Go rest.” The older woman said with encouragement. 

Standing up slowly, Habiba stretched slightly. She liked Sandoval; she had joined Challenger from Earth recently. After teaching at Starfleet Training Command for almost three years, she was a former colleague of Commander Stanton. She had taught astronavigation as well as subspace geometry. Habiba had encountered Sandoval in her first year when she taught ethics. The woman held several degrees in a range of subjects and had served on one ship before she had taught at STC. Habiba had heard that after Stanton had made first officer, he insisted that Fleet Captain Burton bring in someone to oversee the gamma shift, especially as they had lost Commander Levesque and Sub-Commander T’Plau recently. Pulling in a few favours along with twisting Sandoval’s arm to leave her teaching career, her transfer had taken place within seventy-two hours. 

Before Habiba could reach the lift door though, the science station beeped. Turning around to look at what it meant, she rushed back over and looked down at the scope. Sandoval, who was sitting in the science station seat, was tapping away at the console. 

“Martha, is this what I think it is?” The lieutenant commander asked. 

A grin appeared over the science officer’s face as she looked into the scope further. “Yes it is ma’am. We’ve found the Discovery!”

Sighing with relief, Sandoval matched Habiba’s smile. “Good news.” She got up from the chair and made her way around the bridge. “Ensign Gonçalves, lay in a course for the Discovery at once.”

The young blonde Portuguese man nodded in response and began making the adjustments to move the ship. “Course laid in ma’am.”

“Ahead warp three.” Sandoval ordered. She then looked at the science officer. “Ensign, we won’t be with them for another couple of hours. Go home, get some shut eye and I will call you up when we arrive. In the meantime, I best go find the captain.”

Surrendering to her sleep deprivation, Habiba agreed to Sandoval’s suggestion and left the bridge. 

Mission accomplished, Sandoval thought to herself.

Being greeted with a mug of hot coffee was definitely a satisfying shock for Commander Stanton. He had just been woken up by a call from Burton saying they had found the Discovery and he wanted the senior staff on the bridge within the hour. So, after a quick shower and a change into a fresh uniform, the first officer and chief engineer had decided to make his way up to the bridge and was pleasantly surprised to find Lieutenant Commander Sandoval standing outside with the drink ready for him.

“Morning Mike,” She said with a grin as she handed him the mug. “I heard you had spent most of the day on the bridge, so I figured you would appreciate a mug of this.”

Stanton was starting to like the fact that he had convinced Burton to bring Sandoval on board. Her presence on the ship was a welcomed one as she brought a new side to the command department – it also meant that the gamma duty shift could be ran by someone else who wasn’t a department head, giving everyone a chance to recover and be fresher for their duties. He and Sandoval had taught together at STC for some time, she was also close with Alex, so it was good to have someone else on the ship that cared for what had happened to him and the rest of the Discovery. 

“Thank you, Rosa.” He said to his friend as they started to walk down the corridor towards the nearest lift. Along the way he took several sips of the hot beverage. “Have we heard anything from them yet?” He asked, referring to the Discovery.

Shaking her head at first, she led the way down the corridor before taking a left down a much shorter one. That was the only nuisance about some of the senior officer’s quarters. The ones that were on E deck were all housed on the outer circumference, mainly so they had a window to look out of, but it meant they were further away from the lift. Their quick steps made their journey a little bit bearable. “No, the captain wants to wait until we are in visual range.” She went on to explain the captain’s thinking, “He doesn’t want to give away their position, just in case there are more Romulan ships between us and them.”

“Sensible.” Stanton agreed as he finished the contents of his mug and turned again to the left before making a right, walking past the small area designated the ‘barber’s shop’. Passing more quarters, they made another left and were almost at the lift. As they were passing the atmosphere processors it suddenly dawned on Stanton that he may be faced with seeing the destruction of the Discovery, or he’ll find out from someone that his husband is dead. Dread filled him.

Lucky for him, Sandoval had got to know him well enough she could read him like a book. The many nights while at STC they spent together planning their lectures and lessons had meant they knew each other well. So straight away Sandoval took hold of Stanton’s free hand and grabbed it out of a sense of support and reassurance. “We’ll find him, I’ve got a good feeling on this one.”

“I know, I know.” Stanton said as they finally approached the lift. “I never thought the two of us being in Starfleet together would ever make me feel this anxious. I’ve never felt like this before Rosa.”

“You weren’t married before.” Sandoval said as the door to the lift opened swiftly and they entered it. She looked at her friend after tapping in the command to take them to the top deck. “Trust me, when you’re married it makes you do, think and feel crazy things. Just remember, I’ve been there and done that three times now. This is perfectly normal. If not, you know I’m here for you, whatever the situation you face. We’ll do it together.”

Stanton nodded in agreement with his friend’s assessment of his situation. He had met Sandoval shortly after she had married her second wife; her two previous marriages had ended in divorces. Her first marriage, she caught her husband cheating on her with her cousin. During her second marriage, her wife had decided to become a nun. Marriage number three had lasted only a few months, when her wife had become seriously ill and died of cancer. Even though there had been a cure, the cancer had not been picked up on and she died very suddenly. Stanton and Rodham had helped Sandoval deal with the loss of her wife. It was another reason why Sandoval had agreed to his offer to join Challenger. She knew her wife would have wanted her to see the stars again. 

The doors to the bridge opened and the two senior officers stepped out.

Zipping up his jumpsuit’s collar, Fleet Captain Burton made his way from his ready room to the bridge (yawning in between steps). He had finally nodded off and reckoned he got about two hours of sleep before he got the call from the bridge. Their journey to meet up with Discovery had been brief but had given him time to finish off reading the last stack of status reports that had been bugging him for some time now.

Glad to see that some of the senior staff had reported to duty while he was in his office, he made his way over to his chair and sat down. “Report?” He asked aloud.

Commander Stanton was sat at the armoury station, a rare site to see, while Sandoval was covering the science station. Lieutenants Conrad and Hennessy were at their respective stations while Doctor Ben-Ami stood waiting patiently between Burton’s chair and the situation room. Stanton answered their Captain. “We’re making our final approach now, sir.” 

“Jack, go to full impulse.” Burton commanded his pilot.

Nodding in acknowledgment, the young lieutenant flew his hands over the flight controls and took the ship to sub-light speeds. Challenger gracefully dropped out of warp, but without any stars to whizz pass the whole scene appeared somewhat substandard.

Before them now was the mighty image of the Discovery NX-04. The ship appeared to be locked in a fierce battle with two Romulan ships while a third was attached at the starboard docking port. 

“Marauder drone ships,” Burton said, instantly recognising the type of ships the Romulans were using. “Scan for any telepresence signals.” He ordered. The type of ships were the same ones Enterprise had dealt with last year when a number of ships, including allied ones, had been attacked by a drone ship pretending to be others. Commodore Archer and his crew had stopped the Romulans from starting a war between Andoria and Tellar as well as one between Earth and the Rigel worlds. During the incident, Enterprise’s crew had learnt how the Romulans were using their ships from a long range. They had been able to disrupt their controls and after further analysis by Starfleet Science and Starfleet Tactical, all Starfleet ships now possessed the ability to scramble the frequency through their main deflector. However Starfleet had yet to come up with a countermeasure to the Romulans using a more advanced version of the technology to capture ships.

Sandoval looked down at the science station once and then back up to Fleet Captain Burton and told him there were no signals. The drones appeared to be operating on autopilot, they weren’t as quick or as responsive compared to what Enterprise had endured. 

“Tactical alert then!” Burton ordered. “Take us in hot Jack, Michael, open fire on the attackers at once.”

Helping its sister ship, Challenger open fired on their enemy and scored a direct hit on one of the attackers, but the drone ships were quick to move and hard to hit. Eventually the battle was complete, claiming a Starfleet victory with Challenger barely taking much bruising from her fight. 

“Hail Discovery.” Burton commanded as he felt his heart rate start to slow down. The adrenaline rush from the battle was subsiding, his focus was now to find out what happened to the ship and why a Romulan ship was docked with it. 

Hennessey, who had already anticipated the captain’s orders, had his fingers hovering over his right ear as he tried to communicate with the other NX-class ship. He struggled for some time and then looked to the captain, shaking his head. “No-one is picking up sir.”

Leaning forward in his chair, Burton rubbed his chin as he considered their options. He looked to Stanton, “Life-signs and what’s its status?” He asked his first officer. 

“I am detecting heavy damage, most of the primary systems are offline, some minor hull breaches and there are people over there alive.” Stanton reported as he looked up from the readouts. 

“Jack,” Burton said looking back down at his pilot, “take us in and dock with them. Michael, prepare teams to board the ship. Let’s see what we can do to help.”

“Aye sir.” Stanton said with a hint of hope in his voice.

Discovery NX-04

Boarding the Discovery, Major Yu moved swiftly through the almost identical corridors of their sister ship. Leading her team along E deck, it hadn’t taken long for Yu to distinguish the differences between Challenger and Discovery. The two had been built, almost side by side, yet there were a number of visual differences of the interior décor. Stanton had briefed everyone about the subtle differences that Captain Müller had made to the ship. Discovery’s main colour scheme appeared to be a range of golds and burgundy reds across most things, especially the doors. She slightly liked it, compared to the Challenger’s blues, turquoises, greys and silvers. 

The corridor of E deck was pretty much in darkness, besides the emergency lighting, the gravity plating appeared to be slightly reduced. Yu felt her footing feel a lot lighter. Taking out her communicator, she spoke into it informing the others that would be following her momentarily. Behind her was a number of teams ready to explore the Discovery to secure her and help the crew out. Pushing through the airlock with their own teams were Captain Burton and Commander Stanton. 

“All secure sir.” Yu reported to her superiors.

“Good,” Burton responded, “Okay listen up people. Alpha team you’re with me leading to the bridge first while Commander Stanton leads Beta team to engineering. Gamma and Delta will proceed to sickbay and the starboard docking port respectively. While Epsilon, Zeta and Theta teams will begin a ship-wide search for survivors and begin moving anyone who is critically injured back to Challenger. Any questions?”

Everyone that waited in the airlock to join Burton and the MACO squad didn’t say a thing. They were keen to move forward and get on with their job. Pleased to see everyone was motivated, Burton told them to move out. He looked to Major Yu, “Viktoria, let’s go.”

“Yes sir.” She responded and moved ahead of the captain as they made their way towards the nearest access tunnel to climb four decks up.

Stanton’s team didn’t have to move far to bump into crewmembers that belonged to the Discovery. They found a group who were trapped between an emergency bulkhead and a fire. Stanton’s team quickly put out the fire and were able to assist them. Extending his hand out towards one of the women, who wore a blue science trimmed uniform with the rank of ensign, he greeted her as soon as she was safe. “I’m Commander Stant-”

“Stanton,” She finished his sentence. “It’s me sir, Greta.”

Wincing slightly, Stanton soon realised who it was. The darkness and the smoke had made it impossible at first. “Ensign Russo, it’s good to see you.” He said, speaking to Discovery’s chief communication officer. “Are you okay?”

Pushing back her messy, short brown hair, the linguistic expert nodded. “I’m fine sir, thank you, but the ship is in bad damage. The captain ordered us to abandon ship but I don’t think any of the escape pods launched.”

Confirming her hunch, Stanton told her what happened and that they were there to help now. “Can you tell me where Command Rodham is?”

She nodded, “Yeah he was ahead to get on the Prowler. He was trying to get it to work with Commanders Burton and Wallis.”

“The Prowler?” Stanton quizzed her.

The communication officer explained it was the name they had given to their trophy from the Romulans. “We hated calling it the drone ship, so Commander Burton nicknamed it the Prowler.”

“Okay, let’s get you to somewhere safe and then we’re going to get the ship back to how it should be.” Stanton said, but under his breath he was cursing his husband for meddling in with a Romulan ship. He bloody hoped he was still alive. Nevertheless he still had to get to engineering to ensure Discovery didn’t blow up.

Pushing the door open with all of his strength, Burton was relieved when Major Yu had dropped her rifle to assist. Eventually the door that led from the small corridor aft of the situation room, gave in and clicked into a locked position allowing them to enter the bridge. It was an absolute mess. No main lights on, there was smoke spilling out from damaged conduits and there was a fire coming from the engineering station.

Yu immediately ordered Sergeant Hardberger and Corporal Min-Gyu to deal with the fire. The two MACOs dashed across the room, the tall German sergeant picked up a fire extinguisher on his way over and both began to tackle the blaze. While they did this, they found only two survivors on the bridge. A young man sat at the helm, who Burton knew was not Commander Rodham, and eventually his old classmate. Leaving Yu to assist the pilot who was dazed and barely conscious, Burton made his way over to the centre chair to find Frank Müller, barely breathing and awake. He was holding tightly to the arms of his chair. 

Taking out his medical scanner, Burton relied on the brief first aid knowledge he had to assist the Discovery’s skipper.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes.” Spoke the familiar German voice that Burton knew well.  Müller coughed a few times. “My crew, are they safe? Did they make it off the ship?”

Shaking his head to answer, Burton spoke to him. “Frank, I’m not sure what you’re talking about but we are here helping everyone and securing Discovery.”

“I ordered the crew to abandon ship.” Müller added, trying his best to catch his breath. He placed his right hand on his chest to support himself. 

Peering down at his medical scanner, Burton could see that Müller’s lungs were damaged. Probably from the gasses he had been inhaling from the ruptured conduits. “Frank, all of the escape pods are still here. No-one left, but we fought off the Romulans for you.”

Nodding sluggishly, Müller smirked up at his friend. “Don’t think this puts me back in your debt Lloyd.”

Grinning back at that comment, Burton countered back carefully as he injected Müller with some pain relief. “No, you still owe me for borrowing my chief engineer on your last mission.”

“You stole mine first.” 

Leaning his head slightly to the right, Burton snapped back in a friendly tone. “He’s my brother, I’m allowed to borrow him.”

Müller tried to laugh but stopped as the pain hit him from his attempt. “I’ve got to secure my ship and the Prowler.”

“Leave that to us.” Burton said in a sterner tone as he pushed Müller back into his chair. “I’m assuming this Prowler is what is docked with you?”

“Call it the spoils of war.” Müller said with a sense of pride in his voice and across his face.

“Well we can compare notes later. I need to get you out of here.” Burton said and turned around to grab one of the MACOs’ attention, but before he had a chance, Müller pulled on his shoulder. 

“No, I’m not leaving my bridge.” He said to Burton.

Reacting to the yank, Burton immediately turned back to Müller. “You’re in no condition to put up a fight captain and I’m pulling rank.”

“You’re a captain, just like me Lloyd.” Müller mumbled back. 

Smirking at that response, he finally realised why Fleet Admiral Hathaway had given him his promotion. “It’s Fleet Captain Burton now, but like your trophy, we will catch up about that later. Now let’s get you to Challenger.” Burton insisted as he called over for help as he pulled Müller up gently and placed his right arm over his shoulder. Slowly the team from Challenger left the bridge of the Discovery to get their survivors back to the good doctor to do her magical work. 

Sickbay on Discovery was a lot busier than anywhere else. This didn’t surprise Lieutenant Commander Walker as he led his team towards it, which included Doctor Payne and some of the Challenger’s MACOs that he was getting to know. Staff Sergeant Iyer led his squad with three others. He had worked out that the MACOs from Challenger were a different breed compared to what he had experienced on other postings. He could definitely see how right Nurse Stewart was at how much the two groups had integrated so well into one. It was the way things should be.

Outside of sickbay was a scene he had witnessed as a patient himself when he had been taken to Challenger a couple of days ago. Basic beds were set up outside in the hallway, leading into the medical facilities where triage was being undertaken. A short woman of Caribbean descent was busy at work, treating someone on the main bed. The moment she finished she looked up to see her visitors.

“I don’t think we’ve been introduced, I’m Doctor Melanie Reyburn, the chief medical officer of Discovery.” She said in a thick West Indies accent.

“Lieutenant Commander Cooper Walker, I’m from Ar-” The science officer paused as he corrected himself. “Challenger. Can we be of some assistance?” He offered.

Looking at everyone in his group, Reyburn asked aloud, “Any of you doctors?”

Payne stepped forward, “I am.” She said with pride as she went on to introduce herself, “Doctor Hillary Payne.”

“Before we go any further,” Walker said in a calming manner. “I notice some of your systems aren’t operational. How about I get some of my people to move your less serious patients back to Challenger?”

Reyburn accepted the gesture. “That would be acceptable, Mister Cooper.” She said with gratitude. “Doctor Payne, I would appreciate your help with surgery.” She gestured towards the patient she was working on right now.

“Let me clean up and join you.” Payne responded as she joined the older woman. 

After ordering Iyer to take those who were less serious back to Challenger, Walker took out his communicator. “Walker to Challenger.”

Lieutenant Hennessey, who Burton had left in command answered. “Go ahead, Gamma team leader.”

“We’ve secured sickbay, inform Doctor Ben-Ami for more patients coming her way.” Walker reported.

“Understood commander. Once you’re able to sir, Fleet Captain Burton has requested you assist him with further search and rescue efforts.” Hennessey relayed. 

“I’ll leave Doctor Payne in charge here with Staff Sergeant Iyer. Where is the captain now?” Walker enquired, as he spoke he gestured to Payne that he was going. She just nodded as she supported Doctor Reyburn with the surgery they were now getting involved in. 

“He’s heading to main engineering.” Hennessey reported.

“Understood, I’ll rendezvous with him on route. Walker out.”

Expecting to find engineering busy, Commander Stanton was surprised to see it far from that. The moment he and his team had entered engineering they were confronted with it being completely empty. He had wondered if he would have come across Lloyd’s younger brother, but it appeared as the engineering crew had just dropped everything and left. After running a number of scans, he could see that the ship’s warp drive was offline. It seemed that someone had completely shut it off to prevent a core breach. The damage to the plasma injectors was extensive and it looked as if the magnetic interlocks had been reinforced to prevent the core breach.

Once they had assessed the damage, Stanton gave out tasks to each of the engineers he had with him. Masuko and Malone began work on the warp drive while he and Peterson went on to stabilise environmental controls, life support and the gravity plating. While replacing damaged circuitry, Lieutenant Commander Sandoval walked in with her team. 

“How are the repairs going?” She asked the chief engineer.

Screwing the circuit board into place, Stanton looked back at her. “Slow, but we are getting there. How’s the rescue effort going?”

“Most teams have reported finding survivors, looks like they didn’t lose anyone that I’m aware of. My team is here to lend a hand. What needs doing?” 

Grateful that another pair of experienced hands could help out, Stanton asked Sandoval to start work on the secondary systems, like the fire suppression system as well as other critical back-up systems. The main power grid was down, so ensuring the secondary and emergency grids were okay was important too. 

More footsteps entered from the main entrance of main engineering and a familiar voice followed. “Michael, how’s it going? Have you seen Roman?” asked Fleet Captain Burton.

Stopping what he was doing, Stanton walked over to his commanding officer. “Since Rosa’s team has joined us, I reckon we can get the work done a lot quicker. We should have warp drive and critical systems running soon and no, I’ve not seen Roman yet. There was no-one in main engineering when we arrived. Have you seen Alex at all? Was he on the bridge?”

