Things have been quiet since they arrived back at Devron from their vacation on Risa, the crew was to just sit tight until their next assignment. Sari had already gone back to work, so he was left alone in his quarters to his own devices. This was the perfect opportunity to read his book that he had been neglecting the past few days. Getting up from his chair, he walked to the replicator. “Coffee, black” he replied as the replicator gave him what he requested.

After sitting back in his chair, taking a sip he reached over to the side table and picked up his padd that the book was on. Tapping it he began to read, taking this time to unwind. After a while, the door chime went off, he wondered who that could be as he was just getting into his book. “Enter,” Tajir replied as the doors opened.

“I hope I am not interrupting?” Adams replied with a soft smile as she walked in.

“Oh, was just sitting here reading my book.” He replied holding up the padd in his hand before he continued, “what brings you by?” Tajir asked setting the padd on the table beside him along with his coffee.

Adams took a seat on the couch next to him, she had a look on her face that concerned Tajir. “What is wrong?” Tajir asked as he had worked with her long enough, he knew something was bothering her just by the look on her face.

She looked at him, “I got a call from Starfleet Command a few moments ago.” Adams began looking at him before continuing, “I wanted to be the one to inform you and they agreed.” Makayla said as she sat there looking at him.

Raising an eyebrow, “inform me of what?” Tajir asked as he shifted in his seat.

Reaching in her pocket she pulled out a square box, “could you please stand up?” she asked looking at him as he stood up. “Commander Derohl, you are hereby promoted to the rank of Captain with the responsibilities that come with it,” Adams said as she walked up to him placing the fourth pip on his uniform.

Tajir stood there stunned not sure what to say, “thank you, sir” though he was still visibly confused. 

“Also, you have been given command of the USS Aquarius a Resolute-class starship. Here are your orders,” Adams said handing him the padd.

Taking the padd Tajir looked even more stunned, he figured he would have a few more years before the thought of being a Captain. “This is all of a sudden, I wasn’t expecting this so soon.” Tajir finally spoke up as he looked at Makayla who just had a smile on her face.

“You deserve it, Captain” she replied.

“This will be a change,” Tajir replied. “What are you going to do about a new Executive Officer?” Tajir asked looking at his friend and colleague who he has worked with over the last few years.

Looking at him for a moment before replying, “they said they had found a replacement, but I haven’t gotten much information yet. I am sure I’ll find out soon enough.” Adams replied with a shrug, “I would suggest you start packing as they want you to report aboard the Aquarius as soon as possible. It is docked here at Devron,” she said as she gave extended her hand to him as to congratulate him again before heading towards the door.

Tajir nodded returning the handshake, “understood, and thank you, Captain.” Tajir replied as Adams nodded and left his quarters, sitting down he let out a loud sigh. He was not expecting to get his ship, he forgot he still had the padd in his hand that he had not read completely yet. He began to read the orders and raised an eyebrow, “interesting.” He said to himself as he sat the padd down and looked around his quarters.

“So much to pack,” he said as he got up from the chair.

He had sent for some crates to be sent over from the cargo bay to put his belongings in. He would spend a couple of hours packing his things, when he finished, he had them sent over to his new quarters aboard the Aquarius. “Well, this is it,” he said taking one last look around his quarters to make sure he did not miss anything.

He left his quarters and headed down to the docking port to head over to Devron Fleet Yards. Officers congratulated him as they passed by, “news travels fast.” He said to himself as he walked. After a while what seemed like longer than what it was, he made it to the port stopping for a moment to look back for a moment.

Taking a deep breath, he exited the Vesta and walked down the corridor of the station towards where the Aquarius was. Looking out the window, he looked at the newly refitted Aquarius.

“She is a beauty,” Sari said as she was already waiting there for him.

Looking over at her, “she is.” Tajir replied as he hugged his wife, “so I take it you already heard?” He asked looking at her before kissing her.

Nodding, “yes” she responded with a smile as she was happy for her husband. “Congratulations, which is well deserved,” Sari replied as she returned his kiss before looking back out the window.

“Care to help me unpack?” Tajir asked.

“Of course, why else would I be here other than to see you of course,” Sari said playfully as they both walked toward the entrance.

“Captain Tajir Derohl requesting permission to come on board,” Tajir said as he handed the security officer his orders.

After glancing at the orders, the security officer hands the padd back to him, “welcome aboard Captain.” The officer replied as they both made it onboard, he walked over to the nearest console once they arrived and did the command change, where the computer would recognize him as the Commanding Officer of the Aquarius. Once completed, they headed for the turbolift.

“Deck One,” he replied as the doors closed shut behind them and began to move towards its destination.

“So, do you know your orders?” Sari asked.

Looking at her, “according to this we are going to be operating in the old Romulan Neutral Zone with humanitarian aid to the refugee worlds and will probably have some diplomacy involved.” Tajir replied just as the lift came to a stop and the doors opened, they headed out and towards where his quarters were located.

“So, it won’t be too far away, though it runs vast around Romulan space,” Sari replied as they reached their destination.

Nodding as they entered, this was a bit larger than his quarters on the Vesta. “Wow, this is huge,” Sari replied looking around.

“Indeed,” he replied with a chuckle as he noticed the crates were there waiting for him. “Well let’s begin,” he replied as they would both spend time together unpacking and setting things up the way they liked it. He did not have to report to the bridge right away so he would take his time and spend quality time with his wife unpacking.

There was naught but the sound of a few nearby chirping birds coming through the open bedroom window of Akiyama’s suburban Tokyo home. The mid-morning sun was attempting to break through the part between the teal coloured drapes. Aki layed there staring at the ceiling. She was on vacation and chose to take the opportunity to try and sleep in, but her internal clock was telling her it was time to get up and out of bed.

As her stomach began to growl, she contemplated the consequences of defying what her body was telling her and realized it would be futile to resist. She rolled onto her side. Mark, her husband, was still sound asleep. She began to run her fingers through his hair and kissed him on the cheek. As he slowly began to wake up, she whispered with a smile, “Good morning babe. Are you hungry?”

Mark nodded slightly, not fully comprehending the question in his present state.

Aki loved to cook. She especially loved to cook for Mark, but didn’t get to do it often so far from home. With his response she wasted no time and scurried off to the kitchen, asked the computer to play some upbeat Japanese music and grabbed some eggs, ham and cheese from the refrigerator.

It was a mere moments later, she was casually bopping along to the music and had only just managed to finish dicing the ham for omelettes, when Mark came out from the bedroom, “Commodore Bradley is on the comms wanting to speak with you. It sounds urgent.”

She’d not heard the comm come in over the sound of the music, but set the knife she was holding down on the cutting board and wiped her hands with a nearby cloth. “Could you grate the cheese for me while I see what he wants?” she asked.

She walked back to the bedroom. Not only was it the room where the call was received, but it was the closest room with a display where she could take it. “Commodore Bradley! To what do I owe the pleasure?” she said as she positioned herself into view.

Bradley knew he was disturbing her on her personal time, and tried to apologize for his intrusions, “I’m sorry to disturb you on your vacation Commander, but under the circumstances I had no choice. What do you know of Commander Tajir Derohl?”

She looked at the commodore with a puzzled look on her face, “Not much I’m afraid. A Trill, serving on the Vesta as the Executive Officer to Captain Adams as far as I can recall. Why do you ask?”

“Not any longer. He’s just been promoted to Captain and been given command of the USS Aquarius, which brings me to the reason why I’ve had to contact you with such urgency. The Aquarius is scheduled to ship out to the former Romulan neutral zone from the Devron Fleet Yards in a few weeks. Captain Derohl has selected you to be his first officer. We’ve scheduled the USS Lexington to take you to rendezvous with the Aquarius. Unfortunately they depart from McKinley Station first thing in the morning. I hope you don’t mind us cutting your vacation short.”

“I’m sure Mark will understand.”

“I’m sending you Captain Derohl’s personnel file for you to familiarize yourself with your new captain before the two of you get acquainted. Best of luck Commander.”

“Thank you Commodore.” Aki replied before the screen went black.

Aki stood there for a moment to reflect on the Commodore’s words. It seemed unusual to her to reassign an officer in such a lateral move, but on the other hand Starfleet had a newly promoted captain, for which they would want someone with a little more experience to serve as their first officer. It just so happened that this particular captain had requested her personally.

After her brief reflection she remembered that Mark was still in the kitchen fixing breakfast. She headed back out to join him, and instinctively walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his towering torso and rested her head on his back.

Mark set down the large bowl and whisk he’d be holding to scramble the eggs and manoeuvred himself to face Aki returning the embrace as he looked down into her eyes, “I take it vacation is being cut short.” he said to her, trying not to sound disappointed.

“I’m being reassigned to the Aquarius to head out for the Neutral Zone. The Lexington leaves in the morning. I’m expected to be on her to take me to Devron.” She replied starting to tear up knowing that she’d be separated from her husband for the immediate future.

He wiped the tear from her cheek and then hugged her tightly, “Hey, I knew what came with job when I proposed to you six years ago. Maybe you can talk to the captain and when your mission is over, I can join you like I did on the Columbia.”

“Are you sure you won’t feel cramped? The Aquarius is a smaller ship compared to the Columbia.”

“I don’t need anything fancy. We could be in shared quarters with some junior officers. As long as I’m with you I’ll be fine.”

Aki’s eyes began to widen and her tears of sorrow slowly turned to tears of joy. “This is why I married you.” She said resting her head onto his chest.

Aki spent the remainder of the day going over her new captain’s personnel file and packing the immediate essentials she would need to last her until she reached the Aquarius. She knew she could replicate most of her toiletries and other small items, but things like her photos of Mark and the irreplaceable first edition of her favourite book The Tale of Genji were a one of a kind.

“You look fabulous!” Mark’s voice echoed from the bedroom door.

“Thanks. You’re sure you’ll be okay without me?”

“Don’t make me second guess myself. I told you already, I’ll be fine. Do what you need to do. I’ll call you in the morning before you ship out okay?”

“Alright. I love you.” She said as she stood up on her toes to give him a kiss.

“I love you too.”

Aki took her bag and tossed it over he shoulder and then tapped her combadge, “Commander Makoto to USS Lexington. One to beam up.”

Two weeks later

Captain Tajir Derohl, Trill. Husband to wife Sari, Adjutant to Azras Dex of Task Force 93, Devron Fleet Yards. Served with Captain Makayla Adams on both the USS Relentless and the USS Vesta prior to taking command of the USS Aquarius. Aki repeated the words of her captain’s dossier to herself endlessly as she stood looking out the viewport at the Resolute-class vessel watching the worker bees and cargo pods prepare the ship for departure.

It certainly was smaller than the Galaxy-class, she thought, but to her it was her new home.

She could have watched the ships all day from where she was standing, but it was time for her to report in. She didn’t want to keep the captain waiting. She spent the next ten minutes locating the catwalk that would take her across to the ship. She probably would have located it sooner, but there seemed to be an abnormal amount of pedestrian traffic aboard the station. A Bajoran female stood at a podium at the end of the catwalk just before the docking hatch, checking the paperwork of each person boarding the vessel.

“Paperwork Sir.’ The Bajoran female said to Aki, catching her off-guard.

Snapping to the realization that she had not been paying attention to the movement of the line, she reached into her bag and pulled out the PADD containing her orders and handed it to the crewman.

“Ah! Commander Makoto. The Captain has been expecting you.” She continued, flagging down the next available Security escort “Would you escort the Commander to see the Captain?”

The Bajoran handed the PADD back to Aki and gestured for her to follow her escort, “Welcome aboard Commander.” She said.

The intercom beeped in the Captain’s ready room.  “Captain,” a disembodied voice announced over the speakers, “You are being hailed by Admiral Talon at Starfleet Command.”

Raising an eyebrow, “patch her through to my office.” Tajir replied over the comm channel.

Rear-Admiral Rebecca Talon sat behind her desk her hands folded in front of her.  Her once vibrant red hair had turned grey with streaks of copper pulled into a neat bun.  She was still an attractive woman despite being well into her sixth-decade thanks to a mix of Irish and old-world Spanish.  “Congratulations on your new command Captain,” Rebecca greeted. Rebecca had never met Captain Derohl, but the joined Trill had a solid reputation within the fleet.

“Thank you, Admiral,” Tajir replied looking at her wondering why he was being contacted by an Admiral. “What do I owe this pleasure?” Tajir asked as he sat there at his desk, though he was still getting used to it which would take a while.

“I understand you still have an opening at Chief Engineer.  I have a favor to ask of you.  A favor that you can fully refuse with no consequence to you.  This is pure of a personal matter but could prove beneficial to you.  My niece has been looking for a chief engineer position since her old ship was decommissioned.  I am hoping that you could give her some measure of consideration.”

He looked at her for a moment, “I do need a Chief could you tell me a bit about her?” Tajir asked though he could look up her file.

Rebecca smiled as she sent over Elizabeth’s file.  “What she did on the Wessex as the Chief Engineer was impressive.

Tajir had heard about the Wessex being an old Miranda-class that was almost falling apart, though why they kept it in service was beyond him. “Indeed it was, send me her file and have her report aboard as soon as possible, we are leaving for the old Romulan Neutral Zone soon,” Tajir said as he felt that if she could do that with an old Miranda, she be a good fit for the newer Resolute-class.

“Thank you, Captain,” Rebecca said with an approving smile.  “Expect her to meet you aboard the Zebulon Pike. If you need anything just ask. I owe you one.”

Tajir nodded, “I will keep an eye out for her then.” Tajir replied with a smile, “I’ll remember that Admiral.” He replied looking at her for a moment.

Rebecca nodded, “Talon out.”

-Next Day, Riley City, Terra Alpha Colony-

“Up next we have a local cowgirl, Elizabeth Kyle” the rodeo announce spoke over the loudspeaker.  There was a small but respectable crowd in the stands watching this year’s rodeo.  It wasn’t the big professional rodeo held in mid-July, but even so, this still drew a crowd from the local ranchers and bored families from around the area.

Elizabeth tapped the side of the bay mare she was riding with the heel of her right boot and she rode up to the open gate to the arena. Clicking her tongue she gave the mare a solid bump in the side and she took off in a gallop.  The mare was a borrowed horse of a friend, but very well trained.  Her friend was just happy to have someone take her out and ride her since she had four other horses that needed riding.

At the first barrel, Elizabeth barely even had to direct the bay around it.  Just a slight tug of the reins back and to the right to slow her down slightly and the horse and rider spun around the barrel spraying chunks of packed earth flying behind her hooves as it peppered the fence near the barrel. The second was a repeat of the first he left knee centimeters from rubbing the barrel as the mare came around.  They thundered to the third and final barrel, came around it just a little wide, but nothing too serious, and then it was time to send them down the final stretch as Elizabeth kicked and hissed urging the mare into a full out gallop the length of the arena.

“15.23 is the time for Ms. Kyle,” the announcer said after she crossed the finish line.  “That puts her at fourth place.”

Elizabeth sighed. It was a close only off a tenth of a second from placing, but that’s how barrel racing was.  Minute fractions of a second separated the winner from those that walked away with nothing.  She rode the mare around the back of the rodeo grounds until her breathing had returned to normal and made her way back to her shuttle.  A Starfleet officer was sitting on the nose of the old converted Danube class runabout.  His head was down and he was carving into a stick of wood with a knife.  He wasn’t making anything in particular, just shaving off flecks of wood and letting the soft yellow shavings fall to the ground.

Elizabeth couldn’t see his face, but she instantly recognized him as her cousin.  “Shouldn’t you be riding?” She asked curiously.

Commander Ethan Talon looked up and casually tossed the stick to the ground and slipped his pocket knife into his pocket.  Ethan shrugged, “I was on a mission when I could enter into the saddle bronc riding.  It’s fine, I have plenty of rank two-year-olds to ride  back at the ranch.”

Elizabeth leaned forward on the pommel of her saddle with her arms folded across the horn, “So, what brings you here?”

“Well, I have a mission and mom asked me a favor. You got orders.  Looks like your extended leave is canceled.”  He handed her a PADD. “Mom asked if I could take you there.”

“Where’s there?” Elizabeth asked already scrolling through the PADD: USS Aquarius. “Oh, chief engineer,” she said answering her own question.

Ethan chuckled, “I’ll see you on the Zeb Pike in three hours cousin.”

-One Week Later-

Lieutenant Elizabeth Kyle sat at a table in the cramped mess hall of the USS Zebulon Pike.  All around her sat Ethan, his wife and second in command Trinity, and their cousin David Sackett drinking coffee and sharing a basket of French fries.

“You ready for this challenge?” Trinity asked.

“The Wessex was a challenge, Aquarius is going to be a vacation,” Elizabeth said with a smirk.

“Get yourself a holographic engineering team,” David suggested.  He was the Pike’s engineering officer, and his entire team was made up of holographic engineers. “They don’t talk back, and when you send them into a situation that would kill a flesh and blood officer… well,  no guilt.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll see,” Elizabeth replied noncommittally.  She lifted her coffee to her lips and took a careful sip.  It was tepid at best.  She sighed and set it aside disappointed and opted to pick a fry from the basket and popped it into her mouth.  Swallowing she smiled at Ethan, “Thanks for the lift.”

Ethan laughed, “You are welcome, but when mom askes me to do something on an official level I kind of have to follow through.”

“He didn’t want to start this upcoming mission anyway,” Tnity teased.  “He’s been bitching about it since it was handed down.”

“I hate long-term surveillance,” Ethan grumbled.  “There’s not much to do on this ship other than to watch old 21st Century TV shows, read, or jog around the corridors until one of you complain about me keeping you up at night.”

“There’s a time and place for that,” David said.  “08:00 is fine. 01:00 is something different altogether.  And, when I have to get up at 05:00 and you are stomping by my door doesn’t make me a happy camper.”

“I need my wide-open spaces,” Ethan said deflated.

“We all do,” Trinity added.

The intercom beeped in interruption, “Bridge to Lieutenant Kyle.”

Elizabeth tapped her combadge, “Yeah, go ahead Murph.”

The helmsman, Patrick Murphey, was the only one on the bridge at the moment, and aside from the team medic was the only,y one on the ship, not family. “Liz we have rendezvoused with the Aquarius.”

“Thanks, Murph, Kyle out.”

Elizabeth stood and started to clean up her mess.  “We got this,” Trinity interjected, “Go to your ship.  We got all the time in the world.”

“Thanks,” Liz said with a grin. She hugged everyone goodbye and slung her duffle over her shoulder in a cross-body fashion and picked up two instrument cases. One, a four-hundred-year-old copy of a Stradivari violin and a custom-built acoustic guitar from a luthier on Terra Alpha.

The transporter room was across the corridor from the mess hall and a holographic transporter chief materialized into existence automatically when she entered the single pad transporter room.

“Please state the destination of the transport,” the hologram announced robotically.

And they say EMH programs lack personality, Elizabeth thought to herself.  “The USS Aquarius.”

“Please stand by,” the hologram stated making the appropriate calculations. “USS Zebulon Pike to USS Aquarius  Lieutenant Elizabeth Kyle requests to beam over.”

“Acknowledged Zebulon Pike,” the transporter chief on the other end responded. “Permission granted.”

“Well,” Elizabeth sighed as she stepped onto the transporter pad and turned around, “let’s get this show on the road. Energize.”

The acrid smell of burning circuits and melted flesh…the dimming glow of failing warning lights…the sharp pains felt across the body from wounds, dulled only ever so slightly by the surges of adrenaline that made the muscles and nerves weaken in their wake…the taste of blood and smoke on her thin lips…

These were the sensations that Q’orvha remembered with distinct clarity, whenever she revisited the death of her last vestige of Klingon life: Her bird of prey, the QIb’HeH, once the stealthy predator of a Great House and shadowy conveyor of spies and soldiers in war, had been reduced first to piracy to survive the dishonouring of her House…then it had died righting a betrayal and ending a blood feud…and now Q’orvha alone, bore the memories of that ship and it’s history of battle.

…a dishonoured assassin and failed guardian, who was now, if she was being honest with herself, the lapdog and pet of Starfleet Intelligence.

It was here, at the main station of Devon Fleet Yards, in a indistinct and spartan office room, that her current status made all the more clear. The smirking smile of her handler and minder, Commander Lyndon Burke, facing off against her from across a table that was cleared of everything except a half-eaten sandwich and a single data PADD.

She had come to hate interacting with Commander Burke…though not the man himself. He was a middle management type, a scrawny and bookish p’taghk, not worth the emotional investment to even dislike. In fact, Q’orvha had come to respect the skill in which Burke displayed in his work and just how much of a cruelly manipulative bastard he could be when pushed…it was an edge that the majority of humans, especially those in Starfleet, lacked in their demeanour.

No, her hatred of specifically these interactions with Burke, came from the context in which they always occurred. The debriefing…the assignments…the filed complaints…these were all handled by the man they were all indicative of Starfleet Intelligence’s ever present leash around her neck…a leash that was not needed or sought, but was nevertheless insisted upon…it was an insult to the oath she had made the day that the QIb’HeH had died, an oath she had sworn to her Federation rescuers upon her deliverance from her smoking and gutted corpse of a vessel.

She understood the reasons behind the need for it, but it didn’t stop it from offending her on a base and primal level every time the lead was brought into focus.

“How was the Romulan Free State, Asset?” The red-uniformed Commander asked through his widened and impish grin that caused Q’orvha to instinctively bare her pointed teeth.

“Filled with Romulans,” she growled back adjusting the hood of her cowled robe that shielded her ghostly pale skin and sensitive lavender eyes from the standard brightness of a Starfleet posting. A thought occurred to her, and her grimace became a devilish grin of her own. “Though, a little targ told me that you had a similar problem recently with your Admiralty.”

“Admiral Oh was revealed to be a Tal Shiar infiltrator, yes…as were several other connected personnel.” Burke replied with a sigh. “Though it has been dealt with and we can report that Starfleet Security is now free of Romulan agents.”

“That you know of…” The albino retorted with a scoff and a click of her tongue. “Old Klingon Proverb…never trust anything that bleeds green, Commander.”

“Even the Vulcans?” Burke said with a raised eyebrow.

Q’orvha leaned forward across the table towards the Intelligence officer. “Whom do you think we wrote the proverb for?”

“Well, nevertheless, this conversation is a distraction from our real purpose of being here today, eh?” The commander picked up the data pad as Q’orvha sat back in the chair again, disastified by the human’s lack of response. “Review of Asset 325-Xi-Rho, Q’orvha. Daughter of Kortar…Klingon female, known sometimes as ‘The Ghost of Gre’thor’…did a tour on the Ajax as a Staff Warrant Officer and Engineer, recently recovered from detached assignment to locales classified…previous ties to the Klingon Defense Force and Imperial Intelligence, commanded the Bird of Prey QIb’HeH during the Dominion War, served as retainer for the House of Ruq’vohr before it’s complete discommendation by the High Council…”

Q’orvha winced and bared her ‘fangs’ again, her breath seething in and out. It had been years, but the reminder of that dark day still stun.

Undaunted, or perhaps just not caring to notice, Burke continued on. “…took the QIb’HeH and a few other House assets, before leaving the Empire to operate as a pirate and mercenary raider, operating primarily out of the Triangle and Romulan Neutral Zone.”

The Commander stopped and paused for a moment before grinning again. “…and here’s the part that always gets me: Asset is believed to have been raised in Klingon monastery on Q’o’Nos by an order of Nuns who trained Asset as both a nun and an assassin.”

“…are we going to do this every time, Burke?” The Klingon growled.

“My apologies, Asset”. He replied. “It’s just not a combination you get to see a lot in this line of work.”

“…and with my old Order also now disbanded and mostly dead, it’s one the galaxy will see even less of….we all know my history by now, can we just skip to the part were you tell me what Fekh’lher-ridden backwater pit of the two quadrants you’re sending me to now, so we can both leave this damnable utility closet of an office and do something actually productive with our lives?”

“Backwater, eh?” Commander Burke smirked yet again and gave a small chuckle. “Tell me, Q’orvha…did you manage to get a look out at the Yards yet since you returned?”

“I haven’t exactly had the time, Commander.” Q’orvha said with a glare. “Where is this going?”

Commander Burke placed the data pad down in front Q’orvha and retrieved a small black box from his pants pocket and placed it next to the PADD. “…if you had taken a glance, you might’ve spotted a ship of one of the newer designs to be commissioned recently.”

Q’orvha picked up the PADD and began reading. Technical specifications brief for a Resolute-class Heavy Cruiser…it wasn’t a ship profile she was familiar with, definitely not something that had been around prior to beginning her last deep cover assignment. “…you plying me with engineering data. The last time you did that, I found myself stuck trying to keep a glorified runabout from tearing itself apart when it entered warp. Spit it out, already.”

Commander Lyndon Burke rose from his seat and then walked around it to lean forward of the high backrest. “Allow me to raise your expectations. The Resolute-class out there is the USS Aquarius. New ship, new crew…and they’re about to head out to the former Neutral Zone. Fly the flag, as it were, show the refugees that Starfleet is back and ready to support them again…put a little fear into any wannabe tin-pot dictator and warlord operating the area…that sort of thing.”

Q’orvha narrowed her glare and then glanced over to the small black box. “Humanitarism…I am now dreading what comes next.”

“Oh, but it’s a good one this time. Promise!” Burke stated, his insipid grin widening. “See, the Aquarius and crew need someone who’s got experience in the area, who knows the people and powers involved. They need someone who can get them intell quickly…and we need you to work in a more official capacity, in the wake of that Free State disaster…It’s a win-win…and it has some perks.”

“Starfleet living standards are hardly perks. Especially when as a mere Engineering Warrant Officer, I’ll be sharing with some random roommate or bunking in a corridor again.”

“Not this time, Q’orvha.” The Commander reached over and tapped his right pointer finger on the top of the black box-case. “This time, you’ll be flying in style.”

Q’orvha picked the box up and leered at it for a moment, half expecting it to explode in her face as she opened it. The box clicked and Q’orvha found herself staring at a series of 3 Starfleet rank pips. 2 solid, 1 hollow.

“Congratulations, Lieutenant Commander.” The Handler said. “You’re the new Head of Strategic Operations for the Aquarius. You’ll get your own private quarters this time.”

Q’orvha glanced up from the rank pips to Burke, then back to the pips before returning once again to the human. “…the last time I was assigned to a Starfleet vessel, I held the provisional rank of a Staff Warrant Officer and specialist…bit of a leap all the way to Lieutenant Commander, no?”

Burke leaned down to peer under Q’orvha’s cowl. “Best part of provisional ranks…we can make them provisionally, whatever we want…and it’s not like you don’t have decades of command experience or the skill requirements for the rank.”

He stood back up and continued. “…besides, you’ll need the authority and clearance that comes with it for the job. It would be far more odd for the Aquarius’s chief liaison between fleet and crew of a vessel of this size to hold mere Warrant rating.”

The mention of her new role and responsibilities made Q’orvha’s stomachs sink. It was not the job itself, no, Burke was right: she was more than both qualified and capable for the task and what duties it entailed…it was again, the context.

Strategic Operations was organized in Starfleet under the Command Division…and overlapped heavily with Starfleet Intelligence.

This job was yet another leash. Another way of keep Q’orvha close at hand and in regular contact with her ‘masters.’

She hated it already. 

Smoke bellowed from the ceiling, air ventilation was not working so most of the Bridge was filled with it, making visibility difficult. Several consoles were dead, some have their panel covers splayed outward from an overload and others were either functioning or barely functioning, blinking away as if trying to keep a light on. On the view screen, a Klingon K’t’inga could be seen growing closer, closer to the ship that appeared to be crippled and unable to prevent the inevitable. But there was one officer who finally made his way to the Bridge, forcing the two halves apart of a door that had led to the Captain’s Ready Room. Zane had climbed through the jeffery tubes and made it out of the one that led to that very room, where now he was finally on the Bridge and able to do what needs to be done.

First he yanked a medkit out from under one of the consoles and went around checking on some of the officers, using what little medical training he had. He found that most of them were unconscious, a couple were dead and there was nothing he could do, but there were a few that he needed to apply a hypo spray of what he had in the medkit to stabilize them, and one of them was his friend, Lieutenant Byron. He was on the deck just behind the tactical station. “Don’t worry Chief, I got you.” Zane told him as he applied the hypo to his neck and gave him the last dose he had left. With the bridge crew check complete, he went over to the tactical station to find it not lighting up, so he knelt down and pulled the panel off to use that basic engineering training he got from the Academy to see what he can do to restore power to the station.

Suddenly he heard some beeping noise, notifications, warnings, coming from the console and figured he must of done something right, which was quite relieving. Because as he stood up to review the status of the weapons, he saw that the phasers were offline and the torpedo reload system was offline but there was still a single torpedo left in the launcher. He ran a quick diagnostic to verify what was wrong with the phasers and it was just a matter of not enough power. So he quickly rerouted what power he could obtain to one phaser array and then ran a quick passive scan on the Klingon vessel to find that their shields were down. They were going to board the Ajax, so he must do something and fast. He took a deep breath and then located where the Klingon’s main power grid was located, he wanted to disable it, not destroy it, as he has no idea how well the structural integrity field will hold from a ship exploding directly in front of them. He locked onto the location with the power for one single phaser shot and a single photon torpedo and fired.

Zane watched as the beam struck the under belly of the Cruiser, and then watched the torpedo make contact with the exact same location, from where he could see lights flickering throughout the entire ship. He silently cheered with a fist pump but his celebration was cut short when five red energy beams appeared on the Bridge. ‘Shit. Klingons.’ He thought. He quickly reached down under the console for the phaser but they had already finished materializing and the Klingon a few feet to the left of him cut the distance in a instant and back handed Zane away from the console.

Zane landed on one of the rear wall stations on his back but pushed himself off and used his momentum to drive his fist into the First Klingon’s stomach, before launching a series of short rapid punches into the First Klingon’s chest by also applying more of his strength into his punches due to the heavier built figure. It was effective enough to make the First Klingon stumble back and grasping his chest, but then Zane noticed two more Klingons approaching him so he had to not think but act fast. With one look to the right, he saw a big, long shard of the console glass laying on top of the console beside the rupture. He quickly reached for it and with one turn at his waist towards one of the approaching Klingons, he shoved the shard about four inches right into the neck of the Second Klingon. He then grabbed hold of the Second Klingon and used his weight to slam both of his heels into the chest of the Third Klingon, sending him crashing onto his back on the deck.

Panting, Zane stood there, changing his stance to prepare himself for a up close combat with the rest of the Klingons when suddenly a bright light filled the Bridge along with the sound of two halves of a heavy door sliding open. Zane, and the Klingons, minus the Second one that fell to the deck from bleeding out, all had covered their eyes to see who was appearing through such witch craft.

“Figured I would find you here.” A feminine voice came from the figure at the doorway.

Zane sighed, “Computer, adjust for the extra light please.” He requested and the Bridge was illuminated some more to compensate. Once his eyes finally were able to adjust comfortably, he smiled. “Sarah! Good to see you.”

She gave a small smile while grasping the padd in her hands more tightly, as she held it right in front of her chest. “I see that you’ve recreated the scene of our last battle with the, what were they called again…Hunters of D’Ghor? Or just D’Ghor?”

Zane shrugged his shoulders, “They’re nothing but raiders in my opinion, so why not leave it at that?”

She smiled, “Right, of course. Though I don’t remember them boarding the ship.”

Zane grinned, “Nor were there any dead Bridge Officers either. Nah, I asked the computer to make it more difficult, and change some of the outcomes. So a few of our friends are laying there, dead, and the Klingon’s reaction time was increased as well. So I still deployed the same strategy that we used to fend off that Klingon ship that kept them from boarding us, but this time I wasn’t quick enough.”

Sarah nodded her head, “I can see that. Though one piece of advice.”

“What’s that?” Zane asked before he just got slugged by the First Klingon.

“Never take your eyes off a Klingon, especially simulated ones.” Sarah chuckled lightly.

Zane rubbed his cheek before looking up at the ceiling. “Computer, save and terminate program.” And the simulation halted just in time too, as the Fifth and last Klingon had pulled out a disruptor and was about to fire it before they all vanished, whereas the scenery was replaced by the standard black squares with yellow-orange-ish grid lines. Zane then walked over to Sarah, rubbing his cheek some more before stopping just in front of her. “I assume that there is for me?” He asked, pointing at the padd she was holding.

“Oh, yes! Of course.” She smiled and quickly held out the padd to him. “Remember that position you always wanted? To be Chief of Security and Tactical? To be the head of the department you’re in right now?”

Zane frowned a little at her questions as he took the padd. “Yeah?” He began to read it and couldn’t believe his eyes.

Her smile grew even more when she saw the look on his face. “I went ahead and applied you for that job, since you’ve been telling me how much you’ve always wanted it, and because you keep telling me to do so if one were to appear…in case you forgot…well this one here…it has been accepted.”

Zane leaped up with joy as he cheered happily before grabbing Sarah’s arms and pressed his lips against hers for a short, quick kiss before pulling away. “Thank you, thank you! You are the best, have I ever told you that?”

A little stunned by the surprise kiss but not at all against it before she regained her composure and smiled at him. “You have, on a few occasions, believe the last time you said that was on the trip to Risa when I gave you a ho-”

Zane held up a finger. “Hey now. What happens on Risa, stays on Risa.” He then smirked at her with a chuckle. “Besides, I told you I didn’t need that, all I needed was you and that was it.”

Sarah cleared her throat, “Yeah well, unfortunately you know you couldn’t stay on board forever.”

Zane raised a brow. “Oh?”

Sarah sighed, “Captain found out about us, and since I became the new First Officer…”

Zane let out a heavy sigh, “So being accepted on this assignment here, is more than just because you applied for me?”

Sarah shook her head, “No it’s not that. Your application for the position was accepted on its own, there were no strings attached. As I said, you couldn’t stay on board forever, so if you had not been accepted, you’d still be serving on the Ajax, least until you were accepted elsewhere.”

“But if it were to take too long, the Captain could easily transfer me right off the ship.” He told her.

Sarah shook her head, “I don’t think he’s the kind of man who would do that. Besides, you and I both served on board the Ajax for over ten years, we both know he wouldn’t kick you off if he didn’t have to.”

“But regulations and Starfleet policies would make him, you know that.”

Sarah sighed, “We both know that it was going to turn out this way, remember? I told you right on our very first date, that I had plans on becoming Captain some day, and if we continued this relationship and some day I made First Officer, it was going to come down to keeping you here or keeping our relationship and sending you away.”

Zane shook his head, “Let me rephrase that for you. It was really down to, keeping your job as First Officer on the Ajax and sending me away, or losing your job and keeping me here.”

“I would of been reassigned to be First Officer else where, so what difference does it make?” She asked.

“The difference is, we both know long distance relationships don’t work and you chose your job over me.” Zane explained to her.

“But this is what you have always been wanting, to be head of this department.”

Zane sighed and raised his hand. “Just forget it. I’m being dumb.”

“Zane.”

Zane shook his head, applying further that he didn’t want to continue the conversation. “I have to get packing, it looks like Starfleet already sent my replacement via shuttle, so I’ll be taking one of the Ajax’s shuttles to Devron Fleet Yards. It was a pleasure serving with you, Commander.” Zane then walked on out of the holodeck and headed straight for his quarters, leaving Sarah to her thoughts. In the end, she was right, it was what he wanted but he still felt like she chose the job over him, and that was all he could think about, especially during the long four day trip from Ajax’s location while it was on a survey mission, all the way to the Devron Fleet Yards where his new assignment was currently at.

Zane walked around the promenade of the large station, having checked all the wonderful amenities that it had, even got himself a drink at one of the shops, a rather spicy tea where every sip set his mouth on fire, but it was also quite tangy too, which what made it enjoyable. As he sipped on his tea and waited for the departure time to arrive, where he would hop on a shuttle and be ferried over to the Aquarius, he went to one of the nearby view ports and was able to see all the dry docks that floated in space, holding various ships that were either undergoing repairs, being refitted with more upgraded technology, or just getting resupplied and a new crew.

“So what’s your ship?” A woman had came up beside him, looking out the same view port.

Zane blinked, as he had not expected to be suddenly approached by anyone but…this is the Federation, we’re all family, right? “I believe it is that one over there.” He pointed to the Resolute Class vessel.

“I’m impressed. That is a beautiful ship. I’m that one over there.” She pointed to the Centaur Class vessel.

Zane chuckled, “I’m equally impressed. Anyone who can keep them old birds flying, deserves a lot of respect.”

She laughed before shaking her head. “Well, we came pretty close to losing her to be honest.”

Zane frowned, “How so?”

She shook her head again. “We were on a rescue mission and then while we were fleeing back to Federation space, we were being chased by the enemy, being fired upon, we were already pretty banged up before hand and then we snagged ourselves on just the tip of a quantum filament. Blew out almost the entire power grid. Me and my friend had to go hop in a shuttle craft, blow a hole in the shuttle bay door and overload the transporter in transporting the warp core out of the ship and as far away as we could push the transporters to, and then we had to board the enemy ship who got the blunt end of the quantum filament and prevent their core from overloading or both our ships would have been goners.” She said before taking a sip of her iced mocha.

Zane blinked a few times, processing all that before shaking his head. “The hell.”

She giggled softly, “Like I said, we were already in pretty bad shape when we went on the rescue mission and the ship that was attacking us while we fled, we couldn’t fire back and so…”

“So even when you took only just the tip while they got the blunt end, you both ended up a very bad shape.” Zane finished for her.

She nodded her head, smacking her lips. “Exactly. It totally sucked. But we’re here! And we’re on vacation for a several weeks, then we’re going to be doing some work around the station, give the station crew a hand here and there because I have no idea how long the Centaur going to be dry docked for repairs.”

Zane shook his head, “Lieutenant Zane Bates.” He placed his drink into his left hand and held out his right.

She smiled and did the same before shaking his hand. “Ensign Mizu.” Then it clicked and she gasped, “Did you say Bates? As in, Captain Bates of the-”

Zane nodded his head with a sigh, “Yes, yes, I am her son.”

“Holy shit!” She nearly shouted, and got some eyes on them. She covered her mouth and mouthed ‘sorry’ at them before looking back at him. “She was the First Officer of the USS Okinawa during insane long war with the Cardassians! And commanded one of the Galaxy Class starships in the war with the Dominion! And I am shaking her son’s hand!” She started to shake it harder until he yanked his arm away.

“Easy there, Ensign!” He frowned at her before looking at his hand. It wasn’t about how fast or hard she was shaking his hand, it was the fact that her grip got stupid tight. “Look, I know what my mother has done for Starfleet, and I don’t need to hear more about it, all right? I’m just Zane, making my own history.”

“Right, right, of course! I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to get carried away it’s just-”

“Just nothing, Ensign.” Zane snapped and then took a moment to calm himself. He didn’t mean to snap really. “Olivia Bates is just another Starfleet Officer. She did her duty that she was asked to, like everyone else was during those times, and she would gladly do it again. But right now, she is happy where she is, exploring the galaxy. Or at least exploring our side of the galaxy. Some day you’ll do great things too, and believe me, you won’t feel much like a hero. Just an ordinary Starfleet Officer carrying out their duty. That’s it.”

She blinked at him and then cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, I get carried away a lot.”

“You’re young, and still learning. It happens.” Zane eased off with his own apology before checking the time. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Mizu but I must get going.”

She then smiled, “Was a pleasure meeting you too, sir!” And with that, Zane was off, hurrying to his guest quarters to grab his things and then heading straight for the hangar to board his shuttle.

Zane had arrived on board the Aquarius an hour ago, having already unpacked and set his quarters straight before taking his own personal tour around the ship. He studied the schematics and the details about the Resolute Class, but he felt that a personal tour around the ship was far better than just images on a screen. Plus he was enjoying the peace and quiet that he had, since no one on board knew who he was, so he had to start over from scratch, make new friends, and get used to his new family. But he also hoped that he wouldn’t find another hyped up Ensign who happens to know who he is or who his mother is and get all cheery and excited like it was a big deal, because to him it wasn’t. He accepted that he was just another officer like everyone else, that he’s nothing special and never will be. He will simply carry out his duty as he is expected and that is that.

“Lieutenant!” Came a feminine, yet commanding voice.

Zane sighed heavily, what he had hoped for was just too soon. He looked around to see if he was near any empty rooms that he could just jump into and hide but it was too late, the one who called out to him had been moving very quick and was already walking around to be right up in his face, literally, forcing him to take a couple steps back. “Can I help you?” She was a Klingon woman, an Ensign too…which led him to thinking, ‘Oh great, another hyped up Ensign.’

“Ensign Utsall, I am in your Department and I noticed that the Assistant Chief position is vacant.”

Zane raised his brows, ‘Really? Odd’ he thought to himself. “I must of missed something in my reading on the Aquarius. Why? What’s it to you, Ensign?”

“I just wanted to let you know, that before the whole command change on board the Aquarius, I have been working very hard to prove that I can be a valuable asset and that I can be trusted with such position.” She explained, and before Zane could say anything, she held out a padd to him. “I’ve already taken care of everything.”

Zane blinked before shaking his head with a sigh, taking the padd from her and going over what was written on it. “You’ve already authenticated and allocated all security codes of all personnel and security accesses throughout the ship?” He asked her.

“Yes, sir.” She answered proudly.

Zane squinted at her before looking back at the padd. “All offensive and defensive systems have been diagnosed and cleared of any anomalies? Nothing to report to Engineering?”

“None.”

Zane raised his brows, “Interesting.” He resumed his reading before putting the padd away. “You’ve even calibrated all hand weapons and rifles.”

“I did, sir.”

“I appreciate the enthusiasm, Ensign. But you were not given instructions to do any of these things.” Zane told her.

“But-”

He held up his head, “With no Head or Assistant Head of the Security and Tactical Department, you had no one to order you to do any of these inspections, nor ordered you to allocate and authenticate all security clearances and access. Was there even anyone Acting as Head?”

She swallowed, “No, sir.”

Zane nodded his head. “I will just make this very clear. You are not being punished for your enthusiasm, Ensign. You’re being punished for acting out without orders. There is a structure for a reason and when you do things on your own, you weaken that structure and when you weaken that structure, it collapses. Is that what you want?”

She shifted to attention, “No, sir!”

Zane sighed before rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I do appreciate all of this, Ensign. But next time, wait until I am on board where you can ask me for permission to do these things.”

“But you might of-”

Zane lowered his hand and looked hard into her eyes. “What?” His voice sharpened, “I might have said no? That it? I could have said ‘Yes’, Ensign. But you never gave me that chance to do so. I’m not new to this job, but this is the first time that I am Chief of this Department, and I would have liked to be able to give a command decision about my department without you making it for me. Is that clear?”

“Perfectly, sir.”

Zane thought of something to give her work, “If you really want to prove yourself to me, Ensign Utsall. I want you to manually inspect every single torpedo on board this ship and make sure their targeting systems are operating at peak efficiency. If either of them are off by just one percent, you are to manually calibrate them until you get that one percent back. Sound good to you, Ensign?”

She swallowed as she knew how many torpedoes that the ship had exactly. “Yes, sir!”

“Good. I expect results within four hours.”

Her eyes grew wide but she pursed her lips to keep herself from going off. “Understood, sir.”

Zane smiled, “Good. Dismissed, Ensign.” And she was off, in quite a hurry too, much faster than before when she caught up to him. He chuckled softly to himself, knowing she won’t get it done within four hours but he figured that she would love a challenge, so he gave her one. Zane sighed one final time with a groan, he had sickbay to go to, to get his check up of course…and then he needed to go report in to the Captain to let him know that his Chief of Security and Tactical is on board and the Department is good to go, thanks to an Ensign of course.

Zane resumed his personal tour as he began to think, ‘New Ship, New Family. Both things will take a while to get used to.’

Tajir had heard that the Zebulon Pike had arrived and Lieutenant Kyle had come on board. He had sent word for her to come to his ready room as he wanted to meet her personally after doing this favor for her aunt. He had read her file and was impressed with her last posting, he realized he let his coffee get cold. Walking over to the replicator he decided to order himself a cup of earl gray tea, as too much coffee upsets his stomach.

Elizabeth took in the unfamiliar transporter room getting her bearings when the transporter operator grounded her, snapping her back to reality.  “Welcome to the Aquarius Lieutenant.  The captain said he wanted to see you when you arrived.”

“Of course Chief,” Elizabeth said with a polite smile. Inwardly she groaned.  She wanted to drop off her things in her quarters,  and head to engineering and get the captain at least a preliminary report before meeting the captain.   But, such as life on a starship. Schedules changed.  Especially at the pleasure of the captain.

Adjusting her grip on her instrument cases she gave the transporter chief a nod of appreciation and headed for the bridge.

She got several curious stares as she stepped off the turbolift onto the bridge ladened with musical equipment,  but she paid them no attention.  At the Captain’s door, she contorted her left arm and hit the door chime with an extended pinky while still carrying her violin.

Looking up, “enter”

Elizabeth entered the ready room upon invitation. Hastily freeing her hands she snapped to attention.  “Lieutenant Elizabeth Kyle reporting as ordered sir.”

Raising an eyebrow, “welcome Lieutenant.” Tajir replied as he looked at her stuff, “you could have dropped those off at your quarters before coming up here.” Tajir replied as the Chief has seemed to have gotten his words mixed around.

Elizabeth didn’t know what to say to that. She could feel her cheeks warm as she brushed in embarrassment. “Of course sir sorry, sir.”

“Don’t be sorry, I think the Chief took my meaning a bit too seriously.” Tajir replied with a smile, “welcome aboard the Aquarius.” He replied as he studied her for a brief moment as she took a seat in one of the chairs. “So, I have read your file and it is impressive Lieutenant,” Tajir said as he looked back down at the padd he was holding. “Getting a ship like the Miranda-class back to prime was quite the undertaking without being at drydock,” Tajir said as he looked up at her again.

“Yes sir,” she replied.  “It was a matter of careful planning. The hardest part was designing modern warp coils that would slot in and replace the old ones.  We limped around on one nacelle for two weeks.  Thankfully the Tholians cooperated and we didn’t need more than warp three.”

Tajir nodded, “I know the Aquarius is a newer ship though she just out of her first refit and I need an engineer with your experience keeping her up and running.” He replied as he sat there taking a sip of his coffee.

“No stranger to crazy long hours sir.  No one wants to work sixteen plus hours, but needs must.  I can’t promise nothing will go haywire,  but I can promise my one-hundred percent, and I expect the same from my team.”

“That’s all I ask, and let’s just hope nothing does on a new ship like the Aquarius.” Tajir replied as he looked at the padd for a moment, “here is your duty roster for your department.” He added handing her the padd, “it is free for you to edit to how it works for you. Will need daily reports on those at the beginning of your shift so I can keep track on my end to any changes and who is working what shift.” Tajir replied looking at the Lieutenant.

Elizabeth glanced over it,  “For now I don’t think any changes will be necessary, but I will be making tweaks over the next few weeks to optimize the department.”

“Very good,” Tajir replied. “Do you have any questions for me?” He asked looking at her for a moment more though he adjusted in his seat and sat forward a tad bit.

She thought for a moment and then nodded, “I have two.  The first pertains to me in particular.   What are your expectations?  Second, pertains to the ship. Do you have any concerns or issues that require attention?”

He sat there in thought for a moment, the first question threw him off just a tad bit but not for long. “The only expectation I have is to keep the ship and department running smoothly, and my office is always open if you have concerns.” Tajir replied looking at her, “as far as I know nothing but I’ll let you look things over once you get settled in and reported to your department through the ship should be ready to depart.” Tajir finished answering her second question with a smile.

“Once I drop my things off I’ll head to Engineering.  I’m more at home there than in my quarters anyway.   Expect a preliminary systems report within the hour and a full report by the end of the day.”

“Very good,” Tajir replied before standing up. “Again welcome aboard the Aquarius, if there are no further questions I’ll let you get settled in.” He replied as he extended his arm towards the woman in front of him.

Elizabeth took the hand, shook it, snapped to attention, and when formally dismissed make a sharp about-face pausing only long enough to collect her belongings and exit the office.

Alton managed to get a lift on the Kirk which was going in the direction of the Devron Fleet Yards, where his new assignment, the USS Aquarius, was docked, where if was completing her repairs and upgrades.

In exchange for his ride, the captain asked him to help out in engineering…seems they were having issues with some of the ship’s systems. Alton was happy to help doing diagnostics and repairs…it helped pass the time.

Being back on the Kirk, he was able to catch up with his friends….especially a certain ensign named Leslie Parsons. Leslie and he were friends, but he often thought there might be something more. She was assigned to the science section, but she was working in engineering for the moment.

Leslie was an attractive woman, of Hawaiian descent. She was intelligent, never took anything for granted.

It felt like there was a static charge whenever they were near each other, the type of charge that would stand your hair on end.

For some reasons, maybe a sign, the chief engineer assigned them together as a team to find and repair any malfunctioning systems. Was it kismet?

The next morning, Alton arrived at her quarters so they could start working. She opened the day, and when he saw her, it took his breath away. She smiled at him and it felt like all the stars in the heavens went nova because they were envisious of her.

Leslie have our assignments on her PADD, so off we went to our first one. Working with her, side by side, felt natural. We’d laugh at each others jokes. Gossip about the crew.

They spent the tour checking off each assignment as they went along. By the end of the day, they had finished everything on the PADD.

They had dinner together, when their duty shift was over. Many people can up to them, wanting to say ‘hello’ to Alton. He smile at them, shook their hand, and off they went.

He escorted her back to her quarters at the end of the evening. She invited him for a drink, an offer he couldn’t deny. She got him the drink from her replicator, and they sat down on the couch. They talked for a long time.

Suddenly it got quiet. They moved towards each other. Their lips just about to touch, when….

The first officers voice came over the comms. ‘Lieutenant Johnson. We’re approaching the Devron Fleet Yards. I suggest you get yourself ready for transport.’ Johnson tapped his commbadge, ‘Thank you, commander, I’ll be ready.’ He looked at her. ‘Guess fate has played a dirty trick against us. I should be going.’ They stood up and walked towards the doors. She looked at him, ‘If it’s meant to happen, I’m sure fate will somehow get us back together.’ She kissed his cheek. ‘You better get your things.’

And with that, he left.

Jackson stepped of the Aquarius’s transporter pad. He presented the transfer orders to the security officer on duty. He then provided a DNA sample to verify it is indeed him.

Alton tapped the computer screen. “Computer. Current location of the captain.”

“Captain is in his ready room,” Came the reply of the computer.

Jackson walked to the nearest turbolift, and when it arrived and the doors opened, walked in. When the doors closed, “Captain’s ready room.” And the lift rose.

When he arrived, he pressed the chime to the captain’s ready room….and waited. Then finally, he heard the order to ‘enter’.

After a while the doors to his ready room chimed again, raising an eyebrow as he wasn’t expecting anyone else as all his senior staff had reported in already. “Enter,” came his reply as the doors to his ready room opened to reveal a Lieutenant Junior Grade. “Can I help you, Lieutenant?” Tajir asked wondering if the junior officer was lost on who to report to.

Jackson walked towards the captain. “Lieutenant Junior Grade Alton Jackson, reporting, sir.”

He looked at him then at his roster, “well usually you would report to the Chief Operations Officer but one has yet to be assigned to the Aquarius.” He replied as he motioned for him to have a seat as he pulled up his service record and looked it over for a moment.

Alton sat in the chair. “Of course, reporting to the Chief Operations Chief would be protocol, as you said, and as you mentioned, I knew that there was no Chief Operations Officer currently assigned to the Aquarius, captain.”

“So Lieutenant, until such time as we get a Chief you will be filling in as Acting, though there will still be some limitations.” Tajir replied looking at him, “You will do your duties and attend staff meetings but the paperwork part of the job I’ll take care of for the time being.” He replied, “Is that agreeable?” He asked.

Nodding, Alton replied. “Yes sir, but at some point, I would like to do the paperwork as well as attend the staff meetings…..at least be given a chance to do it, sir.”

“That will come in due time,” Tajir replied looking at him. “Could you tell me about your last assignment?” He asked.

“I was the assistant Operations Officer on the James T Kirk. When I came aboard, I had hoped to get the assistant position but didn’t get it until the Operations Chief transferred. I also started taking on other duties while on the Kirk. I spent some time in Engineering, as well as taking command classes. and was assigned the duty officer on the Gamma shift.” Alton looked at the captain. “The captain and the first officer gave me high marks for my work, sir.”

“Impressive,” Tajir replied looking at him. “I don’t have anything else, I will let you get settled in and checked in with the operations department.” Tajir replied looking at him, “we are not scheduled to depart until tomorrow morning.” Tajir added as he stood up extending his hand towards the Lieutenant, “you’re dismissed.”

Alton stood up and shook the captain’s hand. “Thank you sir.” He then turned and headed for the door.

Q’orvha was an albino…her skin and hair were pale white, a far cry from the usually darker and more earthy skin tones typical to the Klingons as a whole, and her eyes were the colour of her blood: lavender purple. Her mutation had its drawbacks, though what those drawbacks were, depended entirely on context.

In the Empire, Albinism had long been associated with a list of negative connotations, stereotypes, and urban myths…those with the condition were more often than not ostracized to the fringes of society if they even survived into adulthood. Q’orvha herself had been given up to a remote monastery, as payment for some deed or rite performed by the sisterhood that had dwelled there…when she left the monastery, she had become adept at concealing her condition with cosmetics and disguises when the need move amongst outsiders without notice became a necessity. Her eyes were also weak at long distances, which had almost resulted in a failing grade when training with disruptor rifles at the Warrior Academy.

In Starfleet, her drawbacks were less social in nature, with such issues being little beyond the typical friction for a Klingon working in the organization. Instead, it was far more environmental and ever-present.

She might have faced derision or even attempted assassination on a Klingon ship, but at least those vessels tended to keep the ambient lighting low to conserve power and keep a warrior’s wits sharp…Starfleet vessels were almost omnipresently brightly lit, oppressively so. Even the maintenance tunnels, the so colloquially called “Jefferies Tubes”, were lined with strips of bright light fixtures. Half the time the lights weren’t even dimmed for the so-called “graveyard shifts”, as the decision to try and maintain some semblance of a planetary day-night cycle on board was left up the individual choice of the officer on deck.

This posed a consistent problem for Q’orvha, as she was now once again assigned to a Starfleet Vessel. The light was an irritation for her eyes and long-term exposure to her bare skin wasn’t exactly comfortable either.

It was for this reason, that she had yet to adopt the new black and red command-division uniform of her posting, instead opting for her traditional blackened metal and dark leather Klingon armour, complete with the long flowing robes of an “HoD”, a captain and shipmaster, with the cowl the robe pulled up and over her heavy black-dyed wiry dreads and boney forehead structure, granting blessed shade and solace for her eyes.

The warrior’s dress of course came with multiple points to mount weapon sheaths and holsters, though currently she only carried the d’taghk, the traditional three-bladed dagger that every Klingon worth their mettle carried and had training in. She honestly felt a bit exposed and naked with just the single knife, as she had become used to the weight of a brace of disruptor pistols and paired dueling single-edged swords…but such things were harder to get away with carrying day-to-day on a Starfleet vessel.

Instead, her armour had been amended with two additions instead: a Starfleet comm badge over the left breast of her robe and the new trio of command pips of a Starfleet Lieutenant Commander, opposite on the left breast.

She had even quickly sutured a replicated rectangle of red fabric onto the robe for them to affix on, to indicate the Command-division colour of her new posting.

As Q’orvha exited the turbolift and walked her comparatively impressive 6-foot-5 frame onto the Aquarius’s bridge, she took a moment to enjoy the comforting weight of the robe and armour, and the pleasant, if imperfect, the shade of the drawn down cowl that protected her eyes.

She gathered surprisingly few looks from the crew of jumpsuited technicians that were scattered around the command deck, most of them to absorb with the frantic work of getting the finishing touches ready in time for the Aquarius’s launch date…and Q’orvha instinctively walked with the silence of a predator stalking its prey at a closing distance. She kept to the sides of the room, and made her way around the bridge, past a blister of consoles and workstations, till she reached the doors for the Captain’s ready room.

By that point, she could start to hear the whispers and gasps from the drydock workers who had managed to tear themselves away from their tasks long enough to notice the imposing figure in full warrior dress, but no one had so far dared to approach or address it…out of fear or politeness? Possibly…after all, if someone had managed to make it all the way to the bridge, dressed as she had, they were supposed to be there…right?

She broke her operational silence to thumb the nearby panel, resulting in the sound of a signaling chime coming from the other side of the door.

Looking up from his reports, seemed today was an endless day of check-ins which was to be expected with everyone reporting on board. He was hoping for a small reprieve before the next one would come but not such his luck. “Enter,” he replied as the doors parted to reveal the Klingon in full Klingon uniform, he knew about her and was fine with her not wearing a Starfleet uniform. “Welcome Commander, please heave a seat,” Tajir replied with a soft smile gesturing for the open seat in front of his desk.

Q’orvha glanced towards the offered seat and paused for a moment, before striding forward to accept the offer. She adjusted her robes as she sat and shifted slightly…Klingon Armour and Starfleet Furniture didn’t always agree with each other, at least, not right away.

“Thank you, Captain Derohl.” She said, taking reaching to take a DATAPAD out of one of her robe’s various pouches and pockets. She held the datapad up for a moment with a gauntleted hand, briefly reviewing the contents before placing it down on the desk between the two officers. “Straight to the formality…My transfer file…by reading it, you acknowledge the date and time of my official arrival to this vessel and my posting as Chief of Strategic Operations for the Aquarius, complete with the activation of all necessary command codes and security clearances that entails.”

Raising an eyebrow before taking the padd from her and reviewing it carefully, “I have already reviewed your file and accept your posting as our Strategic Ops Chief.” Tajir replied setting the padd down on the desk in front of the Commander “you should already have those clearances,” he replied. “So tell me, Commander how did you end up in Starfleet and now assigned to the Aquarius?” He asked, though he already knew the answer he just wanted to gage her.

“…I see Starfleet Intelligence already sent the ‘paperwork’ ahead of my arrival,” Q’orvha commented a somewhat derisive exhale of breath. “In that case, you should already have at least the unsecured basic details of the sordid tale.

“The last survivor of first a Klingon house of exiles and then later, her own commanded bird-of-prey, gets rescued from dying slowly in the void by a Starfleet vessel…” The Klingon continued, her voice gaining in volume and richness: Story-telling was practically an intrinsic part of the DNA of most of her species. “This fool of a Klingon woman then swore an oath of service to her rescuers in response, as a way of maintaining what little personal honour remained…and that led to her serving within Starfleet itself.

”Over a standard Federation decade passes, and this one is found to have up-to-date knowledge of a lawless and long-neglected sector of a dead empire…and there happens to be a ship about to launch to remove ‘long-neglected’ from that description.” Q’orvha folded her hands together, the bare fingers of her fingerless spiked gauntlets interlocking and resting in front of her waist. “As the Federation had spent the previous years hiding behind its own borders like a motherless p’tagh, there are few others available with such expertise.

”…so, now, that foolish, dishonoured, and motherless Klingon woman now sits before you, by the glint of what secrets her mind holds, bound by oaths made while suffering from nitrogen narcosis and blood loss, but still bound nevertheless.”

Q’orvha leaned back in the chair again, conveying her resignation with the situation. “At least, that is as honest as I am allowed to tell the tale at this time. In spite of my words being laced with such acrid blood salt, I assure you Captain that I am above all, a professional…you will never receive less than the best I am capable of.”

Tajir looked at her for a moment, “I see.” He replied as he wasn’t exactly expecting a response like that which made him think of his next question which he didn’t have as she covered it in one go. “I won’t keep you long as I am sure you want to get settled, though I expect you to do your job and my door is always open if you need to talk,” Tajir replied looking at the woman, he would just have to see how she does as she has quite the history.

“On a Klingon vessel, a Captain leaving their door open was either a sign of bravery or foolishness,” Q’orvha stated, raising one of her thick eyebrows. “How fortunate that killing ship commanders for showing signs of weakness is less commonplace in Starfleet.”

Raising an eyebrow not sure if this was her attempt at humor or what, “well good thing this isn’t a Klingon vessel Commander.” He replied as he sat there still unsure of her at this point in time, but it was still too early to really be too judgemental.

Q’orvha studied her new Captain’s reaction and then allowed the stern surliness she had worn upon her face for the entire meeting up till this point to relax, going even so far as to allow a small smirking grin. “That was a joke, Captain…or at least, an attempt at one…perhaps I should just stick to being grim and severe…”

“Very well Commander,” Tajir replied as he stood up from his desk extending a hand towards her. “I will let you get settled and expect a report on your department by the end of the day,” came his reply before continuing. “Welcome aboard the Aquarius,” he finished.

Q’orvha stood up in timed precision with Tajir, but paused momentarily to look over the presented hand. She was familiar with the human gesture that had been become so prevalent across the members of the Federation, but it still invoked an uncanny strangeness to her, compared to the more familiar forearm grabs of the Klingon Empire…the grasping of hands between Klingons was more associated with mating signals…not that she had much of any of that in Empire either, with her condition.

A bit tentatively at first, she also extended her hand forward and grasped the Trill’s, forgetting for a moment to dial back her strength, resulting in a tightly crushing grip before she remembered the ‘frailty’ common to many non-Klingons.

…and with that awkward exchange over, she released and gave the Captain a nod from beneath her hood. “Of course, Captain.”

Zane checked the time, “Computer, where is the Captain?”

“Captain is in the Ready Room.”

Zane had thought so. He headed for the nearest turbolift, where he would step in and request to be taken to the Bridge. While he stood there waiting for the lift to bring him to his destination, his mind began to wander, the thoughts of his best friend and the last conversation they had together.

Four Days Ago – USS Ajax

Zane sighed to himself as he began to place all of his clothing and uniforms that he had all splayed out on the bed right into his duffel bag. While he was doing that, a chime from the door rang out into his quarters, an alert that often times are unexpected, some are welcomed and others are not. At this time, he wasn’t sure who was at the door and in his current mixed mood, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to answer it. The heck, what could go wrong, right?

“Come in.” Zane gave the command, and the door split in half to allow entry to his department head, his superior and his best friend, Lieutenant James Byron. “What can I do for you, Jim?”

“Well for starts,” he began as he walked in to allow the door to close behind him. “You can explain to me as to why you are leaving.”

Zane smirked. “You know why. I got the opportunity I’ve been looking for.”

“Oh bull. That was what? You five…ten years ago? You’re happy here. Least that’s what I thought until today.” Byron said as he moved over to the desk and leaned back against it, folding his arms across his chest.

Zane shrugged his shoulders, “Yeah well, things change. Besides, since you know I’m leaving, then you would also know where.”

James sighed with a nod, “Yeah, the Aquarius. A Resolute Class if I’m not mistake. But the Obena Class is much more superior.”

Zane couldn’t help but laugh, “That’s because you haven’t been on any other ship but the Ajax. ‘Course you would think that.”

James shrugged, “Can’t blame for my loyalty, unlike someone I know.”

Zane sighed. “It’s not that, Jim. Yes, I stopped wanting to advance into positions over five years ago. Yes, I have enjoyed being here on the Ajax. This is my home, my family.”

“Then back to my original question. Explain why you are leaving.”

Zane shook his head, “Commander Sarah Sundquist.”

James shook his head and pushed himself off the desk. “I’ll go speak to the Captain, because I ain’t going to let our new First Officer screw up this family.”

Zane blocked his path to the door. “No, don’t. It wasn’t necessarily her choice. The Captain gave her an ultimatum.”

“The hell for? You and Sarah had worked great together as a team. Why is it suddenly a goddamn problem now?” James asked.

Zane shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. We’ve served under him for years, he’s always been lenient with us. But this? He’s going by the book and there is nothing we can do about it to change his mind. I mean, think about it, Jim. You’re not going to be the Chief of the Security and Tactical Department forever. Eventually you’ll be given a chance to go through the Command Program, and become a First Officer yourself. Then who would take your place?”

“Well I was hoping it be you, of course. That’s what I have been preparing you for ever since you became my Assistant Chief.” James replied.

Zane smiled, “And I thank you for that. Because of you, I got the Chief position.”

“But on another starship. Like you said, the Ajax is home, your family is here. You go to the Aquarius and you’ll be homesick and all alone.” James explained.

Zane nodded in agreement. “I know. But it was going to happen eventually. We both know assignments on board a single starship do not last forever. I mean, Sarah just became First Officer. If you were given the opportunity to be a First Officer yourself, it wouldn’t be on the Ajax.”

James sighed before walking over to a chair and plopped down into it. “So you were saying?”

“If I had stayed on board, and you became the First Officer of some other starship, and I ended getting the Chief position here on board the Ajax while Sarah is the First Officer here, there would be some serious conflicting issues.” Zane explained and then realized that he was defending her when he knew she chose her job over him. Huh…the irony.

James shook his head, “How would it be conflicting? Like I said before, you two work great together as a team, you both knew how to keep yourselves professional when on duty. Not some giddy teenagers making out in the corridor or in the turbolift.”

Zane smiled at the teenager part and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I guess if there was ever a life or death situation, where my life was on the line or Sarah’s, we could potentially let our emotions affect our better judgement. That’s usually the main point of keeping couples on completely different assignments.”

James sighed, loudly this time, mixed with a groan of defeat. “Fine. So are you two still a couple?”

Zane’s smile faded as he went to finish packing his bags. “Yeah, I don’t think so. I pretty much told her right in her face that long distance relationships never work.”

James nodded his head, “You were mad at her for choosing her job over you, huh? Even after this great speech of convincing me that it’s all about regs and starfleet policy, it was really because she made a bad choice, in your opinion anyway.”

Zane shook his head, “You know me all too well. I really have served on this ship for too long.” He smirked.

James chuckled, “Yeah. That’s what happens, you end up in a family and a family just reads each other like a book.”

Zane grinned and then there was a bit of silence for a while before Zane finally zipped up his bags and brought them over to the door. James pushed himself out of the chair and walked over. “So when are you leaving?”

Zane looked into his eyes. “Soon. The replacement is already on their way.” Zane then held his hand out to him. “It was an honor serving with you, Lieutenant.”

James didn’t go for the hand shake but instead pulled the man in and embraced him, squeezing him tight while patting him on the back. “Going to miss you, buddy.”

“Me too.” Zane said softly before they pulled away. “You go easy on your new Assistant, alright?”