Shaking his head, Burton told Stanton that he had only found Müller and his second helm officer. He went on to explain about the order to abandon ship. After getting Discovery’s captain to Challenger’s sickbay, Burton had returned hoping to have some good news. “I’m going to carry on helping with search and rescue efforts.”

“Understood. I saw a member of the Discovery’s crew earlier who said that both Alex and Roman were trying to get that Romulan ship to work. Maybe get Cortez to get herself over there sooner rather than later?” Stanton suggested, feeling deflated at the news that his husband hadn’t been found yet. “And Lloyd,” He spoke quietly, “Call me when you find Alex.”

Burton nodded and gripped his first officer’s right arm gently as a sign of assurance. “I will.”

Stanton watched as the captain left and went back to his work. Sandoval moved over to him. “Anything news on Alex?”

He shook his head and carried on with his repairs.

“Carajo.” She mumbled under her breath as she walked away. 

Stanton knew what she meant and said it himself. Where the hell was his husband?

Working her way through E deck from one side to the other, Lieutenant Cortez led her team as they approached the other docking port. After getting the call from the captain that they believed some of the crew were hiding out on the Romulan ship, she had picked up her pace to investigate this claim further. It was her job to find out why a Romulan drone ship was docked with Discovery. With her was Second Lieutenant Trommler and his team of MACOs, along with Ensigns Metaxas and Dalton. The two men had volunteered to join the rescue teams. Walking through the corridors of Discovery was slightly eerie. Yes they had found a few injured souls along their way, who they had helped get back to Challenger, but now this part of their journey was spookily silent. It was peculiar. 

As they crept through their way down the last corridor towards the starboard docking hatch, Cortez was sure she heard something ahead. Looking over to Trommler, she gave him a sign to go quiet as she pulled out her phase pistol. Before them was a fallen bulkhead and damaged gravity plating. Slowly she crouched behind it and then as she was about to take out her scanner there were shots fired above her head. Damn it she cursed to herself. She had wondered if the Romulans had boarded the ship, maybe they had and now they were going to hold their ground against the Starfleet crew. 

Besides her, also now knelt down with his phase rifle out, aiming towards where the shots were being fired, was Corporal Jenkins. 

Wincing slightly, he looked up at the lieutenant and began to whisper, “Ma’am, that sounds like…”

“MACO weapon fire. Yeah I was thinking the same thing.” She whispered back. Peering through a slight crack in the bulkhead she was hiding behind, the chief armoury officer tried to see who was firing at them. Had the Romulans taken hold of the ship’s armoury as well as and were now using it against them? She saw a few shadows and a silhouette or two. Then she recognised the MACO insignia on someone’s bicep. Relaxing a bit she looked down at Jenkins and gave him a nod to confirm their joint suspicions. She took a breath in.  “Cease fire.” She screamed at the top of her voice. Her team instantly did it while their attackers resumed. “I am Lieutenant Rachele Cortez from Challenger. We are here to help you!”

A few more shots before she heard a deep feminine voice tell the MACO troops to hold their fire. The corridor was now filled with more silence as it had before the firefight had begun. 

Another breath, Cortez slowly stood up. “I’m coming out, do not shoot!” She said loudly. Holding her phase pistol to point upwards, she raised her other hand up as well. It had her scanner in it. She was hoping the gesture would calm things down. 

Through the smoke and shadows walked a tall woman, wielding a phase rifle across her chest, she paused a few feet before the lieutenant. “Welcome to Discovery, I’m Major Leona Danvers.” Danvers appeared strong, both physically and in her demeanour. Her brown eyes were piercing and contrasting against her platinum blonde hair that was short. Her American accent was clear to hear that she was from California. 

“Major Danvers?” spoke Jenkins behind Cortez. The young corporal moved around from where he was hiding and stepped to Cortez’s side. “Ma’am it’s good to see you.”

Danvers pushed a stray hair from her face as she smiled at Jenkins. “Liam Jenkins, well this is a nice surprise. I didn’t know you were still on Challenger.”

Cortez looked between the two as everyone else on both sides came out from where they were sheltering. Jenkins realised that he had not explained how he knew the major. “Sorry Lieutenant Cortez, but Major Danvers was my unit’s instructor when I underwent my enlisted training.”

Smiling at them both Cortez finally realised what was going on. “Well, I’m glad we can bring a teacher and student back together.” She commented.

“Apologies lieutenant,” The Major said back to the senior most officer from Challenger. “It’s nice to see one of my protégé doing well,” She smiled briefly back at Jenkins before returning her attention back to Cortez. “And more apologies for us opening fire on you. We thought the Romulans had boarded us.”

“Ditto,” Cortez said, “I’ve been sent by Fleet Captain Burton to find out what that,” She pointed towards the airlock door, “is and why it is docked with Discovery.”

Before Danvers had a chance to answer, a strong British English accent interjected over her. “Did you say Fleet Captain Burton?”

 Both women turned to look from where the voice was coming from. A man wearing a red uniform with commander pips on it stepped over the airlock’s threshold. He looked familiar, for a moment she thought it was Fleet Captain Burton, but he looked a lot younger and his hair was a lot lighter in tone. Plus he didn’t have the same beard that Burton appeared to have grown recently. 

Danvers realised that Cortez did not know who her superior officer was, so she made the introduction. “Lieutenant Cortez, please meet Commander Roman Burton, our chief engineer and second officer. I believe his older brother is your boss.”

Another Burton on a NX-class ship? Cortez thought to herself and she definitely could see the family resemblance as he approached her. Like Danvers, his appearance was dishevelled. His sleeves were rolled up and he had what looked like a hyper-spanner in his hands, with a phase pistol attached to his hip. “Commander Burton, it’s nice to meet you.” She greeted him.

Extending his hand out towards her, the younger Burton sibling smiled back at the lieutenant. “It’s nice to meet some of my big brother’s crew. Talking of which, where is that big oaf?”

Trying to remain impartial, she didn’t want to be drawn into any family issue, she knew that her captain had to deal with his father’s death recently and she hadn’t heard any more about how it impacted his family. For all she knew the Burtons may have found the death stressful on their relationships. That said, she had always expected that Captain Burton was a strong family man by the way he came across and the values he projected. “Fleet Captain Burton was leading alpha team, rescuing those on your bridge.”

“He’ll only find Captain Müller there.” Burton remarked. “We had been ordered to abandon ship while Müller was planning to take out the Romulans by himself. I think Ensign Hurst was finishing off up there too.”

“Well I can tell you now that when we arrived we dealt with the Romulans.” Cortez informed him. 

“By the way, you said Fleet before my brother’s rank,” Burton said, “What did you mean by that?”

“Well from what he told us, he was promoted by the Starfleet Commander-in-Chief and given a new rank that the Command Council has issued.” Cortez explained.

Smirking at the news, the engineer looked to the MACO commander, “I knew he had become Admiral Hathaway’s golden boy.” He rolled his eyes and looked back at Challenger’s chief armoury officer. “Well Lieutenant Cortez, I can safely say you have rescued us and we can tell you more about our little trophy here.”

Cortez nodded in agreement, “That sounds great sir. If you have any injured crew, we can take them back to Challenger.”

“There is someone that could deal with seeing someone now.” Danvers remarked. “When the captain ordered us to abandon ship, Commander Rodham was knocked from the helm station. We brought him with us, hoping that Doctor Reyburn was going to join us but we never saw her.”

Turning to Jenkins quickly, Cortez brought the young man forward. “Please show Corporal Jenkins, he is our field medic. He may be able to help him further before we move the commander.”

“This way.” Burton said as he took the Challenger team into the airlock and onto the Romulan craft.

Glad to bump into Walker, figuratively, Fleet Captain Burton continued to walk down the corridors from E deck towards the starboard port. Both men kept their torches high and phase pistols drawn. 

“Any news from Cortez yet?” Walker asked as they walked at a fast pace.

Shaking his head, Burton said solemnly, “No, not yet.”

“Did I hear correctly sir, that your brother serves on this ship?” Walker asked as they carried down the long corridor.

“Yeah,” Burton said. “Roman is the chief engineer and second officer. If he isn’t alive, I can promise you now Cooper that my mother will make my life a misery!”

Chuckling slightly, “She sounds like my mother-in-law.” Walker stated. 

Smiling at that remark, Burton inclined his head a bit. “I’ve met Mrs Levesque, she’s not that bad.”

“Really? When did you meet Anneliese Levesque and survive your encounter?” Walker asked with curiosity.  

 Almost about to tell him about what happened to Nicole, Burton stopped himself as they approached the docking port. “It’s a long story, one I am sure that Nicole would prefer to tell you.”

“If you’ve met my mother-in-law then you must have met my wife. Do you really think she will let Nicole tell me herself?” Walker joked back.

Smiling at the banter they were sharing, the two men put away their phase pistols. As they approached a small group of officers from Discovery, until Burton recognised Second Lieutenant Trommler standing outside of the airlock.

“Lieutenant Trommler, report?” Burton asked. His voice caught the others off guard as they turned around to see who the latest arrival was.

The MACO lieutenant quickly stood to attention, “Fleet Captain Burton, sir.” He said in his militaristic tone. 

Almost rolling his eyes at the fact that the MACO soldier had stood to attention, Burton gestured with his hands to stand at ease. “Luis, where is Lieutenant Cortez and the rest of your team?”

Trommler indicated towards the airlock. “In the Romulan ship sir. Corporal Jenkins is treating Commander Rodham.”

Hearing the news that Stanton’s husband was injured rang alarm bells with Burton as he flashed a look of concern at Walker who almost mirrored the same things. “Show me, now.” Burton commanded. 

Dashing through the airlock, following Trommler, Burton and Walker made their way through. Entering the smaller, darker corridors of the Romulan ship, Burton was surprised to see how much the interior style was similar to Vulcan designs. Instead of the pale maroons, the use of green seemed to be everywhere. Trommler led them into what appeared to be a side room and straight away they witnessed Corporal Jenkins taking off a pair of medical gloves and running his medical scanner over someone lying on what appeared to be a makeshift stretcher made from cargo containers with a grey sheet draped over it. Their arrival interrupted everyone and Lloyd was happy to hear a well-known voice.

“Lloydie!” Roman exclaimed as he moved across the room and pulled his brother into a big embrace. 

Surprised and shocked at the affection shown by his brother, Lloyd welcomed the hug and returned the gesture. “R-Man.” He said, using Roman’s nickname from when they were kids. “God, I’m glad to see you.” He said as they let go. Looking down at Commander Rodham, Burton was concerned to see what was going on. “How is he Corporal?”

“Stable for now sir.” Jenkins said, appearing exhaustive. “I’ve stopped most of the internal bleeding but he will require further surgery. We should look at getting back to Challenger sooner rather than later, but for now he is safe.”

“Well done Liam.” Cortez said from across the room as she walked over to stand by her commanding officer. “I’m sorry for not reporting in sooner sir.” She apologised to Burton. 

“No need for that lieutenant.” Burton said, he looked over to Walker. “Cooper, go get Michael and tell him where Alex is. I am sure he’d appreciate knowing his husband has been found and then can you signal for Challenger to get a team over here so we can get Commander Rodham back to see the good Ro-fa.”

Walker nodded in acknowledgement and made his way outside of the room to make his call and to go get Stanton at once. While he did that, Lloyd turned back to everyone. Soon he recognised his brother’s own other half, Nathan Wallis, standing on the other side of the room. “Nathan,” He said, smiling at the armoury officer and extended his hand to shake his. “Glad to see you’re still in one piece.”

“Sir, it’s good to see you too.” Wallis said formally.

Roman rolled his eyes at that formality coming from his boyfriend.

Noticing his brother’s reaction, Lloyd pulled Wallis in for a brief hug to break the tension. Once they were done, Lloyd turned to everyone else. “So, can someone tell me more about this ship?”

Cortez smiled, “Of course sir. Shall we leave Corporal Jenkins to see his patient in private?”

“Indeed, come with us to what we think is the bridge Lloyd.” Roman said as he led the way out.

After climbing a flight of stairs upwards, Roman took his brother, Cortez and Wallis to what they had designated the bridge. 

“Based on what we know from scans taken by Enterprise, we started to get used to the controls of the ship and we think we can operate it.” Roman explained.

The room was circular in shape, with a majority of the stations around the edge and a central alcove in the middle that had a chair in it.

“Wait a second, I want to know what happened for you to get your hands on this.” Lloyd insisted.

Roman looked to Wallis who nodded and the two men went on to recount the events that led to them having the Romulan ship.

“So as you know sir,” Wallis said, “Since the war started we’ve not been able to get our hands on much of Romulan technology. They go out of their way to destroy anything valuable, but we got our own back on them when we took this beauty. Entering the Barrens causing havoc with their long-range subspace radios, as a result they are not able to operate these drone ships remotely. We were able to disable this ship from a few well-placed shots from our phase cannons.”

“I’ve spent ages getting to know these systems and how they work. I’ve been able to switch their subspace transceiver completely off and we have been able to by-pass their security lock outs too.” Roman said with a smug look across his face. “Can you see why those other drone ships were trying to stop us?”

A sense of pride went over Lloyd as he looked at his brother. “Well done Roman,” He looked at Wallis, “to you all. This is a great victory for Earth.”

“Sir, you should know that before the attack that Captain Müller was preparing a plan to submit to Starfleet Command for approval.” Wallis added.

“Oh? What type of plan?” Lloyd asked. 

The Discovery armoury officer looked to Roman and then back to Lloyd. “Since we’ve cracked their database we found an entry in their navigational logs that we think may be a base of operations.”

“To be specific Lloyd, we think it’s the new home base for the drones.” Roman added. “If we can take it out then it’d be a bigger victory for us.”

Intrigued at what they were sharing, Lloyd looked to Cortez who had also shown interest. “Well let’s fix Discovery and take care of your crew first before we make another move.” Lloyd took one more glance around the bridge of the Romulan ship. “Roman, once repairs are complete to Discovery, then I want you to show Michael everything over here. Let’s see what else we can find and use to help us win this war.”

Rolling his eyes at his brother’s orders, Roman crossed his arms against his chest. “Do you not think my team and I are able to do it without our hands being held?”

Looking back at his younger brother, Lloyd couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Are you questioning my orders, Commander Burton?” He threw back in a sterner voice. “Sharing the secrets of this ship with my engineers will ensure that someone back home will get the information needed to win this war.”

“Fine.” Roman said with a huge sigh. 

Nathan walked across the room and rubbed the back of his partner. “We appreciate the help, sir.” He said looking back at Lloyd. “Will you consider reviewing the plans that Captain Müller was preparing?”

“Absolutely.” Lloyd remarked. “I’ll be returning to Challenger; I want you both along with everyone else on Discovery to have a medical check-up before resuming your duties. Ms Cortez, secure this vessel until Commanders Burton and Wallis are able to return with their team and Commander Stanton.”

“Aye sir.” Cortez said, feeling quite awkward to be present to witness the exchange between the two Burton brothers. 

Lloyd took one more glare at his younger brother and left the drone ship – reeling that Roman thought it was okay to speak to him like that in front of other officers. 

“Fleet Captain’s star log, October thirty-first, twenty-one-fifty-five. Repairs to Discovery are nearing completion. The combination of the two crews has been highly productive in the past twenty-four hours. Some of the crew from the Armstrong have requested to join Discovery, of which I have approved. I have also decided to make Lieutenant Commander Cooper Walker my chief science officer on a permanent basis. Finally, Captain Müller and Commander Rodham have both recovered from their injuries too.”

Sat around the table in the Captain’s private dining hall with Fleet Captain Burton and Commander Stanton were their Discovery counterparts. Stanton appeared a lot more settled and happier since Ro-fa Ben-Ami had released Commander Rodham to his care and Captain Müller had seemed keen to leave sickbay to get back to his ship. 

“My god Lloyd, you really do have an amazing chef.” Müller said as he tucked into more of his breakfast. 

Smiling in appreciation for his kind words, Burton thanked Müller and topped up his mug of coffee. Sharing the morning meal together between the four most senior officers from the two NX-class ships felt like a good idea to Burton. They could pull their resources together and go forward with their plans. “Montana and her husband used to run a catering and events firm that led them into a life of Starfleet. My predecessor brought her onboard when she catered for the celebrations of the launch of Columbia.”

“Captain Karim was highly resourceful. It’s lucky she picked you as her first officer or who’d knows will be sitting in that chair now!” Müller remarked as he picked up his coffee.

Deciding to ignore the comments about Captain Karim as the subject matter was still sore for him, Burton didn’t want to revisit his time on Mars against his former skipper anytime soon. He was grateful for Commander Rodham to speak up.

“Talking of succeeding others.” Rodham placed his mug of tea down on the table. “Michael tells me that Commander Levesque’s brother-in-law is her replacement as your new chief science officer?”

Nodding to confirm, Burton took his napkin and wiped his mouth slightly. “Yes, Cooper was the only surviving member of the senior staff from the Armstrong that we rescued before we came looking for you guys. He’s already proven himself to us how good he is as he was the one who came up with the plan to find you. He’s an experienced officer and I think will make a great addition to the ship.”

“Well we appreciate those who have volunteered to join our crew from the Armstrong too.” Rodham added sincerely. “The extra pair of hands will make a difference while some of our injured recover.”

“Let’s make sure the cost of what they had to endure wasn’t for nothing then.” Müller added after finishing his mug of coffee and placed it down on the table. He looked to Burton and asked the one question that Burton knew was coming his way. “So what do you think of my plan?”

“Adventurous, bold and quite daring.” Burton said honestly. “I think we should consider it.”

“Seriously?” Müller sounded a bit shocked at Burton’s remark. “For someone who plays it safe by the book for most of his career, I’m quite surprised at that Lloyd.”

“Well Frank, this war has changed my perspective on things.” Burton answered back, almost snapping. “These Romulans don’t play by the same standards we do, hell they are in a completely different league to us and our allies. You can’t predict their next move compared to others, say like the Klingons.”

“They’re too secretive.” Rodham added to the conversation. He winced slightly, a side effect from the injuries that he had sustained from their battle with the Romulans. He had been treated by Ben-Ami and had been cleared for light duties from this morning. “However recently they have also been way overconfident and they’ve now slipped up.”

Stanton agreed with his husband, “Which is very unlike them.” He placed a hand over Rodham’s hand as a sign of support after he had shown signs of discomfort from his surgery. 

“So you’re going to give my plan your backing when you submit it to Starfleet?” Müller threw back to Burton. “If we both approach the Command Council with it, I am certain they won’t say no.”

“No.” Burton said back as he took a piece of toast off from the small rack in front of him and started to spread butter over it.

The other three men were confused by his response. 

“Lloyd, what do you mean by ‘no’?” Müller asked.

“Sir, I can promise you that Roman and Nathan know that ship like the back of their hand. They’ve got a solid plan that could land a crippling blow to the Romulans using their drone ships against us for some time now.” Stanton added. He too was surprised by his own captain’s decision to say no. He had reviewed the plan that the Discovery team was putting forward and it was highly detailed. 