James smiled, “No promises. And you better call me when you get over there. Four days in a shuttle craft is no picnic.”

Zane laughed, “It can be. I won’t have anything to do for those four days but play games with the Computer.”

“Oh lord.”

They both laughed.

Zane smiled to himself, not realizing that someone was calling out to him. “Sir?” Zane blinked his eyes when the voice finally cut through to his thoughts, he looked to see an Ensign standing there before him. He forgot how quick these turbolifts can be…of course the world ‘turbo’ should of been an obvious clue. He cleared his throat, “At ease, Ensign.” He walked on by onto the Bridge and looked around, soaking in the very scenery that he will become familiar with for a while.

When his eyes laid on the door labeled ‘Captain’s Ready Room’ he thought about heading straight for it but the tactical station piqued his interest. So…he headed for that first, bringing himself up to the station that was currently empty, not that it needed to be manned right now really. He looked over at the control scheme, seeing that it was set to standard, which was something he was familiar with but he’ll change the layout to a more comfortable scheme to his liking.

As he was looking over at the tactical systems, he couldn’t help but think back to when a group of children were watching out of one of the large view ports towards the dry dock area. This was just moments after he arrived at the Devron Station, and he couldn’t help but let his curiosity get the best of him.

Seven Hours Ago

“Look at that one! That’s new, isn’t it?” One of the children asked.

“No way! It’s a much older ship. Think it’s called a…a Scentor.” Said another.

Zane smiled as he stopped behind the group of children. “I think you mean Centaur.”

The children turned to look at him, “Whoa! A Starfleet Officer!” Said one of the children.

“Dude, we see them all the time. Our parents are Starfleet Officers.”

“Well yeah but this one is actually speaking to us.”

“Are you brain damaged or something, they always speak to us.”

“Shut up!”

Zane chuckled, “All right little ones. What are you all looking at?”

“The ships of course!” One shouted and pointed out at the dry docks.

“That one there, the…the Sent…Sentor.”

Zane couldn’t help but chuckle again. “Cen-taur.”

“That’s what I said, Sen-tar!”

Zane just went with it with a shrug. “She does look pretty beat up.”

“The ship ain’t a girl!” They all started to giggle.

Zane smiled and knelt down to their level. “Well, no of course not. But it’s just…” He stopped himself, why try explaining it to children who aren’t going to get it until they’re older? “What else out there do you see?”

They turned back to the view port and pointed at a ship. “I think that one is called the Gawlexie.”

Zane just could not stop himself from smiling so much. “Ga-lax-y.”

“That’s what I said, mistor.”

Zane chuckled, “Alright, alright. Seems you all got this handled. What about…” He looked and then he saw it. “What about that one?” He pointed.

There was a bit of silence for a moment before one of them raised a hand. Are they in class now? Zane chuckled and pointed to her, “It’s the Rezolete class.”

“Pretty good. It’s pronounced Resolute though. Put the word Lute at the end.”

“Rezalute?” She asked.

Zane smiled, “That works. I’m assigned to that one. The name it has is the USS Aquarius.” The kids then turned to look at him, some with confused looks.

“Ackweras?”

Zane laughed and pronounced it carefully to them. “A-quar-ius.”

“A-kar-ius?”

“Yup!” Zane chuckled and then all their attention was brought to a ship flying real close by and heading for an empty dry dock. All of them pretty much exclaiming pretty loudly with ‘Whoas’ and ‘Wows’ and ‘Ooos’ and ‘Aaahs’.

“Oh oh oh! I know that one! It’s a special ship!” Said one of the little ones.

Zane tilted his head, “How special?”

“It can split into three pieces!”

“That’s not special, that’s dumb!”

“Nuh uh! You’re dumb!!”

Zane sighed, “Oy. None of that now. We are citizens of the Federation, and we are all better than calling each other names.”

“We’re sorry.”

Zane smiled. “Better. And that is a special thing for that ship. It’s called the Prometheus Class. It’s a vessel designed for combat.”

Lot of them looked at each other then at him. “But we thought Starfleet was all about exploring and talking and playing fun games with the other powers.”

Zane chuckled. “It is, really it is. We especially love playing games with the Ferengi. But unfortunately there are bullies out there, certain powers who pick on the weaker ones. Starfleet protects the weaker ones from the bullies. That ship there, is designed to take on the really big bullies. But that ship can do a lot more than just fight the bullies. Because it can split into three small ships, it can be at three places at once. Bringing supplies to colony worlds, like food, medicine, clothing.”

“And toys!”

Zane laughed, “Yes! And toys.”

Some of the kids gasped. “Is the Promithes Santa Claus?”

Zane raised his brows, ‘Really? Thought we were beyond that too. Who is this child’s parents? Words must be given!!’ Zane cleared his throat, “Well, no. Santa can be anywhere and everywhere at once bringing toys and gifts and joy to every child in the galaxy.” He pursed his lips, ‘Can’t believe I’m going along with this. But I’m not going to be the one to tell them that he ain’t real, this is all their parents fault…’ “And the Prometheus Class there, sadly it’s not that fast to do all that. But…it does help.” Zane nodded his head, ‘Yeah let’s go with that.’ “The Prometheus Class does help when it can.”

“Wow! I want the Promithos when I join Starfleet.”

Zane chuckled, “What about the Obena Class?”

“Huh? Obina?”

Zane nodded his head. “Yup! I came from one, named the USS Ajax. I served on board it for almost fourteen years.”

“Woooooww!! That makes you old!” The children laughed and snickered.

Zane rolled his eyes but smiled. “Yeah, I’m old. But not as old as Picard.”

“But we love Picard Day!”

Zane tilted his head, ‘Who’s kids are these? Seriously?’

“Mister. If you were on the Ajacks for so long, why you leave it?” A girl asked.

Zane sighed but kept his smile, not wanting to worry the little ones. “I got a better job. It has more responsibilities, I get access to more toys and it’s a step closer to becoming Captain some day.”

“Whoa…I want to be a Captain.”

“Me too!”

“Me three!!”

Zane smiled and looked back up again, watching the Prometheus Class vessel slowly drifting into a dry dock. “Wonder what that old girl is here for?”

“Huh?” One of them asked.

Zane chuckled, “I’m just talking to myself. Who is suppose to be watching you guys?”

A woman came around the corner looking absolutely frustrated before sighing heavily, “Oh my god. There you all are!” She then looked at Zane, looking relieved. “I’m so so sorry. I thought they were right behind me, I didn’t even realize they stopped here to gaze at the ships. I mean, I should of known, they love watching those ships fly by. But you must got work to do and they’re in the way and-”

Zane stood up and raised his hands. “Whoa, slow down. I don’t work here. I mean, I’m not assigned to this station. And they were no trouble, no trouble at all. They do know their ships pretty well.”

She sighed once more and smiled, “I usually gaze at the ships with them every now and then and help them learn about each ship out there but I was in such a hurry, needed to get these children to class and-”

Zane chuckled, “It’s all right. But you guys should of really stuck with your teacher.” He looked at the children before looking at her with a questioning look, hoping he got ‘teacher’ right.

She nodded her head that he was correct, “Come along children, we got a lot of history to cover today.”

“Okay!” A lot of them said before some looked at him. “Nice meeting you mister!”

Zane smiled and waved to them. “It was nice meeting you all too, and very fun.” He watched them disappear around the corner, leaving him there alone with his thoughts. He took another look out the view port, both at the Aquarius and at the Prometheus Class vessel. He knew that when he read up about the Aquarius on his way to the Devron System, that it had undergone some refit, getting upgrades and whatnot. Maybe that’s just what that Prometheus Class ship is here to do as well.

Zane took in a deep breath and looked around, blinking a bit as he remembered where he was. He then sighed, looking back down at the tactical display, getting one last look at what he had to work with for offensive and defensive systems before walking away. He then looked at the door labeled ‘Captain’s Ready Room’ and decided that it was best now than later. New Ship, means making new friends, joining a new family, and serving under a new Captain, especially one who was recently promoted to Captaincy. Zane sure believes that this will get interesting.

Zane stopped right before the door, licking his lips and taking another deep breath before bringing his hand up, closing it into a fist except for his right index finger and reaches for the door chime to signal that someone was waiting outside the Captain’s door.

“Lieutenant Kyle?” Spoke a young bolian woman as she approached the Chief Engineer. “I’m Ensign Jalta…systems analysis.”

Elizabeth was sitting at one of the diagnostic consoles in main engineering with a PADD in one hand and a mug of coffee in the other.  Looking up from her report she paused a moment taking in the Bolian.  “Yes, Ensign.  What can I do for you?”

Jalta nervously ran her hand over the blue ridges that bifurcated her face vertically. “I was running a second pass over some of the targeting sensors…we’d been having trouble with the upgraded ODN lines shorting them out and throwing the alignment off…but it looks like it’s fixed now, as of my last pass.”

“That’s good, but what is the cause? ODN lines don’t just ordinarily overload systems unless improperly installed or faulty.”

”Well, ma’am, that’s the problem…there wasn’t any repair teams assigned to that job in the schedule yet.” Ensign Jalta replied. “…and then I checked the repair logs, and there wasn’t any notation left either about it.”

Elizabeth set both her coffee and the PADD down and started entering commands onto to the panel. The Bolian was correct.  The repair log was incomplete,  and she certainly hadn’t ordered any upgrades.   The time for fine tuning and upgrading wasn’t here yet.

”…it happened recently.” The Bolian glanced down at a nearby display console. “Looks like…just a few minutes, over in Junction 8E.”

Elizabeth sighed,  “I better go check it out.  Sounds like a tactical officer trying to take the initiative.   It wouldn’t be the first time.”

She reached under the console and retrieved her tool kit. She glanced around. All of her officers were leading teams elsewhere.  “Well Ensign,  engineering is yours,  but I suggest listening to Chief Petty Officer Leisten. He’s got a decade more experience than both of us combined.”

“Er, yes ma’am!” Jalta said hesitantly, the full extent of what the Lieutenant had just said hitting her.

*******

The Jefferies Tubes were close and cramped of course, illuminated by light fixtures running in strips along the sides and the glow of consoles and circuitry dimly shining through grates and access panels that lined the interior surfaces. Crawling was required to get through them…but one could stand at the end of each tube, past the access hatch, where the tubes either would end into the main rooms and hallways of the Aquarius or into a Junction where multiple tubes would meet.

The Junction rooms themselves were still cramped by comparison to a typical room or section of Hallway, but the majority of the Aquarius’s humanoid crew could stand quite comfortably in them…this accessibility also made them prime locations in which to get work done on nearby major ship systems.

Junction 8-E for instance, allowed access to multiple systems and sub-systems…two of which were currently being accessed by a towering figure who had to hunch over to stand up in the cramped room. Dressed in full Klingon-styled armour, the statuesque pale-skinned woman was busy working on a sensor array monitor, occassionaly retrieving a small engineering tool from the variety of similar devices that were threaded through her thick dreadlocks.

She suddenly stopped and turned around while dropping to a knee to peer down one of the Jefferies Tubes with a snarl. “Who comes this way?” She growled with an instinctive defensiveness.

Elizabeth popped out the end of a tube and casually sat down on the edge of it.  She was tall for more human females, but this Klingon woman towered over her. Don’t show you are intimidated, she reminded herself.

“You know, someone could ask the same of you.  It’s not often someone comes mucking about in my playground,  and I don’t know about it.”

“I am Lieutenant Commander Q’orvha.” The Klingon responded, her purple eyes leering out the shadows of the hood of her robes, studying the sitting human. “Daughter of Kortar the Ferryman…and as of a few hours ago, Chief of Strategic Operations for this, Aquarius.”

“That’s an impressive set of titles. I am Lieutenant Elizabeth Kyle,  Chief Engineer. My friends call me Liz.”

“…well, that explains the metaphor.” Q’orvha replied, taking out a probe device from her dreads and turning back around to continue her work. “If you are worried about not knowing who’s ‘mucking about’ in your ‘playground’, perhaps you should tighten your operational security…especially while we are still stationary, in dock.”

The Klingon paused for a moment and frowned as the probe beeped out a negatory signal. “Hmm…that toolcase, you have…does it contain a TR-33 or equivalent multitool? This task requires something more precise then the basic tools I brought.”

“It does not,” she replied,  and plucked the TR-33 from the front breast pocket of her uniform. “Never leave home without it. What precisely is it that you are doing?”

“I am increasing the fidelity and resolution of the lateral sensor array.” Q’orvha said as she took the device from Lieutenant Kyle and aimed it towards the opened access panel. “…I noticed deficiency while I was fixing the targeting systems…both arrays use a similar frequency which is just close enough to cause them to interfere with the other when both are active at the same time…if I can adjust the array’s frequency by .03-” The klingon gave a measurement unit that sounded like a komodo dragon with a hacking cough, that the Universal Translator could not effective translate. “-then I can not only prevent this unintended error, but also gain a small boost to the lateral array’s efficiency.”

“You could have requested the repair.  I could have assigned a repair crew to this.” She sighed, “It’s going to take months to sort this ship out.  ‘Good enough’ may be fine for the yard monkeys,  but I don’t accept anything less than optimal.”

“As someone who has once laboured as the lead engineer of another Starfleet Vessel, I more than understand your trials and tribulations.” Q’orvha replied. “As for the repair…I checked the duty assignments and noticed that it had been assigned yet, while both the dock workers and your own staff already had a full docket of work to complete. As I had identified the problem and I had the skills to fix it, I ventured forth into this ship’s bowels to conquer it myself. Now, it need not be heaped upon the roster at all.”

The TR-33 device gave an affirmative beep and Q’orvha double-checked her own work before slamming the access panel shut with a hearty “Q’aplaH! It is done!”

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at that and shrugged figuring it was a Klingon thing and she probably wouldn’t understand.   “May I ask a question? What’s with the  whole cloak and dagger thing with the hood pulled over your head?”

”You are actually asking three different questions…which I will answer to the extent that I am allowed.” Q’orvha replied, her moment of scant jubilation receding into a heavy sigh. “To the first, the phrase “Cloak and Dagger” as a metaphor…as Strategist, my work is linked closely with Starfleet Intelligence…as one officer once put it, I am the ‘Resident Spook’…

”The second, cloak and dagger in the literal sense: Despite everything, I am still Klingon…and technically, a civilian specialist, as I have never attended your Starfleet Academy…and my rank and assignment are all provisional, a position to which the only real advantage is that I have more leeway in what I wear…my rank this time recognizes my seniority however, and that affords me further dispensation to carry a sidearm and items of cultural significance…” Q’orvha paused for a moment to shift her robe, revealing the sheathed daggers hanging from her belt over her hips. “I would have preferred a brace of disruptor pistols, but alas my dispensations only go so far for everyday wear.”

The Klingon paused to hand back the TR-33 and then continued. “To the final question, why do I wear the hood of my robes drawn over my head…simply put, to offset the symptoms of a genetic curse. Most Klingons do not have skin as white as bleached ivory…I was born an albino and as such my eyes are rather sensitive to light.

”On a Klingon vessel, my vision would not be an issue…but you Federation types do so love your ambient luminance.

Elizabeth nodded taking in the information and tapping her chin.  After a moment she spoke, “The later was to which I was referring,  but as such I do not see any honor in calling your condition s curse.  Without it you would not be you.  It has shaped the person you are. As far as the lights.   What can I do? No one should be in physical pain.  We could start with your quarters and the deck on which you reside.  We could do the same for the crew lounge.   It’s a lounge,  a little mood lighting would never be questioned.”

“You presume much for such a young officer, Lieutenant.” Q’orvha rebuked with a hand wave and an low growl of irritation. “Especially knowing so little about me or the person I am. I have already made the adjustments to the environmental settings in my quarters…this is not my first assignment on a Starfleet vessel, and I have submitted requests for my bridge duties to occur during the so-called ‘Graveyard’ shift, where lowering the lights is customary on most vessels to maintain an artificial day-night cycle…for all else, a lowered hood or a brief bit of discomfort will do fine.

“While I do find myself missing the dim din of the Bird of Prey I once commanded, I am not about to make my…environmental preferences…a daily imposition upon this vessel or her crew.” Q’orvha sighed again and drew her growling back down as she regained her cold composure. “It is not in my current disposition nor circumstance to do so.”

Elizabeth shrugged,  “I presumed nothing, nor am I so young. To that end, I wouldn’t act without the blessing of the captain and XO. I only presented to you options to reasonably accommodate your condition.  It’s very Klingon of you to suffer in silence,  but you shouldn’t have to.” She picked up her tool kit and sighed. “If you need anything and it is within my power to do so, it shall be granted.”

Q’orvha just stared at the younger woman for a brief moment, before bursting out in a chortling laugh. “Klingons? Suffer in silence? Hah!” This break in her serious demeanor was accompanied by several loud and powerful slaps of her hands against the bulkheads. “Hardly…you really must not have been around that many Klingons in your life…when a Klingon, especially warrior-class is suffering, he may not admit to it…but he definitely will not be quiet until the issue is resolved one way or another. If not outright mewling like a Ferengi getting their lobes pierced, then at least they will be complaining about every little thing or shouting at the moons like a targ during mating season!”

The pale warrioress slowly regained her breathing as she recovered from the jovial outburst. “Hah…I needed that…and as a former Chief Engineer myself, I understand the impulse to see a problem and immediately try to fix it…but I have lived with my…singular condition…for well over six of your decades, and despite a life that can inadequately be described as ‘tumultuous’, I have prospered with it.

“I am a Daughter of Gre’thor…If I suffer, it will not be by passing material pain or discomfort. Whether by bright light, blistering fire or the blades and barbs of those who stand opposed to my path.” Q’orvha’s declaration had an almost recited quality to it, as if she were paraphrasing a chant or oath. “…besides, the hood works fine. Simple solution, uses an available material, and minimum impact and low risk of entangled complications.

”It is…agreeable, in any event, however, to know that if I do require assistance in these or similar matters, that there is someone on this vessel with such a raw problem solver’s impulse, that I can seek.”

“I was speaking in more general terms, but yes that too,” Elizabeth replied.  “It is my job to fix, and sometimes build.  I prefer building, but that isn’t often in the job description.”

”…then why serve on a Starship?” The Klingon questioned. “If you prefer construction to maintenance, would not somewhere like the fleet yards or a position with your S-C-E offer more opportunity for such projects?”

She shrugged, “A couple of reasons. One: I was denied the position at the San Francisco Yards. Two: I would like to be Captain someday, and I need the experience a starship provides.  And don’t get me wrong. I like the maintenance work, just prefer one over the other if that makes any sense at all.”

”Assuming something was not lost in translation, it does.” Q’orvha replied with a nod. “So the Aquarius was not your first choice…but you intend to make the most of it?”

She laughed, “The Wessex, my old ship, wasn’t my first choice. This ship is like a holiday in comparison.”

“A commendable outlook.” The Chief Strategist said. “When I was training in my youth, one of my…mentors, would recite an old proverb that fits well.”

Elizabeth smiled, “And that proverb is?”

”When life hands you a lame hunting targ…eat it’s heart.”

Elizabeth laughed, “Sounds like an old human proverb, about lemons and lemonade.”

“Lemons? Those are the vaugely ovoid yellow fruit, yes?” Q’orvha looked quizzically for a moment before shrugging and offering what passed for a mischievous grin for her species. “Ah, once again, much like MacBeth or Hamlet, so much better in the original Klingon version.”

Elizabeth hesitated trying to remember the line, then in a very bad accent, but tolerable pronunciation she recited Shakespeare’s famous “To be or not to be” line in Klingon.

As she finished, there was an almost audible silence in the close confines of Junction 8E, as Q’orvha just stared at her with a face devoid of any expression.

Then, in a sudden moment, the features on the Klingon’s facade of cold ivory stillness cracked and Q’orvha let out a deep belting laugh that echoed through the Junction’s connected Jefferies Tubes. “Hah…I will have to find a proper recording for you…I do not think I have ever heard a Hamlet who sounded like a drunken farmer came from the Tukavka Lowlands! The visual it conjures is…most humorous.”

Elizabeth laughed,  and bowed, “Druken farmer is a new one.  I made the mistake of taking Klingon as  my foreign language course in high school. I never could get the accent right. ”  She shrugged and picked up her tool kit. “See you around Commamder. I have to get back to work.”  With that she plunged into the Jefferies tube and was gone.

Zane pressed his right index finger on the button, hearing the chime ring in the Captain’s Ready Room from the other side of the door, and so he lowered his arm only to bring his right hand behind him, clasping it with his left and resting them on the small of his back as he waited for entry.

Looking up, “enter.” He said.

Zane quickly checked his uniform as if something were out of place but nothing really was and so he watched the door halves split open. Zane walked on through and stopped right before the desk. “Lieutenant Zane Bates, reporting for duty, sir.”

“Ah, welcome Lieutenant please have a seat,” Tajir replied as he motioned for the chair in front of his desk, he quickly pulled up his file and began to look it over. “So, tell me about your last assignment?” He asked though he could clearly see in his record, he liked to get to know his senior staff by asking questions than just simply looking at a record.

Zane looked at the empty chair the Captain referred to before stepping over in front of it and sitting right down, making sure he was sitting up straight but still comfortable. He refrained from drumming his fingers against the armrests, not wanting to show any of the obvious nervous ticks, though he didn’t really feel nervous, just liked to keep busy. Zane smiled at the question before clearing his throat, “Well, I’ve served on board the Ajax since I was assigned to it after graduating from the Academy. I was part of the Security and Tactical Department as a Gamma Shift Security and Tactical Officer for about six years, but then there was a command change in the department itself, the Chief was offered First Officer onboard another vessel and my good friend James Byron became the new Chief, which got me elevated to Assistant Chief. Which is what I was for over seven years up until now.”

“Impressive, not many people have served on one ship for so long without jumping from assignment to assignment,” Tajir replied as he looked at him, the commitment was a definite plus. “So why the sudden change?” Tajir asked as he took a drink of the coffee he’s been drinking for the last hour through his different meetings with other senior staff members that came to check-in.

Zane smiled with a nod, “Yeah, in my junior years as an Ensign, I was very eager to jump ship at the chance of Assistant Chief or Chief on another vessel. But after I made Assistant Chief on the Ajax, as well as made plenty of friends, pretty much got over the part of being overconfident and I wasn’t so eager to leave anymore. I figured as long as I was patient, I’ll make Chief someday.” He stopped to think about the question, whether to be fully honest and give out the personal reasons or be mostly honest and remain professional. “My friend Byron wasn’t going to be leaving the Chief position any time soon and the First Officer of Ajax recommended me this ship when the position was open, so of course I applied for it. The Resolute Class is a major step up from Obena, so I saw it as a big opportunity.”

He nodded, “Though an Obena is still an impressive ship” Tajir commented.

Zane chuckled, “True. Size comparison and age between classes are nothing in firepower and roles that they operate.”

Nodding, “well I don’t have any further questions and I am sure you will want to get settled and check-in with your department.” Tajir replied looking at him for a moment, “again welcome aboard.”

Zane nodded before standing up, “Well I have an over-enthusiastic Ensign who has gone out their way to take care of most of the work for me, so shouldn’t take me long to see where the Department is at.” He then held out his hand to Tajir. “Pleasure meeting you, Captain. I am looking forward to serving under your command.”

He nodded in return, “dismissed.” Tajir smiled as he extended his hand again towards the Lieutenant as he stood up.

Zane shook the man’s hand before taking a step back, making sure to clear away from the seats before during a full one eighty and headed right out of the ready room. From here, he headed for his Department area to get one last thing done.

After finishing up from his last meeting with one of his new senior staff members, looking at the time he didn’t realize it was so late. Getting up from his desk he decided to go grab something to eat. Walking out onto the bridge and straight to the turbolift, “crew lounge.” Tajir ordered as the lift doors closed and began to move towards its destination, after a while the lift came to a stop as the doors opened back up. Tajir walked out, heading to where the crew lounge was located.

Upon entering he saw other officers talking amongst themselves while eating, walking over to the bar area he placed his order and then walked over to an empty table and sat down. After a few moments, his food and drink arrived. “Thank you,” Tajir replied with a smile as the server smiled and nodded, heading off. He began to eat unbeknownst that he would be interrupted while enjoying his late lunch.

Calum had been familiarizing himself with the ship when he decided he needed to finally check in with the CO. After a decent search he finally discovered the Captain was in the mess hall. He walked up to the Captain and smiled. “Hello captain, a’m Commander Calum Hyden, sorry fur th’ interruption, bit ah knew ah wantit tae report tae ye, Sir.”

Looking up at the Commander, “Ah please have a seat Commander.” Tajir replied looking at his Chief Science Officer and Second Officer. “Welcome aboard the Aquarius,” he added as he extended his hand.

Calum sit down “Ta, Captain! a’m happy tae be aboard!”

“So, tell me about your last assignment,” Tajir asked as he studied the man sitting in front of him for a few moments.

Calum smiled “Ah wis a teacher at th’ academy fur freish recruits, bit it wasn’t tae be mah end apparantly. Sae ‘ere a’m duin fur some mair venturing intae th’ unknown. ”

“I see,” Tajir replied looking at him as he has yet to read his file it was next on his list so he was a bit unprepared for this check-in while at lunch. “Welcome aboard again, I won’t keep you long as I am sure you want to settle in and check in with your department,” Tajir replied as he looked at him with a smile, though he wanted to keep eating but it was rude to do so while talking.

Calum could see the Captain wanted to finish his meal. He nodded politely “Indeed sae! ta Captain ah wull blether tae ye soon.”

He got up and departed heading back to his quarters.

He smiled and began to eat his lunch before he returned to duty, he enjoyed some quiet time as he read his book while eating. He enjoyed reading any chance he got to help unwind either from a break from duty or when he was alone in his quarters after his sift.

Tajir was in his ready room finishing setting it up, wanted it to have more of a home feel to it than a bland office. Sari had to get back to work, so he was in there alone playing some soft music as he unpacked what he wanted before getting rid of the crate. Once satisfied he walked towards the replicator, “coffee, black.” He replied as the replicator came to life, giving him what he asked for he picked up the cup and walked over to his desk. Sitting down he picked up a PADD which had crew assignments, and other items.

Before long, the chime to his door rang informing him of his first visitor, “Enter!” he stated in response.

The doors hissed open to the petite human Commander. She looked back to her Security escort and thanked him for his company, indicating that he could resume his duties before stepping into the ready room and allowing the doors to close behind her. Noticing the cup of coffee on the desk, she decided to use that to break the ice with her new commanding officer, “Black coffee I see. Straight and to the point. Unaltered. I like that. Commander Akiyama Makoto reporting as ordered, but feel free to call me Aki for short.” she said extending her hand in greeting.

Looking up at her for a moment to study the Commander, “Indeed Commander.” Tajir replied as he stood up, “Welcome aboard the Aquarius.” Tajir replied before taking her hand in a shake, which was firm. “Care for something to drink?” He asked as he stood there for a moment.

Aki stood there in pause for a moment. She’d not considered the idea of a beverage whilst she was on the station but didn’t want to appear impolite, “A Fukamushi Sensha tea, 79 degrees Celsius would be lovely, thank you.”

As Tajir went to get Aki’s drink from the replicator, she continued “While I am grateful Captain, I must admit I’m a little surprised that you selected me personally to be your first officer. Do you mind if I ask why?”

He smiled, “I needed an Executive Officer who has the skills, and based on your service record you were right for the job. I know it’s unusual to pick someone who already had a position or one that didn’t request a transfer.” Tajir began as he brought back the drink and handed it to her, “I needed someone who would have my back and I can rely on.” He added as he finished and took a sip of his coffee.

“For that, you can rest assured, you have no worries there. I’ve been told on occasion that I’ve been a ‘mother hen’. I know it was used merely as a term of endearment referring to my protective nature, but I never could get used to the term. My primary duties are to the ship and crew in which I serve, including her captain.” she replied.

He nodded, “very good.” Tajir replied as he looked at her for a moment, “I know I can just read your service record though I like to get to know people on a more personal level than what I can get from just reading a record.” Tajir began taking a momentary pause before continuing, “Tell me about your last post?” Tajir asked looking at her with a smile.

Aki took a deep sip of her Shensha then set the mug down on the captain’s desk before taking a seat in a more relaxed cross-legged position. “Well…I’ll be frank. It wasn’t the most prestigious position compared to that of one on a starship, but it was one of importance. Most of my daily routines consisted of monitoring Cardassian and Breen activities, especially in the last five years as we reopened diplomatic channels with the Cardassians. It’s not been easy, but both sides appear to be holding up their commitments. One can only hope that relations remain stable. The Breen on the other hand…their raid on Barzan II earlier this year gives me pause. The last thing we need is another conflict.”

She took a moment to judge her captain’s reaction and then continued, “Would I miss it? Perhaps. I left many friends and colleagues behind. Would I give up the opportunity of serving aboard a starship? Not a chance.”

Hoping that her answer was enough to answer the captain’s question, she leaned forward and took another sip of her tea awaiting his response.

Nodding, “What happened on Barzan II was a bold move and a tragic one.” Tajir said recalling the events of that day, “I am sure you will have plenty of excitement on the Aquarius as we will be primarily operating in the old Romulan Neutral Zone.” He said as he took a sip of his coffee, “now tell me what do you look for in a Captain? I know that is an unusual question, I am just curious mostly.” Tajir asked with a smile adjusting in his seat again.

“Unusual, but not uncommon. First and foremost, when challenged I’d expect a captain to be both amenable but firm when needed. It should also go without saying that a captain should put the safety of their ship and crew above all else. Lastly, as an added bonus, I’d like a captain to be counted on not only as a co-worker but also as a friend. If we’re to be working closely together, we’ll no doubt learn a lot about one another and therefore I endeavour to make myself the type a person someone can come to when needed.” she replied.

He smiled, “then we will be a great team.” He responded looking at her for a moment not able to think of anything else at the moment. “Do you have any questions for me?” Tajir asked opening the floor to her to see if she had anything of her own to ask.

Not really able to think of anything specific that she needed answers to at the moment, more so for the fact that there was still other crew to meet and duties that needed to be taken care of before the Aquarius launched, all Aki could think of was a bit of a tongue-in-cheek response, “Merely, when do we get started?” she said with a slight chuckle.

“We depart Devron tomorrow morning at 0800 hours,” Tajir replied looking at her. “If there is nothing else I’ll let you get settled in and familiar with the crew and ship,” Tajir added as he stood up. “Again, welcome aboard Commander I am looking forward in working with you.”

Mirroring her captain, Aki also rose from her seat responding at the meeting’s conclusion, “Thank you Captain. I appreciate the time you’ve given me. I’ll check in with the department heads and see you first thing in the morning.”

Elizabeth walked into her office in main engineering after unceremoniously dumping her belongings in her quarters. From the visitor’s side of her desk she flipped the computer terminal to face her and glanced over the systems status, and then picked up a random PADD tossed casually on the surface of the desk she downloaded the engineering roster.

Armed with that essential information she turned and walked right back out of the office and stood in front of the massive master situation display.  “Okay, gather round folks. Let’s make this quick.”

She waited several minutes for the crew to gather around her. They stood in loose formation.  But, they were engineers, not soldiers, and military discipline would be lost on them, and in truth not completely useful in their day-to-day jobs. 

“My name is Elizabeth Kyle, and I am the ship’s new Chief Engineer.  This isn’t my first rodeo folks. I have heard every excuse in the book.  I expect every one of you to do your jobs to the absolute best of your abilities.  If you prove that you cannot or will not perform your duties at a satisfactory level I will find a duty that more suits you such as sanitation duty in the mess hall and the public heads. Any questions?”

There was a sea of blank faces, but no one spoke.  

Elizabeth nodded in approval, “Very good. Okay I promised a full readiness report to the captain by the end of the day and seeing that it’s already approaching mid-day we have our work cut out for us.” She lifted her PADD to look it over, “Brooks, De Havilland, and T’pin: you are assigned to deflector control.  “Burke, K’vren: you are on both main and auxiliary computers. DeSantis: shuttles. Lindsey, Jurok, Thelvian, and Georges: environmental support. Batiste: coordinate with Security/Tactical on weapons.  Holstead: coordinate with operations on sensors. Garza and Smith you are on shields.  That leaves Leisten and Groka with me on warp engines, shields, and structural integrity. Let’s get on it people.”

The engineering department spent the rest of the morning and much of the afternoon going over the ship’s systems with a fine tooth comb.  For the most part the ship was in tip top shape. There were a few areas of note, chiefly the warp core efficiency numbers.   The yard engineers tended to take a conservative approach to the tuning of the warp core, but Elizabeth knew she could improve it with no ill-effects.

Ordinarily Elizabeth wasn’t one to hide in her office,  but when it came to writing reports,  something she hated doing,  being walled off from distraction was a necessity. 

She finished her report and sent it off to the captain making sure to CC the XO, and checked her watch: 18:04. She resisted the urge to yawn, and made her way into main engineering.

“Evening Ensign Carter,” she greeted the night shift lead.

“Good evening ma’am,” the Ensign replied.  “What are your orders?”

Elizabeth appreciated that the Ensign asked without being told.  “There’s not much to do.  There’s a list of issues we found today on my computer in my office. You can get started on them,  or we’ll take care of it in the morning.”

“Understood.”

“Very good,” Elizabeth replied.  “Have a good night.”

“Night boss,” the Ensign replied before getting down to work. 

Tajir was busy working later than normal as he still had some reports to finish before they are scheduled to leave for the old Romulan Neutral Zone, getting up from his desk to get a cup of coffee from the replicator. He normally doesn’t have more than two coffees a day but he would let it slide today as it was needed. After retrieving the coffee he walked back to his desk to sit down when he heard his door chime go off. “Enter,” he replied wondering who it could be just as a file came onto his computer.

Elisha waited for the doors to completely sweep apart before stepping forward and then did so with a slightly self-conscious glance around the room while he walked in. He had not had a lot of time to research his new captain and was not sure exactly what to expect. When he saw the male Trill behind the desk, he approached closer and spoke, swallowing a slight twinge of sadness. He hadn’t known he was going to be Trill, and so soon after his farewell with Gejad, it stung. It wasn’t rational, not even a little bit, but it was happening anyway.

“Good day, Captain, Lieutenant Elisha Macomb reporting to duty,” he said with a warm smile, holding his hand out for a shake.

“Ah, welcome Lieutenant I just received your file just moments ago.” Tajir replied as he stood and took his hand in return, “please have a seat.” Tajir added with a smile welcoming the Doctor.

Noting both the firm grip and the characteristic coolness of the hand Elisha released the handshake and took the proffered seat. “Thank you, sir,” he said. “If you’d like to know anything, not in the file, I’m pretty much an open book, so feel free to ask.”

Taking a sip of his coffee after sitting back down taking a few moments to finally review his file, “so tell me about your last assignment?” Tajir asked as he finished reading and looked up at Elisha.

Thinking of the Maryland brought a broad smile to Elisha’s lips, and he nodded. “The Maryland was an amazing assignment. Dr. Grimes is a force to be reckoned with if you’ve not gotten used to her. My first few weeks were fairly rocky, getting used to the way she ran things, especially coming from a much more stable place like Starfleet Medical Betazed. I learned a great deal those first weeks about improvising, working with what you’ve got, and making stuff up on the fly. We had a distress call from a convoy that was raided within my first six hours aboard, and then we had them nearly weekly for a while.”

He realized he’d been talking a bit too much and stopped. “Sorry about that, I guess I’m still a little nostalgic. In short, it was a very productive assignment. Dr. Grimes was an excellent mentor, and I think she did her very best to get me prepared for what it’s like to run a sickbay on a starship and deal with all of the peripheral aspects of the position as well. I can honestly say that without her I likely would still be just a secondary medical officer, assistant chief at best.” he admitted humbly.

He chuckled a bit, “I know how you feel I felt the same way about the Vesta and serving under Captain Adams for many years.” Tajir replied looking at him, “well we will be operating in the old Romulan Neutral Zone, with many Romulan refugee worlds that need help. This means that whatever we may encounter will need your team to be at the front and foremost of it.” Tajir began to explain.

Elisha nodded, solemnly. “I like a challenge, and I can assure you, both my team and I, will be ready when you need us. I’m looking forward to being able to offer our help to so many people who will need it so badly.”

Tajir nodded, “good.” He replied back as he sat there for a brief moment before speaking, “do you have anything for me?” Tajir asked as he looked at him.

“Not yet, Sir, no. Once I get myself settled in properly, I’ll do a good inventory of supplies and whatnot, but I can very nearly guarantee they’ve over prepped me by a bit. They tend to do that,” Elisha replied with a smile. “If there’s anything missing, I’ll get you the info as quickly as possible, though.”

“Sounds good, I’ll let you get settled,” Tajir replied with a smile as he stood to welcome the Doctor again to the Aquarius.

“Thank you, sir,” Elisha said, standing as well. He held out his hand for a parting shake, and added, “Thank you for accepting my application. I’m looking forward to building a life here on the Aquarius.”

Smiling he nodded as he watched him turn and leave his office, which reminded him that he would need to eventually get down to sickbay for his regular physical as it was about due again. He made a mental note to make an appointment after their departure tomorrow, sitting back down he began to finish his reports as he wasn’t expecting anyone else to come to check it. Though the last time he thought that someone did.

Was early the next morning, Tajir had already gotten dressed and eaten breakfast as he made his way to the bridge. They were scheduled to depart Devron Fleet Yards within the hour so he wanted to make sure every department was ready. Having his coffee in one hand and a padd in the other he arrived, each one was at their station save for the Doctor as he was probably in sickbay at the moment.

“Good morning Commander,” Tajir said to his first officer with a smile.

“Good morning Captain,” Aki replied, a bit groggy from the night before. “I hope you slept well on the eve of departure. I myself tried to curl up with a good book, but the excitement of our mission got the better of me, and I slept much less than I would have liked.”

He chuckled, “actually I did.” Tajir replied, “have the supplies been delivered?” Tajir asked Aki looking at her from his seat, though he was still standing.

“The Delta Shift Watch Commander reported the last of the supplies were transferred approximately ninety minutes ago.”

“We are scheduled to depart within the hour,” Tajir replied looking around the bridge. “I need a status report from all stations,” he said.

Elizabeth looked up from the engineering station.  She had anticipated this order.  “Warp and impulse available at your discretion sir. Navigational deflectors and structural integrity fields are fully operational and within safety standards.”

Zane ended his fourth diagnostic, and the results were the same. “All offensive and defensive capabilities are in the green and are in standby mode.”

“Operations department ready. Primary power available, and emergency power on standby, captain.”

Standing out like a cornstalk in a field of strawberry bushes, Commander Q’orvha ‘haunted’ over her station, her hood pulled low over her eyes to shield them from the bright lights of the bridge. “Latest relevant reports have been secured from Command. Decryption algorithms are up to date, and long-range sensors identify no significant threats or mission complications currently in the area of operations.”

Anticipating a status update request from the Captain, Elisha had ensured he’d gotten everything to full readiness and strolled onto the bridge right as Q’orvha gave her own reply. “Sickbay and my staff are all at the ready as well, Sir,” he said with a polite nod, sliding down into an auxiliary station to watch the departure. He didn’t really have a bridge station as it were, but he always enjoyed watching a ship’s departure from the dock; it was sort of a little tradition he’d kept going over the years.

Calum had not slept a wink the night before and his eyes showed it. He had decided instead to stay up and listen to a riveting holonovel from Megan O’Keefe called Velocity Weapon. He had been so entwined in the story he forgot to look at the time. He made it to the bridge and his station before the rest of the crew and was steadily working when the others had arrived. He had continued to monitor sensors and saw nothing to be alarmed about. He was continuing to observe when he heard for a status report “No anomalies or suspicious activity present on sensors, Sir.”

Once all of the bridge stations had checked in, Aki examined the status reports on the console between her and the captain, “Secondary systems are in the clear. We are prepared for departure. Have we been cleared by station operations?” she said to Lieutenant Jackson.

Jackson checked his console. “Yes sir, we have been cleared,” he replied.

“Helm, disengage docking clamps,” Tajir ordered looking at the helm officer.

“Aye sir, disengaging the docking clamps,” Ensign Sato repeated back while tapping a few buttons. After a few moments, the docking clamps were disengaged. “We are clear of docking clamps,” Sato replied looking back at the Captain.

“I sent you the coordinates, once we are clear of the station take us to warp eight,” Tajir replied looking at the Ensign.

“Aye sir,” came the reply as the ship began to slowly move away from the station until they were at a safe distance. Sato tapped a few buttons at the coordinates were set, “we are clear sir course and speed laid in.” Sato said ready for the Captain to give his word.

“Engage,” Tajir replied as he finally sat down in his chair as the ship jumped to warp eight towards its destination. “Time until our arrival?” Tajir asked looking at the Ensign who looked back.

“We will arrive in eighteen hours sir at our current speed,” Sato replied back as Tajir nodded in response.

“The engines should be able to hold eight-point-five,” Elizabeth suggested.  “Nine if you really wanted to push them.”

Aki was pleased with their Chief Engineer’s report of the engines functioning so optimally. Though considering they were setting out on their maiden voyage, she would have been severely disappointed otherwise. “I think it’s best we do not burn the engines out before we’ve had a chance to break ’em in, don’t you think Lieutenant?”

“They can take it, ma’am. But, beyond the recommendation… well, that’s above my pay grade,” Elizabeth replied.

Alton kept his eyes on the viewscreen…there was nothing as pretty as watching the stars flash by at warp. He would, from time to time, return his gaze to his console, making sure all departments had the needed power they needed.

“As the designated mission officer, I would also declare it unadvisable,” Q’orvha spoke up from her station, turning to address the Captain. “…as little as I care for it, we are still subject to the subspace warp limitations treaty, limiting us to the designated cruising speed of this vessel, outside of emergencies or other granted exceptions.”

The Klingon practically spat out the regulations with more than a little venom in her voice. “Personally, I would like to see how far we could warp space and time before the deck plates started buckling apart, tears in subspace be damned…but I’ve seen your Federation penal colonies and find them existentially boring.”

Zane smirked at the conversation going about on the bridge, bringing up the live report feed from his security team, checking up on them to see if anything has happened but all is quiet. So, this left him to chip in as he had nothing left to do but rig long-range sensors to notify him if any vessel were to show up on sensors and were unidentified. “Personally, I’m all for bending the rules. As long as you’re able to remain professional and not put anyone in harm’s way or let emotions take over your decision, bending the rules should always consider.” He shrugged his shoulders, “Although this ship has received its upgrades, she could probably go faster than supposed Starfleet specs would say. What was it someone told me? A lot of it is just guidelines, not meant to be taken seriously. Once you have a feel for what the ship can do, then you know she can definitely do better.” He realized how he took over the conversation and cleared his throat. “Just matter of experience.” He returned his gaze back to his console and just cycled through systems, running the quickest, less invasive diagnostics just to kill time and appear like he is busy.

”If we were to do that…” Q’orvha retorted, her lips curling into an infernal smirk. “…then my experiences would say to do it while we are not being actively tracked by Devron’s sensor net. Leave as little evidence as possible…evidence like this entire conversation…which is all just, as you humans might say, ‘hypothetically speaking.’”

Elizabeth smirked.  She hadn’t intended to put into question Starfleet policy,  nor advocate ignoring such rules.  As she had said, it was above her pay grade.

Turning her attention back to the engineering console she entered commands monitoring the systems.   The EPS flow regulators to the starboard nacelle were out of calibration by .0091 microns causing slight yaw.  Her fingers danced over the console and recalibrate the regulator. “Helm, that should have corrected for the slight yaw.”

Tajir looked at the two, “that is enough we are staying at Warp 8.” Tajir said firmly as he let out a sigh as things were going to be interesting between some of the officers.

Alton didn’t pay much attention to the argument going on about their speed…..he checked the power levels for engineering, and he found them to be acceptable. He continued to run scans.

Calum rolled his eyes at the conversation of argument. He had been in Starfleet too long to know that it wasn’t how officers should act but to each their own. He continued to observe his station waiting for any order from the Captain.

Tajir stood up from his chair looking over at his first officer, “I’ll be in my office finishing up some reports.” Tajir replied as he got a nod in return. Walking towards his ready room he entered and looked out the window for a moment, their maiden voyage into a place where they will face many challenges. “Here is to new adventures,” Tajir said to himself as he stood there for a moment more almost in thought before taking a seat at his desk.

A couple of hours passed by since they left Devron Fleet Yards, things were quiet for the most part except for a few little hiccups here and there. “Computer begin personal log,” Tajir said as the computer beeped signifying that it was recording. Taking a moment before speaking he looked around the room until he settled for gazing out of the window as the stars flew by.

‘Who would have thought that I would become Captain of my own ship, never thought it would come so quickly.’ He began standing up and walking to the window, ‘now we are heading towards the old Romulan Neutral Zone to provide humanitarian aid to Romulan refugee worlds.’

‘Starfleet thinks I am the person for the job, maybe because I am a joined Trill with one of the past hosts being a Diplomat. I mean that isn’t false and very true and can draw from those experiences, but why me?’ He asked though he knew he wouldn’t get an answer as it was just a log and he was alone in his office.

The more he thought about it, ‘I do have a knack at being able to solve problems peacefully in tough and stressful situations.’ He said thinking about the last few missions he was a part of on the Vesta. ‘Rightfully so, let us hope they will accept our help,’ he said as he was about to open his mouth to speak but was interrupted by the chime of his door.

“Computer, pause log.” Tajir replied before turning to the door, “enter.” Tajir replied looking at the Chief Petty Officer, which was the Officer of the Watch. “What can I do for you?” Tajir asked wondering why he was being bothered.

“Sorry to disturb you, sir, there is a Commodore Uzoma Ekwueme requesting to speak to you. It seemed to be urgent,” the officer said looking at the Captain.

Raising an eyebrow, “alright patch him through to my office.” Tajir replied as the office nodded and headed out of his office and Tajir sat down at his desk. He straightened out his uniform before he turned on his computer.

“Good morning Commodore,” Tajir began getting the niceties out of the way as he could tell he wasn’t here for chit-chat.

Nodding in return, “Captain I’ll get straight to the point. We have received a distress signal from Caldos.” Ekwueme began as he gaged the Captain and his reactions while he was speaking with him. “They are requesting help in repairing their weather control systems including their seismic stabilizers. They have already experienced one earthquake, it was a mild one.” The Commodore replied as Tajir listened closely to what was said.

He knew about Caldos and what the seismic stabilizers are for, “how long do we have before there is another one?” Tajir asked looking at him knowing that the next one could be more devastating than the last one.

“They are unsure, they don’t have the necessary equipment to give an accurate reading.” Ekwueme replied, “it could be days or even hours. You are the closest ship available, I need you to get there as quickly as possible and help them. I will be sending you the information needed,” He replied.

“Understood sir, we will alter course, sir,” Tajir replied.

“Keep me apprised of the situation, Ekwueme out.” The screen of the computer turned back into the Starfleet symbol.

Standing up from his desk, “computer end log.” He replied as it was going to be pointless in finishing it at that moment. Walking out onto the bridge, he looked at Sato as well as others on the bridge.

“We are altering course, I just received a call from Command with an urgent distress call. Caldo’s is requesting assistance in repairing their weather control systems including their seismic stabilizers. They have already experienced one minor earthquake, the next one could be more deadly.” Tajir said as he looked around the room before settling his eyes back on Sato who was at the helm.

“Change course to Caldo maximum warp,” Tajir replied.

“Aye sir,” she replied before tapping a few buttons on her console before looking back at the Captain. “Course and speed are set waiting for orders,” she replied.

“Engage,” Tajir replied as he felt the ship change course and increase speed. Sitting down in his chair. Tapping his commbadge, “Lieutenant Kyle, Lieutenant Macomb, Commander Hyden report to the conference room within the hour.” Tajir replied as he stood up and headed into the conference room to prepare for his meeting.

He began to pull up information that the Commodore had sent over about Caldos and the weather control system schematics. He wanted to prepare before he talked to the three main ones that would be involved. Though the others would help with cleanup and such that was needed.

Elizabeth entered the Aquarius’ lounge with a guitar case in hand. Approaching the bar she smiled at the woman behind the counter and approached. “What can I get you?” the lounge manager asked.

“Nothing… or rather I was hoping I could do something for you.  I was hoping you would let me play a set or two.”

“Can you actually play?” The manager asked skeptically as she slid a two-finger shot of Scotch whiskey to a patron to Elizabeth’s right.

“The Academy thought so. Four years with Concert and Jazz band.  I prefer the violin, but I didn’t figure the crew was looking for too much class.”

The manager smirked, “A little bit of Bach or Mozart never hurt anyone, but let’s see what you got.”

Elizabeth nodded and walked over to the small stage on the far side of the lounge.  Setting down her guitar case she flicked open the latches and pulled her custom acoustic guitar out and slung the strap over her shoulder.  

Stepping to the mic she spoke into it, “I hope you all are having a good evening.  I’m a country girl myself, so I thought I would start us off with a little song from my childhood.  I doubt any of you have heard it, but I hope you can enjoy it.”

She made a quick tuning check and found the A string was slightly flat and with a flick of a thumb and forefinger she tightened the string and then started to play the song.

 Little Joe the Wrangler will wrangle nevermore

His days with the roundup they are o’er

Was a year ago last April when he rode into our camp

Just a little Texas stray and nothing more

Was late in the evening when he rode into our camp

On the little Texas pony he called Chaw

With his brogan shoes and overalls a tougher looking kid

You never in your life before had saw….

She finished the song with a smattering of applause, and she smiled.  She hadn’t played the song for the audience, but herself.  It helped her relax to play something with such familiarity.  Without hesitation, she turned a switch on her guitar to activate the electric pickups, and with the right settings, it could sound like a Gibson electric.  Finding the right chord she started to play BB King’s “The Thrill is Gone.”

She played five more Blues in the slide style and a couple of Jazz songs before going back to her country roots, and by this time she had the audience.  There were even a few couples who chose to get up and start to dance.  

He Hung His Ol’ Saddle Up High At Th’ Barn

Made Her A Promise His Cowboyn’s Done

Said I’ve Won Them Big Buckles Done All I Can Do

Now I’m Ready To Spend My Last Years Here With You

Said We’ll Break Out Them Flat Lands Ain’t Been Plowed For Years

We’ll Plant Wheat An’ White Oats They’ll Do Well Up Here

Then I’ll Buy Us Some Baldies To Run In Th’ Hills

An’ I’ll Break Out Some Bad Ones Just To Help Pay Th’ Bills

‘Cause Th’ Winters Get Long Up Alberta Way

Cloud’s Get So Dark At Times There’s No Light Of day And Th’ Long Nights Get Lonely An’ Cold While She Waits As She Dreams Of A Cowboy Named Dawson LeGate…

…’Cause He Drawed Him A Bad One At Frisco That Fall

A Mean One To Ride Was A Chute Fightin’ Hoss

Th’ First Jump He Stumbled Fell When He Rolled

As His Neck Snapped Like Straw Dawson’s Body Grew Cold

Now Th’ Rag Weeds Have Taken Th’ Flat Lands Again

There’a A Few Strands Of Wire Where Th’ Fences Had Been

An’ Th’ Baldies Are Starvin’ In Th’ Hills Where They Graze

While She’s Rockin’ Th’ First Son Of Dawson LeGate

Her final song was a contemporary song that had been released a few months earlier with a pop sound.  There wasn’t any dancing but plenty of patrons were singing along, and Elizabeth hammed it up getting them involved singing back and forth. 

She was grinning widely  as she struck the final chord.  As the music faded away she leaned into the mic, “I just wanted to thank you all for indulging me, and in return you I hope enjoyed yourselves.  Good night.”

Q’orvha had almost forgot about her appointment for her initial physical in sickbay…partly because the ship’s surgeon had not yet stalked her down the hallways of the ship to physically drag her to a biobed, as sometimes occurred on Klingon Vessels with reticent patients. Throughout the KDF and the various privately operated House fleets, Klingon Medical Officers varied greatly in skill and mannerisms…many were little more than glorified combat medics pressed into the role and if you managed to get a mere “meatball” triage surgeon, let alone a fully accredited and educated physician, it was a sign of either luck, favour, or that your Captain had just taken an enemy medical officer as a trophy from a raid and pressed them into service…

…and things got even worse when a ship went pirate, as Q’orvha had done with her bird of prey…You could get rather talented doctors actually, it would tend to just cost you more then you bargained for, by dealing with the Orion Syndicate or by hiring on otherwise competent physicians who had their medical licenses revoked for a rather serious reason…and kidnapping officers was a much riskier proposition without the backing of an entire fleet and empire behind you and your vessel to ward off retaliations and rescue attempts.

So it was with all of that in mind, that Q’orvha approached her first physical of her assignment to the Aquarius, with a little trepidation…not that she let that show, as she strode boldly through the main doors and into the Sickbay proper, barking out a demand from under her shadowed hooded robe. “I seek this ship’s Chief Physician! I am here for my physical!”

Elisha had heard the doors to the sickbay swish open and had just been about to make his way out of his office when he’d heard the bellowing of what sounded like a very interesting individual. Walking out he surveyed the room and his eyes lit upon the form of a Klingon female dressed in a hooded robe. His eyebrows raised slightly, and then he approached her, having to tilt his head up a bit to be able to look her in the eyes.

“Seek no more,” he said with a bit of a smile. “Step over here and have a seat, this won’t take long.” he said, motioning her towards the nearest biobed.

“I’m Elisha, or Lieutenant Macomb, or even Doctor if that’s more your style. I believe you are our stratops officer, is that correct?” he asked as he studied the bed’s readouts and then picked up a medical tricorder to start doing a more detailed scan.

“An easy guess, Doctor.” Q’orvha answered, grimacing slightly as the bright light from the medical tricorder’s scanner crossed over her face. “Tch…even if I was to wear the uniform, I would still probably standout rather noticeably…not much difference then any other part of my past life, I suppose.”

“Well, I mean the good looks, the robes, you do cut a very demanding figure,” Elisha said with a cheeky grin and a mischievous glint in his eye. He finished his scan and snapped the tricorder shut. “So, anything you want, or need to report? Any recent injuries, illnesses, an illicit stash of bloodwine we can just keep between ourselves?” he asked as he leaned back against the biobed behind him and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Other then the very recent wound to my sense of professional decorum, inflicted by a young doctor…no.” Q’orvha responded, narrowing her gaze and studying the physician, her tone was cold but her face remained emotionless…more like a Vulcan in that moment, instead of a Klingon. “As a policy, I do make a habit of indulging in bloodwine…and any stashes that I may or may not maintain, would be for materiel of far more practical use…now have I question for you, Doctor.”

“…how are your are stereotypes?” The Klingon asked, her lips slowly turning into a wry grin. “They appear to have just suffered a rather severe disembowelment.”

Elisha gave her a level stare and then burst out laughing. “I think I’m going to like working alongside you, Commander. I’ve never had the ability to serve long term with any Klingons,” he said. “In fact, my only real experience with Klingons was shorts bursts at the Academy and a few very short interactions when I was on my last posting.”

“Then as your first actual case study, be warned that most Klingons would not consider me to be amongst their number.” Q’orvha replied. “Back to my health status?”

He uncrossed his arms and held out his hand. “So far as I can see from my scans you are in very near-perfect health, I’m clearing you for duty. If you ever need me, please feel free to stop by. Even if it’s just to give me another well-needed scolding,” he said with a grin.

Q’orvha glanced down at the doctor’s hand and then back to the man himself. “…good. I shall inevitably do so. Do you have any further questions?”

Still smiling, enjoying the woman’s very brusque demeanor more than she probably knew, Elisha shook his head and lowered his unshaken hand. “No, not at this time. What about you? Do you have any questions for me?” he asked, trying to get her to open up a bit. He’d obviously gotten off on the wrong foot, with her, completely unintentionally, and he wanted her to know that she could trust him, he just had to figure out how best to communicate that to someone he’d already managed to make angry.

”No, not at this time.” The Klingon woman echoed in response. “I am sure that if I do have any questions, I shall, as you said, ‘stop by’.”

With that, Commander Q’orvha turned brusquely on her heels, causing her heavy robe to briefly rise up in the swift motion, and made her way to the door. “Do not take this the wrong way, Doctor.” She said, stopping at the hallway door. “…but I, like most patients I am sure, hope to see of little of you and this particular room as possible in the future.”

Elisha stayed where he was a few more moments, a bemused expression on his face, and then gave a brief chuckle and headed off to see what else he needed to be doing.

USS Larius – Docked at Deep Space Nine

Captain Bates sat there behind her desk as she went over the reports on the ship’s resupply. It had been a long time since her and her crew had some shore leave, and now that leave was coming to a close, it was about time to get back to the routine. That is, until her concentration was interrupted by her Comms Officer from the Bridge. “Ma’am, you have an incoming transmission, coming from the Aquarius. It’s your son.”

Olivia smiled, “Thank you, Emily. I will take it in here.” Then she waited for her holodisplay to come to life only to show her son’s face. “Zane. It has been a while.”

USS Aquarius – Zane’s Office

Zane smiled, “Yeah, sorry about that, mom. Been hectic for the past several days.”

“What about the past several months? Haven’t received a transmission from you then.” She pointed out.

Zane chuckled and nodded his head. “Yeah, last several months been hectic too.”

“This something to do with your new posting?” She asked.

Zane smiled, figured his mother would know about that. “Yeah, something like that, among the last few months on the Ajax.”

“I heard about what happened to the Ajax in the Archanis Sector, and that you received a commendation too. Quite impressive what you did there.”

Zane shrugged his shoulders, “I did what anyone else would of have done, mom.”

“Maybe. But if it had been anyone else besides a Tactical Officer, they probably wouldn’t of been able to hit the right place to disable that Klingon vessel and prevent them from boarding the ship.”

Zane nodded his head, “Yeah, probably not.”

“So…tell me about Sarah.”

Zane sighed, “Well you were right. She chose the job over it.”

“I did warn you.”

Zane nodded his head. “I know you did.”

“Either way, you got what you wanted, right? Chief of Security and Tactical on board the USS Aquarius. Not a bad posting at all. Nothing like the Ajax but still.”

“A ship is just a ship, mom. I will go wherever Starfleet wants me or needs me. In this case, I got this assignment because I was being kicked off the Ajax because of how things turned out. Just wouldn’t work.” Zane explained.

“Probably for the best.” She told him.

“Probably. So I heard you’re at Deep Space Nine. Getting resupplied already?” He asked.

She smirked, “Now how did you find out about that?”

Zane shrugged, “I still have people on board.” He grinned.

She chuckled lightly and nodded her head. “Yes, we finally finished our lengthy exploration assignment about a couple weeks ago. We were ordered to get our resupply at Deep Space Nine, which gave me the opportunity to give the crew some shore leave. Our next exploration assignment is in the Gamma Quadrant.”

Zane raised his brows. “That explains why you’re at Deep Space Nine then. Well I do wish you the best and a uneventful assignment.”

She nodded her head again. “Quite perspective, I expect nothing less. And what? You think the Dominion would violate the treaty?”

Zane shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know what to think. They’ve been pretty good on following the treaty. But the Cardassians sure weren’t before.”

She sighed and shook her head, “No. No they weren’t and they paid the price. Price that I’m sure they have not forgotten. But do not worry, the Larius may be old but she’s in tip top shape. Got our upgrades two months ago. She’s not going away any time soon.”

Zane chuckled and then leaned forward on his arms on his desk. “How come you’re still a Captain, mom?”

Olivia smiled, “Just like a few from the Okinawa, Zane, I believe I can do more for Starfleet as a Captain than as an Admiral.”

“Do you still talk to them? I mean, Zemaa, Shasi and the others? What about Hayes?” He asked.

Olivia’s smile grew even more. “Yes, we do keep in touch, Zane. Especially Hayes. He is enjoying his retirement with his wife, Margaret.”

“Is their son, Dimitri, in Starfleet?”

“Of course! I believe he’s a Lieutenant Commander right now. Forgot which ship but that’s something anyone can pull up.”

Zane nodded his head, “Yeah.” He then leaned back into his seat and sighed.

Olivia knew that sigh all too well. “What’s up?”

Zane shrugged his shoulders, “Oh just a sudden course change. Apparently it’s something big too, because we’re traveling at maximum warp.”

“Oh? Where to?” She asked.

“Caldos apparently.”

Olivia raised her browse. “Interesting.”

“Don’t suppose you could shed some light on it?” He asked.

Olivia shook her head, “Not my place to go around your Captain, Zane. You know that. If your Captain hasn’t told you what it is about, it is either above your grade or it has nothing to do with your department.”

Zane nodded his head with a sigh. “I suppose you’re right.”

“Of course I am. I’m a Captain, and most of all, your mother. I’m always right.”

Zane scoffed then chuckled, “You’re going to be playing that card a lot, aren’t you?”

“All the time.” She smiled. “So what else is going on over there at your new assignment?”

Zane got up and left her screen for a moment, only to return with a mug in his hand, which he took a sip. He sat back down just after having placed the cup on his desk off screen. “Well for starters, I don’t have an Assistant yet but I do have a very enthusiastic Ensign who wants the job. Having done quite a few jobs for me without asking me for my approval or waiting for me to give her the order to do so.”

“Mmmm. Yeah, sounds like she’s quite eager to take the position. Though a little too eager.”

“Young and green, but quite eager indeed. Although, she does know what she is doing, so I may be considering it.”

“Just as long as you consider others and not just her.” She told him.

“Oh of course. Oh and she’s Klingon and reason I bring that up is because the Chief of the Strategic and Intelligence Department is also Klingon, and nearly seven foot tall.” He smirked.

“Oh dam. Got your hands full, don’t you?” She grinned.

Zane laughed a little, “Apparently so. I don’t know too much about her, the seven foot tall Klingon. All I know is, she’s a Lieutenant Commander, and she knows her stuff. Though upon first meeting her, she was in full Klingon getup. So I have zero clue as to what’s going on in that area but I’m sure it’s being handled. If it was to be my concern, someone would of told me about it.”

“Precisely. Anything else in particular?” Olivia asked.

Zane shrugged again, “I met someone who I had only known for a couple weeks…which was how long they were on board the Ajax for but that was back when I was an Ensign and they were just getting a ride. Interesting conversation we had. Kind of made me bring up you and dad.”

Olivia blinked, “Oh? How so?”

Zane sighed, “Oh we got into the whole conversation about relationships and keeping it separated from the job, stuff like that.”

“Ah. That would do it.” She smiled.

Zane nodded his head, “Yeah, yeah it would.” There was a bit of an awkward silence for a moment. “Well, it really was good talking to you again, mom. You know when we will be able to do this again? I mean, with you going into the Gamma Quadrant, wouldn’t communications be tricky?”

“You would think so but remember, the wormhole isn’t completely closed anymore, remember? And we got subspace relays all set up.. We’ll be fine.” Olivia smiled at him. “So no more being late on our calls, got it?”

Zane chuckled, “Yes, mom. Take care of yourself.”

“You too. Love you.”

“Love you too, mom.” Zane then pressed the button on his end and his holodisplay disappeared before him. He leaned back into his seat and sighed some. ‘Time to go see what I can do to help out with whatever it is that is going on at Caldos.’ he thought to himself as he pushed himself up out of his seat with his hands on his desk, grabbed his mug and headed out to find the Captain or First Officer.

Elizabeth was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes following her first night on the Aquarius.  In a near zombie-like fashion she shuffled to the replicator and got her a coffee and some toast with some strawberry jam.

She turned to find a seat.  It was busy this morning.   There was overlapping of shifts so those going into work and those calling it a night had found their way into the mess hall.

Then her gaze fell upon a face she recognized. Bourne? Baker?  No, neither of those, she thought to herself.   Then the pieces clicked into place. The USS Ajax. She  had spent two weeks on the ship with her cousin  trying to get home for leave.

His name is Bates. For the life of me I can’t remember his first name,  she thought. He was an Ensign then, now a full Lieutenant. 

She approached Zane and gave him a warm smile, “Fancy meeting you here.”

Zane was sitting there at one of the empty tables with a bowl full biscuits, few slices of bacon, all smothered in sausage and gravy, along with a mug of Raktajino. He also had a couple pads over to the side and one out in front of him, going over various security protocols, seeing if any of them needed to be updated. However, a familiar voice grabbed his attention that he looked up to see a Lieutenant standing by the table.

“Lieutenant…Kyle? Good to see you, please.” He pointed at the seat across from him with his hand.

Elizabeth sat down across from him and smiled, “You remembered me?  It’s been nearly a decade.”

Zane smiled right back, “Photographic memory. Saw your face and your name just popped right up.” He told her before he took a bite of his food, while checking off some things on his padd in front of him then took a drink of his Raktajino to wash the food down so he can speak freely.  “So I see we’re the same rank.”

“Uh yeah… so it would seem,” she replied.   Where’s he going with this? Elizabeth asked herself.  Is he flirting?  No, surely not.  I’m pretty sure he has a girlfriend.   Probably a wife by now.  “I honestly thought I’d be a Lieutenant Commander by now. Maybe even a full Commander if I were lucky.  But you know how it goes. When we make plans, God laughs.”

Tajir was sitting in the observation lounge just finishing setting up the impromptu meeting he had called which was in about fifteen minutes. Walking to the replicator, “Coffee, Black” Tajir replied as the cup appeared on the platform. Taking the cup he walked over to his chair, taking a sip he remembered he wanted Commander Makoto to be here as well to keep her in the loop of the situation and what was planned. “Commander Makoto please report to the observation lounge in fifteen minutes,” Tajir said over the comm channel.

Aki acknowledged the Captain’s request and then spent the next several minutes collecting any last-minute updates to present to him in the event he asked.

After the comm channel ended he looked over everything again to make sure he wasn’t missing anything, he didn’t want to leave out any information in a situation like this. He had asked the Chief Petty Officer to get him a list of current supplies, he knew they were marked for the Romulan refugees. He knew he would need to use some of it and would have to replace them once they stop back by Devron Fleet Yards. Once he got the report he began to read it while waiting on the others to arrive so he could start the meeting.

Elizabeth entered the conference room with a coffee in a stainless steel mug in one hand and her tool kit in the other.  Her ordinarily neat regulation bun had seen better days. She had resorted to a messy braid twisted around the hair tie and held in place with a thin metal tool.

“Captain,” she greeted.