Shaking his head to them, Burton explained what he meant. “Hold on!” He said, raising his hands to stop everyone. “Let me explain what I meant by ‘no’. I meant that we won’t be taking this to Starfleet Command as that’s what the Romulans will expect. We’re just going to go through with it.”

“Without Starfleet’s blessing, sir?” Rodham questioned, looking between his husband and back to Burton.

“Precisely.” Burton confirmed. “We need to strike now and we’ve got something that we can use to our advantage, but if we wait any longer the Romulans will work out what is happening or find a way to make a counter move that removes our ability to use the captured drone ship. We need to act fast, it’s as simple as that.”

Silence filled the room for a moment as the other men didn’t know what to say. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying sir?” Stanton asked.

“Let’s take this war to their doorsteps,” Burton said. “I’m fed up with being on the defensive with them. It’s time we paid them in kind.”

Müller smiled with delight, “Oh, I am loving what that new pip has done to you my friend.”

“I’ll take full responsibility for the fallout from Starfleet, is that clear?” Burton said, looking at them all. 

“Crystal.” Stanton said.

“Then gentlemen, I believe we need to begin working on our game plan.” Burton said as he took a bite out of his toast and chewed on it with a smirk across his face.

The mess hall on Challenger was pretty busy, more so than usual, as a result Major Yu was surprised to find a seat to sit down with her breakfast. Joining Hennessey and Ben-Ami at their usual spot, she was surprised to find another body joining them: Lieutenant Commander Cooper Walker. 

“Good Morning.” The seasoned MACO leader said to her colleagues. It was normal for her, Ben-Ami and Hennessey to have breakfast together. She welcomed their newcomer to the table. “Commander Walker, I hear the captain has made your appointment with us official. Congratulations.”

Smiling in reply, the experienced science officer thanked the major for her kind words. “Thank you Major Yu, that’s very kind of you. It’s all I could do after you all made everyone from the Armstrong feel so welcome.” Picking up his glass of orange juice, he paused. “But I do feel bad for Lieutenant Habiba, I feel like I am stepping on her toes.”

Shaking her head to disagree, Ben-Ami spoke up to defend Walker’s emotions. “Martha will appreciate someone else taking over the reins, I can assure you of that Cooper.” The doctor took a swig of coffee that she had in her hands. “Fleet Captain Burton only made her an acting department head to redeem herself from our last mission.”

“Don’t knock her Kefira.” Hennessey said in between mouthfuls of his bacon bagel. “She spoke up once and got a bad reputation. Prior to that and afterwards she has worked her ass off to prove she wants to put that mistake behind her. The woman has suffered enough.”

“I wasn’t knocking her, Ned.” The Israeli doctor responded. “I am highly impressed with how she has conducted herself. She will go far.”

“Agreed.” Hennessey said, pleased that he had gotten the wrong end of the stick with Ben-Ami’s words. “Please look out for her Cooper.” He pleaded with the new science officer.

“I will.” Walker assured his new comrades. Looking over to the MACO commander, he cleared his throat. “Major, I was chatting to some of the others who have joined me from the Armstrong the other day and we all agreed at how remarkable it is to encounter a strong partnership between the Starfleet crew and its MACO detachment. It’s a credit to you and the others.”

Finishing her scrambled eggs, Yu smiled back at Walker. “Thank you commander. I am proud of how well we get along. I can’t take all of the credit, a majority of it comes down to our younger crewmembers. They all got on exceptionally well in our first few weeks like a house on fire.”

“Hence why us oldies sit together.” Hennessey explained with a smirk.

Walker chuckled slightly. “Well it is impressive. I’ve never seen such a well-oiled crew that has barely been together for less than a year. I was impressed at how well everyone responded to the rescue efforts yesterday.”

“That’s down to the captain’s leadership too.” Ben-Ami stated. “He creates an environment of trust and empowerment among the crew, in return the crew respect him for it. He is clear in what he wants and sets a high standard, even when things are going rough. The crew have become highly loyal to him.”

“It’s another reason why when it became public knowledge about him and Commander Levesque becoming parents, everyone came out in support of them both.” Hennessey said. “Even though it wasn’t expected, the news was welcomed and I know the inclusion of you and the others from the Armstrong has been received well by the crew.”

“Especially as some of them have volunteered to join Discovery.” Yu supplemented with. “I think you’ll find everyone here only wants the best.”

Walker smiled at the affection being shared from his new colleagues. “Well it seems this will be a great place to be a part of.” He said.

“Oh it will be.” Yu said, “You’re lucky that you’re related to Commander Levesque, again the crew thought very highly of her. Whoever was picked to be her successor would have some big shoes to fill.”

Smirking at hearing talk about his sister-in-law in such a way made Walker feel that he had made the right choice in accepting the captain’s offer. “I’m sure Nicole will have a list of things for me to be aware of and do by the time she hears the news.”

“I love your confidence Cooper and if you wish to join us oldies, as the younger crew do like their own company then just know you are welcome to join us anytime. The only rule is we leave the rank at the door.” Ben-Ami added as she took a sip from her coffee. 

“That’s super nice of you, thank you and that would be great! I was a bit uncertain on how to get involved with the crew.” Walker mentioned.

“Stick with us kid, we’ll go places!” Hennessey remarked with a smirk across his face as they continued to make the newest member of the senior staff feel more at ease with them. 

Sat in the corner on a table by herself, Lieutenant Habiba had her back against the rest of the room. She was happy to be eating alone, it gave her time to consider her options right now. After the captain had made Walker’s assignment to the ship permanent, she was pretty annoyed at it now. Originally she thought she wouldn’t care as much, but now she did. Staring out of the window, she considered her future on Challenger. Maybe it was time to leave. She wondered if she could apply for a position on another ship. She was interrupted by the arrival of a small group.

“Sorry to disturb you lieutenant, but do you mind if we join you? There’s nowhere else to sit?” asked a voice that Habiba knew. 

Looking up, the science officer saw Lieutenant (junior grade) Colleen Malone standing behind her with a tray in her hand and was surrounded by two others who she didn’t know. Her and Malone had shared their lunch the day before. She seemed like a nice woman. “Colleen, yes of course.” Habiba offered the empty seats near to her.

“Martha,” Malone said as they started to sit down, “Let me introduce you to Hillary Payne and Adrian Reddick.”

“It’s lovely to meet you.” Payne said as she placed her tray down and shook Habiba’s hand. The woman, who wore a blue science uniform, was smiling. She appeared a gentle soul, one filled with kindness. She wondered if she was the same woman that was the doctor from Armstrong that had rescued Lieutenant Commander Walker.

“Thank you for letting us sit here ma’am.” Reddick said after he shook Habiba’s hand too.

Sighing at the formality from the man who wore a red ensign’s uniform, Habiba quickly asked him not to call her that. “Please, don’t call me ma’am. Martha is okay when we are here.” 

“How are you doing?” Malone quizzed as she placed her napkin across her lap. “I didn’t realise that Commander Walker was going to be taking over.”

Smiling respectfully, Habiba didn’t want to give away her true feelings and thoughts over the matter. “Oh, I’m coming to terms with it. I know my tenure as acting chief science officer would be short.”

“Commander Walker is a great man. We only knew him for a brief time on the Armstrong, but he was well liked by everyone quickly. He is a very fair and open-minded individual.” Payne added as she took her mug of herbal tea into her hands and blew on top to cool it down. “He’s very sweet.”

“He is.” Habiba agreed, “In fact he has asked the captain if I can remain with him at senior staff meetings for a while as he transitions into the new role.”

“Oh that’s good then.” Malone offered with a sweet smile.

Another woman walked over, again someone that Habiba had yet to meet. 

“Tanisha, come join us.” Malone called out and looked down at Habiba, “I hope that’s okay Martha?”

“The more the merrier.” She replied as she took a sip from her black coffee. 

Sitting down next to Malone, the engineer presented the ensign to Habiba as Ensign Tanisha Avery. 

“Welcome aboard.” Habiba said, still remaining calm and wishing she could escape to have some time to herself.

“Thank you lieutenant. Challenger is quite a distinguished ship.” Avery remarked as she placed her tray down.

Agreeing with her, Habiba said, “That she is.” Looking around at the former Armstrong crew, Habiba wondered if they were staying on Challenger or joining Discovery. She soon noticed they all had Challenger patches on their uniform sleeves. “So I take it you’ve all got new jobs here on Challenger?”

Malone nodded. “That we have. Commander Stanton offered me the new position of night watch officer in engineering.”

Habiba looked at Payne next. “I take it your joining the good Ro-fa?”

“Indeed, the captain has made a new position just for me as the second medical officer.” Payne stated. “I cannot wait to work in such an advanced sickbay. Nurse Stewart seems like a nice fella too.”

Hearing Niall’s name made Habiba feel a sense of guilt that she had yet to resolve those issues with him. “That he is and his husband is just as great.” She looked at the only man on their table. “And Adrian, are you joining engineering too?”

Shaking his head, Reddick explained he was an armoury officer. “I’m taking on the role of second armoury officer.”

Finally Avery said she was succeeding Larsen as the new second communications officer. 

“Well we’re fortunate to have you join us.” Habiba concluded as she tried to finish her breakfast.

“We’re looking forward to contributing to Challenger’s success.” Avery said. “It’d be nice to get to know some of the other junior officers. Does Challenger have much of a social aspect for the crew?”

Feeling awkward at that question being directed at her, especially as she hadn’t been too involved with her shipmates recently since their return from Delta. Habiba considered carefully how to craft her response. “The junior officers get on extremely well, but it’s Chef Lawson that organises a number of the social gatherings for the whole crew.” Pointing over to a wall screen that hung on the other side of the room. “She normally puts up there what is happening on a daily basis at lunchtime.”

“That’s great, thanks Martha.” Malone said. “We’re so lucky we have you to be our ambassador to the ship.”

Smiling a bit, Habiba wondered to herself that maybe their new recruits could be a new chapter for her on Challenger. They all appeared pleasant people.

Entering the crew lounge sluggishly, Lieutenant Conrad felt awful. His head was banging like a bass drum from a marching band while his stomach was making all sorts of unholy movements, like a gymnast doing a million black-flips. Spending the night before drinking with Trommler and a few others had not been a good idea for the pilot. Realising he had one shift this morning, he had pulled himself out of his bed gradually. Hoping a shower would help him, he soon realised that it hadn’t. Walking over to the serving hatch where the breakfast buffet was open his eyes met with Chef Lawson who just had the biggest smirk on her face.

“Good Morning Jack.” She said in a hush, motherly tone.

Cursing inwardly, Conrad realised that the cook knew he was hungover. “Hi.” Was all he could say.

Gesturing with her head towards one of the tables, the chef continued to speak in low tones. “I heard about your exploits last night, Mister Conrad. I think you’ll find Second Lieutenant Trommler and Ensign Metaxas are suffering as well. I’ve never known them or you to be so quiet in the mornings.” She paused as she stepped from around the counter and gave him a brief hug. “I hope last night helped a bit.” She whispered into him before letting go.

Smiling briefly, he nodded. “It did a bit, thanks chef.”

“I’m pleased to hear that, so what can I get you?” She offered. 

“Lots of bacon, sausages, beans, scrambled egg, fried bread, mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns and the biggest mug you have with tea in it.” Conrad answered bluntly. 

Lawson chuckled at the response and picked up a big plate to start piling on the lieutenant’s request. 

After taking his breakfast and hot beverage he walked over to the table where Trommler and Metaxas were sitting. Both of them had expressions painted across their faces that showed how fragile they were feeling. Their skin tones were close to grey. Sitting down next to Trommler, Conrad smiled at them before he began tucking into his breakfast.

“How’s the head?” Metaxas asked in a groan like manner that sounded like he was suffering from the worst pain ever. 

“Killing me.” Conrad said as he tried to eat some bacon and keep it down. “I just want to thank you both for last night. I really needed it.”

Trommler, who remained silent as he ate some toast, smiled back at his friend. After swallowing what he had in his mouth, he leaned forward to pick up his glass of orange juice. As he did this he spoke back to Conrad, “Any time Jacky.” He said in a slow tone. “Has anyone seen Jamie or Angela this morning?”

Conrad and Metaxas both shook their heads. A minute later Metaxas raised his head upwards and towards the main door of the mess hall. “There’s Jamie.” He remarked, “He looks as rough as we do.”

Chuckling slightly, Conrad appreciated his friends efforts in helping him forget the news of the Raven. After playing in a tournament of poker, they had remained up for most of the night playing drinking games. 

Harris walked over and sat down at the table and placed his forehead on the table with a gentle thud and closed his eyes. “Oh my god, I may die.” The yeoman complained in a deep voice. “My mouth is drier than the Sahara Desert.”

  At that point Chef Lawson walked over, she was smirking further at the young men before her. “Jamie, I take it the captain’s yeoman is feeling as fragile as everyone else around this table.”

“Even more so.” He mumbled, still with his head almost flat against the table.

Lawson signalled for one of her stewards to come over and she ordered for Harris’ breakfast to be brought over to him. “You guys picked the wrong time to get that drunk. I hear the captain wants Discovery battle ready by the end of the day.”

All four men groaned in response. 

“That’s not the only thing that’s going to happen.” Commented a familiar feminine Scottish voice. Walking around the table and into an empty seat next to Metaxas wearing sunglasses was Ensign Hathaway. 

Laughing at the sight of the second helm officer. Lawson asked for clarification and if she wanted some breakfast like Conrad’s. 

“Oh my god, yes please.” Pleaded Hathaway as she pushed her auburn hair up with a hairband. After giving Lawson her order, the pilot turned back to the rest of the group. “So that Romulan ship that Discovery caught, apparently there’s a plan to use it as part of the war effort.”

“So we get to use their own things against them?” Conrad asked and didn’t give Hathaway a chance to respond. “Good, they deserve whatever the captain decides to use against them.”

Not listening to what the others were saying anymore, their voices became a blur as Lieutenant Conrad tucked into his breakfast when it arrived. 

Saturday, August 25th, 2153

E.C.S. Raven

“So you see Jack, even by connecting the plasma cannon directly to the ship’s impulse engines we increase its power, it does reduce the ship’s manoeuvrability.” Stated Captain Montague as they stood in one of the cargo holds of the Raven. 

It was a Saturday afternoon and after trying to work on improvements to the old J-class freighter, Conrad had been caught by the captain before they approached Draylax. This wasn’t the first time that Conrad had tried to modify the ship’s systems. He had already adjusted the ship’s guidance and navigation systems for better performance, which Montague had not minded (last month), but now Conrad was hearing another one of the captain’s long lectures and lessons about how the ship worked. 

“Yeah I know that sir, but with these improvements and the enhancements I made last month, I do not see there being any issues when we have to defend ourselves against any pirates.” Conrad stated, firm in his belief that he had done right.

Rolling his eyes, Montague argued back with the young pilot. “Jack, it’s my ship and I don’t want these modifications. Plus when was the last time we encountered any other pirates?”

“There has been a report of an increase in pirate activity against Earth Cargo Ships, especially in the last three months. Since the Xindi attacked Earth, our ships have become more of a target as every other race out there thinks we are an easy target.” Conrad explained his reasoning to his captain. 

Sighing a bit, Montague could see the young man’s point of view. Nevertheless he wasn’t about to turn his ship into a battlecruiser. “I get what you’re saying Jack, I lost loved ones and I am sure things will only get worse for us.” Pausing for a moment to consider his options, Montague relented. “Leave the modifications as they are but let’s make sure we install a buffer to avoid any overloads to the plasma conduits.”

Smiling at appreciation for his captain’s decision. “Of course sir, I will do it myself.”

As he started to walk away, Montague turned back to Conrad. “Jack, just next time come and ask me before you make any more upgrades. You’re not the chief engineer, that’s why we have Suri as our chief engineer.”

Smirking at his telling off, Conrad just nodded and went back to his work while Montague strolled away shouting out, “One day you’ll be the death of me Jack!”

Friday, October 31st, 2155

Challenger NX-03

Snapping out of his gaze, Lieutenant Conrad shook his head the moment he noticed Trommler clicking his fingers. 

“You okay Jacky Bear?” The MACO asked him affectionately while the rest were engaged with their breakfast conversations. 

Re-focusing on his friend and not on that distant memory of his past captain, Conrad nodded just once. “Yeah, yeah Trommo.” He said smiling as he picked up his fork. 

Trommler dropped his knife carefully onto his plate and gently rubbed Conrad’s back as a sign of support and comfort. He knew what his friend was thinking and wanted to show him he was still there for him. Even if he was extremely hungover!

Sniggering to herself as she sipped slowly at her coffee, Lieutenant Masuko sat at the middle table near the central window in the mess hall. With her back to the starless view, she could see the whole crew lounge from where she was sat. The one particular view that was entertaining her this morning was the sight of so many of their younger crew suffering from their drinking habits last night. 

“Oh to be in our twenties again!” Masuko commented with a slight chuckle. 

Looking over her shoulder, towards the direction that her companion was referring to, Lieutenant Cortez smirked at the view and then went back to her bowl of cereal and her reading. “My mind thinks I’m still in my twenties but my body doesn’t agree.” She remarked. “From what I overheard last night; I think they did it to help Jack out. He’s still struggling with the loss of the Raven.”

Placing her mug down, the second engineer picked up her croissant and spread more jam onto it. “After hearing that news, I’ve gotta admit that every morning I wake up expecting to hear that the Lexington has been lost.”

“This whole war was going to play on us all for a long time.” Cortez remarked, knowing how worried her friend was for her husband. “When did you last hear from Adam?”

“Just before we entered the Barrens.” Masuko answered, inclining her head backwards gesturing towards the blackness behind her outside the ship. “We’ve started to send messages every day since I got back to Earth.”

Realising why Masuko was a bit anxious over their current location, she added her own thoughts on the matter. “And with us being in the Barrens and no long range subspace communication working properly, I bet you’re going…”

“…crazy, mad, restless?” Masuko said, finishing Cortez’s sentence as she picked up her croissant to eat. “Maybe I should join the drinking crew over there?”

Chuckling slightly at the idea, Cortez shook her head. “No, don’t embarrass yourself in front of our young ones. Have faith that he will be fine.” The armoury chief picked up her mug of tea and took a gulp. “Have you met all of your newbies in engineering?”

Nodding to confirm, with a mouthful of croissant, Masuko took her napkin and dabbed her lips as she finished what she was eating before answering. “Yes, they both seem very good.” She leant forward and picked up her coffee. “Didn’t you take on a new right-hand man?”

Nodding to confirm, Cortez inclined her own head to where he was sitting. “Ensign Reddick,” She said quietly, so she wasn’t heard. “He appears really nice and knowledgeable. It’s nice to have someone else on the team that has served on another starship. However I am certain we may have crossed paths at S-T-C, but he doesn’t recall.”

Looking to where she was pointing over at, Masuko saw Reddick along with Habiba as well as Malone with a couple of other women she didn’t know. “Well it seems Martha is getting to know them well.”

Turning her head round to see what the engineer was referring to, Cortez looked as she took another sip from her mug. Looking back at her friend, Cortez placed her mug down. “I do feel for Martha, the captain gave her the science department to babysit until he found a replacement for Commander Levesque and within a few days of her starting to get used to it he put Commander Walker in charge.”