Looking up from the PADD he was reading, “hello Lieutenant please have a seat.” Tajir replied with a smile as he could see that she also had a coffee in the mug. “Long day already?” Tajir asked as she looked like she had been busy down in engineering.

She sat down at a diagonal from the captain, and nodded, “Nothing so dramatic as all that. I’m addicted to coffee. It’s a real problem. And, I’ve been crawling around in Jeffrey’s tubes all morning tracking down gremlins.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle a little, “I used to have a coffee addiction though I have cut down quite a bit.” Tajir admitted with a smile, “did you find those gremlins?” He asked as she had sat down in the chair.

“Still tracking them down sir,” she replied before taking a sip of her coffee. “Nothing major.  A faulty, sonic shower here. A food replicator replicates the drink on the outside of the cup here.  Just those stupid little bugs that plague a ship right out of space dock.”

Back on the bridge, Aki had finished gathering what she needed, and motioned for Lieutenant Bates as the senior-most officer on the bridge to take the conn and then proceeded to make her way to the observation lounge as requested.

Tajir nodded as he was about to say something to the Lieutenant when the doors opened to reveal the Commander. Aki allowed the doors to close behind her before taking a seat adjacent to the captain. “ETA to Caldo remains unchanged Captain. We should arrive as scheduled,” she said briefly.

“Thank you, Commander,” Tajir replied with a smile.

Just as Aki finished what she was saying about arriving on schedule Elisha walked through the doors into the room. He had almost been late, and the annoyance of that was clear on his face. He had always hated being late, likely because of the consequences that it entailed when he was a child. He’d come prepared with a PADD, and a stylus, ready to take notes on anything he felt he’d need to have at hand for the upcoming mission. Seeing everyone already there, he nodded to each of them, and then took an empty seat. “I’m so sorry it took me so long to get here, Captain,” he said, not bothering with an excuse.

Looking at the Doctor as he entered, “it’s alright Lieutenant we are still waiting on one more person to arrive.” Tajir replied as the Doctor took his seat.

Calum had just gotten a cup of coffee when he remembered there was a meeting he needed to be at. He quickly dressed in the best fashion he could and headed for the main conference room seeing he was last he nodded to the group and took a seat. At times he was a man of few words and this was one of those times.

Seeing that everyone had arrived he decided to begin the briefing, tapping a couple of buttons on the console in front of him to activate the screen which showed the planet of Caldos as well as their weather control systems. “Starfleet Command had received a distress call from Caldos,” Tajir began as he pointed to the planet as well as its location. “Their weather control systems, as well as their seismic stabilizers, have stopped working and they are unable to repair them.” He replied pointing to the side where the information about the control systems was pulled up on the screen ahead of them.

Looking at them for a brief moment to see their reactions before he continued, “they have already experienced an earthquake which they sustained minor damage.” Tajir began taking a breath before he continued, “another earthquake can hit much more devastating than the last one.” He said pulling up information they had on Caldos earthquakes, “we are the closest ship to Caldos so our mission is to repair their systems to hopefully stop the next one from happening.” He finished as he looked at everyone.

“Lieutenant Kyle, you will be assisting their engineers in repairing their systems. I have sent you the schematics so you can prepare any parts that you might need once we arrive.” Tajir said as he tapped a few buttons sending her the information on her PADD.

Elizabeth nodded, “The seismic inhibitors will likely need an overhaul. Strangely, the weather controls are also malfunctioning. The link to the unrelated systems will need to be found. I suspect it’s in the power source. Maybe a contaminated plasma.”

“Commander Hyden, they do not have the necessary equipment to predict how long until the next earthquake hits or how severe it will be. You will bring your equipment and help keep track of any activity while the engineering teams do their repairs all they can speculate it could be days or hours until the next one.” Tajir finished talking looking at him.

Calum listened closely his mind looking at every possible outcome before he tried to make his determination. Even his equipment wasn’t always accurate, especially for that area. “Understood, I will make sure all teams are aware of what is going to happen, though we still may get hit by one. The equipment has been acting up lately and I have been working to recalibrate it, but it has some unexpected challenges.”

Nodding to Calum, Tajir finally turns his attention to Lieutenant Macomb, “you will take a medical team down and help with any wounded they may have.” Tajir replied, “there were still damages from the mild earthquake, and from what I am told they may have some wounded though that isn’t confirmed as of right now.” He finished as he looked at him for a moment.

Elisha had taken notes as the captain had been speaking and looked up as he finished telling him what his duties were going to be. “My team and I will be ready no matter what the situation is, sir. You can count on us to give them the best medical attention they can get.”

After he gave orders he turned to his first officer, “The rest of us will be helping with any cleanup and distribution of supplies which we do have currently in our cargo bays. I have made a list of what is needed if you could get those separated and ready to go when we arrive Commander Makoto.” Tajir said as he sent her the list of what was needed that we have onboard.

“Understood. I’ll assemble a team as soon as possible and aim to be ready for deployment when we arrive.” she replied, making a mental note to check with Macomb and Jackson after the meeting to see what personnel they could spare.

“Does anyone have any other questions?” Tajir asked looking at everyone in the room.

Elizabeth shook her head. She wouldn’t know more until she got down to the planet and inspect the faulty equipment.

Elisha mimicked the engineer, shaking his head in the negative. Even if he had questions, without the captain having extensive medical training as well as access to on the ground information about the status of the colonists he wouldn’t be able to answer them right now. He would just have to wait and see what the situation was like once they arrived and beamed down to start rendering aid.

Since no one had any questions, “dismissed.” Tajir replied as they all filed up to leave the observation lounge to go to their perspective places to prepare for when they arrived at Caldos in a few hours. Once they left Tajir sat down for a moment to gather his thoughts as well as his padds and shut down the computer, after a while, he got up and headed out onto the bridge and sat down in his chair.

Q’orvha braved the bright lights of the Aquarius’s hallway, her hood once again fully drawn over her head to shadow her gaze, and made her way with a determined purpose and the long stride of a predator on the move. She caught several glances of curiosity and concern from the various crew members she passed by, some scurrying out of her way as she stormed through the corridors. She felt uncomfortable with their stares…but it was less to do with worrying about what they might think of her and had more to do with the fact that they were watching her at all.

Stealth had long been the watchword of the majority of her varied careers and held-positions over her life…and she being seen by so many people in casual passing provoked an instinctual tinge of anxiety from the former assassin. Even when she was in command as a Captain, her bird-of-prey’s bridge layout meant that most of the her officers were staring at screens away from her the majority of the time…and bird-of-preys were the go to stealthship for most of the Empire as well, and she reckoned she had relied on her cloaking device and stealth tactics more then most other Captains in the Klingon Defence Force.

In fact, one of the charges raised against her personally when the house she had served suffered it’s mass discommendation from the Empire, was cowardice and dishonourable conduct in battle, because of her ship’s recored use of such things to an extent beyond what most other Klingons did.

It was almost comical, Q’orvha thought, how what Klingons would espouse as pragmatic and sensible in most scenarios, would suddenly become a black mark and stain on your honour, when the need to politically remove someone arrived…but that was also another form of pragmatism…and also one that with the right evidence, had been shown itself to be dishonourable, stealing the honour from another Klingon…

…but alas, she had found no evidence in the past decades to exonerate herself or nor resurrect her damned and dismantled House from oblivion…and hence, as a “special asset” for Starfleet Intelligence, she now strode through overly bright halls of a Federation Starship, on a mission to complete some personal tasks, with no shadows to hide in and no escape from the staring of the bewildered locals.

She eventually reached her destination, and double-checked the writing on the door to make sure. CMDR. AKIYAMA MOKOTO, FIRST OFFICER’S QUARTERS.

Finding that to be acceptable for her purposes, the Klingon hit the side panel and elicited from the computer the sounds of a squawking door chime.

“Enter.” Aki said as she sat on one of her dining chairs with her left ankle perched upon her right knee, massaging the first of her swollen feet. It had felt like a long day, and she had anticipated getting out of her boots hours ago, but her immediate duties prevented such luxuries.

Looking up at the parting doors as they hissed open, she eyed the silhouette of the towering Klingon female backlit by the corridor lights whom she recognized as the ship’s Chief Strategic Operations Officer. “Commander,” she began, addressing her guest “What can I do for you?”

”I require your acquiescence to a change to the bridge duty schedule.” Q’orvha replied, stepping through the door which promptly closed shut behind her. “Specifically, to do with my duty assignments.”

Aki took a more relaxed position with both feet firmly planted on the floor and her gaze became more hesitant at the idea of having to change up the schedule, but for the moment gave the Klingon the benefit of the doubt, “What did you have in mind? As I’m sure you’re aware, the schedule is composed placing people with the necessary skillsets where they are needed most. If you can assure me that your changes won’t hinder the natural workflow of the bridge crew, I’m sure your request can be accommodated.”

“I cannot account for all variables, but the change would definitely improve my own input into the workflow.” Q’orvha replied. “Currently, I am assigned as the Watch Commander for Gamma Shift…I would like to switch for Delta, the so called ‘night shift’ instead.”

Aki listened attentively to Q’orvha’s request. It was not unreasonable, but there was still a reason lacking in the request. “Go on…” she replied, standing to walk to her cabin furnished desk with computer terminal, standard issue to senior officers.

”My eyes.” Q’orvha replied, pointing one of her razor sharp nails at the lavender orbs beneath the shade of her hood. “A curse of birth, my blood-coloured eyes are rather sensitive to the bright lights of the other 3 shifts…whereas Delta shift on the Bridge typically has dimmed ambience and a reliance on mostly just the ‘running lights’, to maintain an artificial sense of circadian rhythm and time.”

With the knowledge that the request was medical in nature, Aki pulled up the bridge duty schedule and studied it for several minutes. Lieutenant Whitmore was listed as the Watch Commander for Delta shift. Quite amenable according to his personnel file and therefore she did not foresee any issues in reassigning him to Gamma shift. It was unfortunately too late to make the necessary changes for the upcoming shift, but she had a plan if Q’orvha was open to it. “I do not see a problem in making the change, but given the timeframe of your request I can give you the choice of two options. You may either start the new rotation tomorrow night and take tonight off. I can have someone replace you on Gamma shift to accommodate your light sensitivity. Alternatively, You can begin the Delta shift rotation tonight alongside Lieutenant Whitmore. Whitmore would have the conn. However in the event of any emergencies, as the ranking officer, you would be in charge.”

“I do not see any issues with the latter as a short term solution.” Q’orvha replied with a nod. “It would also allow for me to observe the rest of the current Delta crew before taking command of them myself. I find this acceptable.”

“Very well. I will make the appropriate changes and inform Lieutenant Whitmore to expect you tonight. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

The Klingon woman went silent for a moment, as she gave the question a good long thought before finally answering. “No, I do not believe I have any other concerns or issues at this early into the mission…do you have any for me?”

“Not at this time. Since I did not sleep all that well last night, I am eager to get off my feet, crawl into bed with a good book and get some extra sleep. Have yourself a good night Commander. I will see you in the morning to relieve you.”

“Hah.” Q’orvha chuffed out a small laugh. “I am quite familiar with that feeling. Indeed, I shall meet you upon the morn. May you rest well, Commander.”

They still had a little bit of time before reaching Caldos. Deciding that she could use some “fresh air” she returned to her quarters.

She changed out of her uniform and into a pair of tight blue jeans complete with a brown leather belt embellished with silver conchos and a large belt buckle with “Champion” inscribed across the top above a horse and rider. She completed the look with a white tee-shirt, brown cowboy boots, and a black Stetson cowboy hat.

Digging through her desk drawer she extracted an isolinear chip containing her holodeck programs. Inspiration struck suddenly. She sent a message to Commander Q’orvha inviting the Klingon woman to join her.

–Holodeck 2–
It was night on Terra Alpha. It was crisp with the scents of pine trees heavy in the air. It was just chilly enough that a sweater or campfire was welcomed. Above the twin moons, one full, one waxing, lit up the night sky exposing the contour or rough mountainous terrain.

In the valley below at the junction of the North and South forks of the Trinity River sat the town of Riley City twinkling in the dark. With only 5,000 residents Riley City was a small town personified.

Elizabeth Kyle sat on a log near a popping campfire. The south fork of the Trinity River chuckled over the rocks behind her concealed from view by the forest.

Elizabeth was strumming a holographic guitar playing chords, but no song in particular. She had a coffee in a tin cup on the log beside her, and pot sitting on coals bubbling away, and a chunk of meat on a spit sizzling away.

The ambience was briefly, though abruptly, disrupted by the appearance of the Holodeck arch, complete with it’s doors sliding open to let in the light of the ship’s corridor behind them. Standing in the arch was the silhouette of a tall robed figure who strode forward into the holographic mountains, as the doors closed and the arch once again disappeared.

“You requested my presence, Lieutenant?” Q’orvha inquired as she pushed her hood back, revealing the long oily black dredded locks of hair that contrasted against the ghostly pale skin of her face, which almost seemed to dimly glow in the firelight as she approached the camp. While the robes of a Klingon Captain remained, she had traded in the black and grey armoured uniform for instead a pastiche combination of various fur and leather civilian clothes, also cut in the Klingon style. Of note, the borders of her open robes framed the thick fur low-cut collar of the leather jerkin beneath, made from sort of crimson haired beast.

“‘Request’ seems a little formal,” Elizabeth replied with a smile.  “I just thought of all the people on this ship it would be you that would appreciate this the most. It’s not Klingon,  obviously,  but at the very least it will give you a respite from the bright lights.  Besides, it’s chance for us to get to know each other better. We are all on this ship together, and we need to lean to trust our shipmates.”

”There is utility in what you suggest.” The Klingon commented with a nod, as she moved to sit down near the holographic flames. “Is this a simulation of your home world, Lieutenant Kyle?”

“Call me Liz,” she said as she bent forward and turned the meat to get an even roast.  “And yes, for the most part it is a simulation of home.”  She pointed North towards the twinkling lights of the city below, “My home town, Riley City. My dad owns a general store catering to the locals, ranchers, tourists and militia stationed at Camp Ryder.  We’re on my cousin’s ranch right now the Rafter T.

“In high school we used to have parties here in this very clearing.   We generally just made bad teenage decisions.   Well, no one drove home, so I guess that was one bad decision we never made.  But, one or two of the girls did get pregnant.   Not me, by the way,” she added hastily.   “And we got very drunk on multiple occasions.”

The coffee pot started boiling over and Elizabeth pulled it off the fire and splashed cold water into the kettle which settled the grounds to the bottom. “Coffee? Honestly,  I don’t think there’s a better coffee in the galaxy than campfire coffee.  Even better than raktajino,” she teased.

Q’orvha glanced over at the offered beverage and raised her ridged brows at the claim. “That is a bold claim, Lieuten-…Liz. Let us see if it holds true. Is it holographic? Replicated? Or did you actually bring real ingredients to a fire composed of resequenced photons and force fields?”

“In this case the ground coffee is replicated.   I haven’t been to Earth in sometime and ran out of the good stuff a long time ago.”  She poured the coffee into a tin cup and handed it to Q’orvha.   “Creme and sugar in the pouch next to you if you want it.”  Elizabeth filled her own cup and sat down on a log and sipped it black.

“That meat is real,” she said absently. “Most folk in the Federation balk at the idea of eating real beef, but since Klingons don’t always kill their food before eating it I figured you wouldn’t have such objections.”

“No objections…” Q’orvha replied as she took the offered cup and took a large swig of the bitter liquid, almost as in defiance of the boiling temperature. She paused for a moment after, savouring the after-taste on her tongue, analyzing the flavour and grit. “Could be stronger…and I usually take my coffee cold…but not at all bad, all considered.”

She laughed,  “I may have oversold it a bit, but,  this is my prefered brewing method.  But, it will continue to get stronger the longer it sits. ”

“In the monastery where I was raised…” Q’orvha’s voice grew noticiabley more quiet as she stared long into the dark pool of liquid in her grasp. “…the raktajino was made communally in a large cauldron that had been continually brewing for four centuries, without pause, each sister adding the ingredients to fill it back up to the brim each morning, before it could be depleted…I was practically weened on that stuff as a mewling babe.”

Elizabeth nodded, “A Klingon version of perpetual stew?”  She lifted the roast out of the fire. There was a small table near the fire to which she set the meat onto a carving board and cut thick slices off the tender beef and forked them onto polymer plates.

Using the same for she stabbed a potato wrapped in tin foil from the coals of the fire.  She peeled the foil away and let it fall onto Q’orvha’s plate.  She split the potato and added a healthy dollop of butter before handing it to the Klingon woman.   She repeated process for her own meal.

Handing the plate to her companion she returned to her seat. “I’m sure it’s not what you are used to, but I hope you like it. So, monastery eh?   What was that like?”

“Incomparable.” Q’orvha answered. “A completely different experience from what I have gleaned is typical of others.”

Q’orvha studied the potato for a moment, touching it some hesitantly with one of her sharpened nails. “I was raised by the entire monastery, with strict training in a variety of subjects…the Daughters of Gre’thor were an order of infiltrators and assassins…in the bygone era, we were considered witches as we mixed advance science with the theatrics of mysticism.

“We existed on the fringes of Klingon society, living remotely in our mountain monasteries, some said to predate our ascendancy to the stars.” The Klingon paused for a moment to take a bite out of the buttery starchy dish. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but swallowed and continued her recounting. “…we only left to acquire what little we needed from the outside world, or when we were petitioned for a job…killing the dishonourable and ‘dragging them down to Gre’thor’, in exchange for…’payment’…”

“And I thought I grew up in a society that turned it’s back on our own people,” Elizabeth quipped and cut into the meat, chewed and swallowed. “I have to be honest with you, it sounds a bit like a cult.  I confess my ignorance on Klingon culture, but that doesn’t seem like a very good way to grow up.”

“It was a cult.” Q’orvha retorted with a chortling laugh. “The Daughters of Gre’thor were a religious order that traced it’s routes back to the times before Kahless the Unforgettable himself; And continued right up until the Civil War between Chancellor Gowron and the House of Duras…but it was one of the few places were an unwanted defective mutant like myself felt wanted and accepted…and it will finally have died out when I draw my last breath.”

Q’orvha placed the potato dish to one side and picked up her serving of meat again with her hands and tore into it. “…it is an irony. That monastery gave me the skills I needed and have used to survive up right to this moment…but it could not save itself as a whole, from the machinations and ambitions of just a few members of the High Council. Now the monasteries lay throughout the Spine of the Fehk’lhr, as burned out and gutted ruins.”

She tore another bite’s worth of meat and began chewing, though not talking. “What about yourself? You mentioned a society that had turned it’s back on it’s people? Now, that doesn’t sound much like the typical view of a Federation citizen…especially an Earthling.”

“Well okay, maybe a little of an exaggeration, but not by much to be honest. The colony was founded by a man named Nicholas Ryder.  He was a former Starfleet officer and thought we had strayed from our paths a humans. Living in a society that wanted for nothing getting ‘fat and happy’. His words, not mine.  With the help of his brother and some friends they built a colony that turned it’s back on utopia.  Reintroduced money, a credit system based on latinum.  Transporters, and replicators were available but discouraged. Instead we used cars, worked the land or business. We grew our own food, and the surplus was traded back to the Federation. Take AlphaTech, for example. It was founded by Ryder’s brother Tony, and there’s likely torpedos or other non-replicatable items on this ship made by the company.  I suppose I grew up in a cult.  Not too dissimilar from the Amish on Earth or you as well.  So maybe it wasn’t such a bad childhood for you. I think I had a good one.”

“There are similar groups within the Klingon Empire, who  reject technological and social progress in favour of trying to live a more so-called ‘pure’ existence…hunters who roam the backwoods of the lowlands, wielding not but spears chipped from volcanic obsidian and wearing naught by the crudely sheared hides of their kills. They are definitely cults…” The Klingon woman paused to take another bite. “…the Daughters of Gre’thor did not count amongst them. We embraced the advanced sciences and technologies of our enemies of old, long before the rest of our kin…though time took it’s toll and the rest of the Empire caught up. The old technology, the ancient generators and environmental systems that festooned the monastery, that I cut my ‘technical fangs’ on in my youth, was not used because of self-imposed self-limiting dogma…rather it was because they simply continued to work, more or less, and replacing them unnecessarily was…impractical.

“Since you did have such limitations, how did you end up in Starfleet? As an engineer, no less?” The Klingon inquired, once again ready to tear into the meat. “Pubescent Rebellion? The urge to have what had been denied to you by dogma?”

Elizabeth laughed,  “Not exactly technologically limited per se. It was more of a social thing.  But, yeah we are encouraged to work with our hands when practical.  Build it rather than just replicate it. Grow it, and cook it instead of talking to a box. So, I suppose that lends itself to the job.  You have to think about how it’s done.  The inner workings, and how they go together.”

“Ah…similar theory to my training…” Q’orvha nodded before taking another deep swig of coffee. “…though the desired outcome of learning biology and engineering principles had less to do with how a body or system is put together…and more about how to take them apart. You dodged the question however…I asked how one with such proscriptions against technology, social or otherwise, ended up as an Engineer in Starfleet.”

Elizabeth took a sip of her coffee,  “That isn’t really not strange if you know my family.   I got an Aunt who’s an Admiral,  and numerous cousins in Starfleet, though my parents never did.  They did come here to get away from technology. And let’s face it, every human teen sees elsewhere as better than what they have.”

”I am told others of my species often feel the same in their adolescence…though Klingons don’t spend as much time between youth and adulthood as you humans do.” Q’orvha turned to stare into the campfire. “And some of us, even less than that.”

The Strategist glanced back to her food and then let out a chuckle. “What did you say this tuber was again? A po-tau-tow?”

Elizabeth laughed,  “Close enough.  Potato.”

”Well, however you say it, it seems to bring out the worst of melodramatics in me.” Q’orvha let out a loud belly laugh and then picked up the still steaming potato and bit it in half, swallowing the buttery portion whole, skin and all. “It’s no heart of targh, but it isn’t completely without it’s merits. There are the darkest methods of torture that could not have gotten so much out of me with so little effort…Qa’plaH, Elizabeth Kyle! I may need to call upon you and your Po-tay-toes, next time I need to perform an interrogation!”

“Q’aplaH my friend,” Elizabeth replied with a wry smile amused by this Klingon. “Thank you for sharing a meal with me in this unorthodox manner. I was feeling a bit homesick.”

“That is a sentiment I know all too well.” Q’orvha took another bite from the potato and then gazed up at the holographic starry sky projected above the two women. “May our homes, whether near or far, here or gone, be remembered in our hearts to strengthen our souls…”

Tajir was sitting on the bridge, he knew he needed to get down to the medical bay for his annual physical. He tried to put it off as long as he could though he could only put it off for so long before being hunted down by the doctor himself. Letting out a sigh he turned to his first officer letting her know that he would be heading down for his physical and that she had the bridge. Standing up he headed for the turbolift, “medical bay.” Came his reply as the doors closed shut behind him and began to move towards its destination. Standing there with silence other than the nose of the lift whooshing moving.

After a while the lift stopped with the doors sliding open to reveal the corridor, walking out he began to walk down the halls aways until he reached where the medical bay was located. He stood just at the door but far enough away where the door didn’t activate and open. Taking a moment to take a breath and a way to dodge his physical, though he thought better of it as there was no true way to dodge it. After wrestling the thought he finally entered the medical bay and looked around to see that nurses and other doctors were preparing for their mission.

“Excuse me, where can I find Lieutenant Macomb?” Tajir asked one of the nurses that walked past him.

The nurse looked back at the Captain, “he should be in trauma bay one preparing for any injuries.” The nurse replied pointing in the direction where it was located before moving on with what she was doing.

Tajir nodded and headed in the direction where he was told to go until he arrived to find the doctor, standing there for a few moments as he noticed the doctor hadn’t noticed him yet. ‘You can still run,’ he said in the back of his mind as she shook the thought away before he was tempted to do so. “Sorry if I am disturbing you, Lieutenant, I am here for my physical.” He finally spoke as now it was too late to turn and leave.

Elisha had just finished up the task he was working on and was getting ready to seek out something else to do when he heard the captain’s voice from behind him. He smiled, acknowledging that sometimes the universe provided just what was needed at just the right time. Turning he broadened the smile, and replied, “Not at all, Captain. To tell you the truth I’m always happy when I don’t have to hunt people down,” he said, teasingly. He knew very well that most people hated boarding physicals, and most of them hated being around sickbay, or doctors in general as well.

“Let’s get you up on a biobed and get started,” he said, indicating a nearby bed and grabbing a medical tricorder. “Got anything to report? Any new injuries, or illnesses I should know about? Stuff like that?” he asked, as he started running the tricorder over the man from the head down.

Tajir hopped up on the biobed as he spoke, “other than being a joined Trill with the Derohl symbiont second host.” Tajir replied looking at him as he began running his tests, “nothing new anywhere else that I can remember.” Tajir added with a smile as he worked.

Elisha glanced up, head still down, and smiled. “Well, at least that isn’t new, and you’re just finding out about it. I bet that would be sort of awkward,” He said with a chuckle. He continued scanning and then snapped the tricorder closed.

“Well, looks like you are in perfect health, and from what I could see in your medical records there’s nothing I see that needs to be worried about. I’d say you are more than fit for duty,” he added.

“That’s a good thing,” Tajir said with a chuckle. “I’d hate to start a new command just to be told I am unfit out of the bat, though I am sure it happens from time to time,” Tajir replied as he looked at the doctor.

Elisha nodded, grinning from ear to ear, “I bet that would be one hell of an awkward meeting between a new captain and the ship’s CMO, that’s for sure. Do you have any questions for me? Anything you need or want to know while your down here in the dread depths of sickbay?”

“How’re things going on preparedness for our arrival to Caldos?” Tajir asked as he was here anyways would save him getting a report later.

Elisha leaned back against the biobed behind him, perching on the edge, and clasped his hands in front of him. “As good as it’s going to get, honestly. Until we can get there and really assess the situation there’s not a lot more we can do. I’ve got my team running through preparedness drills for various situations, we’ve gone over the medical stores multiple times, and at this point, it’s just a waiting game. But we will definitely be ready for anything you need from us.”

Tajir nodded as he understood that there was only so much that could be prepared for without knowing what to prepare for. “We should arrive in a few hours,” Tajir replied as he hopped down from the biobed. “Be prepared to beam down once we arrive,” Tajir added as he didn’t have anything else he wanted to ask the doctor at this point.

“Most definitely, Sir,” Elisha replied, “and if you need anything in the interim, you know where to find me!”

“Will do, and if you need anything from me you know where to find me as well, I will let you get back to work,” Tajir replied with a smile as he headed out of the medical bay and back towards the bridge.

Elisha watched the man go, thinking wistfully of Gejad as he did so, and then shook his head, and dispelled the cobwebs of that particular mental trail. With a sigh, he placed the tricorder back where he’d gotten it from and headed back towards his office to go over the schedule he’d worked out for when they arrived at Caldos. He knew it was already in order, but sometimes it helped to give it another glance.

Some time earlier in the day, Zane had requested both departments of Security/Tactical and Strategic Ops/Intel to conduct a meeting together in probably one of the largest department auditorium/briefing room available on board the Aquarius. He walked through the corridor with his padd in hand, still going over reports coming in from his department as well as specific details about the ship they are serving on. Simply just making sure he was prepared for this collaboration between the two departments. Zane reached the door that led to the very briefing room, the room that he expects to see the entire staff of both departments in one single room.

“Lieutenant! Sir!” A voice came from just down the corridor, a voice he partially recognized and also starting to worry. Zane turned his head and he saw the very Ensign that he had hoped would be in the briefing room as well, but apparently was not. “Ensign Utsall. Running late?”

“No, sir! Not my intention.” She told him.

Zane sighed, “Except you’re out here, and not in there per requested timeframe.” Zane told her.

She lifted her chin up a bit, trying to hide her embarrassment, or anger…he isn’t sure just yet, still has to figure it out. “I just wanted to give you this before the start of the briefing, sir.” She held out a large padd.

Zane once more sighed, taking the padd from her and looking it over. “What are these?” He pointed at the dots.

“Locations on where some hidden Phaser Pistols would be, in case we were boarded and needed to act quickly.” She explained then pointed at the bullet points. “Each one is explained here on where they would be located.”

Zane licked his lips, trying to not sigh again especially when he felt a little annoyed. “Ensign. You are once again doing something without being told.”

“But, sir!”

Zane held up his hand. “I will take this and go over it with Commander Q’orvha. But this is the last time. You are not to do anything unless told to, understood?”

“Understood, sir.”

Zane saw the look of defeat in her eyes and couldn’t resist sighing, placing his hand on her shoulder to keep her from activating the door sensor. “Look. If no one else proves to be a worthy candidate of being my Assistant, I’ll consider giving it to you. But it is not a promise. All right?”

“Yes, sir!”

Zane now saw the look of pride…maybe joy…in her eyes, before he had let her go and watched the double door split open to let her in. It’s now or never, so Zane followed right behind her and headed straight for the podium in the front. He knew this briefing room also had an office for department heads to use, but he was not going to assume that Commander Q’orvha was in there or not. He turned his attention to the crew of both departments who are in their seats, aside from Ensign Utsall sitting down right now. “We will begin once the Chief of Strategic Ops and Intel arrives.” He told them while setting his padds down on the podium, turned around and started setting up the display screen to bring up the Master System Display (MSD).

Instead, the screen brought up the image of a shadowed figure in a dark room. “I am already here, Lieutenant”. The figure spoke, before the image vanished and the screen finally brought the schematics and information monitoring feeds that were expected from the Master Systems Display.

To the side of the briefing hall, a door opened to the darkened office and the tall pale figure of an athletic woman, dressed in Klingon-designed armour and a heavy brown robe, strode forth from the shadows with the hood of her robe pulled long over her head.

“Computer, lower ambient lighting by 5 deflhr.” She stated with fanged teeth brimming behind thinned greyish lilac lips and the computer beeped in acknowledgement as the briefing room darkened to an ambience that was just slightly brighter then what one could expect on the Aquarius’s bridge when a Red Alert was ordered.

“Pardon the theatrics.” The Klingon woman stated as she pulled her hood back, revealing ivory skin and darkly dyed and thickly dreaded hair, bound back in bands of metal and leather. “The opportunity to make such an entrance is…very rare, in my current line of work so I decided to allow myself the indulgence when it presented itself.”

Zane had blinked when the screen had changed like that before returning to where he was setting it up to. Then his attention diverted to the door when it opened and watched as the hooded figure, dressed in entirely a Klingon outfit while the lights were dimmed to their request. Zane couldn’t help but smirk a little at the comment and then shrugged his shoulders. He could understand the reasoning for dimming the lights but being entirely in a Klingon outfit? Either it was fused to their skin, or they came from some assignment and had not changed to the Starfleet uniform.

“If I was in your line of work, I probably would have done the same.” He then cleared his throat and looked at the team before them. “As some of you may be aware, I am Lieutenant Zane Bates, the Chief of the Security and Tactical Department on board the Aquarius. And the woman with the most theatric entrance I’ve ever seen in my career, is Lieutenant Commander Q’orvha, the Chief of Strategic Operations and Intelligence Department. If you don’t mind the introduction, Commander.” He smirked before continuing. “The goal here is to get ourselves familiarized with one another, because we will be working closely together for the safety and security of the entire crew on board this vessel, including the Command Crew, which consisted of but not limited to, the Captain and First Officer. If anything happens to them, we would objectively failed our jobs, then the risk of morale and a weakened command structure would put the entire crew at risk and we cannot allow that. We will not allow it.” Zane then stepped away from the podium to give Commander Q’orvha a chance to add their piece.

Q’orvha walked up to the podium, which seemed like a child’s prop in comparison to her almost 7-foot tall frame. “Indeed. My department is relatively small here, all things considered…just a handful of forensic data analysts and a few encryption specialists, plus the odd expert in foreign affairs that we pull aside from Commander Hyden’s cultural xenology pool on a case by case basis…The Aquarius’s main mission after all is one of humanitarian aide, and the Resolute Class in this current configuration is a second tier cruiser, at best. Not a lot of berths devoted to tactical specialists and warriors.

”To be absolutely clear on this, just because Starfleet has assigned a non-combat configured vessel to a relief and aide mission, allow yourselves neither complacency nor apathy. Even if our mission was in the heart of the Federation and not on the shattered and lawless frontier of the former Romulan Neutral Zone and border worlds, we should be ever vigilant and ready to safeguard this vessel, her crew, and the mission with our very lives, should it come to that.”

Q’orvha’s voice bellowed out through the hall, even without the help of the audio enhancement systems installed in the podium. Her accent gave harsh emphasis every now and then to certain words, so that the assembled audience could feel the weight of those words in their bone marrow. She had once commanded a Klingon Bird of Prey…and captaining a Klingon ship often required those dramatic skills, both to keep the crew inspired and also in line. Life on any Klingon vessel, even the largest of the Negh’var dreadnaughts, was often cramped, harsh, and smelly…balancing morale and discipline were literally a matter of life and death for any commanding officer in that fleet.

Doubly so when such a vessel went rogue and it’s crew turned to outright piracy.

”The security briefing reports that will be sent to you on our primary area of operations barely cover a mere third of what potential and certain dangers await us…and believe me, as I have already read the reports on this ship’s compliment of crew and materiel…we will be running the risk of finding ourselves understaffed and outgunned, especially for a ship of this size.” The Klingon paused, both to let her prognosis sink in and to take a deep breath to refill her lungs. “The first step to victory is knowledge; Without it, we enter each fight having already lost…hence this briefing.