“You’re too sympathetic sometimes. From what Niall told me, she was pretty difficult to live with when they were on Delta.” Masuko stated. “I’m not surprised that Jack broke it off with her.”

“And where’s the kind Sakura gone this morning?” Cortez threw back, seeing a side to her friend she had not seen before. “It’s unlike you to be so judgemental.”

Rolling her eyes, Masuko picked up another bit of her croissant. “Let’s just say I gained it when the Carreons tried to pull this ship apart.”

Understanding her friend’s perspective, the whole crew had been through hell and back with the Carreons constant attacks. “You can’t blame them completely, they were manipulated and controlled by the Romulans.”

“Yeah, well I blame them too for my moodiness this morning.” Masuko joked as she ate more of her breakfast. After a second or so she gulped down her food and soon found a sense of guiltiness washing over her. “You’re right, I’m not normally that critical and Martha doesn’t deserve to be treated like that.”

“We should try and have dinner with her tonight. Maybe invite some of the other newbies as well? Make it a girl’s night and see if we can feel like we’re in our twenties again!” Cortez suggested with a grin.

Appreciating her friend’s optimistic approach, Masuko relented and mirrored her smile in agreement. 

Smirking at the image of his husband lying almost spread eagle in their shared bed, Corporal Jenkins had just walked out of the shower. The two of them were extremely hungover and their quarters smelt like stale booze and sweat. It was pretty grim. After a night of drinking with their comrades, Jenkins and Stewart had stumbled back to their quarters and had pretty much passed out after getting ‘home’. 

After drying himself almost in complete darkness, beside the small desk lamp that was on, Jenkins started to put some clothes on. Thankfully he and his husband had the day off. Trying to be quiet with his actions, Jenkins did his best to avoid waking his husband from his slumber. His other half was lightly snoring away with the duvet almost covering his face. Smirking at the image, Jenkins pulled a hoodie over his head and soon realised that it wasn’t his, but actually Niall’s. He could smell the residual of his aftershave around the hood. Quietly walking over to their desk, he activated their desktop and went straight to his private messages to see if there was anything he had received. His inbox said zero new messages, so he went straight on to the ship’s communication board to see if there were any ship-wide announcements. Thankfully he saw that Major Yu had called a detachment briefing later on this afternoon at seventeen hundred hours. Jenkins noticed that everyone’s attendance was compulsory, he wondered what the major would be telling them. The door chime then went off, which disturbed Niall who groaned in response, so Jenkins logged off the system and went to the door. Tapping the side button, he opened the door to see Staff Sergeant Iyer standing there, wearing aviator sunglasses and in his own civilian attire. 

“Morning Rupesh,” Jenkins said in a whisper. “Gotta keep my voice down as someone is still precious.” He gestured with his thumb towards the direction of his bed where his husband was lying. 

“I know the feeling.” Iyer said in response with a snigger. “The lights in this ship are too bright. I thought I’d walk with you guys to go get some breakfast, seeing as we’ve got the day off?”

Chuckling a bit at that, Jenkins couldn’t blame the sergeant for feeling fragile. His stomach wasn’t feeling great and his headache wasn’t as bad as he thought it was. “Thanks for stopping by, but I don’t think Niall is in any condition to visit the mess hall yet.”

There was a slight groan and mumble from the bed. 

Shaking his head in disbelief at how dramatic his husband was being, Jenkins looked back at Iyer. “I’ll grab him something to eat and bring it back for him.”

“Thank you!” mumbled Stewart, who only went further under his covers.

Walking out onto the main corridor, Jenkins walked beside Iyer towards their destination. “Have you seen anyone else this morning? Last night was a lot of fun!”

Agreeing with his companion, Iyer answered him. “Angela stopped by my quarters this morning to borrow a pair of my sunglasses before heading to the mess hall herself. I think she and Jack have to undertake maintenance on all of the shuttlepods this morning.” 

Turning down a corridor the MACO enlisted soldiers carried on with their conversation reminiscing over what they could remember from the antics from the night before. 

“I don’t think I’m going to drink like that ever again!” Jenkins said as they casually walked. He realised that Iyer’s earlier comment about the brightness of the ship’s lights was true, especially when you were suffering.

Iyer looked down at Jenkins, “Didn’t you say that after your bachelor party?”

“This time I mean it!” Jenkins said. “Let’s hope it helped Jack out a bit.”

“I think it did. The news about the Raven was rough to get.” Iyer said. “I know this is probably wrong to say, but it makes me glad I kept both Roburn and Edro on Earth.”

Nodding in agreement, Jenkins looked up at the sergeant. “Talking of which, how are they getting on with your parents?”

“Really well, which is a surprise. My parents were strict on my brother and I when we were growing up.” Iyer said. “I think it’s why my brother rebelled a bit when we were teenagers.”

“They’re probably enjoying being grandparents.” Jenkins remarked. “It’s a different role to being an actual parent. Plus the boys never had any true structure in their lives.”

“Yeah you’re probably right.” Iyer said. “I got a message from my folks before we entered the Barrens to say the boys are doing well with their therapist and they’re planning for them to start school at the start of next year. In the meantime, my parents have got them a tutor each to get them up to speed with the basics.”

“That’s such good news Rupesh.” Jenkins said as they approached the mess hall. “To be honest, we could do more of it around here.”

“Agreed.” Iyer said as they approached the mess hall doors and entered. 

By the afternoon, Fleet Captain Burton had called for a joint meeting between the two senior staffs from both ships. Quietly working his office, Burton was tweaking Müller’s plan and adding a few of his own ideas into it as well. Out of the two of them he was more tactical orientated. Burton was glad to be by himself for a bit as he considered the plan of attack, so when the door chime went off he was a bit irked about the disruption.

“Come.” He said in his thick British accent. 

The door swiftly opened and stepping in at a fast pace was brother, Roman. 

“Hey Roman.” Lloyd said in a friendly tone, he was pleased to see his little brother. 

“Don’t, hey Roman me!” The chief engineer of the Discovery said as he placed his hands on his hips. 

Surprised at his brother’s remark, Burton was taking back a bit. “What’s wrong Roman?”

“You know what!” Roman threw back.

Having a complete expression of ‘no idea’ plastered across him, Lloyd was extremely confused as to what he should know. “Come again?” He said back as he picked up his mug of tea. “What are you going on about?” He asked before he took a sip. 

Roman appeared more surprised at his older brother’s words. “I’ve just finished a brief chat with my captain to find out you’ve approved his idea of attacking the Romulans and he mentioned that you’re not informing Starfleet.”

“And?” Lloyd asked back to his brother. “What’s it got to do with you Commander Burton?”

“I knew it!” Roman said as he threw his hands up in the air and then crossed them against his chest as he marched up and down his brother’s office. “I had an inkling yesterday that something was off with you when we had that argument on the drone ship. Madison, Seth and I all said we felt that bloody Martian adventure had changed you.”

Turning in his chair to watch his brother walking around his office, Lloyd was caught off guard by that last comment. “What’s Mars got to do with any of this?”

Roman stopped and turned on his heel to stare at his brother. “Are we off the record? I’m not talking to the new Fleet Captain Burton; I want my big brother Lloyd here.”

Tapping his computer console to switch it off and then hitting another button that locked his door, Lloyd looked back to his brother. “Go ahead.”

“Out of all of us, you had to deal with the most on that damn red planet.” Roman stated, “Not only with dad but with that little other surprise too. You’ve also seen the most action out of us so far.” 

Lloyd knew that Roman was referring to the unexpected arrival of Captain Karim and Lieutenant Commander Rossi. The revelation that they had covered up their apparent deaths and that they worked for some sort of shady group that blatantly disregarded the Starfleet Charter and did anything for the greater good of defending Earth’s interest without any consequence or oversight had caught Lloyd completely off guard. That said it also made him mad that his father had been dragged into all of it too. The whole deception was despicable. Perhaps it did hit him harder than the others. He had been forced into command because of Karim’s and her group’s actions along with having to cover the truth over his father’s own faked death. 

“Your point Roman?” Lloyd was tired of hearing this from his brother now. 

Sighing in frustration with his older sibling, Roman was close to screaming. “This is not you Lloyd.” He took a seat in the small armchair and looked at his brother. “You’ve been a by-the-book kind of officer for as long as I have known you. Why change now? My older brother would have informed Starfleet about his plans.”

“Because I’ve had enough!” Lloyd snapped. “I’ve had enough that the organisation we belong to is able to have a group within it that can make decisions without anyone checking over their shoulder. I’ve had enough of these damn Romulans attacking us and our allies. They’ve attacked us all and I’m worried the next target will be Earth. I’ve had enough of reading countless reports of battles where Starfleet seems to be losing, even when we do win we lose something. I’ve seen first-hand what their telepresence capture program can do. I’ve had enough of them always having the upper hand, so if we can deal a cripple blow to them then you’re damn right I’m not going to inform Starfleet until the deed is done.”

Baffled at the complete change of character, Roman was not sure he recognised his own brother anymore. “You’re Starfleet’s first Fleet Captain, if you’re doing this Lloyd out of some revenge because you feel others at Starfleet have let us down or because the Romulans are giving us a constant bloody nose then be careful this path you take. I don’t blame you for being angry, but you can’t compromise the safety of our ships or the security of Earth to satisfy some personal crusade. Once you take this route, you’ll end up finding yourself making other decisions that you may later regret. This isn’t just about rules and regulations. It’s about right and wrong. Don’t cross that line or allow it to become blurred.”

Sneering at his brother’s words, Lloyd wondered if they were now crossing the line between them being brothers and officers. “I appreciate your candour Roman. Now let me be just as frank. You’re right, I am angry. I’m damned angry. Last week I caught up on a report from Enterprise where at the start of this war Commodore Archer had to abandon an Earth freighter to avoid being captured himself. He was forced to allow that ship to be destroyed by Klingon ships that had been taken over by the Romulan telepresence capture program. Only the other day I had to tell my chief helm officer that the family that took him in when he was kicked out of Starfleet for misconduct had been wiped out of existence when the Romulans destroyed them in an unprovoked attack. Men, women, children – all dead. All of them civilians, all of them innocent. At the same time I had to deal with seeing the burning hulk of the Armstrong and seeing that only a few of its crew survived the ordeal of a brutal assault. Those who did outlive their comrades, I’ve just had to sign off on their transfer papers to my ship and yours. They should all be on the original ship they were assigned. To top it all off, I was given orders by the Starfleet Commander-in-Chief to chase after the possibility that my brother’s own ship had been lost. I was livid, I was close to breaking point when I heard that it may have been you we lost first. This war is against everything this uniform stands for. We’re meant to be explorers, not soldiers. Those Romulan bastards are out there right now, planning their next move to murder innocent lifeforms just because they don’t like anyone else defending themselves. I’m not going to stand for it. I’m going to use the mandate that this new rank gives me. No matter how long it takes, no matter what the cost, I will remove the Romulan’s ability to capture our ships and others to use against one another. For once I would love to see their backs as they retreat from us. I want them to realise that they can no longer mess with us, that we mean business and even though they started this war, that we’re going to end it with a United Earth flag planted on top of their homeworld. If you want to call that a vendetta, go right ahead.”

Roman just shook his head in disbelief and got up. His worries for his brother had just been validated and he didn’t know what else to say to him. “Just watch your back Lloyd.” He said in a low tone. “I love you man.”

“Love you too bro.” Lloyd said as Roman stopped at the door and opened it to leave him alone again. For a moment he considered what his brother had just said to him. Did he really want to change? Was he really going to blur the line in regard to doing what is right or wrong now? Those and so many more questions flooded his mind, something that he needed to be clear. Without thinking it through he just picked up his empty mug and left his office to go get a fresh refill before the two crews met to finalise their battle plans.

Assembled in the only room that could fit them all in were the senior staff from both ships, along with a few others based on their specialities. Fleet Captain Burton felt a sense of pride at the scene before him. This, he hoped, would be where they start their mission in removing from the Romulans their ability to use their telepresence capturing abilities and controlling their drone ships on a long-range scale. The lengthy rectangular table that always sat in the middle of the conference room was completely full of people sat around its edge; others stood along the perimeter of the room. Everyone had been provided with a data tablet when they entered, thanks to his efficient yeoman and along with that Harris had also brought in several monitors so that everyone could see the information that the captain was about to present to them. Sat on the top of the long table were three screens that had been setup in a triangle shape with their backs to one another. It allowed for everyone on the table to see further details as it was shared in the briefing. 

Once he felt everyone was ready, Burton cleared his throat and stepped forward. “Okay everyone, let us begin.” He declared with some authority. “I know most of you have started to read what’s on your tablets, so I would like to start off by saying that everything shared in this briefing is confidential and will most likely be classified by Starfleet once we return home. What we are about to share with you all is what we believe will have a huge impact on the war effort. Captain Müller will share with you the next section.” Burton turned to his counterpart, who just stepped forward to stand by his side. 

In his cool German accent, Müller continued. “As you all are aware of, we were able to capture a Romulan drone ship during Discovery’s last engagement – thanks mostly to the unusual characteristics of the Barrens. Furthermore after going through the computer database, we believe we have found the location of the base that has been controlling and deploying the Romulan drone ships as well as assisting with the Romulans’ ability to capture ships and control their drone ships through their telepresence system.” Müller pulled up his tablet and shared the information he had with everyone else’s devices as well as the screens around the room. “This captured ship has a treasure trove of intelligence that will serve us well but we need to act now to remove this tactical advantage from the Romulans. Through comparing the drone’s navigational logs, along with our own star charts as well as communication records we have determined that the main command centre is located here in an area of space that the Romulans call the Bassen Rift.” Again Müller changed the screens to show the area he spoke about. Sensor logs from the drone ship showed what appeared to be a large emerald nebula. “The Rift is a dense nebula containing interstellar gas that produces high amounts of electromagnetic distortion. As such it interferes with long rang sensors and subspace communication. From what we can determine the Romulans have setup a base within the Rift and are using a micro-singularity to by-pass the interference of the Rift and send the telepresence signal out across a vast area of space.”

Burton then added to the discussion, “We know that the Romulans have been able to deploy this system on a short-range basis, Challenger’s encounter of this use was evident when we had to take on the Carreons recently whose own ships were being controlled by a Romulan bird-of-prey from afar. However I do not need to spell it out to everyone in this room at how dangerous this weapon is and if it remains in their hands there is no way we can win this war without heavy losses on our side. By having access to their telepresence system hooked up to this micro-singularity they will be able to take control of a number of ships as well as launch more of those drone ships. Discovery was lucky it fell into the Barrens where its natural abilities to block communication was helpful, but I don’t think we want to go another round with them. So we need to come up with a plan that removes this ability from the Romulans completely. Thoughts?”

Walker spoke up instantly. The new science officer was standing leaning against the rectangular bay window. Next to him was Lieutenant Habiba while on the other side was Lieutenant Hennessey. Burton could see that the latest addition to his crew remained relaxed as he spoke. “Micro-singularities are only a recent finding, prior to twenty-one-fifty-one we thought that they were a myth theorised by Vulcan scientists. It was actually Enterprise that confirmed their existence. They can do a lot of damage, but if they act the same way as a normal singularity then in theory an anti-thoron burst should increase its gravitational pull.”

“Are you suggesting we use that small black hole to our advantage?” Habiba asked, being a biologist by trade she only knew some rudimentary aspects of astrophysics. 

“Absolutely.” Walker answered. “Vulcan and Earth scientists have theorised about it for some time now. I don’t think it’s ever been applied but that theory has been looked at by some of the leading scientists across both races. In fact I am sure I have read a recent paper on it by the Denobulans too. An anti-thoron burst could be enough to collapse it in on itself.”

“The main deflector could easily be modified to emit an anti-thoron burst.” Stanton then added to the discussion. He stood, almost on the opposite side to where Walker was. 

Müller asked the next question. “Could the deflector on the drone ship be modified as well?”

Stanton looked over to Roman Burton, who was sitting at the far end of the table. “From what I have seen, the technology is not that different to Vulcan and Andorian technology. What do you think Roman?”

Tilting back in his chair, the younger Burton rubbed his chin as he considered it. “Possibly,” He answered. “We would need to disable the drone’s auto-repair system to prevent it from thinking the modifications are defects.”

“But that won’t be hard to do. A few blown up circuits here and there, yeah Roman?” Wallis said in support and with a smirk across his face. The armoury officer of the Discovery seemed eager to blow something up. He looked up to both captains. “Do you think we can get away with sneaking through the Romulan’s back door?”

“Long enough to remove what we want to see gone and get out in one piece.” Burton responded. “But we’d have to plan this operation down to the millisecond. There would be no margin for error. As I see it, we plan a course that won’t attract their attention, then create a diversion to keep the Romulans occupied so we can send in a team to take out the target.”

“It may be prudent for Challenger and Discovery to be waiting at an extraction point for the team. They might be bringing company back with them some unwanted friends. We can be ready to welcome them with phase cannons charged.” Cortez offered. The armoury chief, who was sitting next to Wallis at the table, had turned her chair to face her captain. “That said, by removing this from the Romulans’ hands we may end forcing them to retreat to their own controlled space as they may find their fleet unable to work.”

“Here’s hoping.” Major Yu added. The MACO leader was standing next to Commander Stanton. “Who will be leading the team on the drone ship?”

“Captain Müller will lead the team; we want to keep it small as we are hoping this can be a hit and run attack.” Fleet Captain Burton remarked. “If the anti-thoron burst does not work then we will need to adapt our tactics. My thinking is that we use the drone ship as a bomb. We pack it full of photonic torpedoes and have it dock with the base. The team will then escape and the explosion should destroy the base.”

“What would the team use to escape?” Yu enquired.

For the first time since the meeting started, Burton smirked. He took his own tablet out and brought up a schematic of the drone’s interior. “From what Captain Müller has learnt about the drone ship, it is classified as a warbird that the Romulans retrofitted to be operated remotely. As a result there is a small hanger bay here,” He then showed everyone the room he was talking about. “and in it is a Romulan support craft that has a warp drive.”

“It’s not very fast from what we can tell, it could probably do a top speed of warp two and there’s only room for six people.” Müller supplemented with. 

“There’s still a flaw to your plan that needs addressing.” Walker stated. “No offence to you both but the use of either plan would mean the micro-singularity will increase its gravitational pull. As a result, I would theorise that almost suddenly on the trailing edge of the singularity a gravimetric field would form and it could prevent anyone from leaving it. You would need a massive antimatter explosion to disrupt the field long enough for a ship to escape.”

The room fell silent as everyone realised that what Walker was saying meant that this plan had too many variables that may not be able to completely control which would avoid the loss of life on their side. It also threw Burton’s idea of planning this attack down to the millisecond to avoid a botched job out of the nearest airlock. 

Habiba spoke up. “I know I’m not an astrophysicist and correct me if I am wrong here Commander Walker, but I am sure one of my professors at STC once said in a lecture that you could, to a point, counteract a gravitational pull by creating a low-level warp field around an object. Sub-light energy level only. Could we not do the same thing around the drone ship or the shuttle before we create an antimatter explosion that helps with the escape?”