”Lieutenant Bates,” Q’orvha said, turning to the Security Chief. “Is there any particular area or threat you would like to start with?”

Zane lightly cleared his throat before stepping up to her side at the podium. “I doubt that we will need to cover the Borg threat, as we have not had much contact with them since the Battle of Sector Zero Zero One. But we will go over it another time. I believe our main concern, since we are still in the region of Federation space that borders closely to the three Romulan Governments, try to prepare for possible incursions. Such as the Tal’Shiar. Then there is the matter of any rogue Klingon factions that has the capability of surgically altering one of their own to appear almost perfectly Human, and I have no doubt that they have improved to avoid any discrepancy from medical scans. Long as we prepare ourselves for these particular threats, we should not have a problem with any other threat out there. But the longer we work together, the more we will prepare ourselves for the unexpected, Borg, Species Eight Four Seven Two, Hirogen and even Dominion. No doubt there will still be Changelings who disagree with the treaty that ended the war.” Zane paused for a moment to think it over before looking to the Commander. “You have been out there more often than I have, that I have no doubt. Which do you think is best to cover first?”

“Well, I doubt we’ll have to worry about Hirogen hunters in the Beta Quadrant.” Q’orvha commented. “And while the Neutral Zones could be rife for infiltration opportunities back during the Dominion War, it’s been over three decades since and the collapse of the Star Empire makes for a less tempting target for shapeshifters…a supernova did more to destabilize this region then the Great Link ever did before, during, or after that conflict.”

The Klingon went silent for a moment, memories of the Dominion War surfacing up…she had been a young captain at the time, assigned as gin’tak for a great house to recently command an old bird of prey in their private fleet. When War was called for, first against the Cardassian Union, then the Federation, and then finally the Dominion themselves, all of those private fleets and house crews were absorbed into the Klingon Defence Force as was custom.  She had spent most of that time raiding in small “flocks of prey”, or delivering allied special forces and intelligence agents behind enemy lines…Starfleet Shadow Operations teams, Reman Commando squads, Klingon Raiders…even Tal Shiar Agents (on two occassions at least, that she could confirm…one could never be certain with the Tal Shiar). It was necessary work and she excelled as a stealthship commander…but it had also kept her out of most of the bigger and more glorious combat.

Any other young klingon warrior would’ve grown restless in the subtle and inglorious nature of the tasks: Q’orvha had thrived on them, even the challenge of actively avoiding conflict that would complicate or give their mission away.

“That all said…” Commander Q’orvha stated. “The Borg and 8472 have the technology to pose a possible threat anywhere in the galaxy, no matter how improbable these days…however, the Borg do deserve a special mention here, or rather, their technology does.

“Let’s get that out of the way first.” The Klingon picked up a PADD from the podium and after a brief moment to retrieve the information and decrpyt it with her security clearance, before displaying the file on the large viewscreen on the wall behind her. Even with her clearance, some sections were still blanked out.

“The Borg have always had an interest in the Neutral Zone and the first contact with a Beta Quadrant species and the Borg is believed to have occured in the Mid-2300s with the complete destruction of several Romulan borderworlds on their side of the Zone. In fact, it is believed that it was these string of mysterious attacks that caused the reversal of the Insular Policies by the Senate and a return to acting openly on the Galactic stage once more.”

Q’orvha could almost feel her voice becoming flat and monotone as she delivered the information. Such reports were often better with a fair bit of poetic flair that she just did not have in her at the moment. “Since the collapse of the Star Empire, more and more information has been ascertained as to the state of the Borg encounters with the Romulans and their response. Until very recently, this included extensive research projects into salvaged borg technology, including a damaged Cube known as the Relic, which was opened up to joint scientific study after it fell under the purview of the Romulan Free State…in addition, a humanitarian measure was taken to free and rehabilitate many of the drones still alive, many of them Romulan. You may look all this up by searching the Computer for the term ‘ExBee’ or ‘The Relic’…which last I heard had been crashed into a planet that is now under the Federation’s protection…so while I doubt the Borg themselves might show themselves, do be aware of their technology showing up amongst the other actors. Pirates and Mercenaries are rather…adaptable…when it comes to combining the technology of others…much like the Borg.”

Zane didn’t see the need to add more so he remained silent and listened closely, learning more from this briefing than he thought he would.

“With that out of the way…I would say that the most significent powers in this region are as follows: The 3 Successor States of the Romulans, meaning the Free State, the Restored Empire, and Republic…” Q’orvha tapped on her padd and a threat assessment summary of each of the three romulan organizations appeared. “…though many of these are suspected to just be puppets of the Tal Shiar in the end.

“The bloated Corpse of the Star Empire has also brought the Klingon Empire more in to the region, often just small vessels…scouts, raptors and bird of preys, acting as privateers and raiders. This also includes more rogue elements such as exiles, which brings us to the next major players: Piracy and the Criminal elements”  Exiles and pirates like myself. Q’orvha thought as she worked the padd again, this time bringing up a string of cycling Wanted “sheets” across the screen. “The Neutral Zone, as a political void between two opposed forces, had always served as a staging area for pirates, criminals, fences, information brokers, the Orion Syndicate and Ferengi Free-Marauders since it’s creation.

“As you reach the point known as the Triangle, the region of space created by the joining of the three neutral zone borders between the Romulans, Klingons, and the Federation, the more clustered these honourless dregs and blackguards become.”

Zane waited patiently before speaking up. “With that said, everyone will be given plenty of material to study up on. We will give you some time but eventually we will schedule a holodeck simulation of how to deal with these threats if they ever came on board the ship or if we encountered them while on any type of away mission. You could be simply escorting a bunch of scientists and them stumble upon a hive nest or ambushed by pirates. How you handle those situations and protect the lives around you, is something you should know and be prepared for.”

Zane then smirked, “Not to toot our own horns prematurely but I intend for us to be the best in the fleet and if anyone wishes to challenge us in that regard…we’ll think of a challenge that we can best them in. So I know that we will be asking a lot from you, and I mean it, but try to have fun with it. You learn the best when you’re in a good mood, so if I see any frowny faces the next time we all gather, you’re going to be the first to endure our tests.” Zane then waited to see if the Commander had anything left to say.

“…right.” Q’orvha eventually replied to the Lieutenant, after a pregnant pause and a long side-glance. While personal discipline had never been a standardized thing across Klingon vessels, with carousing and other frivolities being a matter of course to maintain morale of restless warriors, Q’orvha could not help but feel some rising concerns with the light-handedness displayed by the younger Security Chief so far…then again, this was really the first time she had ever spent with the man and her own internalized instruction told her to resist harsh judgements on initial assumptions.

”I shall have summaries of reports and available information on each potential known threat and hazard copied and send to each of your personal datapads over the next few days…study them, memorize them, let them guide your own investigative research to gain more depth.” The Klingon Strategist spoke, her voice emphasizing with seriousness and severity. “The mind is the weapon with the greatest potential in any scenario, and knowledge is the fuel that makes it run. Feed it well and win a hundred battles before they even begin.”

As she finished her quote, Q’orvha took in a deep breath as her own thoughts began to conjure of up the smell of burning blood candles and incense wells, the noises of pain sticks crackling with energy upon activation, and the stifled screams of initiates desperate to maintain the facade of stoicism in the face of painfully-reinforced lessons at the unrelenting hands of a strict abbess.

That had been the crucible upon which Q’orvha had been forged as a child…it remained to be seen if the multitude of obviously junior officers and crew assembled for the meeting would be able to measure up on Starfleet training alone.

Q’orvha picked up her own PADD again and worked it’s controls for moment, before the viewer altered the displayed information to a specific topic, displaying the symbol of a raptor-Aquila quite prominently at the top. “With that in mind…let us begin our in-depth briefing with the successors to the Star Empire…beginning with the Romulan Free State…”

[ Tajir’s Quarters ]

Tajir was sound asleep in his quarters when his alarm went off at 0600 hours, groaning he turned over pressing the button on his side table to shut the alarm off. Taking a few moments to lay there rubbing his eyes before sitting up. After a few moments he got out of bed and headed to get showered and dressed to begin the day, they should be arriving at Caldos within the hour. After a while Tajir exited the bedroom, walking into the kitchen area to quickly get something to eat before heading up to the bridge.

“Computer I would like three eggs over easy, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, and two pieces of toast, with a hot cup of coffee, black please.” He ordered as the computer beeped and a plate and cup materialized in the replicator. Picking up the items he carried them to the table, setting them down he took his seat and began to eat. He decided to bring up the morning report to make sure things were going smoothly and nothing drastic had happened overnight that he wasn’t made aware of as he ate.

After a while, he finished his breakfast taking one last drink of his coffee he grabbed the padd and headed out of his quarters heading to the bridge to relieve the night watch.

[ Lounge ]

Aki had woken roughly an hour earlier than her usual time. She had planned on checking in with the night shift before shift change to make sure everything had gone smoothly with the roster change. Not that she didn’t trust that things would go anything but smoothly, but she wanted to make sure each member was acclimating to the change as hoped. Since she had some time to pass before actually making it to the bridge, she felt it would be best to get the day off to a proper start and have a bite to eat.

She was instantly noticed by a server as she took a seat at one of the tables closest to the entrance to the lounge. “I’ll have a plate of Natto rice with dried nori, a bowl of miso soup, grilled salmon, and some steamed broccoli,” she said to the woman who noted her order.

“Would you like something to drink?”

“Coffee, please. Black.” Aki responded.

The server parted ways to a replicator station behind the bar and returned a couple of minutes later with the meal Aki had requested. To some, Aki’s choice of cuisine so early in the morning might seem a bit odd, but Aki grew up on meals such as that every day growing up. Most Japanese families did. As she had nothing else to do to pass the time while eating, she ate her food in silence and then headed off to the bridge.

[ Bridge ]

On the bridge itself, Q’orvha sat in the Captain’s chair and was filing her final reports as the new commander of the so-called “graveyard” Delta shift which would soon come to an end. She had the hood of her robes down off her head for once, as the dimmed ambient lighting of the bridge, set automatically by the computer to maintain some semblance of a natural circadian rhythm onboard the vessel, was more manageable for her weakened eyes.

The previous watch commander, Lieutenant Whitmore, was nearby at the Master Situation table, ready to answer any questions or concerns the Klingon may have had about the shift and its crew, though Q’orvha had only had to call upon them once so far: to clear up a pronunciation error concerning a junior CONN officer’s name which even the Universal Translator had difficulties with.

The former Bird of Prey captain had always preferred strict discipline while on duty, at least at first, but it appeared she was going to start having to issue out such informalities as call signs and nicknames quite a bit early…if only to prevent the Universal Translator from blowing out its isolinear chips every time she had given orders to the Helm.

[ Engineering ]

Elizabeth had gone in early knowing full well that today could turn out to be a very busy day.

“Ensign,” she said reading over the report from her night watch engineer,  “I don’t know what they taught you in the Academy,  but this is not a proper format for a shift report.”

“Sorry Lieutenant,  I was in a rush.  We had issues with the starboard lateral sensor array,  and we were working to the very end to get it repaired before you guys came on duty.”

Elizabeth glanced over the report and nodded.  “I will need this completed so I can give my readiness report to the XO, by… well now. We are expected to be at Caldos at 07:00.  If there’s an issue with the ship I want to know about it, and the captain and XO NEED to know about it. You have fifteen minutes to complete this report correctly.

“Yes ma’am, ” the Ensign replied and rushed off to find a quiet place in engineering to redo his report.

Elizabeth just simply smirked and sat down at the diagnostic table with her coffee and took a long sip.  She had already investigated last night’s issues and even ran a diagnostic to follow up. Her report was already sitting in the XO’s inbox CC’d to the captain, but, the report was unacceptable. Standards needed to be met and consistency expected, otherwise, she wasn’t an effective leader.

[ Science Lab ]

Calum had awoken earlier than most mornings already in the labs. It was funny to see the graveyard shift throwing him sideways glances. He smiled and lifted his cup of steaming coffee making his way back to his desk where he had been prepping the information for the task ahead. He had already had the department working double-time to make sure all the equipment was prepped and ready. He had reports of broken equipment and supplies strewn about his desk. He sighed and rubbed his temples. He had told the department he liked things neat and orderly and this was far from it.

He made a note that he would send a message out to the department regarding the issue and called in the acting assistant “Report on the equipment I requested be fixed.”

The assistant shifted their feet “We’re slightly behind on that Commander.”

Calum sighed “Please make haste to complete it we need that equipment very soon. I would help, but I have to try and decipher this mess on my desk.”

He had already forwarded his recommendations for his department to the XO, but this added mess was another issue. The crew was good, but they needed to be neater and tighten up on the discipline of the department.

[ Bridge ]

Aki stepped off the turbolift into the dimly lit bridge and scanned her surroundings to get a sense of the atmosphere from the shift. She noted Q’orvha sitting in the big chair, but before making her presence known she opted to check in first with Whitmore whom she spotted at the situation table.

“How did the night go?”

Looking up from his work, not expecting anyone so soon before shift change, he acknowledged the Commander’s presence and replied, “She’s a little rough around the edges, but that’s due to being Klingon. I’m sure Delta will adjust in time.”

“Excellent. I appreciate you making the change to accommodate her request.”

“No problem Sir.”

Finishing with Whitmore, Aki finally made her way around to the command chair to the seated Klingon. “Good morning. Anything to report?” she asked.

Q’orvha stood up from her PADD and raised her hood back over her head and down to her eyes, anticipating the increase in ambient light to soon come. “All quiet, aside from a few small technical issues remaining from our refit. I believe Lieutenant Kyle is already down in Engineering, handling them.” She stated, moving aside to offer the chair to the First Officer. “There have also been a few initial reports of some missing equipment from various departments throughout the ship, most likely just a tie-up in the distribution of supplies from Cargo. I’ve had the Quartermaster investigate.

“We remain at high cruising speed and on approach to the Caldos System, arriving soon in swift order.”

The Klingon moved to the port side of the bridge and the small replicator stationed there. “Raktajino, double concentration,  black and iced.” She ordered, before retrieving the beverage which materialized in a tall metal drinking cylinder. “There will be a full watch report available for you in a moment. Just waiting on a few…stragglers, to report in from around the vessel.”

With the drink in hand, she took a few sips, allowing the cold and bitter liquid to sharpen her awareness once more. The Klingon then made her way to the Mission Operations console and relieved the junior bridge officer posted there, ready to return to her primary role on the Aquarius as the Chief Strategic Operations Officer.

[ Armory]

Zane had chosen to be an early bird this morning. After the briefing with his department and the Strategic Department with Commander Q’orvha, he decided to go over some final checks with the ship’s inventory, including on equipment that Security is responsible for and he had found some discrepancies. But over the few extra hours he put in, he found that most were simple logistic issues from Devron Fleet Yards. Either a simple mistake of a miscount or someone misunderstood the orders and did not deliver the full shipment…but there were other possibilities.

Nevertheless, he took this opportunity to put Ensign Utsall to work by making her count every single piece of equipment and make note of how much she counted in her head, no writing utensil, no padd, nothing. While she did that, he operated the center station alongside the overnight crewmember, going over other data and reports. The thing he got used to doing as the Assistant over on the Ajax was going over any security issues that happened overnight. Unfortunately, there were a few issues of security codes not working and the overnight team has already resolved that issue, so he just acknowledged that he viewed it and filed the reports away. They weren’t serious so they weren’t needed to be pushed up the chain.

“Lieutenant.”

Zane frowned as he recognized that voice. She couldn’t be done. He looked up and yup, it was Ensign Utsall. “Yes, Ensign?”

“I am finished. We have…” She went on to list every item in alphabetical order and gave the number of each one that they have in inventory. “So we may be missing a few pistols, rifles, and tricorders but there are only maybe one or two suits and other equipment that we are missing.”

Zane raised his brows and noticed the overnighter had an ‘impressed’ look on their face. Zane cleared his throat and asked, “How did you get this done so quickly?”

She smiled, “Come on, Lieutenant. I am a warrior. I have an eye for these things.”

Zane took a deep breath. “First thing, Ensign. You’re a Starfleet officer in Starfleet, not an officer in the Klingon Defense Force. Second, I need you to do a recount and make sure those numbers are accurate.”

She cleared her throat, “I already have, sir. I mean. No disrespect, but I wouldn’t have been confident in my report if I had not recounted myself.”

Zane nodded his head, “Well for my sake, please recount.”

She took in a deep breath and he could see that she was resisting the urge to talk back, or lunge at him, whichever was more likely to happen. “Yes, sir.” And off she went.

Zane looked at the overnighter and then shrugged his right shoulder. “What? She wants to be Assistant Chief, she going to have to go through hell first before I give it to her. I prefer someone earned the posting than just have it handed away.” Zane didn’t know why he was explaining it to a crewmember but he just shook his head and checked the clock. “Your relief should be here in about ten minutes. I’m off to the Bridge.” With that, he logged himself out of the terminal and left the room.

[ Sickbay ]

In the ship’s medical bay things were hectic. That was the only word Elisha could come up with to adequately describe what was going on around him. He’d made sure everything was properly lined out for their arrival, but even with everything planned correctly the effect of coming up on an emergency always sent medical personnel into overdrive. He watched as various people moved quickly, and efficiently through the sickbay and its surrounding areas, getting supplies, and getting ready. He was only taking a small team with him right off the bat, to gauge the necessity for more, and those chosen for that part of the mission were already fully ready to go, and waiting in the appropriate transporter room.

[ Bridge ]

Ensign Sato walked just arrived on the bridge relieving the night helmsman, just as Captain Derohl entered the bridge and looked around that officers were switching over from the delta shift to alpha shift. “Status report?” Tajir asked looking at his first officer while making his way to the center chair and taking a seat while caring a padd in one hand and a coffee mug in the other hand, he took a sip.

Aki filled her captain in on all the details relayed to her by Q’orvha while also advising of Whitmore’s remarks.

He nodded, “very good.” Tajir replied as he sat there knowing they would arrive shortly, just as he was going to speak up the ship dropped out of warp.

“Sir we have arrived,” Sato looked back at the Captain.

“Place us in standard orbit,” Tajir ordered.

“Aye sir,” Sato replied tapping a few buttons and the ship went into standard orbit above the planet.

Standing up and looking over at the Ensign manning the Ops station, “Open a shipwide channel.” Tajir ordered as the Ensign nodded as he pressed a button and gave him a nod that it was on. “Lieutenant Macomb, Commander Hyden, and Lieutenant Kyle please report to transporter room one with your teams,” Tajir ordered and turned back to the Ensign to end the channel. Looking over at Commander Makoto as well as Lieutenant Bates, “you’re with me as well.” He ordered before finally turning to Commander Q’orvha, “you have the bridge.” Tajir ordered before he walked towards the turbolift with the two officers that were on the bridge with him.

Zane turned his head when he heard his name, only to return to looking at his console and logged himself out before signaling a relief to take his place, only to be right behind the Captain when they had entered the turbolift. As the lift moved to the destination chosen by the Captain, Zane pressed his badge. “Ensign Utsall, make sure all teams have their standard-issue away team gear. You got five minutes.”

[ Sickbay ]

“You heard the man,” Elisha called out, his voice filling the quiet lull in conversation that had come with the bosun’s note announcing a shipwide broadcast was coming. “Alpha team, get your gear and get to the transporter room. Those of you on standby, be close by and ready to beam down if I call for you. I imagine there’s going to be lots of wounded people down there counting on us, I’d like us to exceed the Captain’s expectations, not just meet them.”

[ Science Lab ]

Hyden sprung up from his seat looking at the lab he saw the two who had been picked for the team just waiting on him. He nodded and looked over the supply list “Excellent it looks like we have everything we need! Let’s not keep the Captain waiting shall we.” He said as he led the team out of the labs

Transporter Room One

Well within the five minutes Elisha and the four-person team he’d assembled to ascertain the extent of the medical help they were going to need, as well as the supplies to get triage started, were all gathered to one side in the transporter room waiting for the captain. He was going over the data on the padd in his hand once again, making sure he hadn’t forgotten anything that would be vital. Finally, he was sufficiently sure he’d done all he could to be prepared and shut the padd down, and clasped it, and his hands, behind his back to wait, giving the female doctor beside him a reassuring smile.

“We’ve got this, don’t be nervous,” he said in a soft voice that wouldn’t carry, and she gave him a thankful smile back.

Elizabeth entered the transporter room with a backpack full of equipment and two junior engineers flanking her on either side. “Sorry, I’m late.  Just a last-minute hiccup.  All good now.”

Hyden and his group entered carrying all the required equipment slightly out of breath “Here…I think that equipment has some weight to it.” He said with a chuckle and he gathered with the group waiting to transport

After arriving at the transporter room and everyone was accounted for, “alright we are to evaluate the situation and find out exactly what is going on and what we will need.” Tajir replied as they all stepped onto the transporter room padd six at a time and began to beam down to the planet below once they received the coordinates.

Once the away team was on the planet below, Tajir looked around to get a look at what was going on. Though where they landed there was hardly any damage from the recent earthquake, but off in the distance he could begin to see. After a few moments an older gentleman ran up to the Captain and they began to talk about the current situation.

“Lieutenant Macomb, from what I was just informed that the hospital is overflowing with injuries and they are getting overwhelmed.” Tajir began looking at the doctor and his team. “I need you to head up there and assess the situation and report back once you have it,” Tajir ordered looking at the medical team.

“Understood, Captain,” Elisha replied, motioning for his team to follow as he lead the way towards the hospital they’d been directed to. Things didn’t look all that bad from here, but he had worked enough triage to know that sometimes looks can be deceiving. “Keep your eyes open, and your ears as well. If there was any residual damage that hasn’t been detected yet we might stumble upon some wounded in any rubble we find. Tricorders are your friend in an area like this,” He said, knowing that for many of them this was already common knowledge, and yet realizing that in high-stress situations it could sometimes help to have reassuring orders given that you knew were concrete, and doable.

Looking at Commander Hyden, “They are still unable to pinpoint when the next one might hit. There have been several very tiny earthquakes happening but they still think there is going to be a larger one coming.” Tajir said looking at him and his team, “Work with them to see if you can get a calculation of how much time we have. Report back your findings,” Tajir finished looking at him for his response.

Calum nodded and added some notes to his PADD. The fact that they did not know when the next one could occur put him and his team on a time crunch, which was normal for him, but still he didn’t like the uneasy feeling he had in his stomach. “Will do, Sir.” He replied.

After speaking with the Commander, he looked at Lieutenant Kyle. “I need you and your team to evaluate the control systems. He is sending down someone to show you where it is located.” He said looking at her, “I need a report on how bad, and how long it would take to repair.” Tajir finished looking at them.

“Yes,  sir,” she replied.  “I won’t know for sure until I look at it, but the worst-case scenario and we will have to rebuild the whole network…” she paused doing the math in her head, “we’re looking at twenty-five hours give or take.  For these earthquakes to happen there needs to be at least two down, and I’m that case we’re looking at three or four hours.”

Tajir nodded to Lieutenant Kyle then turned to the other two, “Commander Makoto and Lieutenant Bates, I need you to walk through these few areas that have been hit harder than the others to see how we can assist in the cleanup,” Tajir said pointing to the map that was given to him by the older gentleman. “Once your done report back to me of your findings.

Zane looked at the map and the spot that the Captain pointed to before nodding his head and voicing his acknowledgment. “Aye, sir.”

When Zane had finished with the map, Aki analyzed it in great detail, noting particular landmarks so she wouldn’t lose her bearings. It seemed as though the areas in the zone Tajir wanted them to check out were more residential, with a small market in the vicinity. Areas that wouldn’t necessarily have had the structural integrity of buildings similar to the weather control station. “I think if we concentrate on these key areas first, we can perhaps bring a sense of normalcy back to the people. That might put them at ease while the rest of the teams focus on the major repairs. I’ll handle the residential section. Bates, if you could take the market.” she said pointing at the specific points on the map she was referring to.

Bates took another look at the map where the Commander pointed to before nodding his head. “Aye, ma’am. I will head over there now.”

“Dismissed,” Tajir replied looking at them as they went off in their particular directions. He would stay where he was as sort of a command center.

Then he looked to Commander Makoto and waited for them to take the lead. “After you, sir.”

“We’ll get on the tectonic stabilizers,” Elizabeth said already pulling up a map that pinpointed the locations of the equipment.  She turned and led her small team of engineers down a paved path to the north.  After a short walk, they approached a concrete box poking out of the ground not much larger than a walk-in closet.  It had a blue door set into the front and was guarded by some sort of security officer that was available to the planet.

“Are you from the Aquarius?”  You could hear the tension in his voice.”

“I am,” Elizabeth responded. “Lieutenant Kyle, Ensign Peters, and Chief Petty Officer Leiston.”

“Just three?” He demanded incredulously.  “That’s all they sent?”

“It’s who I picked. Relax I have a whole engineering crew a transporter room away.  But, for right now without knowing what the issue is there’s no sense in mobilizing all of my officers so we can trip over each other.  Now, I understand the tectonic stabilizer 21-Alpha is located down here?”

He nodded and pulled open the door to reveal an industrial freight-type elevator. Elizabeth lead her team inside and the guard followed them inside. There were only two buttons, up and down and the guard pressed the down button and the lift whirred to life shooting deep into the crust of the planet.

After a ride that seemed to take forever, the lift slowed and the doors parted to reveal a completely manmade cavern roughly the size of a house  The floor was made of the natural stone around it, and in the center was the tectonic stabilizer.  “It’s not glowing,” the guard stated,  “Why is it not glowing?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out.  Chief you have the micro-fusion reactor. Peters and I will examine the stabilizer.”

The veteran engineer nodded and crossed to the far wall and started looking over the reactor while Elizabeth kneeled giving the device a visual inspection. There was a rather large piece of rock lying atop it partially crushing the outer housing.  “Help me with this will you,” she said to the ensign. They both put their shoulders into the boulder and pushed it off the device.

“You think that’s what caused the malfunction?” Peters asked.

“I guess we’ll find out.”  Elizabeth pulled out her tricorder and started scanning the device frowning.  “Half the circuitry is burned out.”

“Fusion reactor is functioning normally ma’am,” Leiston said as he approached them and whistled.  “She took a beating.”

“Yeah, we’re going to need to replace it one way or another. See if you can download the diagnostic logs so we can identify what caused this.”

“Aye, ma’am.”

Elizabeth tapped her combadge, “Lieutenant Kyle to Captain Derohl, “We made it to one of the stabilizers,  and it needs a complete replacement.   We’re downloading the diagnostic logs. That will take a bit to sift through the data, but the preliminary evidence suggests a power surge which burned out the circuitry.”

“Is that the only one that you found not working?” Tajir asked over the comm channel as he was not looking in any one direction.

Elizabeth paused as she accessed a nearby terminal.   Her fingers danced over the controls. “It’s going to take a bit to inspect them personally but diagnostics are showing five of the eleven are off-line so I have no diagnostic data.  There’s damage to 22-Bravo, but it’s still functioning. Damage is probably due to the earthquakes. We’re looking at least six hours maybe even ten or twelve.”

“Understood, keep me informed,” Tajir replied before ending the comm channel he sat there and waited for the others to report in.

Down at the hospital district, Elisha finished talking to the chief administrator of the hospital less than half an hour after they arrived. The man who had run up to them at the beam down site had made it seem like it was an absolute disaster, but then, after being through an event that wasn’t even supposed to be possible, he imagined he would have been a little too shaken up to keep from exaggerating as well.

“I have several teams standing by to beam down to assist, and we have plenty of medical supplies. Don’t worry, we are going to do everything we can to help. If any of your facilities were damaged in the quake and you need us to we can even perform any necessary procedures in our sickbay,” he said with a reassuring smile. The administrator gave him a thankful smile and nodded her head.

“Thank you so much, Dr. Macomb, I will make sure if that becomes necessary to let any other medic know to contact you directly,” she replied.

Stepping to the side, so as not to be in anyone’s way, Elisha reached up and tapped his combadge. “Macomb to Derohl, I’m going to call down the medical teams and supplies, I’m done assessing the situation here at the medical facilities. It’s nowhere near as bad as we were worried it would be, but I’d still very much like to stay and get them fully set up, and help as possible. I hope you don’t mind, but I have offered sickbay for any procedures that are needed that may involve equipment that was damaged, or even just in areas they are sorely overburdened in.”

“Understood, keep me, updated Lieutenant,” Tajir replied as he ended the comm channel and waited for others to report.

There seemed to be some time between reports, he kept busy looking over everything making sure there was nothing else going on or happening, things seemed to be quiet for the most part other than the few he saw running here and there throughout the town. Just then his commbadge went off with the sound of his first officer.

“Makoto to Derohl.” Came Aki’s voice through the comms.

“Go ahead,” he replied after tapping his combadge.

“I’ve completed a preliminary assessment of the residential sector. Damage does not appear to be as bad as was anticipated. Within the first hour or two of clean up, we should be able to start bringing in relief supplies and if all goes well, within seven or eight hours have everything back to a near-normal state. I’ve not heard from Bates yet but judging from the look of things here, I anticipate a similar situation where he is.” Aki reported.

“Understood keep me updated,” Tajir replied before ending the comm channel.

Calum had quickly made his way to where the reading could accurately be read or so he thought. The team began setting up the equipment so they could try to determine when the next earthquake would occur. It took his team a good thirty minutes to get all the equipment set up and calibrated. Once he was pleased with the calibration of the equipment he began testing. Calum never trusted equipment, but he had to try and trust the reading in this case. He looked and saw eight hours, though that seemed generous he shrugged and tapped his combadge.

“Hyden to Derohl, the information says we have eight hours before the next earthquake should occur. I do not recommend that we take that long to get things resolved though because the weather can always change its mind.”

“Understood,” Tajir replied as everyone reported in. Tajir began to walk towards the area where Commander Makoto was located to help with the cleanup while the others worked on repairs, healing wounded, and kept an eye on the upcoming earthquake.

Q’orvha could hear the comm chatter of the away teams reporting into the various workstations around the bridge, her position near the centre of the room chosen by design to maximize the situational awareness of whoever sat at her current position.

When she had requested her shift as the watch commander to be moved to the nightshift, she had failed to account for this precise scenario: Back-to-back double duty in the Captain’s Chair…and to be fair, under typical Starfleet guidelines, it wouldn’t have happened normally. Typically, by standard procedure and regulation, the First Officer would have led them away teams, with the Captain remaining on board the vessel…but Derohl was rather fresh to the Captain’s game and had yet to be broken of the normalities of his previous position as First Officer.

Commander Akiyama hadn’t challenged or reminded him of it, neither had Commander Hyden…and if the only 3 officers ahead of Q’orvha in the ship’s chain of command weren’t going to deal with it, then neither was she…

After all, it would have been more than just a little awkward to chastise the Captain and his pair of Commanders, when she was…

…A, the one who had at launch had brought up ways for (hypothetically) hiding breaches of rules and regs from the Starfleet Brass…

…B, The Aquarius’s resident intelligence officer who had spent a good portion of her Starfleet career in off-the-books ops that were as dark as a black hole…

…and C, finally and most noticeable, currently not even wearing the red Starfleet uniform she’d been given at the start of this tour, still favouring her personalized Klingon battle dress and HoD’s command robe.

Her eyes darted across the bridge, from station to station, all now brightly lit up to Starfleet Operating standards of ambiance (much to her ocular discomfort) and fully manned as the current mission required. As the Acting Captain, while the others were away, there wasn’t that much for her to currently do, other than continue to monitor things…everything else was being relayed to the bridge workstations from sensors and the away teams, and then relayed out from the bridge to the various facilities throughout the Aquarius…it may have been the recent readjustments to a new sleep schedule, the boredom the plagued her Klingon heart, or maybe just the anxiousness that came with the third iced double-strength Raktijino she held half-finished in her left hand, but Q’orvha was feeling restless.

“Helm, current status.” She called out to the officer sitting in the pit console bunker in front of her.

Looking back at the Commander, “keeping with standard orbit everything is within normal parameters.” Sato replied

“Acceptable,” Q’orvha replied before turning to the nearest console to her left. “Operations. Anything to report?”

“Nothing except a slight deviation in the communications array. But nothing that the Engineers can’t fix. I’ve already dispatched them to fix it. Does that meet with your approval, Commander?” The Operations Officer, a young Benzite, said while rotating their chair around to look at the Acting Captain.

“My approval is not so easily gained, Lieutenant.” The Klingon commander replied, her voice cold and matter-of-fact. “This operation depends upon clear and constant lines of communication between the away teams and this ship. If such a deviation in a mission-critical system is to happen again, I wish to hear about it immediately…and not only after I ask. Understood?”

“Er, y-yes, ma’am!” The Benzite blushed a deep shade of blue and noticeably did a sudden and sharp intake of gas from the atmospheric adaptor that was attached to their chest, before turning back around to bury themselves into their console.

Independent initiative and not informing commanders until all options had been explored was a Benzite trait that Q’orvha was familiar with, as the Benzite Freighter Fleets operating in the Triangle were favoured prey for the materiel they transported. So ingrained was this method of operation, that she had been able to exploit it on numerous occasions. While it did allow Benzite captains to have all options presented to them, it often overall lowered their reaction times as a crew.