“In theory,” Walker considered the idea. “But we still need to consider what we would use to deliver the explosion. If either Challenger or Discovery were participating we would be talking about firing a spread of photonic torpedoes at their highest yield to do the damage.”

“Shuttlepods.” Spoke Lieutenant Conrad. The young pilot was stood in the far corner and hadn’t said much yet. “The new shuttlepods we have are designed to be a bit tougher than what Discovery has. If we retrofit them with duratanium braces to give them a bit more strength, then two shuttlepods could carry four, maybe six photonic torpedoes each. They could be programmed to fly away from the drone and explode with the torpedoes on board.” He stood up and uncrossed his arms and pointed at the schematic of the Romulan drone ship that showed its hanger bay. “That bay appears big enough to store two of them as well.”

Burton looked at Müller who looked back at him with a smile. Turning back to the rest of the room, Challenger’s captain spoke up. “Sounds like we have a working plan. For this mission to succeed I want to ask for volunteers.”

“I’ll go sir.” Conrad was the first to speak up. “Depending on what plan takes place, we can’t rely on the Romulan computer to fly that drone ship. I’m a quick study on new flight control systems, let me fly the team there and back.”

“Add me to the list as well.” Spoke Stanton which resulted in Rodham (who was standing next to him) glaring at him. “No offence to Commander Burton’s engineering ability but if we need both Challenger and Discovery to help us with extraction, Discovery is still recovering from her bruises. It’s too soon for her chief engineer to be away from her.”

“I agree, thank you Michael.” Müller said and looked back to his chief engineer, realising the hurt he may have caused to his miracle worker. “Plus Roman, you were the one who was able to crack into the Romulan systems. If we fail then Starfleet will need your experience and expertise to develop further countermeasures.”

Both Burton brothers looked at each other and Roman nodded in an almost deflated manner. 

“Count me in as well.” Habiba said and she looked at Commander Walker, “If Lieutenant Commander Walker is happy to give me a crash course in singularities then I’ll be happy to be the one who pushes the button to fire that anti-thoron burst.”

Shaking his head in disagreement, Walker spoke up. “I should go, Martha.”

“Respectfully sir, just like Commander Burton remaining behind – your expertise may be required in case the Romulans use the micro-singularities for something else.” Habiba said and then she looked at her commanding officer. “I can do this sir.” 

Burton relented and agreed to her offer. “Anyone else?” He asked the rest of them. 

It didn’t take long for Lieutenant Commander Wallis to throw his hat into the ring either, citing that they would need someone to ensure those torpedoes went off. The Discovery’s chief armoury officer insisted that he was the only one who knew the drone’s weapons array and if they needed to use it then they would have more of a fighting chance. The final surprise was Yu though.

“I know we’ve barely fought hand-to-hand with the Romulans yet and we don’t know if they have transporter technology. However, god forbid they beam in an attempt to overwhelm the team.” Yu said after she shared her intention to go. “I’ll have your back.”

Her point was argued by Major Danvers though. “As Captain Müller is leading this team, shouldn’t I be the one who goes?”

Yu appeared ready for Danvers’ words so instantly responded. “MACO regulation seven nine, paragraph b. In the event of two detachment units working together in a combat situation where both detachment commanders hold the same rank, command authority falls to the unit leader who has held their rank the longest.” Yu paused and looked at her counterpart. “In this case, protocol recognises my authority – unless Fleet Captain Burton decides to override my decision.”

Burton and Müller both looked at each other, Müller gave him Burton a nod to say it is was his decision. “Yu will join the team, thank you Major Danvers for offering as well though but with your captain and chief armoury officer off ship, I think Commander Rodham would succeed more with the detachment commander on board in case we get ourselves in a tricky position.”

An eerie silence now fell onto the room. Burton knew he had to bring the meeting to an end. “I want Lieutenant Hennessey and Ensign Russo to download the entire database from the Romulan drone ship. I’m sure there’s more valuable data there that can help us out.”

Hennessey spoke up, “Sir can I suggest we download the database into two separate independent computer storage devices. One for each ship, again just in case.”

“That would make sense.” Russo said from where she was sitting around the table. “We could share up the files and begin translating them. That way if anything happens to either ship…”

“Hopefully one will survive.” Hennessey finished with. Smiling at his colleague from where he stood.

“Get it done.” Burton said. He looked at everyone else. “I want a detailed outline for our heist by tomorrow morning. We’ve proven ourselves against the Romulan once before, twice before, but we’re always the ones under attack. I think it’s time to do a little invasion of our own, hmm?” The fleet captain got a round of agreements from everyone and he concluded the briefing with a simple “Dismissed.”

Everyone got up from where they were and began leaving the conference room in a quiet manner. 

Once everyone had left, Lloyd found himself left behind with his brother who was still sitting in his seat.

“Roman, I can hear your objections already.” Lloyd said the moment the final person left and the door closed behind them shut. “I am not changing my mind.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, the younger Burton spoke up. “Given the drone’s state, the probability of our plan working and us surviving this battle is marginal. I should be on the drone ship, not Discovery.”

“Oh, I know the odds are probably stacked against us Roman.” Lloyd said as he walked down towards his brother. “But you have to stay. Müller is right. If we fail in this operation then you are one of the few experts we may have left who can come up with the countermeasures.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, Roman took in a breath before talking. “If you have done this because you’re trying to protect me from harm’s way then you and I are seriously going to fall out with one another. Before we launch our attack, Michael without a doubt will be just as an expert on it as I am. You know how quick he can learn and workout things.”

“But he wasn’t the engineer who captured the drone ship. You were and from Müller’s log entry he stated that it was your ingenuity in using the Barrens to overwhelm its systems. Now if the roles were reversed, maybe Michael may have come up with a similar idea but that hasn’t happened. I need to deal with the evidence at hand and your place is on your ship. Discovery needs its chief engineer and if the worst happens and we lose Müller on this mission, then you will need to be there supporting your crew as its acting first officer.” Lloyd paused. “I promise you; I have not put our relationship first above my command decisions. Don’t get me wrong Roman, I don’t want to ever see you get hurt or killed, but we have a job to do and I need you there. If I was so blinded in protecting my little brother, would I have really authorised his boyfriend to join a dangerous mission knowing the fallout I would face with him if something happened?”

Sighing heavily, Roman nodded to show his understanding of Lloyd’s thought process. “Okay fine, but Nathan better come back alive.”

“I want them all to come back alive Roman.” Lloyd said and pulled his brother into a hug. “Now can we get through this without any more arguments? I need your support on this Roman.”

After letting go of his brother, Roman just nodded. “You’ve got it Lloyd.”

Smiling in appreciation at his words, Lloyd led his brother out of the conference room – clearer headed in making this plan work.

Chasing after the MACO leader, Ben-Ami called after her friend and colleague as she entered the nearest lift. Yu turned to her and kept the door open for her to enter the cart with her. 

“You okay Kefira?” Yu asked as she moved her hand out of the way and looked at Challenger’s chief medical officer.

Nodding and catching her breath from the short jog she did to catch up with Yu quickly, Ben-Ami spoke up. “I’m fine, it’s the mission that I want to talk to you about.”

Feeling like Ben-Ami was about to try and stop her, Yu put her hands up in defence as the door closed behind her. “Kefira, I appreciate your concern but I’ve made my decision. I’m going.”

Flapping her right hand as to motion she wasn’t bothered about that matter; the Israeli doctor shook her head at the same time as she cleared up what she meant. “It’s not you that I’m worried about. I know you’ll do us proud out there and if you’re not back for our regular meals then I will curse you for life.” She jokingly said. “I’m just worried about our ace pilot as well as Habiba going with you.”

Not quite sure what Ben-Ami was suggesting, Yu asked her friend to clarify further while she pressed the lift’s button to take her to desired destination. “I think they’ll do fine Kefira. What would be the issue?”

“Just promise me you’ll keep an eye on them both. My gut instinct is telling me that Jack is doing it as some sort of act of revenge for the loss of the Raven while I’m certain that Martha is out to redeem herself. Just keep them in check.” Ben-Ami pleaded. “I’ve seen this type of thing before in others and I am sure you have. Something isn’t sitting right with me about it all.”

As the lift moved downwards, Yu understood where Ben-Ami’s concerns laid. “I know what you mean, but I have seen people go through both of those acts and I have found that in most cases that sense of urgency that they need to do this gives them more energy to focus on their work at hand. Both of them are fine officers and I am certain they won’t be reckless in their decisions in cutting corners or putting themselves in danger. Nevertheless I will keep an eye on them.”

“Thank you Viktoria.” The lift came to a halt and the MACO leader walked out. As she did the good doctor called after her, “And make sure you watch your caboose!”

Yu turned around and did a mock salute with a smirk plastered across her face just as the lift door closed on Ben-Ami. 

The moment they got back to Stanton’s quarters; Rodham was fast to say the one thing he didn’t want to say in front of everyone else. “So where did your Dutch courage come from?” He asked his husband. 

Sighing at hearing that comment from Rodham, Stanton sat on the edge of his double bed while he watched his other half lean against the wall with his arms crossed against his chest. “How did I know you were going to say that?” Challenger’s first officer asked sarcastically. “I’m the logical choice Alex.”

“No, don’t give me that rubbish. You’re not a Vulcan for one!” Rodham threw back as he shook his head in disbelief. 

Eyes widening at that reaction, Stanton looked up at the man he vowed he would love through sickness and death, through better or worse. “Alex, this marriage isn’t going to work if you worry about every dangerous mission that I go on. I get you’re angry and worried for me…god I was almost sick at the notion I had lost you when Lloyd told me that we were being sent to find you all when you went missing. I get it, but we have a duty and right now if that means putting ourselves on the line to make sure the freedoms we get to enjoy every day remain then so be it.” He stood up and walked up to Rodham, almost face to face. “So if you want me to be a bit more Vulcan, then I’ll say this to you. For us to live long and prosper, I need to do this and you need to step up. You’re about to take command of Discovery in Müller’s absence and you need to bring your a-game mister and neither of us can do our jobs if we are sat there worrying about the other one.”

“Is that it? I don’t get the right to speak out against this?” Rodham argued back but in a soft tone.

“No you don’t.” Stanton pulled on Rodham’s sleeves. “Anyway, when did you become so protective?”

“Since you volunteered for this insane mission.” Rodham threw back as he could feel Stanton slowly pushing himself against him. As Stanton started to plant kisses against his neck, the first officer and helm officer of Discovery shook his head in disbelief that his husband was trying to distract him from the issue with his romantic overtures. “You know, I could sabotage the drone ship. You’d never make it out of the Barrens.”

“Then I’d have to report you to Fleet Captain Burton.” Stanton mumbled into Rodham’s neck as he continued to caress him. 

“That’d be a small price to pay.” Rodham said in a deep tone as he became breathless in reaction to what his husband was doing to him. He then proceeded to push Stanton down and on to the bed behind him and fell on top of him as he returned the affectionate gestures.

 Walking out of the conference room almost by herself, Martha Habiba made her way across D deck. She was in some sort of shock at hearing herself volunteer for the mission, but there was something inside of her saying to do it. To push herself further and do something outside of her comfort zone. A voice from behind caught her off guard and snapped her out of her own thoughts. Immediately she knew who it was as she turned around. Jack.

The pilot stopped jogging towards her and took a breath as he smiled at her. “Hey Martha, I just want to say-”

She didn’t give him a chance to say anymore, she had gone by for some weeks now avoiding him and giving him the space he wanted from when they broke up. “Don’t start on me Jack. Not now.” She said as she held up her hand towards him, her data tablet clutched in the other against her chest.

Shaking his head and saying ‘no’ several times he went on to explain to her why he called after it. “It’s not that. I just wanted to say I’m pleased you’re on this mission with us.”

Startled to hear him say that and somewhat confused, Habiba pushed him to explain what he meant. “Really? That’s not the impression you’ve given me these last few weeks.”

Sighing out of his own frustration, “Yeah I know and I’m sorry for the way I behaved before.”

“Me too.” She admitted. “I was a fool.”

“Me too.” He added and then smiled. “Look, we’ve both acted like fools over all of this and what happened with you on Delta and how you’ve been treated by everyone else is unfair. I am sorry, truly sorry. If Captain Burton can see past it all then me and the others are fools for not following his example. I’m sorry.”

Smiling in appreciation. “You’re babbling Jack but thank you. I hope we can move forward from it all too.”

“Absolutely and when we’ve completed this mission and taken out these Romulans, I owe you a drink.” He offered and gave her his typical boyish grin.

“Agreed, but I don’t want any pity party from you or the others.” She remarked back. “I’ve got a lot of work to rebuild what I stupidly lost while on Delta.”

“Well, let me help you with it when we get back.” He offered.

Extending her hand towards his, “deal” she said as they shook on it. 

“Fleet Captain’s star log, November second, twenty-one-fifty-five. Operation Stormbreaker is ready to proceed. Both ships are standing by and I’ve given the order to begin at oh six hundred hours. With any luck, my next log entry will be made after a great victory for Earth. But should our luck run out, I’d like to say for the record that the crews of Challenger and Discovery acted with distinction and valour.”

Casually walking down the corridor of D deck, Fleet Captain Burton and Commander Stanton made their way to the transporter bay. As they did, Stanton was zipping up his field jacket and adjusting his black backpack. Attached to his hip was a phase pistol and his scanner. Slung over his shoulder was his phase rifle too. 

“Packed enough?” Burton quipped towards his first officer after he realised how much the chief engineer had.

Nodding in acknowledgement, Stanton smirked at his boss. “Everything except the galley sink. Chef Lawson wouldn’t let me take it.”

Chuckling at the idea, Burton shook his head. “I heard she’s prepared meals for you all.”

“Oh you wouldn’t believe how much she’s done.” Stanton stated as they turned right and down the final corridor towards the transporter. “She told me she’s planning to create her own field rations as she hates the ones that Starfleet makes.”

“Well make sure you all are back in time to try them out!” Burton jokingly ordered. 

The corridor was pretty much bare so when they finally arrived at their destination, Stanton’s ensemble were all standing and ready to go. All of them were suited and booted like him.

Seeing Major Yu in all of her gear was an impressive sight. The MACO leader appeared like she was playing a character from an old twenty-first century action film with the amount of weaponry she had strapped to her. 

“Hasta la vista…Major!” Burton remarked with the same smirk he had held with Stanton.

Looking up after clipping her dual phase pistols to her hips, the Canadian military officer copied the captain’s grin. “I’ll be back…sir!” 

“You better be!” Burton said, still smiling at her. The major and he at the start of their time on Challenger had spent some time after one movie night debating the finer points of what humanity had considered what the future would be like. This had taken place when Chef Lawson had put on a trilogy of action films from the twentieth century about a cyborg sent back in time to terminate a woman from giving birth to a man who would lead the human resistance against computers trying to control the world. The iconic quotes from it had been repeated around the ship a few weeks after the movie marathon. 

Stanton had turned to his deputy, Lieutenant Masuko who was standing by the transporter controls. The Japanese engineer looked to her boss and spoke quietly just between them. “Anything you’d like done around here while you’re gone? Gravity plating recalibrated, carpets cleaned?”

“Surprise me Sakura.” Stanton said as he stepped up onto the transporter bay and indicated for the others from Challenger joining Captain Müller’s team to do the same. “Just make sure the ship is still in one piece when I get back.”

“You betcha!” Masuko said with a friendly grin. She tapped away on the controls and turned to Burton. “We’re ready sir.”

“Good luck,” He said to the team. “I expect to see you all back in one piece. Is that clear?”

Stanton, Yu, Habiba and Conrad all replied with confirmation of his orders.

“See you all soon.” Burton said and he looked at Masuko. “By all means Sakura, energise.”

Complying with her captain’s order, the engineer activated the controls and pushed the controls upwards to start the transporter cycle. The team all dematerialised and were sent on their way to join the captured drone ship. Burton turned to look at Masuko, “Thanks lieutenant and let me know when you’re planning to whip around with the vacuum cleaners!” Burton cheekily said before walking away from her. Masuko just chuckled to herself and made her way back to engineering while the captain made his way to the bridge.

After a fast trip on the lift to the bridge, Fleet Captain Burton stepped out of the cart and towards the centre of the room. Lieutenant Commander Walker, his acting first officer for this mission, rose from the captain’s chair. As he did, the Alpha Centauran reported to his commanding officer. “Commander Stanton’s team is safely on board the Prowler.”

Burton winced at the name that Müller had given to the captured drone ship and then to the whole operation. Neither were original, but it put their intentions across. They intended on removing from the Romulans their ability to use the micro-singularity to project their telepresence ability any further. “Thank you Cooper.” Burton said as he took over in his chair. Looking down at the helm, it was unusual to find Ensign Hathaway sat there. She was just as good as Lieutenant Conrad, but for now she would fly the ship while her superior participated in the attack. “Angela, are we ready to leave the Barrens?”

“We are sir.” She spoke in her thick Scottish accent. The niece of the Starfleet Commander-in-Chief looked up from her controls. “Once we are clear sir we can enter warp at your command.”

“Thanks,” Burton said as he looked over to his armoury officer. “Are we ready Rachele?”

Nodding in response, Cortez answered him. “Commander Stanton’s modifications to our warp profiles are complete. If anyone sees us on long range scanners they will think that we and Discovery are two of drone ships alongside the Prowler. We’ve also powered down all non-essential systems and the extra power is now in our defence systems.”

“And our distraction is ready to go?” Burton asked his armoury officer.

Cortez nodded. “Yes sir, again give the signal and both Discovery and us can launch the probes modified by Commander Walker. They will look like a nice invasion force of combined Earth, Vulcan, Andorian and Tellarite on anyone’s long range sensors.”

Walker spoke up. “However sir, any ship near to them that can run short range scans will detect that they’re false warp signatures. We’ve even increased the energy output to catch the attention of the Romulans in thinking they are seeing a combined force of twenty-one ships’ warp profiles.”

“And if they don’t fall for all of the trickery?” Hennessey asked from his seat at the communications station.

“Then the team on the Prowler will be going in alone and without any of our nearby support as planned.” Burton remarked. “Let’s have some faith here Ned. This is the most detailed attack plan we’ve put together since…well I suppose when we liberated Docana.”

“And that went swimmingly well.” The linguist muttered as he turned back to his console. He cleared his throat as soon as he noticed the captain had ignored his comment. “I have established a low-level secured communication channel with the Prowler. The Romulans would have a lot of issues in breaking it and hopefully detecting it.”

“And if they do?” Hathaway challenged the older man with a playful grin.

“Have faith of the heart Miss Hathaway, just like the captain said.” Hennessey replied when he realised she was teasing him. His board then lit up and he looked over to Burton. “Sir, we’ve just received confirmation from Discovery and the Prowler. They are ready to go.”

Taking in a deep breath, Burton looked over to Cortez and ordered for her to take them to tactical alert. Once the lights had dropped and the red flashing lights started he ordered Hathaway to engage their engines and to take them on their way.

Prowler (Captured Romulan drone ship)

Six hours into their flight, Captain Müller had decided to take a break from being in the command pit. This is why they had decided to rebrand the name of the bridge. It didn’t appear like any Starfleet bridge he and his team had known, but the name pit seemed more appropriate. The circular shaped room dropped down to allow the large cylindrical subspace transceiver. Just off from the pit, a large room which may have been put aside for the ship’s commanding officer as an office in the original configuration, had been set up as a bunk room for the team. Temporary camp-beds had been put up to allow them the opportunity to rest. Along with that the engineers from both Discovery and Challenger had set up some portable showers, toilets and a place for them to heat up their food. It wasn’t luxury living but it was enough for them for this mission. 

Stepping into the bunkroom, Müller unzipped his field jacket. They had found that the environmental controls on the Prowler couldn’t be modified too much as it appeared the Romulans had originally configured them to keep the whole ship cool due to the amount of energy being pushed through to power its impressive weapons array and sub-light engines. Müller found himself not appearing the extra chill, so he had decided to grab a hoodie, Starfleet standard issue, to put on under his jacket. He knew he had packed one in his gear. As he made his way over to his bed, he noticed that Lieutenant Habiba, the science officer from Burton, was sat on her own bed reading from a data tablet.

“My apologies Martha.” He said to the young woman. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”

Habiba looked up from her reading and shook her head. “No, please do not feel like you have sir.”

Smirking in polite gratitude, Müller went on to pull out the top he was looking for and pulled it over him before putting his jacket back on. The coldness in the room could be seen slightly from the fact that their breaths could be seen. Turning around to face the quiet science officer, the captain spoke up. “What are you reading, lieutenant, especially in the dark?”

Habiba put the tablet down in her lap. She was sitting with her legs crossed and what looked like a blanket over her shoulders. She leant down to the floor and picked up a mug of a hot beverage. “I’m just reading those papers that Commander Walker mentioned about micro-singularities.”

“Some last-minute cramming, hey?” Müller said, slightly amused.

Habiba nodded after she took a sip from her drink. “I’ve already read it, but I thought it would be useful to have another glance over it.” She stood up, keeping the blanket wrapped around her as she went over to where they were keeping their food and beverages. “Can I get you a mug of coffee sir?”

Nodding in thanks, Müller walked over to her. “That would be great, danke.” He said with his German accent coming out strong as he used his native expression of saying thank you.

Topping up her mug that had a lid on it to keep the warmth in, the science officer proceeded to take out a clean flask from the small storage unit they had and filled it up with the hot liquid. Handing it over to Müller, “Gern geschehen sir.” She said in a strong German accent.

Impressed at what he heard; Müller smiled. “Your German pronunciation is almost perfect, lieutenant.”

“Thank you sir, my father would be pleased to hear that.” Habiba said. “He teaches German in a London secondary school. He insisted that my brother, sister and I all learnt a language each. Whereas my brother went for French and my sister picked Romanian, I found the German language more appealing.”

“Ausgezeichnet.” Müller praised her by saying excellent. “Have you had any more thoughts on our plan A using the anti-thoron burst?”

Shaking her head in almost disappointment. “Nothing more than beyond what Commander Walker came up with. I still think we should follow his suggestion in using the drone’s particle weapons to weaken any shielding they have to avoid them disrupting or preventing the burst from getting to the singularity.”

“I’m sure Nathan is itching to fire the Prowler’s weapons back at the Romulans.” The captain commented.

“He’s not the only one sir.” Habiba remarked.

Looking at her between sips, Müller posed a question. “I take it you have personal beef against the Romulans as well?”

“Not as much as some others, but I know that Lieutenant Conrad is eager to get back at them for the destruction of the E.C.S. Raven. I’m hoping this mission will give him some peace that he has somehow avenged their loss.” Habiba remarked. 

“I am certain that will take place Martha.” Müller said with confidence as he leant against a nearby bulkhead. “So tell me why is it that Lloyd’s top biologist is on this mission? And the real reason is Miss Habiba, not the one you used in that meeting the other day to cover up why you appeared almost desperate to be here.”

Habiba drank more of her coffee and decided to sit back on the edge of her bunk bed. “To be perfectly honest sir, even though Fleet Captain Burton has given me a second chance on Challenger after I mucked up hugely during our last mission, I don’t feel it’s enough to completely redeem myself. If I can complete the mission then it will go a long way in helping me out.”

“Why?” Müller enquired. “Why not ask for a simple transfer? What’s the point of carrying on if you need to dig yourself out of a huge pit to be back in the crew’s best books?”

Considering the captain’s question carefully, Martha took a taste of her coffee before answering. “Because that’s the easy way out sir and I took the easy way out before and the only good I got out of it was my career from Starfleet. I lost good friends and upset my own parents from that choice. And my single reason for doing it was to get away from the man that I loved. I won’t do that again to the crew of Challenger, so if I have to work a bit harder to prove myself and if that means keeping my distance for a bit to allow others to let go of the mistake I made then I’ll do it.”

“Well Lieutenant Habiba, I applaud your conviction.” Müller responded. “But remember that it may take less time to wipe out a Romulan base with an anti-thoron burst compared to rebuilding lost relationships.”

“I appreciate the counsel sir, but I won’t give up on Challenger.” She remarked.

“Not even to serve on another ship? Discovery is just as good as Challenger.” Müller stated.

 “I was pre-warned that you like to pinch people and things that belong to Fleet Captain Burton.” Habiba said with a grin. “Thank you for the suggestion, but I’ll be remaining with Challenger for some time.”

Discovery NX-04

“Sir, I’ve got that update you requested?” 

Commander Alex Rodham looked up from where he was sitting in the captain’s chair of Discovery’s bridge. To his left was his own acting first officer, Commander Roman Burton. “Thanks Roman.” Rodham said as he took hold of the data tablet that was in the engineer’s hands and started to go through its contents.

After passing it to the current acting captain of Discovery, Roman took a moment to breathe before he spoke up. “Do you fancy taking a break sir?”

Looking up from what he was reading, Rodham realised what the engineer was doing and smiled in appreciation. “Sounds like a good idea.” He looked over to the science station. “Maria, take over here for me.” He ordered the science officer, who in return simply nodded. 

Moments later the two commanders were sitting in the private confines of the captain’s dining room. Their chef had brought in some lunch for them, a simple meal of a jacket potato for each of them covered with an assortment of fillings with a side salad. After almost eating it all, they were now sipping on the mugs of coffee that they had been given. 

“You think this mission will succeed?” Rodham asked as he placed his mug down on the table.

Hesitating at first to answer straight out, Burton considered his response before giving it in almost a glum tone. “I’m not sure it will succeed in the way we want it to.” 

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Rodham said as he started to fiddle with his wedding ring. “Don’t get me wrong, I can see why Starfleet thinks so highly of your brother. He is an impressive tactician, but there’s something in the back of my mind that is saying the Romulans won’t make it easy for us.”

“I know what you’re saying.” Burton said, “And in Lloyd’s defence – he wouldn’t have planned so many backups to ensure we succeed. Knowing him as well as I do, it’s his way of trying to reduce as many variables he knows he can’t control. The distraction with the use of the probes, even though it was his new science officer’s idea, I can smell Lloyd all over it. I can just see it now that he stood in Challenger’s situation room and said that the distraction needed to fool the Romulans into thinking they were about to take on an allied force and he wanted to know what was the best way of doing it without compromising any of our ships from being picked up.”

“You’re right, Walker is good but your brother definitely has an edge.” Rodham remarked. “Michael is always going on about how great he is.”

Rolling his eyes at hearing how wonderful his older brother was, “I’m not surprised. Becoming the skipper of Challenger has brought out the best in Lloyd. My older sister, Madison, won’t admit it but she’s jealous of him.”

Chuckling at that, Rodham picked up his mug to take another sip. “And what about you and your younger brother, Seth?”

“No way.” Burton said as he shook his head. “I love Lloyd, in fact Seth probably idolises him a bit but there’s no way either of us can be jealous of Lloyd. He might be one of the best tacticians in the fleet but he isn’t one of the best engineers in the fleet.”

“That’s true,” Rodham stated, “I mean THE best engineer is on the Prowler right now!” He added as he mocked Burton.

Clutching his chest, pretending as if he had been shot in the heart, Burton laughed the comment off. “That is truly hurtful Alex.”

“Well I gotta keep my chief engineer on his feet.” Rodham replied.

Silence then filled the room.

“You worried about him as much as I am about Nathan?” Burton asked.

Nodding to confirm, Rodham answered the question honestly. “Absolutely. It’s weird when we were dating before, I never once worried this much.”

“Marriage changes people, from what I hear.” Burton said. “If it helps, I tried to convince Nathan that he should stay or I would hide his favourite guitar somewhere on the ship. I may still do it for a laugh.”

The two men chuckled just as the intercom then went off. Nuñez’s voice followed. “Bridge to Commander Rodham.” 

Getting up from the table and pushing the nearby intercom pad on the wall. “Go ahead Maria.”

“Sir, I thought you would like to know that we’ve just crossed into Romulan territory. Fleet Captain Burton has ordered the launch of the probe network.”

“Make it so.” Rodham ordered. “Commander Burton and I will be up there shortly.”

The two of them put their napkins down on the table and left the room, heading back to the bridge to see the next stage of the mission go ahead.

Challenger NX-03

Stood at the main station in the armoury, Lieutenant Cortez continued to play with her simulation. The new chief armoury officer for Challenger was trying to find as many different ways to develop tactics against the Romulans. It was something she had been doing since they had returned to Challenger and had gone off after the missing Starfleet ships. Now she had access to the tactical data around the Romulan drone ship, which from what Hennessey had told her the Romulans had classed as a T’Liss warbird, her simulations took up most of her time when she wasn’t on the bridge or doing another assignment. She wanted to be ready when Challenger engaged them so she wanted as many surprises up her sleeve.

Concentrating on her work at hand, she hadn’t heard the doors to the armoury open and close along with the footsteps that approached from behind her. 

“Rachele, what are you up to?” A familiar and friendly voice spoke, breaking the armoury officer’s attention. 

Taking a deep inhale as she paused the simulation and looked over her right shoulder to see her friend, Lieutenant Masuko climbing up onto the raised platform that she was on. “Just working on a few tricks to use against the Romulans.”

“What back up plan is this? Plan E?” Masuko teased as she looked at the paused display before looking back at her friend and colleague. “The captain wants to launch those probes.”

Nodding at the update, Cortez closed the programme she had set up and looked over at the probes that were stacked up and ready to be launched from Challenger. A similar amount was located in Discovery’s armoury too. “How confident that they’re going to do what we want?”

“Commander Walker seems confident with it.” Masuko said as she started to help Cortez program the targeting scanners as the probes that were now inside the casing of photonic torpedoes were lowered into their launchers. “Lieutenant Hennessey agrees that the dropping of a subspace amplifier will only enhance the probes’ network ability to project the warp signatures.”

“And what about our acting chief engineer?” Cortez enquired as she finished tapping away at the launch sequencer. 

Smirking at hearing that title, Masuko nodded to show her confidence in the plan too. “It will work but the question is for how long. Let’s just hope long enough to fool the Romulans enough.”

“And if not?” Cortez pondered.

“Then you better make sure Plan E is ready to go!” Masuko said as she tapped the intercom panel. “Masuko to bridge.”

Burton’s voice then echoed throughout the armoury chamber. “Go ahead lieutenant.”

“We’re ready sir. If you can tell Angela and Discovery to drop from warp we can launch the probes under your orders.” The acting chief engineer stated.

“Let’s do it.” Burton commanded.

Challenger and Discovery slowed to sub-light speed while the Prowler remained at warp speed. The whole plan had been for them to go ahead of them. Once the two Earth ships were clear and safely away from the captured ship they launched their probes. It didn’t take long for them to move away from the two ships.

Satisfied that the probe network was ready, Cortez spoke to her captain. “Sir, the probes are all in position. We can set our one-hour delay for them to come to life and appear on long range sensors as our lovely Coalition task force.”

“Proceed Rachele, once you’ve activated the timer we are heading back to warp. I want you back up here on the bridge.” Burton ordered.

“Understood sir.” She said as she tapped away at her console and within a second the network activated and the timer started. In one hour the Romulans would see an invasion force on the doorstep. Hopefully it would make them take a peek and remove their ships away from their base that Challenger and Discovery were hoping to get removed.

Voyager NV-03
Close to Deneva (Kappa Fornacis) System

Noticing her first officer appearing to be frustrated by something as she kept looking up from her scope to her main screen and then back again, Captain Madison Burton placed the data tablet she had in her hands down into her lap and called after her right hand. “Sian, what’s the problem?”

Commander Doyle stopped what she was doing and with her puzzled expression across her face looked at her commanding officer. “I think I’ve found them?”

“Really?” Burton said with a surprise and happy tone, but then she stopped herself. Over the last few years she got quite good at reading Doyle’s expression and straight away she knew something was wrong, standing up she approached the science station. “What is it, Sian?”

“Well, both ships are moving at speeds just below the light-speed threshold entering Romulan space but they’re not alone.” Doyle said and she transferred what she was seeing on her screen to the main viewer. The readings showed a small flotilla of ships, moving just below warp one with warp profiles that made them stick out like a sore thumb. Tapping at her controls she highlighted some of the readings, cycling through each one at a reasonable pace, “Those two warp signatures are Challenger and Discovery.” On to the next ones she explained what they were, “those ones are Vulcan, then Andorians followed by Tellarite. However these last three are Starfleet ones, but what confuses the hell out of me is this last one.”

“Why?” Burton asked and as she turned to study the power utilisation curve she realised what she was seeing. “Oh my god, how is that possible?”

“I don’t know ma’am, but those readings are telling us that Voyager is there.” Doyle reported. “How can that be when we are here?”

Madison looked at the readings one more time and understood why her Australian first officer was confused. How could their ship be in two places at once? Each warp signature was different and unique. Then it hit her. She knew exactly what was going on. After being ordered by the Starfleet Commander-in-Chief to take her ship out to find out what happened to her brothers’ ships, she now knew what was happening. Smirking and shaking her head, she knew what her brothers and their crews had done. “They’re not our ships.”

“Ma’am?” Doyle asked, still confused. “What do you mean?”

Sitting back in her command chair, Captain Madison Burton’s grin got wider. “I’ve got a feeling that those are decoys. It has Lloyd Burton written all over it and knowing my kid brother Roman, I reckon he programmed whatever is sending out those signals to emit our warp signature to look realistic.”

“But why?” Doyle enquired. “What could they be up to?”

Taking a breath, she knew what they were up to. “Whatever it is, my brothers need the Romulans to think that the Coalition of Planets is attacking them. I’d imagine they’re trying to pull Romulan forces from another target. If that’s the case then we need to mask our warp signature to avoid the Romulans seeing two of them the same. Tell Alessandro to begin at once.”

“Aye captain.” Doyle said and she called down to Voyager’s chief engineer.

Burton looked at the readings one more time. She hoped that her brothers were safe and that they would make contact soon. “Mister Hu, cut all engines and bring us to a full stop.” She ordered her pilot. Whatever they were up to she wouldn’t spoil it by having Voyager being picked up. 

Jack Conrad could feel the tension rising within the small team that were now standing around the command pit of the Prowler. They had crossed into enemy territory and were now on their approach to the Bassen Rift. So far no Romulan ship had stopped them or approached them. 

“It’s time.” Spoke Captain Müller as he looked at the sensor readings one more time from behind Conrad.

The young pilot couldn’t disagree with the Discovery’s skipper anymore. Their plan required them to shut down life support to avoid raising any more suspicion. For the rest of the ride they would operate wearing their environmental suits. While everyone suited up, Conrad remained standing at his control as he oversaw what the sensors were telling them. On the edge of their long-range sensors they could still pick up both Challenger and Discovery. Fleet Captain Burton’s plan required for both ships to keep far away to avoid raising any suspicion but not too far away that the team couldn’t rely on them to help out. Once everyone was in their gear, the young pilot handed over control to Commander Stanton while he put his suit on. The bulky bronze gear was never comfortable to wear, but he understood why it was necessary. Once life support was shut down they would switch off environment controls and the gravity plating. They needed everything to appear as realistic as possible so when the Romulans realised what was happening they would not have enough time to respond. 

Returning to the helm controls, Conrad reported they were now entering the Bassen Rift. Their long-range sensors were starting to fade; they were losing the signal lock on their cavalry. It was expected as they arrived in the Rift. “We’re two minutes away from the Romulan base sir.” The former cargo ship pilot added over the radio channel that now existed between their suits.

Müller stood with Stanton by what they had designated a mission ops station. It was currently giving them what they needed, scans of the base. Stepping into the Rift, which was a collection of emerald green gasses, the Romulan station appeared to be a collection of short cylindrical rings attached to one another with pylons. The largest ring was the central one, it appeared to have four docking ports on it. A Romulan Bird of Prey was docked and another drone ship was attached too. The station had a number of subspace antennas. Plasma cannons were attached on the edge of the larger ring too. That wasn’t what caught the attention of the Starfleet crew. The bright white glow that came from the middle showed them instantly the location of the micro-singularity. Their target.

“Unbelievable.” Stanton stated as he continued to look at the readings. 

“That’s one way of putting it.” Remarked Habiba. She stood at the science station looking at the same sensor images. “Captain there doesn’t appear to be much shielding around the singularity. I reckon the anti-thoron burst will do the trick we want.”

“Are you certain?” Müller asked.

Habiba nodded and Commander Wallis concurred. The Discovery armoury chief was standing by the weapons array. “I’m surprised at how easy this target will be.”

“Well let’s hope our little present on the border got their attention or the fact they never suspected we would attack them this close.” Müller remarked, “Okay, if everything is ready then I want us to implement our plan now. Raise the defence shields, charge weapons and fire the anti-thoron burst. Mister Conrad, now is the time for you to impress me with your amazing flying!”

“With pleasure sir!” Conrad answered as they implemented their attack run. 

   The Prowler swiftly spun on its axis to port and open fired against the base. The anti-thoron burst flew out of the belly of the drone ship and hit directly against the base.

“It’s working,” Habiba remarked. “The gravitational pull is increasing, but the process is slow. We may need to direct more power to the anti-thoron burst.”

“Won’t that make the micro-singularity bigger and badder than we want?” Major Yu asked. The MACO leader had been standing to one side, her phase rifle closed to her chest as she held on to a nearby handle while Conrad pushed the Prowler to its limits with its flying manoeuvrability. The g-force of his flying was starting to exceed the levels the inertial dampeners could compensate for.

Considering the major’s point for a second, the science officer looked at her readings and then went back to the captain. “I think it’s worth the risk, the sooner the base’s containment field fails the sooner we can get out of here.”

“It’s definitely worth the risk.” Stanton supported it. “Plus, we can’t have our surprise attack be counteracted by them increasing power to the containment field. It’s now or never sir!”

Müller didn’t take a moment to think about it, instead he just ordered Stanton to give Habiba the power she needed. As this happened the two Romulan ships that had been docked with the station had departed from their berths to begin to deal with the surprise intruder. The Bird-of-Prey slowly spun away as the drone ship flew away and turned back on itself to begin its attack run.

“We’ve got incoming targets and I am detecting the plasma cannons on the base charging up.” Wallis announced.