Since she’d sworn herself to Starfleet, Q’orvha had noticed it was also common with the handful of Benzite officers that transferred into Starfleet…it was best to beat such notions out of them early on in their careers…

…not physically, of course: this was Starfleet, not the Klingon Defense Force after all. Q’orvha reminded herself as she swiveled the Captain’s chair to face Starboard turbolift doors as they opened.

The transition from working delta shift back to alpha was often difficult. This, however, was the first time he’d been late for the start of the alpha shift. Dujan emerged from the turbolift, his uniform and hair a little disheveled. “Apologies for my tardiness, Commander.” He said as he moved towards the helm. “This transition from nights to days is proving a little rougher than I’d thought.”

“Make sure it does not happen again, Mr. Young,” Q’orvha replied as the helmsman sat down.

Having relieved Ensign Sato, Dujan logged in causing the console to automatically reconfigure itself based on his personal preferences. “Yes ma’am.” It didn’t take long for him to get up to speed on the current situation.

Sato walked over to the auxiliary control and sat down after the Chief took over, she kept an eye on things as they sat there waiting for word from the away team.

Sato remembered an appointment she had with the ship’s counselor, “Sir may I be excused? I have an appointment with the counselor in about fifteen minutes.” Ensign Sato said almost in embarrassment as she forgot that she had made the appointment the day prior.

“Then you best make haste, Ensign.” Commander Q’orvha replied, gesturing widely to the turbolift door.

“Understood sir,” she replied as she walked off the bridge onto the turbolift and headed off towards the counselor’s office. After a few moments, she arrived at the door, taking a deep breath she pressed the door chime and waited for a response.

The Klingon quietly sighed, reflecting on the range of multi-species blushing and variations of flustered or embarrassed faces she had witnessed between the start of her previous shift right up until that very moment, from the Junior Lieutenant in the Graveyard-shift with the unpronounceable name to the Benzite sitting at Ops or Miss Sato. Q’orvha hadn’t taken notice of it before, but there seemed to be quite a bevy of young officers and crew on the Aquarius…perhaps more than one would expect, even for a ship adapted to primarily focus on offering humanitarian aid and protection to the diaspora in the former Neutral Zone…the sort of “low intensity” assignment that Starfleet liked to funnel the recently graduated cadet masses into for their first tour of duty.

Not that the Aquarius had started her actual mission yet…hopefully, the younger members of the crew would prove adaptable to the current disruptive interjection in their plans.

Lieutenant Toran had beamed down with a group of engineers as the inspections had finished, he met up with Lieutenant Kyle along with the others. “What are your orders?” Toran asked as he had just finished reading the status of the seismic stabilizers.

Elizabeth was sifting through lines and lines of code trying to understand why the stabilizers had overloaded.  She’d hoped to find some reason for it.  While she wasn’t able to rule out random malfunction she couldn’t rule out sabotage either.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when Toran spoke to her having not noticed his arrival.   Clutching her chest in a futile attempt to slow her heart rate down she smiled, “It’s a mess, Toran.  There are five stabilizers offline and one still working but damaged. We need to get teams to all the sites. Replace when necessary,  but do whatever is faster.  Hopefully, repairs can be done and we can beat the six-hour estimate.”

Some tunnels snaked out like tendrils of an octopus branching out to the stabilizers with a tramcar for rapid transportation to the various sites.

“Sorry sir, I did not mean to startle you.” Toran apologized looking at the Lieutenant, “Understood, I’ll get the teams divided and on their way.” Toran replied looking at her, “is there anything I need to know before I leave?” Toran asked as he stood there looking at her.

Elizabeth considered it for a moment,  “Be careful.  These earthquakes very likely weakened the integrity of these tunnels.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there were cave-ins.”

“Will do sir,” he replied before turning around to the teams that were gathered with him and giving out their orders. Once that was done he took his group down a path that lead to one of the damaged stabilizers. Once arriving he began his scans to see exactly what was needed, this one looked like it needed a complete replacement. Good thing he had a replacement, he began his work at carefully removing the old component which would take some time to complete before he was ready to install the new one.

Elizabeth turned to the first one she had encountered and kneeled next to it.  “Why did you burn out?” She asked the device.

“Lieutenant?” An enlisted engineer asked. “Are you talking to the stabilizer?”

Elizabeth blushed.  “Um… well, yes I did. It was more of me thinking out loud.  Help me with the panel will you?”

The engineer lifted his end of the access panel to reveal charred remains of circuits.  He whistled at the damage.  “How did this happen?”

Elizabeth shook her head, “I don’t know. Everything just before the overload was working perfectly and then dead.  All data afterward is corrupted.  I can’t even prove that this wasn’t sabotaged.”

“That’s a disturbing thought.  Who would do that?”

Elizabeth shrugged, “That’s politics.”

“Meaning?” He asked confused.

“Meaning,” she started patiently, “I’m an engineer and I don’t know a thing about politics.”

The engineer chuckled at that. “Okay, what now?”

Elizabeth looked up at him with an amused expression,  “We replace it.”

Tapping his combadge after removing the stabilizer, “Lieutenant do you get the feeling that these were sabotaged?” He asked over the comm as he looked between the device and the two officers that were with him.

“It’s been a nagging suspicion since I inspected this. If this was an accident or fluke of nature we would have logs indicating a power surge, but everything useful in figuring out the cause is corrupted. I’m trying to recompile the data, but it’s going to be a slow process.”

“I am getting the same thing here, I think we should get these back to the ship for more analysis to see if we can find something,” Toran replied looking around seeing one of the local engineers get a bit nervous but didn’t do anything at the moment. That put a red flag in the back of his mind that he would need to speak to the Lieutenant about later.

“Agreed, ” Elizabeth said. “The ship’s computer is more powerful too.”

Toran ended the comm channel and sent word to the other teams that once they got the broken stabilizers out they needed to be beamed directly to the ship for further analysis. He did the same with his and began to work on installing the new one in its place which would take a few hours to complete.

Elizabeth finished the upload to the ship and checked on the progress of the stabilizer.   “When you are done here, transport it to the ship for analysis.”  She then moved on to the next malfunctioning stabilizer.

Things seemed to be chaotic in the local hospital, though there weren’t any major injuries that she could see during their initial walk-through. Natashia had her medkit with her and looked at Doctor Macomb, “where did you want to start?” Natashia asked looking at him, as she knew it would probably be a good idea to get these people out of here in case something more drastic happens and they have more severe injuries come in.

Elisha gave Natashia a slight smile. “Seeing as things are thankfully a lot less urgent than we were led to believe I think our best course of action is to help with triage until the officials let us know what else they need help with. The supplies were beamed down about five minutes ago, and some equipment as well. I think osteoregenerators are going to be in heavy rotation for a while; I’ve seen plenty of broken bones since we got down here.” he said, in reply.

“I’m assigning Thomas to ensure inventory is maintained, we don’t want any equipment left behind, but other than that I think we are going to just have to dive in and get our hands dirty,” he added. He couldn’t explain how glad he was that the situation had been presented as more urgent than it was. He’d feared they’d arrive to find a massive emergency and would struggle to provide enough support on their own.

“Understood, I will get started helping with triage. Hopefully, we can get this hospital cleared out in case something else happens and we have more serious injuries come in.” She said she was always told to prepare for the worst even when things were not.

“That’s the plan,” Elisha said with a grin. “And I know for a fact our teams are all ready for it.”

Just as Elisha finished his sentence the doors to the urgent care center swished aside. Two burly men, dressed in incredibly dirty uniforms came through, with a third man, smaller, and barely even clothed anymore, held up between them. His feet were dragging the ground, and Elisha couldn’t even tell for sure if he was alive. As they were the closest to them he immediately approached, waving for Natashia to join him. Snapping his tricorder open he began to take readings and gave a sigh of relief when it showed signs of life.

“What happened?” he asked, noting the tattered uniform he was wearing showed he was a medic, or more correctly a first responder.

The tallest of the men spoke, his deep voice booming in the cavernous waiting room. “He was trying to get inside a building, we’d heard some rustling and he figured it might be someone too injured to cry out, or maybe a scared kid. I don’t know what happened exactly, but the next thing we know the whole side of the building collapsed in on him. Took us damn near a half hour to dig him out,” he said.

His companion took up the thread of conversation next, his voice thick with emotion, and wavering like he was on the verge of tears “We weren’t even sure he was still alive, but we had to at least try…”

Elisha could see the fear in his eyes, and reached out and clasped him on the shoulder. “We’re going to do everything we can,” he said, and then turned to Natashia, head to the desk, let them know we need a gurney or a bed, and a crash team if they’ve got one to spare. He’s alive, but just barely.”

“On it,” she replied running off in one direction to get the crash team and gurney before arriving back a few moments later.

“Let’s get him sat down at least,” he said, turning his attention back to the others, and motioning towards some chairs to their right.

A few minutes later the crash team, and the requested bed appeared, and Elisha watched as the two men hauled him up onto the bed and settled him. He looked the one man, the one who had seemed so scared, in the eyes. “Family?” he asked.

“He’s my husband…” the man replied.

“I promise you, I’m going to make sure we do everything we can. He’s pretty bad off, but I think he’ll pull through. Stay close, if you can, and I’ll make sure to keep you updated,” Elisha replied, and then motioned for Natashia and the others to follow him.

She followed him towards a room where they would begin to help the injured man, taking out her tricorder she began to scan him. “Looks like he’s got several broken ribs one seems to have punctured his left lung.” Natashia began to report, “he’s also got some a broken leg from what looks like a block landing on him as the building collapsed.” She added looking at the doctor, right now I am not detecting any other injures on scans.” She finished as she pressed a hypospray to the patient’s neck to help relieve some of the pain.

“Agreed, but we need to monitor for crush syndrome. It can creep up fast and we don’t want to lose any kidney function,” Elisha replied, getting right to work with the osteoregenerator on the ribs. “I’m also seeing some meniscal tearing in his right shoulder, probably from the impact of some of the failing stone. May require some microsurgery to truly get that repaired so he doesn’t suffer residual pain.”

She nodded almost beating herself up as she missed that on her scans, she would beat herself up at a later time right now they needed to get him stabilized and operated on to repair the internal injuries. “He is stable to be able to repair the hole in his lung,” she replied as she monitored him for any changes. Things continue to go as planned as they worked, with people going in and out of the hospital as the medical team from the Aquarius worked to get them out as quickly but as safely as possible.

Walking out of the counselor’s office she looked at the time, no wonder her stomach was growling it was lunchtime. She made her way down the corridor and headed for the officer’s mess hall. Walking in she looked around for a few seconds before proceeding to the replicator where she ordered her food. After grabbing the plate and cup after it materialized she began to walk to find a seat, she was going to sit near the window but she noticed that her chief was sitting at a table alone. Walking up to him, “Is this seat taken?” She asked looking at him with a smile.

Dujan glanced up from the PADD he was studying, his lunch half-eaten and forgotten, to find Ensign Sato standing there. “Uh, sure.” 

Smiling Sato sat down in the empty seat, “we never have officially met.” Emily replied with a smile, “figured now was a good a time as any to get to know each other since we will be working together.” She replied though he was her senior officer, she was always the friendly one not caring what rank someone was. Taking a bit of her food. “I am Emily Sato,” she said after she swallowed the bite she took.

“Dujan Young.” Like ships in the night, they’d passed several times with little interaction, usually when handing over at the change of shift but Dujan hadn’t had much chance to formally meet many of his officers in the short time since coming on board. Throwing himself into the night shifts hadn’t helped that either. He made a mental note to begin scheduling formal meetings. “How are you finding the Aquarius, Ensign?”

“For my first assignment outside of graduating the academy, doing good. I never thought I would be assigned to such a large ship, though I guess we can’t determine where our next assignments will take us.” She said with a smile, “she is a lot larger than a runabout, fighter, and the hours on a simulator.” Sato’s added with a smile taking another bit.

The Resolute-class starship was a fine ship but Dujan had spent his entire career on various Galaxy-class ships; first the Challenger, then the Galaxy. Being assigned to the Aquarius had been a bit of a step back for him. It was worse for him because it meant that, since the first time since their marriage, he and Henry were on separate ships. Both of those facts had made the adjustment to the Aquarius a difficult one. “She’s a fine ship.” He said with a tight smile.

She looked at him with her head cocked to the side a bit, “you ok sir?” She asked as she could tell something was bothering him hopefully, it wasn’t anything that she said. 

“I’m fine, Ensign.” He gave her the same tight-lipped smile. “Just struggling with the transition from night shifts to days.” It was a lie but he wasn’t about to open up to a complete stranger. It had taken months for him to fully open up to the man who was now his husband. “I’m sure you’ll miss working the alpha shift at the helm.” 

She just nodded as she figured why would he want to open up to a complete stranger especially an Ensign, she was the empathetic type where she cared a bit too much about anyone. “I am fine working auxiliary controls won’t be as bad, and I am sure I’ll be at the helm when you’re not there.” She replied as she took a bite of her food.

“Just be glad we’re not swapping shifts so you don’t have the work the graveyard shift.” In honesty, working the night shift was a good way for a junior officer like Sato to gain experience at the helm but even working as a relief officer during alpha shift would keep her on the radar of the Captain and Exec.

She nodded, “I do like alpha shift but I am sure I’ll get my chances at the other shifts down the road.” She replied with a smile, “though learning auxiliary controls is nice as well.” She added as she finished her lunch, realizing what time it was she was due back on the bridge here shortly. “Well, I better get back to the bridge. It’s been nice talking with you sir,” she said as she stood up with a smile.

“Sure thing.” Dujan returned his gaze to the PADD. “I’ll see you up there.”

With that Sato walked out of the mess hall and headed back up to the bridge to begin her work again, though she was still learning the auxiliary controls she had some paperwork to finish. Being cross-trained had its benefits and would help her in her career goals, she made it to the turbolift and entered. “Bridge,” she replied as the doors slid shut behind her and began to move towards its destination. After a few moments the lift arrived with the doors opening to reveal the bridge, walking out she went towards the auxiliary controls and began her work while they were just stationary and nothing exciting was happening at that moment.

Toran had finished installing and reconfiguring the stabilizer at the site he was working at, when he looked over his shoulder to where the local engineer should have been he was gone. Raising an eyebrow but at the time didn’t think much of it, maybe he went to check on the status of the other locations. “McCarthy to alpha team, what is your status?” He said over the comm channel, he got no response. “Alpha team please respond,” he said again to no avail. 

Turning to the others, “keep an eye on the system here while I go check out alpha team. Contact me if anything changes,” Toran replied as the others nodded. He headed off towards where alpha team was working. When he arrived he noticed that alpha team had been shot by a phaser, taking out his tricorder he scanned the officers. They were still alive, it looked like they were stunned, looking around he noticed that the replacement stabilizer was missing out of where they were replacing it. 

“Lieutenant McCarthy to Lieutenant Kyle please report to alpha team’s location immediately,” Toran said as he had his phaser out looking around to see if the person would try to return.

“What seems to be the problem Lieutenant,” Elizabeth’s voice came over his combadge. 

“I’ll explain when you get here,” Toran replied.

“On my way. Kyle out.”

After ending the comm with Lieutenant Kyle he had tapped his commbadge again, “Lieutenant McCarthy to Lieutenant Bates I need you and a security detail to site alpha, I am sending the direct coordinates to you as we speak.” Toran replied as medical was already on its way to lend aid.

“Copy that. I’ve finished over here anyways.”

Medical had arrived and began treating the officers while he waited for both Lieutenant Kyle and security to arrive, he also warned beta and gamma teams to be on the lookout for anything suspicious. Something was going on and his gut feeling was that someone was trying to stop them from repairing the seismic stabilizers like they wanted something bad to happen.

Elizabeth arrived several minutes later looking around. She raised an eyebrow at the medical team working on the stunned engineers and then at the conspicuously absent replacement stabilizer. “Lieutenant do you want to explain now?”

“When security arrives, rather not repeat if that’s alright,” Toran replied looking at her concerned and troubled at the whole situation at hand.

She sighed slightly annoyed,  “Very well.” She turned and walked away tapping her combadge,  “Kyle to Ensign Porter.”

“Go ahead ma’am,” he said on the other end.

“We’re going to need another stabilizer at the alpha site.  Replicate one and beam it down please.”

“Aye, ma’am. I’ll get it to you right away. Porter out.”

Bates, Ensign Utsall, and a random crewmember from his security team had arrived by foot after they had been transported as close as they could be. Zane came with his standard gear that he had beamed down with earlier. But his Ensign and crewmember were carrying rifles in a standby, buttstock at their shoulders, across the chest, barrel aimed at the ground and not at anyone. Hands gripping the pistol grip and their trigger fingers resting above but away from the trigger. Zane looked at other Lieutenants before he looked back at his detail then at the Lieutenants again. “Maybe a little overkill but can never be too careful.”

“Maybe not,” Elizabeth replied. “Lieutenant Toran knows more than me, but several of my officers were stunned. That…” she said indicating the rifles, “seems entirely appropriate given the circumstances.”

“After I finished installing the stabilizer at Gamma site I attempted to reach alpha team when I got no response, I noticed that the local engineer that was with me earlier wasn’t there anymore.” Toran said as he took a breath, “I decided to come to investigate found that they were stunned and that the replacement stabilizer at this site was taken. So far the other two teams have not reported any unusual activity, but something is going on here.” He replied looking at Kyle then at Bates. 

“Lieutenant Kyle your suspicions about sabotage might be right, someone is trying to cause an incident that could get people killed.” He finished looking very concerned. 

Elizabeth thought for a moment,  “If killing was the objective then why stun our team?  Could it be a specific target?  If so,  why go to all that trouble? Is there a black market for stabilizers?” This last question was directed at Bates.  “Or, is this a case of terrorism? Occam’s razor dictates the simplest explanation is terrorism, and we should expect someone taking credit and possibly a list of demands.”

“I am not sure Lieutenant, but something is going on and we need to find that engineer to get answers.” Toran suggested, “though he didn’t give me his name this is what he looks like.” He said as he pulled up his picture that was taken when he looked visibly nervous the last he talked with Kyle about possible sabotage. “I suggest placing security details around all sites if he got them then the others will be in danger,” Toran suggested until they got down to what was going on.

Bates looked at the photo before he looked at the Ensign. “Take a copy of that, return to the ship, gather up enough Security for the task at hand, and show them the face. Tell them to burn it into their minds. Then see if the Bridge can run the face through the personnel database, the Colonies, and Federation Citizens. The face should match to a name and then we may get some answers as to why they are doing this.”

“Yes, sir.” The Ensign then took off before being transported away to do just that.

Bates looked at Toran and Elizabeth. “I don’t want this man to be alerted that we are aware and suspect him to be the saboteur, least not yet.”

Toran nodded, “I’ll get another team down here to replace the missing stabilizer. We need to get these up before the next earthquake hits,” Toran replied looking at Kyle. “You might want to inform both the Captain and first officer of the situation so they are aware,” Toran suggested looking at her then back at Bates. 

“We should also know about the damaged stabilizers within a few hours, that will give us a definite answer as to whether or not they were sabotaged.” He added as he got a status update before this situation started. 

Elizabeth shrugged.   The matter was out of her hands, nor ultimately it wasn’t her concern.  Security was here to protect her people, and medical had already tended to the injured.   Right now her job was to stop the earthquakes.  “Once I get the tectonic stabilizer system back online I’ll beam up to the ship and work on resequencing the sensor data.  Not entirely sure what it will tell me, but I believe it to be sabotaged as well.”

Toran shrugged at the Lieutenant, as they separated a team had beamed down to his location with another stabilizer they began the process of installing the replacement. Thoughts kept running through his head, he knew this was going to be a setback, and things can go south rather quickly when it comes to installing things, and operational before something happens was the challenge. He just hoped they could still get things up and running without any major setbacks. 

Tajir after getting all of the reports, he had contacted Commander Q’orvha onboard the ship to give her a status update on the current situation. Once that was completed he headed to where Commander Makoto was located once more crew had beamed down to assist with the cleanup. “Commander, so where is the more concentrated place we need to focus our efforts compared to others places that can wait?” Tajir asked looking at Commander Makoto.

Aki had made several mental notes during her evaluation of the residential district. There were two apartment complexes, each housing a half dozen units that needed some attention and a broken water reservoir had flooded a nearby field destroying the crop from oversaturation. “Structural integrity on the East side of this building is heavily compromised and needs to be reinforced. Another shock could cause the building to collapse entirely. The one to the North has a collapsed front canopy and will take some time to clear from the main entrance. If we can take care of that, the rest of the cleanup should be superficial and we can concentrate our efforts on any injured and bringing in food supplies to compensate for the broken reservoir behind us.” She said pointing to the South.

“Sounds good,” Tajir replied as he looked around and noticed that Lieutenant Bates was not with them. “Where is Lieutenant Bates?” Tajir asked looking at his first officer.

“I’m afraid you just missed him. When he finished in the market and returned here, I briefed him on the situation and went over all the sensor scans of the area. He took one look at the scans to the North and said he’d be back after going to check something. He seemed a bit troubled, but I didn’t think much of it at the time and continued with efforts here. However, now that you’re here, maybe we should go and see if everything is alright.”

Zane informed the Commander that he was going to double-check the complex to the north as he had a twinge-like gut feeling that he couldn’t shake. Of course, all scans had indicated that there was no one in the area, that they had all been evacuated. So why would his gut be doing somersaults? With his tricorder out, Zane had run scans everywhere around him while he walked towards the Northern Complex. The concentration of rubble couldn’t cause interference or block sensor scans, could they? Even from a tricorder? He was no scientist, nor Operations or Engineer who would understand tricorder operations better than him, he only knew the basics of what he needed to know as a Security Officer. But now that he is the Chief of Security and Tactical on board a starship, he really should take those extensive courses on tricorder operations.

Just on the other side of the road to the Northern Complex with the collapsed front canopy, he noticed a home had completely collapsed. He knew apartment complexes such as these were reinforced to survive earthquakes if any were ever to happen as it has. But a regular standard home? Surely not, as proof to the one before him as he stood there with his tricorder aimed at it. Nothing. No life signs, so they must have not been at home when it all happened. He took a deep breath and just about exhaled in relief when he heard faint tapping. He frowned, turned around to face the Northern Complex, and saw some workers trying to clear the main entrance, some of the front canopy have been removed but ever so slowly. Maybe he heard some tapping over there? He shrugged his shoulders and started to step away until he heard tapping again, but this time behind him. He turned and looked toward the collapsed home with yet another frown.

Zane stepped closer to the home, to where the front door would be when the sound of tapping got louder. He checked his tricorder once more but shook his head, as literally nothing appeared. He switched scan modes to see if maybe there was something that they had missed. He switched to a mode similar to a ‘ground-penetrating radar’ but more advanced of course, and while the scan still included what was left of the home structure, it also began to reveal a basement but then there was something that was interfering with the scan. When he tried to scan it, he wouldn’t get anything. So he scanned around it and got the dimensions of this odd interference and it was about eight feet by twelve feet, small but big enough to be a shelter. Suddenly the tapping turned into loud banging.

Zane had an idea of where the entrance to this shelter was, which was in the basement, which was very unfortunate as the basement ceiling/flooring had collapsed and was completely covered in rubble. He carefully placed each foot down inside the home, having tested each step to make sure he wasn’t going to cause another collapse or fall into a hole with sharp objects. That would not be a fun story to explain to the First Officer or the Captain. He switched scan modes to determine how much rubble was blocking the entrance to the shelter and could see that there was a lot. With knowledge of where the shelter was, he could see some of the ceilings to the structure were exposed due to the flooring having been completely torn right out. He carefully navigated himself to it before he knelt to feel the material of the structure then he knocked on it and it very much sounded like metal. Although upon doing so, he got a response, a few knocks right where he knocked.

Zane felt the material once more and thought about it. If this shelter survived an earthquake and the collapse of this home with no structural damage, using a phaser to cut open a hole would probably not work at all. “Damn.” He said to himself before he stood up and hurried out of the rubble to the front of the home. He took his hands, cupped his mouth, and shouted, “Hey! I got someone alive over here!” That was enough to grab the attention of the workers and to have them pouring over across the road to him. Zane loaded up the scans he made and showed them, “There’s some underground shelter here. I don’t think cutting tools will cut it open. So we need to clear out this rubble from the entrance and we need to be quick about it. Come on.” He put his tricorder away and lead them to the rubble that was blocking the entrance and pointed at it before he knelt and started picking up piece by piece, handing some of it to one or two workers so they could toss it onto the grass or dirt away from the fallen house.

This is something that would take over an hour, maybe two, to clear all the rubble away from the door just enough to open it and the moment they got it open, a child, who looked to be ten, maybe twelve years old, ran out and wrapped their arms around Zane’s waist. Zane looked at the workers in some confusion but mainly in relief that they finally got the door open and found out who was inside it.

Aki took the lead and escorted Tajir to the complex in question. As the two got closer, they could see Zane sitting on the steps in front of the collapsed house across the road from the complex with a child sitting next to him and a PADD in his hand, actively scrolling through something.

“Bates…you left in a bit of a hurry. Is everything alright?” Aki asked.

Zane looked up and saw both the Commander and Captain. “Apologize for not standing up, got some weight tied to my leg.” He gestured to the kid with this thumb. “I just had a hunch, Commander.” He answered Aki’s question. “And I was going over some details, purchase history, stuff like that that the owners of this home did. They had an emergency shelter and failed to notify any particular authority that they had one. I’ve already reached out to the government for the kid’s parents, they’ve arranged transport to pick up the kid and take her back to her family.” He ruffled her hair before holding the padd up to the Commander or Captain. “So that makes me wonder how many places around here would have an emergency shelter and forget to have it listed.” He shrugged his shoulders.

Looking at the small child clung to the Lieutenants leg, “that is hard to say but glad that you were able to rescue the child. But why would the parents leave a child alone in an emergency shelter?” He asked looking at the two then to his first officer, “Was there anyone else in there like a nanny?” Tajir asked his second question as things were concerning as to why a child was alone.

“From what she’s told me, no. No nanny. And the parents weren’t home, said that she was old enough to be alone. I mean, she knew where to go for safety, so that’s a proven fact right there.” He smiled and ruffled the kid’s hair again.

Tajir nodded when he heard Bates comm go off with a request for him and security to head to the alpha team’s location, raising an eyebrow he would soon find out what was going on that needed a security team. “Don’t worry about her we will get her back to her parents,” Tajir replied as Bates headed off calling for his team. After he left he looked at his first officer, “I wonder what that is about?” he asked.

If they were meant to know, they would find out in due time, she thought to herself. Aki shrugged her shoulders, “Who knows.” she replied as she and Tajir began making their way to where the child’s parents were located with the young girl.

Tajir was inside a building assisting with the cleanup when he felt something odd beneath his feet, it could be the after-effects of the last earthquake though it was highly unlikely for the aftershock to take place hours after the first one happened. “Captain Derohl to Commander Hyden, what is the status of the next earthquake?” He asked as he stood there.

Hyden looked at his information and still had some doubt about the readings he had gathered “From all indications we should have about two hours, but my readings can’t be entirely accurate the system is messing with my sensors. It’s the best I can do though, Captain.”

“Understood, please keep an eye on it. It might be nothing but I just felt something strange beneath my feet a moment ago.” Tajir replied as he continued his work clearing out some broken items to make way for the repair crew.

Hyden looked at his equipment for any anomalous readings, but did not pick up anything “I see nothing to indicate that, Sir.”

After the comm channel ended he tapped it again, “Captain Derohl to Lieutenant Kyle.” He said before continuing, “how are the repairs coming?” He asked as he continued to work.

“We are finishing up right now,” Elizabeth responded over the comm. “We’re just doing some fine-tuning and calibration as we speak.  Give me about thirty minutes and the system will be operational.”

“Wonderful,” Tajir replied pausing for a moment. “Keep me updated,” Tajir replied before ending the comm channel and returning to assisting the others to clear out the main floor so the foundation could be supported after a few cracks were found. He felt the small vibration against his feet again though it was very faint he just associated it with the after-shock of the last one. 

Elsewhere, Aki set down one of the final metal beams from the rubble that had been blocking a walkway in an attempt to help clean up the area. Breathing a sigh of relief upon completion, she removed her outer tunic and used it to wipe a bead of sweat running down her forehead. It had been a while since she had done such manual labor.

“Next in line please.” She heard faintly in the distance.

Upon a more direct glance, she had seen one of the local women had set up a station to distribute food and water to temporarily displaced residents. There was a lengthy lineup, and since she had no immediate place to be, decided to approach the woman and offer to help.

“Hello. I see you’re a little overwhelmed here. Can I be of some assistance?”

Taking up a position next to the woman, Aki set her tunic down and began collecting some water canisters, handing one to the next person in line.

Elizabeth stared down at a diagnostic of the network that linked all of the stabilizers together. There was a persistent repeating pattern that she couldn’t account for,  nor explain its presence, but it didn’t seem to be interfering with the system.

“Toran, how’s the calibration of that last stabilizer?”

“I am just about done,” he said as he finished one thing before speaking. “There I have completed the final calibration on the last one,” he said.

“Toran, have you noticed this repeating signal pattern in the network?”

“I was wondering what that was, though I thought it would correct itself after the final calibration,” Toran replied standing there looking around.

“I’m going to isolate and remove it.  I’ll probably need your help to reinitialize the network afterward.” She entered commands and downloaded the signal into her tricorder memory banks and then disabled the device’s network capabilities.   “Computer isolate and identity signal pattern J-4571-B.”

“Processing…” the computer replied.  “Unknown signal.”

“Remove signal and associated sensor data from the memory banks and restart network.”

“That procedure is not recommended.  There is a high probability of damage to Stabilizer Network.”

“Override authorization Kyle-41-Romeo-Papa.”

“Signal deletion complete.  Re-initializing network.”

Bates tossed a padd on top of a pile of padds on the desk with a heavy exhale of defeat. He went over to the replicator and ordered himself a cup of coffee but the system tried to deny him after his tenth cup. Keyword. Tried. He entered his access code, with zero care of how many policies and regulations he may have violated and got himself the seventh cup of coffee.

Ensign Utsall stepped into the office and saw the mess on the desk. “Does the colony head of security know you’re making a mess, sir?”

Bates turned around in a full one-eighty by the heel of his foot to face and look at her. A little snappy. Maybe he should lay off the caffeine. “They allowed me to use the office to find the culprit. That is -IF- we find the culprit.” He slurped down the rest of his coffee, zero care of how hot it went down before he placed the cup down next to the other cups with an annoying clang sound of the two or three cups hitting each other.

The Ensign found herself a chair and plopped into it before she placed her feet on the desk. She let out a heavy sigh. “I have been diligently looking as hard as you have, sir. Followed every lead. Cross references every information and data we received. Nothing seems to come even remotely close.”

Bates nodded his head as he leaned his rear up against the edge of the desk, folded his arms against his chest. “Never met a Klingon who could make themselves so relaxed despite how irritating and stressful this is.”

“A couple of years of counseling at the Academy would do that, sir.” She told him. “But I am still Klingon and I still have urges.” She stared hard at him.

Bates closed his eyes and began to rub the bridge of his nose. “I can’t report to the Captain with nothing to go on.”

The comm chirped and the Chief Engineer’s voice came from the other end, “Kyle to Lieutenant Bates.  I’m beaming my tricorder to you now.” As if on cue the hum of a transporter beam deposited a tricorder on the desk in front of him. “I isolated a repeating signal from the stabilizer control network.  I haven’t had a chance to analyze it, but it should not be in the network.  I wouldn’t download that into a computer before first taking precautions.   It may be nothing more than a control program or it could be something more nefarious.”

Bates heard his name and then saw the tricorder in mention. He listened to the rest of what she said before tapping his badge to reply. “Copy that. We will look into it. Bates out.” He tapped his badge again to close his link. He then picked up the tricorder and handed it to the Ensign. “Have the signal analyzed, If you use any of the consoles here, put them in safe mode, disconnect from the main network and simulate that network, I want to see what that signal does if it were part of it,” The Ensign acknowledged and from there, Bates waited.

“Kyle to Captain Derohl. The Tectonic-stabilizers are now online. I have reason to believe the control network has been compromised and will remain here to monitor the system.”

“Aye,” Tajir replied as the comm channel ended he was still inside the building when the ground began to violently shake. “What the hell?” He said as the stabilizers should have stopped the earthquake from happening. He tried to contact Kyle to find out what was happening but before he could tap his combadge a part of the building fell on top of him. 

Macomb and Natashia had just cleared out the hospital when everything started to shake around them, “get to the shelter!” Macomb replied trying to get everyone to the basement shelter until the earthquake was over. Once everyone was in the shelter, the earthquake had stopped not before major damage was done through the hospital still stood. Once it was safe they emerged from the shelter to begin to assess the situation, he tapped his commbadge, “Macomb to Captain Derohl, what happened?” Macomb replied over the comm but got no response, “Captain?” he said again still no response. Tapping it again, “Commander Makoto, what is going on? The captain isn’t answering his combadge,” Macomb replied.

After picking herself up off the ground after the earthquake had stopped, looking over to the building that Tajir was in and realized it had collapsed. Getting confirmation that the stabilizers were online she wondered what had gone wrong as it should have stopped this from happening. “I will need medical here quickly, the Captain is trapped,” Makoto replied over the comm channel.