Knowing that their work was not complete, Müller ordered for Conrad to push the ship beyond its limits while Habiba and Stanton did their best to destabilise the micro-singularity’s containment field. Wallis had already started to use the weapons that the drone had to offer against the incoming Romulan vessels. His repeated use of its many particle cannons caused significant harm to the Bird-of-Prey’s starboard wing-like nacelle. Several more shots from the Prowler, which had not been hit by the Romulans yet, had disabled the green talon like ship as its left engine fell off in a blaze of glory. However, the other drone ship was forcing Conrad to move quickly from being hit. The vicious attacking vessel was relentless in its pursuit of taking the Prowler. Like a hurt soldier seeking vengeance for a former comrade betraying them, it was committed in its assault of the Prowler. The situation for the Starfleet team only got worse with the increased fire from the plasma cannons belonging to the base. 

“That’s it!” Shouted Habiba, confirming that the containment field was breached enough and that the gravitational pull from the micro-singularity was high enough to ensure the base was destroyed.

The team cheered in victory but Stanton’s voice over the speakers in their helmets stopped them. “The singularity is increasing in size and power. I reckon it will become a strong enough black hole that it will collapse in on itself. We may not be able to escape it.”

“Then by all means Mister Conrad, get us out of here!” Müller ordered.

Conrad complied with the order and after two attempts at trying to engage the warp drive, he reported that nothing was working. 

Quickly trying to determine what had gone wrong, the engineer in the room soon knew what had happened after a system’s check. “Two of our plasma injectors were damaged.” Stanton stated as he moved hastily away from his station and began his way out of the command hub calling for Major Yu to go with him to assist. It was a race against the clock for their survival. 

Challenger NX-03

The moment they dropped out of warp, just outside of the Bassen Rift, Fleet Captain Burton stood up instantly. Arms crossed against his chest; the young captain took a few deep breaths as he glared at what was being shown to him on the main screen. Emerald gases whirled at what looked like a snail’s pace while the odd cobalt and golden sparks crackled against them. The Bassen Rift didn’t appear welcoming. Any other time the explorer within him would have appreciated the opportunity in discovering what made the Bassen Rift such a ghastly looking location. Despite the urge to have his science team collect as much data on it to analyse at a later date, he had a job to do. The mission he had committed them to had to succeed to ensure a victory for Earth and its commonwealth. 

“That’s a creepy image, it reminds me of something from Robert Burns’ poem Tam o’ Shanter.” Hathaway mentioned from the helm.

Agreeing with his pilot’s assessment, Burton could see how she had linked the imagery from one of the spookiest poems from Scotland to the view before them. “It does feel like we’re sneaking through a graveyard at midnight. Any sign of the Romulans or our team?”

Where Walker was sitting, hoovering his eyes over the scope at the aft part of his science station, he nodded his head as he looked away from it and swivelled his chair around to face inwards towards the centre of the bridge. Tapping on the main controls he spoke up. “I am picking up unusual amounts of gravitational energy coming from the location the team were heading into. They are significantly above the estimated levels we had calculated to help weaken the containment field around the micro-singularity.” Walker’s tone was filled with worry and concern. “I don’t like the looks of what I’m seeing sir, I think we need to go in and –”

A proximity alarm went off at Cortez’s station and she instantly interrupted the science officer. “Sorry Commander, but a Romulan Bird of Prey has just dropped out of warp and is entering weapon’s range within thirty seconds.”

Knowing they had to act swiftly if they were to save their team, Burton ordered for Hennessey to hail Discovery, but before the communications officer had a chance to open a channel, he was already informing his superior that their sister ship was hailing them.

“Open a channel.” Burton instructed, wondering if Müller’s first officer was thinking the same as him.

Sat at the helm of Discovery, it was apparent that Commander Alex Rodham was going to prove he could command the ship as well as fly it. “Captain, we don’t have time to save our people so if you’re happy with this then let Discovery take on this unwelcome visitor while you go in and get our team back.”

Rodham’s suggestion was sound as such Burton agreed instantly. After closing the channel, Burton knew they had their work cut out for them. Taking his chair as he instructed Hathaway to take them forward, he turned to his armoury officer as she announced the Romulan ship was about to come into firing range. “As we move off, give Discovery a helping hand. I want a full spread of torpedoes and shots fired from our aft phase cannons.”

Flying at full impulse, Challenger’s rear weapons came to life as they covered for Discovery to do a full belly-roll to face their enemy. Every single shot scored a direct hit to the oncoming green nemesis.

Prowler (Captured Romulan drone ship)

“Grab me the spare plasma injectors in that locker.” Stanton ordered while pointing to the nearby cupboard that contained the parts that he needed to fix their warp drive.

Yu raced across the smaller engineering section of the Prowler while Stanton made his way over to the injector ports. Pulling the panelling off and dumping it down on the ground, the engineer pulled out his toolkit and started the job in decoupling the damaged components ready to put in the new gear. It didn’t take long for Yu to find what she needed and haul both injectors over to Stanton. By the time she arrived he was just pulling out the last one.

The speakers in their helmets came to life with the voice of Captain Müller. “Müller to Stanton and Yu – our problem is getting bigger!”

Tapping the switch on his chest that helped him respond, Stanton answered the hail. “What do you mean sir?” He asked as he started to install the first injector. 

Habiba took over from the captain. “Our warp drive is not going to be enough to help us escape from the gravitational pull, even if we detonate the torpedoes that are in the shuttlepods, the antimatter explosion won’t be enough.”

Cussing to himself, Stanton considered their options while Yu helped him with his work. “Martha, how much energy would we need to escape from the pull?”

The young science officer had already calculated their possibilities of survival as she answered her superior immediately. “I would say detonating the Prowler’s warp core, the torpedoes and the Romulan shuttle we were going to use to escape would be enough. We would need to use one of the shuttlepods though.”

“Do you think we could survive it Michael in one of the shuttlepods?” Müller asked next.

“Just about.” He answered. 

“Alright, let’s do it. If you can excuse the major, then I want her and Nathan to begin emptying the shuttlepods with torpedoes while I’ll prepare the Romulan auxiliary craft to detonate its warp core. While I’m doing that, Michael, work on overloading the Prowler’s warp core. Jack is going to remain at the helm, doing his best to keep us away from any more fire from the Romulans. Martha can take over weapons control for now. Let’s move people!” Müller ordered. 

Stanton looked at Yu and gave her a reassuring nod before she left him to get on with his work. 

Running in an EVA suit was not something that Major Viktoria Yu liked doing. It was one of the few duties from her time with the MACOs as well as the Royal Canadian Navy that she did not enjoy. Having to do a job while stuck in some bulky suit, be it one to use in space or under the sea, was extremely tricky. As she moved through the Prowler, she wondered just what their possibility of getting out of here alive was. She had been in tight spots before and never once considered that she wouldn’t survive, but right at that moment there was a niggling feeling at the back of her mind telling her not to count their luck yet. The sweat was starting to pour down from her forehead and she couldn’t help but consider that this was it. Even when Challenger had been beaten to almost death by the Romulans and Carreons, she always knew they would get through it. Today though the opposite thoughts were almost overwhelming her. Approaching what was the hangar bay, she met up with Captain Müller and Lieutenant Commander Wallis. As a team they got on with their work, trying to ensure that perhaps they could cheat death today. 

Hopefully.

Keeping one eye on the sensors and the other on the flight controls, Jack Conrad had never felt so alive in a long time. The Prowler was responding to every touch, every command he gave it. If they hadn’t been at war with the Romulans, if they hadn’t had to capture this ship, if they weren’t using it in such an aggressive way, he may have complimented the Romulan ingenuity in their ship designs. However, that thought was completely overridden by his pure lust of revenge against them for atrocious horrors they performed against the Raven, his former home. Wanting to ensure that their mission was a success, he had no reason to object to staying in the command pit with Habiba while everyone else worked on their escape plan. With the gravitational pull increasing he was doing his best to push the engines beyond their limits while evading the fire from the other drone ship. 

“How are we doing with those weapons Martha?” He asked as the ship continued to rumble beneath them.

After moving to the weapon’s control, Habiba had taken over from Wallis and she was trying her hardest to adapt to her new post without any prior experience. “Let’s just say I’d prefer to be moving those torpedoes then trying to get a weapon’s lock on that drone ship. It’s too damn quick.” 

“Then try firing manually. Imagining it’s an asteroid you’re trying to scan, or for that fact some exotic alien creature that won’t sit still!” Conrad suggested. 

“I’m trying but it’s right on the edge of the gravitational pull. It’s like it knows to stay far enough from us.” Habiba remarked and then an idea entered her brain. “It’s the station!” She shouted as she scanned the base that was slowly breaking apart. “The station is transmitting commands to the drone ship.”

“And what’s your point?” Conrad asked. 

“I’m firing at the wrong target!” She replied and turned her attention to the base. Turning their weapon’s array around, she targeted the base and opened fire. Specifically she was trying to take out the transmitters that were being used to pilot the drone ship. A number of hits from the Prowler successfully took them out and the drone just stopped. Completely lifeless it got caught in the pull from the singularity and like a dead bird falling from the sky, it tumbled across space and went smacking into the side of the base. Explosions erupted from the base as it was damaged further from the impact and before long was destroyed by the emerging black hole. 

The shockwave from the base’s destruction hit the Prowler knocking Habiba to the floor. As her head hit the deck she heard Conrad scream in delight as the Romulan ship and base were destroyed. Before her eyes closed she tried to call his name but she knew that he was delighted that he had taken out some revenge on the Romulans for what they did against his former family on the E.C.S. Raven. She smiled for him, pleased that he had achieved a personal victory then blackness took over.

Falling down on to the deck plating was slightly humiliating for Frank Müller. The unexpected convulsion that appeared to hit the Prowler had happened just as he stepped out of the Romulan shuttle. He had prepped it to explode by attaching a number of explosions around its small warp drive. Being picked up by Major Yu, he thanked Challenger’s lead MACO. 

“Vielen Dank major.” He said in a thick German accent. “Müller to Habiba, Conrad and Stanton, report! Are you all alright?”

“Stanton here sir, Martha is unconscious, but I’m okay. That was the Romulan base going up in flames!” Conrad answered.

“I’m fine too and the warp core is ready.” Stanton said. “I’ll head to the command pit to help with Habiba and the final part of our escape plan.”

“I’m on my way as well.” Yu said as she shot away from the captain at warp like speeds to help her fellow shipmates. 

“Keep the ship together as long as you can Jack.” Müller ordered. “Nathan and I will unload the final torpedoes. Let’s do this people!”

Arriving in unison at the command pit, Stanton and Yu rushed over to where Conrad was trying to fly the ship and tend to their injured comrade. Lying in the recovery position on the deck plating, Habiba’s eyes were closed when Yu knelt down to her. Taking out her medical scanner she could see the science officer was still alive. 

“I’ve tried to revive her but my medical knowledge is limited.” Conrad announced over their EVA communicators. 

Yu, who had some first aid experience, took out what she knew that Habiba needed to be conscious. Quickly placing the hypospray next to Habiba’s arm, she injected her with sixty ccs of inaprovaline. Habiba soon became conscious and her eyes fluttered as she tried to focus on what was going on. Helping her off the floor, Yu pulled Habiba up. “I’m going to take the lieutenant to the shuttlepod.” She told Stanton and Conrad.

 Both men nodded as the major left the command pit as she supported Habiba out and back down to the hangar bay. 

“I’m attempting to set up the autopilot to take over but the system isn’t responding to me sir.” Conrad said as he continued to get frustrated at the controls of the Prowler.

“Systems are starting to fail; we won’t be able to remain here much longer.” Stanton remarked. He tapped the button on his chest and called out to Captain Müller. “Sir the ship’s computer systems are failing and we won’t be able to hold on much longer. If the torpedoes and the Romulan shuttle is ready to go then I suggest once Major Yu is with you that you board the shuttlepod. From here I can open the hangar bay doors to release the shuttle and torpedoes to make the first set of detonations and then Jack and I can join you in time by taking the other shuttlepod just before we detonate the warp core.”

“Are you sure?” Müller asked.

Conrad spoke up with a strong conviction in his voice. “It’s the only way sir. We’ll be right behind you.”

“Very well.” Müller said, “See you shortly.”

Turning to the pilot, Stanton told him to move the ship so that the hangar bay doors were in the right position so the torpedoes and the Romulan shuttle were able to detonate in the correct place. As Conrad did that, Stanton started to increase the pressure inside the Prowler’s warp core ready for their last detonation. 

After pulling Habiba into the shuttlepod, Yu listened to Captain Müller who briefed her about Stanton’s plan. 

Feeling she needed to do more to help her comrades who were still in the command pit, Yu spoke up. “Even if they succeed they still need to get the other shuttlepod out of here in time. Let me prepare the other pod at least sir!”

Shaking his head, Müller told her no. They would wait long enough on their own for their teammates to join them. He wanted both pods to launch at the same time.

“No offence captain, but that plan doesn’t make sense.” Yu protested. 

“Yu we don’t have time!” Müller shouted back at her as he got into the designated shuttlepod they were planning to use. 

Yu looked at Wallis who appeared as he didn’t know what to say to help. The young armoury officer was about to say something when something rocked the ship again further. At that point they could see the hangar bay doors starting to creak as explosions erupted around them. The Prowler was falling apart. Without thinking, Müller pushed Yu and Wallis into the shuttlepod and jumped in himself, closing the hatch behind him. 

Screaming at the situation, Yu looked through the viewpoint as she watched hangar bay doors break away from the ship, followed by the torpedoes they had laid on them along with the Romulan shuttle. Their pod was attached to the docking arm but was shaking under the pressure. In another blink of an eye the other Starfleet shuttlepod fell out of the ship and towards the black hole that had replaced the Romulan base. 

In the command pit, Stanton pushed himself up from the floor. Looking at his controls he saw what happened. The gravitational pull had spiked in power causing part of the Prowler’s shields to fail causing a massive hull breach in the hangar bay. Seeing their torpedoes, the Romulan shuttle and the empty Starfleet shuttlepod tumble away from them without detonating, Stanton just swore at the top of his lungs. Their plan was falling apart. Looking around he soon realised that Conrad was missing from the flight controls. He then saw the pilot lying on his back on the floor. Remorse soon overwhelmed the engineer as he made his way over to where Conrad was. The young pilot was alive but was choking as blood was being coughed up from his mouth. A shard of bulkhead had fallen and had gone through his suit. Rushing to take his helmet off, Stanton pulled the young pilot into his arms.

“Did we do it sir?” Conrad said in between dying coughs after his own helmet was removed.

Nodding at the pilot, Stanton felt life slowly disappearing from his arms. “We did Jack. We did.”

“Then Fleet Captain Burton can claim a victory for the good guys.” Conrad struggled to say. “He better give us medals.”

Chuckling at the tone Conrad was taking in his final moments, Stanton nodded. He knew this was it for them. “I’m sure he will.”

“It was an honour to serve in Starfleet again sir and to be posted on Challenger.” Conrad said as his final breath was taken and his body finally gave up.

“It sure was.” Stanton whispered, fighting back tears. 

More warning alarms went off and he looked up, seeing that the ship’s structural integrity field was failing, especially around his location. He knew what he had to do. Getting over to the controls he tapped the button that would release the shuttlepod and then he pressed the button that pushed the warp core to overload. Closing his eyes in that moment all he could think of was Alex. Tapping the button on his chest, he opened his final line to his teammates. “Stanton to Müller, Wallis, Yu and Habiba. Jack is dead. Engage your engines to full as I’m about to detonate the warp core.”

“No!” Yu shouted back in response. “Get here now Michael!” Using his first name was very unlike the major.

“Please sir!” Habiba pleaded.

“I’m sorry, but there’s no time.” He took a moment. “Someone tell Alex that I love him with all my heart and make sure that Lloyd knows that it was an honour to serve with him.”

Stanton took a breath and then said “Godspeed” before closing the channel. He was then swept from his feet as the command pit was destroyed by the black hole consuming it.

 Challenger NX-03

Arriving to see the Prowler explode under the pressure of a warp core breach, completely shook everyone on the bridge of Challenger. For a moment, Burton’s legs felt like they were about to give way to him so he instantly sat down in his chair. There was nothing he could see that showed that the team had survived their mission. Walker then gave a glimmer of hope.

“I’ve got Shuttlepod Two trying to escape. Their engines are close to overloading.”

Quickly, Burton ordered for Hathaway to move in and use the grappler to pull them out.

“Sir the grappler won’t be powerful enough to counteract the black hole’s increasing energy pull.” Cortez stated.

“Then we’ll transport them out.” Burton looked at Masuko, who took her que from the captain’s decision and raced across the bridge to head down to the transporter bay to pick up their team. As she moved from the engineering station by Cortez, the captain got in touch with sickbay and ordered Ben-Ami to meet Masuko with a medical team. “I don’t know what state they’re going to be in Kefira.” He added.

“Understood sir.” Ben-Ami said and she closed the channel.

At that point the ship started to shudder as it sat on the edge of the gravitational pull. “Grapplers away.” Cortez announced the large magnetic towing devices left from Challenger’s gut. 

“This is going to be tight sir.” Walker stated. “I’m pretty certain sir that the black hole may implode.”

“How long do we have?” Burton asked.

“Six minutes, maybe seven at the most but we need to be moving away if we want to survive this.” Walker reported with a doomed tone. 

Glad to see their latest addition of the engineering team waiting for her alongside Challenger’s third engineer, it didn’t take long for Masuko to give order out to Malone and Metaxas. They had already prepped the targeting scanners and were both operating nearby stations as the second engineer activated the transporter. “I can’t get a clear lock on all of them.” She stated.

Frustrated that the system was not doing what they wanted, Malone spoke up. “You may have to bring them in one at a time, Sakura.” 

“I’m narrowing the annular confinement beam.” Metaxas stated as his hands tapped away at the wall console he was operating. 

“I’ve got one life sign, bringing them in now.” Masuko stated as the medical team arrived.

The transporter beam faded out and appearing on the platform was Lieutenant Commander Wallis. Straight away Ben-Ami pulled Discovery’s armoury chief off and sat him down on the other side of the corridor as she started to scan him for injuries while he was helped out of his EVA suit. As she did that Masuko started to bring back another one. 

“My scanners can’t be operating right,” She said as she beamed back Habiba. “I’m not picking up the entire team.”

After Habiba appeared completely on the pad, she was guided off by Lieutenant Stewart. The science officer appeared in an almost daze like state as she pushed her helmet off she spoke through a gruff like tone. “Commander Stanton and Jack didn’t make it.” She pushed back the tears that were welling under her eyes.

The area fell silent at the news. Focussing back on her work, Masuko could see she needed to bring Müller and Yu back now. “Theo, realigning the pattern buffer. I’ve got one more shot at it.”

“Do it quickly.” Malone stated from a station behind her. “The shuttlepod is about to break apart and I don’t think the grappler is going to be able to pull them in anymore.”

Grabbing both life signs in one signal, Masuko pushed the transporter controls up and then down as she tried to rematerialise them. The transporter was not complying. “I’m having trouble here.” She paused as she tried to work out what was happening. “The gravity well is scattering their patterns. Their patterns are distorting.”