“On our way,” Macomb replied as he got a team together and headed for the location where the Captain was located. The hospital was in one piece thankfully, it seemed to have been built to withstand a lot. 

The moment Bates and his staff in the room felt the ground start to shake violently, he ordered everyone under the desks for cover. Their side of the building partially collapsed, the security room in which they utilized now had a large hole to the world, and half the room’s floor was gone. Luckily for Bates, he was under a desk on the side of the room where the floor had not collapsed. So when the earthquake ended, he first pushed some rubble away that was not weighted down and pulled himself out. “Report!” He shouted.

“I’m okay!” Said Ensign Utsall.

Bates heard one more voice but that was it. There were at least five people in this room, him, the Ensign, and three crewmembers. Bates slowly but carefully checked over the edge of what flooring remained and saw the rubble below. There he could see a leg and an arm, about ten feet apart. The other two crewmen that he had with him. “Damnit.” He cursed under his breath before collecting the saliva and dust in his mouth to spit it out onto the floor. “Ensign, crewman. Return to the ship immediately. And Utsall. Find out what the hell that signal is and who made it!” He snapped his finger at her and pointed up, which indicated that he wanted her to do it now. He was not happy. The Ensign nodded her head and then the two were transported out of the room.

Bates stared down at the rubble below him as he tried to remember what floor they were on before the earthquake hit. While he was still in the thought of which floor, instinctively he tapped his comm badge. “Lieutenant Bates here. Colony’s security center has suffered major damage. Far as I know, two Starfleet crewmembers have died. End of report.” He lowered his hand back down by his side, now both hands clenching into fists and unclenching, rinse and repeat…over and over again. He hoped to find the person responsible for this and make them pay.

Elizabeth picked herself up off the floor and her fingers danced over the console.   “What the hell?” She demanded from nobody in particular.  “The system should have stopped this.   Toran, do you have anything?”

“I am not getting anything on my end sir, but it could have been that signal that you picked up,” Toran replied looking at her after picking himself up off the ground. “Though it does seem that it did its work as this was supposed to be much worse than what it was,” Toran added.

Hyden got up from the ground “What just happened.” he said audibly looking around seeing the building nearby looking pretty damaged. He looked at the information for the stabilizers no indications of an earthquake were present. He scowled looking at the two officers by him “Anybody wants to explain how we missed this?” The officers looked at him and immediately began looking to see if they could discover the issue. Calum couldn’t believe such an event occurred and he missed reporting it 

Bates stood there  near the edge of the room, the very room that Ensign Utsall and other members of his team were in while they had received a mess full of leads on who would be the culprits of these disasters. The very room where half of it went crumbling downward to the ground floor. The one where Bates can just look over the edge and watch as various teams worked carefully to recover those who had miraculously survived the collapse of some part of the building that they were in. They also worked on the recovery of those members of his team that were dead from the collapse.

He had been so distracted by all the work that was being done that he did not hear a transport beam or his Ensign had walked up to him. “Sir.”

Bates continued to stare at the bodies of the two crewmembers. “First time I’ve lost anyone under my command as Chief. Of course, over the experience on board the Ajax, and all the training they put you through in the Academy, loss is to be expected. But I was not expecting to lose anyone like this. I swear, those responsible will pay.”

Utsall smiled, she could feel her Klingon heart beating to the idea of revenge but her Starfleet training said otherwise. She’ll intervene if she were to feel it to be necessary. “Well, sir. About that. Analyzing that signal on the ship paid off.” She held the padd out to him.

Bates took the padd from her and read the details. He then set the padd down on a desk, only to face her. “It is just one man, correct?”

“That we know of. The operation feels like more than just one man. Plus from the credentials and experience that he has, I doubt that he is alone.” She explained.

“But he is alone.” He pointed at the padd, which he referred to the sensor logs that stated the culprit is alone at their current location.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. You and I will apprehend him.” He told her.

“Should we not get a team, sir?” She asked.

“Procedure would state that, but only if and when necessary. I see no reason that you and I cannot take one man.” He explained.

She smiled, feeling her blood boil. “Yes, sir.”

Bates then tapped his badge, “Bates to Aquarius. Two to transport to this set of coordinates.”

—–

Bates and Utsall stared at the door of the building to which their culprit was last found and by ship’s sensors, is still currently hiding. It was a run down building, pretty much a dump, one of the buildings that were in the process of being recycled. From the looks, these were the first buildings used when the colony was first created.

“Ensign. I want you to do me a favor.” He began as he removed his badge and placed it in her hand. “Whatever happens, don’t come in.”

Utsall looked down at the badge in her hand, then looked at him. “Sir, I would not be a good officer if I did not object to this course of action.”

Bates looked at her. “You want to be Assistant Chief, Ensign? The most important thing about being my Assistant, is to put your trust in me. So believe me when I say this, I will not kill him. He has much to answer for. Understood?”

Utsall nodded her head. “Understood.” Utsall watched as Bates entered the building. For a moment there was nothing but silence, until she could hear a stranger’s voice.

“Hey! Who the hell are you?” There was a sound of something that shattered, likely something breakable was thrown and hit the wall. “How dare you!” The stranger’s voice continued. “How did you find me? Hey!” Sounds of a scuffle and thudding could be heard through the thin walls, some of it sounded like a person was getting tossed around and some of it sounded like the person was getting slammed into one of the interior walls. “Get off me!” Was the stranger’s voice, until the scuffle was getting closer to the door. Unfortunately for their culprit, they did not go through the door.

Utsall stood there by the door but her eyes followed the sounds of a scuffle all the way to the window until the glass shattered when a body was thrown through it. Utsall was about to approach the body when Bates came out of the window and pointed at her, clearly an order to stay where she was. Of that, she did.

Bates dropped down from the window sill and grabbed the man by his shirt, just to pull him up off the ground and onto his feet. Bates then turned them around and shoved him against the exterior wall of the building and pinned him there with his left hand around the man’s throat. “Now you’re going to tell me where your friends are at.”

“Not going to happen!” Said the man. Utsall leaned a bit to the side to get a good look at his face. Here she was able to see that he had a broken nose and a cut over his right brow. Evidence of the scuffle inside the rundown building obviously. But to add to the damage to his face, a cut was left on his left cheek when Bates slugged him hard enough.

“I am not going to ask you again. Where are they?!” Bates demanded.

“Go to hell!” The man spat.

“You left me no choice.” Bates said as he put his pinky into his mouth and slobbered all over it. Then he took his pinky out and stuck it right in the man’s left ear and wiggled it around.

“Oh my god! What the hell?!” The man freaked out. “Stop, stop, stop already!” Bates then pulled his pinky out of the man’s ear. “Who the hell does that?! Yuck!”

“Tell me where they are! Or your other ear gets it.” Bates threatened.

“All right!”

Bates pulled out a small padd and handed it to him who jotted down the coordinates. Once Bates had the padd back, he handed it to Utsall before slugging the guy once more, all the while letting go of him so he would drop into the ground. “That’s for all the people you killed, you bastard. And if my Captain does not survive, I got friends who will pull you out of prison and give you a nice home on some frozen planet like Rura Penthe. Or maybe a desert planet full of giant worms that take fifty years or so to digest your body.”

Just as Bates went over to Utsall to grab his badge, the man sat up on his elbows. “They promised no one would get hurt.”

Bates turned on his heels and glared hard at the man. “What the hell did you expect would happen when you messed with things like that?!” Bates growled and grabbed his badge out of Utsall’s hand. “You must be the most idiotic man in the galaxy.” He pinned his badge back on and tapped it. “Bates to Aquarius. I got a prisoner for you.” Bates then watched as two security officers beamed down, just to pick the man up onto his feet. Bates glared at him once more. “Must be why these two that you ratted out are the brains of this operation. Throw him in the brig, don’t bother taking him to sickbay.” Bates ordered and watched as the two security officers beamed up with their prisoner.

“Feel better, sir?” Utsall asked.

Bates pulled his pistol out of his holster and checked his settings. “I will once we get these last two.” He watched as Utsall smiled with a nod as she did the very same with her pistol. Bates then tapped his badge once more, “Bates to Aquarius. Got a new set of coordinates. Beam me and Utsall there.”

—-

Bates and Utsall now found themselves standing inside a building. This one looked more like a warehouse with how there were various rows of racks and supplies stacked about. Though quite a few shelves in various rows were barren. From what Bates could tell, it was likely abandoned or one of the more new ones that the colony has yet to put into full use. Either way, it certainly made sense to use it as a base of operations. Be the last place anyone would look. And having an engineer like they did, most likely reprogramed the internal sensors and security systems to pretend no one was home. Thus, no one knew that they had criminals living here.

As soon as Bates and Utsall were finished gazing about, they looked straight forward down the middle aisle to see a control platform on the ground floor. And on that very platform was a bunch of tables of supplies, stabilizers and the two fugitives. “All right. The plan is-” Bates was immediately interrupted with the alarm system going off and the two fugitives looking right down the aisle at them. “Plan is to cover!” He pushed Utsall towards a crate to her left as he leapt behind a crate to his right.

“So much for the element of surprise.” Said Bates.

Utsall laughed, “I prefer it this way!” She said as she rose out of cover and opened fire down the aisle before she ducked back down.

Bates scoffed. “Hate to say it but I agree with you.” He put his arm out on top of the crate, extended with the pistol in hand. Aimed at one of the fugitives and fired several times before pulling himself back into cover. He could hear their crate’s taking a few hits of their own.

“Cover me!” She told him and the second she took off towards the next cover, Bates opened fire towards the fugitives to throw them off balance. Then it would be Bates’ turn to advance and for Utsall to cover his advance. This tactic would repeat until they were only twenty feet away from the two fugitives. “We got to throw them off. You advance, and I’ll cover you this time.” She told him and as she stood from behind cover to open fire on the fugitives, she took a hit to her left shoulder and dropped to the floor.

“Utsall!” Bates blindly fired towards the fugitives before he rolled over to her cover just so he can grab her and pull her back in behind the crate. He kept blindly firing towards the fugitives every now and then to keep them off guard. But once he had her sat up against the crate, he took some extra time to check her wound. “Are you all right?” He asked her, as he noticed that she was bleeding.

“I’m fine. But you’re not going to be able to get to them easily, not without help.” She told him.

He quickly fired blindly at the two fugitives before he ducked down and looked at her. “What? Saying you were carrying the weight all this time?”

She scoffed with a smile. “You can’t do this without me. Why else would you have brought me along and no one else?”

Bates shrugged his shoulders. “I was expecting you to spit out some war cry and charge at them with your bare hands.”

“Ha! Typical Human skepticism. You really think that we Klingons cannot change?” She asked.

Bates fired blindly towards the fugitives, keeping them from advancing or try to flank them. “I didn’t say that. But you are in the Security and Tactical Department rather than Engineering or Flight Control. So I was kind of expecting something from you.”

She smirked and then she remembered something. “On our way towards the control platform. I saw pipes. Possibly coolant pipes. This warehouse must be powered by a reactor. There are pipes just behind them. If you can crack one open just right, you can really surprise them.”

Bates once more fired blindly at the fugitives before taking a quick peak at where she said the pipes were and saw them. He knelt down behind the crate and started adjusting his settings on the pistol. “All right. Stay put. Help will be here soon.” He switched the firing mode to beam before he stood up. With one beam shot at the pipe for about a second and a half and the pipe burst. Coolant then spewed all over behind the fugitives, which forced them to cover their faces and start coughing when some of it got into their lungs.

Bates then hurried over to a terminal to reroute the coolant flow. He just needed it to distract them, not to kill them. But once the flow was diverted and the fugitives were having their coughing fits, Bates stood there behind them. “Well. You two have some explaining to do.” He said as he reset his pistol’s settings before shooting them both, knocking them unconscious.

Bates sighed, a part of him wished that he could do a little more than this, but he would have to turn in his badge and uniform if he did. Of all his years on board the Ajax, he never had to deal with people like this. People who would do the things they did, harm thousands or millions of people and have no care for it. “Guess we will find out why they did this. But I can’t possibly imagine anything worth a dam that would justify this.” Bates then tapped his badge after he holstered his pistol. “Bates to Aquarius. Lock on Utsall’s badge and beam her directly to sickbay. Beam me and the two life signs next to me straight to the brig. And have medical personnel meet me there. Might have some minor injuries from breathing in reactor coolant.”

—-

Bates stood there just outside of the cell where all three were put into while he waited for the two that he had stunned to wake up. Ensign Utsall was in sickbay, her wound being attended to. So he chose to interrogate these three fugitives himself. He had stood there for the entirety of the hours that it would take for the sun to wear off on the two fugitives that him and Utsall had recently arrested, with his thoughts buried in which questions to ask and how to asked them. But the moment he noticed the two fugitives began to awaken, he knew it was time.

“Lower the forcefield. Guards stand by.” He ordered. Three crewmembers with pistols in their hands, ready to shoot in case the three fugitives tried anything while the forcefield was lowered. Bates stepped into the cell and looked each one of them at a time. “All right gentlemen. It’s time to confess as to why the three of you thought that it was perfectly okay to cause so much damage and destruction.”

The engineer stood up but immediately sat back down when the security got a bit intimidated by the sudden motion. “Like I told you, these two said that no one would be harmed.”

Bates sighed. “And that’s why these two are the brains and you’re the idiot.” He looked at the other two. “Care to give me your excuses?”

“Technically there was suppose to be no one harmed. If the idiot over there followed the instructions that we gave him!” Said one of the smart ones.

“Are you even going to ask us what our names are?” Asked the second smarty pants.

“Nope. Because I don’t really care. You see, I only remember the names of the people who really matter, or became famous. I have no intentions of making either of you three matter or famous. Because once we are done here, you’ll be set to a Federation Prison where the three of you will work for the rest of your lives for what you’ve done.” Bates told them. “So I get that all three of you are screw ups. But why was it done?”

“Why should we tell you? It won’t lighten our sentence would it?” The one smart one asked.

Bates shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

“Well if the idiot over there hadn’t screwed the plan up in the first place, we’d be out of here and our pockets be full of latinum!” Said the smarty pants.

“Hey! Not my fault your instructions weren’t very clear!” Said the engineer. “You know what, screw you guys.” He then looked at Bates. “These brainiacs wanted to sell the stabilizers for latinum. For some reason they were going for quite a lot on the black market. But they were the ones who sent the instructions, in a very gibberish way mind you, and the ones that were supposedly ‘sabotaged’ were really just replaced with faulty stabilizers. But they told me which ones to get.”

One of them slapped the palm of their hand onto their forehead. “You’re the bloody engineer, you fool! You should of known which ones would affect which part of the colony the most! You’re the one who caused all the damage! You’re the one who harmed people because you picked the wrong ones!”

“Again, you were the ones who told me which stabilizers to mess with! So it’s your fault!” The engineer shouted at them.

At this point the three of them got up and started beating each other. Bates just took a step back out of the cell and waited for a few minutes. He even held his hand up to keep his guards from intervening, at least until about five minutes of the three attacking each other had gone by. “All right boys, break it up.” He said and watched his guards get in there to separate the three of them into their own separate cells. “I don’t need anymore information. You three have said enough. Quite frankly all three of you are bunch of idiots and all three of you are likely to receive the same charges and will serve the same sentences in a Federation Prison. And you know what? I have a friend in one of the Prisons in the Federation. I think I will have the three of you sent there and tell him to put the three of you in the same room, just for the entertainment.”

Bates then nodded his head to the operator behind the control station, who raised the force field on all three cells. Bates looked at each one of them at a time before he shrugged his shoulders once more with a heavy sigh. “Honestly. I hope the three of you rot. Oh and, the three of you better hope my Captain survives. Or I will make sure that each day in prison is absolute hell for you.” Bates gave them one last look before he left the section and headed straight for sickbay.

—

Utsall grunted as she sat there in the medical bed, using a tensile to scribble away at the padd before her while doing her best to ignore the medical staff who were nagging her about taking it easy. She told them many times that it was just a flesh wound. Course it wasn’t but to her, pain was her fuel to get work done. She then noticed that Bates was standing there beside her. “Oh. Lieutenant. Did not expect you to be here. Thought you be pulling teeth out of our prisoners.”

Bates chuckled. “If Starfleet was perfectly okay with that, I would be. But no, I enjoy my career thank you. What are you doing there?”

“Finishing our report.” She told him as she resumed to her scribbling.

Bates raised his brows. “You’re writing it?”

“And?”

Bates shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t often see anyone writing a report. Normally just voice to text recorded.”

“One of my instructors at the Academy told me that it was therapeutic and that it would help me with my anger problems.” Utsall stopped her scribbles and looked up at him. “They were right. My grades improved. I got into less fights. Cadets started to see me as a person and not just some uncontrollable, raging Klingon.”

“Huh. Interesting. Well I appreciate you are writing out our report but you should listen to the medical staff. You should rest.” Bates told her.

Utsall glared at him. “Careful, in my culture, that could be considered an insult.”

Bates scoffed. “It’s an insult for your superior to give you orders?”

Utsall shrugged. “Eh. I can afford to lose my career. I at least have a House to go back to and join in on their raid parties.” She joked.

Bates smirked. “Riiiight. Well, we got what we needed from the prisoners. They’re going away for a long time. But I best get back down there. Don’t send that report until I get a look at it.”

“Yes, sir.” She smiled.

Aki reached down and grabbed a large chunk of rock and hurled it backwards without even thinking as to the safety of anyone that might be standing behind her. She was running on pure adrenaline at this point. Pausing for but a mere second to wipe the sweat from her brow, she slapped the combadge affixed to her tunic,” Makoto to all away team members,” she said with a huff, “a building has collapsed at my location. The captain is trapped. He is not responding on comms. His condition is unknown and assumed critical. I need everyone at my location immediately.”

Macomb had arrived with Natashia as well as a few others from the hospital who could assist with freeing the Captain, “watch where your throwing that Commander.” Macomb replied as he ducked as a piece of rock sailed on by him, he walked up and began to assist with clearing some of the debris.

Elizabeth’s eyes widened in shock and concern after hearing Aki’s call. She responded that they were on their way as she was shoving tools into her tool kit.  “Okay, people pack up!” She shouted, “The captain needs us. Toran coordinates with the ship.  We are going to need jack supports, and digging tools including a couple of phaser drills.”

“Aye sir,” Toran responded as he tapped his commbadge to get the tools they needed before they headed where the Captain was located to assist with the rescue.

Calum had a look of concern after hearing the news of the Captain. He stopped what he was doing and began packing up the tools for now “Alright leave what needs to be left and get everything else packed now! We’re leaving in five.” He said with no explanation as his team knew his orders were important. Within five minutes they were heading for the coordinates that had been relayed to them ready for whatever would be needed.

“Commander, Bates here. I will send some security teams to assist but I am currently engaged in tracking down the saboteur. Have a lead and I intend to check it out.”

Once confirming the smaller away team groups were en route, and without further pause from clearing debris, Aki called the ship for additional help, “Makoto to Aquarius” she said, then proceeded with her request after confirming acknowledgment of her hail, “Q’orvha, I need any available personnel that can be spared and tools for excavation. The captain is buried under a collapsed building and unresponsive. In the meantime see if you can lock on to his bio sign and beam him directly to sickbay.”

On the bridge of the Aquarius, Q’orvha leaped from the Captain‘s Chair, the tails of her coat flowing behind her as she moved quickly to the Situation Table at the rear of the bridge. “Understood, Commander!” She replied as she began running a scan for the trill life signs. “Lieutenant Young, activate the relief and off-duty rosters and coordinate with the ground team for landing and beaming locations!”

“Aye, Commander.” Young’s fingers began dancing briskly across the surface of his console as he worked to carry out the Commander’s orders.

Q’orvha worked the controls furiously…and then slammed a fist down onto the table producing a loud smash sound to accompany the string of Klingon blasphemies that escaped her lips. “Aquarius to Makoto! The damage to the area has caused a release of ionic radiation…not in lethal quantities, but along with the depth of the rubble, it is making it impossible to acquire a transporter lock…life-signs, commbadge signals, bone-mineral patterning…doesn’t matter! We are sending all available hands down to the disaster area, both by transporter and shuttle…I’ll make sure they include some pattern enhancers with those requested materials as well!”

Nearly defeated in every attempt to try and save her captain, Aki resumed her attempt to clear more rubble by hand. She knew it was a vain attempt, but at that moment she was running more on adrenaline than anything else. She thought she could see a gap amongst the rubble, but it was obstructed by a large chunk of wall that looked like it weighed a couple of hundred kilograms. It may not have been a gap at all, but maybe just a shadow. “Get me a flashlight!” she ordered as she braced her left foot up against the main debris and pulled the wall chunk with an exhausting heave.

With her last ounce of breath, the rock finally dislodged itself and came tumbling down, kicking up cement dust in the process, and the uncertainty of a gap suddenly became certain. A small gap about thirty centimetres across revealed itself. Aki peered inside. “Captain!” She yelled into the opening “Captain, can you hear me? We’re going to get you out! Hang in there!”

Tajir let out a painful moan as he was in and out of consciousness, he didn’t say anything but moan in pain as he lay there still trapped. Blood coming from the top of his head, he more than likely has several broken bones.

Elizabeth and her engineering teams came sprinting to the site, “You see him?  The captain?” She asked sucking air into her lungs.  “Before we remove any more debris we will have to stabilize the cavity around the captain.   Otherwise,  if we remove the wrong chunk it could cause the whole pile to shift and collapse.”

“I see what appears to be a piece of cloth which I can only assume is the captain,” Aki replied, letting Macomb’s secondary comment sink in.

Macomb began to scan where the Captain was now that he was able to get a clearer signal with his tricorder, what he found was very alarming. Looking at Commander Makoto, “sir once Lieutenant Kyle stabilizes the area I need to go in there before we remove anymore as he is bleeding internally, the pressure from one of the stones is putting pressure where it’s slowing the bleeding. If we remove that before I can stabilize him, he will die instantly,” Macomb said with concern.

“Very well, you take the lead on the rescue attempt. Just tell me what, if anything you need me to do. Otherwise, I’ll stay out of your way and let you do what you need to get the captain out safely.”

Elizabeth examined the structure and assessed weak points.  She then quickly started pointing at people whether or not they were engineers.  “You, you and you use timbers to shore up that chunk over there.” She turned to another group of officers milling about, “You and you get the airbags under that section over there.” 

Calum couldn’t do much so instead he helped where it was needed doing anything for any particular area that needed it. He wasn’t sure about the Captain’s condition, but hopefully, it was better than what he had been told by different people in the area. Calum couldn’t help, but think this could have been his fault. He has miscalculated somewhere and because of that, the building collapsed on him.

Toran had already begun to stabilize the area around the opening after making it a bit bigger without moving anything away from the Captain, after everything was secure he looked back at both Lieutenant Kyle and Lieutenant Macomb. “Everything is in place for you to enter, once the Captain is stabilized we will get the rest out of the way,” Toran said as he stood up from the opening.

“Great,” Macomb replied as he grabbed his medkit and made his way over to where the Captain was located, “don’t worry sir we will get you out of here,” Macomb replied as he knew Tajir wouldn’t respond but would be able to hear him. Running a tricorder over him he was correct in his initial scans, he pressed a hypospray against his neck to help with the pain. Once that was done he began to stabilize the Captain for transport once they were free from the building.

After a few painstaking minutes he finished stabilizing Tajir, he started backing out of the opening. Once he was free he turned to Toran, “alright he is stabilized go ahead and begin freeing the Captain.” Macomb replied as he would continue to monitor as they did so in case something goes wrong.

Toran and another engineer went through the opening and began to carefully lift the support beam that was laying on the Captain slowly, they didn’t want to do it too quickly and things go wrong. After about five minutes he was free from any obstructions, tapping his commbadge so he didn’t have to yell. “Doctor we have freed the Captain,” Toran replied.

“Very good, I am sending Natashia in there with a board so you can bring him out,” Macomb replied.

“Understood,” Toran replied before the comm channel ended.

A short time later Natashia arrived and they carefully began to move the Captain onto the board, once he was secured they slowly started to back out with him in tow. Once they were free Macomb tapped his commbadge, “Macomb to Aquarius, three to beam directly to sickbay.” Macomb said as he ended the comm channel and seconds later they disappeared.

Toran stood there and looked at the others, “I hope he will be alright.” Toran replied with a heavy sigh.

“All rise. This Judge Advocate General hearing is now in session, the Honorable Captain Esther Steinberg presiding.“

The assembled Starfleet crew and civilians came to their feet, a gesture of deference and respect toward the Judge. Although the proceedings were closed to the general public, a certain number of individuals that were directly involved in the case had been permitted to attend. As the Judge took her seat at the front of the small courtroom, she asked everyone to be seated. She had been gone for only three hours, deliberating in her chambers and deciding the fate of Lieutenant Raygi Benyan. 

“Will the Defendant please stand?” said the Judge as she adjusted herself a bit in her seat. 

Raygi stood slowly, folding his hands behind his back in a formal yet comfortable pose. He closed his eyes, inhaled deeply through his nose, and turned his attention to the Judge. His Counsel, Commander John Locklear as well as the Starfleet Prosecutor, Lieutenant Commander Valik, also stood.

“Lieutenant Raygi,” began Judge Steinberg. “You have been charged with Insubordination, Striking a Command Level Officer, and Conduct Unbecoming of an Officer. Based upon the evidence I have seen over the past three days…the Court dismisses the charge of Insubordinatio, and finds you guilty of the remaining charges. Do you wish to speak before sentence is handed down?”

”I do, Your Honor,” said Raygi.

”Lieutenant,” said Commander Locklear softly, almost under his breath. “Do you really think this is a good idea?”

”What do I have to lose, Commander?” Raygi cleared his throat softly before addressing the Court. “Your Honor, I understand that what I did was inappropriate…and if I could take back my actions, I would. The truth of the matter is, I have no family; when I came into Starfleet, I adopted them as a sort of surrogate to fill that void. I consider my CO Captain Takashima to be a mentor and a friend…so when our XO began insulting her in an off hours conversation, I took it personally and defended the Captain’s honor. That led to the physical altercation that broke Commander Stovek’s nose.” Raygi stood up a little straighter and looked the Judge in the eye. “I will not apologize for defending my CO against the words of a jerk.“

Judge Steinberg was silent for a long moment. “I admire your conviction, Lieutenant. Such a degree of loyalty is becoming uncommon, especially among the more ambitious younger officers. But the bottom line is, you committed serious offenses and that cannot be ignored.“ Steinberg picked up a PADD and read its contents aloud. “Lieutenant Raygi Benyan, you are hereby reduced in rank to Lieutenant Junior Grade, and sentenced to serve ninety days at the Jaros II Minimum Security Prison. Security, please take the Lieutenant to begin his sentence immediately.“

As he was removed from the court, the only regret Raygi had was that he would probably never see his friends and family on the Olympus again. 

Several days had passed since the incident had taken place, cleanup had gotten to the point where they were ready to turn things back over to the people of Caldos to finish with the supplies they would need. Tajir had been released from sickbay, though he wasn’t cleared for duty yet. The doctor had ordered that he rest in his quarters for a couple more days.

Once he arrived at his quarters he say down at his desk, he wasn’t just going to sit there and do nothing. “Tajir to Commander Makoto please report to my quarters,” Tajir replied over the comm channel.

Aki was in the ready room polishing off a scone and the tepid remains of her favorite cup of tea, going over the latest updates from the department heads when the call came in from the captain. Aki had avoided any face-to-face contact with the captain over the past several days, allowing him to recuperate after everything they’d been through on the planet. Any updates Tajir needed, she forwarded to his quarters to keep him up to speed. The fact that he was calling her now, requesting her presence personally was a good sign that he was on the road to full recovery.

“On my way,” she replied.

Stuffing the last bite of the scone into her mouth, she rose from her seat, adjusted her tunic, turned off the terminal, and returned the cup and saucer to the replicator, recycling the remains before departing the ready room onto the bridge to the turbolift.

She spent the next few minutes attempting to formulate a series of conversation starters for when those doors parted, but having no basis for comparison to draw from, his mind was coming up empty. Reaching the captain’s quarters, she hesitated briefly and then finally tapped the door chime.

Looking up from going over some reports, “Enter.” Tajir replied as Aki walked in, “Have a seat Commander.” Tajir replied with a smile though he looked better than he did a few days prior. “I know you have been sending me updates, but wanted to talk to you in person.” He replied as he adjusted in his seat, his back still hurt him a bit but was doing better.

Aki stepped closer, taking a seat as instructed, crossing her right leg over her left knee and interlaced her fingers, resting them on her lap. She was impressed at the remarkable progress her captain had made in his recovery given his near-death experience; all of which thanks to the remarkable medical staff aboard the ship. “You’re looking well, Captain. I don’t want to rush your recovery, but it will be glad to have you back on duty,” she said, expressing her concern for his well-being.

“Thanks, I’ll be glad when I can.” Tajir began with a smile as he looked at her getting straight to the point, “what is the current status report on the situation?” Tajir asked as he adjusted in his seat.

“Lieutenant Kyle informed me that they’ve just finished with repairs to the planetary equipment and should be ready to transport back to the ship shortly. With any luck it should detect any seismic activity and compensate before another catastrophe occurs. Additionally, after having delivered the last of the supplies to the settlement, the remaining away team members have beamed back aboard and resumed their regular duties. All in all, I’d say we’re mission complete.” Aki replied emphatically.

Tajir nodded as he was glad that things were over and they could now leave, “Well I just got word that Lieutenant Macomb is going to be staying back to assist further.” He replied handing off the PADD with the orders from Starfleet to Aki, “looks like we need a new Chief Medical Officer.” Tajir replied with a sigh as he was sad to lose such a good doctor already.

With a look of disappointment, Aki took the PADD and glanced it over. She was going to miss having the Lieutenant around. If it had not been for the doctor’s quick thinking, she’d be talking about her captain at a funeral service rather than to him at that very moment. “That’s a shame. I can only hope that Starfleet will send us someone half as good.”

“Indeed,” Tajir replied looking at her for a moment before speaking again. “Once everyone is back on board set course for the old Romulan Neutral Zone,” Tajir said as he couldn’t think of anything else that was prudent.

Aki was a bit puzzled at the destination of choice but assumed the reasoning would be made clear in due time at a staff meeting and didn’t feel it necessary to press him for answers at that moment. Instead, she sat there in a moment of awkward silence before replying, “Understood. If there’s nothing further Captain?”

Thinking for a moment to see if he was forgotten anything important, though after not being able to think of anything he shook his head. “No that will be all for now, if I think of something I’ll let you know,” Tajir replied as he saw Aki stand up from the chair that she was sitting in and headed out of his quarters. After the doors closed shut behind her he decided that he needed to lay down for a while.

Calum and the rest of the crew had worked hard to get the Captain back to the ship where he heard they were recovering. He didn’t have a super close relationship with the Captain, but as the ship’s second officer he knew the Captain well enough to check in. He had been trying to figure out why the sensors hadn’t picked up the earthquake that injured the Captain. He had still not figured it out and was disappointed in himself for letting it happen. 

He decided to go see the Captain and made his way to the Captain’s quarters where he hesitated before hitting the door chime. 

Tajir had been relaxing on the couch reading over reports of the sabotage and all that had taken place when he heard the door chime go off. “Enter,” Tajir replied as the doors parted ways to see his Chief Science Officer walk in. “Ah Commander please come in,” he replied with a smile.

Calum smiled and walked in trying to size if he should take a seat or not. “Hello, Sir was wanting to check-in and see how you were doing in your recovery. I have been trying to figure out what happened, but still have not found out why we didn’t see the quake that caused your injury.” Calum concluded with obvious guilt in his voice for his failure.

Tajir looked at him, “it wasn’t your fault it was sabotage.” Tajir began looking at him handing him the report, “they had installed a device that would throw off your equipment in hopes they wouldn’t get caught. They didn’t think that there would have been other ways that they would get caught when they short-circuited the stabilizers.” Tajir finished looking at him.

Calum stopped for a minute ‘Of course it all made sense now there was a bigger picture he had not accounted for. He was relieved but upset that he had not thought of such an important possibility. “Well, that’s a relief, but I should have caught it and I didn’t.” He said still blaming himself.

“We probably wouldn’t have caught the sabotage if it wasn’t for their carelessness in leaving clues,” Tajir replied. “Don’t beat yourself up for this, the ones who should be blaming themselves are sitting in the brig as we speak where they will be heading back to Starbase Bravo for trial and punishment,” Tajir added.

Calum nodded “Thanks for the talk Captain. It is good to know I wasn’t at fault. I do hope your recovery is going well, but I don’t want to bother you as I know you need rest.

“It’s going slowly, and I don’t mind the company as it gets kind of lonely sitting in my quarters alone.” Tajir said with a chuckle and a shrug as he looked at him, “I will be happy when I can return to duty.” He added as he stood up from his chair making his way over to the couch as he was getting more uncomfortable sitting at his desk.

Calum nodded “I am sure you will, Sir. If you need anything let me know.” He said as he got up to leave the room.

Smiling, “thanks Calum.” Tajir said using his first name as he was off duty for the next few days, with that he had left his quarters as he looked around the room for a few moments. Looking at the time he got up and walked into his bedroom to turn in for the night, there was nothing more to be done and he was exhausted.