Being the ranking officer, Ben-Ami handed treatment of Wallis over to Doctor Payne (who had joined her and Stewart from sickbay), “Get them out of there Sakura!” She commanded.

“I’m trying.” Masuko said. “The phase discriminator can’t seem to isolate their lifesigns.” Looking over to Metaxas, she gave out one more order that she knew may help. “Theo, expand the buffers and narrow the confinement beam further.”

The moment he did it, Masuko pushed the controls one more time and this time they worked and as the patterns started to form there was another beep. Alarmed at what she was seeing, a fifty percent drop in matter within the pattern buffers, she realised that she had lost one of the signals. 

Within a few seconds Captain Müller appeared on the transporter pad and after materialising he instantly dropped to the floor, fainting from the pressure his body had just endured inside the pattern buffer. Ben-Ami moved straight away to help the fallen captain while Masuko did her best to find Yu. Then it hit her, the major’s signal had disintegrated. Yu was gone. Shock stunned the engineer as she realised one thing.  

She had caused Yu’s death.

Deciding he did not want to leave his office since reporting for duty, Fleet Captain Burton had kept to himself since their mission in Romulan space had completed. Nevertheless the taste of victory was a bitter one. The loss of his first officer, pilot and MACO commander had devastated his crew. For the last few days since they had left the Bassen Rift and avoided the Romulan fleet, a solemn mood had swept across Challenger. For some reason since he woke up today, he truly felt alone. He had decided to postpone the memorial service until they returned home. Challenger and Discovery were now at warp four making their way home side by side. Like a pair of injured soldiers limping home, supporting one another up, the ships were going to be entering the Sol system any time soon. Burton had broken radio silence only an hour ago to update Starfleet Command with their news. Fleet Admiral Hathaway had congratulated him with their attack and had shared her sympathy at the news of hearing of their losses. Informing her that they had a Romulan database in their possession alongside further improvements to their countermeasures against the Romulan telepresence capturing device had given the admiral hope that this war may end soon for them. She had added though she wasn’t holding her breath on that matter. A sentiment that Burton had shared with her. 

The door chime went off and Burton took a moment before answering it. “Come in.” He said in a sombre tone. 

The door hissed open to the right allowing his yeoman to enter. “Sorry to disturb you sir.” Harris stated as he walked in, holding a tablet in his hands. “But Lieutenant Commander Sandoval asked me to bring you this.” Handing the tablet in his hand over to his captain, Harris remained quiet thereafter. 

“Thank you Jamie.” Burton replied as he activated the device and took a brief glance over it. Straight away he could see how his Gamma Shift Watch Officer, who was stepping up to help out since Stanton’s loss, had ensured that the crew were giving time to do their work but also space to deal with their losses. “Looks fine.” He said after handing it back to the young enlisted officer. “Anything else?”

Harris shook his head in response and then stopped. “Actually sir, there is something, if I could speak freely?”

Leaning back in his chair at his desk, Burton nodded. “Of course Jamie. What is it?”

Taking the courage to speak up, Harris shared something that Burton wasn’t expecting. “Just to say sir, that the entire crew is behind you and that even though we’ve lost Commander Stanton, Major Yu and Jack…” He paused, “Frankly sir, none of us blame you as we all knew that they loved their jobs and being part of our crew. So please do not feel you need to distance yourself from any of us. We’re with you and we would follow you to the end of the universe and back if we had to.”

Smiling slightly at the shared sentiment. “I appreciate that.” Burton remarked. “I truly do, but it doesn’t make their losses any easier. Thank you Jamie.”

Harris understood that the captain got what he had shared and left the room to leave him to be on his own.

The mess hall was so silent that evening. It had been for days now. Barely anyone spoke when mealtimes were occurring between shifts. Standing among her crewmates, Chef Lawson couldn’t believe what she was witnessing. The crew had been through a lot harder situations since they had been assembled at the start of the year, but this mission had appeared to knock them back significantly. 

Interrupted with her thoughts by the arrival of Lieutenant Habiba, Lawson walked across the room away from the serving table, leaving one of her stewards to take over. Habiba had been in sickbay since their return, undergoing treatment under Ro-fa Ben-Ami. She had been injured on the Prowler and her trip through the transporter had been traumatic. It was good to see her up and about. Standing in civilian attire, the science officer appeared lost as she stood in the doorway. 

“Hello Martha.” Lawson said, greeting her. “It’s good to see you out of sickbay.”

Looking at the cook and morale officer, Habiba smiled at the reception she got. “Thank you Chef.” She spoke softly. “It’s nice to be out too.”

“When are you back on duty?” Lawson asked as she put her arm around Habiba’s shoulders and walked her away from the door towards the serving table. 

“Not for a couple more days at least.” Habiba answered. “I’m famished though. What’s on the menu tonight?”

“A range of pasta dishes or I can whip something else up which is a bit lighter if you fancy?” Lawson offered.

“No anything with pasta in it sounds good, thank you.” Habiba remarked in a quiet tone. “I take it that the mess hall has been like this for some time?”

Nodding in acknowledgement, Lawson explained how everyone was reacting to the loss of their shipmates. “I haven’t seen much of the captain either. He’s been eating alone in his office or quarters. It appears most people are doing that at the moment.”

“Jack would be devastated if he knew this was going on.” Habiba stated. “He was the life and soul of a room.”

“He sure was.” Said a soft male voice beside her.

Habiba looked around and saw Second Lieutenant Trommler standing there. He and Conrad had become fast best friends since Conrad had joined Challenger. “Luis.” Habiba said, noticing the grief that encompassed the tall, slim MACO soldier. He had not only lost his best friend but the woman that had led his unit. Stepping forward the science officer put her arms out and Trommler responded by embracing her.

“He loved you so much.” Trommler whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she carried on hugging the German soldier further. Habiba knew she had lost the love of her life and for the first time she felt comfortable again on Challenger as she stood there embracing Trommler. She finally had a chance to grieve too. 

Standing on the upper level of main engineering, Lieutenant Sakura Masuko looked across, staring into nothing. Engineering was quiet, except the gentle vibrations coming off from the warp core. She had been standing there for some time, expecting for Commander Stanton to enter and hand out orders. Nevertheless she knew that wasn’t going to happen. He was gone and everything he had built with this engineering department felt empty without him there. 

Behind her the noise of the lift elevating upwards towards her interrupted her thoughts. She turned around and saw Ensign Metaxas approach her. “What’s up Theo?”

“I’ve just finished my diagnostic of the transporter.” The Greek engineer reported.

The mention of the device that she had used to save the team that Stanton had been on gave her goosebumps and shivers down her spine. She had been left sick from what happened in their attempt to rescue Captain Müller and the others. Her efforts had resulted in the loss of Major Yu. Since the rescue attempt, she had ordered for the transporter to be taken offline and examined piece by piece so they knew what happened in the loss of the MACO leader. “What do you have Theo?” She enquired.

“The entire transporter system was working ma’am, there were no glitches. From what the logs can tell us and I’ve had Commander Walker look over them; we lost Major Yu’s pattern due to the gravitational well caused by the black hole. Her patterns had degraded mid-beam up.” Metaxas stated.

Hearing that caused her to feel faint, so she grabbed the rail in front of her. She didn’t say anything anymore. She didn’t know what to say, instead Metaxas continued talking.

“From what I can tell, and again I spoke with Commander Walker, our transporters don’t have the sophistication let alone the energy to do what we wanted to do. We both agree that getting back who we did get back was impressive under the circumstances.”

“But it wasn’t enough, was it Theo?” Masuko said bitterly. She pushed back tears. She wished that Stanton was here to say something impressive and encouraging. “I want the transporter system kept offline until we return to the Obama Repair Facility, unless the captain opposes that order.”

“Yes ma’am.” Metaxas said and took the lieutenant’s silence as his clue to go. Before he got back in the lift, he stopped and turned to her. “Sakura, none of us could have saved her. The odds were stacked against us. It may be another two hundred and fifty years before we have the technology to be able to do what we did entirely successfully.”

“None of it helps us rationalise her death though.” Masuko said as she turned to look at Metaxas. “It just doesn’t seem right, for a woman who served her entire life should go down because of a transporter malfunction. It’s not very MACO is it?”

“I disagree ma’am.” Metaxas said. “I know for a fact that none of the MACOs think that. Liam and Luis have both told me that the entire unit is obviously mourning her loss, but they are proud she helped achieve an important victory for Earth. That’s what she will be remembered for and that’s how they plan to celebrate her life and honour her passing.”

His sentiments didn’t seem like enough to help her, nonetheless Masuko just nodded to say thank you and for him to leave her alone in her thoughts. Could she really remain on Challenger with what had happened? She truly didn’t know the answer.

Sat alone in the MACO locker room, Corporal Jenkins was quietly reading a tablet when a familiar voice interrupted him with a simple ‘hi’ which was followed by a kiss on the left cheek. His husband carefully sat down close next to him on the bench and leant his head against his. 

“How are you doing?” Stewart asked softly. 

Sighing and trying to find the right word to answer with, Jenkins looked at his other half. “I’m okay, how’s your day been?”

“Not as busy as it has been.” Stewart replied simply as he sat up straight. “Martha was released from sickbay earlier.”

“That’s good to hear.” Jenkins remarked. “We should check in with her.”

“Yeah, definitely. How’s Luis been?” Stewart enquired about their friend. 

“He’s okay, I think.” Raising the tablet in his hands to show Jenkins what was on it. “First Lieutenant al-Fayyad gave me this earlier.”

“What is it?” Stewart asked as he tried to read it.

Taking a breath, Jenkins answered. “It’s my acceptance letter to start officer-training.”

“Oh my god Liam, that’s great news!” Stewart said with pride as he wrapped his arms around his husband. “I’m so pleased for you.”

“Thanks.” Came Jenkins’ reply with half a smile. “It seems that Major Yu had sent it in before we left Earth. Al-Fayyad got the response when radio silence was lifted.”

The gesture of the former MACO leader was one that didn’t surprise the Starfleet nurse. She had shown some sort of motherly instinct with Liam, she had shown it since he joined Challenger and had given him plenty of opportunity to develop his skills. His battlefield promotion was another piece of her commitment to him. 

“I’m gutted she wasn’t here to read it.” Jenkins said sadly. 

Pulling him closer, Stewart kissed the top of his husband’s head. “I’m sure she knew you would get in without a doubt.” He held his husband close for a bit. “Will al-Fayyad do your training then?”

Shaking his head, Jenkins answered. “Apparently not. She told the unit this afternoon that she plans on leaving the MACO service when we return to Earth.”

Hearing the sudden news, Stewart was shocked. “I wasn’t expecting to hear that. How come?”

“Because if I learnt anything from Major Yu it was not to have any regrets.” First Lieutenant al-Fayyad said from the other end of the room. The tallish Egyptian woman walked down with a smile on her face. Her unusual blonde hair was tied in a tight bun above her head. “Viktoria taught me a lot, we even served together before we re-joined together here on Challenger. She was a mentor, a close friend and the one thing I knew she regretted was allowing her marriage to fail with her ex-wife Erika.” By the time she approached the two men, Jenkins was about to stand up to attention of which al-Fayyad told him to sit back down. Looking down at the two of them, she smiled sweetly at them. “Guys, promise me you won’t allow anything to come in between your marriage, even your careers, do you hear me?”

Both men looked at each and then back to her. Jenkins spoke up. “Absolutely ma’am. What are you planning to do when we return to Earth?”

“I’m going to spend time with my husband and our two daughters. They deserve the mother that has been away from them for too long now.” She answered honestly. “I’ve been keeping them too far away from me for too long now. What our uniforms stand for isn’t worth it if we miss out on the things we’re fighting to protect. I want to honour Viktoria by living in the moment and however much I love serving on Challenger I can honestly say that I need to be home with my girls and husband.”

Jenkins and Stewart both stood up, the former extending his hand towards his former superior. “It’s been an honour serving with you ma’am.”

“The honour was all mine Liam.” She said, shaking his hand before pulling him for a quick hug. He returned the gesture. She then turned to Stewart. “All the best Niall.”

“Likewise Khawla.” The nurse said as he embraced the former MACO deputy. 

Discovery NX-04

Sitting up in his bed, Captain Frank Müller was starting to feel a bit better after being released from sickbay the day before. He was on bed rest and wasn’t allowed to return to official duty until the next day, just in time as they returned home. That said, he had used the time to catch up with his paperwork as well as catch up with the latest information from the European Football Championship League. His team was doing well in the tournament and he was keen to watch their most recent match against the British team they faced recently. He had to put his plans on hold when the door chime went off. 

“Ja.” He called out. Still in his lounge wear, the captain wasn’t bothered if the crew saw him out of his uniform. The door slid open and Commander Rodham walked in. His first officer and chief pilot had been unable to deal with the death of his husband on the mission that Müller had been able to return from. Müller had found it hard to not feel guilty every time he looked at Rodham in the face. “Alex, how are you?”

Rodham, who had requested a leave of his duties, wore a simple black top and charcoal trousers. To be honest, Müller could probably guess how his first officer was. He looked like a mess. His hair was scruffy and he had deep black bags under his eyes. 

“I’m fine thank you sir.” He said in an unusual quiet tone. “Yourself?”

“Getting there.” Müller remarked. “What can I do for you commander?”

Rodham had entered his room with his hands behind his back, hiding the fact he was holding a data tablet. “I’m sorry to do this sir but I’d like to formally request a transfer.” He then handed the captain the device. 

Not surprised that this was happening, nevertheless Müller hadn’t expected it so soon. “I understand Alex. Where do you want to go?”

“Challenger.” He answered. “I’ve spoken with Fleet Captain Burton and I’ve made a personal request that I would like to honour Michael by assuming his duties as first officer as well as take over as their chief helm officer.”

The double blow to Müller was reasonable. He had lost both Stanton and Lieutenant Conrad on the mission. The two men had volunteered to join his team from Burton’s own crew. The fact that Burton was now without either of them meant that three spots (first officer, chief engineer and chief pilot) were open. If Rodham joining Challenger meant that he could give Rodham some peace and somehow pay back Burton, then Müller knew he couldn’t refuse. He took the device from his first officer and read the simple request that had been written along with the transfer papers. Signing both he then handed it back to Rodham. As Rodham turned to leave the room, Müller spoke up. “Alex, I am so sorry for what happened. It should have been me that had died out there, not Michael.”

Holding back tears, Rodham had paused and then carried on walking out. That would be the last time Müller would see his first officer and chief pilot. 

Sat in an armchair, reading one of his favourite books, Commander Roman Burton peered above the page he had just turned over to read next. Looking up at his boyfriend who laid on the bed in sickbay, he wondered how much longer it would take for Nathan to fully recover from his ordeal. After being rescued by Challenger and returned to Discovery, Nathan had started to suffer from a range of delusions and hallucinations. He was constantly dehydrated too. As a result of this Doctor Reyburn had performed a number of scans and had determined that he was suffering from a sort of breakdown of neurochemicals. She had yet been able to determine what had caused it, but her only working hypothesis was something linked to his run through the transporter. She had even consulted with Challenger’s chief medical officer for a second opinion, again Lloyd’s doctor had not been able to fully diagnose what was going on with him. So when Roman wasn’t playing acting captain (with Müller relieved of his duty and Rodham on compassionate leave) he spent his time in sickbay watching over Nathan.

Reyburn approached him with a mug of hot tea. “Not that I want to chuck you out, but it is getting late and you’re under a lot of pressure. I would hate to see another member of our command crew be placed on bed rest.”

Taking the hot beverage in his free hand, Roman put his book down on his lap and smiled in appreciation. “I’m planning to go grab something to eat shortly.” He looked at Nathan one more time. “Any more ideas doc?”

Shaking her head in a dejected manner, the short Caribbean woman pulled up a stool. “I’m afraid not Roman. I’ve asked to see the transporter logs from Challenger to conduct a comparative scan of his anatomy. Your brother has agreed to it, but I’ve not quite had them yet. They’re probably busy trying to deal with their losses.”

Hearing that his brother may be able to help Nathan further, Roman stood up. “Let me call Lloyd now. He’d do anything for me and Nathan.”

Reyburn placed a firm hand back down on Roman’s shoulder to push him back down. “I’ve already made the request and it’s not as simple as getting their logs as quickly as possible. I’m running a deep tissue scan of Nathan which will take a few more hours to complete.”

“Fine, but if you don’t have them by the time you finish your scan then I will call Lloyd.” Roman said defeated. 

“He has been very supportive so far and has said that I can have Doctors Ben-Ami and Payne join us once we arrive at home to help further.” Reyburn assured him. “Nathan is in good hands, I promise.”

“I know he is,” Roman said sincerely. “It’s just not how I imagined this mission would end, especially with all the planning we did.”

Agreeing with his assessment, Reyburn nodded. “The best laid schemes of mice and men.” Pausing the doctor clarified her thoughts further. “None of us saw any of this happen, but then I am sure none of us expected to be engulfed in a galactic war in our first year of service on this ship.”

“Absolutely.” Roman said as he looked back at Nathan. “I just hope the sacrifices we’ve made are worth it.”

Inspecting the Dhivael had not been on the top of the admiral’s agenda, however it gave him an opportunity to be updated by Commander T’Voras before he had to brief the praetor about what had happened in the Bassen Rift. He was not looking forward to it as it meant he probably would have to go before the Continuing Committee as well. 

“From what we can tell, the Hevams were able to capture one of our drones and turn it against us. The entire arrenhe’hwiua base was destroyed and decades of work on singularities as a power source has been lost. We lost a lot of good loyal subjects, admiral.” T’Voras stated from behind his desk in his office. 

It was just the two men who were present, the way Valdore preferred it. He stood by the tall window gazing down at Romulus. In the distance he could see its twin planet, Remus. “Was there anything left at all?”

“I’m afraid not sir.” T’Voras glumly said. “By the time we had responded to their decoy of an invasion force and then had made our way back to the base they had already left nothing for us to work out how they compromised our security. The only thing that my crew were able to assume was that they were able to use our drone ships against us as we had detected three of them heading into the base on our long-range sensors. Their attack was swift and decisive. All that remained in the rift was residual gravitational energy from the micro-singularity we had been using.”

Rolling his eyes backwards, Valdore’s rage was slowly building within him. “So not only have we lost a key installation and a number of ships, but our ability to control our drone ships as well as deploy our computer virus against our enemies.”

“Unfortunately for now sir, it would appear that way. However I have a plan that you may wish to suggest to the praetor.” T’Voras offered.

Valdore turned on his heel. “Go on.”

“If the Hevams have developed a way to defend against the arrenhe’hwiua telepresence capture then it’s reasonable to say that their allies in the Thaessu, Andorsu and Tellarsu will eventually be defended from it. We should move our assets to use the device against other species that are not aligned with the Hevams. I would suggest we go back to using it on the Klling’hannsu on our vessels that can conduct short range missions and begin tests on the Tholliasu.”

The idea did intrigue him, Valdore raised his eyebrow in a similar fashion like their distant Thaessu cousins did. “Do tell me more.” He told his subordinate, thinking that perhaps that could salvage some of this disaster.